Radio Control! RC trucks, cars, planes, boats, whatever tickles your pickle!

I had a shorter but brisk 90+ degree Fahrenheit outing with my TRX4 Bronco today. Not much to say about the outing, but I think the motor is on its last legs. It was smoking like crazy when I first started it up, but it still ran. I think it's a bit slower now, but it still ran. I think it's time to be preventive and replace the motor before I go out with the Bronco next time.







Off topic, but I stopped by Main Street Comics before doing RC truck stuff. They recently renovated and expanded the store. Check out the art on the front window!

 

Played around with my RadioLink A560. Pretty fun little plane, I will post some pics tomorrow

 

It's been way too rainy for outdoor fun lately, so I did some maintenance on my 1/10 scale RC trucks.

I installed my Hobbywing QuicRun Fusion 1800kv two in one brushless motor/ESC into my Enduro Trailrunner. That turned into a whole big thing. My receiver didn't survive the changing of the motor/ESC (it was being problematic already), so I had to install my spare receiver. Thank goodness I bought one along with the QuicRun. Everything works now, though things might be a bit too slow for my liking with the stock pinion gear. I might install a bigger one. The QuicRun motor is something else. I turned the hill hold feature to the maximum, and the ability for it to hold in place is truly outrageous. I still have to rebuild the front shocks, but I'll save that for the future. I already have new o-rings from HPI which are supposed to be a lot better than the stock o-rings. I don't think it was that long since I rebuilt my front shocks, and the new but original brand o-rings I installed must have begun leaking. I've heard that's a problem and going with HPI o-rings helps.

I also moved the Holmes Hobbies Crawlmaster motor that was in my Trailrunner into my Traxxas TRX4 2021 Ford Bronco. Remember the stock motor started smoking very badly a couple weeks ago. I'm keeping the Bronco as a brushed system for now. The install was easy with Traxxas's mounting plate system, and everything tested fine so far.

I'm looking forward to taking these trucks out after work if the rain holds off long enough for me to do some testing at NJ Devils Way.

 

https://youtu.be/t3duz5KGyaM

 

Today's RC outing was weird. I finally did my testing with my Bronco and my Trailrunner.

I started with my Bronco. The Holmes Hobbies motor that was in my Trailrunner is doing a good job in the Bronco. I like it. There's not a lot to say about it. What there is to say is that I started having a steering problem at one point. I guess it's a radio problem. I hope it's a radio problem. I hope it's not a servo problem. I'll have to try to pop a cheap servo in its place and see if the same problem persists. The steering stopped being responsive and then would just turn left and right at random. It doesn't feel like the servo's got damaged gears. I can still turn the wheels to move the servo manually without issue.

I then moved onto my Trailrunner. This was the maiden voyage of the Hobbywing QuicRun Fusion 1800kv motor. This started out strange. It was going slow which is what I expected. I found it to be 2S territory even though I run 3S. Then it started going slower. Then it stopped. It looks like it went into thermal lockdown. I took it back to my 4Runner and had a look. The sticker on the motor was melting from the heat, and the motor mount plate was steaming hot. In order to work while letting the motor cool some, I barely managed to remove the spur gear. I then ran a motor recalibration. That seemed to fix the motor, and I began getting better speed out of it. I guess the motor had a bad calibration previously and was applying way too much torque all the time, and now it's applying less torque until it detects that it needs it. Since it got so hot earlier, I didn't know if I should trust it, so I beat the heck out of it. I ran it fast and hard. I would never trust it again if it didn't hold up to such an intense test soon after overheating. It seemed to work fine. For about a half hour, I gave it heck. I also did some slow speed stuff. The motor seems kind of twitchy but not in a bad way. Just a different way than I'm used to. I have maximum drag brake force on, but I think there was an option for how immediately the drag brake gets applied. I think I should turn that setting down a bit because I think that's maxed out, too. Anyway, things were going well until I drove off into some unknown brush under a fallen log that I couldn't see past, and I torqued the front end on one side completely apart at the rod ends. I've been thinking about looking into metal rod ends since this happens sometimes. I don't care how bad of an idea it would be. I hear about people using the plastic spur gear as the intentional weak link. My trucks have never had that be the weak link, and replacing rod ends would be a royal pain on the trail with the redneck engineering I have going on with my steering knuckles. More experimentation will have to be done.

Things are a bit different here at NJ Devils Way compared to the last time I went through it. One of the recent storms must've caused a massive branch to drop because there's a new obstacle at the south end of the railroad track ruins. Nothing stays the same.

I'm not sure if I'm going to make it out tomorrow morning with two broken trucks. I have two so I can take the other out if one of them is broken. Meh. At least I didn't lose the IFS drive cup. I lost one of those in the brush in upstate New York one time.

 

Learning to fly my mini2 camera drone.

 

Well, the TRX4 Bronco's steering problems have sorted themselves out. I don't know. I think I'm going to go in the transmitter during the week and check whatever solder joints there might be with the potentiometer for the steering wheel. I got home yesterday, and everything was fine. Against my better judgement, I took it out for a couple hours this morning, and I had no problems with the steering. It was overall just a nice time out. I found that some of the tape that was covering the vent holes on the wheels has gone missing, so I hope my tire foams aren't going to break down. I should look into anti-foams. I hear they're good. In the meantime, I should try Shoe-Goo in place of the tape. I also went down this one trail I saw for the first time last time but didn't take it then. It was a fun little downhill thing, but that's about all it was. Little and downhill. It fed me back to one of the main trails pretty quickly.

 

The RCs have taken a back seat since I got my 4R, but they were happy to pose for a family photo.

 

Losi Nightcrawler and Traxxas Slash 4x4 (on Mohave tires).

 

I had serious problems with the IFS breaking again last Sunday. The Hobbywing QuicRun Fusion brushless motor/ESC combo has irresponsible amounts of torque. I decided to try mitigating this by reintroducing the weak point to the IFS by undoing my redneck engineering mod. It's now purely rod ends and ball studs. I went with a new pack of Element rod ends this time, but I may take some Traxxas Revo rod ends and shave them down to fit in the future. We'll see.

I don't have much faith in the Element rod ends, so to help relieve some stress on that front, I got a spare receiver box and put it where the brushed motor ESC was. I tossed a bunch of spare parts in there. Rod ends, an IFS outdrive, an IFS upper arm mount, a couple extra wheel nuts, and a few cheap plastic Traxxas wheel hexes and (more importantly) the little pins for the wheel hexes.

I also got a mini Vise Grip to help replace faulty rod ends on the trail. Look at it! It's so tiny in my hand! It slips into my tool kit. It might be making it difficult to velcro shut, but I'll see how it goes.

I'm also going to look into mounting a spare spur gear and maybe an extra IFS CV axle somewhere on the chassis. I might be taking my Trailrunner to a trail in New England later this year, so I want to get it as prepped as I can.

 

Hobbywing Hobbywanged my outing today. I'm done with the QuicRun brushless combo yada yada yada. I've had so many problems with it. I'm sure the motor's at fault. I pulled the spur gear, and the motor still wasn't rotating. The rest of my Trailrunner is rolling smooth as butter. I'm going to prep my Bronco's wheels with new tape. It looks like the foams are still decent. They must've not taken on water after the old tape gave way. After I get my Bronco put back together, I'm going to take it out this afternoon. I've still got a lot of charge left on these batteries.

 

So, I went back to Julian L. Capik Nature Preserve with my TRX4 2021 Bronco this afternoon. It performed great. My recently installed but not new (was previously in my Trailrunner) Holmes Hobbies crawlmaster brushed motor is the bee's knees. My radio system is functioning fine. Steering is fine. I put new tape over the vent holes on the wheels. The tires and foams are fine. It was just a fine afternoon.

 

Today was another TRX4 Bronco day. I went for the six mile hike at Jamesburg Park Conservation Area today. The Bronco held up just fine. I survived. I stopped for a couple water breaks. The bugs weren't too terrible, but they were swarming. My feet and ankles are feeling the miles.

 

I took my Enduro Trailrunner to John A. Phillips Nature Preserve today. It was its outing with the newly installed Holmes Hobbies Crawlmaster brushed motor and the restockified IFS. The new motor is staying. The restockified IFS is going. It popped way too much today. I've really got to wonder if my stock ballstuds wore down in the first year I used them. Those things are expensive to replace, so I'm bringing back my redneck engineering. It should be OK with the brushed motor. I think it only broke in that situation once while it broke with the brushless motor almost every time I used it. Speaking of breaking, the rear driveshaft broke, but to be fair it broke while I was being dumb, and it lasted a very long time anyway. Despite the breakage, it took a long time for things to break, so it was overall still a good outing. I'm also glad the driveshaft broke when it did because now I can put something brand new in before I take it to New England. Overall, today's outing was nice. The bugs weren't too bad. The scenery was nice. Even the burned-out areas seem to be growing back with new growth.

 

I gave the Enduro Trailrunner a bit of an easier test run at Frost Woods today. One of the upper control arms actually broke, but I wasn't surprised. I thought it might happen. I took it back home, fixed it up, and went back out in the afternoon. Everything's holding together well. I think I'm going to replace at least the right rear tire. I already replaced the fronts yesterday, and the left rear seems OK, but I might replace that, too. For a test run, I did give the Trailrunner a workout. I avoided the mud, but that's about the worst I avoided. I also added the lower control arm skid plates yesterday. I wish they extended a bit more towards the steering knuckles, but they seem to be helping to prevent things from getting caught between the control arms and the CV axles. Yeah, I'm losing a bit of ground clearance, but it's a tradeoff I'm willing to make.

 

I'm back in New Jersey! I was going to take my Enduro Trailrunner to Massachusetts last month, but it didn't work out. I did go out for a little while this afternoon. It's perhaps a good thing I didn't take the Trailrunner to Massachusetts and instead did other things up there. The front driveshaft broke about a half hour into the outing today. It's not too surprising, but still. I hear MIP driveshafts are good. Maybe I should give them a look. Anyway, I was doing candlepin bowling for two hours in Massachusetts without any breaks, and my legs were sore this week! I'm starting to feel better. I went to NJ Devils Way to do an easy outing. Things were going fine until the driveshaft broke. Oh well. I already put in a spare Element Enduro stock driveshaft I harvested from my parts truck. That was fun. I'm ready for a bigger outing tomorrow. Of course, my audio/video receiver died last night. I should be getting the replacement tomorrow. This is an eventful holiday weekend, so I don't know exactly how much I'm going to get out on the trails tomorrow.

I'm also pretty happy with the Artful Dodgers skid plates for the IFS1.

 

I took my Trailrunner to John A. Phillips Preserve today. I did a rather large loop around the place, though not the longest way around. The Trailrunner performed great. The new front driveshaft is OK, though I think it could benefit from a bit more lube to help keep it from squeaking. Not a big deal. I was able to drive over most obstacles and didn't get stuck at all. It wasn't too hot, and it wasn't too buggy. The new front skid plates are still working pretty well. I did get a large twig between the opening in one of the lower control arm skid plates and the wheel, though. At least it didn't really keep things from working before I pulled the twig out. I also spent a little time working on my throttle exponentials. Forward and reverse are handling pretty well. Steering seems to be working well, too. I actually sorted out the end points on the steering last month. Tomorrow's going to be a Bronco day in the heat and humidity!!!

 

Dang, I don't remember seeing anything about rain. I took the Bronco out for a little while then it started raining. Oh well. I don't know if I'm going to try again later.

 

I went back out with my Bronco this afternoon. It was a nice outing. It was hot, but it didn't seem as humid as it was supposed to be. I went back to Walter D. Faith Memorial Field and putzed around all over the place there. I climbed up hills and everything. There were even a couple ATVs there. It's not legal in NJ, but I won't say anything if you don't say anything. It was mostly dry, but there was a little bit of water puddling up in some of the sand on the trails. It smelled like building a sandcastle at the beach.

 

After last weekend was a rainout, I took my Trailrunner to Julian L. Capik Nature Preserve today. It was a fun time. The truck held up nicely. I like it in this configuration.

 

So its taken 3 months but the initial trailer build out is done.

Its a 2018 6x10 V-nose box trailer that I picked up used for a very nice price. I stripped the interior, insulated it, painted it, carpeted the floor, built cabinets up front, added 300watts of solar and a 24v/100Ah lithium deep cycle battery to run RC chargers and an inverter. Also built shelves to hold 3 giant scale planes on the left leaving enough space for more + the RC cars on the floor. Also thing of some folding shelves for helicopters.

It started ~950lb dry and is probably around 1500-1600 loaded. I added electric brakes and a Redarc TowPro to the 4R and its tows relatively easy and stops like its not even there. I'm very happy with it.

 

NICE! Brings back memories. Never had anything quite that nice but flew a Chip Hyde Double Vision for a while.

Those wheel hold-downs are cool.

 

3S?

 

I wanted "brushless" and I dont feel like bringing my RC10GT back from the grave.

 

Pro-Circuit Kawasaki?

 

Someone just burned their house down here. Dont leave charging batteries unattened!

 

Reminds me of my millionaire friend. He said use "Forty Gallons of Diesel"?

 

Just a brush fire.
Im thinking about spraying grass killer out to make a dirt track.