yes and no with the meds ;)


you have to wonder when i don't make mistakes :)

lol

-peter-

Well, the XXXS G+ came last night! Sweet looking car. You can obviously see the famiy resemblance to the XXX4! I have an ESC on the way (GM V12!) so while I wait for that, I will install a servo and motor. I still need a lid but I suspect these cars spend less time upside down than off-road vehicles do so I might get to try it out before I find a body.

The thought of being able to drive without having to clean everything up is pretty nice! Now we will have to see if I can get this thing around the track!

They can end up on their lids more than you think!

You'll still have clean up, just a different kind. (tire dust, etc.)

Ah yes, tire dust. That cleans up pretty quickly with an air compressor though! Jess's truck is still encased in brownness. I have had him working on it this evening so we can go to the track tomorrow afternoon!

Hopefully they will have some bodies at the track. They are just now restocking so it is slim-pickin's! I don't have a servicable lid for the XXXT either. I plan to get it together tonight though. Bring that, the BL Pede, the XXXS (just to have it there-if Jess breaks we can use HIS ESC!), and my XXXT! Just like old times. Too many trucks to deal with. :rolleyes:

okay guys i have a traxxas question for you all! :)

what spurs(if any) can be run on a stampede? i have tried hpi, the black robinson, yokomo, and duratrax as well. and none line up with the old school spur holder(pre-slipper, the one with three pegs and three screw holes). i want to find a 90+ tooth spur on my magnum tranny on my TSC-10.

chris good luck on the touring car circut. i race my micro and i get better lap times the more i am upside down! ;) but i hate cleaning up after the larger cars run traction compound. have had my car caked in it.

Good question about the spur. I have no idea! I have never even seen one of the pre-slipper trucks! :p Isn't cranking down on the slipper tight enough for you? Or is it that you don't even Have a slipper set-up? I can post the question over on the Traxxas page if you aren't a regular over there.

I suspect I will find the traction compound thing nasty. We are only allowed to run foams on this track so it is inevitable that I get into the stuff.

well the first pede i had was pre slipper and prebearings in the tranny. i did buy the slipper upgradef or it but the spur holder is a better option for what i want to do ;)

and please if you can post the Q of at traxxas i would appreciate it very much.

I think the tire dust from the foam is worse, even using a air compressor, it just goes everywhere. Getting a Donut on the door is pretty cool though!

Peter-
The general response from the Traxxas page was that the Kimbrough can be made to work, as can the HPI. I guess the holes don't line up quite right but can work.

Just spent a great afternoon at the track! Took the day and headed out with Jesse after school got out. we took his XXX4, my XXXT and the BL Pede. The track was still really muddy! Nothing like a couple weeks ago but still a mess. We were worried about what tires but we had traction out the wazoo! I was able to roll the Pede at the end of the long straight but it was tough! The stadium trucks were cornering at full tilt! We actually went the whole time with zero breakage! I did hit a period when SOMEBODY was either on my frequency or close enough that the XXXT was running itself. Just swapped to the Pede!

Lots of people hanging around after 5 which was when the Pede came out. They were very amused when I dropped it on the track and wheelied the entire straight! I actually ran a few laps where I was doing better than a couple guys with a buggy and a ST! They were trying too hard and flipping which just let me cruise on through.:p I have way too much aluminum on the truck though. It jumps tail down in a big way causing huge havoc on landing. I think I will pull the rear arms and the rar tower and put the stock stuff back on.

This was with M2Ks. Very early on, through crashes and rolls you couldn't even tell what color the shell was! Everybody was running brown trucks... The tires though shed the mud better than anything else out there. My main problem was turning. I am used to being able to spin a truck in place using the throttle but hitting the trigger on the Pede just raised the front end and there was no turning! Softer springs in the rear may help that. I will have to try some stuff out. I definitely want to get out there and see if anybody wants to race pedes though.

I definitely got the bug again!!! When we got home though, it took over an hour to clean the trucks! Someof it I couldn't get to with water and will have to brush it off when it is all dry. I hope I didn't to too much damage to the bearings!

thanks for the info chris.

sounds like fun. i want to try a crawler comp..maybe this summer i will head south to portland for one of the orcrc events. they have some insane beasts. that is were toyo and the guys who build the rockraider chassis hang.

no real rc this weekend just trying to ge things picked up so i can build!

-peter-

Nothing RC for me this past weekend either. Not sure when my next outing/playtime will be......

Well, since my weekend included my games on Friday, I guess mine wasn't devoid of r/c.

However, after cleaning the trucks off I did nothing else.:cry: I now have two-no THREE lids to paint. I have to see if I can get my airbrush to work correctly. It was spitting last time and then I dropped it on it's tip... I can always go rattle-can if needed.

The boys both have Good Friday off so I may propose another outing at the track. It is tough because Sean's attention span is not nearly as long as Jess and mine... And ideally we would go out early but the fun really begins after 5PM when people come in from work. Then you get some good practice in. Earlier it is pretty much you on the track by yourself... I was dreaming of doing the races next weekend but it is Easter and they are closed. Go figure. There will be other weeks!

Right now I have lots of prep to do on the trucks and sedan so waiting a bit isn't a terrible thing.

Well something must be in the air because even I did some RCing, well sort of. I took a weedeater up to the "fly your wing" spot and cut down the 3' tall grass and other assorted weeds. I put the wing and radio on the charger and come hell or high water I'm going to fly that sucker today. Or go hiking after it which ever the case may be.

Take care.

was sitting here enjoying all the posts on a monday mornig and i almost forgot to take the kids to school! :( lol

we made it time. but nice to see so many guys online in one day. it's been a while..

Since I have a 3 day weekend coming up I think I'll put the Pede tires back on and do a little romp across the leftover snow & maybe the dirt piles across the side street if the mud is not too deep!

Gotta re-assemble the 1 emaxx I took apart to clean all the bearings too, maybe test it out.

Spent a bit of shop time tonight. After the last track outing I decided I needed to remove some of the aluminum from the Pede. Yanked the rear shock tower and a-arms. The old plastic is back on. That didn't save as much weight as I would have thought but it was all from way back. I also added that silly front brace! I can NOT believe I was driving without it and didn't brreak anything! Especially some of the nose plants I (and Jesse) did from way high on the big jump! :freak: I guess that aluminum tower up front adds quite a bit of strength.

We are hoping to head over there this Friday again. Both boys have the day off so we could get an early start. We may even get the batteries charged before we go this time! AND we will bring chargers. That should make it flow more smoothly.

Tried to get the touring car together but I was pretty beat and I will need to modify my Hitce servo to get it in. :rolleyes: Just didn't have the patience. Seeing as how I haven't painted the lid yet either I guess it doesn't much matter.

Modify your Servo to make it fit a XXXS? In what way? The most you should have to do is test fit the mounts to see which way they fit better.

Did you get alot of snow yesterday? The weatherman said you were. I was wierd around here yesterday, when I left work it was snowing very hard & accumulating fast. By the time I got home it wasn't snowing, was dry and slightly warmer. That's only about 15 miles as the crow flies. This morning there is about 1" of snow here at work, but we never got a flake at my house..... People in Pontiac were giving me weird looks as I drove home because I was the only one with snow stuck all over my truck.

I guess some places got a bunch of snow but we dodged that bullet. It has been in the 40's for most of the last week so what we got didn't stick on the streets. Here at work we have a couple inches of slush. This too shall pass. I know what you mean about snow in one place and not the other! I have seen cars this winter with over a foot of snow on their rooves while we got none. Most of those come from up north. People commute insane distances around here. Personally, I like Bill's commute. He has to get out of bed! (hard to play hookie though)

The holes on the flanges to bolt the servo down are set too far apart so when I attach the mounting posts they no longer hit the holes in the chassis. I just need to make the hoels in the flanges/wings deeper by about one mm on each side. Then I will have to use regular 4-40 socket heads instead of those sexy flathead ones with the blue washers.:cry: Right now those washers are sitting up against the servo case.

Oh, thats the problem.... trying to use sexy screws!

It's not the screws silly. It is the sexy WASHERS.

Speaking of which, I just placed a big order with Microfasteners fo a bunch of stainless screws. I picked up several sizes of 4-40 bolts. All sockets heads, some flat so not. I wil now e able to replace all of those chassis screws on the XXX4 and XXXT that are rusted and/or rounded out. :)

Stainless steel screws are nice for a bling factor & in some applications, but I'll never use them for upper shock mount bolts, they are too soft and break. (speaking from expierience!

chris i did manage to get a robinson 93t spur mounted on the pede spur holder. just had to force it a bit. running a 93/12 gering combo on the TSC with a t600 motor.

so i have gotten some wrench time this week. got the tsc built and running, but still need to mount my '50s panel today.

but i think i may have found a nice deep offest cheap rim for the stampede crowd the tamiya blackfoot, twin detinator and the wild dagger. i had just picked up my first ever front pede rims and some twin detinator wheel sfor the tlts. and the tamiya rims have a much greater offset them the pede rims. and they look pretty cool.

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0005p?&I=TAMC0172&P=X

the difference between teh rims for the three trucks are just color red/grey/white.

have a great weekend.

Good to know about the stainless! Of course you could have told be that BEFORE I bought them... :p Actually I knew that and had planned to use them for chassis screws and other places that are not very strength dependant but get wet and rusty. Or holding on sexy servo washers... never mind.

Went to the track again last night. Brought both boys this time! Sean and his Pede ran flawlessly other than his Hummer H2 lid which is junk. I had heard that they were thin at the rear body post holes and they really are! Even with washers (we didn't have the white rings so we cut some scrap Lexan), every time he crashed the body would slam through or off the post. We ended up just using my one lid and took turns driving.

Having lost the aluminum on the rear of the Pede really helped. The truck flew much flatter. I don't think I will ever take the brushless out of that truck! It is the perfect amount of power. And no maintenance to speak of! I was running a Chameleon in the XXXT and it was getting slower and slower though one pack. Seeing as how this was my brand new "super race pack" I didn't know which was the problem. I finally pulled it off and through the plastic motor guard I could feel the heat! Lots of it! I can't wait to open it and find out what isn't left! Swapped in another Cham. and was still running for quite a while. Nope- the pack is fine!

Jess managed to bust up a different part on the front of his XXX4 this time Tom. It was the bracket that secures the kingpins (does what a bulkhead does..) The shop had spares. Since the parts bag had a rear one, Jess guesses that you did the same thing and they come in sets... After a bit more running it popped apart again. Not sure how it didn' that but we will investigate. Just came home, cleaned the trucks and put them away for right now. I have to say tha tthose delrin arms are amazing though. He SLAMMED the boards many times along with insane tumbles. He was over shooting the triple by five feet!

have a grand weekend all.

I was running a Chameleon in the XXXT and it was getting slower and slower though one pack.

Jess managed to bust up a different part on the front of his XXX4 this time Tom. It was the bracket that secures the kingpins (does what a bulkhead does..) The shop had spares. Since the parts bag had a rear one, Jess guesses that you did the same thing and they come in sets... After a bit more running it popped apart again. Not sure how it didn' that but we will investigate. Just came home, cleaned the trucks and put them away for right now. I have to say tha tthose delrin arms are amazing though. He SLAMMED the boards many times along with insane tumbles. He was over shooting the triple by five feet!

The chameleon has a hung/bad brush. Needs to be cleaned, Trued, and new brushes.

The XXX4? Yup. Been there done that. I thought I read that you broke the Delrin front arms? I was really amazed because if you had seen the things I made the car do and never broke them...... wow! "insane tumbles" would be putting it mildly!

Well, the delrin arm lives on! I drilled and tapped the arm at the break and was able to pin it together using a 2-56 screw! It will not break again! If it weren't for those delrin arms I am sure some of the smacks Jess has given the truck would have shattered a normal arm!

I don't know about a hung brush. it was still running. I will let you know when I open it up but I suspect I just got too much mud in there and it just gummed it up. A cut and new brushes should make it screamingly happy again! I am always blown away by how fast those are. Not hot-mod speed but more than enough for the track we run at. Sean's Pede has one as well and even with the heavier truck it does fine.

I don't know about a hung brush. it was still running. I will let you know when I open it up but I suspect I just got too much mud in there and it just gummed it up.
One and the same!

A cut and new brushes should make it screamingly happy again!
I thought I said that? :lol:


Went out and actually bashed yesterday & today in the construction area across the street. My youngest son & I took my Oldests E-Maxx (test runs after I cleaned & re-lubed the bearings), his E-maxx, my Pede and my RS4 sport that I converted to rally W/truck tires (with a 12x2 in it!). What a blast! some pure sand piles & rough dirt piles all moist with excellent traction, Great air time.... Try jumpung an E-Maxx at full tilt off a 6ft tall pile of dirt! wow! The Pede being 2wd and not as heavy didn't get the air the Maxx did it still performed very admirably. The RS4 was just fun, not as fun as the trucks because of the lack of clearance, but it was "OMG!" fast with the 12x2 in it! Aahh, good times.

Sounds fun!

As for the cut and brushes? I think i was agreeing with you. Not sure though. Actually I was thinking of a messed up bearing causing all the drag. When I went in, as expected, the brushes were all discolored. I found one comm segment was way higher than the others. Nice and shiny now, .004" later! New set of 4499's and I am good to go.

Didn't get nearly enough time to work on stuff this weekend. At least the radios will be charged. Two of them died on Friday. :rolleyes:

Hit the LHS for some diff grease and came away with a 12X2 p-94 arm for $20! That should be fun in either the XXX4 or XXXS! :freak: Funny, at the LHS the guy (whoa ctually knows quite a bit) didn't understand why I wanted to slow up the Pede diff. He was syaing that most people just do all the Traxxas hop-ups. I pointed out that with a BL motor and 7 cells it made sense to make it handle better. That I already had pretty much anything one would want to put on a Pede anyway. Who wants a ball diff anyway? (which would let me stiffen it up without goop I guess).

Yeah, you were agreeing with me, I'm just giving you grief about it.

I can understand what you mean on the diff, my opinion is that an open gear diff has some advantages & a ball diff has others. Since it sounds like you plan to do a little racing with your Pede a Ball diff makes sense although not to the guys who consider a Pede "just a back yard basher".

My point of view is that the ball diff will only help control the "unloading" of power to an inside wheel in turns, it doesn't stop it but only adds a little added control. I actually prefer the gear diffs in a Rally car & so far the gear diff in the Pede hasn't really left me wanting, as long as there. But I've only been running Hi-Po stock motors in the Pede too, for what I do with it there's no need for anything else.

With the 5800 the unloading can be pretty severe! With a well packed diff I expect that problem will be much less noticible. Right now there is so much traction at the track that it hardly matters but as it gets drier any lifting of that inside wheel will be a problem! Time will tell.

With the 5800 the unloading can be pretty severe! With a well packed diff I expect that problem will be much less noticible. Right now there is so much traction at the track that it hardly matters but as it gets drier any lifting of that inside wheel will be a problem! Time will tell.

if you want i can check the lhs, they had a pro ball difff in the 50% bin.

What would that bring the price down to? I really don't see a problem with the stock one if it is slowed down enough. I am curious though!

i think it makes it $30 ish +/-. the ball diff is really spendy. i also like the gear diffs. i will check tomarrow. hitting the track late tonight. my daughter has her first real game of the season. she maybe the starting pitcher as well. not to bad with having her cast/splint off for only 2 1/2 weeks :)

Go for it Chris! Give your truck some balls..... in the diff! :freak:

:lol:

:p Thanks Tom! I needed that this morning. Some nut just did his best to ruin my day with his SUV. I was on my bike. He decided to check the laws of physics: two objects existing in the same space at the same time sort of thing... Coming down a hill this guy passed me and then immeidately pulled over to the right to get by some stopped traffic. The roads have sand all over them so stopping was exciting. Fully locked both wheels.:freak: When i got done yelling at him he claimed he didn't see me. Yeah, then why did the guy behind himm say he moved out to get around me? The adrenaline is coming back to managible levels now, thank you.

So, do you REALLy think the ball diff would make a difference?

Maybe, maybe not. Hard to say without trying it, but I would say it should help the racing aspect of it. If all you were going to do was bash and only race it every now & then I woulod say don't bother.

Glad you did stop in time. Funny how the All wheel drive helps you get going but doesn't help stoping huh? The world is full of people that think they need to be in front of you & not behind.

Close call. Glad you'll live to ride again.

The problem though is that guy, and thousands like him, are still out there. They were the reason I gave up riding bikes on the city streets, then motorcycles, and now I avoid driving small cars. It was a guy like that, that forced my Dad into earily retierment from the police force and he was on his police Harley.
Take care guys. Chris take extra care, please.

Well, OK, I will be careful. If you insist.:)

I think I will skip the ball diff. I expect that most of the time driving that truck will be bashing.

Speaking of diffs. Last time I ventured into racing I had all sorts of problems with the Losi diffs. Lots of people were burning them up if utmost care wasn't taken. When I got this truck the diff was toast and I went to the shop to ask them to build it to get it "right". They told me to just build it and they would adjust it for me. Well, I did that and they did that and I have to say that I havne't had to touch it once! Now I only have a few/four packs through it but I'm a happy guy!

okay chris no trip to the lhs.
can try and get A os loaded onto my new pc...
when things get going here they goo fast.

but glad your okay, and keep your head up!
:)

I've never had a problem with my Losi diffs, I get an easy 40-50 runs before they start showing any grittyness. My current MF2 hasn't had a rebuild on the diff since I put it together last summer. Probably has 18-20 race days or so on it running Mods & still smooth!

Well, obviously YOU know what you are doing. :p

My seceret is......... I use AE diff lube on the diff balls & Ronnie grease on the thrust bearing. Can't find Ronnie grease anywhere anymore & I'm about out now though.

I think the new diffs with the spring instead of the conical washers last longer.

I haven't seen the new ones. Can you actually get enough tension on the thrust bearing with springs? You have to crank down pretty darn hard to make these work.

I guess the definition of "crank down hard" would have to be determined.... I set mine so that when I run 2 of my allen wrenches thru the slots in both outdrives to hold them I cant turn the diff gear by hand without a good amount of force (finger hurting force). What I do is tighten it down tighter than it should be and twist the outdrives back & forth a little, then loosten it so it slips when I hold it with the allen wrenches. I then tighten it a little at a time until I get no slip of the diff gear. That's it.

Now keep the seceret OK? :p

You post in on the INTERNET and call it a secret. It is safe with me. ;)

Thanks Chris! I knew it would be! :tongue:

I wouldn't think what I wrote would be any suprise to a Losi person, but ya never know.

Morning all!

Got some quality shop time this weekend. Started with some basic organization. Things had gotten so bad I could hardly walk! Added a bench to hold the drill press and scroll saw. Even works as a paint table! Not only did I wrench for a while but I got two lids painted up! Waiting on some decals for mine but Jess now has a classy new body for his XXX4. He was a bit miffed when the body hole marks on the Losi lid didn't match the posts! Of course he drilled them out assuming they would fit. Hey, extra holes just make it lighter right? I still have two more bodies to paint! One Pede body and one for the sedan. At last the air brush seems happier these days.

I even spent a bit of time on the sedan. Tom, the reason the servo didn't fit ws that the mounts were flipped. :rolleyes:. I swapped them and all is good with the world. Got the new power cap for the ESC and hopefully tonight I will get it all wired up. I can't test it except at the track though as I only have foams for it and I don't want to muck them up on the pavement.

Mounts were flipped..... Hhmmnnn....

I spent the majority of the weekend working on my Motorcycle! Need the better Gas Mileage! We're paying 2.29-2.39 per gallon for Regular unleaded. Taht works out to about 6.90 per day in my truck or 2.65 (premium gas) on the bike...... No rocket science there!

And that is exactly why I ride my bicycle to work! I am obviously closer but I save $2.50 every time I risk my life playing in traffic! And if the price keeps going up, I will even ride when it is raining! At this price that even pays back for the wear and tear on the bike. The added fitness is just a bonus.

Cool, 20 miles one way (shortest route) is a little far for this lard but to pedal anything! But you are correct, if Prices keep going up I'll be riding in the rain too! Won't take long for a rain suit to pay for itself at $4 a day!

it's funny you guys are talking mpg today. was debaiting driving the cadi during the week. but with the stop and go i get 14mpg, and my buick i just filled up i am getting about 19mgp..tough choice ;)

later