Tommy R
I wanna be Dave
Hey y'all,
So after 2-3 failed attempts at enjoying all-wheel-drive drifting (and hating it), back in August I picked up an Eagle TT02-FRD. It was pretty great and I realized RWD is the only way to go for me! But it took quite a bit of tweaking to get the suspension working well. Frankly, this should be expected for an all aluminum/carbon chassis at that low price point. Then I hesitantly sold it when the new Eagle TT02-RWD came out. After some more work, I got it working very well, too. But after being exposed to the high quality kits that my friends were running, I felt it was time to step up my game a bit. I decided I wanted a quality car, but I also wanted a chassis that looked really nice. And no, I never thought I'd say that about an RC car. :roll:
I really wanted a D-Like RE-R after giving it a lot of thought, but they were out of production (at the time), not to mention the price (~$700 USD for a roller!) was going to be a factor.:shock: So I opened up my search to a variety of brands, but wanted to keep with something that had good potential, quality components, and hopefully a half-way reasonable price tag on the used market. The Yokomo DIB was heavily on my mind....or maybe the new YD4? Then a friend told me about a Yokomo DRB someone nearby was selling. After some discussion a deal was made and the DRB was mine.
It's got quite few upgrades done to it such as Wrap Up Next suspension bits and quite a bit of Overdose parts, such as damper parts, spur mount, servo mount/arm, and front bumper support. It even has Carb-D steering wiper extensions. Needless to say I was pretty excited and here it is...
So I had two main goals immediately.... First I needed to get the parts required to get this chassis together 100%. Secondly, I needed to start sourcing electronics.
I've never been concerned about color matching or coordinating my electronics, but I guess I drank the Kool-Aid and now I want this chassis to look very sharp with or without a body on it! So after a ton of research I decided to go all Sanwa. But that ended up going much further than I expected and the next thing I knew, I was selling my Futaba radio for a Sanwa MT4S! In addition, I ordered a new Sanwa SRG-BLS servo and got a good deal on a used Sanwa Super Vortex Type D ESC. The gyro (for now) is a G-Force model. Batteries are 4200 mah Nanotech shorties.
So while my wallet was trying to cool off from those purchases (ouch), I started putting together a gameplan for the chassis. I ordered up some spur gears (going 64 pitch this time), got some Yokomo ball studs, got some bearings for the belt support, but there was one item I was having a problem with......the Carb-D wiper arms. Let me explain...
Here you can see the wiper arm installed. Obviously, one screw isn't going to support that arm sufficiently so something must be done.
Why not just install a longer screw that would extend beyond the arm, right? Well, it's a weird Yokomo-only kingpin so that isn't really possible.
And it turns out that kingpin is not a metric thread! Best I can tell it's a 4-40 thread, which makes NO sense to me whatsoever. So I drilled it out for a 3mm screw, used a thin bushing sleeve to keep things aligned properly, and bolted everything together. Should be good to go now, right?
Nope. Tighten it down and the steering binds badly. Loosen it up some and it has way too much slop. So I reached out to Carb-D and ordered their Version 2 of the wiper arms. They will also incorporate a tie rod so I'll be able to adjust Ackerman. I'm waiting on the parts to arrive, but here's a pic Carb-D sent me:
I also noticed that the rear ball stud was cutting into the hub carrier so I relocated it to the next hole over to prevent further damage. Not sure why they used a stepped design like that?
Nonetheless, with everything installed the steering throw isn't phenomenal. The wheels (10mm offset Scale Dynamics which are more like a 7mm offset) rub the lower arm at full lock. Looks like I may need to look into wider offset wheels or I'm told running more scrub radius may help me out.
Started working on the wiring. Picked up some blue Tetsujin wire, some wire clamps to keep things tidy, and began sorting out the locations for the electronics. The motor is the same 10.5 Speed Passion I ran in my Eagles, but I'll likely pick up something new in the near future. Thinking Acuvance, but am open to suggestions!
Then I got all my new wires cut/formed and got the receiver and gyro installed, too. Could be a bit neater, but I'm pleased with it for now.
Now I'm waiting on some items to arrive, such as the Carb-D V2 extensions, but I picked up some new stealth body mounts and here you can get an idea where I'm going with the body on this one.....
So after 2-3 failed attempts at enjoying all-wheel-drive drifting (and hating it), back in August I picked up an Eagle TT02-FRD. It was pretty great and I realized RWD is the only way to go for me! But it took quite a bit of tweaking to get the suspension working well. Frankly, this should be expected for an all aluminum/carbon chassis at that low price point. Then I hesitantly sold it when the new Eagle TT02-RWD came out. After some more work, I got it working very well, too. But after being exposed to the high quality kits that my friends were running, I felt it was time to step up my game a bit. I decided I wanted a quality car, but I also wanted a chassis that looked really nice. And no, I never thought I'd say that about an RC car. :roll:
I really wanted a D-Like RE-R after giving it a lot of thought, but they were out of production (at the time), not to mention the price (~$700 USD for a roller!) was going to be a factor.:shock: So I opened up my search to a variety of brands, but wanted to keep with something that had good potential, quality components, and hopefully a half-way reasonable price tag on the used market. The Yokomo DIB was heavily on my mind....or maybe the new YD4? Then a friend told me about a Yokomo DRB someone nearby was selling. After some discussion a deal was made and the DRB was mine.
It's got quite few upgrades done to it such as Wrap Up Next suspension bits and quite a bit of Overdose parts, such as damper parts, spur mount, servo mount/arm, and front bumper support. It even has Carb-D steering wiper extensions. Needless to say I was pretty excited and here it is...
So I had two main goals immediately.... First I needed to get the parts required to get this chassis together 100%. Secondly, I needed to start sourcing electronics.
I've never been concerned about color matching or coordinating my electronics, but I guess I drank the Kool-Aid and now I want this chassis to look very sharp with or without a body on it! So after a ton of research I decided to go all Sanwa. But that ended up going much further than I expected and the next thing I knew, I was selling my Futaba radio for a Sanwa MT4S! In addition, I ordered a new Sanwa SRG-BLS servo and got a good deal on a used Sanwa Super Vortex Type D ESC. The gyro (for now) is a G-Force model. Batteries are 4200 mah Nanotech shorties.
So while my wallet was trying to cool off from those purchases (ouch), I started putting together a gameplan for the chassis. I ordered up some spur gears (going 64 pitch this time), got some Yokomo ball studs, got some bearings for the belt support, but there was one item I was having a problem with......the Carb-D wiper arms. Let me explain...
Here you can see the wiper arm installed. Obviously, one screw isn't going to support that arm sufficiently so something must be done.
Why not just install a longer screw that would extend beyond the arm, right? Well, it's a weird Yokomo-only kingpin so that isn't really possible.
And it turns out that kingpin is not a metric thread! Best I can tell it's a 4-40 thread, which makes NO sense to me whatsoever. So I drilled it out for a 3mm screw, used a thin bushing sleeve to keep things aligned properly, and bolted everything together. Should be good to go now, right?
Nope. Tighten it down and the steering binds badly. Loosen it up some and it has way too much slop. So I reached out to Carb-D and ordered their Version 2 of the wiper arms. They will also incorporate a tie rod so I'll be able to adjust Ackerman. I'm waiting on the parts to arrive, but here's a pic Carb-D sent me:
I also noticed that the rear ball stud was cutting into the hub carrier so I relocated it to the next hole over to prevent further damage. Not sure why they used a stepped design like that?
Nonetheless, with everything installed the steering throw isn't phenomenal. The wheels (10mm offset Scale Dynamics which are more like a 7mm offset) rub the lower arm at full lock. Looks like I may need to look into wider offset wheels or I'm told running more scrub radius may help me out.
Started working on the wiring. Picked up some blue Tetsujin wire, some wire clamps to keep things tidy, and began sorting out the locations for the electronics. The motor is the same 10.5 Speed Passion I ran in my Eagles, but I'll likely pick up something new in the near future. Thinking Acuvance, but am open to suggestions!
Then I got all my new wires cut/formed and got the receiver and gyro installed, too. Could be a bit neater, but I'm pleased with it for now.
Now I'm waiting on some items to arrive, such as the Carb-D V2 extensions, but I picked up some new stealth body mounts and here you can get an idea where I'm going with the body on this one.....
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