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

I went out for a brief outing with the TRX4 Bronco today. I didn't feel like going out for a big outing today, but that's fine because there are places that are great for small outings. It's been a while since I went to NJ Devils Way, so I went there today. I mostly stuck to the main trail network. I went forwards, backwards, all around for maybe a bit less than an hour. I didn't just go for distance. I also tried climbing some interesting terrain. My batteries are charged for tomorrow. I think I'm going to go out tomorrow morning and go the distance.

 

Don’t forget toilet paper?

 

It's funny because I had to poop while I was out yesterday.

 

Today's Traxxas TRX4 Bronco outing was a very sweaty one. It wasn't nearly as cold as it was yesterday, but I thought it was going to be that cold. I ended up overdressing. I was fine, though. The outing was very good, too. I did the big loop of Jamesburg Park Conservation Area before the section of the trails that goes on for miles more. I actually did a slightly smaller more interior loop, but it was effectively the same distance as the biggest loop. The alternative trail I took was interesting with lots of branches that I had to work around. There were some good hill climbs there, too. I got the Bronco up a really high one. I also briefly checked out the slightly out of the way water crossing. I also saw the random sidewalks in the woods. I don't know what's up with that. Anyway, it was a fun outing.

 

What’s that underbrush in the first pic? Blueberries? Cause that would be awesome there’s only one spot I have seen them that has not been burned.

 

Looks like leaves and wood.

 

https://youtu.be/OsARMRnj95A

Just watched this one. Cool looking truck but that seems a bit pricey haha. I will stick with my TRX-4 haha. I have not played with to much Axial yet

 

Well, wait until summer and check out same spot. I would like to know.

 

I went to Julian L. Capik Nature Preserve with my Enduro Trailrunner today. I had no weird sounds despite locking up the drivetrain a couple times, so I bet that time at Cattus Island that I had the weird sound was one section of spur gear that got worn down. One of today's drivetrain lockings even deformed the tire a little. I tried loosening it on the bead to help it straighten out. It helped a bit. I'll have to see if I can fully salvage the tire. If not, I have extras.

I saw some people on horses while out. It was nice. Of course now there are fresh horse droppings. That part was not nice, but it's what you get there. I only had to rescue the Trailrunner once, and it even took the sandy challenge area well. I gunned it and went over the hills like a baja bug or something. The IFS was good for that.

 

I was going to go on a group RC truck outing today, but it didn't work out. I still had a good time with my Enduro Trailrunner at Julian L. Capik Nature Preserve, though. Since it was just me, I decided to try the recently opened up lowland trail that appears to be wet often. I think I've only been on this trail once or twice. It's very messy. My boots were sucking into and out of the mud. I felt like the wizard in that recent Ozzy Man Reviews video with the wizard in the mud in Germany. It was fair dinkum muddy. I only had to rescue my Trailrunner once in this trail. It took the mud and water like a champ, though I did try keeping to the sides the best I could. I also found out that this trail is pretty much directly beneath an air lane. I saw a plane every two minutes or so, all going in a line, must be going to the big airport in Newark, NJ. I was actually a little concerned something happened since I never saw this sort of thing before, but nothing's in the news, so I guess this is just normal. I don't do air travel, so I don't know much about it. You also don't get the same view and the same sort of sounds elsewhere at the nature preserve, so if you're not directly under the planes you don't notice it as much. Anyway, I also explored the power line area some more. There's some fun rugged terrain there. I've never explored that area so much before, so it was fun to try it this time. I might try heading more north along the power lines next time, but I decided to head towards the main trails after I recognized where I was and finished out my couple hours there on the same trails I went on last weekend. My battery ran out a few minutes from the parking lot, so I didn't bother changing the battery. I've got three charged batteries for tomorrow's outing. If I get up early enough, I'm going to challenge the entire length of the six miles or so of the large Jamesburg Park Conservation Area trail loop.

 

I got up a little too late to go to Jamesburg Park Conservation Area, but I went to John A. Phillips Preserve instead. I spaced out my three batteries over 45 minute runs so I could get them to storage charge faster after I got home. It was a fun outing. I took a rather large loop around the place. Not the largest, but still pretty large. I saw some people. There was a couple walking their dog, some Joe Blow like me, and a couple that said it was so cold out. They should have gone out right around Christmas! Nothing too special happened trail-wise. It's the usual John A. Phillips Preserve stuff.

My Enduro Trailrunner dropped one of those grub screw pin things in the front driveshaft, though. It's the stock Element Enduro driveshaft. I'm upset about this one because I just recently redid the threadlocker on it. I used to wrap these screws with shrinktube, but it would sometimes slip off and cause friction in the drivetrain. My previous "upgrade" driveshafts, Hot Racing Axial SCX10 driveshafts, never had problems with the grub screw pin things. I still run the SCX10 driveshaft in the rear. To remedy the loss of the screw and to regain front wheel drive, I inserted a paperclip into the hole for the screw, wrapped it around, inserted it into the hole again, and wrapped the remaining portion until it was tight. It held together well enough to get me home. I think I'm going to conduct an experiment. I think I'm going to remove this paperclip, put some shrinktube down the driveshaft, reinstall the paperclip, and get the shrinktube shrunk over the paperclip. I wonder how well the paperclip will hold up, and since portions of the paperclip are going to be an external uneven surface for the shrinktube to hold onto, maybe the shrinktube won't slide off.

Also, I glued a magnet to my controller so I could pop bodyclips onto it for safe keeping while changing batteries on the trail. It's really paying off, but I think I'm going to add a second magnet on the side of the controller so I can easily have access to a magnet if I have to put the controller on its side.

 

I took my Traxxas TRX4 2021 Ford Bronco to John A. Phillips Preserve today. I went there last weekend, but I went on different trails today. I stuck to the northeastern area this time. I even went on this one little kind of pointless side trail to the back of this apartment complex, but it's fun to take it sometimes. I'm glad my left knee held up to the outing just fine. It felt weird soon after waking up this morning, but I felt fine when I was out taking care of some errands this morning. I'm going to try to challenge the 6 mile 3 hour loop at Jamesburg Park Conservation Area with my Trailrunner tomorrow, so I'm glad that I'm in good enough shape to do so.

 

I went out to Jamesburg Park Conservation Area today. I embarked on the three hour, six mile journey around the big loop to the northeast with my Enduro Trailrunner. I think this was the first time I took it through the entire area to the east. The Trailrunner made it through the entire area without needing to be picked up or rescued. The only exception is this one bridge that has too high of a step for any 1/10 scale truck. The Trailrunner did roll one time, but it landed on its wheels. I underestimated a vine that just made for an upward slope that my Trailrunner shot up and over into the air. I also got cut up some on my right hand from some thorns along the trail. It's not bad, but I got a little bloody. I slathered on some hand sanitizer to help clean the wound and kept on rolling. The stuff's pretty much totally alcohol anyway, so it's a decent cleaner. The temperature today wasn't too terribly cold, but it wasn't exactly warm either. I don't know what's going to happen snow-wise the rest of the winter, so if this is my last outing for a while then I'm glad I got to finish this challenge with my Trailrunner.

 

Today's Enduro Trailrunner outing was fraught with adversity. I had issues with the paperclip fix I did a few weeks ago, though that was an experiment, so I'm not exactly broken up about it. Then my front end differential (not really since it's fully locked but still) gave out. That was probably the noise I heard at Cattus Island in December. It was freezing. Oh, and I dropped a battery like a newbie at one point. I had to go back to find it. Fighting the loss of front wheel drive on the way back wasn't fun.

The Trailrunner's on the inactive roster right now. I've got parts to fix it, but I think I'm going to buy some upgraded parts before taking the differential housing apart. I might as well put in the better stuff while I'm in there. One of them would be to replace the housing with an aluminum one. It's supposed to help keep the gears better aligned. It's not cheap, but it could be a worthwhile upgrade. I'm also not sure what kind of bearings it comes with. It uses something different than stock. If they're at least stainless steel then I'd feel better about it.

It also looks like they made a new trail across the street from the parking lot I park at. I'll have to check that out next time.

 

Getting my boy some fixed wing training and a little bashing time.

 

I got this set of RC car track pieces today. It's called Abendor New 60 Pcs Drift Field Fence Drift Track. Yeah, it's a mouthful. It's out of stock currently on Amazon, but here's the link anyway: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BLR85JMR?ie=UTF8

I know of a similar product from Banggood. (No, it's not a naughty website. Banggood tough, baby!) https://www.banggood.com/26PCS-1-or...180&akmClientCountry=America&cur_warehouse=CN

It's a fun little set. It's not without its quirks, but it's nice to set up a track at home. Kyosho Mini Z cars have such low ground clearance that you can get stuck if you get on top of the pieces, but you've got to be good at driving to not do that! Easier said than done, of course. Now I want to get a Mini Z 4X4 Suzuki Jimny with its low slung bumpers to act as the track rescue crew and push stuck cars to freedom.

I also found that this hardwood floor isn't very good for Mini Z AWD with grip tires. I was using my old Nissan Skyline R33 chassis with my new R34 body. It's not terrible, but it's not the best. It used to be good, but we got it resurfaced last year. Now it's practically Drift Paradise, but it has lost its subtle roughness which was good for AWD grip driving. It's probably time to get some more Harbor Freight mats and throw them down when I want to do grip driving, RWD or AWD.



And here's a link to a video: https://flic.kr/p/2oferiE

 

I was going to go to Tamarack Hollow Preserve today, but I decided on the way there to go back to Ireland Brook and check out the new trail. It's a new loop to the east that goes towards the New Jersey Turnpike. You can see it from the trail. There are some big hill climbs, chopped up logs, lakes, and other interesting terrain. There are pretty much no trail markers, but it's mostly easy to follow. The section by the road (not the NJ Turnpike) becomes hard to navigate if you're going counterclockwise and getting close to where you started. I'm not sure if the whole trail is actually cleared through. You can get off the trail and cross the road to go to another small trail that gets you back to the parking lot, though.

One of the hill climbs was really challenging, and I could see that my TRX4 Bronco was beginning to go downhill immediately after reaching the peak. I decided to back the Bronco down the hill instead of trying to turn around at the peak and maybe have it tumbling down the other side of the hill towards the NJ Turnpike or God knows where. It was also a somewhat warmer morning than yesterday, so the lakes were beginning to thaw. I kind of wish I went to this section yesterday because it would have been a huge area to do some ice drifting.

 

No pics, I've got a 4wd brushless Slash that I've had for a few years. Haven't used it in a couple years so my batteries are probably trash (no LiPo's, they kinda scare me, I've heard of a few fires locally so...) Might pick up a new battery and get it going again this spring...

 

Go for it!

I don't know if Traxxas had ID connectors back then, so watch out if you're looking at Traxxas batteries if you're using the stock ESC and the original connector. I only use NIMH Traxxas batteries for my Latrax Rally for racing, but the batteries and the charger seem to be fine.

Look into a Bat Safe and see if that might get you on the lipo bandwagon. You'll probably need extensions, but it's worth it. I hear you, though. I make sure I'm in the room when I charge my lipos and am never out of it for more than a couple minutes. If I have to take a dump, it's turbo turds.

 

The Enduro Trailrunner's still down, but it'll be back soon. I have the parts I need to fix it, and I've already begun assembling some things that I can do without taking the truck apart yet. In the meantime, it's another Traxxas TRX4 Bronco day. I had a big real Toyota 4Runner project this morning into the afternoon, so I barely got some trail time in today. I went to Tamarack Hollow Preserve which isn't the closest place, but it's where I was going to go last Sunday before I decided to check out the new trail at Ireland Brook. The sun was going down while I was out with the Bronco, and it was a nice time out. It was peaceful, and nobody else was around. I took the longest loop of marked trails. The Bronco handled everything just fine.

 

I went to Julian L. Capik Nature Preserve before the Super Bowl yesterday. It was a nice outing. I went exploring the trails closer to the baseball field and behind a school. I found one that's either a deer trail or an old unmaintained trail that nobody uses anymore. It's really tight. I think it might be an old trail since I found ancient horse... evidence. It actually helped me navigate my way back to one of the main trails. The Bronco performed well, and I didn't have to rescue it at all. It did flip over one time, but I was able to get it to right itself, so it counts as a win in my book!

 

Here's the Trailrunner's front end ripped out. It actually wasn't that bad to take apart. The upper mount for the IFS differential housing is held on with a couple standoffs, but they were easy to remove. Then I just removed the upper portion of the shocks and popped the steering linkage rod ends. I could have gotten away with leaving the wheels on, but I took them off obviously. Everything just drops out, and now the chassis is off to the side with its front end propped up by the two wheels.


Here's the original differential housing. I took this for a record of the orientation of the gears. Yeah, there's not really a differential in it. Almost everything here is being replaced. The only things that will remain are the little mount on the bottom, the screws for it, and the bearings on the left and the right. The new housing uses different bearings for the pinion gear in the back.


Here's the new aluminum housing with the new pinion gear and an already assembled spool and ring gear. The spool and ring gear are supposed to be very rugged compared to the stock gear, and the new housing and bearings for the pinion gear are supposed to keep the pinion gear better positioned to prevent premature wear. I have all of the bearings in the lighter fluid in the old medicine bottle in the back. I actually already replaced the lighter fluid once since the old bearings for the spool/ring gear were so filthy that I wanted to get them cleaner. I'm going to leave this to sit overnight so the bearings can get cleaned out as nicely as possible. I also have the new bearings in there. I don't think they really needed the cleaning, but I might as well do it. I'll continue tomorrow. I think I'll have no problem getting everything put back together. Then I can test it at home.

 

I decided to go to the woods behind Walter D. Faith Memorial Field for a little outdoor adventure today. My Trailrunner will be finally fixed tonight, but that means my TRX4 Bronco got to go out one more time. I set out to focus a bit more on conquering challenging terrain on the side of the trails. I still covered a lot of ground, but this wasn't my main intention today. The Bronco did a good job on a lot of things. It's still a bit top heavy, so it rolled in one spot that I bet the Trailrunner would have been able to handle. I enjoyed the low speed control of the Bronco, though. It's still got the stock radio, ESC, and motor. It's really not bad at all.










And here's a link to a video of my Bronco in high gear with open differentials in the outfield of the baseball field right before I went home. I like having the multi-function dial on the transmitter set up for the gyro which helps to keep the Bronco on all four wheels at high speeds. It really is a mostly pointless feature for a crawler, but it's fun to let it rip sometimes. If I find myself doing this often enough, I'll have to get something more properly designed for high speed fun. https://flic.kr/p/2ohCH9b

 

Saturday night's all right for grinding new driveshafts. This is the last fix for my Enduro Trailrunner. I got another set of Hot Racing SSCX37V driveshafts. The package comes with enough driveshaft parts for the front and the rear. The last ones snapped in the front after nearly a year. The rear set hasn't snapped yet. Here's hoping the rear keeps on not snapping while I have a leftover set at home to use in maybe December or something. I'm thinking about getting the MIP set, but they're really expensive.

Click on the pic for a video of the grinding!

 

It was a day for testing the Enduro Trailrunner at NJ Devils Way before the Daytona 500. I got the last of repairs done last night, and it performed nicely today. There were a lot of downed branches/twigs today. I guess a recent storm made some changes to the ecosystem. Leaves continue to be a problem, too. I got caught on a random brick that I couldn't see due to the leaves. I've got tomorrow off due to the holiday, so I'm going to be getting out for a bigger adventure with the newly fixed Trailrunner.

 

Today's Trailrunner outing at John A. Phillips Nature Preserve was a good one. The Trailrunner's performing nicely. I may wish to get into the steering to help make the steering geometry more stable, but it's not a race car. I'm not worried too much about it. The Trailrunner continues to do what it's supposed to do, and the new mods to the front end haven't upset its balance at all. The aluminum IFS housing doesn't cause the truck to behave appreciably differently than the stock plastic one.

 

A friend of mine visited yesterday, so I didn't do any RC truck stuff. I took my Enduro Trailrunner out this morning. It was a cold but nice morning. It's looking like we might actually get some snow during the week, so with that in mind, I figured I'd take the Trailrunner to the first proper trail I ever went on before things get too snowy. It was the northwestern small trail network area of Ireland Brook separate from the bigger portion. It brought back some memories. It was the first time I followed trail blazes in real life. Thankfully I had played Life Is Strange 2 not too long before I first went there in 2020. You had to follow some trail blazes in the pacific northwest in the game, so I had an idea of how things worked. I also checked out some off trail sections today, but there's not too much off trail to go to there. At least there was a small portion of thin ice that was fun to drive over. I also found a tiny toy buggy/Tamiya Mini 4WD knockoff by the trail map. It hitched a ride on the back of my Trailrunner for the entire time out. In addition, I took a closer look at this one structure along the trail. It's the burial site of a woman who died nearly 200 years ago. The wood structure is covering the gravestone. Even with the cover, the elements have worn away at the engraving in the stone. I don't know what the next few weeks are going to be like, but if this was my last trail outing for a while then at least it was a good one!

 

I killed the Trailrunner today! It was raining overnight, so I decided to go to the lowland areas of Julian L. Capik Nature Preserve and challenge the mud there. I got through it pretty nicely. As I was approaching the powerline trails, the motor started making funny sounds. Or maybe the spur gear's going. I didn't open it up. I was losing power. Of course, when I get to this stream created by all of the rain, I decide to full send it through the running water only to get stuck on the other side where my motor seized up. I decided to pick up the Trailrunner and walk back instead of fighting it. I was still using a stock motor. It's not known for being super awesome. I have a Holmes Hobbies motor to put in there in its place. I'll also replace the spur gear and probably even the pinion gear while I'm at it. The pinion gear looked oddly gnarly the last time I looked at it, but everything still ran okay and did so for months.

 

I worked on my Trailrunner during the week. I replaced the motor. This time I used a Holmes Hobbies brushed crawler motor. It's supposed to be more durable than the stock motor. I also found the pinion gear had migrated, but it was no big deal because I was replacing the motor, pinion gear, and spur gear. I disconnected the rear driveshaft in order to redo the rear screw for it and to add some shrinktube to help keep the screw secure. I also took it as an opportunity to see how free things spin. The rear end spins free. I'm impressed. While the pinion and spur were out, the front end was a bit stiff. I doubt it's the new IFS gears since all of that was clean when I installed it. Maybe the Stealth-X gearbox is getting dirty. Then again, maybe everything's fine and I'm just making a mountain out of a molehill. I should probably open the gearbox in the spring, though, and give it a good cleaning. I haven't been in it for a couple years.

I went back to Julian L. Capik Nature Preserve today in order to put the Trailrunner's new motor through its paces. So far so good. The top speed is slightly lower than the stock motor, but the low speed control is really great. I'm even still running the stock ESC, too. The motor's just that good. It has held up to today's muck, mud, and water and kept on coming back for more. Today wasn't quite as wet as last Saturday, but there was still a decent amount of dirty fun to be had. I didn't go to the lowland trail this time, but I did venture to the power line wet low area and played around there for a little while. The water was deeper and running more there last time, but I still went back and forth in the wet portion of the trail a couple times while I was there today. It was actually a really great time. I also went and checked out some areas of the power line trails I hadn't been on before. One spot was so wet that my Trailrunner just sunk into the sand and got stuck. I wish I had my 1/10 scale Maxtrax with me because it would have been great to see if they would have helped. I actually got some of them a few weeks ago, but I keep on forgetting to bring them with me. I'm still not sure how I'll get them secured onto the Trailrunner for transport, but I'll figure something out.










Here's a video of me going the length of the wet power line trail: https://flic.kr/p/2omx8o6
And here's a video of the Trailrunner going through some deep water: https://flic.kr/p/2omx7ZW

 

I decided to make today a TRX4 Bronco day. I went to Jamesburg Park Conservation Area and mostly did the southwestern trails. I ventured further into the southwest on this dirt road. I don't usually do it. It was okay. There was some fun to be had along the road. I was going to keep going, but I happened upon this huge puddle and wasn't able to get around it without picking up the Bronco. I just decided to turn around. Besides that, there wasn't anything too noteworthy about the outing. The Bronco continues to perform admirably. It definitely Goes Over Any Terrain as the off road system in the real thing tells you. Those portal axles are niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice. I know portals don't make the driver, but they sure help the driver to be less frustrated.

While crossing the road into the grid portion of the trail system, I saw a vintage truck towing a less vintage spots car. An 80s Camaro? I'm not sure. I wanted to get more photos of the truck, but my phone wanted to unlock instead of bring up my camera for some reason. I don't know what's up with this area. It's like I'm in super rural West Virginia sometimes. I also saw a family towards the end of my time out. The nice young lady of the group asked me to take a photo of her and her family. They were nice.