Tamiya Sand Scorcher

[eccles]

TheMighty said:

eccles said:

TheMighty said:

and possibly some vintage plastic suspension if I can get my hands on all of the above via ebay

As far as I'm aware there was no plastic in the suspension of the sand scorcher. It was pretty much a scale model of a real Beetles suspension in alloy, with just a few plastic cups for the ball joints.

The scorcher indeed had no plastic suspension parts from the factory, but some of the original alloy arms were very brittle, so much so that the racers of the time created a demand for nylon/plastic replacement/hop-up parts which were subsequently created by companies such as CRP to address the issue. These have now become quite rare but do occasionally pop up on ebay and so are amongst the nicer vintage parts to have on a retro sand scorcher.
The scorcher also didn't have an aluminium chassis or shiney boxart bumpers or billet gear and motor covers or a twin exhaust or 1.75 inch alloy wheels or coilover shocks or a gearbox skidplate or or or....

Edited by TheMighty on Tuesday 21st December 10:05

Funny, I raced mine at the time, and the suspension wasn't brittle, if anything it just bent.

I fully ballraced mine and put a RX540 motor (with variable timing) in it. The only upgrade I used that was plastic/ composite was the drive shafts. These were crap and just snapped if you upped the torque on the motor.

[TheMighty]

[dr_gn]

eccles said:

TheMighty said:

eccles said:

TheMighty said:

and possibly some vintage plastic suspension if I can get my hands on all of the above via ebay

As far as I'm aware there was no plastic in the suspension of the sand scorcher. It was pretty much a scale model of a real Beetles suspension in alloy, with just a few plastic cups for the ball joints.

The scorcher indeed had no plastic suspension parts from the factory, but some of the original alloy arms were very brittle, so much so that the racers of the time created a demand for nylon/plastic replacement/hop-up parts which were subsequently created by companies such as CRP to address the issue. These have now become quite rare but do occasionally pop up on ebay and so are amongst the nicer vintage parts to have on a retro sand scorcher.
The scorcher also didn't have an aluminium chassis or shiney boxart bumpers or billet gear and motor covers or a twin exhaust or 1.75 inch alloy wheels or coilover shocks or a gearbox skidplate or or or....

Edited by TheMighty on Tuesday 21st December 10:05

Funny, I raced mine at the time, and the suspension wasn't brittle, if anything it just bent.

I fully ballraced mine and put a RX540 motor (with variable timing) in it. The only upgrade I used that was plastic/ composite was the drive shafts. These were crap and just snapped if you upped the torque on the motor.

The driveshafts on my Rough Rider were pretty beefy steel shafts with Brass u/j's. What was the weak point?

[tattymarbots]

i had a sand scorcher and the rough rider back when they came ou. can you still buy this new sand scorcher? i am in southampton

[eccles]

dr_gn said:

The driveshafts on my Rough Rider were pretty beefy steel shafts with Brass u/j's. What was the weak point?

The joints were replaced by cups in the gearbox and hub, with a composite driveshaft between them with a sort of six sided end on it. It was the drive shaft part that used to just shear off.
There was no weakness with the originals apart from the wear rate and the weight, and I soon went back to them after my brief experiment with composite bits!

[Nick_F]

The brass UJs used to wear our faster than I could afford to buy new ones.

A pair of steel SuperChamp spec ones sorted that, and SuperChamp front suspension piviots were heavier duty, too, although the basic problem was having the shock acting on the lower trailing arm and the spring acting on the upper one, plus weedy grub screws to locate the arms on the pivots.

[s3fella]

collecting parts to build up my re release one too. Ordered RC channel's rear suspension kit and front bumper before xmas. Looking at going brushless with it!

[Roop]

eccles said:

dr_gn said:

The driveshafts on my Rough Rider were pretty beefy steel shafts with Brass u/j's. What was the weak point?

The joints were replaced by cups in the gearbox and hub, with a composite driveshaft between them with a sort of six sided end on it. It was the drive shaft part that used to just shear off.
There was no weakness with the originals apart from the wear rate and the weight, and I soon went back to them after my brief experiment with composite bits!

Never on the Rough Rider or Sand Scorcher. They always used the brass driveshafts with UJs. The Frog and other variants using the ORV chassis (Blackfoot, Monster Beetle, Mud Blaster etc) used the hex-drive units you mention and yes, with any torque reversal they used to strip.

If your "Rough Rider" had these parts, somebody had you over...!

[dr_gn]

Roop said:

eccles said:

dr_gn said:

The driveshafts on my Rough Rider were pretty beefy steel shafts with Brass u/j's. What was the weak point?

The joints were replaced by cups in the gearbox and hub, with a composite driveshaft between them with a sort of six sided end on it. It was the drive shaft part that used to just shear off.
There was no weakness with the originals apart from the wear rate and the weight, and I soon went back to them after my brief experiment with composite bits!

Never on the Rough Rider or Sand Scorcher. They always used the brass driveshafts with UJs. The Frog and other variants using the ORV chassis (Blackfoot, Monster Beetle, Mud Blaster etc) used the hex-drive units you mention and yes, with any torque reversal they used to strip.

If your "Rough Rider" had these parts, somebody had you over...!

Yeah, I though that sounded wrong. My Frog has the hex drives on it, but no composite driveshafts. I wonder if by 'composite' eccles meant made up of several parts rahter than reinforced plastic? IIRC, mine steel, and are made up of three seperate pieces, pressed or crimped together.

[Roop]

dr_gn said:

Roop said:

eccles said:

dr_gn said:

The driveshafts on my Rough Rider were pretty beefy steel shafts with Brass u/j's. What was the weak point?

The joints were replaced by cups in the gearbox and hub, with a composite driveshaft between them with a sort of six sided end on it. It was the drive shaft part that used to just shear off.
There was no weakness with the originals apart from the wear rate and the weight, and I soon went back to them after my brief experiment with composite bits!

Never on the Rough Rider or Sand Scorcher. They always used the brass driveshafts with UJs. The Frog and other variants using the ORV chassis (Blackfoot, Monster Beetle, Mud Blaster etc) used the hex-drive units you mention and yes, with any torque reversal they used to strip.

If your "Rough Rider" had these parts, somebody had you over...!

Yeah, I though that sounded wrong. My Frog has the hex drives on it, but no composite driveshafts. I wonder if by 'composite' eccles meant made up of several parts rahter than reinforced plastic? IIRC, mine steel, and are made up of three seperate pieces, pressed or crimped together.

Perhaps yes. The built up steel hex ones you mention are the standard ones for the ORV chassis cars - Frog, Blackfoot etc. You can get upgraded dognbones and universals now I think. My Frog has steel dogbones.

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

How strange this should come up now, see my thread here

I built this on two days over Christmas: