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Something of a return...


ReggieC

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1 hour ago, .AJ. said:

Welcome back mate 👍 

 

40 minutes ago, Kpowell911 said:

Welcome back mate

 

Cheers guys! 2 of the names I recognise from before! 

 

RC world doesn't look like it's moved on too much in my absence, a few new brands have popped up and imagine a few have disappeared too. Short Course trucks were the top dog when i was still about but now seems like people seem to have Arma everything?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Should have been racing the XB2 today, unfortunately the meeting was called due to a clash with a regional round apparently.

 

Had done a couple of bits in prep for the race day.

 

First off was wiring up a 'spare' esc. The Xerun v1.2 that i'm currently running seems to work really well, I'm just nervous about how well a probably 12+ year old ESC Is going to hold up long term. It's also not got a lot of the modern features that are common on Race ESCs nowadays, which isn't much of an issue currently as I'm getting back into the swing of things, but I'd like to have the boost/turbo features available at some point. I have another older Hobbywing Xtreme Stock ESC that was in my TC that I had a lipo fire in. Case is a little bit bubbled in one place, but it seems to work okay. 

IMG_20220814_102436.thumb.jpg.0eb67ae48d9fdd9a49fa4f1697367e1d.jpg

 

I think I need to get some different solder, I bought some from amazon a while back that was fine for smaller wire but on the larger wire I've used here I really struggled to get it flowing consistently, even with my 80w equivalent gas soldering iron. Joints seem solid on them and hidden them as best I can with heat shrink.

 

Next job was to fit a chassis protector. It looks like it has never had one before and it definitely picked up a few scratches on the one meeting i've done with it so far, so I thought I'd put one on to stop it getting worse. Before and after..IMG_20220812_191520.thumb.jpg.711a711fda15e7f984c6d3315fe73365.jpgIMG_20220812_191813.thumb.jpg.19a0a7dfe991549d8bda28b44bc448a4.jpg

 

A bit confusing that the servo bolt holes don't line up correctly, There's no difference in servo positions on the 20, 21 and 22 spec cars so It should fit. For £5 though, I'm not too fussed, Should help stop it getting too much more beat up. I've also got a set of stainless fasteners that I'm slowly replacing as I remove the old ones for other work, so it's a bit mismatched atm.

 

 

I've also had some mounted Ballistic Buggy Green rears delivered for the pit box for if it rains again at a meeting, apparently they're the go-to tyre for wet racing on grass.

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Made it to the track today! Got permission to use the track outside of race days for practice/testing purposes, which is great because it's a 10 minute drive from where I live now. So I took the XB2 with me as the main racer and the Slash to use in between runs of that. The 1/8th class is a bit of a free for all at the club in terms of Nitro/Electric and buggys/truggys all running at the same time, so I'm hoping they'll let me squeeze the Slash in at some point once I have it a bit more dialled as it's about the same size.

 

Obligatory photo (Photos seem to lose a lot of quality when uploading via the attach function, is there a better way?)

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Xb2 had 2 batteries through it, probably about 50mins run time in total. It's a grass track but was really dry and dusty (isn't every bit of grass in the uk right now?). I was testing out some set up changes and trying to get a bit more pace and consistency out of it. I Ran Schumacher Mezzos on the rear last time out, they worked well enough but I had some options in the box of bits I got with it. I tried some Mini-darts that seemed to be a lot more predictable out of the slow speed corners so think I'll stick with them. The track is quite rutted in places so I put 2 turns more preload on the rear shocks to try get a bit more travel, it helped but would still get the occasional bounce related spin-out. Think that may just be nature of the beast with how the track is in this weather. I also tried some Fastrax tyres I had kicking around from a long time ago that were absolutely rubbish and unbalanced so think i'll get rid of them!

 

I went up from a 23t pinion to a 26t, this has helped on the straights and clearing the big jump a lot. I don't think I'd need much more top end speed on this track, so my comments the other day about having an esc with more boost/turbo might not be required. I finished off the day with a probably 20 minute run, ESC came off pretty cool to the touch and I could hold my finger on the motor for 6-7s without it getting uncomfortably hot, so in a 5 minute race run I think there's definitely options for more gearing.

 

The Slash was ran on the 1/8th dirt track which is the other side of the shipping container in the photo. Again, really dry and dusty track with a lot of bumps and ruts. Probably resembling the hard packed/dusty tracks that the Americans always seem to run on. A bit less run time with this compared to the XB2, the whole 'fall-over nature' of short course trucks was a bit frustrating having to go flip it regularly, but I got a bit better with not putting it on it's roof by the end. It was really struggling with the bumps on the track to start with and seemed to be bottoming out on the kick of every jump, so I put a fair amount more preload spacers on front and rear shocks to get a bit more ride height and it really helped with both. It's still got the kit wheels and tyres on it, which had a hard time hooking up on the surface. I've got some 17mm hex adaptors in the shed that I'm tempted to use with some 1/8 buggy tyres as I think that'll be better for using what everyone else runs there. 

 

One 'problem' I was encountering was seemingly heat-related cogging. It's still running the original VXL system that came with the car, I know they are common for running hot and not exactly smooth, but after about 5 mins the car would really struggle to get itself going. Motor and ESC would be really hot too. I can remember them getting about that hot when I used to run it, bit can't remember the cogging being as much of a problem. I'm using better batteries than I used to as well, so not sure if it's vxl combo getting old or if running in 25 degree heat was just a bit too much for them. It might be something I'll look into replacing if I do end up racing it, The Hobbywing SCT combos look like a good option.

 

All in, a really fun couple of hours with the cars.

 

 

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15 hours ago, GMballistic said:

Great read @ReggieC and glad you got back to RC again even if it was down to an injury that brought you back. 

That track looks like awesome fun. 

 

Thanks! It's one of those things I would have got back into eventually I'm sure, I've always revolved around hobbies so RC was going to get it's turn eventually.

 

I'll try get some better pics of the layouts next time I'm over there, all 3 tracks are quite technical whilst also being pretty friendly on the cars which makes them great to race on.

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LCG Conversion turned up today, that didn't take long haha. Similar to what @Kpowell911 was saying the other day, I'm enjoying working on the cars almost as much as I am actually using them. I'm also rubbish at the "I know I'm going to buy this eventually" wait to buy something.

 

Spent the evening in the shed putting it on. Was a nice kit really, all parts in individual labelled bags with new fasteners and an exploded diagram with instructions on order. 

 

Height of the front and back of the car to start for reference.

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I make that 55mm front and 50mm back.

 

After a couple of hours we ended up with this.

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And measured at the same points.

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About 39mm front and back? So a drop of roughly 15mm at the front and 10mm at the back, whilst retaining the same suspension travel. All the electrics seem to sit a lot lower in the chassis so I'm expecting some noticeable improvements in handling when it's next on track. The new chassis has interestingly sorted at a lot of slop in the steering which should be good too!

 

A few things that have came out of the evening working on it. I really wish I'd bought a bearing set for when I was doing it, I've cleaned up and re-oiled the harder to reach ones and had a few spares from the XB2 pitbox that I subbed in, but all the outboard ones are pretty notchy. There's a lot more drag in the driveline than I'm really happy with, I think a lot of this is in the diff crown and pinons that I've re-greased so hoping that'll loosen up. The front bumper is pretty much about to snap along the skid plate. All the driveshafts are either slightly ovalled at connection points or twisted. It's got RPM front arms that have bent/warped around the shock, and seem to flex around the shock mount almost as much during suspension travel as it does compress the shock, which isn't ideal for racing.

 

I'm not sure how much of that stuff was poor maintenance on my behalf 10 years ago or just it being sat for ages. I'm sort of thinking now that I just leave a lot of it be and see what breaks before anymore upgrades.

 

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Just in addition to the last post, there's something else annoying about the LCG Conversion. The way the battery strap slots in from the side as apposed to dropping onto a post and being secured by a body pin. You can sort of see it in this photo, but with my lipos, if you have them with the connectors forward, there's no way of getting them in and out with out jamming into the power cables really hard. You also can't spin the lipo 180 degrees because then when the strap widens it clashes with the same wires. 

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I've not seen this mentioned online anywhere but I might have to come up with something else

 

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The LCG conversion will be a night and day difference to handling. I cant even bash a HCG Slash let alone race one!

 

Regarding the battery strap, everything Traxxas make is purely for their Lipos, which have side exit wires. Many other lipos have a side exit wiring so youre not limited to those, but you have two choices:

 

New Lipos

Velcro Strap Conversion

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On 03/09/2022 at 09:29, Kpowell911 said:

The LCG conversion will be a night and day difference to handling. I cant even bash a HCG Slash let alone race one!

 

Regarding the battery strap, everything Traxxas make is purely for their Lipos, which have side exit wires. Many other lipos have a side exit wiring so youre not limited to those, but you have two choices:

 

New Lipos

Velcro Strap Conversion

 

I'm hoping I'll be able to get up the track today or tomorrow evening to give it a go. Basically every set up sheet/set up advice 

I found for them said to not even bother racing without the LCG Conversion haha.

 

Yeah I thought that's probably the case. They're pretty new LiPos so don't think I'll be replacing them. I'll try see if I can modify the strap slightly to clear where it needs to, can't imagine it'll take too much

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Made it to the track tonight!

 

On 03/09/2022 at 09:29, Kpowell911 said:

The LCG conversion will be a night and day difference to handling. I cant even bash a HCG Slash let alone race one!

 This turned out to be very true!

 

Absolutely huge difference in handling. Car felt like something that should actually be on a race track. 

 

I was going to just go with the car, batteries and transmitter but just as I was about to leave the house I thought I'd take some basic tools and spares. Glad I did because this happened after lap 2.

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Had a spare so back up and running quickly.

 

I mentioned I'd get some photos of the track next time I'm up there. This is the 1/8th track.

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Really fun track, although it's sort of at the end of season period and needs some attention. There's lots of ruts/holes at some pretty critical points which can really ruin your pace if you fall foul of them. The main table top jump and jump over the back are particularly bad for this with bumps literally on the bottom of the ramp.

 

I ran 2 batteries through it without too much hassle. Had some nice laps going at points but the bumps are killer. I think I might put in some thinner shock oil to let it react a bit quicker.

 

I also mentioned the other day that the front bumper looked like it was in its last legs, it's now looking like this.

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Looks like a bolt went missing too. I'll get an RPM bumper on order as I think they look a bit better.

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Few more bits done.

 

Changed the shock oil to 250cst. I was really surprised to see that what I assume was the original shock oil was still pretty much all in there. Not bad for 10 or so years! Suspension definitely feels a lot quicker to respond, will see how it goes on Sunday. There's an ever so slight bend in 1 front and 1 rear shock shaft, but they still seem to be working okay so I'll just monitor them.

 

Had the RPM bumper turn up and also thought I'd try out the traxxas heavy duty A-arms for the front after noticing the RPM arms on the front were really bent. 

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This was the better side!

 

Annoyingly, the black arms weren't in stock, so I've gone for the blue ones. I'm not too fussed about it not matching, I won't see it when it's moving. Rpm bumper fitted too. I'm liking how it looks.

 

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Not planning on buying anything now apart from sorting breakages. Feel like I've definitely been neglecting the XB2, but that just works on the track!

 

Edited by ReggieC
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