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Hello All As The Title says, This is a Topic on the all New Dragon Hammer by FID I First Picked it up in November from RcModelz the Sole UK distributer And have had it out testing EVERY week for Them & FID since Any one that's been awaiting this truck will have an Idea on it's Spec's & it's type of Truck But if not then this is the First of it's kind to hit the market A SOLID rear axled truck, nothing lije the more standard type with a flat chassis and a shock at each corner, The Dragon does't have that, it has a much more like a REAL Scale axle, with full articulation of a Trailling arm, and Four linked Suspension This gives it far FAR greater off road capabilitys than Any thing else that's currently on the market. Now many of you will know me, equally as many wont I have been in this hobby for 30+ years, Racing & Bashing nearly Everything that's been out, And have Run a lot of Clubs, Groups & Forum's, Many at the More Extreme End of the RC Bashing So having driven a lot of stuff, and owned, & still own many 5th scale Rc including Baja's, MCD's, Losi's, X2's, I know what they're like and can Handle & stand up to Off Road, & On And the Dragon Hammer, Is Absolutely AMAZING. It's a real pleasure to drive, very easy & EXTREAMLY capable It will go places that most everything currently out simply can't or really struggle, and it will do it with EASE I've taken this to places that I know a 5ive, or Baja simply Cant go, and it makes it seem so Easy, even to the point where you actually wonder if it was bad enough, Right up until I take my own X2 into the same places, & that just cant manage That's when it really does show how good the Hammer really IS Now the Truck itself is an Absolutely Amazing bit of kit The build quality, & the Spec it comes with out of the box are Awesome Far FAR higher than other 5th scales in this price range, and market I will include a LOAD of pictures But as a quick idea It has All FID part's 7075 Chassis Full Billet Alloy Steering Set Up, Push & Pull Type Billet Alloy Front Top Plate Billet Alloy Front Chassis Brace Billet Alloy Front Shock Tower Billet Alloy Front Pinion Holders, Front & Rear Billet Alloy Front Swaybar Plate Billet Alloy Diff Cases on ALL 3 Diffs, With Helical Cut gears Front & Rear Billet Alloy Rear Top Plate Billet Alloy 2 Piece Center Diff Housing, with a Superb brake Set up Billet Alloy Center Driveshaft Bearing Holder Billet Alloy Clutch Carrier Billet Alloy Engine Mount Billet Alloy Fuel Cap Billet Alloy Rear Swaybar Trailing mounts Billet Alloy Servo Savers on Both Throttle/Brake & Steering Billet Alloy Rear Trailing Arms FID Tomahawk Wheels Etc Etc The List just goes On & On Show Me ANY other car that comes like that out of the box these days, that doesnt cost you the price of a small country So how have all these thing's stood up to the testing? Well I have to say, pretty much faultlessly on the whole Have I broke it? Hell yeah, of course I have But it's had plenty of Abuse, and the bits I have managed to break, would have, and Have broken on my other stuff way before, and miles easier than they have done on the hammer in the last 5 months So what have I managed to break so far during testing, Well I've broke a Front Steering Hub (plastic part) I broke it right on the thinnist bit where the bolt goes through, Rear shock bottom (Plastic Part) Now this broke as a result of some stupid jumping tests, and broke because a lower swaybar link came off, allowing the shock to extend to far (shock limiting Cables Now also Fitted) Rear SwayBar Lower Ball end (Plastic Part) Front Upper Turnbuckle Ball End (Plastic Part) This Happend after a Poor 1 wheel landing on the Front, Also In VERY cold conditions, which I wanted to test the plastic in Ive also have a Bearing fail on the Front Diff case that the Pinion sits on So All told, Very little really Especially from a Brand New Truck, and a Truck that's this companies First And a Completly New Style of truck to boot It's an AMAZING Truck I've had it out in Mud, Sand, Dirt, Gravel, Even Snow Racing, other 5th scales, Baja, Losi's X2's and it beats most, especially in the handling stakes Off-Road, along side other stuff, it out shines them all day long, and does it all with ease, it just Soaks up ANYTHING thrown at it, all day long Jumps, Flys Great, and handles them all great, You do need to jump it differently than other stuff, as the axle likes to absorbe the jump, but can kick the backside up after the jump making it nose dive, but it's very easy to learn to jump it Right Now I have been testing this straight out of the box as it comes, And as such I didn't change anything, so I could give an Honest report on how it goes, an feels out of the box for Everyone an it's Extremely impressive That's not to say that you can't do tweaks to further improve the ride and handling, but as it comes, it's Great straight away It does like to do the Tripod, Lift a front wheel look that many of the real life trucks like this tend to do, but that can be tamed down and tuned out if wanted I ran it totally stock for the first 2 months And then decided to do a strip down & service, and do a Diff set-up while I was at it Upon stripping it down, you do then really find out just how good this truck is, and just how HIGH SPECCED it really is, Even the little small thing's like how the rear axle is made, and how the drive works, and the little touches like there is metal plates to screw into instead of just screwing into plastic ( I will add Pictures of it Stripped Down) It's also incredibly easy to work on, and to Service, The Whole rear axle can be taken off with 4 bolts, two on the trailing arms, two on the rear links, you dont need to faff about with removing loads of other bits, it then there ready to work on, Removing the Front diff case is equally as easy, you undo the bumper, pop off the sway bars, then undo 4 bolts off the fron plate and it allows you to remove the whole front diff case and driveshaft The engine can be removed by 5 Bolts, one on top into the clutch housing, and the four engine plates, then the engine is out and sat on the bench ( one extra bolt if you're using the perfomance pipe) So after getting it all strippind down for checking and serviceing I decided to do all 3 diffs with Fresh Silicon Diff oil ( they were All already filled with silicon oils) I have chosen to go for 75k Front 300k Center 10k Rear And this seems like a nice set up so far But This is running the Zenoah G290 I have plans to put in my Zenoah G340, so I may end up changing these to slightly Higher, but time and driving will tell Radio gear wise On the Steering I have been running with a Savox SV-0235, 35kg on the steering, and that's provong to be MORE than plenty, theres no real need to run anything bigger, as the steering is very light an responsive as it is, so you don't need any of these Mega expensive HUGE servo's just to do your steering, The Savox fit in to the tray perfectly, but if you wanted to fit the smaller sized Hitec's, then you could do that with the adaptor plates available for that The Throttle is using the Stock 25kg that came with it, and that's been fine, the throttle is on a Cable set up (also a new idea) and that makes it very easy to pull the throttle, The Brakes are so Strong that ive had to dial them down as if you really slammed on, you could sit the truck on it's Nose So again, it's more than enough for the throttle and brake, an a Savox would fit on the space available There is a Volt meter included in the lid of the battery tray ( you need a Y-splitter) and a stock sized 6 cell battery fits in with space to spare, The Receiver box is a generous size for your receiver and killswitch to fit in, with room to spare, My only gripe is that the exits for the servo leads are right at the bottom against the chassis, so it can allow some muck in ( I have blocked to holes with some foam) It's a really enjoyable Truck all round It's Great fun to Drive Has AMAZING off-road Handaling, far more than anything else on the market yet It's great on the loose as much as it is in the mud, very easy to drift about on the gravel, and faultless in the really tough stuff EXTREMLY well specc'ed up straight out of the Box, and the build quailty on the parts is Top Notch Best of all It is coming in at a very good Price Anyone wanting this spec of truck is already likely to either have theri own engine and radio gear, or have a personal choice as to what they would like to use in it They will be released by Rcmodelz into the UK at £849 as a roller Which for this level of spec & Truck is simply amazing So a Huge THANKS to RcModelz for the opportunity Here's a Bunch of photo's for your enjoyment

The wheel's Mount totally differently to anything that's about But are miles stronger for it too, They totally clamp the wheel center's, Not just the size of a hex nut ;) But yes it's easy enough to switch back to a 24mm hex if you really wanted to :) There IS a Brushless version already in development :) And will be released by mid year I believe :) Thanks Nick :) Still hard at it ;)

You would think so wouldn't you :) But there is a reason 'Real Life' 'King of Hammers' Truck's work so well & do it all with ease and so fast ;) But in total honesty it is hard to wrap your head around it, it's almost better to try it for yourself :) And you're more than welcome to come and give it a good going over an test it in whatever situation you fancied :) A lot of it does come down to the shear amount of travel & articulation you can get with this set up, It'll twist & move to take up anything thrown at it :) I think the Vekta is a great looking bit of kit :) Although it looks better 'Dressed' than 'Undressed' if you follow my meaning, It seems rather strange looking with the body off somehow :\ But I'm with you on the car front :D When we Started the Baja forum UK all we had was Baja's :P I then had my MCD's, 5ive's But now thing's are changing ;) And it's Exciting to see some new directions instead of the same basic 'Chassis with arms & shocks' hanging off each corner, Which if we're honest, they are all pretty much along those lines :-) So to change tack and look much more towards the 'REAL SCALE' stuff is a nice branching off in a different direction :)

So that's why they increased their prices. Raising cash to buy HPI. Glad it's just the European arm, for now. Are Traxxarse aiming to be the "Biggest Name In RC" as well as "The Fastest"?????

Found out that my gardens to small for a 1/8 buggy. With a small jump, tiny build up and half throttle it traveled the best part of 65ft into the patio wall, luckily nothing broke.

This is so counter intuitive. IRS has to be better over rough terrain than a live axle.... That axle, even 4 linked will tramp about all over the place....

Took the summit errr mean the kids to the lake today.

My little swarm of insects:

A bit more done on the Dually, bull bars on, front grill finished and trying out a different set of rims Nearly ready for a paint job

Hold your horses there Ant...

Credit to @.AJ. and @capri-boy for the Facebook updates! They've been excellent!

Great write up and pics Mark, looks awesome.

It dwarves the DBXL! Agree with Mond, a BL version would be awesome.

Next is FID's Performance Exhaust, And This Alone is a SUPERBLY well thought out and Made bit of kit ( this is a optional part, NOT included) Test Fitment to the exhaust Test Fitment to the exhaust

If you have room under the shell, why not sink it into the rear bed so it looks a little less tall? looks awesome though mate

Decided to sell my trophy truggy I've had it for almost two years and in that time I've only ran just over 1 gallon of fuel . Its in good condition with the usual scrapes to the chassis ,body etc . The engine has very good /strong compression and was run in properly .I reset the carb to factory settings and. started the engine today ,it idles nicely but is running very rich and will need tuning for peak performance. includes a glow start and charger I can't find the manual but it is available online for free Hpi 2.4ghz radio with waterproof servos £145 posted please note the 6v battery and charger is not included. Thanks

Er, no vids? Didn't happen! Thems the rules.

I Know I watch nearly every stage I'm not talking about Desert Terrain But like I say Bud Feel Free to pop and have a Blast Give it a go yourself, That's the Best way to get a feel for what I mean, and how well it really goes

Not sure I'd agree with that Mate... I think the Vekta looks better. I've had my deposit down for about 'a year' already! Getting VERY bored waiting.... Will get one of the FIDDDDSSSS and scratch the itch, who knows, this could be the one! I had 7 Baja's when I bought my first 5ive. Other than the not so fast 'speed' project, I've got zero Baja now and five Losi 5ives... I wonder where I will be in another 4years?

I've had it up against quite a few of them Sean :) And it certainly holds it's own, An on a rougher track, they struggle to keep up as these really do Soak up the rough stuff :) But it's all 'Horses for Course's' And I don't think it's for Everyone, an that's fine :) Wouldn't it be boring if we all liked the very same stuff :) Your Spot on :) It really does make a Great addition to the scene And takes it in new directions :) It's also opened up my running area's locally, As there are places I can't take on X2 or Baja, But I can throw this out and thrash it about all day long without a worry :) That said, if I want to run on the normal area's with the current stuff it's equally at home, As it is on the gravel car parks when we got flooded out of our bash area's over this winter :) Where ever you take it you'll not fail to enjoy yourself :)

I decided out of boredom and feeling experimental to give this a run today on a set up I haven't used before. To my amazement, it ran great for over an hour and the only reason we stopped was we needed the shop on the way back before it closed... Anyway, I had the electrics sat here so decided to give it a try. I'm running a HobbyWing Quicrun 1060, Axial 27t motor, 2s LiPo (typically ran 3s, which ate motors after minutes) with 87/20 gearing, I may move to an 80t spur just for a little added wheelspeed, it's lacking slightly in reverse, which isn't a big deal but a spur is cheap and should fix it. But I definitely have some options with regards to gearing as the motor wasn't even warm, I didn't fully test it to it's limit, that will be done at Williamson Park which is a lot harder on the motors than where we went today, but for the moment, it's staying put! Here's a few pictures, sorry some are a bit bright, they're just taken on my phone. EDIT; I'll post the pictures when someone finally gets round to fixing this stupid Forum!

its one of them shells that needs to be done that way I think the non dually one on the other hand not so much I really must stop looking at this build I want one soooo much

are you going for a mean p***ed off look ? because that's what Im getting from looking at these pics and the colour choice specially with the wheel

Go big or go home!! I'm in the process of gathering all the bits for a 1m tall kossel with a duet powered board. I'm hoping for around a 500mm build height - I probably should have just done this in the first place but never mind Have half of it and other half in the post still. How's it printing Baorevo? They have a serious cool factor built in.

Make the hole a touch too small with the Dremel then knife and file to suit the box. i would score your outline though so you know where to keep the disc

Doing some research it looks like the build I want to attempt is a go to build for racing MTs in the US so examples are plenty. Almost none of them run stock Axial transmissions, axle housings or axles though which pushes the price up. At least I know I shouldn't get a Wraith kit roller since all I'll keep is the HD gears. HD gears, beef tubes, aluminium lockouts, drive shafts etc. appear to be a must. Looks like a good summer project.

Hey !!! been a long time since the thread has budged !! wheres every1 at ? just got a new printer i wanted a delta for a long time so when i saw the kossel mini at the right price i had to get one

The date is mid may the container leaves china on 4th April and takes approx 45 days to land and clear customs.

Pretty sure that engine has a little spring-loaded pin in the end of the crank-pin that can wear and pop out. http://www.modelsport.co.uk/hpi-starting-pin-pressure-spring/rc-car-products/370737Listed for G3.0 engine, but I'm pretty sure its the same as the 2.5. Take the back plate off and have a look. Be careful not to lose the spring or pin as they are small and can "fly". If you replace them, make sure the old ones are accounted for, as they will make a mess of your engine if left in floating about.

Amortek tank? Lands end to John O'Groats?

I hope not! Perhaps it's time for a challenger though? The 5ive still rocks!

I have moved to a 990 on my G320 after using the stock 1107 for ages and I've noticed an increase in top end RPM with the 990.

Awesome Mark..... Has the official release date been confirmed yet? This should also silence the critics who have questioned it's quality because of where in the world it's been designed and built.

Some lovely parts on that. Good write up bud

I ordered my DBXL fitted with these, from RC-Cars Germany. Did not know then that they were copies. Then got the original Hostiles with 5imian wheels, as a matter of principle because don't want to suppport copying. But I must say, they are much lighter and perform and seem to wear as well as Hostiles, except they have slightly less grip on tarmac.

Good to see you back on here Mark Great review and set of pictures

That thing looks awesome Fast and hard

Great review

Impressive car and the roller price is very reasonable. Just need that brushless version... What's with the wheel hubs? Does it have the option to mount standard 24mm hubs?

Now for the Broken Bit's Ive done along the way during testing Front Lower Hole on the Steering Hub Carrier Rear Lower Ball end On the Swaybar Drop Link (The Breakage of this is what allowed the Rear shock to extend to far and break the plastic shock end) Rear Shock End ( Plastic) Front Upper Turnbuckle Ball End (Plastic) It Was Also Extremely cold that day (-1 All day) Front Pinion Bearing Failure

I was going to say it's not complete without an over section but then noticed the great big path built on the last pic lol. I like the cans on a rope obstacle that shake and wobble as you go over them. Or just a tight rope it looks ace when people complete those sections faultless. I'm thankful to the shoddy water pipes and lazy land lord leaving a heaving pile of mud in our garden my daughter can drive over. She's just started to fully control her scx10 well forwards and steering but controlled power finally. Not just punch it and laugh as it bounces from wall to wall lol.

Hi mate and welcome aboard! What you've got id say is a decent truck for your son to start out with yes as long as he doesn't bash it too hard, a reasonable number have had or do have them so can give you advice Hop ups wise I'm assuming your kid will want shiny alloy however usually it's not the best as it transfers stress to a different part, where plastic bends and bends back, alu will generally not and could transfer it to a more expensive part to replace! However it can also be good to solve a recurring breakage or apply some bling to certain parts just not arms haha Modelsport may stock some however I don't know personally You can go as high as you like with battery mah as long as it'll fit in the car, guessing it's nimh still? Lipo is the more modern tech and gives more speed due to slightly higher voltage but mostly due to less weight.. hobbyking is the place to go for batteries if you do go lipo In terms of charger hobbyking is good once again, look for something capable of 5a+ and also 80w+ (sorry the name of the highly recommended charger available at modelsport slips my memory but someone will pop up with it soon!!) Big thing with charger is make sure it can charge lipo even if you don't use them yet as if you happen to get other models you may end up needing to be able to charge them Run time improvements can be achieved by a mild brushless system (esc +motor) as they are more efficient, this will also increase performance Runtime can also be increased by a higher mah battery as you've already gone for, and as previously mentioned going to lipo will help both too

Exactly what Gaz said, just sink it down a bit, you could even make the bit at the bottom the bit that opens up so your lid never opens by accident or comes off, also, you could make the underneath bigger, as in wider and longer, to fit your receiver and everything inside. It'd still look like a nice scale toolbox to the outside world

Ok not updated this in a while but this tank has now gone and a new one in its place Meet my Red Sea Reefer 425XL ( 420L ) reef tank. And a video. So now you all know why RC has taken a back seat for now even tho i still have my Apache c1

Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers? Sent from my Galaxy S5 Neo

This is true

Its the Northwest RC club testing on there behalf i believe

Not had a slash yet but just had a big drink so may need to soon..... [emoji14] Sorry I couldn't resist. I do like the loom of the traxxas slash but I've got a blitz flux at the mo. May get a slash 4x4 at some point.