okay... help me out here guys :(

[fuddy-mucker]

Hi all,

 

this is going to be a bit of a tale but.... i could really do with some answers as to wether or not im in the wrong hobby now... :/

 

Well, I first entered RC when I was child, usual case of being a boy liking cars, parents bought me an elecy rc for a christmas present.. years go by with a few more along the way. 

approx 8 years ago was when I bought my first nitro RC knowing absolutely nothing about them at all.. wasn't a great experience a month after buying it it was given away to a friend as I'd given up and lost all interest. 

 

a few months later I bought one second hand via ebay an old thunder tiger touring car (no idea what model etc if anyone is interested I do have some pictures kicking about). believed to be over 8 years old and hadn't run for at least 6 years (no ARO) used or anything. so hadn't run for quite some time left totally un covered etc in a garage. I paid

[Andythecrane]

Phew.....[emoji1]

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk

[Nitro-Guy69]

sounds like you've been more unlucky than anything mate, but no, nitro is not as bad as that generally

[autobutcher]

Have you thought about going brushless?

[atom3624]

Not certain what to say.

 

I remember taking my MERV out one time, when I wasn't really thinking too clearly - ended up hitting the corner of a fence, airborne at ~30+ mph!

 

Sounds like you're out a longish time and GLAD you're enjoying it that much.

 

I sometimes find that 'the red mist' comes over me with loads of 'I wonders' like 'if I go that way, will it really jump that' ... basically possibly getting a little too confident.

 

Might be an idea to reduce the time you're out - doesn't help if you enjoy it that much.

 

Largescales are great, and may possibly be a little more durable, but if THEY break, the bill's quite a bit bigger!

 

No disrespect to your good self, but I'd possibly just ease off a little and see how you get on.

Shouldn't be getting so many breakages I reckon.

 

Al.

[evssv]

and weather its nitro..petrol...or brushless...they all brake....and yes it does depend what/where u drive/how u drive as to weather it`ll brake or not....normally when me n me son go out one of us has an issue....[we got 15 rc`s between us ]......could b big....or minor....but sum times we have none. .......did u chk every nut bolt screw allen head when it was delivered?or thread lock the bits what needed doing?a lot of people don't because it says rtr on the box....rip it open. ..run it in. ...go bash it.. ....and then things go wrong...quickly.....u seem to have had sum really bad luck.....I have a 27cc fg Baja and tbh I enjoy bashin the 1/8th brushless/nitros a lot more as u can bash harder with these then u can with the massive 1/5 1/6th scales.....I find the Baja boring if I`m really honest.... .....yeah its big n noisey but can it do 10ft air jumps and survive a bad landing.. ...I highly doubt it.....unless u`ve sunk a hell of a lot of money into top grade upgrades........sum peoples hpi bajas on here gota b worth over

Edited October 13, 2014 by evssv

[Gashead]

To be honest mate, it sounds like RC may not be the hobby for you cos it sounds like you're easily bored with what you got. I wonder if you have spent your money wisely on the choice of models. Like anything in life "cheap is dear". I read a lot of problems on here from people who have bought from e bay. Doesn't seem the best source for RC!!

[atom3624]

The main thing is the pre-bash check ... as mentioned.

Check head, engine mounts, chassis bolts, shocks, ... any wobbles.

Check the wheels are tightened adequately - you mentioned rounding a hex?

When you finish, you need to check it over - same sort of routine. Even if you don't have time straight away, you know what you should do before you run it again.

 

It is a hobby, but it does need some care as well.

Al.

[Shudson]

Solution is simple ......you just need more of them! Works for me - 50+ at last count.

 

That way, if one breaks, just get another out.

 

Start with a Hyper - if you break that with your sort of running, then you're doing something wrong!

[evssv]

I only buy from ebay if I can go see it ....or it really looks as it should and the owner will give u fone number to talk.....ask a million Q`s so u know exactly what ur getting...

[fuddy-mucker]

Ive bought two brand new, and bought 2 via ebay... the ones via ebay had minor issues but ran great and never gave me too much hassle... the two new ones ( one of which is my current and only nitro) is giving me constant headaches...

Every time it goes out, it breaks. Part of the hobby is fixing it yes but for pittys sake.... :/ fix it and ten mins of running something broken... :/ thats not cricket!

Yes all the screws and nuts etc were checked and lockthreaded hence why when i tipped the truck up the pullstart fell off and the screws for the pullstart fell out due to them being overtightened at factory, steipping the threads from the back plate.

I mean

... are you supposed to be able to take nitro or petrol out as you would if like another similar hobby? Example motorcross, or quad, 4x4 offroading for example? Go out, have fun for a few hours, clean em off and ready for next time? With only repairs say you went out 10xs 3 of those times something broke?.. not every time man... jesus whats point in paying over 500 quid for all the gear etc etc if every time you take it out it breaks! Longest ive had it run without a major issue is 3 hours and thats it.. but even then it sat busted for 3 months.

[Tamiyacowboy]

truth is ITS THE NITRO !!! 

 

they just need that constant re-tune , checkup, cleanout, stripdown. 

fuel, etc etc etc. by the time you filled the car up its over its tonage weight and mr policeman wants a word.

 

i have used both nitro and electric. 

 

i like nitro for the torque it produces low down, but this usually for me is in a helicopter or a aircraft.

i did once run a thunder tigre EB3 2, with a .21 force nitro engine. i had it about a month then shifted it.

i went right back to electric. 

 

Now all my stuff runs from lipo's , boats planes quadcopters, if i had a heli it would still be electric ( but i would yearn for the torque of a nitro)

 

lets look at fuel, a good 5l bottle will cost around 14 quid then add about 5-7 for postage etc etc. a 11.1v lipo battery costs around the same.

when the fuel can is empty its gone, that 14 quid has been burnt as smoke and heat, and another 14 quid spent for another 5lt.

 

that one battery cost the same but it can be recharged over 1000 times , with a decent charger it will take around an hour to be totally full.

now bashing once a week thats fine, you only need to check the batterys voltage every week or so, just to make sure it keeps stable.

if the voltage drops, you pop it onto storage charge and let electronics do the work for you.

 

have a look a brushed and brushless buggy videos on youtube, ( brushed will be slightly slower, where brushless are more power and speed )

even a change from nihm batterys to lipo batterys see's a preformance boost of around 40-70%.

 

NO stinky fuel, No sticky gunk from exhausts coating chassis,

no need to worry about RX battery running out, or your glowstarter battery being dead.

no worry about having to retune the engine back to preformance you had a week early on etc etc.

 

electric running does have its pro's but the biggest con is the runtime, its less than the fuel tank and nitro,

then again it depends on the drivers style and how agressive he is throttle and power wise

 

They do a conversion kit for the TT MTA-4 to make it brushless and can be run on 6s lipo batterys (22.2v )

 

heres the video and i will grab a link to conversion done by a forum member

 

 

http://www.msuk-forum.co.uk/topic/145668-attempting-a-cheapish-e-mgt-mta4-s50-electric-conversion/

Edited October 13, 2014 by Tamiyacowboy

[fuddy-mucker]

Thinking the same thing tbqh fella... nitro is fun but electric to run in place of the nitro when it busts would be cool.

Its just a nightmare really and seriously dont understand how companies that make products that break so quickly are still operating... anywho...

I'll have a look around at electric and stuff that you can do to electric i dont mind spending money over the course of a few months building up a little stack of batteries so when bashing i can swap the batteries and go again its cheaper overall than buying nitro fuel every two minutes lol you keep the batteries just gotta charge them up lol

Just spotted a cheap shenqi hummer 1:5 petrol rc on ebay, yeah its ebay, but its cheap and seller is willing to show it running. I know its a risk buying off ebay but... just out of curiosity are these actually any good?

Thanks

Rob

[Feedtheinferno]

No don't buy a Shenqi, never buy a cheap XTM/Shenqi 1/5scale petrol.

 

The only budget 1/5 worth getting is a KM otherwise be ready to spend some money.

Over the course of around 2 years I have had 5 petrols and spent round

[Tug]

No, they're crap, don't walk away, RUN AWAY!

[Nitroholic]

A ShenQi Hummer will just frustrate you even more. They are poor quality

 

Personally...I don;t see the issue with nitro. I have quite a few of them, and none give me any trouble. I leave tehm alone for a while, and when I come back...they fire up sweet and trouble free. I can run them at a bash and be out for hours. Engines will eventually fail through wear ... but none of the OPs issues are with cars wearing out.

 

They are not to do with tuning

 

They are not to do with the motive power at all really.

 

Lets look in detail at what's annoying here. Buying a car with pre-stripped bolts....that's annoying.

Having a fuel tank split is annoying. Unless they get hit directly, they should last for years.

Having wheels undo and strip hexes .... yeah...happens. Regular checks and tightening is the cure. Happens whatever your power supply is.

Mysterious drive loss .... grub screw on diff inputs. Common issue on a lot of cars. Screw comes out....driveshaft spins the cup, but the diff pinion doesn't move. When you re-assemble, you will do up the screw and the problem has gone. Probably didn't need to strip the diff...but hey. That happens. HPI use a screw in pin to prevent it happening....but the pins still fall out!

 

The rest....if your car spends a lot of time in the air, that will happen. If not...well...unless yo uare REALLY bad at driving and crash into things, then it shouldn;t happen. If you do hit things a lot....then you need to start missing the solid bits Having more than one car can help here...as you have a backup and each car spends less time in use.

 

My cure for most problems is preventative maintenance.

 

After a run, before the car gets put away, the thing is cleaned. I check over all the fastenings, tighten up anything that is loose and replace or fix any issues. ARO goes in and the motor is parked with the piston at it's lowest point. I use a good quality fuel, and don;t buy cheap servos. I also allow the car to cool between tanks rather than just fill and carry on. A visual check during refuel to make sure nothing has come loose always helps too. Remove mud or grass build up.

 

Now....you want a horror story....

 

I converted a Hyper ST to brushless. It ate it's centre diff on run 1 before the first pack was drained. Run 2....it did it again after 2 packs as I had shimmed the diff. Run 3 was OK...so I went from 4S to 5S. It melted the diff. Run 4 ...another new diff...this time with uprated parts and modded internals. The BEC failed on the ESC. Fitted new seperate BEC. Ran a couple of packs through....the tyres came off. Belted/reglued tyres. Fixed those....took it to a new bash site...ESC went up in flames. Killed the LiPo next to it, and I was lucky the damage wasn't worse. If I hadn't got the flames out when I did it would have been a total loss. And just to kick me while I was down, the ESC seller wouldn;t warranty the failed item without the serial number. Which was destroyed when the ESC flamed.

 

 

Brushless.... it's no different. Buy the right gear, look after it properly, and accept the steep learning curve that goes with fast cars. I also keep the boxes for brushless kit bought new!

 

My second brushless project, built with the hard earned experience of No1. has been faultless.

[fuddy-mucker]

Hhmm its not as though it does spend time in the air though as i dont want to break it purposely as im a little on edge already about it breaking.

As an alternative then... how about an electric rc? Nitro isnt bad in the respect of cheap parts.

Common issues you all talk of such as the driveline grub screws coming loose, never had this issue personally as with most nuts, screws etc i dont just use lockthread but also use lock wire too! So they can't come loose at all. Not just on the grub screws but also everywhere else virtually. After every run it is methodically cleaned, Aro oil run down the bore and pulled via the pullstart 3-4 times and a couple more drops put down the bore. And the piston set to bdc using the flywheel with the glow plug out with a torch to be able to see.

The wheels vs hex, the nyloc nuts securing the wheels kept coming loose, after 10 mins or so of running, couldnt get through a single tank of fuel without one coming loose. That issue is now sorted and so far... in the last 3 times its been out ( approx 3 hours in total... i have checked the tightness of the wheels as i havent had a need to check them. I know they are tight as i cant see them coming loose, i cant feel the slop and again... the axle threads have been coated with lockthread and locking wire round the threaded section of the axle and x2 nyloc nuts per wheel too. If they come loose after that.... something is seriously wrong i.e axle threads made of cheese! They use this kind of method on steering components for classic cars ( i know ive done it ).

So the wheels are no longer an issue.

Its just if its gunna break, bringing an electric monster rc out to carry on the fun is that likely to break too? Ive had look on ms website for parts for a few electric rc's and they dont seem to stock them? Are they really that reliable??! Lol

I do normally allow my nitro to cool between tanking anyway, just bored of it breaking really :/

[Tug]

Sounds like you need to build a car rather than buy another RTR.

You do this by making clever use of ally in certain areas, but RPM plastics in others. The Savvy springs to mind, great drivetrain, great parts support and RPM make bits for it.

You can go leccy or nitro with it, or even the gasoline powered Octane. Just don't buy an RTR, build your own.