mikobg

So to revive an oldish topic, i finally upgraded the Tamiya with new ESC and a Brushless motor.... which unsurprisingly killed the gears in about 5 minutes of "soft" run time. The question now is, is there any place where I can find ready metal replacements, since I can only find original plastic ones, which would be killed quickly again? The tires do rotate when in the air, but don't when on the ground, so i assume (will disassemble tonight to check) that the gear teeth have worn out due to the high friction of the new motor power.. 😄 P.S. It was an extremely fun 5 minute run!

It is a no-brand Chinese one. It does say TiankongRC on it, but i take that as a no-brand :D.

So the new oil shocks are installed and definitely improved the stance quite a bit. @BaldyMan was indeed right and the front ones are quite bigger than expected, but they still fit even though they are bending the front end a bit inwards.. which might not be that bad. Overall with the new shocks handling feels improved and the whole car has more ground clearance! The new servo has arrived too! Unfortunately, I just tested it out and although it works fine, it is very very slow to react. Increasing turning angle takes ages, changing directions even more! It's a 35T servo, is the T the cause or is it just a cheap servo hence the slowness?

Good to know! I am aware LiPoss are around us (lol) already, but i read way too much about the RC LiPos catching fire... good to know they are fine under normal usage 🙂. Also thanks for the link there! I indeed ordered from China as one would expect, will see what turns up hopefully soon! From what I've seen so far, the Mad Bull is completely crazy on a brushless LiPo setup to the point where it is also completely unusable! 😄 But I'd certainly give it a go soon! Might make a post here with the upgrades 🙂 On a separate topic, I also went ahead and ordered my first ever crawler - Axion SCX24! Will see how we get on with that too. 🙂

It is the 540 old school motor indeed! Thank you for the numbers and the finned grooves tip - very helpful. I will note these down and source some parts soon enough. 🙂 Still a bit afraid of the LiPos (in terms of storage/charging/using), but will probably go for it anyway.

Thanks for the reply! I can't wait to see the difference with the oil shocks really. 🙂 I was also afraid the driveline won't hold up if I go too crazy with a brushless/LiPo setup. Good to know NiMh/brushless is not worth it so I might give a LiPo/brushed (current one) a go until it goes and then go for a brushless upgrade altogether! Not too fussed to keep the original motor running anyways. I will probably be on the lookout for a 13T or so brushless or would that be too much for the Mad Bull still? I'm not sure what number to look for if I want to actually feel the difference with a brushless motor.

Hello everyone! My first post here so I hope you forgive my newbie questions.. 😄 I am aware there are topics on various subjects and I read through, but I want to make sure i go for the correct things. So, long story short I have a 1/10 Tamiya Mad Bull, which is completely stock and genuine with the exception of the ugly paint job i gave it a few years back in hopes of covering the scratches and whatnot on the body. Lately, I felt the car very slow and sluggish and thought the motor/ESC or something is on its way out. While trying to figure out what's wrong with it, I noticed the rear wheels (active ones) are spinning separately from the tyres.. I read a bit and this seemed common and people are gluing their tyres to their wheels - so I did that and was pleasantly surprised to see the Tamiya nimble again! However, I still feel it can do with an upgrade here and there. For one thing the front suspension goes really low especially when reversing and then it doesn't properly go back up again and the whole car becomes very wobbly. I suspect the springs are old enough and unable to bring the front back up. So i ordered a set of oil shocks to upgrade both the front and rear in hopes this becomes much better in handling. Additionally, I have been reading up on brushless motors and LiPo batteries, both of which sound like a good upgrade to me. I am aware a brushless motor will also need the ESC and servo upgraded, which I don't mind doing, but I am completely lost on what to order and what would actually make sense for this RC. Is it even worth going for LiPo or can I stick to NiMh batteries with a brushless motor? I prefer avoiding the whole fiasco with charging/discharging LiPo batteries if possible. Any advice and suggestions are very welcome! Here's a photo of the 2 models I have (1 is pretty basic Chinese thing, but still fun to use!)