tvih

Another day, another lost steering post bottom screw Gotta glue the darn thing in at this rate. Not sure why that screw slot suddenly wants to back out now - it was gone within the first minutes of driving today - when it hasn't before.

tmk

...Are you not using threadlock? The kit should have come with a tube of blue threadlock just for those places where you're threading into metal.

tvih

It's a two-edged sword. When I lost the first motor plate screw and then threadlocked the replacement, the replacement was then tossed during maintenance because it became so stuck that even with heating the hex head stripped. Now I thread-locked the "re-re-replacement", I just hope I can actually remove it in the future...

And I'm not sure if the steering posts contain metal threads? Seems unlikely, or even if they do, the threadlock didn't help with the second screw (original didn't have any).

071crazy

iTrader: (8)

It's not a two edged sword with the right tools. MIP is a good brand of tools for all your hex needs.

Thunder Trail

iTrader: (66)

I like to use the smallest amount of thread lock. It's just a hint that it has any on it. I use a little more on motor plate. As for taking them off next time, if they require more pressure than I feel comfortable with heat is the answer. The best form of heat to get it right where you need it is a butane torch/soldering iron. I have both the torch tip and soldering tip and it flat out works. Must be aware of plastic parts near the heat source and only use enough heat for the job to prevent new problems.

It's good practice to go over all fasteners before main or between events to find anything questionable, such as loose screws.

ta_man

iTrader: (168)

Another hint: Instead of using Blue Loctite ("Medium Strength") you can use Purple ("Low Strength").

Or if you are willing to spend a little money at McMaster-Carr, you can get 5-40 flat head Torx Plus screws and a Torx plus bit and use the Blue Loctite.

Me: I use the 5-40 Torx Plus screws and blue loctite. Some may consider the Torx stuff overkill, but as someone once said about me: "you do everything overkill."

I also use Torx Plus screws (8-32) on my center diff mounts.

tvih

I do wish torx screws were standard for RC! But if hex head imperial screws are hard to get in my country, better not even contemplate torx ones... Usually I have a hard time finding right sizes of imperial screws even on places like eBay etc that'd ship to Finland for a reasonable price. If I lose many more screws I might just have to shell out for a RCScrewz SCTE 2.0 screw kit for peace of mind, it's ~$43 here though which is a bit nasty.

On a side note it seems the SCTE isn't the only car wanting to shed screws, lost two screws on my new e-buggy in the first two days of driving this week as well, not sure if the threads on the plastic gearbox case were shot to begin with (RTR chassis so didn't put it together myself) or if impacts shredded them that quickly. But gonna need to buy a metal detector at this rate!

Anyway, off to the track with just the SCTE and 6 batteries, let's see how many casualties this time

Jgg12002

tacobob89

Anyone else have horrible results with the mip spur? I have tried them 2 times, first run or 2 are good then they start getting really loud. Using tekno mod1 hardened pinions.

tvih

Surprisingly no "casulties" - well, except for the body. The front is just about ready to break off. My own fault for not reinforcing the cracks sooner, damn laziness. Definitely need to order a new body for the race.

But the car was somehow better to drive than the last few times - or maybe it was just the practise with the e-buggy in between. Still some jumping issues here or there, I wish this jumped as well as the e-buggy - but what with the big body it's not really achievable, and the slightly lighter tires make in-air control harder. But in turn I like that my SCTE has a bit looser rear end than the e-buggy, as it allows throwing the rear around corners in tight 180-degree turns and the like. Hard to do that with the buggy - though of course with setup changes it would be achievable, I just suck with setups. Between the SCTE's slightly better cornering and the e-buggy's better jumping, I'm getting very similar lap times, with the recorded best lap on my local track being the same, 46.5 seconds, on both cars.

Thunder Trail

iTrader: (66)

I got two years out of my first MIP spur. It was noisy last few months, but outlasted two pinion gears. I cleaned it and dry lube between rounds on dirty tracks. Needed nothing but clean and lube at start of race day on clean tracks. Nothing wrong with the stock gears, just keep them clean. The newer ones seem to be made better and last me a year of racing easy.

I agree with you for the most part. With the right body vents, chassis balance and technique on the ramp you can make it do well. It will never be as easy as 1/8 buggy and wind is your enemy with truck body. Then again, these were never designed to do the monster jumps of today's 1/8 scale tracks.

There is a lot to be said for staying low and on throttle while avoiding big air time. Your not accelerating, slowing down or in control while in the air. Fun to land those big jumps, but might be faster at times to avoid the monster air. I tend to only hit the big ones when I know I can land them every time without any damage. Avoid the big air flat landings. That's where you loose screws and do damage. I know if your racing and the faster guy is doing that triple jump and landing it you feel the need to follow up with same effort. That might be the only way to keep up, but not worth it if you crash and need marshalling or break. For me, It's a trade off that must be evaluated every time I hit the track.

tvih

I must admit I do get plenty of flat landings. Even on smaller jumps, because it seems like a safer option than accidentally landing too short - land on the peak of the landing ramp and you probably end up on your roof due to the chassis plate hitting the peak and bouncing your over. Happened so many times with various cars, it's actually the most common reason for me to fail a jump! Of course hitting an upramp of a multi-peak jump isn't much fun either, basically the same as running into a wall At least on these SCTs the front bumpers protect a lot, but body does still get damaged from it too.

tvih

Only downside with Pro-Line's SCTE body post/cap system is that they went kinda lazy with it. Or rather the front is fine, but at the rear it doesn't conform to the downward slope of the rear of the body the way the SC10 version does for example (though that's more by the virtue of the posts being so flexible I suppose). It shows on the original body, quite a bit of damage due to it. Now with the new body I'm contemplating whether to try to mod the original posts to use the cap, problem being drilling the scrub screw in at angle and if that succeeds - durability. Even with this issue I'd rather not go back to body clips, even just for the rear.

tvih

The new body! Traditionally my bodies have been mostly black, red or a combination of the two, but went with "petrol blue" with some black this time. A nice enough look I think, in my usual simplistic style.

I modded the original rear body posts to mount the PL caps in a slightly angled manner, I just hope they hold up. This Illuzion Hi-Flow body seems slightly problematic with the SCTE - even if I wanted to use clips at the rear, the raised edges would've made that a hassle. They do kinda get in the way with the caps too even with my mod, and with the PL body posts it just wasn't going to happen at all. Otherwise I do like this body, though would've likely gotten the TLR body if not for it being nearly $10 more expensive here at the moment... who knows what I'll go with next time (though when I have to get a new 2WD body, it'll likely be a Hi-Flow). For now it's the TLR for practise until it completely disintegrates, and the JC for races.

Oh. And one thing I forgot to mention before. Those cheap HobbyKing alu hexes I mentioned getting earlier in the thread? Well, the hexes themselves held up and were OK for the indoor races, but I noticed after I went outdoors that at these higher speeds they were starting to eat up the hex slots in the wheels. The problem is the rounded edges at the outer facing, and at just 4mm thickness it ends up allowing too much "slippage" I guess. It's meant to make mounting the tire easier, but ends up being a poor tradeoff.

tvih

I guess I'll try the shoe goo now... CA glue seems too hard to undo when needed. I was running both classes on yesterday's race again and in the hassle and towards the end of the day the severe pain distracting me (health issues are a bitch) I forgot to keep checking the screws during the finals. End result, one steering post screw lost, the other partially out. I'm running out of side guard screws to take out!

Still can't figure why the steering post screws specifically are constantly coming out now, though. I haven't changed the steering endpoints or anything, and as I mention never lost these screws in the winter indoor season or last summer/autumn outdoors.

But yes, good thing that this car is durable otherwise, bombed a lot during yesterday's race. One lost Pro-Line cap because one of my modded body posts failed (the grub screw came off), some nasty cuts on front a-arms because of nasty spikes on the track piping, the lost screw... and that's about it. The new body survived without any cracks too, but oddly there seems to be an issue with the paint, it's coming off the body under the glued areas which is a major bummer.