Traxxas Cheap-Maxx - Disaster!

[namastebuzz]

Ok so I've had my E-Maxx for several months. It's been great.

 

£50 from Gumtree for a brushed 3905. Added two LiPos for £30 and already had radio gear. The seller thought the ESC had an intermittent fault but I initially thought it was just a battery connector but it did turn out there was a loose wire in the EVX-2 as well. PH/001 did kindly try and fix it but no joy.

 

So, called my nearest model shop (90 miles away) for a new one - £170!!!! I started hunting around and the cheapest from eBay was around £80 from the states. Then, randomly, someone on gumtree had one for sale in Aberdeenshire, virtually on my doorstep. £40 along with two Titan motors. Bargain. Ran that for a while and then the motors burnt out.

 

I had a cheapie 1/8th brushless system that I'd intended putting into a high speed Rustler so I thought I'd try that. It was a Racerstar 150a ESC and 4076 1800kv motor. The system was meant to be good for 6S so I fitted it in. As soon as I plugged the ESC into the two 2S batteries - smoke! Not a good sign. It had run ok on 3S but it burnt out on 4. That's what you get for buying cheap. I bit the bullet and bought a Hobbywing ESC on eBay for £50 that would handle 6S if needed. Paired that with the Racerstar motor - holy moly! It was great.

 

I sold the EVX-2 and the two brushed motors for £70 to offset the cost.

 

So by now my spend was:

 

Truck £50

New brushed ESC £40

Batteries £30

Sold ESC/Motors -£70

Brushless motor £20

Brushless ESC £50

 

Grand total £120

 

Next, I went mad and bought another E-Maxx off eBay.de for £400. It was totally hopped up with loads of RPM and alloy parts. Castle Mamba system. Three bodies. 4 sets of wheels and a MASSIVE box of spares plus two 4S LiPos and Sanwa radio gear. The idea was that all the spares would keep both trucks running and I'd eventually RPM the cheaper truck.

 

Back to the Cheap-Maxx. The suspension was pretty soggy so I picked up 8 GPM Racing alloy piggy back shocks from eBay in Poland. £22 plus £7 postage. Pretty sweet deal I thought. Got them fitted. Transformed the beast totally. No ****ing and diving anymore. Turned, stopped, wheelied and landed jumps with aplomb. I was totally happy for the £150 spend.

 

So I was running it over our jump in the garden. Landed badly on the back end and smashed the shock tower but even worse, the 4 shocks on the rear came apart too.

 

 

I can swap in another tower but all the shocks have come out of the bottom mounts. Can those be fixed or do I need some new parts?

 

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[Tug]

If there was any thread on the ends of those shock shafts, they've snapped clean off. Unless it's just my eyes deceiving me. 

 

You can try measuring them and finding some that fit, but that probably won't be easy. That's always the risk with cheap shocks, poor parts availability. 

[namastebuzz]

Yeah I think they've snapped off. They're not that cheap - well, to me anyway. I just got em cheap.

If I'd had an RPM shock tower I take it this wouldn't have happened?

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[namastebuzz]

So what should I be running? Proline?

I've seen those Hobao Hyper7 shocks getting used too.

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[Tug]

Not sure what to recommend for shocks, hopefully someone will come along soon and help the pair of us. 

[Fly In My Soup]

Rb innovations big bore shocks from answer rc

[namastebuzz]

GPM have replied to me saying they can send me some replacement shafts. Which is nice.

 

Qustion - how to I remove the broken threaded ends from the bottom mount thingy? Or do I need new bottom mount thingies too?

 

The broken shafts are 3.17mm by 47mm or so plus whatever's the length of the snapped off threaded bit so possibly 54mm seeing as GPM do a 3.17 x 54mm shaft whereas the next shortest one they do is 47mm?

Edited February 12, 2019 by namastebuzz

[Tug]

See if they've got rod-ends, if not, there're plenty of others that'll fit, you just need them to fit 3mm thread. 

[namastebuzz]

Got the new shafts and rod ends ordered. Just waiting on them. Also ordered an RPM true track rear conversion.

While I'm waiting I decided to fit the RPM shock towers and thought I may as well do the bulkheads too. I'd planned on using RPM ones but seeing as I had new Integy alloy ones in the spares box I decided to use them.

As I also had new boot kits for the ball joints I thought I'd fit them as well. Likewise, I had spare driveshafts with intact cv boots so, rather than change the boots I just changed the driveshafts. Then, seeing as I had it out, thought I might as well open up the diff and regrease it. I was a bit apprehensive but a quick YouTube video helped and it was simple enough. I have to do the diff on my other E-Maxx so it was good practice.

Finally, I stripped and refilled the old standard shocks in lieu of waiting to fix the GPM ones and refitted them so as to have a working truck in the meantime.

First time I'd done all that and quite enjoyed it. Problems? One of the bolts holding in the old diff was rounded and had to be drilled out. One suspension bolt wouldn't come out either and had to be cut. I used threadlock on all the bolts going into aluminium which is the opposite of the anti seize I'd normally employ (working on bicycles).



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Edited March 21, 2019 by namastebuzz

[Kpowell911]

Its getting there mate! Really miss my Maxx’s! Id avoid anything GPM personally and try and pick up some Traxxas Aluminium big bores if toy can

[namastebuzz]

Yeah I tend to pick up whatever's the best deal at the time. I'd have liked some Big Bores but £22 for the GPMs versus £80 odd for the TRaxxas kit - there was no contest.

 

The GPMs seemed to perform pretty well and the company sent me out some spares quickly enough so no real complaints. It was the standard shock tower that broke, transferring the full force of the very heavy, tail-first landing on to the shock shafts - which all snapped. I can't see any other shocks fairing any better, I imagine most would've bent or snapped? Hopefully the RPM towers will preclude any repeats.

 

It's all a learning curve for me at the moment but nothing teaches you better than breaking loads of stuff.......