New Stampede's - Help Needed!

[Anglebox]

Hello guys! I have spent a bit of time here and in other forums so thought it time I joined up. The decision was made in November by my youngest to ask Santa for a Stampede. I have built one TA track car, and bought a Rustler for my oldest when he was 3 but know pretty much nothing about the hobby.

Santa brought him 2 cars (one for Dad) and my oldest decided he wanted one as well and promptly paid for 1/2 and we shouted him the balance for his birthday, so we are now the proud owners of three 4x4's.

I have spent a bit of time on R/C Planet and purchased up large on spare A arms, rear hub carriers, front castor blocks and hub carriers as well. I also purchased a few camber links for good measure. The parts are a mix of RPM, stock and aluminum (for me) so I'm hoping this takes care of most things. I'm on holiday here in the US at the moment so want to buy the parts before we all head back home.

I seem to have run into a bit of bad luck, so thought I'd check to see if I was doing anything wrong. Firstly, the speed controller seems to be working any way it chooses. The boys cars are doing fine, they have run Lipo's on 50% power since day one. However my first controller went up in smoke (Traxxas have offered to replace it which is great) and I purchased a new one so we could all play while the parts were being shipped back and forth, however the new one doesn't seem to like using the stock batteries in the "red light" mode, and keeps reverting back to Lipo mode, then flashes green/red and then decides at times to just behave. Heat isn't an issue as the motor is usually packed in dry Utah powder! I've checked clutch adjustment, pinion contact, etc and no binding or tightness, so I don't understand why it's behaving this way. Sounds like Traxxas will replace it without drama, but again, I'd rather avoid 10 days of transit if it's operator error. Another niggling has been my younger son's transmitter has had a red contact disconnect; again Traxxas have offered to replace, so that will go in the mail on Monday.

So if you can offer any advice as to what to change or purchase before I head back home I'd like to ensure I have the common parts on hand that may go wrong or get broken in the future, and that I look into any common faults on this new model. Sorry for the long post, and yes they have been an absolute blast and great for the family to play with together

[Anglebox]

Also, any advice on an alternative to using the supplied Venom adapter to connect to the Traxxas male connector? They are incredibly difficult to remove from the charger and the vehicle. I would prefer an adapter over soldering new Traxxas connections.

[pavmentsurfer]

Unfortunately there is no alternate adapter to use with the venom lipos. i agree... I dont like how the traxxas universal tip works with other true traxxas connectors. They are way too tight. The only option is to solder on a genuine traxxas connector, which is what I plan to do.

The other problem with the ESC's is something that seems to be popping up now that so many people have snatched up the 4X4 pedes. Perhaps another bad batch came from the supplier. It happened a while ago with a bunch of VXL ESCs that went into LVC way too early. This latest batch seems to be a problem also. Youve done the right thing in getting a spare. Thats what I did until I knew I had some good ones. Honestly, id suggest getting a different brand of spare ESC... maybe a Mamba Max or Mamba Max Pro to use as a spare.

Id get some Spurs as spares, maybe some alternate pinions to control speeds when the boys trucks come out of training mode. Id maybe pick up an extra few bearings for the slipper assembly, they have been known to fail every now and then.

Other than that, I think youve picked up the right spares and extras to keep you running for a while.

[Anglebox]

Sorry to ask but I can't tell if the Mamba is waterproof or not; it doesn't appear to be? Happy to purchase a spare as I'm batting .500 at the moment with the VXL ESC.

[pavmentsurfer]

It's water resistant but very much not waterproof.

[Anglebox]

I've installed the upgraded rear axle carriers (1952X) and the rear end has a crazy amount of camber. Which way does Traxxas think left is? I've installed them with RPM arms and the only thing I think I could have done wrong is install them wrong way around. Sorry, no pics.

[pavmentsurfer]

They should have some camber, which is the top to bottom angle of the wheel... but this is adjustable with the threaded steel camber links. If your talking about castor (or toe in) where the front of the wheel is facing inwards... this is a good trait. It helps the truck track straighter on acceleration.

[beetroot72]

If your talking about castor (or toe in) where the front of the wheel is facing inwards... this is a good trait. It helps the truck track straighter on acceleration.
In the Non-Rc world Castor refers to the angle at which your wheel is in front of or behind the center point. So lets say one wheel was 1/8" forward of the center of it's opposite wheel then your castor would be off. Castor, Camber, and tow are 3 completly different adjustments. Castor is always the trickiest on real cars and is usually something they never touch or even know how to do at most alingment places. My old honda somehow hit a curb a ways back so I learned all about it. =)

[rag6]

Real world caster and rc caster are the same thing and follow the same rules.
Caster is the angle at which your steering kingpin leans either forward(-) or backward(+) when looking from the side and is measured in degrees.
http://i644.photobucket.com/albums/uu165/gizmorc37/Casterangle.jpg

Anglebox, If you put the alum rear carriers on as they are marked( L-R ) you will get 4° of toe. Swap them ( R-L ) you get 1° of toe. Put the plastic stockers on for 2.5° of toe. Its just a tuning aid for different rear toe angles. You did nothing wrong, just installed them in the 4° configuration.

[Anglebox]

Cool. Ended up adjusting the camber as it seemed to be about 2 degrees more than stock. The toe in wasn't such a tricky item; I just couldn't figure out why the camber isn't matched to stock. The bag had no tech data - how in the world are you supposed to know how to set it up?

[rag6]

when you switched to the aluminum rear bearing carriers, your camber changed?
I wonder if the parts were bagged wrong and you got the 2wd carriers?
Just checked my 2wd vs 4wd carriers, and If I put the 2wd ones on the 4wd it would cause the change in camber you are experiencing. Switching between the stock plastic and alum on my 4wd, my camber stays exactly the same.

[Anglebox]

Sounds like the most likely scenario. I don't have any measuring equipment but visually I couldn't pick the difference.