Shergar

Who knew Beatties sold computers?

Is it perspective or is the TRX4 Defender that much bigger than the DC1?

I’m trying a new direction in CVD lubrication - gun oil CLP. Will is stick lubricate and prevent rust? Who knows but I will soon find out! This was quite interesting:

That looks like a really useless box 😉

Squander the £12 on a gold membership!

Finished my servicing my old crawler, regressed axles, chucked a few new bearings in, changed damper oil, fitted some Traxxas props and gave it a good scrub. It really won’t die 😁

Wheel nuts!

Try this, currently £73 on Amazon, I have 3 now. Works well with arthritic hands, (and I’m only 47!) very comfortable to use, has end point adjustment only. 8 channels - I’m running a Tamiya Tipper with a MFC-03 off one so plenty flexible. Battery last ages too. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Carson-8Kanal-MC-8-MX-F-4GHz/dp/B0859VN7GK/ref=sr_1_1?crid=PSZMC600LJAA&keywords=Mc-8+ko+propo&qid=1652010030&sprefix=mc-8+ko+propo%2Caps%2C50&sr=8-1

People do this to break in new motors to rinse the carbon out as the new brushes bed in - some say 👍 some say 👎 however in my case I soaked the motor in bearing cleaner then dunked it to get rid if the many trips where I’d totally submerged the motor in swamps 😇 Then I let it drip dry and bearing cleaned it after, finally giving the bush and bearing a drop of oil for lubricating. Surprisingly pleased with the insides here, but the two large bearings for the propshaft outputs are toast - they run pretty free, but the side to side slop is fairly noticeable. 10x15x8 is the size if you own one of these RGT/FTX/Maverick/China gearboxes, spend a couple of quid at RC bearing on some rubber sealed ones and a matching shim each side. Everything else was good to go after re-grease. Sadly the gearbox case gave up the ghost and split whilst tightening, but I have a spare (again cheap to keep if you run these). I might change the propshaft like I meant too in the first place next!

Gave the motor a treat whilst I’m replacing the prop, best open the gearbox up next….

They really are excellent, quick too! I appreciate you giving me the tip off 👍

Im sure one of these would be a better bet than a bangood special if cash is limited? https://www.modelsport.co.uk/electric/models/corally?&sort=PriceLow

The best damm boat I’ve ever seen 🤣

So you may be aware from this thread I purchased the cheapest TRX4 sport kit - the one with fixed spool differentials and a single speed gearbox - because thats the specification I wanted, well nearly wanted. The truth is I actually wanted the high low ratio gearbox, so after a recommendation on here I ordered one from Jennys in the US to drop in it (quite cheaply too, cheaper than buying the conversion kit all shipped). Now below you can barley tell the difference between this bag of bits and the assembled beauty. https://jennysrc.com/collections/trx-4-defender/products/copy-of-trx-4-tactical-unit-transmission-spur-slipper-clutch-linkage-traxxas-82066-4?variant=7065300926518 Now the 2 speed was an unused (but brand new) RTR take off part and was pretty smooth free running. So obvioulsy I cracked it open to mess with it needlessly 😁 It did come with the 45 tooth spur though so I ordered a 9T motor pinion to drop the gearing as low as I could. If you want to know more, Harley has a very good video 👍 What you would find inside, ample grease and very fine tolerances, though don’t lose those shims when you pry it about. Now because I implicitly trust the internet, rumours persist some of the smaller rubber shielded bearings run free-er with the shields off, but going one better for about £3 I replaced all 3 dinky 5x8x2.5 bearings with new unshielded ones from RCbearings. This decision I might learn to regret if I go swamping with it (flip side If I kill the bearings with fluid, I’ve probably rinsed all the grease out the gearbox too, so its still knackered). The rest I squeezed some machine oil in on both sides of the rubber shielding just incase anything was dry. Everything got reassembled with fancy blue Vanquish grease (it seems nice, tacky rather than greasy, it might be crap!) with a little smeared round the seals of the 3 main pieces and finished off with stainless fixings. No grease on the shifter, I left that dry but did add the tiniest littlest dab of silicon on the chrome pin/rubber gasket interface. Next I intended to build my caveman differential-less axle next, however this seemed disturbing: Like I said this is intended to be my nice swamp avoiding rig (sure it will get wet but I don’t intend to submerge it) however I thought I could do better than a rubber plug and an evil E clip to plug the hole for where the diff lock cable would route. Part of me thinks in the end the E clip will slice the rubber and release the bung backwards into the axle casing. So I rummaged for the instant gasket and plugged the holes, pumping in from the inside (you get quite a deep seal). Tomorrow I find out if its good enough to stay put, if not the heath robinson plug goes in when the axles are bodged, sorry built.

These rigs really seem awkward to pick wheels and tyres for, but you have really nailed it there 👍

Would carbon tube upper links be too weak?

Tried 3S today - that was a rather bigger surprise than I expected 🤣 I bought a shorty pack for my newTRX4 build and decided to test drive it using the indestructible* high quality* FTX/Maverick drivetrain…. All was going very well for a good half hour until I noticed my traction wasn’t quite what it had been minutes earlier…. The snap below with stationary front wheels illustrates this quite obviously 🤣 However turns out a 2WD trial truck is quite enjoyable yet surprisingly difficult to keep moving without getting stuck. Strangely enough it still crawled hard packed inclines pretty well, but was useless in obstacles or logs as you can see! Luckily my fears of fitting another far eastern ‘machined from cheese’ diff were unfounded - but I might need a new propshaft, 3rd or 4th one on the front of this truck. Doesn’t matter what quality I try my driving kills them, so I stick the cheapest in 😇 As a foot note the Holmes didn’t get hot at all on 3S, even though it desperately needs some love!

I need to try some subliminal brainwashing here 😉

Don’t listen to them, pick the front rims - though I have set exactly the same built here so I might be biased 🤣

Spent far to long doing some beadlocks - therapeutic but so time consuming!

I’m really intrigued to know how it performs too, how long till it gets its first test?

Try this stuff, same idea, this is over gtechniq ceramic (and the car lives outside). https://www.slimsdetailing.co.uk/collections/carpro/products/carpro-elixir-high-gloss-quick-detailer

I normally use blue loctite myself, but im using the red Tamiya truck gel because I might want to split these 👍

No wonder your raving 😂

Finally started building the TRX-4 😁 Made a start on the wheels…. I’m keeping the Canyon trails and the foams they came with (which foamwise might bite me in the backside - who knows) and the ugly but incredibly tuff plastic rims now live in the spares draw. Instead I’m trying these unashamedly IP ripped off Injora beadlocks. Open up the foam lined box and there pretty good, bar a few tiny nicks and quite sharp edged centre ring that I gently deburred, but the paint finish is good and the screws nipped up nicely. At about £35 delivered you really cant argue. I did however use red not blue threadlock so they will come apart again, just in case, or more likely because I’ve decided to change the foams. Very eagle eyed might have spotted I did blast the black beadlock rings with Tamiya flat clear acrylic, to take the gloss off them. Being strange I then sealed the lot with Autoglym extra gloss protection sealant - previous experience has shown that wheels rinse off much easier, but these really have a nice depth of alloy shine to them, yeah I know loopy 🤣 Anyway heres how they ended up - 3 more to do now…..