Passing The Torch Build

[7plymaple RC]

This build is already well under way so I will post up a bunch right off the bat to share what I have done so far. Doing two cars actually for me and my son.

When my oldest Son was 3 years old I decided to pull out my old Tamiya TL01 after almost 20 years of it sitting in a box. While teaching him and playing with it myself I got hooked on RC again. This passed winter (my Son now 5yrs old and showing some decent car control) I got us a pair of Typhon Mega's.

The first part of the build will be to increase the durability because I've found the best way to keep my son's interest is to let him bash. The first change I made was swapping to the Dumbo RC controller. I was running it on the Tamiya and he liked using it on the TL01 to dial the throttle down below 50% so we could match the top speed of his friends toy grade RC's.

I also hit the receiver box with some gorilla glue clear grip around the wire seal and the lid for extra waterproofing because in the last couple years we got in the habit of driving our cars through rivers and puddles.

So we hit the snow.

 

[talion2020]

Very cool. Started my son with a traxxas rustler. Then he graduated to my typhon 6s only running 2s though. Good times

 

[7plymaple RC]

After the first couple drives on the stock batteries we needed longer run times and I didn't want to spend on 2s lipo's so I decided to swap in the Hobbywing 1080 ESC and use the 3s Lipo from my rock crawler. I know this is a little sketchy to run the 3s with brushed but I had the 3s capable ESC kicking around so I was only risking the motor and those are cheap lol. My car was the Guinea Pig for this and when we went out we had the two stock batteries to use in my son's car and the lipo for mine.

Well it lasted a few months of ripping around with no problems but one day I decided to let it rip just going flat out across grass and finished off the motor with some donuts where I actually thought I got the tires to smoke for a second but it was the motor lol.

Got a cheap amazon motor to replace it and am carrying on as if I learned nothing.

 

[KvConivore]

Aside from my Axial Bomber, the Typhon Mega, fully modified and can run 4s is still my favorite car.

 

[7plymaple RC]

I like to do a pretty thorough cleanup and lube after running my RC's because I usually get them muddy or completely wet. Well my youngest now 3 was driving the old TL01 and I had 3 cars to clean up every time we went out. The Typhon lets in so much crap through the rear body opening that it was adding a lot to the cleanup time. So I came up with my own body enclosure. I drew it in Fusion 360 and printed it out. Worked good. I had come up with several parts for the TL01 and my SCX10ii but I find Arrma makes it really challenging to design parts that fit well.

 

[7plymaple RC]

Very cool. Started my son with a traxxas rustler. Then he graduated to my typhon 6s only running 2s though. Good times

Yes great times! The 6s or Mohave might be my next car. My youngest is now 3 and I might pass my Typhon to him when he is 4.

Aside from my Axial Bomber, the Typhon Mega, fully modified and can run 4s is still my favorite car.

Yeah I think they knocked it out of the park with that Mega/3s chassis and suspension geometry. It handles!



Next Build Installment:

One of my favorite mods to date was gorilla glue all around the "Power Module" to stop fine gravel from getting underneath to the spur gear. Bit of a pain to peel it out of there to remove the power module but it's as clean as I left it when I do!

 

[7plymaple RC]

During the tail end of the winter when schools around here had been been shut down for a while my little guy was getting pretty depressed from not seeing his friends. I decided to spruce things up for him a bit by adding some lights that he could turn on and off with the 3rd channel.

 

[7plymaple RC]

We started going more to local bike parks for the jumps and the one thing I noticed happening a lot on bad landings was the car spearing into the ground at an angle that put all the force on one of the arms. I decided to make some 3d printed arms that would break off outside of the shock on a bad landing. I came up with close to a dozen different designs and got them to break where I wanted but just couldn't get them strong enough to rely on for a decent bashing session. I tried printing them in PLA and PETG. But eventually gave up on arms. Links however worked out well!

 

[7plymaple RC]

It took several tries to get them right but I ended up with an awesome set of links that are indestructable! Using TPU it was tricky to get them stiff enough to perform while avoiding clearance issues that interfeared with the full range of suspension and steering travel.

At this point I started to realise exitement to try the latest prototype was a big part of getting me out to drive the car. Once I'm out though its still about soaking up the satisfaction of driving until all batteries are dead.

 

[7plymaple RC]

I ended up getting sick of the body enclosure needing to be put back into place before putting the body back on and the vented version was too delicate. I totally re designed it to be printed out of TPU. This one flexes and clips on at a few points so it stays put.

Its been cool to see my Son's skills grow and see the crazy challenges he makes for himself. The cars are actually lower maintenance and more durable now and we enjoy long sessions with no failures.

 

[7plymaple RC]

There's lots of dusty lots around for us to slide around in. And being 5 this passed summer my Son loved skids and donuts. So the next mod that really added to the fun was converting to 2wd. I've loved 2wd buggies since I was a kid so when I saw him trying over and over to drift and do donuts I pulled out the driveshafts and realized this car handles awesome when driven
as a 2wd buggy.

After a while of driving 2wd I realized we weren't missing AWD so the front diff and driveshafts seemed like dead weight. Thats when I designed the larts I needed to delete the driveshafts and front diff. I designed inner hubs and covers for the openings in the empty diff housing/shock tower. This let me shed the weight and put away the front diff as a spare for the rear. The driving experience was so different it was like getting a new car.

The more parts I design to fit this thing the more I appreciate the genious in Arrma's design!