Tamiya f350 high-lift build - completed!

[Chubaka]

We put the Ryft diffs together and forgot to put the top bevel gear in the diff. I had to tear them back down and put them in. You can see the gears in the build vid if you look closely

I got good with the gears. I always spin them constantly as I'm building. I have forgotten clutch pads, pins, the spacer tubes Axial uses, and even forgot to check the bearings to find out it had slop.

 

[WickedFog]

I got good with the gears. I always spin them constantly as I'm building. I have forgotten clutch pads, pins, the spacer tubes Axial uses, and even forgot to check the bearings to find out it had slop.

We made it all the way to putting the axles in the front housing before I caught the mistake. Spinning the axle gave it away

 

[Notorious J]

Fwiw, it took me 2 or 3 tries to get my 10.2 tranny right. Sometimes I still put stiff together to realize I left a part out right in front of me!

We put the Ryft diffs together and forgot to put the top bevel gear in the diff. I had to tear them back down and put them in. You can see the gears in the build vid if you look closely

Not gonna lie. There's one gear in a bag that hasn't been used and I'm cringing at the thought that I missed it. I'm hoping it's needed somewhere else down the line and I checked that each of the transmission gears was correct and in the right place before closing it up, but that one mystery gear has me thinking, hmmmmmm.

 

[WickedFog]

Not gonna lie. There's one gear in a bag that hasn't been used and I'm cringing at the thought that I missed it. I'm hoping it's needed somewhere else down the line and I checked that each of the transmission gears was correct and in the right place before closing it up, but that one mystery gear has me thinking, hmmmmmm.

Post a pic of it. Maybe we can look through the manual and see what it is.

 

[Notorious J]

Post a pic of it. Maybe we can look through the manual and see what it is.

Will do when I get home tonight. I'm gonna look over the first two pages of the manual one more time and see if it matches anything. Might have been an optional size, so fingers crossed that that's what it is. If not, taking apart those philips screws is gonna drive me batty.

 

[WickedFog]

I thought of something I am going to start doing on this build we're doing now. From now on I am going through the manual first and sorting out the optional parts and putting them in a Plano storage box for the car. The single speed gear had me baffled for a minute. We did the 2-speed, so that gear wasn't used.

 

[Notorious J]

Stage 3 in the books. Difs/axles built and installed, mounted to the frame on a medium duty leaf spring set up. For the record, 2mm Philips head screws make 3mm Philips head screws seem awesome. We all no there's nothing awesome about a Philips head screw, right?

 

[Notorious J]

Stage 4 done. Dampers on, steering & shifter servos installed and working flawlessly. Big ass front bush guard looks good too

 

[Doom!]

So now that you are a good way through the build, has this wet your appetite for building kits, or do you think once was enough. You seem to be breezing through it.

 

[Notorious J]

So now that you are a good way through the build, has this wet your appetite for building kits, or do you think once was enough. You seem to be breezing through it.

It's tons of fun and really rewarding, but I'm a bit OCD about it and getting it done too quickly. I'll probably go back to being the basher guy once it's done, but I'm sure there'll be at least one more build in the future. Btw, did I mention it has four wheel steering? This truck is gonna be amazing when it's done. I already brought the body to my painter guy and let's just say that subtle wasn't in the conversation about how its gonna be done.

 

[WickedFog]

Man, that is looking great. I had never seen this kit before, but it looks like a really fun build. So it comes with the ability to make it 4ws? That's pretty cool if so.

 

[Notorious J]

Man, that is looking great. I had never seen this kit before, but it looks like a really fun build. So it comes with the ability to make it 4ws? That's pretty cool if so.

4ws is integrated in the design. The option is there to lock the rear steer and remove one rod from the steering servo. Adjusting the end points on channel 4 for the transmission shifter took a bit, but once I figured it out, set to perfection. They also include dif lock pins, but I'm not sure the set up is strong enough to run a locked rear. One thing I'm concerned about is how small the axles are. I'd like to get bigger 1.9 tires or possibly even 2.2 wheels, but those axles look delicate at best. Time will tell. Already considering a trailer though. Pull my speed runner to the starting line kind of thing.
Suspension is going to need the most tuning. The included dampers are spring loaded (internally) and not oil filled. I'll likely drop down to one leaf and add new oil filled shocks to try and make it more agile as a crawler. I'll give it a chance to break in before I do.
If you want me to rate it so far, the quality is a 9.5, level of difficulty to assemble is a 7 for an experienced person, a 9.5 if you've never worked on rc's before. Quality rating could change after I run it a bit. Some of the couplers for the steering and servos seems small and super light duty. The shifter one kept popping off way too easily until I got those end points set correctly. Hopefully all the steering ones fair better.

Recommendation to anyone wanting to build a kit like this:
Open all the bags with screws and sort them into containers with sizes marked. Leave all the other little bits in there marked bags, but take out the screws and sort them. Soooooooo many screws.

 

[Chubaka]

4ws is integrated in the design. The option is there to lock the rear steer and remove one rod from the steering servo. Adjusting the end points on channel 4 for the transmission shifter took a bit, but once I figured it out, set to perfection. They also include dif lock pins, but I'm not sure the set up is strong enough to run a locked rear. One thing I'm concerned about is how small the axles are. I'd like to get bigger 1.9 tires or possibly even 2.2 wheels, but those axles look delicate at best. Time will tell. Already considering a trailer though. Pull my speed runner to the starting line kind of thing.
Suspension is going to need the most tuning. The included dampers are spring loaded (internally) and not oil filled. I'll likely drop down to one leaf and add new oil filled shocks to try and make it more agile as a crawler. I'll give it a chance to break in before I do.
If you want me to rate it so far, the quality is a 9.5, level of difficulty to assemble is a 7 for an experienced person, a 9.5 if you've never worked on rc's before. Quality rating could change after I run it a bit. Some of the couplers for the steering and servos seems small and super light duty. The shifter one kept popping off way too easily until I got those end points set correctly. Hopefully all the steering ones fair better.

Recommendation to anyone wanting to build a kit like this:
Open all the bags with screws and sort them into containers with sizes marked. Leave all the other little bits in there marked bags, but take out the screws and sort them. Soooooooo many screws.

Screw that.

Build is coming along good. I really like the Tamiya F350, its just a little small for my liking. I might make it my warehouse runner/drifter.

Hopefully it can handle some abuse. If not, I may have to get the Toyota or change the F350 body out.

 

[Notorious J]

Screw that.

Build is coming along good. I really like the Tamiya F350, its just a little small for my liking. I might make it my warehouse runner/drifter.

Hopefully it can handle some abuse. If not, I may have to get the Toyota or change the F350 body out.

I've read that there's decent axles out there (rc4wd I think) that can be easily swapped in if the stock don't hold up as needed. But who am I kidding. I send Kratons to the moon and have 4 cars built to do over 100 mph. Pretty sure this truck can handle the very limited amount of crawling I'll do

 

[Chubaka]

I've read that there's decent axles out there (rc4wd I think) that can be easily swapped in if the stock don't hold up as needed. But who am I kidding. I send Kratons to the moon and have 4 cars built to do over 100 mph. Pretty sure this truck can handle the very limited amount of crawling I'll do

As long as you dont buy a sensored Castle. I snapped 3 bolts in my ring in my 10.2 and only had the system for 6 weeks.

 

[Notorious J]

That's it! The truck is ready and rolling. Body is out being painted, so it's not complete, but it's mobile and I got to test it. First impressions. Gonna lock the rear steer. It's fun but once you get up near a wall, good luck getting away. Also gonna lock the rear dif. The difs are way to soft and climbing is almost impossible with both difs open. The transmission is fine in first and second gear, but high gear seems to just slip. Could be the difs cause once it gets going, she moves. The battery tray is rounded, so a lipo seems out of the question. The tires look tiny, but I'll re-evaluate once the body is on. There's still lots to do to mount the body, but for now, most of the technical parts are done.

 

[WickedFog]

Gonna lock the rear steer. It's fun but once you get up near a wall, good luck getting away.

So the rear steer - I am guessing each axle runs off the same steering servo?

 

[Notorious J]

So the rear steer - I am guessing each axle runs off the same steering servo?

Yep. No way to use the remote to change the setting so for now, I just locked it. I might tighten the slipper a bit too, as I set it to their recommendation which might be too loose. Definitely needs bigger tires though. Read that a lot of people who built this truck before, lifted it a bit. I can kind of see why now.

 

[WickedFog]

Yep. No way to use the remote to change the setting so for now, I just locked it. I might tighten the slipper a bit too, as I set it to their recommendation which might be too loose. Definitely needs bigger tires though. Read that a lot of people who built this truck before, lifted it a bit. I can kind of see why now.

Is there no room to add a second servo? I wouldn't want rear steer either if it always on and no way to control each axle separately.

 

[Notorious J]

Is there no room to add a second servo? I wouldn't want rear steer either if it always on and no way to control each axle separately.

I thought of that too. I'm going to see if I can mount another servo on the opposite side of the frame and run the rear separate. The FlySky allows for separate control on one of the channels with the dials above the screen. Wouldn't be that difficult as long as there's space. It would also allow me to trim out the rear steer separate from the front which is needed. While running the stock 4ws, the truck seems to want to "dog walk" where the front and rear are running on two different lines while going straight. So many little things to consider with this truck.