What a week… Highlander RC, March 30, 2024March 30, 2024 Good afternoon folks, hows tricks? Yes, I am still here, just. The reason I’ve been a bit quieter this week is mainly due to illness. I’ve either got Covid again, for like the 10th time, or some viral chest infection thing that just won’t f**k off. Friday was horrendous. I’ll spare you the gory details. One disaster after another Where do I start? As you all know, the Hi-Rock is currently out of commision. I got the spare parts I needed to repair the diffs, however, I decided to open up the rear diff to check the bearings too. Turns out I should have done this at the same time I did the front one. The internal bearing was toast. I honestly don’t know why, or how it happened. Anywho, I managed to order replacement bearings on Amazon, and they arrived next day. Great. Until I went to fit them. I had bought the wrong ones. Numpty here ordered 10x4x4mm, when he should have ordered 10x5x4mm…I only discovered I had ordered the wrong ones when I tried to put it all back together yesterday…Thankfully, Amazon should deliver the correct ones today. I’m still waiting as I write this. How to kill a Traxxas Slash Pt.1 3S Lipo’s on stock internals. That’s how. Allow me to explain. I wasn’t a massive fan of the rear differential on the Slash 2WD. Under power and sharp cornering, the weight transfer to the rear changes quite drastically. When it loads up going into a right hand turn, all the weight transfers onto the left rear wheel. This in turn then lifts the right rear wheel, breaking traction, and sending all of the power to this wheel as it now has the least amount of resistance. When this happens, the car bogs down, and practically stops. It also helps shred tyres. Anywho, after a little bit of sniffing around on the web, I found a diff locker for the Traxxas Slash. Now it would go from an open diff, to a locked differential. Now when the car makes tighter turns, the power remains consistent across the axle, which should allow for some nice drifting action. Well, at least in theory. It didn’t take long for something to break today. Probably less than 90 seconds. With the locked diff now in place of the stock one, and a 3S lump of a battery onboard, it decided it was time to show how weak the plastic output shafts were. As you’ll see from the picture, they aren’t great. After repairing the right rear shaft with one of Tacticool’s old ones, we got going again, for about 2 minutes, then the left one decided it didn’t want to play nice anymore. Soooo, after another 5 minutes of tinkering, the replacement one was back on. I had also somehow managed to lose the grub screw that went through the shaft. Still don’t know where I put it… How to kill a Traxxas Slash Pt.2 Now, did it work? Yes. After a quick test run, and me now deciding to reign it in abit, we actually managed to get across to the carpark. It was at this point, that I started to be a bit more considerate with the throttle, coaxing the car into runs before giving it the bean’s. And by f**k, did it shift. The speed was phenomenal. After a couple of quick squirts, it was time to bring it back in to compare it to Tacticool’s Slash VXL. With it being 4 wheel drive, it would easily beat me off the line, but would mine take at top end? Well, we will have to wait till next time to find out. It was at this point that the car started to make a strange, high pitched squeal. It sounded like the slipper clutch needed adjusted, again. As I turned the car to bring it back towards us, it lost drive completely. I could hear the motor screaming its head off, but just doing nothing. It sounded like the motor mount had slipped, or the slipper had burnt out. At least that would have been an easy fix. I slowly trudged back to the car for what would be the final time. Upon opening the gear cover up, everything seemed fine. I removed the spur gear to check the slipper clutch. No dramas there. That meant it was internal. I think I may have killed something in the gearbox. As yet, I am still to open it to see what damage had been done. Can’t call it bashing if you don’t break something With my Slash now residing in the boot of my car, it was time to rejoin the lads in the carpark. Today was one of those days where everything was getting thrashed. Sleepy decided to send his “To the moon” on several occasions, and only managed to lose a rear light. He even managed to bounce it off his head after miscalculating a jump. If you wanna see what that looks like, head over to my Insta page to see the video there. Tacticool on the other hand, wouldn’t be so lucky. After finally managing to fix the Slash VXL and his FTX Tracer, it was time to give them both a good thrashing. The Tracer went through batteries like nobody’s business, while the Slash decided it no longer needed bodywork. After quite a heavy landing, a couple of the body mounts decided to go on vacation. After rummaging around for a few minutes, only one of them was found. This would later go on to cause the complete destruction of the bodywork. Topless I dunno if you’ve ever watched drag cars racing down the quarter mile, but that’s what came to mind when the Slash VXL decided to part with its bodywork. On a high speed run, the air got underneath the front of the shell, and peeled it back, creating a giant parachute. Did it slow the car down? No, not really. A few seconds later it hit the hillside in front of us and went hurtling through the air. Moments later, it would land, upside down, and finally shed itself of the now battered and torn shell. In doing so, all that would remain now were the rear mounts. It had created itself a little spoiler. Now for most people, that would have been the end of the day. Nope, not for Tacticool. This just meant it could go faster and further, something he would regret a few minutes later… Three wheel drive It was only a matter of time before the inevitable happened. Something had to give. This time around, it was in the form of what he suspects to be his rear diff. Now it was only providing power to three wheels. Not being one to be deterred by such a small nuisance, the thrashing continued. His front tyres would balloon to sizes unimaginable, so much so, that small holes started to appear in them, exposing the inner foam. The heat generated actually managed to melt a small bit of foam, turning it into a solid mass of, well, melted foam. By the time we made it back to the car, his Slash was now only working as a two wheel drive motor. I dare say, it won’t be cheap to fix, nor will it see the track anytime soon. Money pits So yeah, as you’ve probably guessed by now, these things cost us nothing but money when we take them. Admittedly, they aren’t stock anymore, so a lot of that comes down to us being to heavy handed, or pushing them past their limits. I dare say, the 2WD Slash wasn’t built to be run on a 4100kv brushless motor with a 3S battery, on stock gearing. Ah well, give’s me something to do on my week off. With that being said, that brings us to the end of today’s blog. Once again, thank you for stopping by. It is greatly appreciated as always. Whatever you are up to this weekend, have a good one! Post Views: 31 Days out Friends of Highlander RC