Tamiya Gravel Hound DF-02 Forum

[bakabaka]

Hi Eotz!

Good to see you again. I've added a category in the DF-02 FAQ for setups, if you'd like to post a description of your chassis configuration to the FAQ I'll add it to that category. Actually, that applies to anyone who wants to submit a configuration. Racing or bashing. ;)

Have fun! :)

[JDT]

I went to the local BMX track and really pushed my luck, I can't understand how I did not break anything, 12-15 foot high jumps, distance jumps of 30 feet or more, the track is built into the hillside so I was jumping out of the third and final burm, I had about fifty feet of run up and was able to hit different parts of the berm for height or distance, pounded it resentlessly, only had the steering cap pop off one time, the 13 turn double at 70/16 was perfect for lugging the hills of the track, the woops I decided were a double were just a little too long and caused massive chassis slap and cartwheels nearly every time but I still hit it like 10 times, If hobby people ever get the genesis truck esc back in stock I will be going brushless and running a bigger tire so I can really air it out. I had seen a post earlier where a guy said he has had his GH for a couple months and not rolled it yet, I just wanted everyone to know what they can really take. My poor shell is getting nearly clear and the wing has no paint at all anymore, time to get another body painted as my paint jobs suck.

[vmaxcruzer]

Nice ride vmx. What motor is that. Method R?

Just a cheapy, Method 15X2. I'm working my way up. Brushless some day!

[fsh_62]

Just a cheapy, Method 15X2. I'm working my way up. Brushless some day!
I'm running a Speed Gem 14x2 right now and love it. Was thinking of a Method R for bashing since there cheap but don't know how they hold up. Only difference between Method and Method R is the R has adjustable timing. Sometimes I like to retard the timing a little to keep from over heating also gives a little more torque.

[mo679]

Okay, this is getting ridiculous. The rear shocks have #1000 oil in them with 3 hole pistons and the car is still bottoming out from about a 1 foot drop. I think at this point that I will just let the car bottom out and the chassis absorb the rest of the shock. I saw some TRF 2-hole pistons I could buy which do look at lot like the ones that came with the DF-02 aluminium shock set, but gosh, that would make the shocks harder than those of a 1/8 buggy and I'm not sure if the plastic mounting points can handle that kind of strain.

Bakabaka, from what you're experiencing and from what I'm experiencing, it seems the Team Associated 80 weight oil is thicker than the Tamiya #1000 oil.

So currently, I have #800 oil in front with #1000 oil in the rear with both blue springs and innermost mounting points on both and 12 Tamiya red o rings on each rear shock shaft. Also I bought the low friction shock V parts tree and am using the long shock ends in the rear (they are already used in the front shocks and they are maybe 1mm longer than the original shock ends on the aluminium set).

The only real thing left to do is build my own shock tower and shock mounting point to change the suspension layout but all that will have to wait until after this years Tamiya Asia Cup (or at least the qualifiers) unless I get really lucky and win another DF-02 :D

I still do have big plans for this buggy. :D

To my opinion too thick oil is not that good! the response of the car in off-road is poor, I'm sticking to 600-800 depending on the track and blue springs and sometimes it still seems not to cope well with the bumps! I built some brackets to change the geometry of the suspensions and it helps, but I assume that's not legal in a race. in the front I use 85mm shocks 500 thick oil and soft springs. the car handles fine, but I have understeer when turning full throttle, the car will slap no matter what! I could not get rid of it and now I don't care anymore, at least the shocks soak up little hills much better than with too stiff setup!
Hope it helps :) have fun

[raytracer]

Nice pics of the df02. You can upload the pics in imageshack if you're having probs with attachments.

I'd like to see eotz dfo2 and the mods he made.

[sim600]

Guys, guys, this is so exciting. Check it out. The parts are selling before the kits. Haha. I think it's just a matter of weeks if not days before we see the buggy. Looks like it'll be called DF-03 Dark Impact after all.

http://www.tamiyausa.com/product/category.php?sub-id=71000

Edit: Oops, okay not "out" out but at least "coming soon".

[bakabaka]

Hi sim600,

It's supposed to be released around the end of this month in Japan. I'm waiting to see how they're going to be priced in the US, but the bare kit is available for pre-order at RC Champ for a bit under $100. Pity about that $50 or so shipping charge for larger items ;)

Have fun! :)

[bakabaka]

Hi raytracer,

eotz sent pics a while ago of his buggy that I hosted for him, you can see them here:

http://xyzzy.dyn.dhs.org/~eotz/

This is no doubt before any mods he's made though.

Have fun! :)

[Eotz]

Hi raytracer,

eotz sent pics a while ago of his buggy that I hosted for him, you can see them here:

http://xyzzy.dyn.dhs.org/~eotz/

This is no doubt before any mods he's made though.

Have fun! :)

Hi Bakabaka.

In the pictures that I send to you last year I haven't any of the modifications that I say. I must take another new pictures and send to you. The main modification that I made is very easy and important to improve the rear shock tower joint with the chasis. I'll try to send you the pictures this weekend. Anyway the pictures of the last year are great, specially the "Flying" one :D .
I forgot to say that I had just recived the new Tamiya tires and a new RS body shell. I hope to test the new tires in the next race (In a week).

Bye.

[mo679]

Hi Bakabaka.

In the pictures that I send to you last year I haven't any of the modifications that I say. I must take another new pictures and send to you. The main modification that I made is very easy and important to improve the rear shock tower joint with the chasis. I'll try to send you the pictures this weekend. Anyway the pictures of the last year are great, specially the "Flying" one :D .
I forgot to say that I had just recived the new Tamiya tires and a new RS body shell. I hope to test the new tires in the next race (In a week).

Bye.
Hi Eotz
Your car looks sweet! What kind of tires are those? I suppose they are a bit bigger than the stock tamiya tires/wheels, what do you think about the new df-03 tyres?
Keep It Up! :)

[JDT]

I was searching around a little more today and found this TamTech Gear DF 03 picture the shocks look nice but appear to have clips instead of threads.

http://images-jp.amazon.com/images/P/4777905004.09.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

I could not figure out how to copy it as a link, I hope it hits tower soon, I have the money to buy a brushless but with Hobby People being out of the Genesis pro and truck I may spend my money on the Impact and wait on the brushless a month or two we'll see which is in stock first I may have the money for both by the time the esc is in restocked and the impact gets to tower or other american dealers.

[sim600]

JDT Those shocks look like the aluminium upgrades for the DF-02. From the first pictures at the Germany show, we saw that it looked like the DF-03 (then tentatively named Dark Impact) had the same shocks as the DF-02, and in this new picture you sent, it looks like they had a tricked out version with the existing aluminium shocks. This doesn't necessarily mean that Tamiya wouldn't come up with yet another upgrade (threaded shocks most likely).

The DF-03 does look like it has much better suspension geometry though with the shock mounting points moved towards the wheel and the shocks standing up more.

[Eotz]

Hi Eotz
Your car looks sweet! What kind of tires are those? I suppose they are a bit bigger than the stock tamiya tires/wheels, what do you think about the new df-03 tyres?
Keep It Up! :)

Hey!!!.

As I say before I used Losi Ifmar Stud (Red) in the front, and Proline 8081 in the rear. They are 2.2" of diameter and stock tamiya tires are 1.9". I recibed the new Tamiya 2.2" tires 2 days ago. This wheels are mini pin. I'll test the tires next weekend in the second race of the championship.

Bye :)

[sim600]

Okay, I finished the race today. The good news is I placed 6th in final standings (best of 2 A-mains). The bad news is there were only 7 buggies. :P
I drove quite conservatively and did almost everything I could to protect my car so I could finish each heat but I still didn't manage to finish the first and 2nd qualifying heats. First one, I had a bent dogbone and missing diff output cup in the rear. Luckily we were racing in a shopping center with a hardware store the makeshift track, so I ran there and "borrowed" a hammer to bang the dogbone back into shape while noone was looking. The 2nd qualifying heat, I was doing okay until the motor had come loose from the motor mount plate. I fixed that back and added a bit of thread lock. Later, as I was talking to some of the other buggy racers, they said there were two things you had to check on the DF-02 after every heat - one was the shock bottom caps (the ones that hold in the O-rings) and the other was the motor screws. I took that advice and checked both these things after every heat and found that the threadlock pretty much solved my motor plate problems but since I didn't want to put threadlock on the lower shock caps, I had to retighten these every now and then.

Anyway, my setup in the end was:
Front - Tamiya #800 weight oil, red springs, inner shock holes, one 3mm (I think) spring spacer
Rear - Tamiya #1000 weight oil, blue springs, inner shock holes, 3 X 3mm spring spacers.
stock pinion and spurs
Tamiya Sport Tuned motor (required)

I had blue springs in the front as well at first, but my buggy kept flipping over at the jumps.

Anyway, my buggy was one of the slowest today so I'm not sure if my final setup really is any good. :(

[XSFalcon]

Finally, a nice day to get the GH out for some parking lot action!

she held up really well against the Rising Storm couterpart. My friend is running the 70T Spur with a Jaguar 25T or 23T motor & I installed the 67T with the 19T pinion & the tamiya black sport tuned motor. Aside that I have the Dynamite 15T Esc.

Until the hop-up screws fell out, she was running fast.

Is there anything I can do to keep the king screws alternates from falling out? I have the GPM parts so its an alternate screw.

[sim600]

the screws thread into the GPM aluminium parts? If so, you should use liquid threadlock (usually blue color for medium strength) to keep them in :)

[scoob]

Hey guys. I haven't posted on here in a while. The GH is still going strong. It's a lot of fun. I like the acceleration of the 4wd. From about 0-10mph it's faster than my other offroad cars (T4,B4,T3,Stampede, ) even though they all have more powerful setups, the 2wd doesn't snap to attention like 4wd. The 4 wheel braking is also very quick and makes the car feel very agile. I love it.

The GH is still running the GTS ESC and Speed gem 14x2 but I have decided to upgrade. I'm taking the SS5800 out of my T3 and putting in a 11.1V lipo/brushless setup in it so the GH gets the 5800 now. I've got a 7.4v 2500mah lipo laying around that will be perfect for it. It weighs a whopping 5.5 ounces! Ought to lighten the GH up a bit from the 14oz 6-cell I've been running.

Bakabaka are you still running the 5800? Where/how do you mount the SS esc? It looks like it's going to be a little cramped.

[bakabaka]

Hi scoob!

Yup, it's still in there and it is a bit cramped. The 5800 ESC went on the same tray that the stock ESC and receiver goes on. There are pictures here:

http://xyzzy.dyn.dhs.org/camera/gravel-hound/

Incidentally, I just picked up a 2 channel Spectrum radio system. I'd been getting a bit of glitching in the servo, and putting a ferrite on the servo wires didn't seem to help. Hopefully this gets rid of the glitching. The receiver's certainly small enough, I guess anything that reduces size/weight is good. At $170 it's the same price I paid for the GH RTR, it had better be good ;)

Have fun! :)

[Fenris]

Here is my RS with a front and rear aluminium wings I made. It protects everything while sliding upside down. It also acts as a support for the front shock tower.
I couldn't attach more than one picture???

[Fenris]

And more

[Fenris]

And some more

[vmaxcruzer]

Here is my RS with a front and rear aluminium wings I made. It protects everything while sliding upside down. It also acts as a support for the front shock tower.
I couldn't attach more than one picture???


Great idea, looks sturdy. I've been looking for a fix on my rear wing for a while. The stock one is disappointing. Hey...looks like you could use some new tread. LOL L8r

[scoob]

Bakabaka- I think you will like the spektrum. I have the Spektrum DX3 for my race truck(T4) and it's great. No more worries about other's frequency. It should solve your glitching too.

Don't freak if the servo goes crazy for a couple seconds after you turn it on, mine does this and after it quits flipping out the radio is locked on and your good to go.

[bakabaka]

Hi scoob,

The Spektrum seems nice, I picked up the DX2 since my needs are fairly simple. It uses the same receiver though. As for the power on glitching, mine just goes into the position it was in when I bound the receiver to the transmitter. No glitching yet. I'm still using my Futaba servo though, and have a ferrite on the line. Maybe that makes a difference at power on. The servos included looked nice, but I still like my Futaba metal gear servo. I doubt they'd make much difference given the steering on the DF-02.

Have fun! :)

[vmaxcruzer]

Anyone know what the two funnel shaped rubber tubes that come with the GPM rear shock's are for?
Scratching my head...

[fsh_62]

Anyone know what the two funnel shaped rubber tubes that come with the GPM rear shock's are for?
Scratching my head...
Those are the boots that protect the shafts from dirt. If you look at the bottom of the shock body you will see a groove in the shock where the boot snaps on.

[sim600]

Hi gang,
Just finished the Tamiya Asia Cup qualifying round 1 in Malaysia on Sunday and my wife took lots of pictures and videos of the buggy class. I made one 2 minute video (15 Megs) and put it up along with the pics at my site ...
bigbigplanet.com/rccars/races/20060326 (http://www.bigbigplanet.com/rccars/races/20060326)
:)

[vmaxcruzer]

Those are the boots that protect the shafts from dirt. If you look at the bottom of the shock body you will see a groove in the shock where the boot snaps on.

Thanks, I figured it out a few moments after I posted. How far down on the threads are you guy's starting with on these GPM shock's?
Also I see a design flaw just waiting to break on the alloy rear shock tower, it's missing the horizontal bar that the plastic one has to help hold to the rear diff cover. I see this breaking the screws out on hard jumps. bummer. VMX

[szan]

I made one 2 minute video (15 Megs) and put it up along with the pics at my site ...
bigbigplanet.com/rccars/races/20060326 (http://www.bigbigplanet.com/rccars/races/20060326)
:)
Hi,
The video is great, indoor race is really fun !
Bye

[heynow]

Hi sim600:

Enjoyed reading about the day and watching the video. Thanks for sharing.

[kampat]

Hi All,

If you want genuine Tamiya 53008 (1150 x 4) and 53066 (1280 x 3) sealed bearings, get them from rc-champ store, I ordered them and they only charged 832Yen, that's about $7US each (the same price for both packs) compared to the horrendous price local Tamyia shops charge. When I received, them I checked and they were the real thing. I can't understand why LHS charge so much, even the local Tamiya Websites.??????????????????

[heynow]

Just something I would like to share if anyone is interested. My brother in law upgraded his motor and gave me his "sport tuned" motor. He also gave me a 22t pinion that was part of a set that he couldn't use. I installed this with my 67t spur gear.

With this combo my GH seemed so much faster. I was in my backyard having a blast. It was like I had a new car. Well, after about 10-15 min I stopped and felt the motor...it was hot but not so bad....I touched the stock ESC and it was REALLY HOT. I played some more and tonight I changed back to the 19t pinion.

Will changing back to the 19t pinion not make the ESC so hot in the future? The only reason I changed back is because I don't want to have to buy a new ESC at this time.

The extra speed was very easy to see and it was FUN! Maybe I should be a "real man" and just fry that thing! :)

[sim600]

szan and heynow,
Thanks. The footage was all shot by my wife. I just had to put it together.

heynow, that does sound fast. It's a big jump from 19T to 22T, like a 15% increase. Maybe you can go something like a 20T as a compromise. :D

[Combatcm]

Looks like everyone wanted to sky those jumps even though they were so close to the turn :)

[sim600]

Haha. Ya, except me (the red buggy). I was actually slowing down on the back straight before the jump. I have no idea how the other buggies were surviving those big jumps they were doing but the DF-02 chassis seem to take all the abuse well.

[thundershot]

I saw the df03 being featured at the show already. I dont think any part will be compatible with the df02. Too bad!
The suspension looks completely redesigned but how well it will hold up who knows. Its got ball diffs and full bearings already. I just dont like the bottom loading chassis for the batteries. I think its stick pack only. Who will be the first one to get it? :D

[sim600]

Haha, actually I'm looking forward to using the df-03 suspension parts on my df-02. I know Tamiya will try to find a way to make them incompatible but I have a Dremel :D

[Prelude14WRX]

I got a Gravel Hound! :D I built it up between tennis practice/sister's birthday dinner/ and more tennis practice at my HS. This replaced my crappy Duratrax BX that I gave to my friend for free. I painted it just like the box...so its not really original. I really like it...even if it is a little heavy and slow...but its got a lot of torque...thats all I need :D Can't wait to bash and take it to the local track. What's cool also is that my friend got one....so we can bash together(we already race together...this will be less competitive). I'll try to post some pics in a few days...

[dom223]

I want a 4x4 electric off road, and i need to know if the Rising Storm is a good buggy for bashing? I need a buggy that can handle at least a 10-turn modified, and can take some big jumps. The reason im looking at the Tamiya buggies is because they are cheap in cost. What is better, a Rising storm or a Dirt Thrasher? And what companies offer hop-ups for these buggies? If anyone has a picture of a Dirt Thrasher with the body off could you post it?

Thanks

[JDT]

The Rising Storm and Gravel Hound DF 02 chassis is much better than a Dirt Thrasher IMO, look around in this forum for the DF 02 faq website, it will answer most questions, I would however warn against the buggy if you really have your heart set on a ten turn, I have run 12 and 13 turn doubles with moderate success but you cannot gear this chassis enough. I ran this car with the deepest gearing available with a borrowed ten turn Orion Revolution, it was tuned and tweaked and usaully resides in a Losi race buggy after about one minute it was hot, esc was really hot and battery was also very hot, others with more throttle control may have been a little more successful running lower turn motors but in my experience this chassis will only get you to about a 12 turn and you need a nice speed control for that as it seems to still need a little deeper gear, the 13 double seems to be my personal choice as it is near in power but don't blister your finger after a good set of gp 3300's.

[szan]

Hi,

I experienced a orion 10T single in the past, and it was really too hot even with the smallest ratio 70/16, I experienced a Reedy 12T single too, and the head melted...
So I decided for a Orion 14t triple and no problem even with 67/19 ratio.
My conclusion is to not go lower than 14t ou 13t, and prefer a double or triple.
If you want more better performance, choose a brushless SS5800 or a GTB 7.5 (6.5 should work too).

Bye

[fabolousRC]

I want a 4x4 electric off road, and i need to know if the Rising Storm is a good buggy for bashing? I need a buggy that can handle at least a 10-turn modified, and can take some big jumps. The reason im looking at the Tamiya buggies is because they are cheap in cost. What is better, a Rising storm or a Dirt Thrasher? And what companies offer hop-ups for these buggies? If anyone has a picture of a Dirt Thrasher with the body off could you post it?

Thanks

If you want Tamiya Buggy that can handle 10 Turn or less, wait till the Dark Impact shows up on the market. It should be here soon and it only costs you 20-30 bucks extra, 50 bucks at the most. It is a whole lot of different animal compared to RS or GH.

[viet_mafia]

would anyone be interested in buying my DF-02? It's basically new and has lots of brand new installed hopups like Tamiya Aluminium dampers, tamiya turnbuckle set, GPM aluminium shock towers front and rear, some brand new spares and lots of other spares, also has aluminium motor mount, aluminium c-hubs and tamiya kingpins. if anyone is interested send me a PM. Thanks


oh yeah im in Sydney Australia btw :D

[Prelude14WRX]

Well, my first run with my Gravel Hound was great untill I broke it :( After racing touring cars..we went to the outdoor track(not open yet, but we know the owner..) and it was very muddy. It was great fun and faster than I thought....untill I hit a medal rod sticking out from the mud. It only broke the front upright, but I'm sure a "racing" buggy would have splintered.

[heynow]

Just something I would like to share if anyone is interested. My brother in law upgraded his motor and gave me his "sport tuned" motor. He also gave me a 22t pinion that was part of a set that he couldn't use. I installed this with my 67t spur gear.

With this combo my GH seemed so much faster. I was in my backyard having a blast. It was like I had a new car. Well, after about 10-15 min I stopped and felt the motor...it was hot but not so bad....I touched the stock ESC and it was REALLY HOT. I played some more and tonight I changed back to the 19t pinion.

Will changing back to the 19t pinion not make the ESC so hot in the future? The only reason I changed back is because I don't want to have to buy a new ESC at this time.

The extra speed was very easy to see and it was FUN! Maybe I should be a "real man" and just fry that thing! :)



Well after one run with the 19t pinion I decided to go back to the 22t pinion and 67t spur. I missed the extra speed I noticed with the 22t pinion. I decided I want to enjoy my bashing and for me more speed=more fun.

Sure the ESC gets hot but I've run 4 battery packs over the last two days and I'm still running strong. Besides, the worst thing that could happen is I might have to buy a new ESC or new motor....and really would that be really bad??? :p

This forum has been helpful to me in many ways so I'm posting this so it may be helpful to others.

Thanks

[fsh_62]

Well after one run with the 19t pinion I decided to go back to the 22t pinion and 67t spur. I missed the extra speed I noticed with the 22t pinion. I decided I want to enjoy my bashing and for me more speed=more fun.

Sure the ESC gets hot but I've run 4 battery packs over the last two days and I'm still running strong. Besides, the worst thing that could happen is I might have to buy a new ESC or new motor....and really would that be really bad??? :p

This forum has been helpful to me in many ways so I'm posting this so it may be helpful to others.

Thanks
I sometimes run my super stock TZ with 22, 67 gears and it does well, gets a little warm but not to bad. Right now I'm running 16, 70 with a 14x2 speed gem, so I can't just swap motors with out changing the spur. Sure would be nice if I could leave the 67t spur in and be able to go down to a 12t pinion.

[fsh_62]

Has anyone broken diff. covers. I have yet to bend a Yeah Racing shock tower. I've landed hard upside down and broken the body mounts out of the chassis with deep scratches on top of the shock towers but never bend them. Yesterday I noticed the buggy got hard to handle all of the sudden. The rear shock tower was loose, after closer inspection I noticed the small lip where the bottom of the shock tower edge fits into the upper diff. cover had broken off. Know idea when this would have happened, didn't have one crash yesterday. Any thoughts?

[vmaxcruzer]

Has anyone broken diff. covers. I have yet to bend a Yeah Racing shock tower. I've landed hard upside down and broken the body mounts out of the chassis with deep scratches on top of the shock towers but never bend them. Yesterday I noticed the buggy got hard to handle all of the sudden. The rear shock tower was loose, after closer inspection I noticed the small lip where the bottom of the shock tower edge fits into the upper diff. cover had broken off. Know idea when this would have happened, didn't have one crash yesterday. Any thoughts?

Same but different... buggy's butt was dragging in the grass when I realized the shock tower was in the air. Broke both the screw's out on the rear, then noticed that the GPM rear shock tower doesn't have the shelf that fits into the diff cover for support. NICE! What were they thinking?? So I've ordered a new cover and I am using the stock plastic in the mean while but not too happy to have to go to the yeah blue as all my alloy is red. Oh well.

[vmaxcruzer]

Non RC related...*Just thought you'd like to know...

On Wednesday of this week, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00
in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06.

That won't ever happen again in your lifetime my friends.*



You may now return to your normal stuff.** *

L8r VMX

[bscarter11]

What other kinds of alloy shocks are available for the DF02 besides the Tamiya set? Where would I look at getting them? Thx

[vmaxcruzer]

What other kinds of alloy shocks are available for the DF02 besides the Tamiya set? Where would I look at getting them? Thx
GPM sells some, try http://tinyurl.com/p936y
and put DF-02 in the search.

[psykopal]

Hi everyone! I just joined this forum...
I bought a RS about two months ago as my first RC car... I went on ebay and searched the DF-02 chassis to see if there were any hop-ups and ended up buying every imaginable hop-up for this buggy. I bought all the Yeah Racing alloy parts. I have pictures here: http://groups.msn.com/eatatstunners/shoebox.msnw

I'll share my experiences with you....

The Yeah Racing front shock towers are very weak and bent backwards the first time I flipped over. The stock plastic ones are much stronger. The Yeah Racing alloy shaft is also very weak and one of the heads twisted off the first time I ran also. The stock shaft is great, no need to change it to alloy/aluminum. If anything, you should make one out of a steel rod but, not aluminum.
The GPM titanium universals are awesome. They will not bend or twist and they can take a beating. However, the pin that holds the universal joint comes loose. I just put a steel rod through there and bent it on both sides and it works great.
I also put a Novak Brushless GTB 5.5 Racing motor and ESC. If you do this, make sure you buy Dean's connectors for the ESC and the batteries. If not, you will melt the Tamiya connectors and lose tons of power. I also made a custom battery pack with C size 6000Mah NiMh batteries. Use 10 gauge cable or you will melt the wires.
I'm using HPI wheels with Proline nobbies. In order to keep the steering strong, I through-bolted the steering arms through the chassis. I uploaded pics of this and circled it in red. If you don't do this, the brushless power will eat up the threads in the plastic and your steering will have lots of play.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I also made a new spoiler out of aluminum. The plastic one almost tore off after a week.

Let me know what you think....

-psykopal :eek:

[Fenris]

Nice work. You really went to town on that.
Two thumbs up.

[bscarter11]

Just what size in millimeters are the shock lengths front and back that folks are using so I get the right ones by GPM? Also, Psykopal, that is one serious RS you have there. I love the tires.

[gravelhound]

Hi,

does any one now of a sourse of replacement shafts for GPM shocks, I'm a bit fed up of buying new front shocks and have a number of shocks that could do with repair. Also whats the best front shock tower combination? I've managed to bust three plastic towers and two yeah racing alloy ones.

Whats evryones favourite bashing setup?

P.S. cool setup psykopal, did you create a template for the rear spoiler, if so could you post.

bscarter11 go here for shocks http://www.rcmart.com/catalog/default.php?cPath=595_424_744_712&sort=1a&&page=2

front is 75mm and rear is 100-110mm

[vmaxcruzer]

Just what size in millimeters are the shock lengths front and back that folks are using so I get the right ones by GPM? Also, Psykopal, that is one serious RS you have there. I love the tires.

They usually say the length in mm on the web I linked to you but I noticed that they aren't even listed. They didn't have the rears for some time the all of a sudden they started selling them again. I think if memory serves they are 100mm rear and 70mm front? Anyone verify? As far as the GPM shocks for the storm/hound there are only one kind to choose from. Check eBay, toy's hobbies, radio controlled, and then DF-02. You'll find them. L8r
Oops..double post My bad.
BTW I'm not too impressed with the rubber cups in the GPM rear shocks. The fronts let me bottom out the cap with a small amount of pressure but the rears pop and shove the cup into the tube if you go too far. Would be nice to have some tips along with the package. Might have a screwy set, who knows. I'm happy with the rebound and overall perf.

[vmaxcruzer]

Hi everyone! I just joined this forum...
I bought a RS about two months ago as my first RC car... I went on ebay and searched the DF-02 chassis to see if there were any hop-ups and ended up buying every imaginable hop-up for this buggy. I bought all the Yeah Racing alloy parts. I have pictures here: http://groups.msn.com/eatatstunners/shoebox.msnw

I'll share my experiences with you....

The Yeah Racing front shock towers are very weak and bent backwards the first time I flipped over. The stock plastic ones are much stronger. The Yeah Racing alloy shaft is also very weak and one of the heads twisted off the first time I ran also. The stock shaft is great, no need to change it to alloy/aluminum. If anything, you should make one out of a steel rod but, not aluminum.
The GPM titanium universals are awesome. They will not bend or twist and they can take a beating. However, the pin that holds the universal joint comes loose. I just put a steel rod through there and bent it on both sides and it works great.
I also put a Novak Brushless GTB 5.5 Racing motor and ESC. If you do this, make sure you buy Dean's connectors for the ESC and the batteries. If not, you will melt the Tamiya connectors and lose tons of power. I also made a custom battery pack with C size 6000Mah NiMh batteries. Use 10 gauge cable or you will melt the wires.
I'm using HPI wheels with Proline nobbies. In order to keep the steering strong, I through-bolted the steering arms through the chassis. I uploaded pics of this and circled it in red. If you don't do this, the brushless power will eat up the threads in the plastic and your steering will have lots of play.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I also made a new spoiler out of aluminum. The plastic one almost tore off after a week.

Let me know what you think....

-psykopal :eek:

Nice! Looks like mine only blue. My wife has a stocker and even though I feel a slight difference in weight it would be interesting to gram out the cars too see exactly what the difference is with a full alloy mod car. I'll bet it scoots with lower shock mounts and a set of sticky slicks on painted concrete!!

[Fenris]

BTW I'm not too impressed with the rubber cups in the GPM rear shocks. The fronts let me bottom out the cap with a small amount of pressure but the rears pop and shove the cup into the tube if you go too far. Would be nice to have some tips along with the package. Might have a screwy set, who knows. I'm happy with the rebound and overall perf.

Thake the much better quality Tamiya rubber cups, the ones that come with the rear stock shocks, I think it was the red ones. Anyway they fit better than the GMP ones and assemble better as well.
It should work a treat.

[vmaxcruzer]

Thake the much better quality Tamiya rubber cups, the ones that come with the rear stock shocks, I think it was the red ones. Anyway they fit better than the GMP ones and assemble better as well.
It should work a treat.

Once again...a great forum. Thanks for the info, it worked like a charm.
VMX

[szan]

Hi,
I used the green one, I found they are more rigid than the red. Iexperienced pb with the stock red and the black from TRF 53576.
And green they can be bought as spare parts 50600.
Bye

[Prelude14WRX]

I have heard that the shocks on the Gravel Hound arn't that great...and they are right. I built the shocks with 60wt shock oil and the two hole pistons. The shocks felt like friction shocks. I then put the one hole piston in with 60wt shock oil and it helped a lot...but it still bottoms out when it jumps. I've set-up many different companies shocks and these are giving me trouble. I have 80wt shock oil laying around...should I try that? or is that to thick(I would think, but these shocks are friction shocks) THANKS :D

[frankylie]

hi all,

just a re-born RC car enthusiast here who just invested a GH buggy kit and some bits and pieces!

I got the Hitec HFX-R ESC for the kit and planned on using it with a modified motor, will it do the job? it says its rated for 10T motors and above?
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXARP2&P=0

also, are brushless motors are MUST HAVE? what are some of the pro's and con's and would my ESC drive it?

thanks in advance!

[tlt-crawler]

is there a dark impact thread floating around here??

[thundershot]

Is it even out yet? How much is it?

[XSFalcon]

stella models has it for $109

[tlt-crawler]

i got one coming here by the end of this week, paid $154 w/ 3-5 day shipping from hong kong included in that price!!!

[mo679]

hello everybody,
I'm about to choose a new set of tires and wanted to get something else then the stock tamiya tires. Eotz tryed Losi ifmar red and Proline, as pictures show, with good results. I was thinking about many sets: the new tamiya DF-03 which sould be pretty durable, but I don't have any Idea how they perform; the losi Ifmar red or silver, which should be a good compromise between traction and durability; the pro-line holeshot wich should be pretty good, but soft. What would you guys advice me between those and if you have experience with other 2.2" tires share it with us! :)

Bash hard

[fsh_62]

hello everybody,
I'm about to choose a new set of tires and wanted to get something else then the stock tamiya tires. Eotz tryed Losi ifmar red and Proline, as pictures show, with good results. I was thinking about many sets: the new tamiya DF-03 which sould be pretty durable, but I don't have any Idea how they perform; the losi Ifmar red or silver, which should be a good compromise between traction and durability; the pro-line holeshot wich should be pretty good, but soft. What would you guys advice me between those and if you have experience with other 2.2" tires share it with us! :)

Bash hard
Nothing beats Dirt Hawgs for bashing they seem to last forever. For something more serious I like Pro Line Bow Ties for dirt M2 compound or the softest M3 for hard packed dirt.

[mo679]

thanks fsh_62!
I heard a lot of you guys in the forum liking the dirt hawgs a lot, and they seem pretty fine and durable on pavement, but how are they in the dirt?, I bash or lightly race with friends mainly off-road, and the stock tires (especially the front one) are bald by now and the cor becomes just uncontrollable on sand/dirt, I'm running a superstock rz, which I don't want to upgrade, but thats enough to make the car spin a lot, would I experience the same with the hawgs?

Have fun! :)

[szan]

I use the Pro-line Evil Twin R3 compound for off roading ! They're great.
And of course some Dirt Hawg for on road.
Bye

[fsh_62]

thanks fsh_62!
I heard a lot of you guys in the forum liking the dirt hawgs a lot, and they seem pretty fine and durable on pavement, but how are they in the dirt?, I bash or lightly race with friends mainly off-road, and the stock tires (especially the front one) are bald by now and the cor becomes just uncontrollable on sand/dirt, I'm running a superstock rz, which I don't want to upgrade, but thats enough to make the car spin a lot, would I experience the same with the hawgs?

Have fun! :)
I have a super stock tz for bashing and it will spin the dirt hawgs. Almost no traction on dirt, don't get me wrong it's a lot of fun trying to keep it straight on dirt but if your going to race at all, even friends just goofing around you'll spend more time spinning than covering ground in the dirt.

[bakabaka]

Hi fsh_62!

I must second that. The Dirt Hawgs are really best used on asphalt and other higher traction surfaces. I've kept my stock wheels for dirt tracks, and used the dirt hawgs everywhere else. The Dirt Hawgs have more tread left than the stock wheels, despite having been used on the car 99% of the time. Anyway, looks like Saturday might be dry. Hopefully I'll get a chance to try the Spektrum DX2 system outside. It's definitely eliminated all the glitching I saw with the servos during inside testing. There's supposedly a dirt track opening a bit east of here this summer too, finally there'll be a place to take the buggy that's within an hour's drive.

BTW, hopefully there wasn't too much noticeable downtime on the FAQ. I just moved to a new place, and had to move the server to a temporary location while the DSL service was being moved. 2 weeks without broadband wasn't fun, but at least it's back.

Have fun! :)

[JDT]

I have used several different sets of tires and would agree that the stock pins provide the best loose dirt grip of any I have tried, I really liked the academy tires I was able to pick up but they wore out really fast as I did not restrict them to dirt and the pavement had them smooth within a couple packs time. My latest set of hard packed dirt tires are losi's that were in stock at the LHS, they seem to work just fine as have not worn too much as they are dirt only tire after the academy tire fiasco. I think they are X 2000 but not sure maybe that was the name of the rears, not sure what the name on the fronts were. I think both are pink compound.

Bakabaka I was wondering if you had floated away in all that no cal rain the news has been talking about, good to hear you will get a chance to run on saturday. Keep up the good work on that FAQ, I hope you get a DF 03 soon so I can get your evaluation of the new chassis....and maybe another FAQ to steal ideas from. Thanks again for the FAQ maintenance you are the man.

[fsh_62]

Hi Bakabaka,
I recently bought a nitro truck, sportwerks mayhem st that came with the Spektrum DX2 system. I love it and I'm sure you will to.
Have Fun

[Prelude14WRX]

Just got some Dirt Hawgs for my Gravel Hound. I ran them on my old Duratrax BX that i gave away, and they lasted forever. I like the stock tires on the Gravel Hound, but I like sliding around off-road when I'm bashing...not having a hooked up race buggy :D

[mo679]

Thanks for the info guys!
I think too that the stock pin tyres are great on dirt, but you guys that have tryed the 2.2" tires, did you notice an improvement in ground clearance?
I was thinking about getting a set of proline Holeshot or the new tamiya minipin and lowering a few mm the chassis ;) , that's because I noticed more understeer with a high chassis stand, what do you think?

Bakabaka keep us informed on your racing experience and, if you can, post some pictures :)

[mo679]

By the way,

What kind of dish wheel would go along well with those 2.2" tires: losi, yeah racing, tamiya?

bash hard! :)

[Prelude14WRX]

Thanks for the info guys!
I think too that the stock pin tyres are great on dirt, but you guys that have tryed the 2.2" tires, did you notice an improvement in ground clearance?
I was thinking about getting a set of proline Holeshot or the new tamiya minipin and lowering a few mm the chassis ;) , that's because I noticed more understeer with a high chassis stand, what do you think?

Bakabaka keep us informed on your racing experience and, if you can, post some pictures :)

The new Dirt Hawgs gave my buggy a lot more ground clearance...and they look more "scale" like.

[thundershot]

Dirt Hawgs are the best bang for buck if you bash around.

[XSFalcon]

67T Spur w/20T pinion + Tamiya Black Can Motor (Gravel Hound)
vs
70T Spur w/16T pinion + Peak Racing 15T Motor (Rising Storm)

Off the go, the GH has more acceleration.
The RS would catch up and had a higher top end but it took a little bit to catch up.

[Stormbasher3100]

What rims did u guys use for the dirt hawgs.

[mo679]

Hi Eotz

Do the df-03 tires fit on the tamiya star dish wheels? Are they any good?

Cheers

[fsh_62]

What rims did u guys use for the dirt hawgs.
I bought the HPI Super Size for my Dirt Hawgs...
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXLV90&P=7

[Stormbasher3100]

thanks fsh 62

[Eotz]

Hi Eotz

Do the df-03 tires fit on the tamiya star dish wheels? Are they any good?

Cheers

Hi mo679.

I don't try to mount the new tamiya tires on the classic Star Dish Wheels. I used Thunger Tiger 2.2" wheels and the SDW are 1.9"

Bye.

[Eotz]

Hi.

Finally I learned how to upload pictures to the forum :rolleyes: Here you have a few pictures of my RS. Can you see any "special" in the car?

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/543/2viz1eu20060402210843aax2er.jpg

http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/2749/2viz1eu20060402210853aax0kr.jpg

The new tamiya wheels don't work at all in the kind of ground that you can see in the picture. I don't know in other grounds.

Bye :p

[bakabaka]

Hi Eotz!

I see the new Tamiya treads, a really nice looking paint job, and wider extensions/longer screws on the Yeah shock towers' top and bottom mounting surfaces - presumably to prevent bending/breaking. I put longer screws through the shock tower mount on the rear as well, it definitely helps. Not sure about any other mods though. BTW, which suspension arms are you using?

Have fun! :)

[bakabaka]

Incidentally, a US vendor is now listing the Dark Impact as coming soon:

http://www.horizonhobby.com/Products/Default.aspx?ProdID=TAM58370

They're listing it at $152.99, and the projected availability is late in May 2006.

Have fun! :)

[strong22]

Hi
If you have Yeah front / rear shock towers plus lower front and rear arms and you would like to further upgrade them with stronger screw sets to replace the crappy default ones let me know - I have devised a set of 12 super strong black steel hex head 3mm screws (much better than ones depicted in the photo above) plus 12 matching stainless steel bolts and a matching stainless steel hex tool. 4 screws go to the outer wheel joints (front and back), 2 to the front shock tower, 2 to the rear shock tower, 2 to the rear shock tower base, 2 to the rear wing holder. It will be 25$ for all these including shipping in a bubble wrap envelope to any place on Earth via insured registered airmail, or just 20$ if you don't need the hex tool. You can pay via paypal only to alon2@hotmail.com don't forget to include full address. You can also email questions to the same address. Save yourself the hassle of shopping eBay for matching 3mm screws - there aren't any, I looked for over a year until I came up with my own solution. I can also get you the matching 2mm drill bit required for drilling out the rear shock tower holder etc for a few dollars more. A good thread lock like Tamiya or Associated is strictly optional because of the strength of the bolt lock compared to a regular or nut lock. Cheers

[XSFalcon]

What replacements screws can I use for the GPM Alloy Knuckles?
(to replace the King Screws)

My friend didn't believe me about the use of thread lock and during a bashing session in a nice gravel area.....all 4 drop out. It was pretty funny. I didn't even say "I told you so" after it happened.

[bakabaka]

Hi strong22,

I used a thin tapping screw to make the holes allowing the rear shock tower mounting screws to go all the way through. Perhaps not ideal, but I didn't have a drill with me to do it at the track when the mount snapped. The hex machine screws (3mm .5 pitch) do seem better, I picked up a few packets myself from the local Orchard Supply Hardware which do the trick.

Have fun! :)

[mo679]

Hi Eotz!

Thanks for the info, the car looks really nice, and the new tires fit to the chassis! to your point of view they are not good? might it be they are a bit too hard?
I'm about to get some tamiya off road dish wheel since I can't find any Thunder tiger or Academy seller, do you think these tires would fit? the measures in mm are 60mm diameter/ 24mm large in the front and 60/29 rear, just like the regular stock SDW, which I knew could mount losi or pro-line tires, I also thought 1,9" would mean 50 mm , what do you think?

Cheers

[Eotz]

Hi mo679.

The new tamiya wheels don't work in the hard and sliding surface of my race track. But I imagine that in another surfaces could work fine. You can find a lot of 2.2 inches (about 60 mm) diameter wheels, the new tamiya wheels, Kyosho, Thunder Tiger, HPI, Clyclone, Academy, Smartech and so on. The old Star Dish Wheel are 1.9 inches (More or less 50 mm). You must buy the tires with best performance in the ground you use to race the car, in my case Losi or Proline.
I hope this help you.
Ok, bakabaka I use longer screws in the mounts of the shock towers with bolts at the other side, with this easy mod I get a much hard assembly in the car and I can junp with any worried. I use longer screws and bolts in the union of the shocks with the shock towers and longer screws betwen the diferential cups and the chassis.

Bye. :rolleyes:

[bakabaka]

Hi Eotz!

Yup, that's pretty much what I saw. Unfortunately last weekend brought more rain so I wasn't able to take the DF-02 outside. I did run it inside a bit, not that there's much room for a 1/10 scale buggy in my apartment. I'm really starting to like that Spektrum system, the servo never chatters unless I turn the wheel myself. Can't wait to test the range.

Have fun! :)

[bscarter11]

I've had the spektrum DX3 system on my RS for about 2 months now, and I can have no complaints on it at all. I have had the car a good 250-300 feet away so far. By that point, its so small I cannot see it anymore. :) I have managed to destroy three shock towers (front) in the last month though. One of those being the fiber one that JR sells on ebay. What's the trick to getting that sucker to hold together?

Scott

[bakabaka]

Hi Scott,

The trick is really just using longer machine screws that go all the way through, and putting a nut (and possibly locking washer) on the other side. How did you actually destroy the CF shock tower? I've had my Gravel Hound slide upside down on asphalt and it barely even scraped it.

Have fun! :)

[thundershot]

Hi.

Finally I learned how to upload pictures to the forum :rolleyes: Here you have a few pictures of my RS. Can you see any "special" in the car?

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/543/2viz1eu20060402210843aax2er.jpg

http://img111.imageshack.us/img111/2749/2viz1eu20060402210853aax0kr.jpg

The new tamiya wheels don't work at all in the kind of ground that you can see in the picture. I don't know in other grounds.

Bye :p


Are those shocks tamiya? I never seen them before. What part number are they? :D

[Eotz]

Hi.

The shocks are from GPM with Losi coils.

Bye. :)

[bscarter11]

Those look like GPM shocks. I just put some on from Dinball's two weeks ago. The CF shock tower on my RS broke b/c my brother decided he needed to ramp the curb at full speed. That always results with the car being on its top. But the kicker was the additional 5 feet that it slid on non-smooth concrete. If it would have stopped quickly, it would have been ok, but this slide just chewed that part up. I'm actually thinking of getting two of the CF pieces and putting a spacer between them...then mounting the shocks to the front part. Maybe that with some long machine screws will keep the thing together for more than one day...

Scott

[XSFalcon]

What size screw is used to go through the C Hub (DF2019) to the front knuckle (df2021)?

By eyeballing, the Button Head screws 3x5mm look close.

[bakabaka]

Hi XSFalcon,

Not sure since I'm using the Yeah set. Did you try the stock Tamiya screws?

Have fun! :)

[thundershot]

I get my screws here https://www.fastener-express.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=218

[Lest]

Hi All

I am new here, I registered after reading through this thread and it is a dream come true!!

A whole, ongoing thread dedicated to my car!

Thought I would register to hopefully help with the great advise already on here.

I just got back from my first club race and even though I need to sort my driving out the RS performed superbly!

When I first got it, it suffered from the dreaded rear suspension problem that has been mentioned where the back just kicks out all over the place regardless of oil spring setup.

It has the official DF02 alu shocks on it which turned out to be the problem.

The valves on the shocks have much smaller holes and, as someone has mentioned a lot of room around them so I checked the manual and fitted the exact bits (V9) that you would put in the shocks that come with the car (black plastic).

Problem completely solved.

600 oil and blue (hard) springs with 12mm spacers on the back
600 oil and blue springs with 5mm spacers on the front

I started the day with red springs on the front (soft) but changed to blue to kick the front up more on jumps as it was nosediving a bit.

There isnt a lot of ground clearance but I notice that most of the other cars "slapped" slightly after the jumps so rather that than transferring the whole force through badly designed shock tower which I have also modified.

I have had this car about a month and have had to fit a completely new chassis due to another weakness:

There doesnt seem to be any strength in the wishbone mounts so the slightest smack and they just tear off.

I will put up some piccies as soon as I have done this message to show what I have done.

Basically I have shaved out the back/front of the chassis to allow the metal clip that holds the wishbones in to slot into holes that I have drilled into the chassis and it is held there by the screw that holds the gearbox cover which is longer than normal.

the only problem with this is there isnt much space on the clip for one side of the wishbone so I have shaved quite a lot off.

However it seesm to be rare that the wishbone shears and is ussually the mount that goes on most cars so I hope I have just evened the odds a bit.

Time will tell but it had a good beating today including several carwheels with no problems


One last thing, the rear shock tower and an extra measure on top of the "drill right through and long bolt" measure.

Inside the reag gearbox cover, there is a flat area which has enough clearance for a bolt to go straight through the shock tower into the void where the existing screws go in which gives a lot of strength in exactly the right direction, taking most of the strain from the existing screws.

Possible next problem is that more stress is being put on that one rather lame looking rear gerabox fixing but again it seems fine after today and if it does go, a plate should sort it out.

I have a 15 turn on there with 67/18 gearing and there were some very suprised guys at the track running kyoshos and much more expensive cars.

It held its own ...... if only the driver could, erm, drive!!!

[mo679]

Hey Lest!
Welcome in the forum :)

The Df-02 chassis has some troubles, but it's nice to see how everybody is fixing and sharing their ideas! The wishbone mod sounds interesting could you post some pics?

Cheers

[Lest]

There you go chaps, pics of my Mods.
I was going to try to put them straight on a post but would have had to reduce them a lot and the detail would be lost.
http://les5988.fotopic.net/c795556.html

[Lest]

the main thing to remember is the screws that hold the wishbone clips have to be longer than the standard ones and as long as possible without obstructing the gearbox screw coming from the other direction in the case of the rear one.

As I said though, even though I have raced today with no problems, it was the first time out since the mod and if anyone can spot a weakness that I have created please feel free to pull this theory to bits.

The way I see it is the stress of a collision is now spread over three points (said screw, the normal wishbone collars and the new holes in the chassis that the wishbone clip pushes into)

All three points are part of the chassis which would need to be replaced even if only the standard collar broke so I have nothing to lose I guess.

[Stormbasher3100]

What gearing would you guys recommend for the velociti 5.5R motor by novak. Im thinking about going brushless and i would like to know if that is a good choice.

[szan]

What gearing would you guys recommend for the velociti 5.5R motor by novak. Im thinking about going brushless and i would like to know if that is a good choice.
Hi,
Regarding to novak doc http://www.teamnovak.com/download/instructions/pdfs/velociti%205.5_6.5_instr.pdf the DF-02 gearing can handle brushless motors down to 6.5 turn using the higher ratio of 11.375 (16T/70T).
You should prefer a velocity 6.5 or 7.5 in my opinion, otherwise you could have some overheating troubles with your GTB.
Enjoy

[Stormbasher3100]

thanks szan i was actually looking at that pdf just before u replied. I will probably go with the 6.5R then.
but i think a better choice for pinion would be either 17t or 18t that is in the range that novak suggests for that motor

[szan]

thanks szan i was actually looking at that pdf just before u replied. I will probably go with the 6,5R then.
Yep, give us feedback of your experience...

[james4ihl]

Hi All,

I'm getting back into RC cars (used to build and run them when I was a teenager - sadly quite a while ago!) and would appreciate some advice.

I like the look of this Gravel Hound, but where can I source upgrades to make this into a full bearing kit in the UK?

Are there any other mods that are worthwhile doing at the build stage (e.g. gearbox) and if so, again where can I source them in the UK?

Cheers,
James

[james4ihl]

Uh... just noticed there's a new kit out, the Dark Impact.

Should I just go for one of those instead of upgrading a Gravel Hound??

Any thoughts appreciated!

James

[mo679]

Uh... just noticed there's a new kit out, the Dark Impact.

Should I just go for one of those instead of upgrading a Gravel Hound??

Any thoughts appreciated!

James

Buy the dark impact! Better ground clearance, better suspension geometry, ball diff front and rear, fully ball-raced and you can mount a slipper clutch!
Much better racer but maybe less resistent then the DF-02 chassis and it looks good :p

Eotz the stock star dish wheels are 55mm inside (2.2") and 60 outside, I checked and they fit pro-line holeshot so I guess they'll fit tamiya df-03 tire too!
Cheers

[Stormbasher3100]

Uh... just noticed there's a new kit out, the Dark Impact.

Should I just go for one of those instead of upgrading a Gravel Hound??

Any thoughts appreciated!

James
Probably a good idea unless you are going to bash your buggy then you should go with the df-02 it has a larger parts list and it is proven to be durable.

[bakabaka]

Hi all!

The Dark Impact should be available by the end of May, I'll definitely be getting one. (Time for another forum thread perhaps?) It should be interesting to see how it performs out of the box next to my hopped up DF-02. Looks like this weekend will actually be dry too, can't wait to get the RCs into the dirt.

Have fun! :)

[james4ihl]

The Dark Impact is available now - ordered one yesterday from Modelsport UK and its in the post.

Thanks for the advice on that! Anyone with further interest, check this forum:

http://tamiyaclub.com/CS/forums/thread/158898.aspx

James

[mo679]

Hello People

Did anybody try to build a custom made Slipper clutch for the Df-02?

Maybe based on the Kyosho lazer zx5 which looks to have a similar chassis setup

It would be interesting to see how the df02 would perform with the slipper! :)

let me know what you think
Cheers

[bakabaka]

Hi mo679!

It sounds interesting, although I haven't seen the ZX5 so I wouldn't know how it would fit the DF-02. I'd guess it would have to fit over the driveshaft, so adjustment might be a bit difficult. If you do make one though, be sure to post pics!

Have fun! :)

[bakabaka]

Incidentally, it appears that Yeah Racing has released the revised version of their DF-02 rear suspension arm. It's definitely wider, hopefully the shorter tube won't bend as easily as the original. The part number in this case doesn't have an A or B in it, which differentiates it from the original weaker part.

http://www.yeahracing.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=29_55_70&products_id=1044

Have fun! :)

[mo679]

Incidentally, it appears that Yeah Racing has released the revised version of their DF-02 rear suspension arm. It's definitely wider, hopefully the shorter tube won't bend as easily as the original. The part number in this case doesn't have an A or B in it, which differentiates it from the original weaker part.

http://www.yeahracing.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=29_55_70&products_id=1044

Have fun! :)

they look much stronger!, I wish they release a revised version o their shock tower too!


The Slipper clutch is harder then I thought to make, there is not a lot of room in the drivetrain, but I'm working on it, and if I make it I'll sure post pics!
Have fun

[Aluma]

hey guys, how do y'all gear a reedy 19T motor... I tried the 67/22, but it seems rather slow....70/19 was REAALLY slow.

[mbs]

How I have to mount the motor with 67 spur/18 pinion (angles/holes)?
I find no infos...

One Problem that happens to me: LRP Runner Special II with Dirt Hawg III (front) and Dirt Hawg I (rear) and Stock ESC with 67/19.
My Motor got really hot (> 100 C)! With the stock tires I have no problems with the temperature. But with the new Dirt Hawgs the Motor and Accu gets hot. Which gearing you can recommend?
Thanks a lot
mbs

[szan]

How I have to mount the motor with 67 spur/18 pinion (angles/holes)?
I find no infos...
You can't ! 67t spur is for 19t to 22t pinion.
Position is :
67t/19t = 70t/16t
67t/20t = 70t/17t
67t/21t = 70t/18t
67t/22t = 70t/19t
Bye

[mbs]

You can't ! 67t spur is for 19t to 22t pinion.
Position is :
67t/19t = 70t/16t
67t/20t = 70t/17t
67t/21t = 70t/18t
67t/22t = 70t/19t
Bye

that sucks! Ok...i will mount the 70T spur. :mad:

[JDT]

Yeah I made the mistake of putting in the 67 tooth spur also, had to change that to run mod motors, you need to take about half the car apart to change so I have never had the 67 back in, just leave the 70 and change pinions for different motors etc. I was always hoping we would get a bigger spur for lower turn motors and or bigger tires, if 67 works for 19-22 and 70 works for 16-19 then 73? should work for 16-13, I also thought about making an adjustable motor mount but can is too close to the tunnel to do anything with. Running the 4.25 inch truck dirt hawgs is hell on the 17 and 19 turn motors at 70/16 so I recently switched to a traxxas titan for "big" tire running, took a little work to get that long can in there but the fan in the back of the motor helps it to run much cooler than the mod motors, not blazing fast but my yard and the neighbors yards are all very plush grass so the pin tire and the buggy dirt hawgs allow the car to get stuck and bog in the grass too much. I could use the spur for both faster motors and larger tires but with the new DF 03 out I bet no future plans for this unit, maybe we will be lucky and they will decide to put a truck body and tires on it and give us a bigger spur, only time will tell.

[Combatcm]

I took my DF-02 to the track but their wasn't enough people to race it. It handled good, almost as good as my MT2. It jumped flat and handled smooth. I wish we could get more people to race 4wd buggy. I raced an entire pack hot lapping the track and not once did it flip.

[bakabaka]

Hi all!

It seems to me that about the only things the DF-02 really needs are a more adjustable motor mount, and a larger spur gear (73t .6 module or so.) Even a spur gear adapter that allowed the DF-02 to use commonly produced spur gears would be helpful. Just curious, would anyone be interested in buying them if I could get a manufacturer to agree to produce one or more of these parts? Yeah Racing has been very receptive to suggestions in the past, I suppose it couldn't hurt to ask.

BTW, I did take the DF-02 out this last weekend in a local school's parking lot. I was given a 1700mah Sanyo matched racing pack a while ago in a trade, and I finally gathered enough courage to solder Deans connectors on the SS5800 battery wires. I couldn't believe the difference! The dirt hawgs now spin on asphalt, and the front of the buggy looks like it's ready to launch during acceleration. The Spektrum system is excellent too. I could probably pass a few of those Nitro trucks I'd been driving around with before given this configuration. I do believe I might pick up a few more of these racing packs to play with ;)

Have fun! :)

[viet_mafia]

1700mah!? you should be getting yourself some nice IB4200's or at least some 3800's:D

[JDT]

I would be really interested in a 73 or bigger spur gear that would allow pinions to 13(or less, I think robinson only makes to 13...) with the stock motor mount, if someone could make a spur gear adapter and motor plate to allow to normal 48 pitch pinions and different size spur gears I would be interested in that also, I sat a losi 86 tooth spur in the chassis on some bearing with the shaft in place just to check feasability, it actually fit without hitting the bottom of the chassis, it would only take some math so figure out the dimensions of the new spur for the stock motor mount as someone did the calculations to go from 67 to 70, the tt01 that uses the same motor mount and like 55 tooth spurs and mounts on the opposite side so a bigger spur is feasable but I do not have the match skills needed to figure this out, almost an engineering project, I had even thought about making a center mount for the motor to sit above the shaft but it did not seem like a very good idea as I like the sealed drivetrain aspect for dirt mud etc. Let us know if we can get some bigger spurs.

[bakabaka]

1700mah!? you should be getting yourself some nice IB4200's or at least some 3800's:D

Yup, I probably will but I couldn't complain for free. The voltage is definitely higher on this pack than my 2400 and 3000 "sport" packs.

Have fun! :)

[bakabaka]

Hi JDT!

You'd typically have the gear machined, unfortunately the machines that do the work are quite expensive. I'll let everyone know if a company agrees to produce them.

Have fun! :)

[JDT]

bakabaka-thanks, let us know if either the bigger stock motor mount spur or a conversion for spur and motor mount become available.

On a side note I melted another motor on the RS today, 13 turn Kobal is no more, I was trying out my buddies lipo 8000 mah pack, I was playing around chasing a Jato I did not really back off for quite a while, big track wide open most of the time, now I know why they do not recommend lipo with brushed motors, the endbell came nearly all the way off, ejected the brush on one side(through the bottom, spring intact) and everything. I continue to wait for the Mamba Maxx brushless esc, mod motors are wearing out about every month and a half so I really want to get a brushless soon but Mamba has the best 1/18 controller so I have high hope for the max, if it ever comes out. I may just give up and spend my money on a MTroniks Truck esc, Quark looks good but I got to have waterproofing due to lots of moisture on saturday and sunday mornings in the summertime around here. By now I have spent enough on the esc and brushed motors I should have just bought the ss 5800 from the start and just hoped it would not get wet, oh well live and learn.

[Lest]

Hi Guys, me again.
Anyone know whether it is possible to source the black ball mounts that are part of the top cap on the Tamiya alloy shocks?

After few flips they are starting to get a bit battered and I cant believe they dont sell them seperateley.

Cheers

Les

[bakabaka]

Hi Les!

Tamiya part number 53334 has the mounts that you're looking for, here's the entry in the DF-02 FAQ on it. If you haven't seen the FAQ yet, it might be worth a read. Lots of info I've collected about the chassis since I purchased mine.

http://xyzzy.dyn.dhs.org/df02/index.php?action=artikel&cat=6&id=26&artlang=en

Have fun! :)

[Lest]

superb thanks bakabaka!

[bscarter11]

Since I last posted (having broken the CF shock tower), I have become quite impatient on waiting for JR-RC to ship me my 2 new ones to try a new setup. So I resorted to something alittle less secure...cardboard. I know, I laughed too, but it actually worked good enough to get "car" out on the street and turning laps again. I'd post pics of it, but I'm not sure how to get pics posted here yet. I took two layers of cardboard back to back...then i reinforced them with the broken aluminum shock tower from yeah. I took long screws through the bottom holes and medium length screws through the top screws. The top part of the yeah alum shock tower was intact and sat in the stock location for the shocktower and provided nice support in the seated position. I put the cardboard on the front of that.

I have no idea where the new CF towers are...its been two weeks. Slow boat from china me thinks. When they *do* get here, I plan on a similar arrangement with the two CF towers like i have the cardboard ones now. If it breaks again, it will be the mounts on the body...

In the last week, I have picked up a duratrax intellipeak charger and two 3600mah 6C packs to use. Tried one of them out last night, and I do believe the car was running much faster than my old no name 2400 packs. Not sure about that though. Also picked up a trinity cobalt 2 motor that should ship sometime in mid May. Got the 15T monster truck version. I have no experience with this motor, but I believe my novak ESC will be put to the test. Things with this car are going to get pretty fun pretty quick though.

Scott

[szan]

Hi all,

I've tested the strong rotor from Novak on my 5800. With the same configuration as before 67t/19t, it gives really more torque and more top speed, it's fun, and a little dangerous for the car :D
The motor and the ESC are both much more hot than with original rotor, the battery discharges in less time, 10min on my 3600mah (mix on and off road).
I've tried with a 22t pinion gear, it gives more speed, but the motor and ESC are to hot in my opinion to keep this configuration even if I hadn't thermal shutdown on my runs.
So I will keep 19t, it's a great improvement and a cheap way to get this.

Bye

[bakabaka]

Hi Scott,

That's weird, I've always had fairly quick shipping from them. Did you send an email asking what happened to the package? They're shipping direct from Japan IIRC. Good idea with the shock towers. I haven't had a problem with them breaking yet, but I haven't really been flipping the buggy since the closest thing to a local offroad track closed. Another's going to open this summer though, just about an hour away, so I guess I'll get the chance again soon ;)

Have fun! :)

[bakabaka]

Hi szan!

Cool, good to hear it improves both torque and top end. Not sure if I'd want to decrease battery life that much, but I suppose switching to the 70t spur gear would probably get some of it back and cool down the ESC and motor too.

Have fun! :)

[szan]

For sure it will, but I'm too lasy by the moment to dismount center shaft ;)

Bye

[fabolousRC]

I found an interesting option for DF02s...

http://www.tamiyausa.com/images/product/720/53728/header_53728.jpg

RC 4WD Off-Road Dish Wheels (http://www.tamiyausa.com/product/item.php?product-id=53728)



For more off-road buggy wheel options, Tamiya releases a new set of off-road dish wheels for 4WD buggies. Wheel size (Front: 60/24, Rear: 60/29) is the same as the current main grade-up buggy wheel, Star Dish Wheel (Front: 53089, Rear: 53086).

Set includes

* Front dish wheel (60/24) x 2
* Rear dish wheel (60/29) x 2

Compatible chassis
All Star Dish Wheel compatible 4WD buggy (TL-01B, DF-02, Dirt Thrasher, Blazing Star, Manta Ray etc.)

According to my calculation, 60mm=2.3inches tall so that must be the whole diameter with the lip. If that is the case, the inner diameter should be 2.2inches therefore it should be categorized as another wheel option for Dark Impact (the actual one that everyone had been wanting to get in the first place).

Whoops...nevermind...I was wrong. Inner diameter would actually be smaller than 2.2.

[bakabaka]

Hi FabulousRC!

Yup, I purchased a set direct from Tamiya a while ago. They're very inexpensive, and I actually prefer them to the star dish wheels. If you aren't worried about using the wider tires of the Dark Impact, you should be able to use them on the DF-03 chassis as well.

Have fun! :)

[Aluma]

You guys aint gonna believe this! I won my club's A main for combo of monster truck/4wd/gastruck. I raced against a Neo one equipped BJ4(insanely fast), a revo, a kyosho STR, a RC10GT FT, and I think a savage. It was the funniest thing cuz I was going full throttle all the way(about 15mph(Something up with my motor or the eSC)) throughout the whole race. At the beginning, everyone takes off and you see the little turtle gravel hound just inching along....halfway through most of them break or flame out or something...but you just see the little turtle gravel hound scooting along...and the announcer just starts freaking out...And """""""" is in the lead? is this thing right? whats going on out there! Then everyone starts cheering the little slow hound on. who said you cant do an 8min race with electrics. :D Everyone couldn't stop laughin for a while. And of course the drivers were all mad, next time they're gonna run over me. :D

[bakabaka]

Hi Aluma,

Congratulations! That's about the coolest thing I've heard all week. Definitely time for a new set of electronics though. Even the stock stuff is faster...

Have fun! :)

[mo679]

I found an interesting option for DF02s...

http://www.tamiyausa.com/images/product/720/53728/header_53728.jpg

RC 4WD Off-Road Dish Wheels (http://www.tamiyausa.com/product/item.php?product-id=53728)



For more off-road buggy wheel options, Tamiya releases a new set of off-road dish wheels for 4WD buggies. Wheel size (Front: 60/24, Rear: 60/29) is the same as the current main grade-up buggy wheel, Star Dish Wheel (Front: 53089, Rear: 53086).

Set includes

* Front dish wheel (60/24) x 2
* Rear dish wheel (60/29) x 2

Compatible chassis
All Star Dish Wheel compatible 4WD buggy (TL-01B, DF-02, Dirt Thrasher, Blazing Star, Manta Ray etc.)

According to my calculation, 60mm=2.3inches tall so that must be the whole diameter with the lip. If that is the case, the inner diameter should be 2.2inches therefore it should be categorized as another wheel option for Dark Impact (the actual one that everyone had been wanting to get in the first place).

Whoops...nevermind...I was wrong. Inner diameter would actually be smaller than 2.2.


I bought this set of wheels too and I think they are 2.2" inner diameter, on the rear on there is written 60-54-29-35, where the 54 is the inner diameter which should be 2.2", whatever it is they fit losi stud in the front and losi bigshot in the rear!
So grab a set and jump in the dirt! :) and for sure they fit pro-line tires too
good match for the DF03

Mo

[bakabaka]

Speaking of the DF03, Tower Hobbies has the Dark Impact on their website now. They're listing it at the same price as Horizon, so I imagine this will be the typical mailorder price for it in the states. They also mention that the stock pinion is 26t, and the spur is 78t. I guess with the smaller differentials they need bigger gears elsewhere, but a 26t pinion was a bit of a surprise for me. Even my TB-02s are running 21t pinions, and all my other kits use 19t or under.

Have fun! :)

[szan]

I've read somewhere that pinion gear are 0.5 module (ref 53081), like old astute, madcap...
DF-03 manual is downloadable here http://tamiya.com/japan/rc/manuals.htm

Bye

[szan]

Hi,

I got a pair of these shafts after my bad experience with Tobee ones.
I c

[szan]

Hi,

I got a pair of these shafts after my bad experience with Tobee ones.
I can say it's a disappointment : they are really shorter than Tobee ones. Have a look at the photo, there is very much play in the diff cup connection. I reduced it with a damper join (red on the photo) but it's not very serious from Square to do such bad hopups.

[szan]

So, I accepted the play and expected they were more strong than others.
Bad news, the small shaft inside the head always move away and touch the knuckle lathing it. Check the result :

[szan]

So I tried to tighten the grub screw much more, but it was same :(
So I sticked it with loctite and then I lost the whole head somewhere in the grass, making my universal good for trashcan !
Conclusion : do not use these hopups wich are expensive and badly concepted

[Lest]

HI chaps, a bit of an update on the DIY upgrades.
Chassis is holding up well with no sign of the wishbone clips budging despite a heavy hammering at the local 1/8 scale IC off road track on wednesday last week.
Got sat on by a few truggies as well with no real problems.
Had a look inside the rear shocks though after a few runs with the black 3 hole pistons in and they seem to be wearing the aluminium a bit (black muck instead of shock oil came out!

I decided they worked well though and found that the wholes are close enough to a 1.5mm drill bit so just drilled out the holes (very carefully!!!!) on the proper white three hole pistons as they arent such a tight fit.
Fully expected a return of the incurably twitchy back end but no such thing!
They work superbly!
I have gone to 800 oil in the back now but only for the sake of a little more stiffness.
It still slaps a bit when jumping but as I mentioned before, It is asking a bit too much of the rear tower to catch the weight of the whole car In my opinion.

Did manage to bust the front tower though and suprised it lasted this long once taking it off and seeing the design.
That thing is just one big mess of leverage!
There are new pics on the link below which show the latest bodge to get over that.
Just a simple strip of metal from just behind the shock top ball-end to the front side of the tower's chassis mount.
I know that I may have just moved the stress somewhere else and will watch the front gearbox cover screw with interest.

I have bought a GPM front tower (Yeah are too weedy by all accounts) but am going to wait till this breaks if it does Front gearbox cover allready in stock!

http://www.les5988.fotopic.net/c795556.html

[bscarter11]

That is pretty interesting for a front shock tower setup. My JR-RC CF shock towers finally came in last week. When I rebuilt the front tower, I put the first CF shock tower in the stock location. I used a spacer between that and the second CF shock tower to clear the mounting location below at the base. I finally put extenders on the front and rear of my double CF shock tower. I used one inch machine screws to hold the top and shocks in place. The bottom has 3/4" machine screws through the base with spacers behind the base to support the towers. It is essentially the same setup I used when I built my cardboard shocktower last week. The new dual CF tower setup is very rigid. I haven't had the chance to bash it yet as I'm waiting for my T-Maxx to come back from getting its 3.3 engine upgrade. :) I did put one stick pack on the new tower though. There was no issues whatsoever. I will try to post a pic if anyone is interested. Now I just have to figure a way to keep the rear end from dipping when hitting the gas. I have a 15 turn trinity motor on the way...and its not handling the 23t tamiya super stock? Good kinds of problems to have. :)

Scott

[JDT]

I too have had problems with the front tower, I have been through all the aftermarkets as well as many stock pieces, has anyone designed a new tower? I went and got some 5053 aluminum 5mm thick, I am working on getting a pattern but my art skills are rather poor, I am thinking of taking it to a graphic artist for a mechanical drawing with properly rounded corners and consistant thickness etc, I don't want to get too out of control on the front but the rear I am going to make somewhat taller and much wider, so wide that the the last hole will be directly above the inside hole on the arm, I think getting that shock more upright may allow me to adjust rate a little better as I have tried about 8 sets of springs and five or six shock oils in the back, its either a slapper or so stiff it is darty and crash happy. The 5 mm is pretty thick stuff, I had hoped for 6061 or 7076 but these were not in stock, the 5053 should be strong enough for the most severe bashing, as I am not a real machinist I will have to mount it on the front side like the sqaure tower does, I had a chance to get some 3mm aluminum but as the square tower was 3mm carbon and it broke I wanted something stronger, once I have my patterns done I will try and post them here so you guys can check them out and offer opinions on if it will work or not. If anyone has redesigned the shock towers for this car please post patterns or pictures.

[Lest]

I think getting that shock more upright may allow me to adjust rate a little better as I have tried about 8 sets of springs and five or six shock oils in the back, its either a slapper or so stiff it is darty and crash happy
JDT have you tried the piston Mods I have mentioned yet?
They work for me.
Basically drill the white three hole piston out with a 1.5mm drill bit which is the same as the "V" part three hole piston which seems to sort out the rear problems I was having.

Cheers

[bscarter11]

Anyone know where to buy a new RS body and wing...just the body and wing?

Scott

[Stormbasher3100]

Anyone know where to buy a new RS body and wing...just the body and wing?

Scott

Here
http://www.tamiyausa.com/product/item.php?product-id=1825312

[raytracer]

Hi guys, maybe someone can help me out. I plan to bash around in the soccer field in my old school. But the prob is that there's no AC outlet for my pwr supply and charger. Anyone have experience with a smaller lead acid battery? I saw a hobbico 12V 7amp sealed lead acid battery at towerhobbies and I think I can use this to power my CE pitbull charger. How many 3300mah packs can I charge with this lead acid? Says that charging it is also overnight with an ac adapter sold separately by hobbico. How many cycles is this lead acid good for? Tnx

[JDT]

You should be able to find the specs on the battery to show its charge cycle runtime at a certain amp draw, find the specs on the charger draw to make sure the battery has enough power, if the battery says it has a 2.5 hour life at 7 amps and your charger draws 7 amps then you should be able to do at least 3 packs if they take 40 minutes, Or you can just try it, I have used a small garden tractor battery with my superbrain 977 but charging two packs at once, 4.5 amps #1 and 1.5 amps #2 (to space out peak times) I was able to charge 3 packs and discharge 2 before it started to flake out and make me nervous so I went home and went ac for discharging the last one, I have no experience with the pit bull charger, my superbrain takes about 40 minutes for gp 33 or 37's so yours may be a little faster which should equal more packs in a given time I guess I would assume the worse that could happen is the last pack would never peak if the battery went dead, I did not want to discharge on low battery power however my superbrain will error out if any problems while charging so I was only marginally worried(but mrc service takes forever!) If you don't mind the size and cash outlay Optima makes the best deep cycles around, a deep cycle battery will last much longer than a standard battery as they are meant to be charged up and run down all the time.

[raytracer]

You should be able to find the specs on the battery to show its charge cycle runtime at a certain amp draw, find the specs on the charger draw to make sure the battery has enough power, if the battery says it has a 2.5 hour life at 7 amps and your charger draws 7 amps then you should be able to do at least 3 packs if they take 40 minutes, Or you can just try it, I have used a small garden tractor battery with my superbrain 977 but charging two packs at once, 4.5 amps #1 and 1.5 amps #2 (to space out peak times) I was able to charge 3 packs and discharge 2 before it started to flake out and make me nervous so I went home and went ac for discharging the last one, I have no experience with the pit bull charger, my superbrain takes about 40 minutes for gp 33 or 37's so yours may be a little faster which should equal more packs in a given time I guess I would assume the worse that could happen is the last pack would never peak if the battery went dead, I did not want to discharge on low battery power however my superbrain will error out if any problems while charging so I was only marginally worried(but mrc service takes forever!) If you don't mind the size and cash outlay Optima makes the best deep cycles around, a deep cycle battery will last much longer than a standard battery as they are meant to be charged up and run down all the time.

Thanks JDT. I'll see if there's that 2.5/7amp specs on the lead acid. I charge at 5 amps for 45 mins so that will be more than 3 packs if that's the way its calculated. What is a deep cycle battery? The hobbico doesn't say its deep cycle. And also the optional ac adapter to charge the lead acid battery doesn't have a cutoff so how do you know if its charged or not and ready to bring outdoor? They said to leave it overnight before you go to the track but I'm not so sure I want to leave an explosive lead battery charging. Your charger is great btw, it can charge different batt types and really affordable. They just dont have it in my country.
Here's the link to the lead acid finally I can go offroading anywhere
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXL370&P=M

[JDT]

You can find a deep cycle battery marine battery at any boating store, they are made to be charged and discharged all the time, cell chemistry is different from a normal car batter, in the us we have different sizes for things like small trolling motors on boats all the way up to automobile battery sizes depending on use, they can also be charged by a normal automobile battery charger. I am unsure of the normal motorcyle/tractor batteries as the little garden tractor battery I used only lasted a 6 or 7 charge and discharge cycles before it died but it was used and free so I am not sure its age or condition when I got it. I do love my superbrain, it is the third MRC charger I have had, the superbrain 959 is a great cheap little charger and was my standard for years, tried a 969 that my buddy was selling when he got his ice charger but then about two weeks later the ads were out for the 977 so I went ahead and ordered it form a place in california that got one of the first shipments, great charger so far, when I switch to brushless and lipo I want to get the 989 as my power supply is allready the right plug and everything and will allow bigger lipos in the future. As far as the lead acid charging goes I wouldn't want to leave unattended unless it had a cutoff, deep cycle batteries are not like rc batteries you can get an auto charger that charges at different rates, my personal car charger is 2/10 selectable autocutoff($40 us walmart) so at 10 amps you could charge it one night after school/work and use it the next day as with no load it would loose very little power, if not later that night, 3-4 hours to due a full size car battery that is ran down. I mentioned the optima deep cycle before, they are the ultimate, my buddy runs one for the winch on his big 4x4 pickup/rockcrawler thing, it is simply amazing it pulled us out of more than one river crossing gone bad, I really want one but they are $140 and I just can't due it, for know I will stick closer to ac power supplies or just keep looking for free car, boat or tractor batteries and use them until they are dead and then drop them off to the recycling center to collect my $1 each. Hope this helps good luck with you df 02, I know I have beat mine like no other RC I have owned.

[JDT]

I forgot to mention, that tower battery says full 7 amp hours, that means one hour at 7 amps or seven hours at one amp, not a very good choice, it would probably due one full and one partial charge before dying.

[bakabaka]

I just picked up a set of Power Racing 1/8 buggy front dampers, the only 1/8 scale dampers carried by the LHS, which I installed on the rear of my Gravel Hound. I mounted them to the Yeah rear damper tower using Duratrax Evader ST damper mounts and machine screws. They came with rubber "boots" for the suspension shaft, which should make cleaning them easier.

Anyway, with AE 55 weight oil and just one of the second largest damper spacers, it seems to match the front Tamiya dampers with 45 weight oil and three spacers perfectly. I have the car tuned mostly for landing from jumps, but I might try using lighter oil to see how well they absorb smaller, rapid bumps.

Have fun! :)

[raytracer]

I forgot to mention, that tower battery says full 7 amp hours, that means one hour at 7 amps or seven hours at one amp, not a very good choice, it would probably due one full and one partial charge before dying.

Thanks JDT. Saved me from making a mistake. I'll look for atleast 7amp/3hours. :D

[raytracer]

Seems I dont have permission to start a new thread. Maybe someone could start a new Dark Impact thread in this Electric Offroad forum

[bakabaka]

Hi raytracer!

I guess it requires more than the "Senior" member level too, perhaps someone with a higher access level can request the thread... Did yours just arrive? I've placed an order, but it was apparently back ordered again for at least a week by the time I got to it.

Have fun! :)

[bakabaka]

Although I couldn't create a thread, I did add a section to the FAQ for DF-03 chassis. It can be accessed through both the http://xyzzy.dyn.dhs.org/df02/ and http://xyzzy.dyn.dhs.org/df03/ URLs. Nothing specific to the DF-03 yet, but that should change once mine arrives.

Also, there has been a DF-03 thread for some time here, although it's in the "Hot news and new stuff" section: http://forums.radiocontrolzone.com/showthread.php?t=214127

Hopefully there will be a discussion thread in the Electric Off-Road section soon, the buggy definitely looks like it deserves one.

Have fun! :)

[raytracer]

Although I couldn't create a thread, I did add a section to the FAQ for DF-03 chassis. It can be accessed through both the http://xyzzy.dyn.dhs.org/df02/ and http://xyzzy.dyn.dhs.org/df03/ URLs. Nothing specific to the DF-03 yet, but that should change once mine arrives.

Also, there has been a DF-03 thread for some time here, although it's in the "Hot news and new stuff" section: http://forums.radiocontrolzone.com/showthread.php?t=214127

Hopefully there will be a discussion thread in the Electric Off-Road section soon, the buggy definitely looks like it deserves one.

Have fun! :)

Mine will be here soon.
I've been reading that thread and even posted I think. I'm sure more people would be posting if it was here since the df03 has been out for a while now. Really curious about what people think about it.

[tlt-crawler]

i've had my DF-03 for about a month now (found one on ebay from hong kong for $154 shipped!!) it's going to be a very dialed car!!! i really fore-see this chassis getting the TRF treatment for both the buggy, and the (and we ALL know this is going to happen) eventual touring car that will come off of this chassis. some pointers, though...
1.) have some fuel tubing handy for all the dogbones and the prop shaft. there is a
lot of play in this areas, and fuel tubing fixes it nicely.
2.) be careful with a motor choice for now, as this thing doesn't have a slipper clutch
in it. i don't want to run too hot of a motor in it and gernade my gearboxes, YET!!
as i am sure that parts will be fairly difficult to come across right now, i don't feel
like waiting for weeks for new parts from asia.
3.) make sure you use a SMALL speedo!!! i cracked open one of my roosters i have
un-opened on stock for my crawlers, and it was kind of big for the chassis. i had
to trim a hole in the shell so it would seat right on the chassis.

other than that, it is a very nice car, i'm looking to having fun with it!!

[bakabaka]

Hi tlt-crawler,

Sounds great! Looking at their website, Tamiya does have a slipper clutch in the works. It's part #53925, and will come with an 82t spur gear. Apparently item #53922 will be a 23t and 25t pinion set, and item #53923 will be 27t and 29t pinions. Hopefully another source will pop up for the Dark Impact's pinions, more choice always helps.

FWIW, Tower Hobbies has the Dark Impact at $152.99, and they currently have a promotion which takes $20 off the price of anything $149 and up. With $7.99 shipping, the buggy was $140.98 which wasn't too bad. Can't wait to see how it compares to my hopped up and tweaked DF-02. The only disappointment will probably be the Novak brushless system, since the ESC will probably be too big to put in the DF-03. I suppose I wouldn't want to put it in without the slipper though.

Have fun! :)

[chaos308]

I built a WildOne 20 yrs ago... I'm looking forward to getting the Rising Storm going. I received the kit 5-5-06. Waiting on the radio....

I ordered an Airtronics Blazer with my kit, and the RX doesn't have BEC, even though both the Tower and OmniModel pages claim it does. :(
Have a Tower brand radio on the way.... Should be here tommorow.

Are the Red Tamiya springs softer or harder than the stock silver springs in the kit ?
Just got my springs and wheel bearings today, and can't really tell any difference between the two springs.

Tried the o-ring in the front outer cup, and it created gear noise in the diff. so removed them.
Any other suggestions for cleaning up the slop in the front end?

I went with the Tamiya sport tuned motor. As it understand it, the 67t spur would give me a bit more top end. Does the Sport Tuned have enough more torque that I won't miss the torque lost to the smaller spur?

Got an itch to go with a brushless setup, but it's kinda hard to justify right now. Guess it'll depend on how well the brushed motor holds up.
Any idea how many hours/packs/?? these stock-type motors last?

How important to use Motor Cleaner and/or CommDrops?

I never did any motor maintenance on the WildOne, which ran the stock motor. I didn't know they needed it..

I'm painting the RS purple/green iridescent. Had to order black paint to back it, so the shell is mostly clear, with just a hint of purple/green right now. Waiting on the rain to stop so that I can shoot the black.

Went with the chrome 5 spoke star wheels, with DirtHawgs. Mine will probably see about as much pavement as it does off-road.

Shocks - Stock units: (settup based on what i've read here)
Rear: 600 wt oil. Stand offs on the rears. Blue Tamiya springs. Large and Med spacers. Outer holes on lower Arms.
Front: 600 wt oil. Stock springs. Large spacer. Inner hole.

Has anyone tried making a "valve" for the stock shocks by placing a flexible plastic on the top of the piston/disk? That'd basically close off the hole(s) on the compression stroke, but allow it to open/flow when it rebounds.

Doubt that mine will see much jumping. At least not large jumps. I may end up softening up the suspension a little bit.

A good source for the MB Standoffs in the States is CyberGuys.
They have a mini storage box with some parts for ~$3. Item # 115 1025
Parts Kit (http://www.cyberguys.com/templates/searchdetail.asp?T1=115+1025&dept=lch33&search=1ha21&child=1ha21)

The only other hop-up I'm considering at this time is the steering set. Will wait to see how sloppy it is once I get it running..

Lots of good info here. Thanks all. !!

[Stormbasher3100]

something that you should look into are some new shocks. The stockers have too much space between the piston and the body so they are very hard to tune. A good aluminum set aare almost required. Check out bakabaka's faq for the parts available.

[bakabaka]

Hi chaos308!

I purchased the Tamiya aluminum dampers originally, the rear dampers in this set are a bit weak for the chassis. The 1/8 scale buggy front dampers that I put in the rear have taken care of that, but the GPM DF-02 aluminum damper set (which can use Losi springs) is apparently quite good out of the box.

As for motors, the stock motors from Tamiya (Johnson / Mabuchi motors) tend to hold up for quite a long time. I'm still running them in some of my kits, and none of them have died yet. The Sport Tuned motor is nice, I haven't tried it in my DF-02 but the one in my Wild Willy 2 truck seems to have plenty of power. The vehicles are too different to really compare how the motor would perform though.

I have an Airtronics Blazer Sport on one of my TB-02 kits. It seems to work well enough with the BEC ESC I'm using it with, a Dynamite Tazer 15t. The TEU-101BK ESC that comes with the DF-02 is a bit unusual compared to other ESCs I own, as it has a separate line for power. The rest of the ESCs send power to the rest of the car through the same connector as the control channel. I doubt you'd have any real trouble using the Blazer if you made it fit. I've used the TEU-101BK with Tamiya, Hitec and Futaba receivers on various kits without issues.

Have fun! :)

[rczmjls]

Hi.

I know some of you are runing 21 turn motors with the standard Tamiya ESC in you DF02 chassis.
Do any if you is geting problems with that (using standard spur and pinion)? I'm thinking in geting this motor: http://www.modelsport.co.uk/?CallFunction=ShowSpecification&ItemID=23567. I think it's a nice budget option to get some increase in performace over the silver can... and slightly better than the 23 turn (witch I think still be an improvement over the silver can).

Br.
MS

[sim600]

The only disappointment will probably be the Novak brushless system, since the ESC will probably be too big to put in the DF-03. I suppose I wouldn't want to put it in without the slipper though.


Heheh. check it out.
http://www.rctech.net/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=130801

[bakabaka]

Heheh. check it out.
http://www.rctech.net/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=130801

Perhaps it will get a bit of play with the brushless then. I actually received the kit yesterday, that's record shipping speed from Tower. They sent it the night before I received it according to UPS' tracking system :D Now just to get it together...

Have fun! :)

[frankylie]

Lads!!!

the Novak Velociti 4.5R and GTB ESC have been ordered along with my 16T pinion gear.

i have the following mods:
- tamiya dampers
- aluminium drive shaft
- tamiya tie rods
- deans plugs
- epic 3000mah 6cell battery
- 67t spur gear
- motor heat sink
- 2.2' dirt hawgs on all corners

I'm expecting big things from this motor and esc, am i going to be disappointed!? :(

questions:
1. will 19/67 gears kill the esc/battery/motor?
2. am i better off with the 16/70 gears?
3. what battery life can i expect?
4. what kind of speeds can i expect?
5. will my driveshaft hold?
6. will an aluminium pinion gear tear up the spur gear?

thanks ;)

[bakabaka]

Hi frankylie,

If there's still time to change the order, you might want to get the Velociti 5.5 motor instead. You'll need to run the 16t pinion/70t spur combination to make the 5.5 work, and there currently isn't a good gearing available for the 4.5. The 67t spur is useful for "stock" motors (27t and maybe down to 23t.) I'm hoping another spur can be made available, but at the moment nothing's certain.

The aluminum pinion and dogbones are more likely what's going to get torn up, the spur gears are pretty tough. I switched to Robinson Racing metric pinions for my Hound, as the stock pinion (wihch is more hardened than the Tamiya hop-up pinions) was getting rather worn. You'll probably want a set of universals too, GPM has a set that you might want to look at. I haven't seen the stock driveshaft run with a motor like that, but the stock shaft apparently works well enough with the SS5800. RC Square makes the best aluminum driveshaft replacement for the DF-02, if you find the car gets noisy once you put the hop-up driveshaft in you might want to consider their driveshaft/driveshaft cup joint set.

Hopefully others can answer the rest of the questions, I don't have this motor/ESC combination so I couldn't tell you what the runtime etc. would be like. If you'd like to do a writeup, I'd be more than happy to put it in the FAQ.

Have fun! :)

[frankylie]

thanks for your quick reply bakabaka! your url is like the df-02 bible for me! :)

so, you think that using 16/70t gears with the 4.5R it wont run at all? thats not good!!! :( i think theres time to change it but i really want this thing to move!!!

yeah! after my driveshaft hop up i actually noticed the car was heaps noisier! what i actually meant to ask was if i needed to replace my dogbones with universals, not my driveshaft as i've already optioned that up!

thanks again for your reply! so you know for sure that the 4.5R wont work with the gearing options i have? i thought 16/70t would've been fine and 19/67t would've been pushing it!!! :(

[Stormbasher3100]

the 4.5r motor will work but the gearing must cause it and the speed control to get hot. the motor needs to be geared lower for it to work properly and the df-02 can't go any lower than 16/70. you would need to have a 73 T spur gear for this motor to safely work.

[frankylie]

arghhhhhh..figured as much.

ok, i'm gonna stick with the 4.5R, get some vents happening, and wait for that 73t spur comes out (if it ever does) if not, then maybe i'll restrict the trigger to not go wide open throttle?

failing that, get another car!!! hahaha.

tips on keeping things cool people???

thanks!

[bakabaka]

Hi frankylie,

Yup, by "work" I meant "work well"... It will get hot rather quickly at that gearing, and the ESC will probably shut down due to the temperatures (a.k.a. "thermal"...) To keep it cool the first step is to install a heat sink. Next you could try cutting a hole in the shell around the motor and maybe in front of the ESC. I haven't done this, since I like the protection from the elements the shell provides. Finally, you could try putting a fan on the ESC. That would likely require cutting the shell up even more though, since there isn't much room for one.

Have fun! :)

[bakabaka]

Hi Stormbasher3100!

I've been thinking, one could probably redo the motor mount and get a 15t or maybe 14t pinion in there, even if it's a bit tight. That could be just enough to get the 4.5r in there, I may end up going to the local TAP plastics this weekend to see if they can put something together.

Have fun! :)

[TamiyaRacer69]

Hiya. Newbie here. Been reading the odd post in this thread, and it seems to me that I've struck a goldmine. I too have a Gravel Hound, and I absolutely love it. I've re-named mine the Gravel Grabber, `cause that's what it does. Sorry should say "used to when the tires were brand new" now it just slides about all over the place. Waiting on a new full set of tires to come.
Haven't done many modifications to mine. Just put an aluminium drive shaft in it the other day, modified the rear shock mounting point. (to stop it bottoming out) Hope to do the Blue Anodised customise soon.
Running a Dyna Tech, and the standard Tamiya ESC.

Cheers'
Del

[Stormbasher3100]

let us know how well it works.

[JDT]

[QUOTE=bakabaka]Hi Stormbasher3100!

I've been thinking, one could probably redo the motor mount and get a 15t or maybe 14t pinion in there, even if it's a bit tight. That could be just enough to get the 4.5r in there, I may end up going to the local TAP plastics this weekend to see if they can put something together.

If you have spair spur gears take them along, maybe someone there has cad training and could be able to figure out the larger diameter spur gear too, I would like as big as possible, 80 tooth or more even, but anything above 70 would be an easy purchase for me, the can sits so close to the shaft tunnel that I didn't think it would be feasable to do a motor mount alone without the spur, if a bigger spur is done then it would move the can out away from the tunnel thus allowing a motor mount, if someone made both a mount and spur it would be even better, I would live with the static position mount, an adjustable would be the best option, allowing more than 4 pinions per spur. I always hoped Tamiya would do a truck version of this chassis with the correct spur and gearing for truck size tires and or super low turn motors but we never got any df 02 variations.

[bakabaka]

If you have spair spur gears take them along, maybe someone there has cad training and could be able to figure out the larger diameter spur gear too, I would like as big as possible, 80 tooth or more even, but anything above 70 would be an easy purchase for me, the can sits so close to the shaft tunnel that I didn't think it would be feasable to do a motor mount alone without the spur, if a bigger spur is done then it would move the can out away from the tunnel thus allowing a motor mount, if someone made both a mount and spur it would be even better, I would live with the static position mount, an adjustable would be the best option, allowing more than 4 pinions per spur. I always hoped Tamiya would do a truck version of this chassis with the correct spur and gearing for truck size tires and or super low turn motors but we never got any df 02 variations.

Hi JDT,

I'll bring one, but I stopped by there a few weeks ago and didn't see any signs that they had that sort of equipment. I'll bring my 70t spur anyway, I don't have a need for a larger spur gear myself with the SS5800 but it would be nice to have the option. I'd actually like to try an 18t pinion with the 67t spur. I'm hoping there's just enough room for one less tooth on the pinion, maybe even two. A motor mount should be relatively simple though. Fill in the holes in the stock plastic motor mount, make two slots to attach and adjust the motor, and make a mold. Then you can make as many motor mounts as you need. Gears pretty much require a good CNC machine if you want high tolerances.

FWIW, I've asked Yeah Racing if they would be interested in producing one or both of these items. They haven't got back to me yet, but it seems to take a few months between the design phase and getting them out the door based on their revision of the rear suspension arm. It'd be a while even if they do have the correct machines and the desire to produce them. The motor mount might be easier for them to justify the production costs, since it should work with the TT-01 as well. The larger spur wouldn't likely be useful on the TT-01.

I did find that Tobee produced a spur gear adapter for the TT-01 that should fit, part #42880, but it only fits Tobee's TB-01 gears. They didn't appear to have anything approaching the spur gear sizes we'd want, although this might be a starting point for someone.

Have fun! :)

[frankylie]

this is really disappointing and frustrating!

i dont know what to do now. actually, i think i do. i think when the 4.5R comes i'll send it straight back and exchange it for the 5.5...you think this is best? i dont know if i can live with a car which will thermally shutdown all the time, it just wouldnt be fun!

thanks for your efforts guys! i hope it works out, but from all reports the 5.5 is a kick ass motor anyways!

[chaos308]

I'm pretty happy with the Iridescent paint.
Can't decide whether or not to put the decals on though.

I guess that I could use some of the smaller ones...

Image is Clickable.
http://img207.imageshack.us/img207/9979/img10890yf.th.jpg (http://img207.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img10890yf.jpg)

[JDT]

That paint is nice, did you use the "regular($$$)" ppg auto paint, if so I may just buy a pint of the paint and have the local rc painter do both my spair rs bodies alike, my original paint job was white with just the windows and vent holes like this except for I also used the little grill like DF 02 emblem on the front. Looks very nice, appears to have been driven(grass on tires) before posting which is a rare site these days! lol.

[chaos308]

It's Tamiya Paint. LINK-Tamiya USA (http://www.tamiyausa.com/product/item.php?product-id=86046)

Has to be backed with Black.
That makes the ends of the wing black though.

I brushed the Windows and "vents" black before shooting the purple/green color.

Here's a shot of it before being shot with the black backing. I was surprised at how transparent it was.
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/2070/img10593ze.th.jpg (http://img300.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img10593ze.jpg)

I'm curious what it would look like backed with colors other than black.

Think that I"m going to use the RisingStorm, 4WD, and DF-02 ShaftDrive decals. Really wanted to use the flame decals, but I'm not convinced that it'll look OK.....

[bakabaka]

Hi frankylie,

It might be a better idea. The 4.5R motor is probably better for touring cars than buggies, although it would be nice to have the ability to use it. The 5.5 motor has a recommended gearing which is close to the 16t pinion/70t spur gear combination, so that's what I'd do for now.

If my experience with the SS5800 is any indication, the 5.5 might be more power than you really need anyway. Which, of course, means it should be perfect. ;)

Have fun! :)

[frankylie]

bakabaka! there is no such thing as enough power!!! ;) thanks for your hasty replies, they have been VERY helpful!!!

[bakabaka]

Hi chaos308!

Looks great, I think I've finally decided what I'm going to do with that Rising Storm shell I've had kicking around forever. Maybe I'll try one of the other irridescent colors, depends on what the LHS has. Perhaps putting decals on the sides of the wing would be a good way to cover up the backing color, although I suppose that depends on whether you think it needs to be covered up.

Have fun! :)

[bakabaka]

bakabaka! there is no such thing as enough power!!! ;) thanks for your hasty replies, they have been VERY helpful!!!

Hi frankylie,

Hope it helps, I think I should add a bit to the FAQ so this won't end up surprising anyone else in the future.

Have fun! :)

[JDT]

I noticed my friend had a set of slicks for his road car that looked like the HPI wheels alot of you run, they were so we went to play asphalt style, the tires measure a little under 2.9 inches so at 70/16 it was overgeared melting a 12 turn endbell off but sure was fast in the parking lot before it let go. The Scary part is it would have been much faster with the right gearing at 67/19 or even 67/20 with these short tires, the car when stiffened up was able to hang with this TA 05 but he runs 19 turn motors so I had way more power, the TA 05 are awesome cars I was shocked how well his turned and tracked way less plowing than the my RS much easier to drive fast for sure. My motor can collection is up to 6 now, trinity 14 x 2 , epic 12 x 2, Kyosho 17x 2, trinity 13 x 2, checkpoint 12x 2, epic 14 x 2, three out of six don't have endbells lol. This is the first overgeared burnout the other was one undergeared and one that was my first lipo experience and ran and ran until it got to hot and melted the endbell off.

[chaos308]

The iridesent paint looks better in person.
I used some of the decals.
http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/1933/img11050ye.th.jpg (http://img222.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img11050ye.jpg)

No plans to add more. I may end up removing the flames, and replacing them with the simple purple colored TAMIYA decal.

When painting the wing, I kinda messed it up. A couple of areas are kinda milky looking.
Not sure if the paint went on too thick, or if I didn't dry it good enough after washing. Oh well. It will probably get beat up soon enough anyway.

[bscarter11]

Choas308, I really liked the paint scheme that you used. I'm going to try a couple of different strategies on some 2 liter bottles (same plastic) to see which i like better. Plan A will involve using translucent red backed by metallic black. Plan B will be to use the pink/gold color change paint backed by the metallic black or regular black paint. I'm really wanting a solid metallic red...but with a shifting black under current to it. Not sure how I'd get that for sure as no one really makes a red/black color changing paint...pity that. Anyone else have any ideas on how to make this metallic red/black combination work?

[TamiyaRacer69]

Here's my GH on the 27th of Dec 2005, one day after I got it. Only had the standard 540 in it then, still loads of fun though. :)

[TamiyaRacer69]

Here's a pic of my GH as it is now. :cool: :D What'da think??

[TamiyaRacer69]

Check this out. Lots of GH and RS parts. Don't know if you all know about or weather it's been posted before. Didn't feel like going through almost 90 pages. Selfish I know. ;-)

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/RC-Drifting_Tamiya-DF02-Alloy_W0QQcolZ4QQdirZ1QQfclZ4QQfsubZ12QQftidZ2QQtZ km

[bakabaka]

Hi TamiyaRacer69!

Looks good, and even better to see your buggy getting use around Winter time. :) I created a parts/kit vendor category in the DF-02 FAQ, and added this store to the listing for UK-based DF-02 owners for future reference.

Have fun! :)

[TamiyaRacer69]

Hi bakabaka,

Thanks. Yeah it's winter time here in little `ol New Zealand. Don't get much snow where I live though, which is a bit disapointing. I'd love to see how the GH goes in the snow. Shot a vid today of my GH jumping through a piramid of cans, and fire. My camera is not the best for vids, but it looked cool!!!! :-)

Cheers'
Del

P.S you put TamiyaRacing69. Not TamiyaRacer69. Sorry for being a pain.

[bakabaka]

Hi TamiyaRacer69,

Sounds cool, if you post the video online be sure to send a link. I've corrected the entry, I should probably copy and paste rather than rely on my memory heh.

Have fun! :)

[TamiyaRacer69]

Hi bakabaka,

going to try and get the link for that vid

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/moviecomment.asp?id=1693&uid=5372

hope that works. click on where it say "click here for hi-res movie"

Del ;-)

[bakabaka]

Hi TamiyaRacer69,

That's a nice jump. The color exposure's a bit funky in the video, but you might try jumping it in an area where there's more light. :D

Have fun! :)

[TamiyaRacer69]

hiya bakabaka,

Going to do another similar jump on the front lawn this weekend. Cant get the cans to stay alight either, that would have given the vid more light. ;-) The colour exposure was something that I just tryed on Windows Movie Maker. Have still got the vid saved on my computer, so I could post the unedited version if you wanted to see it. Nope it's gone. Sorry

[TamiyaRacer69]

Me again. Another short clip of my GH. Slightly better lighting this time. :) Crap music mix though. :mad: Never-mind I can only get better. :cool:

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/moviecomment.asp?id=1696&uid=5372

Cheers'
Del

[frankylie]

bakabaka! have you heard back from Yeah Racing in regards to a modified pinion or spur gear for the df-02 to handle low turn motors such as the 4.5R? :)

i've changed my mind again and im going to stick with the 4.5R !!! i'm considering it as a "long term" investment! :)

[bscarter11]

Someone call the fire department, my car's on fire. It wasn't quite that bad, but my new team orion vs2 15x2 sent my novak xrs speedo to heaven quite before its time. It also caught fire and killed my spectrum receiver. It was fast up till that point though. :) I need a speedo that will not bend under pressure. What do you guys recommend? I will be using deans plugs and soldering anything on the new setup instead of using tamiya connectors. I figured the gearing was off too as I'm using 22/67 gears. Assuming the motor made it through the efforts of putting out the fire and the esc melting down, you guys have some ideas to help me beef this thing up so I'm not calling out the ole dept and drenching it all again? Thanks.

Scott

[JDT]

In my opinion you are pushing your luck at 67/19 with a 15 turn, I would probably go 70/18 for that motor to stay cool, I however am a hamfist driver so if you are on a track or have more throttle control you could go 70/19, the 67 spur is only good for stock or high turn motors, if you are just doing speed runs you may be able to get away with it but I honestly wish I had saved my $5 on the cost of the 67 spur. As for esc everyone has an opinion, I run LRP AI reverse, $69.99 from tower etc, not bad, it will melt the endbells off motors if you push the gearing issue, my problem is I like the tall truck dirt hawgs for bashing which is really hard on equipment, this same esc has melted an endbell off from undergearing to so it appears the motors get hot enough to melt before the esc will even thermal let alone smoke. Maybe I have been lucky as I have pushed the issue with gearing many times, I even burnt up a mabuchi silver can which is supposed to be nearly indestructable by using 70/19 with the truck dirt hawgs as they are 4.25 inches tall, an inch taller than stock.

[bakabaka]

bakabaka! have you heard back from Yeah Racing in regards to a modified pinion or spur gear for the df-02 to handle low turn motors such as the 4.5R? :)

i've changed my mind again and im going to stick with the 4.5R !!! i'm considering it as a "long term" investment! :)

Hi frankylie,

They told me they'd send the request for a larger spur and motor mount to the product development people, but I haven't heard anything else from them yet. I didn't have time this weekend to go to TAP plastics unfortunately, so I'm not sure how the motor mount alone would work out other than it would be a tight fit.

Good luck with the 4.5R, you're just a bit out of the proper gear ratio range with a 16t pinion/70t spur. I believe the GTB has a fan, right? Put a heat sink on the motor and you may just be fine.

Have fun! :)

[bakabaka]

Hi JDT!

The Novak SS5800 system works well with the 67t spur and 19t pinion also, although it stays cooler with the 70t spur and 19t pinion. Brushless motors seem to gear very differently than brushed motors. I'll add the LRP AI reverse to the list of recommended ESCs though, if you could post/send appropriate gearing info for the various motors you've tried with this ESC I can add it to the FAQ.

Have fun! :)

[JDT]

bakabaka, can we get the shortcut for the faq one more time, its seems to be gone from my favorites. thanks

[bakabaka]

bakabaka, can we get the shortcut for the faq one more time, its seems to be gone from my favorites. thanks

Hi JDT,

Sure, it's at the following URL:

http://xyzzy.dyn.dhs.org/df02/

It's also accessable from this URL, since it's both a DF-02 FAQ and a DF-03 FAQ-in-progress now:

http://xyzzy.dyn.dhs.org/df03/

Have fun! :)

[frankylie]

hi bakabaka,

yup, i've got a heat sink for the motor ready to go and yes i believe the GTB has a fan as stock equipment. so...i guess there really isnt that much more i can do to ensure that heat is being dispersed as best it can.

im going to cut holes in the body to get more airflow through there. see how we go! :)

[bakabaka]

Hi frankylie,

Great, let us know how it goes, I'm curious about the battery life in particular. It should be a little rocket if it doesn't overheat and isn't too far overgeared.

Have fun! :)

[frankylie]

hi BB,

UPS site says its out for delivery today! so i should be able to get it running by tonite/tomorrow *excited*

out of interest, what kind of battery life do you get with the SS5800 and what mah batteries do you run? 6cell too?

[Aluma]

In my opinion you are pushing your luck at 67/19 with a 15 turn, I would probably go 70/18 for that motor to stay cool, I however am a hamfist driver so if you are on a track or have more throttle control you could go 70/19, the 67 spur is only good for stock or high turn motors, if you are just doing speed runs you may be able to get away with it but I honestly wish I had saved my $5 on the cost of the 67 spur. As for esc everyone has an opinion, I run LRP AI reverse, $69.99 from tower etc, not bad, it will melt the endbells off motors if you push the gearing issue, my problem is I like the tall truck dirt hawgs for bashing which is really hard on equipment, this same esc has melted an endbell off from undergearing to so it appears the motors get hot enough to melt before the esc will even thermal let alone smoke. Maybe I have been lucky as I have pushed the issue with gearing many times, I even burnt up a mabuchi silver can which is supposed to be nearly indestructable by using 70/19 with the truck dirt hawgs as they are 4.25 inches tall, an inch taller than stock.

When the tires increase the gearing changes completely! I used the 70/16 for that type of tire....but I was using 2.2in bowties front and rear...with a 19T motor or the black can.

[JDT]

I do use 70/16 for the larger tires, I was just commenting about burning up the silver can when I only had 70/19 gearing(stock) and running the big tires, at 70/16 I have went down as low as a 17 turn but it ran very hot but did not melt until one night in the snow and ice wide open for 7 or 8 minutes(slipping and sliding) tends to get things even hotter, are the 2.2 truck bowties really that tall to? A while back someone posted the tractor gator tires on a hound and it looked good, I may invest in a set of them eventually as I think they are right about this same height, the gear adapter Bakabaka posted about form Tobee (#42880)looks good I may order it and see if I can fit a normal associated spur on it then check on making a motor mount, I wish Tobee had a US distributor. to run big tires and bash I would recommend nothing under 19 turns at 70/16 like you said. Sorry for any confusion 70/19 with tall tires will smoke nearly any motor quickly, the only one I had live through that was a traxxas titan and it has a fan in it and is a 23 turn but still got smoking hot, it can run at 70/17 but that is it, 18 was very hot, 19 was stinky hot remelting shrink wrap on connectors etc.

[TamiyaRacer69]

Anyone know how many "turns" a Tamiya Dyna Tech 01R motor is? Trying to work out the best gearing for my GH. ;-)
Cheers'
Del

[frankylie]

okay, the novak 4.5r was delivered today and put in tonite. allbeit 3am this morning :)

anyways, video's are up on r c p i c s.net
http://www.r c p i c s.net/view_single.php?medid=77448
http://www.r c p i c s.net/view_single.php?medid=77449

*** remove spaces. looks like radiocontrolzone dont like promoting that site..

havent given it a road test but needless to say i think i'll be happy!!! :)

[bakabaka]

Hi JDT,

You've replaced all the bushings with bearings, right? I haven't ever heated up the stock motor that much, with or without the dirt hawgs (buggy size...) On the other hand, at the time I only had a 1500mah Ni-Cad pack and a cheap 3000mah NiMH pack. Tobee states that the spur adapter is only for their own TB-01 spur gears, but if you get one and can get it working with other vendors' gears I'm sure a lot of people will be happy to hear about how you did it.

Have fun! :)

[bakabaka]

Hi TamiyaRacer69!

It should be either 17t or 19t from what I've heard, is there any additional information about which model 01R it is?

Have fun! :)

[bakabaka]

Hi frankylie,

That's pretty serious tire deformation. Hopefully there's enough torque to get it up to speed quickly. I got rid of the 1500mah battery, but the 3000mah batteries seem to last about 15 minutes. I haven't timed it though.

Have fun! :)

[TamiyaRacer69]

Hi bakabaka,
No sorry that's all I know. Apart from, it's black with gold writing on it. Like that's going to help ;-Q

[frankylie]

hi bakabaka,

yeah i didnt hit the throttle straight up, i sorta squeezed it slowly! so those video's dont show how quickly it does get up to powerband :) the ESC was also in its "packaged" mode, it hadn't even been setup! :) all good now, took about 30 seconds.

tyres are glued. time to get it onto the ground!!! :) also need to do something about my wiring.

[JDT]

Hey Bakabaka, do you have a spair tt 01 spur gear laying around? is it the same thickness as the df 02 spur at the center part, I cannot find that Tobee part anywhere but want to make sure it is close to the right thickness for the DF 02 then I will order from champrc, I suspect it is same thickness as the shafts are the same number for df 02 and tt 01 from square but want to make sure before I order something from the other side of the planet lol, I want to try the square diff locker anyway so I was planning an order anyhow. If you only have the one in your car no biggy, thanks

[vmaxcruzer]

Hey guy's, which CVD's are the best ones that accept the stock diff cups? I had it in my brain once but forgot. L8r

[JDT]

I think all except the Tamiya cvds work with the stock diff cups, I have only tried the square and tobee though, not the GPM, however I really like the tamiya ones they allow a little more static flex of the arm by not binding the cup joints. IMO.

[frankylie]

i just ordered these GPM cvd's from rcmart.com:
http://www.rcmart.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=595_744_712&products_id=16557

bakabaka recommends the square racing ones on his url which are about $6USD more than these from Ebay. i havent tested any but i'll give you some feedback on the GPM's when i get them...i was ordering some other stuff from this site so i just bit the bullet and got the GPM's.

on a side note, i dont know if i'm lacking grease or whatnot, but does anyone else have a really loud pinion and spur gear?!?!? its REALLY noisy for me! i running an aluminium robinson 16t pinion and stock 70t spur gear....

cheers,

[JDT]

frankylie,
I think you may have the wrong pinion, the Robinson metric pinions for this car are steel not aluminum, did you make sure this was a metric pinion, if you have the package make sure it is part # 1116 this is metric .6 pitch, the #1016 is 48p "normal" pinion, . My noise comes from differential pinion and ring gear but with an estimated 100 hours on the diffs I guess I should expect that. I have new ones but I will wait for failure or it to get much worse before replacing plus I bought a used rs so I will even have an extra set of diffs assembled and ready for action at any time. I now just have the Tamiya cvds, the sqaures were nice looking, the tobee just plain black, both worked okay and are fine on my buddies kids gh still, the GPM should be pretty light as they are titanium so you should be in good shape, I lost a couple drive cups and dogbones at first due to nasty wrecks, the coolest thing about cvds is they prevent this unless you rip the suspension arm clean off.

[frankylie]

hi JDT!!!

oh no! i have part #1016 which is the "standard nickel plated pinion 16t 48 pitch"...what a rookie error! crap. and i have nothing to order aside from this...sheeesh! :(

is this incorrect pinion gear robbing me power or damaging my spur gear? its definately a nasty sound! but it works well!

infact, i just ran through one battery with the new 4.5R 16/70T and no dramas at all!!! battery was stinkin hot though! :)

thanks again for the tip! i'll let you know how i go with the GPM cvd's. i should get them within the next coupla weeks...

[JDT]

I am suprised it did not tear up the spur gear with that motor, I see you are running stick packs, I can't tell if you have Deans connectors or not, if you don't upgrade to them right off, it will literally feel like another cell in some cases and this is a high amp situation so the stock tamiya connectors are only hurting you, check about some side by side packs, check with local racers, they may have some packs that are not quite up to race spec but still would give way better performance that any normal stick pack new or not, new side by side packs are $60-250 check maxamps so be ready to pay a little, but around here a used pack that is still good is in the $40-75 range. As far as the pinions go just order the right ones and check the spur gear every once in a while, spurs are cheap so order one if the noise gets to bother you or it starts to look bad, plus if any of us ever figure out a larger spur you can upgrade to that. Also did you get a center shaft? the stock plastic one is know to deflect under high power and cause a horrible racket also. Otherwise good luck and keep us posted, remember not to complain about and bash the poor car for breaking when you hit a curb at 49 mph lol, tamiya only designed the poor thing for 19 mph curb shots! Its funny how more things break at 30 mph then 20. I would bet with good connectors teamed with the right battery you might really get near or over 50 mph, at 70/16 with a 12 turn I got radared at 32.7 and 32.9 back, this was a epic intense 12 turn not modified at all with stock timing, orion team matched stick packs with deans connectors, the 4.5 is probably 2 to 3 times more powerful than it. Just remember the trigger dosn't have to be pulled all the way all the time, act like its a nitro, no more than five seconds wide open at a time, this will help with heat and runtime, I know its easy and fun to just blast back and forth 10 or 12 seconds full throttle but this will build heat and suck your battery faster. Sorry to preach. I bet at least one person complains about the long past with a message saying they don't have time to read all that, LMFAO.

[frankylie]

hi JDT,

well i havent opened up the rear cover yet to check it out, but after two bashes everything "seems" to be ok *gulp* will check it out tonite!

yup, i'm fully deans plugged up and i have a gpm drive shaft. i also just ordered a pair of gpm cvd's and cups for the rear as i believe my stock dogbones on the rear are bent! oh, and i also got hex nuts for each corner so there should be LITTLE to NONE torsional flex on any rotating part! haha

i'm definately looking at new battery packs, such a shame given i have 2 sticks :( i guess they were pretty cheap anyway. speaking of batteries, i've done a couple of runs with the 4.5R and its really fun! and NO thermal shutdowns as yet! very happy. sticks get pretty hot though! battery life is about 5-7 mins with a 3000mah stick and 16/70T gearing.

one gripe i have with the GTB is that the switch doesnt screw into the standard switch mount on the chassis!

i'll get some video's soon of it bashing around....hopefully i'll have a spur gear left to play with :)

[fsh_62]

i just ordered these GPM cvd's from rcmart.com:
http://www.rcmart.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=595_744_712&products_id=16557

bakabaka recommends the square racing ones on his url which are about $6USD more than these from Ebay. i havent tested any but i'll give you some feedback on the GPM's when i get them...i was ordering some other stuff from this site so i just bit the bullet and got the GPM's.


cheers,
Frankylie,
When you get the GPM CVDs make sure you take out the set screw and apply some loctite, then make sure the set screw contacts the flat part of the pin when you re-install it. I have the GPM CVDs and checked them for being tight but didn't locktite them when I installed them, they all came loose the first run and made some nasty gouges in the uprights and steering knuckles. There was no sound and I didn't notice any handling problems. After re-doing them with locktite this has never happened again and I love them, very light and seem bullet proof.

[JDT]

I bet the dog bones did bend under the 4.5 power, I noticed mine bending after just a few packs with the 12 turn before I upgraded, the cvd's should not bend so that problem is allready addressed, if you don't have another car to use your stick packs in maybe just cut them open and make your own side by sides, these would not be as good as matched side by sides but would be better than stick arrangement. I still use sticks as the brushed esc I use from LRP can only pull 40 amps, the 4.5 will probably pull twice or three times that many amps, thats why your run time is a little shorter, not bad for this fast of motor IMO.

[frankylie]

fsh_62:
thankyou for the tip!!! excellent! looks like im stopping in at the hardware shop tonite before i go home! :)

JDT:
hahah. well i dont think i've ever smashed up the buggy enough to bend them, and i dont really jump it, so i dont know why/how the dogbones bent. but hopefully yeah, the cvd's do the trick!
re: battery hrm...yeah i guess i could do that! excuse my ignorance but why/how are battery packs better as side-by-side compared to stick?

thanks!

[JDT]

The stick vs side by side has been debated for years, some say its a world of difference others feel it is just battery choice as most manufactured side by side packs are made with nice matched cells. The benefits proported are

1. Heat distribution-just the side of each cell touches, they are open to air, this would make sense, as the sticks are sealed in the tube
2. Better amp supply-I think this has alot to do with how good the battery bars you use are but also probably has alot to do with the fact that people use much better quality wire on custom built packs than come on standard stick packs.
3. run time consistency-I am not sure on this one, I hardly ever use side by sides to play judge but people claim the side by sides stay stronger longer and then fall flat rather than just slowly going down like a stick pack
4. Battery lifecycle-unsure on this one too, no real hard testing done but apparently side by side packs allow it to draw off each cell more evenly that stick configuration in some peoples testing, different postings I saw years back showed differences in voltage between the top and bottom cells of a stick pack was much more than any difference with side by sides, also the heat of each cell tested was more consistent in side by sides as the stick packs the top cell got hottest, hot faster than the rest etc.
5. weight-this is arguable at best-maybe 5 g maxx, the plastic sleaves and rubber boots are not that heavy in a stick pack.

I guess maybe I have sold out and believe the hype but I know enough people that are serious about this as a sport, for me its just a hobby so I will just listen and learn, I want lipos so I never replaced my last set of matched 3300's I now just have two gp 3300 orion team packs I use which are fine for me as I mentioned the esc I use can only take 40 amps.

[bakabaka]

Hi!

I took my Gravel Hound and Dark Impact out today in a dirt/rock kite flying area, it's been a while since I've had much time to take them out. There's definitely a difference in how they handle. The DF-03 is really quite nice out of the box, I'll probably get better dampers for it in time but the stock ones aren't that bad. The DF-02 is better than it used to be since I installed the 1/8 scale front dampers on the rear, although there wasn't as much traction as when I drive it on asphalt so bottoming out while accelerating wasn't going to happen. The DF-03 appeared to have more traction in the dirt, but the Gravel Hound still has the Novak SS5800 system. The Dark Impact is using the stock motor and a Novak XRS ESC, so I can't make any real comparisons.

Incidentally, I have one side-by-side battery pack, and several stick packs. The Side-By-Side does appear to distribute heat better, although a sane pack configuration would probably put the strongest cells at the + and - terminal locations in either case. The side-by-side also appears to last significantly longer than my other NI-CD cells, but it's the only matched pack I have aside from a new Trinity GP 3700 "matched" stick pack which hasn't been broken in yet.

Have fun! :)

[raytracer]

The stick vs side by side has been debated for years, some say its a world of difference others feel it is just battery choice as most manufactured side by side packs are made with nice matched cells. The benefits proported are

1. Heat distribution-just the side of each cell touches, they are open to air, this would make sense, as the sticks are sealed in the tube
2. Better amp supply-I think this has alot to do with how good the battery bars you use are but also probably has alot to do with the fact that people use much better quality wire on custom built packs than come on standard stick packs.
3. run time consistency-I am not sure on this one, I hardly ever use side by sides to play judge but people claim the side by sides stay stronger longer and then fall flat rather than just slowly going down like a stick pack
4. Battery lifecycle-unsure on this one too, no real hard testing done but apparently side by side packs allow it to draw off each cell more evenly that stick configuration in some peoples testing, different postings I saw years back showed differences in voltage between the top and bottom cells of a stick pack was much more than any difference with side by sides, also the heat of each cell tested was more consistent in side by sides as the stick packs the top cell got hottest, hot faster than the rest etc.
5. weight-this is arguable at best-maybe 5 g maxx, the plastic sleaves and rubber boots are not that heavy in a stick pack.

I guess maybe I have sold out and believe the hype but I know enough people that are serious about this as a sport, for me its just a hobby so I will just listen and learn, I want lipos so I never replaced my last set of matched 3300's I now just have two gp 3300 orion team packs I use which are fine for me as I mentioned the esc I use can only take 40 amps.

I used to run only nicd stick packs since the late 80's up to 2002. They are very durable imho as long as you always discharge them afterwards. Then I bought some gp3300 side by side and again with the right battery routine(equalize per cell before charging), they would last like a nicd.
But early last year I wanted to upgrade some stick packs again so I bought nimh stick pack. That was not a good purchase. Seems nimh really need to be handled with care and equalized before charging. I ruined my nimh stick in less than 6 months since I couldn't equalize per cell. All I could think of was that some cells in a stick pack would have cell reversal while in use and overcharged when not equalized properly before charging. Really bad for nimh to be treated this way.
So I bought some new 2400 nicd again coz they can get abused pretty good. :D
i think if ever I will use nimh stick packs again I wouldn't let the power go down as much to prevent cell reversal and also watch the temps when charging.

[bakabaka]

Hi raytracer,

That's interesting, I seem to have had the opposite luck. I guess it might be the type of cells you purchased with the NiMH stick packs. That, or perhaps your charger? I've had great luck with NiMH "sport" stick packs so far, in fact I have one Epic 3000mah pack that is still running strong after two years. I've often charged it after a short run just to top it off, since I've heard they like to keep their charge rather than dropping their voltage. I just treat them the same way I treat the NiMH batteries in my camera, it seems to work. The only pack I've had a problem with was one of the 2400mah NICD stick packs, which I believe had its voltage drop too low. It stopped charging all the way after a while, and no amount of charge/discharge cycles made the pack work for longer than 2 or 3 minutes with a stock motor again. My discharger consists of a small PC fan hooked up to a Tamiya connector, I use it mostly on the 2400mah NI-CD pack to get it below 6 volts before I charge it as per the instructions on the pack. I usually sit the fan on one of the warm batteries to cool it down while the NI-CD cell is discharging. Nothing fancy. ;)

I now have two NI-CD packs (the 1700mah matched pack and a 2400 team orion stick pack, formerly one of a pair) and six NiMH packs, all of which are currently working great. No plans on more NI-CD packs after the 2400mah pack died though.

Have fun! :)

[JDT]

My only nicad pack is 2400's they usually peak out 2640's-2680's amps and 9.30's volts when new and felt quite punchy right off the charger but I feel like it flattens out quicker than nimh, current nimh packs are orion team zapped gp 3300 stick packs with deans on the same superbrain 977 they run out to 3650-3740 on a normal basis at 9.10's volts. The main thing I saw about the difference was if the nimh sat on the charger after peeking they would fall into the 8.7 volt range, the nicd would fall to 8.4 or less, the nicd have been abused, last time I charged only held 2280's at 9.0's but this is my most abused pack, some days when I come home for lunch I will put it on the cheapy radio shack 5 hour charger and them boost it finished with the superbrain when I get it home, nothing like charging at .35 amps for four hours then getting 5 amps until peak, it has lost a little but has alot of cycles on it. The nimh are feeling it now too, today they peaked at 8.94 but still showing 3685 mah. I will run these until they die but with maxamps selling nice lipos for $70 I can't see getting any more regular packs, my charger is okay for lipo and the lipo version that will work with my power source is only $80 so my days of conventional batteries will be dictated by the life of the above mentioned packs.

[raytracer]

Nimh packs 3300 and below are very durable. The problem is with the newer higher cells like IB3800 and gp3700 up. They dont like to be discharged close to zero volts and I dont exactly know hot to prevent that in a stick pack. With side by side its ok coz equalizing trays have either 0.v or .9v cutoff per cell which is perfect for old and newer cells. They also dont like to be dead shorted unlike old cel nimh and nicd. So the resistance is getting high close to 100ohms. My charger is a cdc version 6 and a ce pitbul btwl.

JDT- are those max amp lipo rated at 4C? There's a thread on lipos at rctech and some people have asked already if a 977 can charge surface lipos and it seems it can't. Its only for airplane lipos. The chargers commonly mentioned that are compatible with surface lipos are muchmore, team orion, duratrax ice.

[JDT]

4C would be much to low for car applications, the maxamp 8000s are 12C constant and 16C burst, I will probably get the superbrain 988 charger as my power source will work with it but the 977 is supposed to charge up to 3s lipos, I think the charge rate is rather slow so maybe that is why guys are saying it will not work, 4C would barely hold up to demands of a brushed motor in a car application let alone brushless. I continue to wait as in the year I have been wanting them I have seen an increase in preformance and a drop in price, the $157 batteries I wanted at x mas are now only $109.

[bakabaka]

8000mah sure sounds nice, but I'll probably wait for prices to level off a bit before going Li-Po. I'm still using a $50 charger with $20 to $30 batteries, and I'm in no danger of racing competitively without a local offroad track.

Have fun! :)

[JDT]

yeah the prices get better all the time, like I said nearly $50 decrease in just six months, new technology helps to, li-mn appears to be catching up to li-po, the Mamba Maxx from cc isn't out yet anyway and I would like to wait for at least one software update anyway, they say june 15th release, the 8000 lipo would be supercool, I think I could get bored with that much runtime, let alone thats a long time for mistakes to happen and break the car, I hope with a fast brushless the 8000 will give 40 minutes but I may be dreaming, I have heard of an ss5800 stampede with 52 minute run times on one of these batteries! I will wait for brushless to upgrade to lipo as I have allready melted a mod brushed motor running on a borrowed 6000 lipo ran so long the endbell melted off.

[thundershot]

4C would be much to low for car applications, the maxamp 8000s are 12C constant and 16C burst, I will probably get the superbrain 988 charger as my power source will work with it but the 977 is supposed to charge up to 3s lipos, I think the charge rate is rather slow so maybe that is why guys are saying it will not work, 4C would barely hold up to demands of a brushed motor in a car application let alone brushless. I continue to wait as in the year I have been wanting them I have seen an increase in preformance and a drop in price, the $157 batteries I wanted at x mas are now only $109.

Have you tried to charge surface lipos with a 977? That would be great if it can seeing its an acdc charger and is relatively cheaper than the others.

[JDT]

No I don't have any lipos yet, the only one I ever ran was charged on a astroflight 109 my buddy has, the literature that came with the 977 claims 1-3s but I can't say if it will work for sure as I never did it, they make no difference between surface or air batteries so I assume both are fine, at five amps charge rate it will take 40-45 minutes to peak a 3300 pack so with a bigger lipo you may be looking at measuring charge time in hours, the 989 looks better comes with a power source and wholesale trains has a pre order going for $139.99 right now, $169.99 at tower but these will not be out until late june, it will do lipo's at 1.2c but I have been told 1c is better for pack life, that would be 8 amps on a 8000 lipo pack, at 1.2 it would be maxed out at 10 amps on a 8000, which would still be a long charge cycle but would be great for charge one day play the next type of stuff as from what my buddy says he has left a 6000 for three days and it only lost 64 mah over those 72 hours.
can be used on lipos up to 8s(nearly 30 volts!), I can't find the c rate on the 977 as they just claim "nearly foolproof" lipo charging for 1-3 cell lipos.