A/A front and A/D in rear. I'm using the diff. So unless I run -1,5 camber or more, the drive shaft pops out. On carpet, the weight of front motor doesn't require so much camber in front.

I ordered the spool from Stella last night.

Are You are saying the rear arms work (with shimming) as front arms on TC knuckles and hub carriers? Interesting.

Yes I ended up scrapping the xv-01 front setup. There is so much chatter at full droop. And when I turn to full angle at full drop it's extremely bad, the cvds catch causing metal binding.

I went back to my original setup with TC arms and a little milling. Cutting out the U shaped a little deeper to get the knuckles to fall deeper into droop. I did this same shaving trick with the Xv-01 TC conversation to get back it's rally ride height in the front.

The tb03 being shaft driven feels a lot more direct than the xv-01. Weighting is similar to the TA05. Since the tb03 I have isn't quite setup nicely yet. I cannot give a real comparison.

That seems like a lot of work to fit the XV-01 suspension arms to a different vehicle. When I wanted to raise my TB-04R, I installed longer shocks and clearanced the chassis to allow the original suspension arms to droop lower.

So I finally gave up trying to sell my XV01T and decided to build it as a rally car to compare to my TA02. I know the arms are different than the regular XV01 (they're the soft, gray plastic). I found a few quirks that I was wondering was similar between the regular XV01 and this one.

First, and not surprisingly, there were no droop screws included, but I was able to use some screws from other kits that did the job.

The reason I needed those droop screws was twofold. The springs themselves were waaay too short for how tall the shocks were supposed to be built. Even with the manual suggested spacers installed, there was a good five millimeters of travel in the shocks beyond the length of the springs. And when the shocks were fully extended on the car, the turnbuckles would catch on the chassis as the wheels turned. This contact would limit steering throw to only about a third of the maximum. If the turnbuckles caught on the chassis from the servo moving the steering, I would expect disastrous results.

Using droop screws to keep the shocks short enough to keep tension on the springs and to stop the turnbuckles from jamming on the chassis, the car still has a maximum ride height of 21mm, fully extended. I still don't have any electronics installed, so I haven't been able to set its resting ride height yet. Anybody else have these problems?

It's a pretty well documented issue with the turnbuckles rubbing the chassis on full drop. One thing that I and others have done is cut down the chassis and suspension block area where it rubs. A file or dremel with a milling bit works great.

I'd like to see your rear wheel midmotor rally machine. Is it built on the tb03? It sounds interesting.

Yes the geometry of the tb03 is similar to the TA05. But you are correct that it has more rear end stability. I couldn't put my finger on it, but that rear end weight really changes how the tb03 thing turns. I kind of want it to be a little wilder in the rear.

I'll have to try the xv-01 rear arms to see what thats like.

All that work I did with the xv-01 arms was for nothing. At full droop and full turn the cvds would bind pretty hard. I switched back to the short reversible. Along with the milled chassis of the tb03, I also cut out some of the a-arms to allow for more droop. I did the same thing with my xv01TC conversion. I know this should net me at least an extra 5mm but I am hoping more.

Thanks. I had a feeling I'd find something within this thread, but 100 pages was a lot to fish through. I hate taking a dremel to a new chassis too... And then I'd need a larger set of springs.....

A few questions for you guys:

I'm slowly reviving my xv-01 after finally getting better settled in London, after a difficult move in period, and although I'm now working a lot more hours and crazy rotas than I would have wished, I could eventually find a few moments to play with the car. I wish I could have at least a few weekends off to be able to take part in some low level races. One thing that I noticed here is that there just aren't any smooth dirt lot to drive bash with a rally setup. It's either smooth tarmac, parking lots or grass. I was thinking about paying a visit to a local off-road track, but it seems that they're all clubs and stuff, or I just don't know how it works. Local Londoners, what do you guys suggest?

I'm also looking to buy some tyres to bash in local parking lots and dusty tarmac and was thinking about buying a pair of semi slicks. Specifically I was looking after the Tamiya's Semi Slick or the HPI X-Pattern. What do you think about them?

Cheers

Oi velho amigo, tudo bem!!!

You're in London now? Take a look at TamiyaClub Forum, majority on there are from the UK.. they would be more helpful in letting you know about the tracks in London. Qatmix Who is on RCtech and TamiyaClub.. is from the UK.. he also who has the online publication thercracer.com.. he can give you advise on tracks as well

Regarding tyres.. the HPI x patterns are discontinued, in fact HPI is pretty much close to being discontinued!

Ride 24024 are great for Tarmac bashing.. I put these on my nephews Rallylegends.

https://www.tqrcracing.com/shop/product_view.asp?p_id=7916

Pricing and impostas in U.K. Can be almost as bad as Sao Paolo.. so let me know if I can help by shipping things from the US.. I have done it for a few members on Tamiya Club!

London has a fantastic venue (West London Raceway) They even run a Tamiya class most sundays. Its a great circuit.

Here in the US. HPI x-patterns can be had from almost any online retailer.

The 24mm Ride tires listed above are excellent. Low side wall, good grip, long lasting. The only thing about them is that they are small wheels. Width and height wise.

The 26mm Ride tires I have recently tried. They are just as good as the 24mm. Good quality. They have a higher side wall and wider width. I recommend all of the tires mentioned.

First time I have seen you in this thread my friend

I received a used set of HPI x-patterns. You know when the rubber reassembles a forgotten eraser that does erase very well?

Anyway I had those tires on various TC for bashing for many many many months. They served me well on road (tarmac, dusty parking lots, basketball courts) and off (read soily baseball diamonds.) I am not sure how the tires got to be so durable but they lasted forever. The ring of death never really happened after I corrected my camber (near 0) and switched over to TC suspension, with 4degree caster. They eventually wore out where only one tire was starting to see the ring of death. This was literally 4+ months of driving maybe 30 packs.

Before that I had a set of new HPI tires fresh out of the package. A stock setup xv-01 (camber from the manual) and the stock 6degree caster blocks. I drove it pretty hard when I first got the car, never really easing into turns but hard left hard right, hard braking and always full acceleration out of corners with burnouts etc. The tires didn't last that long. But had very good grip until the ring of death appeared.

So I currently can only recommend HPI tires if you have set up the car with very little camber, and are a little less throttle happy than I was when I got the my xv-01. I also think stale plastisized rubber actually lasts much longer than fresh rubber from the package.

Maybe I could dunk my new tires in acetone or something. Idk.

Awesome!

What does it look like now with all the extra mods to make it satisfactory?

I always like seeing what people have done with some detailed descriptions.

Coming from xv-01 a lot of what I do with car mods is trying g to get the cars to perform really well on dusty tarmac and rutty pavement. How did you move the motor forward? Maybe I should post on tb03.