Finally some legal offroading in Central New Jersey!

I finally took the old Trailrunner out this morning. I went to one of my favorite spots, NJ Devils Way. There's a new log blocking one of the main trails, but you can get around it. I just hit the spots I usually go to. It was really hard to go up the sandy hill alongside the river. It was so dry and sandy. I almost had to give up. I also tried putting some ARB lights on the bumper. It was a test setup with silicone earplugs. I might install the nuts and bolts to make the setup permanent. These lights are a lot better than the stock lights. Branches would get up into those lights and wreak havoc. One of the wires even broke off. The ARB lights go up higher, so they should be insulated better from branches.

 

I just went there, but I went there again, it was another NJ Devils Way trip! I went to a new area this time that was not such a great idea to go to since it was thick with plant life and didn't go anywhere interesting, but it was challenging.

 

Holy crap, it was hot today. When I was done, my 4Runner said it was 111 degrees. That went down as I drove it to 95 degrees, but it was still hot! I didn't get a chance to go out last weekend even though the weather was nice, so I just had to get out today. I went to Kennedy Park. The big hill is more difficult to get up and pretty much impossible to get down since there's growth on it now that we're in the summer. I went into the back woods and had a good time there. The IFS rod ends popped three times. One time it popped just in the thick grass. Maybe it's a heat thing because it didn't happen all winter, but I'm getting kind of tired of these rod ends popping so much. I need to look into doing something about them.

 

Mini Z, Big Adventure! I put Yeah Racing skid plates on my Mini Z 4Runner yesterday and took it out to the rocks in my back yard as well as a little bit of the surrounding area. The skid plates are wasting no time getting scuffed up!

 

Yesterday was really fun. I met up with a new friend from the NJ Scale Offroad Facebook group and went to NJ Devils Way. He's in the middle of moving so things are hard to find. He brought a couple trucks but couldn't find batteries. I didn't have any batteries for his trucks, so I brought both my Trailrunner and my Mini Z 4Runner. Both him and his son enjoyed the Mini Z a whole lot. We traded controllers around and had a great time. I unfortunately didn't take any photos, but the two of them spent a lot of time driving my Mini Z on the trails. We were all very surprised by how capable it was. It did very, very well.

I went to Raritan Bay Waterfront Park this morning for some beach fun. I was hoping to go all the way down to the south end of the beach, but everything's too grown to get as far as I wanted. I spent some more time on the north end and tried some rock stuff. I unfortunately popped a lower arm a couple times on the rocks, but it held together otherwise. I still need to do something more permanent about these rod ends. I also may have finally hit the limit of my big 3S lipo. It seemed to have run out of juice as I was heading back. I hope that's all it was. It's possible that's what happened. I didn't charge it again after yesterday's outing. I'll have to test it out after it dries off.

 

I went to Ireland Brook today. I got lost in the woods. I found a road off a trail and walked back to where I parked along the road. Still a good hike, but I'm pooped

 

I've been dealing with the lower arms of the IFS falling apart on my Enduro Trailrunner for the past while. They're held together by a metal ball stud and a plastic rod end. The original rod ends held together for almost a year, but then they started going. I got a pack of replacement rod ends, but they weren't holding together so great. Either the pack of rod ends was no good or the metal ball studs wore down. However it actually went, I was having problems, and it was ruining my RC outings. I got some hardware from the hardware store to try some things. It turns out the simplest thing I tried first appeared to work the best. You can use a 4mm nut and bolt. The length of the nut isn't so important as long as it's not too short. You're going to want to have a little bit coming down in the end after you cut off the excess. Disassemble the suspension and remove the CV axle. Remove the ball stud and put the bolt downwards into the hole of the steering knuckle. Reinsert the CV axle and get it into assembled position. Then put the bolt into the rod end of the lower arm. Use a bit of thread lock on the bolt where the nut's going to rest, and put the nut on. Putting the nut on requires finesse. You don't want it too tight or too loose. Try a few positions before you leave the thing alone to let the thread lock set. After the thread lock sets, take a dremel and cut off the excess part of the bolt hanging down below the nut. This will keep your tire from rubbing on it while it's squished. Then do this all over again on the other side.

I went to NJ Devils Way this morning to test it out, and it went very well. I had nothing to worry about. It stayed together like it was new. the nut and bit of bolt does hang lower than the original ball stud/rod end combination, but it's a small price to pay for much better durability. And it's so far over to the side that the tires are going to be negating the extra bit of stuff hanging lower anyway.

Potential drawbacks to this include the following: The ball stud and rod end on the upper arm may be more prone to being popped apart now. Sometimes you get a branch between the arms and the CV axle, and the bottom would always torque itself apart. It was always the bottom that torqued apart. Performing the same modification on the upper rod end may be appropriate to mitigate potential future separation. There's a similar setup for the steering linkage near the upper arm, but that's probably at far less risk for popping apart than the upper arm. The rod ends themselves may also break apart under the extra stress. Replacing the rod ends with something sturdier like metal rod ends may be an appropriate fix. Other plastic parts further down the line may be increasingly affected by modifications, so that's a concern. Also, once the nut and bolt modification gets performed, the most practical way to access the CV axle becomes removing the skid plate and the pins that hold in the lower arms. The pins will have to be removed while letting the lower arms swing out to allow for further accessibility. However, the area of the CV axle only becomes a point of concern when major failure occurs like bearing failure or front differential failure. Should the CV axle itself fail, it will potentially snap in such a way that three or even two wheel drive in the rear will still be possible. All in all, I believe the simple nut and bolt modification will prove to be a benefit to the durability of the Enduro IFS system. I will be continuing to put this modification to the test when taking my Trailrunner out.

 

My lower arm modification seems to be working great. I went to Walter D. Faith Memorial Field today, and it did fine on all the rocky gravel and anything else I threw at it. I even got stuck in some grass in a deep puddle, and nothing popped apart when I had grass torqued around the axles. I'm very happy with my Trailrunner right now.

I also saw a Nissan Skyline R32 on my way to the place. Nice!




And here's a video: https://www.flickr.com/photos/69205803@N04/51456386099/in/photostream/

 

I did some Enduro Trailrunner stuff at Kennedy Park today. It was fun! The hill is pretty much inaccessible now with all the growth on it. I'll have to try it again in the winter. There's still plenty to do there, though. I didn't even do it all, and I was there for nearly two hours.

 

Looks like a few good trips.

 

4R mini-z. Not sure if the mods will be available separately?https://www.towerhobbies.com/product/mini-z-4x4-4-runner-with-roof-rack-rtr-sand/KYO32524SY.html

 

I have one of those. It's surprisingly capable on real trails where I take my 1/10th scale. It's hard to recommend, though. From what I've seen of the Axial SCX24 trucks, they're way better performance for way better price.

My Trailrunner's out of commission for the moment. I'm in the middle of repairs and upgrades. I've been focusing on the Mini Z cars lately. I got a RWD last month. The Trailrunner will be back in action in a few weeks at the latest.

 

The Mini-Z’s are fun to race. Just takes a small track. I got 1st place one time, because my friend’s transponder wasn’t working properly.
My nephew’s Bday was today and he is sleeping with his new R/C car!!!

 

I got a few scx24. Added a lot of weight very nice for the price
Added a stronger servo and moved the factory receiver and battery around
Under $300 each but loads of fun
During covid last year i built whit claw mountain and my daughter and i had a blast crawling up and down..wife eventually reclaimed the space…rip white claw mountain

 

They are. The Hobby Shop in Aberdeen, NJ usually has a Mini Z track set up, and I've been spending a lot of time there lately. I want to enter my RWD into the Sunday races when they start them again.

Ooh, happy birthday to your nephew! What kind of car did he get?

 

Awesome crawling track! Too bad you couldn't get your daughter to convince your wife to leave it up

 

I thought I wasn't going to run my Trailrunner for a few more weeks, but I got its repairs and upgrades done ahead of schedule. It now has a fresh pinion and spur gear. I went with stock parts, but the pinion actually looks different from what the truck originally came with. I also got a different motor. The stock motor got some extra life out of it with the WD40 trick, but I decided to get ahead of any potential future failures and swap it with something close to the stock motor but is fully rebuildable. It appears there's some exposed stuff on the end that faces the front of the truck, so we'll see how long that lasts. However, if I'm able to more effectively clean it by being able to take it apart then it should be a good upgrade. Finally, I got some M3 hex cap screws and M3 lock washers that I had to special order from Fastenal for mounting the motor. It originally came with allen key head screws, and I always strip those things. I couldn't get the stock motor tight enough after cleaning it, and I lost gear mesh and stripped the original spur. These new hex cap screws and lock washers let me get the motor mounted up really securely. I'm hoping this lasts a long, long time. I gave the gear mesh the paper measurement trick, and everything was fine, so I should be good to go!

Today's outing was Julian Capik Nature Preserve in Sayreville, NJ. I went in through the back route, but it was challenging. The brush really grows in thick over the summer. At one point I had to pick up my Trailrunner and wade through the brush. It was up to my nipples! I was out for a couple hours, and everything was fine. The truck held up to everything I threw at it. There were no signs of gear mesh slippage. My front end stayed together with the lower arm modification I made last summer. Twigs got into the IFS a couple times and seized things up, but nothing popped or grinded. One time a twig even got stuck in there, the truck came to a stop, and the twig got snapped as it exerted force on the twig and moved forward while a piece of the twig went flying out the side. Nice!

 

Under thirty bucks got there in a day from Amazon.

 

I’m eyeing the Tamiya Frog, just because I had one when I was little. I actually did a science project on MPH. I timed it at full speed for twenty feet. It averaged twenty MPH.
I may pre-order this buggy. The lights work.https://www.towerhobbies.com/product/110-rc-wild-one-off-roader-blockhead-motors/TAM58695.html
They remind me of my full-sized Sand Rail!

 

Your nephew's looks like fun. See how long it lasts

That Wild One also looks cool. Have you ever built one?

I'm thinking about getting a buggy myself. I don't know if I want to get a Mini Z buggy or something bigger.

 

Here’s some of my R/Cs, Mini-Z is put up. Hopefully nobody will steal them someone already took my brand new car show chair I used it one time.

 

Mini-Z shells..

 

Nice collection! I especially like that Ferrari on the right. I have a couple of the F355 Challenge Autoscale shells myself. I opened one, and it's amazing. I'll probably never actually run it on an RC chassis, but I like it!

 

I recently got my spare tire attached to the tire carrier of my Knight Customs rear bumper. I used an M4x30mm hex cap screw I got from Home Depot, drilled out a hole straight through the mount, and melted the plastic around the screw as I was pushing it into the back while getting the screw hot with my soldering iron.

It originally was set up to drill a couple holes in the body and then put an additional mount that'll clip on with a body clip to help stabilize the spare tire. However, I didn't want to have to drill into the body. I decided to try a couple magnets instead. I glued one inside the body and another one onto the outer half of the mount that clips into the spare tire carrier. The magnets seem to be holding on okay. I gave the thing a try at NJ Devils Way this morning, and the spare tire wasn't flopping around. It's obvious there's a magnet there if you look close enough. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it yet. I gave thought to putting a smaller magnet on the outer mount, but I'd rather not mess with what I've got too much. I might just paint the visible portion of the magnet black to help it blend in. Up to this point, though, I'd say this is a successful experiment. It doesn't seem to affect the truck very much, and I've got s spare with me that I can pop on if I ever tear up a tire on fishing wire or something. I think I'm going to eventually put some stiffer springs in the back to compensate for the extra weight, but everything's okay right now.

 

I got my Enduro Trailrunner reworked with a new Fire body and a whole bunch of stuff going on under the hood. I did a single layer of the drywall tape and shoe goo reinforcement. I may do more, but I don't want to add a whole lot more weight up top. The shoe goo was really sticky, but it's interesting when it's dry. It still retains flexibility. When gluing the spare tire holder magnet into the inside of the body this time, I only used shoe goo. I glued it first directly contacting the drywall tape and existing shoe goo, and then I gave the magnet a covering of shoe goo. I'm hoping this stays in one spot now. I also redid the placement of the outer magnet. You can barely see it now. All of the hard plastic body accessories got glued in place except for the front grill which never needed gluing. I finally got the rear fender flare modified to go with the rear bumper, too. This is probably the nicest this body is ever going to look. I can't wait to take it outside!

 

Here is my Element Enduro Ecto. I painted and patina’ed the body. RC4WD deep dish wagon wheels wrapped with RC4WD Interco IROK tires.

 

Your Ecto looks awesome! It looks like it's ready to conquer the world.

 

I did a short run at NJ Devils Way this morning with my newly improved Trailrunner. New body, new accessories, new shoe goo, new rear springs. I'm happy with everything so far. The springs are helping out the rear end. I got the stiffest ones Element offered. The leaves are making things difficult this time of year. I got stuck due to the leaves a couple times.

 

I took my Trailrunner out for its first non-test drive since getting everything set up the way I want it. I think I'm finally done mucking with this truck. It's exactly what I want it to be. Everything's working well. It performed great in the fall weather. This is one of the hardest times of the year to do this stuff because so many things you'd rather avoid are being obscured by all of the leaves on the ground, but my Trailrunner still did great. I'm very happy with it.

 

Happy Thanksgiving! I took my Trailrunner to Raritan Bay Waterfront Park this morning. It got some scratches from the rocks on the shore.