Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Ear plugs as diff grease?!

The Euro Truck fast guy informed me that the hot setup was to mash these silicone ear plugs into the diff mesh to act as a really really really thick grease to slow down the diff action.  With the rear diff using the thin stock ceramic grease, the front diff will act like a spool and should tone down the steering response and pull the truck out of the corners.



Tuesday, February 25, 2020

Euro Truck Build Begins!

I finally got around to starting the build of my Tamiya Euro Truck after getting the kit a week ago.  The first few steps installed the main drive shaft, gearbox input shafts, spur gear, and motor.

First 2 pages of assembly completed!


The next steps completed the rear diff, gearbox, and suspension.

Rear end completed!

Up next is the front diff, gearbox, and suspension.

Monday, February 24, 2020

Saturday Club Racing, SDRC 2/22/2020

I return to racing after missing the last 3 weeks and the start of the 2020 Supercross Series due to a Gout attack in my left knee.  I wasn't able to stand, walk, or drive (full size) for 2 weeks!  This was also my first time on a layout at SDRC with 3 triples!

In heat 1 I finished in 6th!? with a 15:17, fast lap of 19.074, average lap of 21.134, and consistency of 87.40%.   I must've been rusty because I made a bunch of driving errors and crashed 3 times.


In heat 2 I finished in 7th with a DNF, fast lap of 20.997, average lap of 22.128, and consistency of 93.21%.   I DNF'd due to a stripped servo horn on my steering servo.  I guess I bounced off the pipes one time too many.


For the Main I qualified 6th and finished in 5th with a 14:07, fast lap of 19.660, average lap of 21.871, and consistency of 86.97%.  I would get up to 2nd for one lap, but promptly shorted the 3rd triple and went right back to last place.  If I was just able to drive without crashing I might have been able to hold that position.  I need to stop trying to go faster and get back to the basics of just not crashing!  I also forgot to start my GoPro, so I have no video of the race.  Doh!

From my 1 good race video of Heat 1, I could see my car bouncing upon flat landing which caused me to crash at least twice.  I also noticed my car bucking in some sections of the track.  I was too lazy to change shock oils at the track, since I wanted to learn the layout instead.  I was able to get 6 practice runs in!  Which is double what I would normally run.

At home when I dumped the shock oil out to change to thicker oil, I noticed that the front shocks had 1.8 mm hole pistons in them.  I thought I had installed 1.7 mm pistons in the front shocks when I built the car 2 years ago!  Sure enough I dumped the oil out of the rear shocks and it had the 1.7 mm hole pistons!  The front shocks are supposed to have the pistons with the smaller diameter holes in them! Doh!  So in addition to increasing the shock oil weight to 40/35, I also swapped the pistons rear to front, so that the 1.7 piston was in the front shock and the 1.8 piston was in the rear shock.  I must've checked it 4 times before reassembling the shocks and filling them with oil. LOL!

Hopefully now my car will be easier to drive and I'll be able to get a run in with no crashes or mistakes!


Tamiya Euro Racing Truck!

I picked up a Tamiya Buggyra Fat Fox Euro Racing Truck!  I found a deal on Tower Hobbies where I could pay only $42 per month for the kit, so I decided to get one and join the fun!

When I went parking lot racing last month this was the biggest class and it looked like a lot of fun!  So much so that I decided to get one that day, but I was waiting for the right deal, which came up on Tower earlier this month!

Next up is the build!  I think the body will be the toughest part.