Nitroholic

Ahh..the K&N air-filter. As a long time motorcyclist brought up on a diet of ratty old jap fours, I have had more than my fair share of fun with these beauties. Enough to know I wouldn't want one on a buggy! They don't filter out the dust and grit unless you get an oiled type...then they clog up really quickly. They are also virtually impossible to clean and re-use. If used dry, they allow more air to flow through which would tend to lean off the mixture. Fine if you can tune to suit, but with the limited amount of tuning available on a nitro engines carb, it will always be a compromise between pick up and top end. Both my buggies run oiled foam filters...one a single layer one...the other has a second outer layer. Judging from the fact that they need a good clean after every run, I wouldn't run with anything else. A K&N with a chrome end may look shiny....but when you think of the revs these engines run at, getting grit and dust in will ruin an engine in no time at all. On top of that, I would think the air filter is probably one of the most likely reasons for your motor to be running lean. If you have just fitted the filter, I would swap back and see if the trouble goes away. If not, check it for damage or holes etc.

Looking at the details on that Hyper 7 with the .28Cu motor, that is a lot of buggy for the money, and should go well. The tuned .21 is for those who want to go racing in competition, but would be a bit more temperamental in 'ordinary' use. Though I don't own a HoBoa buggy myself, there are lots here who do, so you should have no probelm getting advice on setup etc. Also, there seems to be a decent spares backup for them too. VERY important for a first buggy. If I wasn't saving my pennies up for a HPI Baja, I might be tempted to add this to my shopping list for next summer

The failsafe should only cut in when the signal is lost to the receiver. When that happens, the failsafe should be set to kill the throttle and return the engine to idel, plus apply the brakes. That has happened in your test ... but more because the thing got confused! If you have normal control and turn off the transmitter, the failsafe should activate and close off throttle and apply brakes. Nothing else should cause that to happen. Double check everything is connected properly and that you have followed the failsafe setup instructions carefully.

Looking at the spec of the buggy, it's a cheap buggy...but you pretty much always get what you pay for! The radio kit that gets supplied with it will be of low quality ( The one Nitrotek include is a low cost 27Mhz AM job ) and the whole thing is advertising 'features' like a single needle carb for ease of tuning ( read: impossible to tune it to run well ) and things like a '2.5mm aluminium chassis ...(read: at least 25% too thin to be any good on the rough ) Aluminium suspension arms ( read: what would you EXPECT them to be made of? cheese? Hit a bump or a jump and they take a beating) and so on. If all you want to do is trundle round the local park, then it will probably be OK. Try to do more and I can see it breaking into little tiny pieces quite a lot. To be honest, buying cheap will not be the best introduction to the hobby and whilst I fully understand that money is hard to come by these days, you really want to get the most from the thing for as long as possible. Look to spend about

If you are looking for a starter buggy, you could do a lot worse than an XTM XT2 ... it was my first buggy, and still gives me hours of fun. Spares are easy to get and the thing is pretty robust and tolerant of novices. The engine started and ran out of the box, and with a .247 motor, it's plenty quick enough. Realistically, expect to pay a little over

Thanks for the help and advice folks! One Spektrum DS3.0 with bonus free receiver is on it's way and due to arrive some time next week For the price, the deal is as good as the lower priced kit, and all the reviews rate Spektrum as good quality trouble free kit. This works out as cheap as buying an Ansmann or Acom kit plus an extra receiver, and whilst the basic DX3.0 doesn't have all the fancy features and telemetry etc. for a general bit of thrashing and bashing, it's more than good enough for me. I'm no serious racer! The benefits of 2.4Ghz plus built in failsafe means I will have no more glitching and some free space in the RX compartment too!

Hmm...I understand Spektrum kit is one of the well thought of RX/TX makers.... and I found this with the help of my old friend 'google': http://www.lstshop.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=2875&osCsid=bde753dbcb3d3bf8b20c653d96deb9ea If they have stock, then this could be the best bet. 1 TX, 2 RX all in one hit. From what I can gather, there is a more fancy featured model out, which would make this either old stock or low end for Spektrum, but it's the quality of the radio I want more than anything else. If they are out, then I think the Ansmann will be the one I get. Now to talk sweetly to the wife about spending money we can't afford and how I might actually get around to doing some of those household jobs I keep putting off in my extreme happiness at owning some lovely new RC toys

If you return it to stock settings and it STILL won't run, then there is a problem somewhere else that tuning just isn't going to solve. If the motor is running lean, then the most likely problem is an air leak somewhere. Check all the fuel pipes are well xonnected and nothing is leaking. Make sure the exhaust is properly attached and that the air filter is on properly and the connections are properly sealed. As has been mentioned above, a buggy on stock settings out of the box is usually set up to be a 'safe' runner, just not optimised for power. Mind you....the stock settings as listed in the manual isn't always what you get on the buggy. I have had idle screws setup with no gap at all from the factory right through to wide enough open to cause 'issues' if the wheels had been on the ground.... Carefully wind the HSN in all the way, and then back it off the specified number of turns to get your baseline, check the idle leaves about 1mm opening on a closed throttle and put the LSN to stock the same way. Don't trust it to have been right out of the box. Then look for a physical issue. I must admit, if there is a quantity of raw fuel building up in the exhaust, that is not a good sign. There will always be a small quantity of unburnt fuel coming out, but not much.

A while back I picked up a Thunder Tiger ST1 for silly money, after it had sat at the back of the shop unloved and unwanted. It's a great Truggy, and runs well...but the radio that came with it is shocking kit. It is very glitch prone, and hates running with a failsafe fitted. All the kit 'works' just not when it's all put into the ST1. So, no refund there from the shop ( they're actually pretty helpful overall, so I don't blame them really! ) So, what to do. I want to replace the cruddy 27Mhz AM radio with something good....but cheap. The budget is around £100 and I am windering what you guys would recommend. I have seen cheap 2.4Ghz kit from ACOM and Ansmann on Modelsport that comes into that price range, but are they worth it? Would I be better off getting a better quality FM unit? The XTM buggy came with a pretty fair FM TX/RX unit that has never given trouble. It's just the ST1 that seems marginal. Sometimes it's fine, others the failsafe cuts in every few seconds and the thing kangaroos like a crazy thing. I am not keen on running it without the failsafe, though, as it's a pretty quick mover! I also want to be able to get a second RX unit to put in my XTM XT2 to cut down on the number of TX's I have knocking about the place.... the damn things breed and eat batteries, so having 1 unit I can use with both cars would be ideal. Any thoughts?