FTX Vantage/Carnage owners Thread

[Adam Zielinski]

On 02/01/2020 at 20:11, Tintin said:

Depends on what you want do with the car. 

On carpet the spiked ones like the Schumacher Mini Dart

On tarmac  Fastrax Arrow

Bashing, the mounted cuboid
https://www.modelsport.co.uk/fastrax-1-10th-mounted-cuboid-black-buggy-wheels-and-tyres-rear/rc-car-products/434085

Got the mounted cuboid as per your suggestion, they arrived yesterday, look really good, far better than the stock ones I think.  Cheers for the recommendation!

[Joe82]

My carnage has taken a bashing recently. Two points im having issues with.... 

1. The rear wheels spin and the front ones dont do anything. If i tighten or losen the lugnuts then they work but only for a while? Too tight on all of them and one wheel works if im lucky. 

2. How do you fit a new centre drive shaft? It seems very loose and falls out. 

Any help would be much appreciated. 

[zlab]

1. Are front driveshafts spinning? If so, then you have a damaged hex on the wheel. 

2. If you have a regular plastic chassis, then it is enough to unscrew top plate and the chassis flexes enough to replace the driveshaft. If you have aluminium chassis, then take off top plate and complete rear assembly (4 bolts from bellow)

[zlab]

While waiting for hobbyking to resolve the reclamation of the trackstar power system and waiting for the new one, some work has been done on my carnage. It's finally on the dirt again.

-CF top plate

-Hobbywing EZRUN MAX10SCT ESC with 3660 sized 4000kv motor

-XT90 connectors

-conversion to 48dp

-both diffs sealed and filled with diff oil

-reinforced body shell

-new servo saver

-some more bushings

-shimmed bearings on all four wheels to minimize the freeplay

-all hinge points lubricated with graphite powder

 

 

It's A tight fit with this motor and ESC. I'm sure it wouldn't fit the vantage as it is shorter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[RCJC]

[Newbie ... please forgive stupid questions]

 

Just bought Carnage Brushed as first car, loving it so far.

 

@zlab what is the reinforced body shell, something you bought or DIY (she'll was first thing I broke on a rollover)

 

15 min runtime for 6hr charge out of the box was just silly, so I have bought a balance charger and a 2s 7200mah, makes the car faster and lasts!

 

This leads me on to a few general questions:

1) what are the *must do* upgrades for the carnage?

2) what spares / components should I be ordering now because I am bound to need them sooner than later

3) is there anywhere that I can find a good guide for what maintenance/checks I should be doing after I run it (including some way to learn what all the parts are I guess, as people are using words I have no clue about at the moment haha) or do I just need to learn this the hard way?

 

Thanks for all/any hints and tips

[zlab]

@RCJC no it's just an original body shell, reinforced with the drywall tape (i don't know the exact name in english) and elastic glue. You have guides for that all over the internet, where people do it with shoegoo glue. I used somwthing else, better glue for my opinion and cheaper. Will make a photo later.

 

1) it all depends on how much you want so spend. First thing i did, were aluminium arm holders, as those plaatic ones breaks quite easily. Also a must is the sway bar upgrade. I realised latter that also CF top plate is a very nice upgrade as it makes the whole car much more rigid.

 

2) more is better spur gear, suspension arms, body posts, wheel hexes (i recomend upgrading to alu), front CVDs, rear dogbones, central shaft. Also a nice stock of bolts, which i recommend buying at a specialised local store and not in RC shop.  They are like 10x to expensive in RC shops.

 

3) first thing to do when you get a new carnage, open both diffs and clean that peanut butter out of it and put some proper grease in there. Also the gearmesh between the diff and diff pinion is really bad out of the factory. Take some time and shim it correctly.

[RCJC]

@zlab thanks for the great and thorough response ... it is really helpful, time to get learning about cars

[RCJC]

Building up my bravery with my carnage brushed .... bit rougher ground today, few mini jumps, and accidentally ditched into a few deep puddles ... no damage yet

(Unimpressive video warning)

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[IKZ4]

Definitely seal up the spur and pinion. Although this isn't as easy as it sounds, I sealed mine and grit is still getting in. Has anyone used the mesh bags that cover the  whole chassis? Like these - 

 

 https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F254429895569

[RCJC]

@IKZ4 yeah, I have read a few bits about this to avoid grit getting in and stripping the spur.

To be honest, i am just finding my way around the car, not had a very close look at the spur and pinion yet.

There was a chat on here somewhere about fitting something to the underside of the vehicle to protect it, but I think the model I have got already has that area covered, need a closer look to see where else debris could get in.

Entering the water was totally unintentional, but it did get a few notable baths! I was particularly worried about that, but it survived ok on this occasion, will try and avoid in the future though.

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[IKZ4]

grit and stones get in below the slipper clutch, from the front and back. i taped up the front hole and added a plastic plate to the rear but it's still getting in. wheels wouldnt turn last after getting it out of the boot but took it apart before any damage done. we'd been hooning around a gravel carpark.

 

another thing to watch with going into water is that the wheels have holes in them on the insides, so the tyres can get water in. my wheels are currently sat on top of the boiler and once they're dry i'll tape up the holes.

[RCJC]

@IKZ4 nice, thanks for the hint.

I will have a closer look tonight and see what I find (starting with finding the slipper clutch haha)

Thanks

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[namastebuzz]

OK - Friend of mine bought a brushed Carnage for his son. Brand new 2.0 version.

 

I said  had a new SkyRC Leopard 1/10th brushless combo he could have. (Had it as a spare for the SR5 bike but never used it.)

 

Popped round to his and we fitted it to the car. Set up the ESC with the program card. Ran fine on the stand but wouldn't move on the ground, just stuttering back and forward slightly.. The motor was also getting REALLY HOT. Didn't have the temp gun with me so couldn't check. Checked and re-checked the mesh. There's a bit of cogging before it takes off - on the stand.

 

Didn't have the right spanner with me to adjust the slipper either. (Whenever you take tools - you never take the ones you need....)

 

It's a 12t 3300KV motor so should be fine. Brand new 2S LiPo. Did a similar conversion with a Vantage before and it ran perfectly from the off (still does).

 

What am I doing wrong?

 

EDIT - Turns out, nothing.

 

The motor was faulty. It was getting really, really, hot. As if you'd spent a day doing speed runs with no break.

 

Swapped in the Velineon motor from a Rustler. No issues.

 

Need to get another motor and some better gears instead of the crappy stuff that comes as standard.

 

Edited February 17, 2020 by namastebuzz
addendum

[RCJC]

@namastebuzz will be interested to hear what you end up putting in there!

 

 

[mention=44110]IKZ4[/mention] so, just cleaning up after my last run (excuse the dirt), so from my research (I now know what a slipper clutch is, and what it does) I think I have found the openings you mention that debris can get into. I am guessing it is that hollow beneath the slipper clutch spring, where you can see something green (I am guessing I may have some grass in there) and a corresponding opening on the opposite side. Am I in the right spot?

 

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[IKZ4]

Exactly right. I also taped up the centre chassis brace above the slipper to minimise stuff falling in. I've not had a good look since but there must be another route in, or my dealing isn't sufficient

[RCJC]

@IKZ4 hmmm interesting, i need to brave stripping it down next and see what is in mine.

Why is it open, is it for cooling? If so, I wonder whether trying to tape it up with some mesh tape might be best, I am thinking the sort of semi perforated medical tape.

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[Jamil237237]

I'm quite late to post this, last year was when you guys were discussing the carnage 2.0. There are quite a  few differences from the original carnage that you won't notice because the carnage did get updates without a name  change. They just got so many changes they probably thought, why not just call it 2.0 at this point? I got mine yeaaaars ago. Since buying replacement parts, I gradually saw some of the changes.

Changes inlcude :

esc (looks like the cheap hobbywing one everyone suggests, old one couldn't use lipo, this one can I think)

 chasis plate (they got rid of the holes in the battery tray and under the spur gear)
spur gear cover (comes in two parts and covers the gears much more compared to the original, also no holes anymore)
radio (I don't think I  have to explain)
CVD (original ones could be taken apart, new ones can't)
bodyshell (I guess to defrentiate)

motor heatsink (Just look)
chrome wheels (they're chrome)

Maybe some changes I haven't noticed because the stock parts haven't broken. The other thing i've noticed is the plastic just looks and feels different. Probably because my plastic is years old maybe? There have been changes to the carnage for sure. Just taken forever you probably didn't notice. At least four things actually changed about the carnage. The only serious changes are the spur gear cover, chasis plate and the esc. Maybe the radio too idk. New one is definately more heavier because of all the patched up holes. You guys notice anything I didn't?  I haven't bashed mine in a while. A rock finally got into my gears. took it's time.

 

[RCJC]

@Jamil237237 it's funny, I only bought mine recently, I dont think mine was badged as a v2 model, but i think i do benefit from many of the changes you suggest, especially the waterproof esc, lack of perforations on battery trays, no opening beneath the spur etc.

 

Mine can definitely use LiPo, I got an additional sheet with my instruction manual explaining the different esc

 

But interesting still some bigger holes from what it looks like around the spur, as I was discussing previously whether to cover them and how best

 

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[zlab]

7 hours ago, Jamil237237 said:

CVD (original ones could be taken apart, new ones can't)

I ordered some in the past 6 months and they could all be taken apart.

Any pictures?

[Jamil237237]

19 hours ago, zlab said:

I ordered some in the past 6 months and they could all be taken apart.

Any pictures?

There may be a commuication error here, And i really don't want to take apart my rc for pictures. but basically, where theres a joint that allows movement is where you could take apart the cvd is what I mean.  in the older ones you just had to remove the rubber ring from the outside, slide a pin out and *oh no it fell down the sink* . Thats actually what happened. 

[RCJC]

Ok, started to be brave and start disassembling the carnage to clean it a bit, glad I did, as was mentioned the spur did have some gravel in there.

One thing I am struggling with, my eclip popped off the servo saver spring at some point ... how on earth can I get it back on, finger nails are killing me from trying to compress the spring whilst sliding the clip on?!

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[Nickarla]

I pushed down with needle nose pliars.

[RCJC]

I pushed down with needle nose pliars.

I already ruled that out because I thought it wouldn't work ... but you pushed me to try it anyway, took 2 seconds, wish I had asked earlier to have saved some fingers! Thank you

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[RCJC]

Although few minute of testing and the e clip has popped out again!! Annoying.

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[zlab]

there are 2 possible problems with that.

First is, that when you pit it on it must be oriented correctlly, otherwise it may bind into the top plate when you turn and push it off. Check with your top plate on.

 

Other problem may be that the plastic is torn around the groove. This is a very bad design, looks loke an engineering joke. You must change the servosaver, but it will happen again soon. I changed 3 of them and then finally decided to make it better. You can see on previous pages, i made the servo saver one rigid part and inserted a bearing there for the elimination of freeplay in steering. I am using a direct mount servo saver to protect the servo.

It works perfectly, no more problems with that since the modification.