Danzzz88

Ok after watching the turtle plate install it seems you must remove the plastic washer from the brake hex... Well my hex is one of the alloy ones with the washer built in so I know what the problem is now. The only question on my mind now though us does that mean the Turtle top plate also acts as a stopper for the discs sliding off the hex? In that case another stupid design choice, why wpuld I want my brake rotors slowly grinding away at my expensive turtle top plate? This car gets more ridiculous the further I get along with the build.. XD

That's good to know the play in and out is normal, maybe the hex is too big or the layshaft is bent somehow even though it's new, as it only binds at half a revolution so that suggests the layshaft is either bent or hex is drilled off centre. Tbh this whole car is an absolute pita, literally nothing lines up or fits without modification, granted my build is 90% aftetmarket but having to loosen 15 bolts at a time that are threadlocked in order to get all the parts mesh together properly without binding or filing stuff down to fix fitment issues is a nightmare on something so big and heavy. The way it is designed is ridiculous, literally everything is tied to everything else so if you thread lock one section down and it is a few 10ths of a mm out by the time you get to another part the holes don't line up and you have to loosen the entire rear ends bolts breaking the threadlock again. Also does anyone have a better solution for the crappy tiny diff case screws too, they are so easy to strip after threadlocking, luckily I got them out with an extractor but wondered as I'm running grease in the diff if I can leave them out or if there is a better solution or something else that fits rather than the specific HPI ones? Cheers

So after putting my turtle top plate on it's contacting the brake hex causing binding, the brake hex is a one piece alloy Area rc one.. I saw one other post on another forum where they mentioned bimding with the Turtle top plate...why is this and what is the fix? Also is it normal that the layshaft has play in it inwards and outwards, I don't mean the side to side olay or the missing bearing issue but play in and out of the transmission case.

I took a hammer to it literally , it fits now 😂 But my days this car is a pain to work on. I've been using light threadlock on alloy parts hoping it won't rattle itself to bits, but I'm stripping heads left right and centre when I'm having to undo bits I've already built because I haven't undone them in so long.

So it seems the Turtle top plate does not mate to the Turtle transmission case, the tolerances are off. It's funny how all the expensive American hop ups I have bought have all had fitment issues. The chinese parts I have bought or RcMax engine are spot on precise. So now I'm left with nearly £200 of tranny case, top plate and one piece brake mount that doean't bloody fit all made by the same manufacturer Turtle racing, incredible

Oh my days I hate the Baja platform, I've not even finished building it and it makes me sick the amount I have spent on it already, everything Turtle racing, FLM, RcMax engine ect ect. Whoever designed this car was a complete moron. Granted I'm using mostly after market parts bit the crap design and way in which you have to undo like 20 bolts or remove parts you have already assembled just to fit the next part because the tolerances are all over the show and the design is awkward to work on is beyond a joke.. There literally hasn't been a single part I have not had issues fitting for one readon or another. Take for the example the rear top plate, I just go and spend £60 on some RCR brakes for two discs of steel and some diddy bits of copper which is a joke in itself and then get to the stage I want to mount the tranny plate. Oh no I can't because the bloody turtle top plate won't squeeze in when the rear tower braces are in place, ok I'l have to unscrew that and nudge it out the way a little. Next now it's out the way the friggin plate still doesn't fit, it's lining up with everything but the notch on the transmission housing so I can't clip it into place. I have noticed nothing but issues like this thtough the entire build, I don't know if it stems from my Modified RC chassis plate having rubbish tolerances (yes binding in the a A arms and fiddling around with 10 screws to get it lined up n all that). Half the partd are made with like 100th of a mm of tolerance and so when things are off nothing lines up or will clip into place, so you resort to dismantling half of what you have built to try rectify it, this combined with the ridiculoys cost and trying to fiddle like this with something weighing nearly 20kg is the worst decision I have ever made. If I could sell it at 85% completion I would, I don't want to dismantle the crap again into 100 parts and try and sell them individually on Ebay, I wanted to get it built and have fun with it but it's literally the worst rc and investment I have ever made. Wish I bought an MCD, if it's anything like my XRAY XB8 that car is utter perfection in build quality and fitment. Sorry I needed to let off some steam. Rant over lol.

Was gonna convert my recently purchased xb8 19 into a gtxe after I realised 8s and an xlx doesn't fit under the buggy bodyshell properly. That was until I discovered a fair few parts including the chassis plate is different even on the 19 model. At least they haven't gonna the blingy orange, carbon and bronze steel route like the T series and RX8 though cos I would be drooling over it, guess the new XB8 will be similar so feel I grabbed a steal getting my XB8 for £400. Anyone considering an Xray though get one, the quality of parts really is on another level, even though these kits in just black and silver don't look as blingy as something like a TLR, in person the craftmanship, quality of plastics and just little details in the way things are put together is very clever and as tough an rc as you will find. Plus if you get one from an Ebay retailer like I did from Australia, even after the customs duty I still saved myself £200 than if I bought from the UK.

Have for sale an RCMAX titanium bigbore pipe. Has been installed and car has been run at idle a few times to bed in the engine but pipe is still basically like new aside from the obvious oil build up that may be inside. Car hasn't been run other than at idle so exhaust temps haven't got high enough to show any signs of discoloration on the header or pipe yet. Selling simply as I need a smaller pipe to fit in my cages properly and concerned it could melt them. A great looking and sounding pipe that cost £400. Looking between £200-250 for it if anyone is interested?

So that night I posted on here, I decided to order the tsk 1 kit from Rcmax...guess that makes up for me buying the SX5 from China for 130 quid . Anyway they both arrived today. Both cages are a damn tight squeeze around the rcmax pipe, annoyingly the SX5 more so which I have to say I think looks way cooler than the tsk b at least without body panels. Was worried about how it would hold up to the exhaust heat so have started her up and let it idle with a few blips of throttle here and there and the only bits the exhaust is touching that are melting are the team chase shock tower supports, the potential clone cage doesn't appear affected by the heat whatsoever so far.

Hi mate, not too sure it's a clone as such, believe the factory that produces them for Kraken must be selling the cages aswell but without the extra bits, still a bit naughty I know, but it was pay either £130 for that then buy the other bits seperate or pay 450 dollars before customs and tax to import one from DDM. Far too much considering I'm yet to see if it will fit with my Rcmax and pipe combo and especially given that we can no longer get spare parts or body panels for it anymore. Have always wanted one though... I'm torn between clones aswell. On one hand it's killing off the major companies but at the same time we are not getting ripped off paying like £40 for a bit of plastic that cost pennies to produce. The clones have got a lot more people into 5th scales I think so ironically are keeping the hobby alive, hopefully will cause the major brands to keep innovating and coming out with new kits.. having said that most of my car isn't original hpi anyway apart from the bulkheads and a few plastic bits most of it is turtle racing, irc, kraken, flm ect anyway that I've assembled from scratch without ever purchasing a kit. Would have been good of Kraken to announce they have dicontinued their products and tell everyone they aren't supplying parts though, at least with hpi you can still gt hold of parts for a number of years after, hell it's even possible to find parts for the old rs4's. Nice vid though, make sure you look after that body and cage, if I manage to get hold of all the bits I need I will be keeping it is a shelf queen, too nice to mess up and not be able to fix!!

Beautiful build mate. Have to say I've had nothing but bad luck with my build, so many complications but it's starting to come along. Thing is I just managed to order a Kraken SX5 cage off aliexpress, only issue is it doesn't come with the mounting hardware like the front skid plate or bunper, I tgought this wouldn't be an issue as hpi sell a mounting kit and thought I can buy the body seperately... Well guess what no one has stock of any replacement parts anywhere in the world so I thought I would message Kraken asking about spare parts only for them to tell me this kit is discontinued and if I wanted the bit buy a new kit as ddm still has the full kit in stock. Bare in mind they weren't aware where I got the cage from, as far as they were concerned I needed a new bumper and maybe some body panels. Absolutlely disgusting level of after sales support if you ask me, to suddenly cease production after they have also collaborated with hpi to use these conversions on their rtr's and then to cease producing spare parts immedietly given how much these conversion kits cost. I certainly won't be buying any Kraken vehicles knowing they operate like that.. such a shame as their rollcage conversions are beautiful and was really looking forward to building my own SX5...

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!!

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!

Now active on Ebay, £950 starting price. No reserve. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/303131901520

Baja mate