Few questions about Baja upgrades

[Danzzz88]

So I've been in the process of building my Baja for a while...not the easiest car to build when using aftermarket bits I have to say. So many issues along the way with compatibility of parts, moldings or holes being fractions of a mm off making fitment between parts an absolute nightmare..

 

Neverless I'm nearly there with the build and had a few questions about a few upgrades.. 

 

1. Alx godzilla dogbones or Irc uhd dogbones.

 

2. Rcmax new side pipe vs the original pipe both in titanium

 

3. Kraken x3 chasis with 5sc front body mounts and bumper....this is pita as the increased thickness of the chassis kick up means the skidplate is a bit lower and as a result the body post support gets flexed downwards when trying to crew it all together resulting in the team chase cage being pulled forwards and binding on the rear big bore shocks and not lining up well with the side body mounts.

 

4. Play with killer rc turnbuckles and flm upper arms, but if I tighten the ball joint right up to the collar to eliminate this then the angle of the ball joint can't fasten to the hub carrier.

 

5. Size of holes in team chase cage, why are the side body post and rear body/ wing mount holes bigger than the posts??

 

 

 

A lot of stuff about this car makes no sense and the tolerances of parts must be terrible, given it's bigger than a 10th scale you would think the tolerances should matter less but what a nightmare it is...if only Xray made a 5th scale, my t3 was the easiest kit to put together I've ever had.

 

Thanks in advance if anyone has any answers to any of the above!

 

 

 

[spents]

On 16/08/2019 at 10:23, Danzzz88 said:

So I've been in the process of building my Baja for a while...not the easiest car to build when using aftermarket bits I have to say. So many issues along the way with compatibility of parts, moldings or holes being fractions of a mm off making fitment between parts an absolute nightmare..

 

Neverless I'm nearly there with the build and had a few questions about a few upgrades.. 

 

1. Alx godzilla dogbones or Irc uhd dogbones.

 

2. Rcmax new side pipe vs the original pipe both in titanium

 

3. Kraken x3 chasis with 5sc front body mounts and bumper....this is pita as the increased thickness of the chassis kick up means the skidplate is a bit lower and as a result the body post support gets flexed downwards when trying to crew it all together resulting in the team chase cage being pulled forwards and binding on the rear big bore shocks and not lining up well with the side body mounts.

 

4. Play with killer rc turnbuckles and flm upper arms, but if I tighten the ball joint right up to the collar to eliminate this then the angle of the ball joint can't fasten to the hub carrier.

 

5. Size of holes in team chase cage, why are the side body post and rear body/ wing mount holes bigger than the posts??

 

 

 

A lot of stuff about this car makes no sense and the tolerances of parts must be terrible, given it's bigger than a 10th scale you would think the tolerances should matter less but what a nightmare it is...if only Xray made a 5th scale, my t3 was the easiest kit to put together I've ever had.

 

Thanks in advance if anyone has any answers to any of the above!

 

 

 

ey up mate, the hpi/km baja uses mainly plastic parts in the kit cos they have a bit of give, so they always go together fine if bolt holes are a tad out, problem with aftermarket parts is everyone has a different idea of tolerance on there parts, so when mixing different aftermarket parts thers sometimes a little bit of a discrepancy ,

it just takes a little minor modding here and there and everything will fit fine mate,

in answer to the 1 to 5 questions,

 

1; alx or I-rc bone and cups,  depends on which engine your using, if its an alx or rcmax big bore , then use the alx bones and cups, any other engine use the I-rc or any other bones and cups you like, when I had a twin in my baja I used stock cups with toobz fitted over the top to strengthen em along with kraken extended bones with kraken x2e a arms, never had an issue with pins snapping etc,

remember that even with large hub hex drive pins of 5mm or 7mm you still have 4mm drive pins inside the diff and gearbox,

 

2;pipes, all down to personal preference,  not sure which pipe you mean as original, but if you mean alx, then the rcmax manifold is easier to fit to the engine and also seals a lot better on the o'rings,

 

3; kraken x3 chassis shouldn't make any difference to the post height or position, all the extra thickness is on the underneath of the kick up, top of kick up should be same as a stock chassis for position of all other parts , just a case of trial and error till you get it as you want it, also depends which front tower your using as well, turtle racing tower may move position of the big bores slightly causing the binding, experiment with different spacing till you get it how you like it,

 

4; either spacers between the ball joints and flm arms or possibly a stand off or spacer between the ball and the hub carrier to get it all to line up,

again, mix and match parts often need custom spacers or stand offs for em,

plus spacer between flm arm and ball joint will set the amount of camber you have, always go for a little negative camber , especially on the rear, 

its all part of the custom build , so stick with it mate ,

 

5; the team chase cage has always been this way with bigger holes mate, its just how they are, again its a tolerance thing, it makes sure the cage will fit every baja ,

having said that though, I've got a team chase cage and also had two kraken tsk1 cages as well and have had to modify all of em to fit right,

its a bit of faffing around to get em right, but worth it to get a better fit,

 

tbh no one really notices the tolerances when they build a plastic parts baja from hpi cos as said above, plastic has a little give in it and fits easy as pie, its just when fitting aftermarket mix n match parts when things get a little difficult, well worth taking your time and getting everything just right though, it gives you the satisfaction of a really nice finished build with parts that all meet up in the right places, 

hope the above helps you out mate, and good luck with the build 

[Danzzz88]

Hi mate, what a very detailed and lengthy reply, such a good community of people here wanting to help each other out

 

Yea in terms of the ball joints and arms think I will have to shim them, you are right, the stock HPI kits always go together fine though the design of the Baja makes it a pain as you have to remove like 10 parts at a time just to get to a simple bit to change it, I was trying to even remove the front top arm hinge pins the other day and had to take off the the bumper, wheels and shocks and loosen the tower support just to reduce the strain on them just because everything wants to pull one way or another and doesn't line up unless all screwed down.

 

These are the new dogbones from IRC, Mike at Rcmax also sells them, they have a similar pin size to the ALX at 6.5mm but the cups are the same size as the 5SC  so wondered if they would do the job as I believe the ALX cups are massive and can't fit boots over them. The engine is an Rcmax 71 .  http://www.innovative-rc.com/innovative-baja-dogbone-cups-shafts-exstended-p-1005.html

 

The pipes I was choosing between is the usual rcmax pipe, the one that wraps around the filter and has a silencer or the new straight side pipe non silenced, I would like the weight savings and higher performance of the side pipe, but not sure how much louder it's gonna be, if it's gonna make the difference between people complaining about the noise or not....

 

The Kraken chassis is a pain because even though the bulkhead fastens on top like you say in the usual position, it has a thicker skidplate, so when attaching the 5sc front bumper skidplate underneath that again, the height of the bumper is a bit lower so when I screw the bit that protrudes from the bulkhead down and then try fit the bits that attach from the shock tower to that bit, they are pulled fowards and down and under a lot of tension to the point it's a nightmare to even get the body clips in that hold it all together, then this all has a knock on affect of pulling the chase cage forwards and binding on the rear shocks lol, in a way I'm lucky the side holes on the chase cage are bigger thanthey should be as it doesn't line up in the middle of those and there is an awful lot of tension throughout the entire cage when it's all fastened down.

 

But all in all you are right, there is clearly differences in tolerances of each manufacturers parts and some modding I suppose is to be expected, whether the aftermarket Losi parts are the same Idk but that car certainly looks easier to work with. But nevertheless I guess a lot of the issues I'm having can be resolved with a few shims and spacers here and there, a bit of dremelling and a bit of patience. 

 

Another dumb question as well, I'm going to sound like  a real noob for this one, but because I've not owned a 5th scale previously, only 10th and 8th scales, don't really know the answer. I know the standard air filters need to be oiled on the inside, usually they are blue? then you have the foam outer you keep dry... But with the Rcmax filter there is no apparent seperate inner core to soak with oil so do Rcmax / Alx filters still require oil, do I just get some kind of air filter oil and soak the inside part of the outer layer if that makes sense?

 

Thanks for all your help!!

Edited August 18, 2019 by Danzzz88

[spents]

yeh the baja can be a a pain to work on at times, but once you get used to the quickest way to disassemble and reassemble em there easy really,

you will go through loads of shims to get everything just right as well, that's just how the baja is ,

 

to be honest its all about personal choice with all parts, the cups and bones, yeh the alx ones are well beefy, so theres also the weight difference to consider as well,

running cups without boots isn't really an issue , well it is if your in a really gritty/sandy place, but its easy enough to clean em after each bash and give em a check over, plus theres plenty of dry lubes out there, and graphite dry spray as well,

but from what I've heard the I-rc ones are good as well,

 

the side unsilenced side pipe will be much louder than the silenced version mate, 

a mate of mine is running an rcmax gt40 with the new pipe on, its super loud,  only heard the pipe on video myself though,

not sure what the weight saving would be, though,

 

yep, I get what you mean with the kraken chassis now mate, all you can do is again , make spacers where you can and get it all to fit as near as you can to how you want it,

parts are gonna get bent if your running an alx 71 as well 😂, plus parts like bones and cups always wear much quicker , the more power and torque you have the higher the wear rate,

and the bigger the crashes,

your gonna need a wheelie bar with the 71 I bet,

dean (BoneHead-RC) makes a carbon fibre wheelie bar now, I think mikes gonna sell em through the rcmax site,

 

lol yeh nothing ever seems to fit 100% on the baja with aftermarket parts, but that can be said on all platforms really, losi/hpi/dragon hammer/30DN/km etc etc , some parts bolt straight up no problem and some need some minor fettling, but in my opinion that's half the fun of 1/5 scale,

 

right the filters,  seems that most big bore style filters are a single or dual stage filter these days, most need oiling then the excess removing with kitchen roll/paper towel,

over oiling cancause running issues, best to check with mike whether the rcmax filter needs oil or not, but I would have thought the answer would be yes,

thers also the tgn dt1 triple filters as well there the same and you oil the whole filter then remove any excess so they just have a nice even coating throughout,

I run two filters similar to the rcmax and alx  ones on my twin that's in a dragon hammer, and I forget the name of the oil I use is at moment lol,

but it comes in a 1 litre bottle, and is blue in colour, you soak the filter, it has a solvent mixed in with the oil so it carries right through the filters, let it drip dry and the solvent evaporate, then squeeze filter in paper towel to remove excess, then there good to go for a decent amount of time before they need a clean and re oil, 

its an oil specific for foam filters as well that wont affect any glue in multi stage glued filters ,

 

your welcome to the advice mate, 

[Dougstar]

I feel your pain with the aftermarket parts not fitting right 🙄

I just did up an hpi 5b 👍🏻 mostly tr upgrades did add team chase irc and a kraken sx5 kit👍🏻 had some rovan but they did not fit, in the end they had to go. It was a bit of see what fits best and once you have stripped it a few times it gets easier to work on👍🏻

[markymarky]

Been lucky so far, everything I have has gone together okay.

So far have a mix of KM, HPI, RPM and Modified RC parts and haven't run into issues, yet