FTX Vantage/Carnage owners Thread

[Darkeeboy]

Spent two hours repairing my sons carnage this afternoon.. he managed to bash the front bumper off whilst apparently watching my car instead of his.  Anyhow I followed the advice from others in this thread and cut up a smaller part rather than replacing the full chassis..  managed to break my multi tool during the job but I did surprisingly finish it!  Bumper part didn’t come with any screws but as I put on a wheelie bar at the same time I used the ones from the back as had longer ones in the pack.  Overall it took a couple of hours to get the car back together and a sense achievement too!

[Fat Freddy]

7 minutes ago, Darkeeboy said:

Spent two hours repairing my sons carnage this afternoon.. he managed to bash the front bumper off whilst apparently watching my car instead of his.  Anyhow I followed the advice from others in this thread and cut up a smaller part rather than replacing the full chassis..  managed to break my multi tool during the job but I did surprisingly finish it!  Bumper part didn’t come with any screws but as I put on a wheelie bar at the same time I used the ones from the back as had longer ones in the pack.  Overall it took a couple of hours to get the car back together and a sense achievement too!

Great isn’t it. 👍

[Fat Freddy]

On 03/01/2023 at 22:08, Carl6x6 said:

Please stop saying the chassis is made of glass. It really isn't. You do need to try not driving into things, or get the alu / carbon chassis if you feel the need to crash.

My ftx gear does over 40mph and doesn't smash. You can check my YouTube channel if you like. I am primarily a modification fanatic, but going fast is also a thing I do well. The ftx range is perfectly fine in my opinion, you need to remind yourselves that 40mph into a post or a kerb will wreck a 1:1 car!!!

Nobody crashes on purpose but luckily, FTX parts are cheap.👍

[Redback]

On 03/01/2023 at 22:08, Carl6x6 said:

Please stop saying the chassis is made of glass. It really isn't. You do need to try not driving into things, or get the alu / carbon chassis if you feel the need to crash.

My ftx gear does over 40mph and doesn't smash. You can check my YouTube channel if you like. I am primarily a modification fanatic, but going fast is also a thing I do well. The ftx range is perfectly fine in my opinion, you need to remind yourselves that 40mph into a post or a kerb will wreck a 1:1 car!!!

All ftx chassis are glass fiber nylon composite and they are garbage and are actually made with glass...
40mph is pretty fast but go 100mph and crash it... amazingly my glass chassis hasnt snapped yet same chassis as ftx banzai, gotta go faster. 😉

Edited January 7, 2023 by Redback

[No idea what im doing]

Hi guys gals I just got my first RC car the being the vantage 2.0 and already managed to **** it the motor seems to be done then lost all control of steering . So instead of fixing what I have I just want to upgrade the whole thing tbh to I think what people say is better a brushless motor and need some help finding the best place to look and from my research I need different parts with the different number of teeth on them I honestly don't no any of the lingo surrounding RC if someone could reply with links or something would be much appreciated 

[Fat Freddy]

2 hours ago, No idea what im doing said:

Hi guys gals I just got my first RC car the being the vantage 2.0 and already managed to **** it the motor seems to be done then lost all control of steering . So instead of fixing what I have I just want to upgrade the whole thing tbh to I think what people say is better a brushless motor and need some help finding the best place to look and from my research I need different parts with the different number of teeth on them I honestly don't no any of the lingo surrounding RC if someone could reply with links or something would be much appreciated 

If you’ve fritzed the motor it’s probably through overheating. A heat sink will help with that, and avoid driving everywhere at full throttle helps too. It’s a good idea to check everything is turning smoothly too, no resistance, as even a little friction can stress a motor.

Swapping the motor is relatively easy, but if you are switching to brushless you’ll need a new ESC as well. You can get them as a set. The pinion gear ( the bit with the teeth) will fit a brushless motor, no real need to swap it, except for gearing. A brushless motor will be way faster so you might want to gear it down a bit. If you do change it, less teeth means slower but more torque, more teeth means faster but less torque.

For now though I’d just get a brushed motor and get used to the car before making it go super fast.

If you want a bit more speed relatively cheaply, get a faster motor. Brushed motors have a T number. More T’s equal more torque, less T’s offer more speed. So for exampleI think the stock vantage is a 15T motor? So a 12T motor with slightly larger pinion gear will be noticeably faster, but still very manageable.

What happened to the steering? Did you sort it?

Edited January 12, 2023 by Fat Freddy

[Gari_Ferret]

So we all know how the diff cups on the vantage tend to be made of cheese but I was wondering if anyone has tried using similar parts from other models/manufacturers to at least see if they'd fit, the maverick part MV22019 looks like it would be most likely to fit or the Absima part 1230166, they look almost identical in size and everything but might be stronger, I might try it myself, if it doesn't work, I can just put the bits on ebay or something, just think it's worth trying if it could make the model better and it's relatively cheap too.

[Redback]

ftx diff cups are all the same, carnage, vantage, outlaw, banzai, etc they can handle the loads, if the cups are popping something else is wrong.
I know axial diff hardware will fit the ftx diffs and visa versa.

[Gari_Ferret]

Driveshafts on my Vantage have been chewing through the cups, looks almost like they're ripping the metal, then again I am running it on 3s lipo with plans of going for 4s if I can find slim enough packs for it.

[Redback]

Theres something wrong then, either the driving or the setup, do they explode when breaking?
A few people speed run these and similar ftx cars. The cups / drive line can do well over 100mph with no issues. 4s - 6s no failures, but also just going straight.

[Gari_Ferret]

No exploding cups, like, they still function but they're really badly worn, wondering if the shafts couldn't be a little longer, maybe 1 or 2mm, as I have previously been told that it could be where the shafts have a little bit of play, which is why I put some little rubber bands for float fishing into the cups before putting the shafts in.

[Redback]

good call on the rubber in the cups it stops them flopping about, they will wear out everthing does, its the dirt and dust that wear them out, maybe after a while driving.
Id expect the diff ring gear to wear out before the cups, you can get little silicon diff cup covers to help keep dirt out, or try axial ones that will be made of harder steel.
Side note the outer drive cups the ones for the rear wheels, hobao outputs fit.
Got a pic of the damage?

Edited January 16, 2023 by Redback

[Gari_Ferret]

48 minutes ago, Redback said:

good call on the rubber in the cups it stops them flopping about, they will wear out everthing does, its the dirt and dust that wear them out, maybe after a while driving.
Id expect the diff ring gear to wear out before the cups, you can get little silicon diff cup covers to help keep dirt out, or try axial ones that will be made of harder steel.
Side note the outer drive cups the ones for the rear wheels, hobao outputs fit.
Got a pic of the damage?

It's not the clearest image but this is what the cups end up looking like in a short amount of time for me, this is a complete diff assembly I had already replaced as I didn't want to try taking it apart at the time.

[RichE]

Hi guys, having many problems with my daughter's bugsta but the main thing at the moment is the center drive shaft keeps popping out of the cups.

 

The rear cup I've moved as far forward as I can then tightened the grub screw and the front cup I can't undo the screw at all so can't move it forward. 

 

It just seems like the drive shaft is too short 

 

Any suggestions on a replacement of some find.

 

We are both new to all of this so any help is greatly appreciated.

[Stormbringer]

sometimes a silicone O ring in each cup can help as it stops the shaft sliding to far backwards or forwards 

usually 1 in each cup helps but sometimes you need 2 

[Gari_Ferret]

Does anyone know the dimensions of the drive shafts/dog bones and the shock springs? It's a pain that FTX doesn't really show any dimensions for anything.

Edited January 24, 2023 by Gari_Ferret

[Fat Freddy]

12 hours ago, Gari_Ferret said:

Does anyone know the dimensions of the drive shafts/dog bones and the shock springs? It's a pain that FTX doesn't really show any dimensions for anything.

I’ll have a quick measure later but all measurements will be approximate. 

[Gari_Ferret]

4 hours ago, Fat Freddy said:

I’ll have a quick measure later but all measurements will be approximate. 

That's cool, I've noticed that a lot of things like driveshafts, etc tend to be a pretty standardised range of sizes, so approximates should be close enough, I mean, I have measured them myself but I'm not sure if I've measured them correctly or not, so I'm just trying to get some more data to increase my certainty, as I'm sure there's probably stronger parts from other manufacturers that are less likely to twist and bend with regards to driveshafts and similar points of failure, like if what I've measured is correct, then the centre driveshaft from the Kyosho Inferno MP9e Evo should be able to replace the aluminium Vantage one.

[Fat Freddy]

1 minute ago, Gari_Ferret said:

That's cool, I've noticed that a lot of things like driveshafts, etc tend to be a pretty standardised range of sizes, so approximates should be close enough, I mean, I have measured them myself but I'm not sure if I've measured them correctly or not, so I'm just trying to get some more data to increase my certainty, as I'm sure there's probably stronger parts from other manufacturers that are less likely to twist and bend with regards to driveshafts and similar points of failure, like if what I've measured is correct, then the centre driveshaft from the Kyosho Inferno MP9e Evo should be able to replace the aluminium Vantage one.

Ah, sorry fella, I just forgot 🤦‍♂️

[Gari_Ferret]

Just now, Fat Freddy said:

Ah, sorry fella, I just forgot 🤦‍♂️

Don't worry about it, I'm pretty confident in my ability to take measurements but it's always good to see if others get the same numbers, just to be sure, I'm just going to take apart a spare diff to see if there's a way to reduce the amount of play in the cups as well, maybe see if I can find alternative parts that have a better fit.

[Fat Freddy]

@Gari_Ferret 

[Darkeeboy]

Ok, so after my proud moment of fixing the front bumper, it seems too much pressure is spoiled to the gearbox case.  Off-roading today caused it to snap on the top brace.  Therefore I need to bite the bullet and replace the chassis.  I’ve got a plastic one on standby but is it worth getting an aluminium one instead?  Also are there any handy videos that show the swap over process or do I just strip and swap logically ?

[Iain .R]

On 04/02/2023 at 16:11, Darkeeboy said:

Ok, so after my proud moment of fixing the front bumper, it seems too much pressure is spoiled to the gearbox case.  Off-roading today caused it to snap on the top brace.  Therefore I need to bite the bullet and replace the chassis.  I’ve got a plastic one on standby but is it worth getting an aluminium one instead?  Also are there any handy videos that show the swap over process or do I just strip and swap logically ?

Hi m8 it's a very easy swap at 1st you think it's a big job but soon as you get in to it it's not as hard as you think guys on here said the same thing to me few years ago and iv swapped mine over about 7 or 8 times  now on 3 diffrent chassies of cars. Just take bit for bit at a time . 

[Italian plumber]

Hello all, I'm considering buying a brushed Vantage 2.0 for bashing onroad or light off-road. I don't have time to read the whole topic and I didn't find a way to sort replies by "likes" or such. Can someone regular to this topic summarise the most common isues that this buggy has?

[Gari_Ferret]

On 14/02/2023 at 10:51, Italian plumber said:

Hello all, I'm considering buying a brushed Vantage 2.0 for bashing onroad or light off-road. I don't have time to read the whole topic and I didn't find a way to sort replies by "likes" or such. Can someone regular to this topic summarise the most common isues that this buggy has?

The brushed version is actually reasonably good, maybe swapping the spur gear to hardened acetal or swap the spur/pinion set to hardened steel just for longevity(the stock spur gear doesn't always last too long) but other than that, without hard crashes, it should hold up well until you decide you want to go much faster.