BigGinge

The putty was fairly easy to mix and put on the part but I’ve not done a trial fit to check the suspension arms still fit properly yet. So there may be some filing/sanding needed to finish once it’s had a chance to cure fully (72 hrs apparently 😢). While I had it all apart I worked out I should be able to use some 12mm long screws to mount the diff housing to the chassis plate in place of the original 8mm ones, so long as I use some slightly shorter (8mm vs 10mm) screws to attach the suspension mounting blocks. Hopefully this means the screws will still get a good purchase on the original plastic of the diff housing and the epoxy putty won’t be the only thing holding it all together. Hopefully the new screws will have turned up by the time it has fully cured.

Next step was to give it a good clean in the sink with some degreaser and a final wipe down with some IPA to make sure it was nice and clean. I then trimmed off the damaged bits of plastic so that only sound parts are left behind and found something to plug the screw holes while I apply the putty so I don’t have to bother drilling it out later. Turns out a paper cotton bud stem is just the right size for plugging these particular holes.

The epoxy putty (that I ordered on Thursday with next day delivery) finally turned up last night so I’ve taken a crack at this today. 1st step was to get the bottom diff housing off for a proper look.

For reference this is how I had mine when it was picking up chassis roll and then how it is now I’ve “fixed” it (I still haven’t check it’s working properly as it’s dinner time for the kids).

Given that at least two of us have gotten it wrong in the last week I would guess/hope it isn't. But I suspect that as long as the sensor is the right way up (in my case I think I need the label on the top) then I think it should be ok once calibrated no matter which edge you have pointing at the front of the car. EDIT: I'm pretty sure you can reverse the steering/throttle direction on mine from the transmitter if it isn't steering in the direction you want in use.

I had something similar with mine list week. Took the car out for the 1st time with the new electrics in (including the new gyro receiver) and was saddened to not be able to make out any difference between it being turned on or off. After investigating more when I got home I realised that I'd mounted my receiver "vertically", so it was using body roll as the input to correct the steering (it may well have been back to front too). Anyway my new roll of double sided tape has turned up now so I can try and fix that mistake at some point and go try again.

Having just gotten into RC this sort of thing has been driving med mad. Why can’t manufacturers just tell us the diameter and width for all the different wheels and tyres like every other tyre manufacturer (even Lego) rather than just saying something cryptic like 2.2 buggy rear? Iv’e resorted to keeping a spreadsheet with know wheel sizes in it for when I want to buy a new set but there isn’t a lot in it so far and it’s been a pain tracking down the information I do have.

Getting it here for his birthday sounds like it should take priority. The tracer parts should fit straight into the SG 1602 though as they are the same car, just with different branding; Same for the abisma and the Q901/902/903.

One thing I forgot, if you do pick up one of these from Banggood or AliExpress have a look out for the bundles with the extra batteries as they are pretty handy to have with the stock parts being a fairly non standard size.

If you can cope with the slightly longer shipping time it might be worth you having a look at the SG 1602 on Banggood/AliExpress as these are the same car as the FTC tracer but you can get one running a brushless motor right off the bat for a bit more money that the tracer goes for. https://www.quadifyrc.com/rccarreviews/sg-1601-sg1602-brushless-rc-truck-long-term-use-update The Q903 is another option that might be worth looking at, this is the generic base model for the abysma 1/16 truggy racer but with a brushless motor set up. I picked one of the Q901 variants of thse (different body shell) up for our five year old at Christmas and it has done remarkably well so far. The stock friction shocks on it were pretty useless a d quick to seize up but you can get replacement oil filled ones pretty cheaply. Otherwise all it’s needed in the last few months is a new universal drive joint for one of the front arms after one of the originals got bent (still haven’t tried straightening it but imagine that won’t be too hard) despite being driven full speed into quite a few immovable objects. The high/low speed switch on the controller has come in quite handy too. https://banggood.app.link/SqJHAjd8Ygb

Thinking about this a bit more has anyone ever tried using epoxy resin to cast a reinforced section around an existing plastic part with some careful mould forming around the damaged area? Probably quite a bit trickier to do than the putty option but might get a better join with the existing plastic?

So it seems that I may have done slightly more than make my little XLF F16 buggy dirty when I took it out yesterday. I think I may have been mistaken when I thought I’d gotten away with clipping a fence post as I notice today that the front arms weren’t quite as straight as they should be. Slightly closer inspections shows that I’ve torn the front diff casing away from two mounting screws. I looks like it is possible to buy replacement housings but as these will be coming from China they might take up to two months to arrive which seems like a long time to be without the car. I was therefore wondering if I can do anything to repair the part I have to keep me going until then. The current plan would be to give the broken part a good clean and decrease before building up the damaged area with some epoxy repair putty. I can then drill out the mounting holes using the car base plate as a template to get me back to what will hopefully be a usable part. As I’ve not done this sort of thing before I was wondering if anyone here can tell me if this is likely to work (or ruin the part completely) or if there is a better/stronger/cleaner way of doing this sort of thing?

Took the newly brushless F16 out for a bash and added a lot of dust to it today(it was so clean last night 😢). I can’t quite believe how big the difference is with the new motor and electronics, it’s like driving a whole new car. So much faster and much more composed, presumably because it’s dropped a big chunk of weight when getting did if the old 550 motor. I even stuck in a 3S pack (which I’d not done with the brushed setup) which made it into a right handful on the dusty track I was on. Anyway, turns out those two packs loosened off quite a few screws, including the ones holding the shocks at the top of the towers where I think I may have killed the plastic retaining nuts . So the screws have all been tightened and I’ve ordered some lock nuts for the shocks to the towers. Will try and get out again tomorrow and see if anything else falls off.

Today the little XLF F16 got treated to a replacement rear diff and drive gear, a brushless conversion and a full set of replacement electronics (including a new transmitter). Still need to finalise the placement of the receiver, esc and wiring but think it’s nearly there now. Just need some daylight to give it a proper run to test it out. And yes, I know it needs a new wing too.

I checked in with them recently about a truggy kit order and they said that, all being well on the delivery front (which I guess is definitely not guaranteed these days), they are expecting a big order in from LC Racing around the end of June/start of July. Fingers crossed they will all be here soon.

I have had some stuff turn up that quickly but it seems a bit hit or miss depending on the postage method any given seller goes with.

@MrCake I got them from a seller on AliExpress, took about three to four weeks to turn up just a shame they didn’t ship the whole order. They have quite a few kits/rtr models listed but I’m going to wait for DMS to get their stock in (hopefully in a few weeks now) given how well they did with the wheels.

My order of LC racing monster truck wheels and bumper for the planned truggy build turned up today. Only slight issue is someone seems to have gotten confused by the order being for two sets of wheels and has just sent me one set of two wheels instead. 🤦‍♀️

If you don’t mind building up a kit you could get a LC Racing LC12B1 pro buggy kit from DMS that has everything you’d need in it bar a receiver and a battery. So should be a good place to drop your own in. Only slight issue is it doesn’t look like there is any stock just now; they might turn up at the same time as the EMB-TGHK that I’m looking to get though which will hopefully be towards the start of July. https://www.dms-racing.com/models/models---all-types---off-road/lc-racing---lc12-b1---1-12th-scale-4wd-mini-pro-unassembled-buggy-kit---with-servo-esc-and-motor-detail There is a non pro version of the kit that costs a bit (£45) less but it doesn’t come with a motor or esc. It does look like it’s in stock though.

Ok, I think I’ve made a decision after spending some more time reading up on the models listed above. I think the reflex 14T and the two mini 8ight models are probably slightly inferior to the EMB models so I think that rules them out for me. From what I’ve seen of the EMB options the truggy is probably the better driver (even if it doesn’t look quite so good); it is also available as a kit and can be fitted with the bumpers and wheels/tyres from the Monster truck. So I think from this lot that is what I would go with. From the other camp we have the Erevo and summit which are variations on a theme (which is struggle to choose from without driving) and the savage. The two traxxas trucks don’t look like they quite match up to the savage XS flux in terms of size (and probably power) so that rules them out. This then just leaves the savage XS and the EMB truggy. If I was simply buying a RTR unit to get straight out with I think I’d probably go with the savage but because I’d quite like to build something up myself I think for now I’ll go with the EMB truggy kit. Just have to wait for stock to turn up now. 🙁

Just to clarify, the space shortage is for storage not running. The garden is far too small to run anything other than the little 1/18th crawler so we always head out somewhere with plenty of space to run the other cars.

Thanks for the pointers. Having a look about on Modelsport I can probably add the following to my list of potentials; quite a few aren't monster trucks but might still work as a decent small basher that might be better than what I have now. For some reason I'm not sure I can bring myself to go for one of the Tamiya models, I just get the feeling that they won't take too kindly to being sent of jumps and that they would need a lot of upgrades to get them up to the same level as most of the other models here (at the very least a new set of oil filled shocks and ball bearings). Guess I need to go and do lots more reading now to try and work out how this lot compare. LC Racing EMB-MT LC Racing EMB-TG HPI Savage XS Flux VGJR/Chevrolet El Camino Team Associated Reflex 14T Losi Mini 8ight-t 1/14 ( is this the one that struggled on grass?) Losi Mini 8ight DB 1/14 Traxxas 1/16 E-Revo VXL Traxxas 1/16 Summit

Hi, I'm relatively new to the hobby (and to the forum) and I've been looking around to see if I can find something fairly specific for my next model purchase. For now we don't have a huge amount of spare space at home (I blame the kids but my wife may have other ideas) so I was hoping I might be able to find something that I can take out bashing that doesn't take up quite as much space as a 1/10 or bigger truck. I would much rather be buying a proper car than another toy like machine, so that I can get a decent step up in performance, durability and spare part availability (it will likely end up in the keen but dangerous hands of out five year old at some point) but haven't seem much out there other than the 1/10 or bigger models. I currently have some lightly modified Q901 and XLF F16 cars which are a nice size and aren't to bad in use but I have been struggling with the durability of some parts and am getting slightly worried about being able to get replacements for certain items if/when they get broken. So far I've found the LC Racing EMB series of cars and have had my eye on their MT and Truggy variants as potential purchases. I'm currently leaning towards the truggy with a few of the MT parts bolted on (bumpers and wheels/tyres) but as I'm still very new to the game I would appreciate if anyone here could point me towards anything else that would be worth considering. If at all possible it would be nice to be able to buy in kit form (I like building things) but I would be happy to consider a RTR model if that will get me a better set up, even if it needs a few upgrades to get there.