Stadium Blitzer for Park Duty

[RC10th]

Well, I bought another Stadium Blitzer (third one) that will be run as a fun truck. It will actually be the first Tamiya that I have ever actively run.

I want to keep this fun and not get too serious. My goal is a fun park truck that will run roughly 30 minutes per battery. I've decided on a 13.5T sensored combo for a good balance of performance, plus if it's a little too slow it's easy to add a little dynamic timing. I was originally going to choose a 10.5 and while not crazy thought it might be a bit much for the Blitzer. I was able to get 4 x 5 minute races out of my 10.5 stadium truck on race pace with a 5600mah battery, so 30 minutes on a 7600mah battery will be a close estimate. Steering will be from an old JR Z590M servo.

I don't want to go over the top but looking at adding bearings which are a must. I also have a spare set of Associated buggy shocks which just happen to be the correct length for the Blitzer, but will be set up for slightly more droop. The only other thing I might like to do is add Lundsford turnbuckles, mainly just for looks.

I know bump steer is an issue with the Blitzer and wondering if there are any readily available fixes, I've read that flipping the steering blocks are popular but it looks like the ball studs will hit the arms.

I can't wait for it to arrive, something different then what I'm used to

[1300GT]

Sounds good RJ.

Yep, from memory flip the steering blocks. You'll need to Dremel the the arms where the ball end touches each arm to restore steering lock.
I did this to a Blitzer Beetle many years ago.

Also grab a steel pinion in .8 module as the kit aluminium one will wear very quickly with more power. Either 13 or 15 tooth.

[RC10th]

Hey Chris.
I may be able to get my hands on some 32 pitch pinions, I'm thinking 15T would be better suited to the 13.5.

Dremeling a notch in the arms isn't ideal and not something I really wanted to do. When it gets here I may see if there's a way to better engineer the steering set up. At the end of the day it's a fun truck so long as it drives ok with the bump steer it may just be ok.

[RC10th]

Not much I can do till it arrives. In anticipation I bought the power plant today so I should have everything ready to go when it gets here. I could only find a 13 tooth steel pinion so that will have to do for now.

[1300GT]

Yep, fair enough. One other thing you might want to change is the stock servo saver to a high torque unit.

You'll be pulling monos with the 13t pinion and that motor.

[RC10th]

Monos that wasn't the goal !!!!

I know the V10's are pretty gutsy (my 10.5 was) but the 13.5T should have been pretty tame I thought.

I can't play around much with the steering till it arrives as I don't want to pull apart and play with my existing Blitzer. I'll probably run it as is first but I've thought of a few ideas which may or may not work. It all depends on how hard and feasible it is to make a new nose brace servo cover thingie part.

Flipping the servo horn 90* looks to be an easy way, or even standing it on end to center the horn in the truck.

The best and possibly easiest solution in my opinion would be to adapt a steering bellcrank set up from something like AE. Shouldn't be too hard to install steering posts which mean hardly any modification.


This is where things start getting out of control, it's suppost to be fun, not build a race winning Blitzer

[1300GT]

Here's a link to a 2011 VONATs Falcon.http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=32&t=23200

It's the same chassis as the Stadium Blitzer. Pretty nifty steering mod.

I know it'll give you bad ideas about modifying yours.

[RC10th]

Thanks for the link. Interesting about the A&L steering rack as I was actually looking up the different versions last night to see what I thought would have been most suitable. That is almost exactly what I had envisioned except I was going to try to keep the top brace due to the Blitzers body mount. With a bit of luck it will arrive today.

[RC10th]

Today is turning into a great day, lol.

[RC10th]

First thing is to swap out the plastic bushings with bearings. The bearings were cleaned out of grease and oiled with a light machine oil. This truck was obviously only assembled as there wasn't a trace of any grease or oil anywhere.

[RC10th]

V10 mounted in car, these are pretty basic cars as there's not much to them. I will definately put lundsford turnbuckles and white RPM ball cups just to make it a little bit fancier.

Gotta work on shocks next...

[RC10th]

AE shocks attached, the suspension is super plush and takes full advantage of suspension travel, plus there is a good selection of springs available now. The shocks allow a few extra millimeters of down travel which is slightly beneficial I think.

[RC10th]

I couldn't leave it well enough alone so I modded the steering. I just need to purchase some turnbuckles for it now, I'm keen to run it so I will likely just use threaded 4-40 rod for the time being till they arrive.

All in all the steering turned out better then I had hoped for and looks pretty factory I think.

[RC10th]

Are the ball studs molded into the steering knuckles? Can they be removed and replaced with a threaded ball stud?

[1300GT]

Yep. I reckon I had to drill them out and replace them with a ball stud and nut.