Raman

iTrader: (94)

I've own / owned many TA, TB, TRF cars. The XV01 is everybit capable as any of the TA and TB cars. It's also much less of a headache in setting up than any TRF car.

In 2014 I sold my TRF416 and was about to pick up a TRF418 but held off after reading the reviews. So I set up my XV01 for racing on asphalt in RCGT class. (Using the XV arms, not the TC) It was a dream to drive, really easy and I did pretty well with it, considering I was up against X-ray T4s.

A few months later I briefly dabbled with a Yokomo BD7 RS and it broke on every run. So I switched back to what I know.. picked up a TB04 Pro and that was a nightmare, could not get the rear end planted. I sold it and picked up a TRF419.

TRF419 is the best TRF car I have ever owned and the 419X is supposed to be even better. There are so many parameters to tune on the car that it makes your head spin. After I leave the track I find myself remembering yet another thing I could have tried.

The XV01 still remains the best all around car. I take it on every trip to mountains, snow etc. Heck I even travelled to Brazil with it.

fyrstormer

iTrader: (1)

Interesting to know you were able to keep up around the track with the XV suspension arms, which have a taller ride-height than the Tamiya Short Reversible Arms used on the XV-01TC.

My TB-04R sticks to the ground pretty well even with tires intended for general bashing. My expectations are probably lower, though.

Raman

iTrader: (94)

The XV being front heavy, allows you to toss it into the turn and when the rear steps out, you can get on the throttle and it corrects itself pulls the rear back in line. As a result it gives you a lot of confidence in helps you increase corner speeds.

The TB04 on be other hand.. I could not maintain the same corner speeds. I constantly suffered from off throttle oversteer, nothing I did improved. When mid layout doesn't stick it becomes a handful... It doesn't have the auto correct benefit of the front motor AWD. I'm sure if I had more support / Knowledge I would have figured it out... Unfortunately the thread was not very active / supportive.

The TRF419 has tons of support for set up. So you're able to make the car have insane corner speeds. The limiting factor is usually me..the little voice in my head says .. You better slow down or you're gonna eat it lol

Ps this is all on a tight track

4roller

Lol synchronized squad rolling.

The D compound, X patterns I am running are great. Even though they are a little worn.

I was thinking about trying some Tamiya radials for driving on the street. Has anyone had any luck with Tamiya road tires, not on the track?

4roller

Today I ran my xv-01 in a parking lot near my house. I had never been there before, thinking it was smooth and paved. Boy was I wrong.

I brought my car set up for smooth streets. 5mm ride height and worn out HPI x-patterns.

The parking lot was full of cracks, pebbles, and gravel in some places. I was sliding all over the place. My car, with the fenders removed, sounded like pinging lexan.

It was fun, definitely rally stage like, not smooth tarmac like I was expecting.

The next time I go, it will be 1cm ride height minimum, fenders and rally blocks.

I rolled the car a couple of times power sliding at full speed into a crack in the lot. I only had the two front body pins in. It almost tore my body off.

Luckily this car was build for rally and rough terrain. With the aluminum suspension mounts, nothing broke. I have to say the front bumper works so well. I ran almost full speed into a concrete planter. No issues, except a broken ESC fan casing.

120amp hobbywing xerun 3.1 and sensored 13.5t motor with 77/26 gearing. 20 degree turbo timing.

The car moves. Just not road-style controllably in this case. Haha. I am glad I got the xv-01 with the semi sealed belts and gearing. Otherwise there would have been crying over torn up drivetrain parts.

It's unexpected surfaces that this chassis shines. Tires and suspension excluded.

fyrstormer

iTrader: (1)

I use HPI Super Radials (5130) on my slower road car, and HPI V-Groove Pro Compounds (4540) on my faster road car.

4roller

I got some upgrades in the mail today:

1. TRF Dampes and springs
2. Carbon Reinforced A-arms
3. Smoke paint for the windows.

The TRF dampers are nice and smooth. Although I noticed that they only use 1 o-ring, silicone. I am surprised these high end dampers only have 1 o-ring. I am running 2 pistons, 70wt AE oil. The car doesn't bottom out when I drop it now.

The springs are so much firmer than the stock silver springs. White extra-mega firms in the front, yellow mediums in the back. I have not ran it yet, I hope this will keep things ultra planted.

For the A-arms I basically tore down half the car and rebuilt it. I figured out another reason why my car was sagging on one side. The rear a-arms are reversible and the 3 holes (for mounting the bottom of the damper) are offset by 5mm. When I originally built the car, I used the inner most hole on both, but one of the arms were reversed! I shimmed these arms up really good. The slop is near zero. Mega tiiiiiight with no binding. I love it. I think I am OCD in a way.

I got some tint on the ride. But I messed it up a little, because I put too much on the first coat, and it ran. But in this picture, you can't see it. I also used nail polish that the wife had laying around to paint the raised TAMIYA letters on the battery box. The color is "Rumba Romance"

So the TRF dampers are nice, but I was hoping they would be a little longer. I guess I can use the long shock ends on the plastic CVA dampers if I want to chew some dirt. I got spring options now

The amount of wheel gap on the front fender would be totally unacceptable on a real car, but then again.. Rally

4roller

Gold wheels for rally

4roller

Making things super tight. O-rings behind the suspension ball ends, no slop!

I am going to do this with the rest of the ball ends too; Steering and camber tie rods.

I revisited the parking lot today, prepared with ride height and rally blocks. Excellent drive. I had the stock CVA dampers and red and blues on the longer damper ends I like how squishy it felt hitting some of the bumps, looked like a Baja buggy skipping over small dunes.

I put a 29T pinion with the 77T spur. This is mega fast. I have a 32T pinion I am saving for when the car is completely tuned.

On the street. TRF suspension with 4 white springs and AE 70wt (900cst), and 2 hole pistons is hella stiff, and mega heavy damping. The car barely rolls. Basically the car just pivots and requires all the traction it can get. I think this setup is ment for high traction surfaces. It's not bad though.

fyrstormer

iTrader: (1)

That's some crazy gearing. I'm running 36/77 in my on-road-only build, and it can do 45mph. I don't know what I'd do with a rally car that could go that fast, unless it were one of those rally cars built on a short-course chassis.

Do you have 70wt oil in the rear too? Because in my experience that's way too thick for the rear.

4roller

Gearing:
45mph? Thats pretty darn fast. I didn't think you could fit a 36T onto the mounting plate. Is this your FF03 conversion? Did you modify the aluminum mount? My motor gets pretty hot with the braking and turbo on/off craziness. It actually runs cooler when I run on loose gravel over pavement. I don't think the motor has to work as hard, since it spins tires, rather than hooking up, forcing more current draw.

Suspension:
I might try lighter springs in the rear before switching out the oil. This way I wont have to label the dampers. But yeah, lighter rear damping would probably help the rear end grip more by letting rolling easier.

XV-01TC?
Has anyone tried converting to the XV-01TC using TA06 parts? What does this give you? Wider track? More suspension setup options? I'd like to know the list of part # if possible. I'd consider this since I loooove playing with the suspension. One caveat would be if the parts only came in the basic plastic, I have carbon reinforced suspension, now, and I like it Aluminum would be a option for later down the road.

Tires/Rims
My tires are ultra coned now. I am thinking about getting a camber gauge and maybe some new 24mm USGT tires/rims. Although the street is still going to be the place where I mash this car the most. 24mm tires anyone? I guess all the TC guys are using these, I thought about 31mm VTA all around at one point.


Offset?
What are some advantages/disadvantages to increasing the offset of wheel hub hexes? I have the stock plastic ones, 5.5mm? but might consider wider ones by 1-2mm.

I have so many questions. I wish there were other XV-01 drivers near me. Thanks for all the responses. fyrstormer seems to be the most active XV-01 guy on this forum. with what 4 of these things in his garage? Expert

fyrstormer

iTrader: (1)

I have an FF-03R, but it's a shelf-queen. The 36/77 gearing is on my rear-motor XV-01 road car. I didn't modify the motor mount. The XV-01 motor mount has a minimum tooth count (add the pinion and spur teeth together) of 100 @ 48-pitch and a maximum tooth count of about ~115 @ 48-pitch, though I've only tested fitment up to 113.

My rear-motor XV-01 is essentially a XV-01TC with a widened track-width and the motor in the back, so yes, it can be done. I used the front A-arms from the FF-03 and the rear A-arms from the TA-06. The real XV-01TC uses the front *and* rear A-arms from the FF-03. (they're actually used on several vehicles designed around the same timeframe, but the FF-03 is the one that comes to mind.) The only snag is that the XV-01TC needs slightly longer shock shafts to achieve the same ride-height front and rear, or else you have to travel-limit the rear shocks and lower the car. If you have smooth pavement to drive on that's not a problem, but forget about running it as a rally car ever again.

Increasing wheel offset by getting wider hexes only works if there's enough exposed stub-axle length to allow you to securely tighten the wheel nuts. There are thin locknuts that rely on the serrations alone to secure them, and have no nylon insert, so they need less exposed stub-axle length than normal wheel nuts; Tamiya sells blue aluminum ones and Vaterra sells black steel ones. I kept the stock hexes and instead used wider-offset wheels on my rear-motor XV-01, in combination with wider toe-blocks. There aren't any options for wider toe-blocks if you keep the stock rally-style suspension, though.

Softer springs will still feel really stiff over bumps if the damper oil is still thick -- in fact, they might pack-down over multiple bumps, as the softer springs won't be able to re-extend the shocks fast enough. Something someone explained to me when I was fighting with the suspension on my Yeti: Drain the shocks, and bounce-test the car with different springs until it bounces evenly front-and-rear, or as close as you can get. Only then refill the shocks and test different oil weights until you get bottoming-out and rebound-bouncing under control.

If your tires are badly coned, then it sounds like you need to dial-in more negative camber so the tires wear more evenly. I'm not a believer in adjusting the camber for maximum grip, I think that's the job of the shocks, swaybars, roll-center adjustments, and tire compound. Camber should be adjusted to achieve even tire-wear based on your driving style.

http://www.rctech.net/forum/electric...a-rr-01-a.html

I don't know any other XV-01 drivers. I just made up answers to my questions.

Raman

iTrader: (94)

If you change over to 64 pitch gears, you can get the gearing really high.. / fdr down under 4:00

fyrstormer

iTrader: (1)

My XV-01 FF has a FDR of 4.22:1 with 40/65 pinion/spur gears. It can manage 24mph with a measly 27-turn disposable motor. I imagine the same gear ratio with even a stock-class brushless motor would scream.

Raman

iTrader: (94)

Which TRF dampers did you pick up? There are several versions these days. The one o-ring is for carpet set up.

You can build the TRF dampers with 2 orings. Depending on the version, you either replace the white spacer with the second o ring or if you have the one piece retainer that came with the new 419 damper, you would replace that with the thinner version that's in this rebuild kit

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&W=000248613&I=LXUSG5&P=K

There is also a longer piston available from the XV01 TC. Part number is 9804706