Good to know its about that time for a break down for fresh oils and a cleaning

I'm also a firm believer in the silicon sprays. You can use anything, including the generic food safe silicon spray cans, but I use MooSlick from CowRC. I find with it I only have to shoot something once when it is clean to get good lubrication once it dries, rather than several times like with the others.

Note: Silicon spray is not meant to clean, nor is it meant to prevent dust. It will, however, keep things moving, and make it easier to clean the dirt off later.

This is a timely subject, as I came here to ask some very similar questions about cleaning and lubrication.

Cleaning:
Took a little road trip with a buddy of mine to a track about 1.5 hours from home yesterday. Amazing outdoor track, but it was super, super dusty. Here's a video of a few of my first laps (don't judge, I'm still pretty new to this! :p) if anyone is curious. Gave the buggy it's first really thorough cleaning when I got back home, and curious if this seems OK. Here's what I did:

1. Blew off as much of the loose dirt and debris off with a compressor as possible.
2. Gave a few generous sprays of Simple Green front and rear, being careful to avoid electronics.
3. Back to the air compressor to blow off the Simple Green. Wiped down with a microfiber towel.
4. Removed front and rear suspension assemblies.
5. Cleaned front and rear of chassis with Simple Green, rinsing with a small amount of water in a spray bottle, and wiping down with a microfiber towel.
6. In a small plastic tub, gave a generous helping of Simple Green to the front and rear suspension assemblies. Let it soak for about 5 minutes.
7. Back again to the air compressor, blowing off any excess Simple Green.
8. Here where I'm wondering if I messed up: I was rinsing some of the harder to reach areas with small amounts of water using the "stream" mode of a spray bottle. Very, very effective, but I'm wondering if I should be doing this. Is this a terrible idea?
9. One final wipedown with a microfiber towel on all components, then set it on the shelf to dry overnight.

Lubrication and Bearings:
What exactly should I be lubricating? When I finished cleaning using the method above I sprayed the moving components of the steering/suspension linkages with some LiquidWrench. Sounds like maybe a silicon-based lubricant may be better? I'm definitely open to suggestions. Seems lubricating the bearings, provided they don't need replacing, is a good idea. What would I use to lubricate these?

On the topic of bearings, which ones should I be checking most often and at what interval? Which bearings are less important, but should still be checked? At what interval? I'm considering picking up one of these bearing kits I've seen linked just to have some extras on-hand.

that's not bad driving at all. Track is very dusty but looks like fun. What tires work on that surface? Sweep cubix?

Thanks. Definitely a very, very dusty, loamy track but it is insanely fun. The "flow" is fantastic, with a really well thought out layout. It's a surprisingly quick track too. I was taking it a bit easy on these laps since we had just got there, but I put in some laps towards the end of the day I was pretty proud of. By mid-day I had finally worked up enough confidences to really open it up on that front and back stretch!

As for optimal tires, I'm really not sure to be honest. I haven't been out to a race day there yet, so haven't seen what others are running. Will have to ask if I make it out there before the next event. I'm running AVA Gridirons on there currently. Those work well for my closest track (a bit of loose dirt, but reasonably solid clay base), but they probably aren't the optimal solution here. I think you're right-on with your suggestion though--something with bigger, wider pins like the Cubix/Blockade/Crossbrace would likely be better.

I would just do as Ryan Lutz does and just use Endust and a microfiber rag. I think using anything more then that over time your just going to slowly strip off the coating on the parts. I know because i have done it lol. Tore the back part of the buggy down today completely cleaned everything with Endust and i have to say it looks brand new from the factory. Also fresh diff oil and took to rubber seals off the bearings soaked them in denatured alcohol blew them off with the air compressor put 3 drops of light weight clear bearing oil in them and the whole back part spins so free its like sliding on ice its pretty crazy. Tomorrow center diff and front part. It takes awhile but well worth it.

Anyone got an ETA for when TeknoRC.com will get another batch of kits back in stock?

So first race report of our 48.4. Keep in mind this is only the third time we have ever officially raced...period.

25 entries in E buggy.

Our car had only seen the dirt twice before being raced.

1st time ended in about 15 mins when the steering came apart after I failed to properly tighten the screws down...searched the track for 20 mins before finding everything. Turnbuckle bent due to resulting crash...bent it back into shape when we got home.

2nd time was a disaster as the stock setup was horribly wrong for this track. car was sliding all over and was just generally awful to drive.

Rebuilt diffs Friday night with 7/7/5. Moved wheelbase all the way back for added stability, set droop and ride height again and that was it.

Saturday was race day. My son drives it btw (12 yrs old)...I just wrench on it and give advice. He put in a few practice laps before racing. All seemed much better...considering it was really the first time he had driven it with a proper setup.

Heat one...10 cars in our heat. He managed to keep it fairly clean considering the right rear tire separated from the wheel due to my crappy gluing skills. He bit it a few times but brought it home in 5th. Borrowed some tire glue from the guy next to me to try to re glue for heat 2.

Heat two...10 cars again. Both right tires separated this time...man I think I just need to buy pre-mounts from now on. Luckily I brought a set of JConcept premount reflex tires for the main. He finished 7th in this heat due to tire issues.

He qualified for 4th in B Main. Top two from the C Main make it the B Main. B main has 12 cars to start. He's a little nervous...top two move to A-main with all the local pros. B main starts with a 1st turn scuffle my son manages to avoid. 1st big double/double he's in the lead. He manages to keep the lead for a couple laps but I can see he's getting nervous (never led a big race before) and makes a couple mistakes. Two guys get past. Then they start to run into lapped traffic. He manages to settle down and keep a good pace while avoiding others. Ends up finishing 2nd and advances to A Main!

Then the rain came and it was all over.

Never got to run the A Main or the A Main with the 22-4 2.0 (which he qualified 5th out of 10).

But very impressed with the 48.4. With just some basic changes to the setup it was very competitive in the hands of us hacks ;) Amazing how well the car holds together when you screw everything down tight and don't crash as often. My son was really not optimistic on the car going into the race...the only times he had driven it, it either fell apart or was undriveable. But after the morning practice he was grinning ear to ear ;) We are definitely on the Tekno train...can't wait to ditch the 22-4 2.0 for the EB410...just to be true Tekno fanboys ;)

Going to look for some pre mounts now. My 1/10 th scale gluing skills are ok...the cars don't have enough power to separate the tires from the wheels. But the 1/8th scale...I think I'm just doing something wrong.

Does anyone know of any race tracks near Hilton Head, SC? TIA.

Well if you give 1/8 tire gluing another chance, use this technique.

Keep the wheel/tire flat on a surface, pull the tire away from the wheel bead slightly and drop a bit of glue (AKA tire glue) in the center of the area exposed on the wheel. Then keep massaging that area of the tire into the wheel which will spread the glue around the wheel a bit. Just do this 5 or 6 times around the wheel and you're golden ;) This is how I learned from a Ryan Lutz tips and tricks thread when he was still with Durango.

Best tire gluing advice I can give is, make sure the tire and rim are clean. If you have relatively new tires you can get away with using simple green and a clean towel. If the tires have a brown or gray haze, you'll need to sand them. I use a dremel with a sanding wheel. Lightly sand the tire with the foam inside, clean off the sanding debris and do the same to the wheel. Cleaning the wheel with simple green is usually enough but if I have the dremel out I just sand it too. Never had a tire come off doing it this way. Even if the glue is somewhat old.

Other thing is to make sure the glue is kept out of the sun and heat. Only keep the glue for a week after it's been opened. If you buy several bottles at a time, keep the extras in the fridge. I've had unopened bottles last for a year when kept in the fridge.

+1 on all of that!

some say the freezer is one better than the fridge for storage.

Is their much of a difference between the .4 and the .3?

Read the first post in this thread for all the new features.

Great thanks! Will the .4 body fit on a .3