Easiest 4WD Buggy out of the Box

[jimmy]

haha, sounds a great idea - would need a bit of investment to get that lot together tho (time and money) I guess we could borrow cars but they'd ideally need identical electrics and have a good setup. Hmmmm, it gives me a headache thinking about it!

[RogerM]

werner .......... the biggest challenge there would be finding an outdoor sand track in the UK!!

Closest thing I could think is Ledbury after a hot spell and enough racing to wear all the grass away.


Otherwise it's a great idea, happy to make my ZX5-SP and RB5 available.

[werner1619]

outdoor sandy would be the ultimate, all that sand finding it's way into every part of the car, in SA we only have outdoor sandy tracks, my 501x suffers out here, maint. is a pain in the ass, by the way, ask the drivers to do some maint on the cars while doing the review, see which cars is easy to work on and get right again.

(jimmy, you know you would love to do it, rc is your life!)

[stefke]

all recent 4wd cars have their pros and cons, but I'm sticking with the 501X because as said here before, it is just soooo easy to drive fast AND it's ridiculously strong !

But at the start of this season, I replaced the TRF501X I used in 2007 by a brand new TRF501X Worlds Edition and I was shocked to find that on dirt or clay tracks, it wasn't the same car anymore. I struggled and couldn't use my setups from last year. To only thing I could think of was that the aluminium rear hubs and castor blocks were causing the car to "misbehave" and for sure : as soon as I replaced the alu parts with the composites, I got my good old TRF501X back !

Could this also be the reason why the B44 is considered an "easier" car compared to the BJ4we ?

[jimmy]

Does the Worlds car use equal pulleys (no over drive) because on slippy surfaces the over drive definitely makes the car easier to drive. I don't have a worlds car but I do have the big pulleys on my car - though still have an over driven front.
I agree the 501X is really easy to drive fast and super strong - great combo for amateurs like me.

[stefke]

Originally Posted by jimmy

Does the Worlds car use equal pulleys (no over drive) because on slippy surfaces the over drive definitely makes the car easier to drive. I don't have a worlds car but I do have the big pulleys on my car - though still have an over driven front.
I agree the 501X is really easy to drive fast and super strong - great combo for amateurs like me.

That's also what I initially thought, so I put a 36T pulley at the front and it still didn't drive as forgiving (and as fast) as my "old" 501.

I guess unsprung weight has more influence than I thought.

[Colinevan]

Originally Posted by stefke

That's also what I initially thought, so I put a 36T pulley at the front and it still didn't drive as forgiving (and as fast) as my "old" 501.

I guess unsprung weight has more influence than I thought.

Couldnt agree with you more. My new 501 is deffo no match on the last car. Hmmm i think a re build is in order and a replacement of parts back to stock.

Col.

[Simon K]

Originally Posted by Welshy40

I actually agree with you there, yes the YZ10 can win events out of the box without modding, and I did just that with the standard kit and crappy black shocks, which did the job very well. standard kit springs as well.

Thanks must go to Jon Leonard's dad for making it for me (but it was the standard kit and no team extras from Team Yokomo).

I was handed it by Jon just before 4wd practice and from standard build it was half decent and easy to dial in. Qualified 7th and got the lead at the end of the straight due to a pile up with the leaders and never looked back. Great car!!!!!

They won a couple of National titles in Modified in NZ during the 90's(I had one) .

Really reliable cars that were almost indestructable, especially compared to the cars of today. Just look at the arms and see how beefy they were. In saying that, my B44 has done well so far with no major breakages(one DNF due to a centre CVD pin escaping). Most NZ tracks were clay based, hard and smooth. Tended to use the same tyre combo(TF390 and Proline flat fuzzies on the rear)and the cars were dialled...unless the track got a bit rough as thats when the cars would misbehave.

[mole2k]

Originally Posted by Colinevan

Couldnt agree with you more. My new 501 is deffo no match on the last car. Hmmm i think a re build is in order and a replacement of parts back to stock.

Col.

Reading the posts about people saying that they notice the WE isnt as good as the stock due to the extra unsprung weight makes me wonder if it would be worth ordering the plastic parts to see if my car could be improved.

[DaveG28]

Originally Posted by stefke

That's also what I initially thought, so I put a 36T pulley at the front and it still didn't drive as forgiving (and as fast) as my "old" 501.

I guess unsprung weight has more influence than I thought.

I've kind of found the other way round, I got the worlds and immediately did better than with the old car. I imagine its not as forgiving though, as I always used a one way on the old 501x but run a diff in the front of the worlds to get the same amount of aggression on the steering, so with a one way it might be edgy!!

[DaveG28]

Originally Posted by mole2k

Reading the posts about people saying that they notice the WE isnt as good as the stock due to the extra unsprung weight makes me wonder if it would be worth ordering the plastic parts to see if my car could be improved.

Are you running the one way mole?

[mole2k]

No I run the diff in the front, i've always been in 2 minds about one ways never overly liking them or disliking them.

[stefke]

Originally Posted by mole2k

Reading the posts about people saying that they notice the WE isnt as good as the stock due to the extra unsprung weight makes me wonder if it would be worth ordering the plastic parts to see if my car could be improved.

done that. Certainly better on bumpy tracks.

[mole2k]

At the moment im just running in a hall so its super smooth. Might be worth getting the plastic bits to do some testing on the off-road tracks.

[DaveG28]

Hi Mole,

If your running indoor the other thing I found improved the car was to put front shock shafts off the standard car on it, the worlds has longer shock shafts. When I broke a front one and put the shorter ones back on, it improved it on smooth indoor surfaces!

[RURC]

BJ4 WE
Pred X10
XX-4
XXX-4
D4
TRF 501x
ZX5-SP
MR4-BX

This the list I keep seeing. Dont get me wrong it is a great list. All the cars are top notch. But are any of them RTR? I have the X10 and BJ4WE and and X-5 (not on the list) but if it is not an RTR how can we even begin to say "out of the box". None of these, as far as I know, are "out of the box". I know that when I build a car there are things I do during assembly to make it fit what I want it to do and act like. It is very hard to compare when the builder builds it for himself.

A lot of people said the BJ4 was hard to drive. I did not find that at all. But after running it for a season when I was handed a X10 built by Mr. Weatherly personally within a couple of hours I was faster in that car then I was in my car I ran for a year. That day I ordered my X10 and it has been vary easy for me to run, fast.

One thing I can say about almost all of them, except the Yokomo (havent seen one live), after seeing them worked on in the pits is that they are all the most difficult cars ever to work on. Except for the X10. I have never ever worked on an easier car in my life, let alone a 4WD one. I can pull both diffs (one at a time) rebuild them and have them back in the car ready to run before any of the guys around me can have one diff removed and rebuilt. That to me is worth a lot.

Easy to drive, well for me they were easy to drive. But easy to work on that is a real trick.

[sparrow.2]

Originally Posted by RURC

This the list I keep seeing. Dont get me wrong it is a great list. All the cars are top notch. But are any of them RTR? I have the X10 and BJ4WE and and X-5 (not on the list) but if it is not an RTR how can we even begin to say "out of the box". None of these, as far as I know, are "out of the box". I know that when I build a car there are things I do during assembly to make it fit what I want it to do and act like. It is very hard to compare when the builder builds it for himself.

I think what most people mean when they say "out of the box" is that you don't have to buy a ton of upgrades to make them competitive.

Most cars nowadays are "out of the box" race-ready. In the days of Top Forces and ProCats, you had to buy a ton of kit to actually be able to race it with having bits fall off them by the second heat of qualifying...

Good to hear Preds are good now as back when I drove one (with the carbon fibre chassis...) everything broke all the time! You basically had to have as many cars as there were heats...

[RURC]

OK I did not look at it that way. For that matter I have no idea what one to go with. I think I would stick with the X10. I bought nothing to make it faster or lighter. I used it with the parts "out of the box" so to speak. It performed just as the other one I used form Mr. Weatherly. Perfect for my style of driving. The only thing I have had to replace is front and rear lower control arms. The tracks over here are rather hard on parts. So am I so to speak.

[stefke]

Originally Posted by sparrow.2

Good to hear Preds are good now as back when I drove one (with the carbon fibre chassis...) everything broke all the time! You basically had to have as many cars as there were heats...

Good to hear it wasn't just me

[RURC]

Originally Posted by stefke

Good to hear it wasn't just me

I have to say that the TTech cars I have have been very good. The only let down has been the new ownership and the original owner during the transfeer. As far as service to the states here they are beyond horriable. I have been waiting for 8 months for an order I paid for in advance. The service has been so bad that I cancled my X11 order. Luckfully for me I bought a shop in France that was getting out of the TTech line so I bought their entire inventory of parts for .15 cents on the dollar. I still have about 30 front and 20 rear control arms, spare chassis, shocks, 5 sets of Ti CVD's and more. I just need more wheels now. But I am workking on a conversion to B44 style rims. I really like my Pred X10 and XRS my son drives. But I really dislike the company.