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RC18 users?


ostewart

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Anyone still using a Associated RC18?

 

I just did a trade with Turok for all his RC18R bits, so have a few, and I am just stripping them down and rebuilding them all, one has a nice carbon chassis.

 

Let me know if you still use one, and what are your thoughts? Upgrades (apart from lipo and brushless) i'm thinking CVD's and a carbon shock towers.

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cvd's on the front   and i have tried all the alloy upgrades and things that failed were sold or binned.  so the only real good bit was the steering. 

this was another one of mine and the alloy gears boxes were just total rubbish. 

 

Edited by turok007
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I might get rid of the servo saver though, didn't use one on my brushless dromida and nothing ever came of it, they are more suited to big vehicles, and the RC18 steering saver is not a very good design, centering is not very good on them.

 

Already serviced one and installed a brushless setup, and I am putting it up for sale to fund the others, I am planning on keeping 2 and selling 2.

 

Here's the one I'm selling at the moment (the orange shell was the best condition)

 

IMG_20150305_142305_zps70bzeiiw.jpg

 

IMG_20150305_142206_zps2aeinvkz.jpg

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the servo saver has a metal clip it does work  but a pain to setup.  if i was racing them  then i would run it without one.

I just saw the metal clips, I have decided to use just the metal, not even around the plastic, and it works a treat.

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for a jump truck: 

 

place a rear shock tower on the front and add rear shocks to the front also. add the upgraded shocks where possible and alloy posts and shock towers

alloy front arms and rear arms, front and rear alloy hub carriers.

CVD's

4x brass compression grommets ( plumbing section you want an ide that matches the front and rear diff cups OD

you will glue these inplace to help keep the rear cups closed up.

pinion selection.

if you have the kahunas you can throw in a 400 sized motor colbalt magnets for torque , its a hard mod so requires you to touch up areas with a dremal

mainly the bottom pan section.

 

 

race set up : all plastic parts from stock , beef the front and rear diffs with shims,

add a set of 1/10th adaptors to fit larger boots and rims ( carpet rubber ) ,

that front slop aint no good, you need an alloy/carbon slide arm, it hoops over the

center drive shaft and links left/right steering links. this IS a huge weak area it bends like a daisy.

upgrade to a micro kimborough servo saver ( if there still about ) front and rear adjustable tie rods and link rods

adjustable shocks all round, dump those stock front and rear arm captures and grab some differnet stepped ones

alloy as there a hop up.

get a nice buggy shell with a decent rear scoop you will need it and shift weight slightly forward ( esc rx wise , transponder)

drop in 8.4v and a 8000kv micro mamba c20** motor and a 25a castle sidewinder ( in those days we ran the standard castle 25 esc )

 

stock timing, hard punch semi agressive throttle curve, be wary when you punch it , you have to feather the throttle then let it go

but make sure it tracks like a train, that setup will go like stink, i mean very fast, eat a stock tyre in like 1m,20s , 5 mins on carpet tyres

1/10th scale they look more like a F1 blistered tyre.

 

you will blow the diffs if your to hard, use a soft drag brake and get used to shutting out throttle a little more early.

get it straight and nail it. 

 

thats my old setup , with semi agressive driving style. i loved my race rc18t, but i loved my jump truck mod to.

i owned two AE rc18T one converted to race buggy, the other a jump truck .

 

 

with the Lc range and the carisma brand the other micro struggle unlike before, if you wated micro it was an AE - losi - X-ray

but now you have abisma wltoys hsp, dromida, helion etc etc etc etc etc keep going for another 20 or so.

poor old ae and lieks now have the carisma crew and lc racing, and when you look at it they are just like the rc18 , the micro rs4 , the mini t and likes

all those ideas rolled into one machine for racers ( micro nats ) , but for a young mind they are perfect entry racers well able to muscle with the rest

and place higher than those generics. they bash a little but there a pure rc  its those first ones that started the micro fad we have today.

 

i played with and owned all the first gens, rc18 , xray m18 , mini t , venom mini giant 

Edited by Tamiyacowboy
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Well one of mine has a carbon chassis and metal gears, the other will have metal outdrives. Going for Leopard brushless motors (7800kv) with hobbywing esc's as the castle doesn't fit nicely between the servo and motor.

 

Aluminium steering setup on both, with aluminium dogbones (cvd's will be on the list to upgrade) and Savox servo.

 

Will see what else, thinking carbon shock towers, or aluminium, don't know yet. and aluminium hubs.

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people have fitted the traxxas 1/16th brushless setups   but you should just try a 3s in it first.   and im sure it has a savox fitted.  if you want to do speed runs then think about fitting a front wing. 

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Well one of mine has a carbon chassis and metal gears, the other will have metal outdrives. Going for Leopard brushless motors (7800kv) with hobbywing esc's as the castle doesn't fit nicely between the servo and motor.

 

Aluminium steering setup on both, with aluminium dogbones (cvd's will be on the list to upgrade) and Savox servo.

 

Will see what else, thinking carbon shock towers, or aluminium, don't know yet. and aluminium hubs.

 

if your going with a racing styled chassis say the carbon, i would put carbon towers on. 

 

alloy is ok but its adding weight theres very little weight loss your getting. 

 

bodys like a tall front hummer struggle to fit, back in 2006-2007 i had a one off shell made

was the rc18 truck body but the hood had a raised bulge it allowed me to fit it when running rear towers

in-place of front towers, "frankenmod" they fitted like they were made to go on either front or rear.

rear shocks up front gave a taller ride hight stance those plastic bmx ramps , it ate those up no worrys with a 400 speed motor fitted.

and the monster truck tyres and rims from the MT version buggy - truck - monster truck rc18b - rc18t - rc18mt , all the same just different bodys fitted.

 

diff shims and the cup rings were the main upgrade, that or the factory kit ( alloy parts upgrade kit ) , shocks being adjustable helped loads

everyone went 1/10th wheel adaptor mad, fitting those boots on opened up top end somewhat and let the truck breath , small wheels going real fast.

or larger wheels for longer rollout and a differnet final ratio. so 1/10th were and are still a popular boot to run with on micros where possible.

 

maybe go a carbon racey type on one and a more alloy showman ship on the other . bling and ding - brace n race 

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Yeah I'll probably do that. I will be using them for general bashing, that's why I'll have 2, one for me (carbon) then a friend can use the other one.

Going to keep the short shocks (nice and low) as I won't be jumping, got adjustable shocks already.

I'll also keep the small wheels, mainly for looks. I've got some traxxas 1/16 12mm hexes but I won't be using them.

For now I'll only be using the Mitsubishi and Citroen shells. Them maybe niteline them both but different colours.

Plenty of options out there, and loads of hopups.

Edited by ostewart
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chassis layouts, 

 

we found the same problem, we tended to mount esc rear of the motor

but in some cases like the flat 25a castle sidewinders we strapped them to the main center brace rail.

running a mid cab buggy shell you could get away with esc-rx and transponder strapped in the center rail.

the smaller novak pro class esc was slightly smaller footprint being none brushless so fitted just lovely behind the motor itself.

having no capacitor cut its size footprint just enough , novak was an orange/red/blackish boxed esc and had a price tag to

upward 100 for an pro race grade esc for micro.

But we all went mamba'fied and ran the castle 25's just so much more easy to strap it to the center rail brace.

 

we dumped the AE micro servos and went to micro bb servos the mg85 something like that.

 

 

that orange shell RC18 above, see that esc sat there how its flat base meets chassis pan.

there are NO rules to say it must be mounted like that, so turn it onto its edge with heatsink facing to the outer edge of chassis.

and the rear bottom of the esc propped up against the top brace rail . if your running micro rx , 

 

de-case it!!! go easy but de-case the rx from its box, its just a box that adds weight. grab some clear heatshrink that will fit over the rx.

and heatshrink it up careful like, now the rx footprint is way less, use a couple small foam sticky pads to mount it mid rear ontop of the

center brace.

Edited by Tamiyacowboy
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Decided to take a different route with one, the carbon is going to be my speedy on-road basher with the niteline body and short shocks. I might make the shocks quite soft as the tarmac is quite rough and I find hard shocks make it spin quite easily, but I will see and fine tune it as it needs.

 

The other chassis I have is going to have long shocks front and rear, with the mitsubishi shell, and it's going to be a rally car with soft shocks and high ride height for some rallying.

 

So i'll have one on-road and one rally car. The rally car is going to have aluminium parts (shock towers etc..), the carbon is going to stay carbon with carbon shock towers.

 

Does anyone know if any company does 1/18 rally wheels?

Edited by ostewart
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  • 1 month later...

G'day,

 

I have moved my post to another new thread.

 

'Are there still RC18T enthusiasts?' in Micro & Minis forum category

 

Cheers,

RC-Christo

Edited by RC-Christo
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