RC10Talk - The Net's Largest Vintage R/C Community

It's been a while since I did a build thread -

Sooo-- I moved to South Carolina, just south of Charlotte. Been here 9 years now-- had no idea it was such an RC racing hotbed --particularly outdoor 1/8th scale.

Well, one of the tracks just opened a indoor carpet offroad track.

I have a TON of spare parts and such, from back when parts cars & trucks could be had for $20 on ebay, plus all the stuff folks gave me over the years, plus the stuff I have accumulated recently to keep my outdoor B44.3 racing. I have enough other race cars (onroad and offroad-- about 12) - I didn't want another platform to support (parts, chassis, electrics, etc), so I figured I'd upgrade my teenagers' beater RC10 to run on carpet.


I built this car about 10 years ago, for my son to learn on and bash with -- he is now a teenager and has absolutely no interest in it anymore. He smacked a curb at full speed with it, during Covid, and it got a total rebuild. I have since been taking it occasionally to my races and might run it if there were other 2WD buggies running, just for fun.

the original noseplate off my original RC10 -- I painted it black --kinda regret that now - probably gonna strip it down
a clapped-out black pan I got in some long-forgotten parts score Re-Re stealth case!!! I had a bunch of originals NIB, that were selling for $120, 12 years ago -- crazy that I paid sticker price (like $6!)for this during COVID (bought 2!) all metal internals -- Robinson steel idler (pn?) and DHawk aluminum diff gear (pn-920046) (paid $100 for a Hammond Grumond 10 years ago!) I wanted it to be able to handle 3S/ 3500KV brushless power. Going to take it back to all plastic next time I am in there.
Been doing some searching and getting a bunch of help on here & the Facebook group -- Thanks to JuicedCoupe for the help and pointing me towards Niki's Build Thread

More initial build pics. During the build, I was surfing RC10Talk and somehow got obsessed with blue shocks. I promptly spent a few hours scouring ebay buying up all I could find. Unfortunately, they never made them in the 0.71" front buggy shocks, so I settled for the shortest I could find (10T fronts?) and used a stock tower. This doesn't allow for full uptravel, which came to haunt me when I did finally enter it into a race.

running it indoors this past July (Turn & Burn) for the first time - the tires worked best out of what I had, which wasn't much. It was still a blast, but pointed out some needed upgrades (more front travel, carpet tires, and a better motor)


The front end coming together. I stole the front homebuilt shock tower off of The Fun Buggy build, which has been mothballed for a while. This tower allows me to now get full up-travel with the (truck) front shocks.

I really like the 10T steering/servo saver and how well the Futaba 9331 servo fits and allows for an ideal steering linkage angle to the Servo Saver
I want to mention that I am using the AE "Heavy Duty" 3.25MM ball studs & cups (pn 91469 or 91722) -- they are much larger than the original ball stud/cups and I find they pop-off much less frequently (like NEVER) , compared to the originals (yes, even when using the RPM ballcups). I took a moment to compare the original front end to the new setup. I was surprised how litte the difference looks when compared this way.

so the carpet setup is going well, just trying to get it the correct width.
using RPM Rustler arms (pn 80495) and the Custom Works front hex conversion (pn- 7290). I am not crazy about the upper link mount on the c-hub, but we'll see how it goes. Also, the plastic looks to be shiny like regular Tamiya ABS - hopefully it has some fiber in it. I can see myself using different c-hubs to get the width a little narrower and give a better camber link position.

IN the rear I first had it setup (pics below?) with Associated B2 rear arms (pn- 9256), B44 rear hub carriers (pn - 9864), B44 front CVA bones (PN - 9747 - 81.4mm) & rear axles (pn- 9755). It all fits perfectly together and works very well, but the tires are too wide, by about 10mm, or more. What's worse, is they're about the same as the front-- which is slightly undesirable. It's my understanding that we want the overall width to be about 10 - 15mm less than the front, for ideal handling.

Doing the math, the RPM Bandit( pn -73282) rears are about 3mm shorter, and with 10T rear hub carriers, it will reduce the length by about 8.4MM per side -- so I hope I can get away with using B4/B5ML CVA bones (pn- 91439 -- 71.6mm) in the B44 rear axles -- I am working on getting them fitted now. I will have to narrow the inner hinge pin blocks to fit in the Bandit arms.

I am using a B74 wing mount (pn - 92312)-- came out sweet. Got tired of the wire mount bending, pulling out, breaking, etc. This mount may require a thicker shock tower-- yet to be determined...

sooo, while I was researching and head scratching, I wanted to improve the front hinge block to allow me to keep the 10T pin tie-bar. I ended up milling a rabbet out at the same thickness as the tie bar, to allow the RPM front arms to fit without modifying them (weaken them)
I also made a tie-bar out of some steel (middle one). the aluminum ones seem to egg-out the holes pretty easily.
Took some measurements and cut some battery braces out of some thick uni CF.
Using a B44.3 stock shorty battery strap (pn- 9952) worked, but didn't fit well with the body -- the thumb catch hit pretty hard. Some B44 bule anno battery posts (pn-9706) worked nicely for the strap securing duties
soooo-- I cut up a spare unknown TC chassis and made this. Much better. Wish I could use a more convenient fastener, but the button head 4-40's are easy enough
now onto the good stuff--

as said earlier - the B2 rear arms and B44 front shafts, etc worked, but were a bit too wide.

I picked up a set of RPM Bandit arms (pn 73282) that unfortunately only are currently available in black

I did a bunch of research and ordered a few AE CVA dogbones. I tried the B6.3 rear CVA (pn-91860) -69mm Listed lenght witha 75.4 OAL. THe B74 (pn - 92193) ended up being the ideal size (74mm listed, and about 79mm OAL)- they also fit perfectly into the Custom Works 5mm rear CVA shafts (pn-7272). yeah, I hate to have anything metric on the car, but it atleast allows me to run the same size nut front & rear. Picked up some sweet blue serrated nuts form Yeah Racing (pn-0448DB)


The inner hinge blocks did need to be shortened down to fit in the new arms, by about 0.300". I milled the material off, but some careful dremel or sharp Exacto work will do it, too

yeah, ideally I need to figure out the rear hinge pins. For now the front e-clip keeps them from sliding back and they hit the tub when sliding forward. Someday
the only catch was that the 5mm shafts, of course, take metric bearings. Now, there may be a ideal hub carrier for this, but I am trying to clean out my parts bins. I reached in and grabbed some HPI RS4-2 rear carriers (pnA401). They have 2degrees of toe in them, so I had to run them 'backwards' - left on the right side & vice-versa. I think I have some with zero toe, I am jsut a little reluctant to open that NOS bag...

They do however allow for a slightly higher axle height, which helps keep dogbone plunge in the outdrives under control.

Otherwise, the RS4 carriers put the axle in just about the exact same spot as the 10T or RC10 carriers. Pretty cool


I haven't had it on the carpet yet, but I did get to shake it down at Sumter last weekend, where it put a serous hurting on a field of stock slashes that were driven by some of the "Pro" Ebuggy guys.

It was a little loose in the rear, but I think alot of that was due to the fact that the M3 Holeshots were a too hard for the cool conditions we had - M4's next time!

Well, the OEM rear bulkhead was brittle and failed at the inner camber link.

I made a new one out of delrin, but that one broke there, too.

Gonna inlay some CF...

Just make the bulkhead again in nylon, leave off all the extra adjustment holes and beef up the area for your ideal camber location. Nice work overall. Generally the front can be a smidge wider than the rear but not excessive.

Associated offered . 89" shocks in blue on the rtr B4 cars, if you can locate some. Check the manual and you should be able to find the part numbers for the shock bodies.

Jeep-Power wrote: ↑Mon Jan 30, 2023 7:25 am 20230130_071849.jpg

Well, the OEM rear bulkhead was brittle and failed at the inner camber link.

I made a new one out of delrin, but that one broke there, too.

Gonna inlay some CF...

You seem to have your stuff well past all together, but did you rehydrate the nylon on the stock bulkhead? Is there something about the setup that is generating much more force at that point?

Delrin is a bit weaker than nylon 6 and the nylon used in the rc10 has some additional additives to make it resistant to failure. CF is strong for it's weight, but you'll have to make it thicker than stock to get the extra strength you seem to need.

You may want to look at some RPM bulkheads. Since you are rolling your own parts, maybe you can make a steel tie to back mounts like you did in the front to share the load.

I'm learning a lot from this thread. Thanks for posting all of this information as you did.

still going -- had it back out at Sumter last weekend for some practice. M3 fronts and m4 rears were better.

Ended up inlaying a strip of scrap CF across the width of a old OEM bulkhead-- doesn't look great but it was quick & dirty and has held up well.

the wheezy 13.5 Tekin is getting replaced with a 8.5T Muchmore -- it will nice to be able to clear a few of the doubles. I am hoping that some conservative gearing will allow the Juststock ESC to hold up to it

still going strong-- had to make a new front tower-- been loaning it out to friends who want to try off-road outdoor.

picked up a used Hobbywing Pro and put that 8T delta Muchmore in it-- plenty of power, now!

Jeep-Power wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2024 7:31 am still going strong-- had to make a new front tower-- been loaning it out to friends who want to try off-road outdoor.

picked up a used Hobbywing Pro and put that 8T delta Muchmore in it-- plenty of power, now!

New pictures PLEASE!

Chewbacca wrote: ↑Thu Apr 18, 2024 9:31 am


New pictures PLEASE!

Took it too the track for 1/8th scale practice. Ran a pack through it. Able to clear all the jumps with ease. Its amazing how graceful 2WD buggy is and how much fun they are to drive.

Pictured with S2 rear and M3 front Holeshots

I love running 1/10 scale buggies on outdoor dirt tracks. Looks like you had a blast!!!

carloco8 wrote: ↑Thu Jul 04, 2024 1:40 pm I love running 1/10 scale buggies on outdoor dirt tracks. Looks like you had a blast!!!

Amen!

It was. I wish there was more folks running outdoor 1/10th around here. When we do get a heat together, it is glorious.

The RS4 rear hub carriers didn't hold up. I was thinking of machining a set. I looked around a bit and took a gamble on a set of STRC aluminum aftermarket units (pn-3652-T1B) for a Slash/Stampede.

I am a sucker for blue anno.
I did add some holes for tuning.
These Raise the axle even higher off the arm. Not sure what performance effect that has, but it now allows room for a set of Hot Racing boots.

About 1.4mm of shim was needed between the wheel hex and bearing.

Dogbone location and plunge are ideal.