New Bright LR3

[Head Hunter]

I have a New Bright Land Rover Discovery 1:10 scale I bought for my girlfriends daycare, she doesnt use it anymore so I took it back and wheel it around the yard every so often. Found here: http://www.newbright.com/search1.cfm?id=411

My question is: Is this thing mod-able?
- Lack of Power: The 9.6v NiCd battery just doesnt cut it. Good torque for about 1- 2 minutes and then it dies. Is there a stronger battery out there to replace it?
- The tires are too stiff. They are hollow too, I opened them up to see if there was foam in the way. So could I stick aftermarket tires on the rims? They measure 2&3/4" diameter X 1&3/4"wide.
- If no tires will fit, the rims are directly connected to the axle shaft via a 1/4 female hex socket. Are there any aftermarket rims to fit?

Reason being, this rc is a sturdy little unit, with both axles acting locked, and good suspension (a bit stiff, but a bit of added weight to the chassis would do the trick, but there is a severe power issue with the stock battery).

 

[666]

Screw the toy underneath it, I took the body off and mounted it to my K2-3L chassis TLT axle scale rig, now there is a cool scale rig!

 

[ecoli]

Screw the toy underneath it, I took the body off and mounted it to my K2-3L chassis TLT axle scale rig, now there is a cool scale rig!

x2. The body looks like it would be good for a scale build. You've already listed some of the problems with this toy. Yes, you could mod it slightly, but it's really really not worth it. Buy the Axial kit or rtr and you'll be much happier. Lots of good hobby shops in Calgary, I'd recommend PM hobbycraft (lots of crawler goodies there).

 

[SeanD]

I had the 1/10 NB Rubicon and managed to do some work with it - swapped out the motors and did some cheap suspension work. I thought it was the cat's a$$ UNTIL I saw some videos what real crawlers could do! I abandoned it pretty quickly.

Some people have managed to swap out the gears but the overall cheapness of the plastic drivetrain will cause it to fail under the stress. The axles are pretty brittle too.

The stock electronics cannot handle anyhting bigger than a Graupner 280 motor without being fried. There is no proportional steering - eithers its locked full left or right or centre. The stock electronics cannot operate a real servo either so you can't upgrade.


Still, of you wish to sue it:

There is a Tamiya plug in the battery compartment so you are not limmited to the crappy 600 mAh nicad battery. I was running 2500 mAh packs in mine for over an hour runtime.

The plastic tires can be chopped and sanded to soften the carcass but they will never function like a good rubber tire.

Aftermarket rims are going to be impossible to find for the small hexes although 2.2 tires will fit the stock rims.

I owe a lot to my old NB as it got me started in this hobby. Things is, once I caught the bug, it was relegated to the attic where it now sits with my childrens' other toys!!

So it could be a starter for you but if you plan to go on in this hobby, you're better off investing in a upgradeable hobby grade project.

Just for the record here's my old Rubi: