Tamiya Off Road Buggies & Brushless motors?

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ChadCharlieG

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  1. Bashing
So this is probably a very noob question. But every time I see anyone with Tamiya buggies, they are always brushed. Why is this? Are Tamiya buggies unsuited for the power of a powerful brushless system? Also, I don't do organised racing, because another thought I had could be that they are brushed so they fit the limits and regulations of organized racing or something.

I'm asking because I would love to get one, but I prefer brushless models because brushed motors are so inefficient. I don't want to spend WAY TOO MUCH on something I won't like. I never understood why they are so expensive-
 
The reason is tamiya does sell a brushless buggy but cost is way higher than many hobbyist want to pay. you can buy metal gear replacements for there buggies.
 
Heck, yeah, you can put brushless motors in your Tamiya kits. I installed a Tamiya TBLM-02S 10.5T brushless motor in my Plasma Edge II Black Metallic (TT-02B), and a bunch of other Tamiya and GPM alloy bits (including the GPM metal dif gears front and back) and it's a blast. The Tamiya motors are pretty expensive for all they are, so when I built my Top Force I went with a Hobbywing QUICRUN 3650 G2 10.5T sensored brushless motor and it's a blast, too. I only NiMHs in my cars, but there are plenty of folks out there running 2S and 3S LiPos in theirs.

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Heck, yeah, you can put brushless motors in your Tamiya kits. I installed a Tamiya TBLM-02S 10.5T brushless motor in my Plasma Edge II Black Metallic (TT-02B), and a bunch of other Tamiya and GPM alloy bits (including the GPM metal dif gears front and back) and it's a blast. The Tamiya motors are pretty expensive for all they are, so when I built my Top Force I went with a Hobbywing QUICRUN 3650 G2 10.5T sensored brushless motor and it's a blast, too. I only NiMHs in my cars, but there are plenty of folks out there running 2S and 3S LiPos in theirs.

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Wow. That's pretty epic.
 
Wow. That's pretty epic.

I had a set of Duratrax SC tires on hand, so threw them on the TT-02B one day and went to see how it worked. I'd say it was pretty speedy for being NiMH:

And here's a video I took of the Top Force bashing around a bit. Would be quicker is using LiPo, but I'm not going down that path any time soon:

Had the Super Astute out the same day with the Top Force. It's not running a brushless motor, but it still got around pretty well. And the slow-mo video is fun since you can really see how the suspension works:
 
I had a set of Duratrax SC tires on hand, so threw them on the TT-02B one day and went to see how it worked. I'd say it was pretty speedy for being NiMH:

And here's a video I took of the Top Force bashing around a bit. Would be quicker is using LiPo, but I'm not going down that path any time soon:

Had the Super Astute out the same day with the Top Force. It's not running a brushless motor, but it still got around pretty well. And the slow-mo video is fun since you can really see how the suspension works:
Would love to watch those videos, but I'm on managed laptop.
 
So this is probably a very noob question. But every time I see anyone with Tamiya buggies, they are always brushed. Why is this? Are Tamiya buggies unsuited for the power of a powerful brushless system? Also, I don't do organised racing, because another thought I had could be that they are brushed so they fit the limits and regulations of organized racing or something.

I'm asking because I would love to get one, but I prefer brushless models because brushed motors are so inefficient. I don't want to spend WAY TOO MUCH on something I won't like. I never understood why they are so expensive-
Misconception I say. Just because a motor is brushless, doesn't make it "powerful". Just like brushed motors, you still get to choose what power you want from a brushless motor.
 
Misconception I say. Just because a motor is brushless, doesn't make it "powerful". Just like brushed motors, you still get to choose what power you want from a brushless motor.
Yeah, but when I try to get the same power out of a brushed motor it overheats, and runs less efficiently. Sure, you can put fans and stuff on it. But that's still a lot of work compared to a brushless motor. On top of that, you get less acceleration out of a brushed motor... I know this because I thought the exact same thing.

Edit: Oh, and all brushless motors have a little "jerk" to them. That can be devastating if your model can't handle it.
 
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