Sunday, March 31, 2019

Traxxas TRX-4

Over the weekend I purchased a Traxxas TRX-4 Sport crawler kit.  I purchased the kit version because I love building RC cars as much as I love to drive them.


The TRX-4 Sport kit comes with everything except electronics.  What I really love is the roll-cage with the all the scale accessories.  Even better, the scale accessories are bolted on.  So, no need to worry about them popping off during a wreck on the trail.

The instructions were absolutely awesome.  Full color, 1:1 screw sizes for the hardware needed on each page, tons of pictures, it really was an excellent instruction booklet.

For the electronics, I saved my Savox SW-1210SG servo from an Axial SCX10 I used to have.  I purchased a Hobbywing 880 Duo brushed electronic speed control.  I went with the Duo because it was cheap.  I don't plan on ever running two motors since the TRX-4 isn't built that way.  To protect the ESC from shorting out, I put some dielectric grease in to the unused motor leads.  For the motor, I chose a RC4WD 20-turn brushed motor.  Brushed motors are "water-proof" simply because water doesn't effect their performance, even when fully submerged.  Of course, they're made with steel and steel rusts, so a give it a good wash-down after playing in the water with an RC specific motor spray of your choice.  I recommend an RC version because they tend to be safe on all the plastic bits found on and in RC cars.  The best policy is to remove the motor and spray it separately from anything else.  Finally, to control it all, I use a Sanwa (formerly Airtronics) MT-44 controller and a Sanwa RX-481 waterproof receiver.

There is a full aftermarket following for the Traxxas TRX-4 crawler.  Your pocket book is what limits the amount of aftermarket parts you purchase for your TRX-4.

The only upgrade I'm making at the start is an aluminum motor mount.

The kit comes with full set of steel suspension links, full metal gears in the transmission as well as the axle portal gearboxes, full ball bearings, aluminum threaded-body shocks, and a full set of aluminum 12mm hexes to mount your wheels to.




The body comes pre-cut and ready for paint.  I like the blue Sport RTR version of the TRX-4, so I painted mine blue too.  I totally forgot to put the provided window masks on before painting!  DOH!  Still, it came out looking really sharp.





I used a trick for painting the fenders black.  Normally, you paint the interior of a lexan body.  That's what I did for the blue.  For the black fenders, I used my X-Acto Knife to carefully cut and remove the over-spray film on the outside of the body only for the fenders and the truck bed itself.  Then I went nuts with the black paint.  When I finally removed the over-spray film it looks all nice and exact.

The rest of the truck is just awesome.  I'm really looking forward to getting this thing out and actually crawling with it.

Until then, keep it rubber side down!

Monday, March 25, 2019

Traxxas Bandit

Funny enough, I'm looking forward to racing a Traxxas Bandit and here is an article by RC Driver about that very thing.

They went the full Pro-Line route, which is pretty awesome.

I plan on taking a different route with a lot of RPM products as well as STRC components.

I want to put the RPM Gearbox Housing onto my Bandit because it has an aluminum motor mount plate.  This helps dissipate heat, but also insures that the gear mesh doesn't change as the motor gets hot.

In addition to the gearbox, I plan on a full RPM treatment of front and rear A-arms, front and rear shock towers, a gear cover, and a front bumper.

The specific part from STRC I'm particularly stoked on is their Machined HD Layshaft.  It allows you to use a Team Associated slipper clutch assembly which is significantly lighter than the stock Traxxas unit. 

STRC has a nice set of parts listed to complete the set-up:
AE Parts Needed:
6629 Slipper Clutch Nut x1
9605 Slipper Clutch Spring x1
9604 Slipper Hubs x2 - the Factory Team V2 version is 7495
9603 Slipper pads x1 - these come as a pair

Spur gear choices from Team Associated:


9649 72T
9650 75T
9652 78T
9651 81T
9653 84T


There are also Kimbrough spur gears that fit perfectly.  They range from 69T to 90T.  I think Kimbrough makes the Team Associated spur gears, but I'm not 100% on that one.

As well, I'm hoping that the Avid Triad Clutch works since it fits the standard Team Associated top shaft and the STRC shaft is designed to fit the standard Team Associated clutch.  For $30 it comes with two spur gears, slipper pads, slipper hubs, and a spring.  The Triad Clutch and spur gears have even less rotating mass than the Team Associated clutch pieces.  Every little bit counts in Stock Buggy class.

To compliment the lighter slipper clutch, I'm going to install a Traxxas SRT ball differential TRA2520, a delrin idler gear TRA1996, and a delrin drive gear TRA3195X.

For shocks, instead of the Pro-Line Power Stroke units RC Driver installed, I am going to install a full set of Traxxas GTR Hard Anodized shocks.  TRA7461X for the fronts and TRA7462X for the rears. These Traxxas shocks use the stock springs that come installed on the RTR Bandit.

That is my full build for the Traxxas Bandit.  I'm going to stick with the stock electronics until I'm ready for an upgrade.  The steering servo is probably the first thing to go, but the TRA2075 servo from Traxxas is very reliable.

Until next time, keep it rubber side down!

Sunday, February 24, 2019

Snow

We've been having some crazy weather this winter for SoCal.  Actual winter.  It seriously snowed in Malibu (the canyon and at 1500ft elevation) the other week.  I mean strange.

This is a link to the ABC News twitter page showing the snow in Malibu.

It has been an unusually wet and cold winter for us.  There is an El Nino (forgive the missing tilde) sitting in the Pacific causing all our wet weather.

The cold is something else and who knows why it is so cold this winter for SoCal.  Global (global, people, the entire globe, not your specific block, nor neighborhood, nor zip code, nor area code, nor county, nor state, not even your country. . .) warming--maybe? A 10 year (or so) cycle--again maybe?  Something else, quite possibly.

The great news is that we're getting all kinds of snow up in the Sierras.  Mammoth Mountain is having a similar winter as their 2016/2017 season.  They were open until July in 2017.

Unfortunately, like 2017, we're supposed to have a hot summer.  Again, global warming. . .10 year cycle. . . Something else?  I have no idea, but that's what Farmer's Almanac is saying for California and they tend to get it right.

So, yay, snow and cold for now.  I'm actually looking forward to the summer too.  WOO!

Until the next time, keep it rubber side down.

Sunday, February 3, 2019

New Battery

My 2004 Toyota Tacoma has always gone through batteries quickly.  I haven't ever bothered to hunt down the cause.  I know, shame on me.  Instead, I buy the Gold Level battery from Autozone which comes with a 3-year warranty.  For the most part, my truck will kill the battery within that three year window and Autozone is kind enough to replace it without question.  I had to replace the battery just in the new year after letting my truck sit while on break during The Holidays.  Thankfully, I discovered it because I tried to go to the RC track and play.

The real reason for this post is my new-to-me 2016 Subaru Outback 3.6R Limited I purchased back in July of 2018.  It's fancy.  A little too fancy sometimes.  In this case, I learned the hard way that there is "Off" and "Off-Off" with this car.



The single Off puts the car in Accessory Mode.  What this means is that the electronics are all still on and energized.  The whole car is electronic, so a car battery has zero chance of surviving Accessory Mode if left unchecked.

Well, I let the car sit for a couple of days in Accessory Mode, unaware of it.  The battery was completely dead.  I was only getting 0.22 volts on my multimeter.


So, it was back to Autozone for the second time this year to buy a Gold Level battery for a vehicle.  Thankfully, it wasn't the same vehicle.

The Suby battery is pretty easy to install, it just requires the infamous 10mm socket!  Yes, the very one that every foreign thing needs but always seems to be missing from your socket set.



In my case, I had my 10mm socket, but I needed a deep socket to complete the job.  During the trip to Autozone I made a run to Home Depot and purchased the deep socket as well as a couple other 10mm wrenches to stash in the Suby.

The battery replacement went smoothly and the car instantly started up with a fresh battery.  Another plus: all the radio settings were still there.  As well, the driver seat settings were still there too.  No need to reprogram all that stuff.

I did learn how to make sure the car is Off-Off.  First, put it in park, THEN shut the car off. After leaving the car and closing the doors, use the key fob to lock the car. If you hit the lock button twice, everything turns Off-Off.

Lesson learned.

Until next time, keep it rubber side down!

Sunday, January 27, 2019

Live on Twitch

For 2019, I am finally joining in the fun of streaming my "gaming" on-line through a program called Twitch.



My account is Bodies By Clayton - go figure.

My gaming will mostly be Zwift.

I've only posted three videos on Twitch as of this post to my blog, but there will be MORE! I hope you have fun watching them. I'm trying to be candid during my rides. I'm also trying to talk, as much as my heart rate would allow anyway.

So, please follow me on Twitch and keep it rubber side down!

Monday, January 21, 2019

2wd Stock Buggy

At my local track, and I think I'm safe in assuming every other track in The Continental U.S., 2wd Stock Buggy is pretty much the number one racing class to be part of.  I think it is intended to be an inexpensive way to get into RC racing.  However, the 2wd Stock Buggy Class is not inexpensive.

These are the electronics required to run 2wd Stock Buggy: the motor is a 17.5 turn brushless motor, the electronic speed control (ESC) has to be a stock-specific one or put into The Remotely Operated Auto Racer (ROAR) race spec "blinky" mode in the settings, and finally the battery is a two cell (called 2S) Lithium Polymer (LiPo) battery.  Having the latest versions of these three components can make a big difference in power generation.



This is such a popular class that all the big names in the hobby cater to this class with a specific car, like Team Associated's B6.1 Factory Lite, Team Losi Racing's 22 5.0 Spec Racer, and Yokomo's YZ-2 DTM 2.0 Stock.  These specific versions of buggy have been put on a strict diet to increase the power-to-weight ratio as much as possible. They also all feature a direct drive system instead of having a slipper clutch.  The direct drive puts all the power to the wheels immediately. As well, it reduces rotating mass from the drive train, which increases acceleration.

There are a million and one hop up parts for all of these cars, both from the Original Equipment Manufacturer as well as aftermarket.  It is very easy to drop a lot of money trying to have the fastest, lightest car (at least on the work bench!).

As well, the latest greatest car seems to update about every year or two.  I had the Team Associated B5M Factory Lite back in 2015 and 2016.  Then they came out with the B6 for 2017.  That only lasted a year.  Then the B6.1 showed up for 2018 with its three versions; B6.1, B6.1D, and B6.1 Factory Lite.

So, my brilliant idea is to avoid the chaos of trying to keep up with The Jones'.  Instead, I'm going to race the Traxxas Bandit in 2wd stock buggy!  I thought I was totally novel with my idea.  However, Voyage RC on YouTube beat me to it.

Voyage RC calls his Traxxas Bandit Project Underdog.  He has quite a few videos showing the buggy itself as well as him racing it and winning with it. Voyage RC is definitely not a hack driver like I am.  In the first club race video, with the completely box stock Bandit, he wins at the end of the race!

I'm stoked on this project.  I'll keep this page up-to-date with my initial purchase as well as the various upgrades I make.

Until then, keep it rubber side down!

Sunday, January 20, 2019

Lap Monitor

I recently purchased the Lap Monitor training kit with the JR connection from the Lap Monitor website.



I was turned onto this product by RC Driver's video review.

Here is RC Driver's response:
     "Drivers are always looking for something extra to do to their RC racing cars to make them quicker on the track. Some buy the best batteries or motors. Others spend lots of time tuning. And of course there is practice. Lots of practice. But often there is a part of practice that is left out. Lap timing. Going out to practice is fine, but if you don’t see your laps, how do you know you’re improving? Often tracks don’t have their timing system running during practice and of course you need something better than a stopwatch. This is where the LapMonitor comes in. This handy timing system places a small IR unit on the track, a transponder in your car and your lap times transmit via bluetooth right to your phone! That’s not all, you can even run simple races with other drivers and count multiple drivers laps! In this video we show you some of the neat features of the Lap Monitor. Want to improve your RC skill? You need to watch this!"

I don't know if I can say it any better than that.

So, I'm excited to play with my new Lap Monitor and see if I can actually improve my hack driving!!

Until next time. Keep it Rubber Side Down!