Typhon Typhon 6s V4 impressions/questions after 1st week

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yomamma219

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Arrma RC's
  1. Typhon 6s
So I have had my typhon for about a week now and figured I would jot down some thoughts for anyone else that might be looking at getting one. For reference my previous RC experience is an ECX torment, Exceed RC Drift king, and my first was a 2.5 Tmaxx. So my initial thought is that this thing is way way faster than anything I have had before and I am only running on 4s lipo. I turned my punch down to 3 on the car after a few days to try and take some of the touchy-ness out of the throttle control. Speaking of throttle control, the biggest disappointment so far on this car has been the radio system. I am getting intermittent instances of the car "holding last input" (I'll call it) for brief moments. If I was turning to the left it will hold that turn for an extra second or two after I've turned back to the right, same with acceleration inputs; therefore I already have an aftermarket radio on the way (Radiolink RC4GS combo), since I could not imagine having the confidence to run on 6s with this issue present. A few other people have complained about similar symptoms and one person said they had it covered under warranty and the replacement was fine, so I do intend to contact customer service about the issue just haven't gotten around to it yet. For reference my ECX torment uses the same radio system, I believe, and the same symptoms occur, though with significantly less frequency, or at least its less noticeable. Other than that it has been a blast to drive. i have bumped it into a few things and taken it off the biggest jumps I have ever taken an RC off (4 feet or so ) and have not had one mechanical issue with it. The factory tires seem to have worn down a bit faster than I would have thought (about six 4s-52000mah packs and they are at 10% treads on the front and 25% tread on the rear) but I attribute that to how much sliding I am doing with the car on asphalt, combined with how heavy it is. For comparison I would guess it doesn't weigh much less than my T-maxx.

Since my tires wore down so fast, new ones were the first upgrade I purchased. I bought the Duratrax Bandito. To be honest I was a bit disappointing in my purchase because they are TOO grippy for what I was looking for. I can no longer do the nice power slides and flicks with the car on pavement, and unless I lower the ride height basically all the way, it will traction roll like crazy. They do make the car handle like its on rails and I can really feel differences in how I adjust the front/back ride height with them, which has been fun in its own way but is not what I am looking for since I am solely bashing this thing. Because they are gripping instead of slipping they don't seem like they are wearing at all after 2 packs. I have for the time being taken them back off but plan to give them another try once I am running 6s or put the speed pinion in. If anyone can recommend a longer lasting tire setup with low on road grip I would appreciate it, but my search has primarily turned up Duratrax Lockouts and Proline Badlands. I am still holding out though as I would prefer to not spend $50+ a month on tires for this car. Plus I am thinking I am going to put in the kraton hubs, axles and hexes on the car so that I have more options since that seems to allow for the "2.8" wheel size to fit without rubbing. What I haven't been able to figure out is if I would be able to fit a MT type wheel on the typhon without the kraton arms, which is what I would really like to do. It looks like doing only the hub setup extends the wheelbase at the front by about 14mm at each corner (total 28mm wider). For reference to better understand the whole "truggified" setup I made my own partial parts spreadsheet which is listed by part type instead of part number so that I could see what the typhon/talian/kraton all were using and more easily identify the differences. I am not very good at finding parts cheaply so I have not purchased the kraton hub setup until I am sure it will do what I want (MT wheels/tires) since it seems there are hub extenders that will allow 2.8 tires to fit are are a cheaper solution. Side effect of my spread sheet is that I now see that if you own only a Typhon and Kraton, you can essentially create a talion and outcast with the parts on hand, so its basically 4 cars for the price of 2! It would be awesome if arrma created a tool where you could customize the various blx cars with other cars' parts to see what what needed for which conversions or just make some sort of Frankenstein machine. Or just a sticked thread that showed some of the more common conversions and listed the parts required and what benefit the conversions gave you.

Since running and jumping on pavement was beating up the metal chassis and the differential bumps more than I wanted I already have installed the RPM rear skid plate which I am please with but haven't had a chance to beat on yet and am waiting for delivery of the T-bone racing front bumper (acts as a front skid plate also) and rear mud guards which I am hoping will keep grass and sticks out of the rear axle area which is where they seems to collect the most. I am also hoping to get a second body for the car for cheap that I can cut up and do some ventilation type modifications to. Finally of course someday I will upgrade to the big old 6s lipos but I want to get the car armored and running flawlessly first.

Lastly, just wanted to say with how happy I am with its on/off road performance (in reference to stock tires) as a "basher". In dirt and gravel it slides around wonderfully and is very controllable. This is probably my favorite surface type to drive it on. In low or thing grass/weeds it grips quite nicely but I can still get a bit of sliding going using the throttle, but have to be very careful of rolling it. I set the ride height up pretty high to try to help with clearances and soaking up bumps which it does beautifully. In thicker/tall grass/weeds and underbrush it definitely bottoms out and and just isn't tall enough or have enough tire to ride over. On pavement is where I do most of my driving and love it. it will slip and slide around, and do 180 flicks for days as well as some alright power slides. The awd does seem to prevent prolonged pavement drifts though since instead of spinning the rear tires it seems to transfer the power to the front and pull itself out of the drift. I think this could be remedied with thicker diff fluids in all diffs and some suspension tweaking. I prefer dirt/gravel over pavement because the lower traction seems to allow more drifting and sliding with the car.

TL;DR:
Thoughts:
Typhon is FAST compared to my Ecx torment,
Typhon is pretty big and heavy but seems durable.
Typhon is a blast to drive on or off road.
Stock wheels don't last that long sliding around on pavement, even with just 4s. Guesstimating total about 15-20 runs and they will wear through.
Stock radio in the V4 models (Spektrum Brand) is not what I would consider sufficient for a car that can hit 70mph. Primarily since I get way too many interruptions which at 70mph could easily result in a destroyed car
The parts Compatibility with the other Arrma BLX models is something that I think is a bit undervalued on these cars.

Questions:
Anyone have any budget tire/wheel combos that are durable and low traction on pavement? Current research indicates Duratrax Lockups or Proline Badline buggy, but I would prefer something for about $40 max/set.
If I swap to kraton hub, axles and hexes onto stock typhon arms, can I fit MT wheels (more specifically Outcast wheels)? Or is this mod more-so just to fit 2.8 wheels without extenders?

Sorry if this is in the wrong spot and for the excessive rambling. Got a bit bored today. :rolleyes:
 
So I have had my typhon for about a week now and figured I would jot down some thoughts for anyone else that might be looking at getting one. For reference my previous RC experience is an ECX torment, Exceed RC Drift king, and my first was a 2.5 Tmaxx. So my initial thought is that this thing is way way faster than anything I have had before and I am only running on 4s lipo. I turned my punch down to 3 on the car after a few days to try and take some of the touchy-ness out of the throttle control. Speaking of throttle control, the biggest disappointment so far on this car has been the radio system. I am getting intermittent instances of the car "holding last input" (I'll call it) for brief moments. If I was turning to the left it will hold that turn for an extra second or two after I've turned back to the right, same with acceleration inputs; therefore I already have an aftermarket radio on the way (Radiolink RC4GS combo), since I could not imagine having the confidence to run on 6s with this issue present. A few other people have complained about similar symptoms and one person said they had it covered under warranty and the replacement was fine, so I do intend to contact customer service about the issue just haven't gotten around to it yet. For reference my ECX torment uses the same radio system, I believe, and the same symptoms occur, though with significantly less frequency, or at least its less noticeable. Other than that it has been a blast to drive. i have bumped it into a few things and taken it off the biggest jumps I have ever taken an RC off (4 feet or so ) and have not had one mechanical issue with it. The factory tires seem to have worn down a bit faster than I would have thought (about six 4s-52000mah packs and they are at 10% treads on the front and 25% tread on the rear) but I attribute that to how much sliding I am doing with the car on asphalt, combined with how heavy it is. For comparison I would guess it doesn't weigh much less than my T-maxx.

Since my tires wore down so fast, new ones were the first upgrade I purchased. I bought the Duratrax Bandito. To be honest I was a bit disappointing in my purchase because they are TOO grippy for what I was looking for. I can no longer do the nice power slides and flicks with the car on pavement, and unless I lower the ride height basically all the way, it will traction roll like crazy. They do make the car handle like its on rails and I can really feel differences in how I adjust the front/back ride height with them, which has been fun in its own way but is not what I am looking for since I am solely bashing this thing. Because they are gripping instead of slipping they don't seem like they are wearing at all after 2 packs. I have for the time being taken them back off but plan to give them another try once I am running 6s or put the speed pinion in. If anyone can recommend a longer lasting tire setup with low on road grip I would appreciate it, but my search has primarily turned up Duratrax Lockouts and Proline Badlands. I am still holding out though as I would prefer to not spend $50+ a month on tires for this car. Plus I am thinking I am going to put in the kraton hubs, axles and hexes on the car so that I have more options since that seems to allow for the "2.8" wheel size to fit without rubbing. What I haven't been able to figure out is if I would be able to fit a MT type wheel on the typhon without the kraton arms, which is what I would really like to do. It looks like doing only the hub setup extends the wheelbase at the front by about 14mm at each corner (total 28mm wider). For reference to better understand the whole "truggified" setup I made my own partial parts spreadsheet which is listed by part type instead of part number so that I could see what the typhon/talian/kraton all were using and more easily identify the differences. I am not very good at finding parts cheaply so I have not purchased the kraton hub setup until I am sure it will do what I want (MT wheels/tires) since it seems there are hub extenders that will allow 2.8 tires to fit are are a cheaper solution. Side effect of my spread sheet is that I now see that if you own only a Typhon and Kraton, you can essentially create a talion and outcast with the parts on hand, so its basically 4 cars for the price of 2! It would be awesome if arrma created a tool where you could customize the various blx cars with other cars' parts to see what what needed for which conversions or just make some sort of Frankenstein machine. Or just a sticked thread that showed some of the more common conversions and listed the parts required and what benefit the conversions gave you.

Since running and jumping on pavement was beating up the metal chassis and the differential bumps more than I wanted I already have installed the RPM rear skid plate which I am please with but haven't had a chance to beat on yet and am waiting for delivery of the T-bone racing front bumper (acts as a front skid plate also) and rear mud guards which I am hoping will keep grass and sticks out of the rear axle area which is where they seems to collect the most. I am also hoping to get a second body for the car for cheap that I can cut up and do some ventilation type modifications to. Finally of course someday I will upgrade to the big old 6s lipos but I want to get the car armored and running flawlessly first.

Lastly, just wanted to say with how happy I am with its on/off road performance (in reference to stock tires) as a "basher". In dirt and gravel it slides around wonderfully and is very controllable. This is probably my favorite surface type to drive it on. In low or thing grass/weeds it grips quite nicely but I can still get a bit of sliding going using the throttle, but have to be very careful of rolling it. I set the ride height up pretty high to try to help with clearances and soaking up bumps which it does beautifully. In thicker/tall grass/weeds and underbrush it definitely bottoms out and and just isn't tall enough or have enough tire to ride over. On pavement is where I do most of my driving and love it. it will slip and slide around, and do 180 flicks for days as well as some alright power slides. The awd does seem to prevent prolonged pavement drifts though since instead of spinning the rear tires it seems to transfer the power to the front and pull itself out of the drift. I think this could be remedied with thicker diff fluids in all diffs and some suspension tweaking. I prefer dirt/gravel over pavement because the lower traction seems to allow more drifting and sliding with the car.

TL;DR:
Thoughts:
Typhon is FAST compared to my Ecx torment,
Typhon is pretty big and heavy but seems durable.
Typhon is a blast to drive on or off road.
Stock wheels don't last that long sliding around on pavement, even with just 4s. Guesstimating total about 15-20 runs and they will wear through.
Stock radio in the V4 models (Spektrum Brand) is not what I would consider sufficient for a car that can hit 70mph. Primarily since I get way too many interruptions which at 70mph could easily result in a destroyed car
The parts Compatibility with the other Arrma BLX models is something that I think is a bit undervalued on these cars.

Questions:
Anyone have any budget tire/wheel combos that are durable and low traction on pavement? Current research indicates Duratrax Lockups or Proline Badline buggy, but I would prefer something for about $40 max/set.
If I swap to kraton hub, axles and hexes onto stock typhon arms, can I fit MT wheels (more specifically Outcast wheels)? Or is this mod more-so just to fit 2.8 wheels without extenders?

Sorry if this is in the wrong spot and for the excessive rambling. Got a bit bored today. :rolleyes:
I read the first half and agree. The stock tires function well but mine wore out pretty quick after running on paved surface. I had the same issue with the stock Spektrum radio and replaced it with a Tactic. I also have a Kraton and a Notorious and haven't had the same issue...replaced with Tactics anyways bc I just don't like the ergonomics of the Spektrum. I also got the Banditos for paved surface but haven't had the flipping issue. Running on 6S with 17T pinion and punch 4. Maybe my asphalt isn't as sticky or I tend to slow down prior to making sharp turns. The front still ballooned so kevlar strapped them. Got Badlands for off road. Over all I love this car as it's very nimble and tough.
Maybe you can find some sponge tires for your paved bashing? Let me know what you end up experimenting with andbthe results and I'll do the same. Enjoy!
 
GRP makes belted 1/8 buggy tires that seem to be well regarded by speed runners. In your case, they do offer different rubber compounds, so maybe their hard or medium hard tires would work better for you in terms of grip versus wear.
 
The badland buggy tyre's grip loads more than stock. Fastrax do some decent buggy tyre's at a reasonable price. The radio is a massive step backwards everyone here in the UK is swapping back to Tactic. Alza racing do a wheel hub conversion so you can run 5 scale wheels, worth checking his stuff out for the typhon he makes some really good low profile tower's in 5mm t6 aluminium.
 

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Alza racing do a wheel hub conversion so you can run 5 scale wheels, worth checking his stuff out for the typhon he makes some really good low profile tower's in 5mm t6 aluminium.
I can personally vouch for the Alza racing products. They're extremely high quality, I actually ordered the 1/5th scale wheel adapters after seeing them being used on Wiggan R/C's Kraton speed run project on Youtube a while back. I'm also running the Alza low-profile shock towers on a new Typhon V4 build I'm still working on. Alza racing also makes a nice medium-size shock tower set for the Typhon as well. Which gives you more shock mounting locations than the low-profile set I have on currently. Definitely worth checking out in my opinion. One thing I would recommend to anyone running the low-profile shock tower in the rear is to remember the rear shock mount bolts thread into the plastic/nylon body mounts, which works well but I'd prefer a stronger setup personally. I actually ordered the aluminum Alza body mounts instead, so I can thread the shock bolts/mounts into aluminum instead of plastic.
Here's pics of my current setup using the Alza racing low-profile shock towers, and the Alza racing 1/5th scale wheel conversion that's still under construction. I've actually upgraded the 1/5th scale wheel adapters using larger/flanged 5mm X-Spede locking red anodized locknuts, and I've painted the Alza aluminum wheel spacers flat black for a cleaner look.
 

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Yhat looks really good. I went for the medium tower set up as i still want to. Bash it. His stuff is quality isn't it. I have the servo mount and pin hangers as well all really good. I dod bend one of his towers on my Talion but that was with no wing or wing mount and a big crash at the skate park. For the price you just can't beat his stuff. Which wheels are they BTW?
 
Yhat looks really good. I went for the medium tower set up as i still want to. Bash it. His stuff is quality isn't it. I have the servo mount and pin hangers as well all really good. I dod bend one of his towers on my Talion but that was with no wing or wing mount and a big crash at the skate park. For the price you just can't beat his stuff. Which wheels are they BTW?
Thanks for the compliment, I actually saw your medium tower setup on your Typhon just after I posted my previous message, looks really good on yours. I got the servo mount as well, but gave that to my nephew to put on his V3 Kraton. The wheels I'm running are the black GRP 1/5th scale versions in the S3 compound, I got the S5 compound as well. Gonna try out both and see how they work.
 
Thanks for the compliment, I actually saw your medium tower setup on your Typhon just after I posted my previous message, looks really good on yours. I got the servo mount as well, but gave that to my nephew to put on his V3 Kraton. The wheels I'm running are the black GRP 1/5th scale versions in the S3 compound, I got the S5 compound as well. Gonna try out both and see how they work.
I'd be interested in that because that's my next upgrade to speed wheels. Got a set of src but they will only do 80 mph apparently. Doing 70mph atm. After a spool ad well. Where you based buddy, I'm UK.
 
I'd be interested in that because that's my next upgrade to speed wheels. Got a set of src but they will only do 80 mph apparently. Doing 70mph atm. After a spool ad well. Where you based buddy, I'm UK.
I highly recommend the GRP's because they're pretty light for their size. They only weigh around 220-225 grams each, and come in a bunch of different compounds. As far as handling high speeds go, the highest I've gotten them up to so far is just under 70MPH on my 1/5th scale FG Modellsport. Prices aren't crazy expensive either. As for location, I'm in the US..
 
I highly recommend the GRP's because they're pretty light for their size. They only weigh around 220-225 grams each, and come in a bunch of different compounds. As far as handling high speeds go, the highest I've gotten them up to so far is just under 70MPH on my 1/5th scale FG Modellsport. Prices aren't crazy expensive either. As for location, I'm in the US..
OK thanks I'll bare that in mind.
 
@Wmorgan I am probably just rolling over because I have the suspension raised almost all the way and like you were saying it happened when I didn't slow down for turns. I really like just sliding and spinning the car around on stock tires which is obviously not really possible with those banditos. If I had a street track to run on the banditos would be a blast though but I'm solely bashing in parking lots and such for the time. There are some tires/wheel combos on Amazon for ~$20 for 4 so I may test the waters there. I don't think foam tires would do any better in the longevity department.

@sadlerbw and @White Noise I don't think I'm ready to give the GRPs a try yet. I imagine they are probably fairly grippy if speed runners are using them and it doesn't seem like there's much rubber on then to take the wear even in a hard compound.

@Reubydoobe thanks for the tip about the fasttrax and alza, I'll be sure to check them both out. Especially after seeing @White Noise pictures. Those lower towers look pretty sweet. Maybe if eventuall buy a kraton to bash I'll go the speed runner route with my typhon. For now though that's a distance dream.

Thanks for all tips everyone, definitely a lot of brands and details I had not heard of or come across in my research up until this point.
 
I can personally vouch for the Alza racing products. They're extremely high quality, I actually ordered the 1/5th scale wheel adapters after seeing them being used on Wiggan R/C's Kraton speed run project on Youtube a while back. I'm also running the Alza low-profile shock towers on a new Typhon V4 build I'm still working on. Alza racing also makes a nice medium-size shock tower set for the Typhon as well. Which gives you more shock mounting locations than the low-profile set I have on currently. Definitely worth checking out in my opinion. One thing I would recommend to anyone running the low-profile shock tower in the rear is to remember the rear shock mount bolts thread into the plastic/nylon body mounts, which works well but I'd prefer a stronger setup personally. I actually ordered the aluminum Alza body mounts instead, so I can thread the shock bolts/mounts into aluminum instead of plastic.
Here's pics of my current setup using the Alza racing low-profile shock towers, and the Alza racing 1/5th scale wheel conversion that's still under construction. I've actually upgraded the 1/5th scale wheel adapters using larger/flanged 5mm X-Spede locking red anodized locknuts, and I've painted the Alza aluminum wheel spacers flat black for a cleaner look.
Book marked this post bc those do look pretty solid. Hadn't heard of Alza so worth a look. Another day on AF and another place to spend money.
 
I can personally vouch for the Alza racing products. They're extremely high quality, I actually ordered the 1/5th scale wheel adapters after seeing them being used on Wiggan R/C's Kraton speed run project on Youtube a while back. I'm also running the Alza low-profile shock towers on a new Typhon V4 build I'm still working on. Alza racing also makes a nice medium-size shock tower set for the Typhon as well. Which gives you more shock mounting locations than the low-profile set I have on currently. Definitely worth checking out in my opinion. One thing I would recommend to anyone running the low-profile shock tower in the rear is to remember the rear shock mount bolts thread into the plastic/nylon body mounts, which works well but I'd prefer a stronger setup personally. I actually ordered the aluminum Alza body mounts instead, so I can thread the shock bolts/mounts into aluminum instead of plastic.
Here's pics of my current setup using the Alza racing low-profile shock towers, and the Alza racing 1/5th scale wheel conversion that's still under construction. I've actually upgraded the 1/5th scale wheel adapters using larger/flanged 5mm X-Spede locking red anodized locknuts, and I've painted the Alza aluminum wheel spacers flat black for a cleaner look.
Wow, this looks so awesome, I'd love to see some kind of formula 1 style body on this!
 
You can setup the Typhon to not traction roll with the banditos. The easiest would be to dial some camber front and rear, and to lower the ride height (if you plan to uses it on asphalt i think it would be best).

But there are also tons of adjustments you can make to lower the traction and make it roll less:
  • Move the shocks to the inner position on the tower
  • lower the amount of droop you have using the droop screws
  • thicker shock oil
  • set more caster in the front
  • lock the sway bar holders on a more inner position on the sway bar
 
You can setup the Typhon to not traction roll with the banditos. The easiest would be to dial some camber front and rear, and to lower the ride height (if you plan to uses it on asphalt i think it would be best).

But there are also tons of adjustments you can make to lower the traction and make it roll less:
  • Move the shocks to the inner position on the tower
  • lower the amount of droop you have using the droop screws
  • thicker shock oil
  • set more caster in the front
  • lock the sway bar holders on a more inner position on the sway bar
Great info, this is very helpful for anyone on any version.
 
Book marked this post bc those do look pretty solid. Hadn't heard of Alza so worth a look. Another day on AF and another place to spend money.
To be honest I had never heard of Alza until I saw the 1/5 scale wheel adapters in a Youtube video. Another thing I'd like to add about the Alza products is they do ship quickly, and shipping isn't very expensive. The last order for my body mounts for the Typhon I placed on a Monday, and received them on the following Friday. That's pretty good IMO considering they're coming from Slovenia to the US, Lolll.. Here's a pic of the rear body mounts I just received in the raw Aluminum if anyone's interested.
Wow, this looks so awesome, I'd love to see some kind of formula 1 style body on this!
Believe me, I'd love to see an F1 body on the Typhon chassis. Hell if I could find one that came close to fitting, I'd even run a longer wheelbase Talion or Kraton chassis to try and make one fit if possible.. Love your videos by the way. I just got an unpainted Typhon body in the mail yesterday, I just put it on today. I haven't decided how I'm going to paint it yet.
 

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@Primarrma and @White Noise have your seen the F1 style front bumper for the Typhon?

@Yonic thanks for the tips. I especially didn't know that the sway bars were adjustable so now I'm going to have to start playing with those.

Guess I am not making sense. In reality the Banditos perform great as a road tire. What I really want is something that performs poorly as a road tire but lasts a long time haha. I just like leaving the car sitting up high with a stiff shock setup (outter most hole) and the droop screws backed out a good bit allowing for more suspension travel than stock. I then like sliding the car around with the stock tires and leave it in that suspension configuration because I go from pavement to off road alot and like having the clearance. When I drop the ride height down all the way the car definitely stops rolling but still has so much grip that it's not "driftable" on pavement with 4s.


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