I never tried to put tyres onto rims before and use the glue to hold them into place. Ive decided Im quite the noob when it comes to 1/10th scale due to what has happened this evening. Mucking around with 1/5th scale is by far much easier, although the last set of tarmac busters I had them put onto the rims before they was sent out to me. Well I learnt tonight to put the tyres onto the rims first before applying any glue. I need a new set of offroad wheels for my Tamiya Dirt Thrasher and I finally come accross what was needed on trademe, with a little help from someone who knows more than me. The frounts went on fairly easy but they are much narrower. I got the tyres on 2/3rds of the way and then put some glue onto the final exposed part of the rim and then forced the tyre onto the rim with the shaft of a screw driver. Well looking back now Im just lucky that they managed to pop into place fairly quickly. I started on the rears which are wider and thats when things took a turn for the worst. I tried the same method again that I had done with the frounts. This time the tyre didnt want to pop into place on the rim. I was also lucky that I was wearing disposable gloves as that glue can run fairly well before it sets! I thought the tyre had poped into place but it had just folded over the tyre wall and then set with the help of the glue onto the rim. I was tired and the garage was now fairly dark. Of course I was just using my hobby light and had not turned on the main garage lights. When I did come to have a good look at my handy work I realised that the rear tyre was not on properly. However the glue was well set and there was no chance of getting the tyre into the correct place. I also found that if I picked up the frounts and pushed on the side of the tyre that was not glued to the rim, that I could actually get the glue in on the rim and then just quickly let the tyre go. Which had the tyre sitting in the right part of the rim well before the glue was set and no glue on the screw driver shaft and more importantly, no glue on me. Moral of the story? Allways put the tyres onto the rims correctly then apply the glue. I now have one rear tyre in pieces after carefully cutting it off the rim with a stanley knife. Im just lucky that I didnt ruin the rim as well as the tyre and now I am waiting for some more rear tyres to fit to the rims the correct way! Well sometimes the best lessions in life can be the hard ones and at least it only cost me another set of rear offroad tyres for my buggy. So hopefully someone will read this and learn from my mistake. Its really the only reason Im posting my story as I still feel like a moron, although its easy to be wise in hind sight. I did manage to get some therapy though. I had purchased a set of tarmac wheels all ready to go. They look rather weird on the thrasher as they are rather small compared to the offroad wheels. They do the job nicely though and Ive made myself a smallish ramp before I left the garage. I found a pievce of timber that I stapled two layers of cardboard onto at one end with my builders staple gun. I had glued them together and was feeling happy that I'd found another use for that messy tyre glue. I cant find the camera at the moment as we are still unpacking our belongings after moving into our new home. Although there is no way Im going to get any action shots and Im not sure if there is anyone who wants to see a picture of a Tamiya Dirt Thrasher. But you can check out the few pictures I have saved of my favourite remote control machine.

13/01/09

My latest purchase has been a new battery charger and it turns out that my old one was not charging my battery well. Now not only am I going much faster, but Im going for much longer also. I read on an online website that its also important to fully discharge your battery once you have finished using it. So rather than buying another piece of expensive equipment I made my own battery discharger, on the cheap! I found a female tamiya plug that was on a lenght of wire. I then grabbed the spare light bulb that I had for my motorcycle, Im fairly sure that many cars use the same thing. Its the brake/tail light with the double filament and its 12V. So it would be not a problem to hook it up to a 7.2V car battery. The only thing with it is that you have to be carefull how you leave it hanging as the light bulb can get very hot. I have a small hobby lamp that has telescopic arms like a ariel, so I hang mine off that. Not having to pay for a discharger leaves me with $$$ for hop ups or more tyres! Im going to set my buggy up as RWD from 4WD and have a crack at drifting. So tyres are definitely needed, as well as fixing my earlier muck up!

21/01/09

Drifting with the buggy was fun while I was using the worn out tarmac tyres although the buggy motor was having to work really hard. I obtained two drift wheels with tyres and put them on the back of the buggy. It didnt go down too well Im afraid. All the buggy wanted to do was spin around in circles and if I slowing got it up to a decient speed going straight, it would spin out as soon as I tried to turn. I asked a friend who is well into drifting what the story was and he said I needed a full set of drift wheels & tyres. As well as putting the buggy back to 4WD. I really enjoyed the drifting with the buggy in RWD with the tarmac tyres though. But in the end I have purchased a rtr tt-01d set and I'll have a good crack at it once it is delivered. I also have now got a Kyosho Lazer zx-5 and its totally in a league ahead of the Tamiya gear that Im used to. However I'll wait until the new Tamiya drifter arrives as all the Tamiya gear Ive ever owned thus far has been old or really old! Ive also found a good source of hop-ups, tyres/wheels etc online. So Im definitely going to have a good stock of spares and hop ups in time and once I figure Im needing. On a side note, Ive been having major trouble with NZ Customs. I imported a heap of parts and a rtr hpi 5t from the USA. There was major drama from the get go and customs made sure I payed everything, including GST. What started off as a good buy at the beginning turned into hard to break even with getting it in NZ. Its put me off ever getting anything ever again. 

22/01/09

Great news!!! After all the drama created about my AWOL package from the USA it turned up this morning, after being told late yesterday afternoon that customs refused to release it. I talked to one of the supervisors and it turned out that between NZ customs, NZ Post staff and the crew that did the brokering process that Chinese whispers was happening. One lot didnt know what was going on and they was the one feeding back to me telling me about all the drama. Needless to say that between customs and the brokering crew, they had it all under control. I think the NZ Post staff member is going to be talked to by the chap at customs who I talked to. I take back every bad word & thought I had about customs, but in saying that Ive heard some horror stories about people having huge hassles getting things (you wonder what though) into the country. Tip from me to everyone here reading this: the limit/threshold of importing into NZ is $400 NZD. Anything over that and NZ Customs will put it through an importing process, which involves plenty of paperwork, the need for a brokering service and at the end of it a huge bill. The bill consists of: entry fee, customs clearance fee, disburcement fee, administration fee, gst on the fees and to top it off, you pay gst on whatever it is that your beinging in. Needless to say Im either getting my stuff from sources in NZ, or only importing something if it falls under the threshold amount! Even better news this morning! My Tamiya TT-01D arrived this morning along with the AWOL package! It came straight out of the box and Im setting things they way that I want it and then I'll be drifting this arvo! After reading the paperwork that came with it about drifting and the abuse it puts on the motor, Im surprised the dirt thrashers motor is still going at all! Might have to find a new stock motor to replace the abused one as Im sure its going to make a very big difference.

10/02/09

Well lots has happened since the last time I posted here. The 5T is all ready and Im just waiting for the weather to improve before taking it on its first outing to run it in. Ive also bought 2nd hand another tt-01d, but this one has all the alloy updates, a brushless system and a r34 body with the full lights kit installed. Ive had it running out side and its fast and lots of fun, but I know I can get alot more out of the brushless kit by changing the ecu settings. Im not actually going to bother doing it because the brushless system will be getting removed and Ive got 2 brand new combos with proigram card coming in the mail. So if your wanting a good 2nd hand brushless set up, let me know or check out trademe soon. One of the new sets is the most powerfull option and the other one is the dori brushless kit. Looks like Im going to have to have a good clear out of the garage parts wise as its getting to the point that I need either to get more cars to use the parts or just sell off the stuff, most of which is brand new! Ive also started scouting around for vintage and classic Tamiya RC. Ive scored a mint Vanessa's lunchbox, but the gold limited edition version and I brought the Jr version to go next to it on the shelf, which Ive still got to get built. There are a number of people with old RC gear on trademe that are expecting an arm and a leg for theirs. I think they will be owning their old Tamiya RCs for along time to come. Ive started selling my stuff with a mint DB01 Durga rolling chassis and mentioned that I would consider trading for old RC gear. Not getting much uptake on that but there is plenty of watchers so hopefully the Durga will sell. The alloy tt-01d has a rear alloy locked diff and what a difference that made to my drifting skills! Everyone has to do it and also have a go at locking the frount diff with bluetak so if you dont like it, you can just remove the bluetak and be back to where you started. I dont see the point in glueing the diffs at all because then you need replacement parts to put it back again if you ever have the need.  When I get the new brushless kits here Im taking my brand new Kyosho Lazer ZX-5 out of the box.

Im going to set it up and match it with a massive lipo and its going to blast the stock brushless Lazer zx-5 like its not even moving!

The original coppermix tt-01d is going to remain brushed, but Ive picked up a no limit esc and a number of brand new motors, the lowest being 15T. Ive got the want to see what its like and compare it to the brushless option. I also like having something slower to use in the drive way out the back of the house. Ive scored several small lightweight rubber traffic cones to set up tracks and it does not matter if I clip them with the car. Ive got a fair bit to go before Id be ready to take it to a real track! Ive also managed to pick up another coppermix body out of another XB RTR kit Mike has. It even has the lights in it so the r34 is going to be the practice body (I never thought Id do that to a R34!) and Ive been told that practicing in the dusk can be really cool with the lights turned on. All I know is that Ive got to be able to see the edge of the driveway as its still a drop off and waiting for the top soil and grass. Although the grass will be in danger now that this thing below is about to be unleashed out of the garage!

21/02/09

Well Ive been busy enjoying my RC machines now that all of the hard work has been done and all of the fine tuning has been done. Ive brought some axle extenders for the 5T along with some better wheels/tyres and I expect the handling will improve plenty allowing me to corner faster without the risk of flipping over. Have got brand new brushless combos as I found a website that was having a monster sale! The first of the old brushless setups Ive got on trademe for $1 reserve, so someone could get a good deal as its going with its battery also. Have had to stop drifting for awhile as the construction has taken over and there is debris everywhere. Its given me the time though to finish off my projects so that when my goodies from HK arrive, I'll be all ready to get them where they need to be. Then once everything has cleared and the section is done, I'll be ready to kick the 1:1 cars out of the driveway and put the new setup in the alloy tt-01d and my skills to the real test. Ive also managed to buy some huge capacity lipos and when my skills are good enough, things are just going to fly!

Another thing Ive very reciently purchased is a RC motorcycle. Its a Venom gpv-1 and someone has finally had the wisdom to bring them into the country along with all the parts and associated hop ups. Its still sitting on the shelf in its box, but Ive been reading forums from the UK and learning from those who are racing them and getting the most out of their bikes. There is a huge amount of hop ups available so the wallet is going to be abused yet again to get my gpv-1 ready to use. The picture below is the same thing but from an advertisement. They really look the part and can tip right over into a corner, like I used to on my CBR600RR! The bike itself looks like something out of motogp and some of the UK lads are changing the decals and the similarity is amazing.