Awsome RC four wheel drive

[Muckinhell]

This is the updated version of Tamiya's old bruiser duel cab hilux. Pitty they only come in a Ford body, but its the 4b abilty it posses thats the real attention catcher. 3 speed gearbox 2wd,4wdh and 4wd low all controllable from the radio set and also the abilty to make each diff a manual locker as well. It also has real leaf springs as well.

check ebay item no.120081742336 or look up high lift f350.

[mudtilda]

Yeah Ive got one, had it for about 2 months now. Its great, so realistic, I bought it to simulate 4 wheeling, I just as fun as 4 wheelin, just a lot cheaper.
The car is also tough as hell, Ive put it thru hell and is still holding up fine.
It does have 2WD, but it is not controllable from the controller. You make it 2WD by removing a driveshaft. The old bruiser had Manual hubs!!
It isnt very fast, But heck its torquey, Its got really good towing capabilities.
I towed a largeish trolley jack!
The lockers are great too. I dont run them usually, but sometimes i do.
I have no serious mods done to it yet, its just fully ballraced for now!
I plan to get bigger tyres, when these wear out.

The cons about it... Is a poor ramp over angle.
I wouldn't mind more suspension travel.

Its an awesome truck, I paid $550 for the kit off ebay. $160 for the radio gear
$40 for the bearings. I use powerful 4600mah batteries, because it needs to operate 2 servos and a motor, you will be able to manage on 1800, but you wont get the most out of the truck. and i also run a battery pack, to lessen the load on the battery when both servos are in use.

And pictured is a pic of my truck after some mud bashin'

[Muckinhell]

Oh i prob just wanted it to have 2wd. it does have 3 speed box though doesnt it? how do they work. I thought you have to have a 3 ch radio set to change gears is that right?

I actually have a smaller ready to run swb fj40 my dad bought for myself and my brother although he got a hilux ute. they came with h range l range and a winch also a unlockable swing rear axle to help off road.

you would manually switch on the bull bar by sliding a lever between high,low and winch.
It just slid a gear across to actuate the diffrent gear sets.

the winch is actually a Pto come to think of it and could pull it up vertically no worries. Thats where i got my love of 4b's i reckon that little beast.

[mudtilda]

yeah it does have a 3 speed manual gear box fully controllable from the remote.
they change gears just like the real thing. I took a pic of the gearbox when i was building it and theres also a video on yourtube. which ill both put up. Yeah you need a 3 ch radio, to operate everything. If you want a pistol type grip controller. The futaba t3pdf, had a 4 position switch for the gears.. You need at least 3 to operate all the gears. What make and model was the Fj, with the winch and that?
gear box video link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOXxc7x-kOE

and building it

[Muckinhell]

The fj had radio gear by radio shak and the vehicle itself is from k.k.matsushiro. I'm really heart broken cause it hasnt worked in years as i had it in a decent sand bog and it striped the low range gears as they are plastic and the cog on the motor is metal. I havnt been able to find another since and my bro well he destroyed his long before i broke mine so i couldnt raid it for parts, but geez it was awsome fun.

Was the f350 hard to paint up etc. im tryin to talk the missus into one for me for me bfday in march.

[mudtilda]

Nah it was easy as to paint. If you have used a spray can before youill be able to paint it, Just a tip, be patient with the paint, it will turn out better. I got a few drip spots on mine cos i kept on spraying paint all the time. and not waiting for it to dry.
Building it was a good challenge. Ive had a lot of experience building rc models in the past. And this wasnt your average RC car. with the gear box. Solid axles etc.. It took a good 15 hours or so worth of building to get it into a running state.

[OFFTRACK2]

Check this promo video of it :) Very cool I like the exhaust
http://www.tamiya.com/english/products/58372ford_f350/movie2.wmv

[p38arover]

I've got one of the old Blazing Blazers - it must be 15 or more years old.

Ron

[outback_pootrol]

do these things have good flex

[mudtilda]

not a great deal. no.
You can modify them though, so they have more.
you can choose the amount of leafs you wanna put, to select how hard you want your suspension to be. I have the minimum of 3. I can lift up a wheel about 4 cms off the ground before another wheel starts to come up.

[the_eleventh_guest]

I've got one of the old Blazing Blazers - it must be 15 or more years old.

Ron

Those things are worth a fortune now. A Blazer in good nick will sell for upwards of $1000 USD, the gearbox alone will get you $100 on ebay... hold on to it man, those things are sweet!!! post up some pics of it please...

[Psycho_253_40]

A few guys over on www.thecrawlpit.com have the F350's. Also there a quite a few scale rigs being built. Check them out :cool:

[p38arover]

Those things are worth a fortune now. A Blazer in good nick will sell for upwards of $1000 USD, the gearbox alone will get you $100 on ebay... hold on to it man, those things are sweet!!! post up some pics of it please...

I think my son may have it. :mad:

I'll have to check the garage....

Ron

[mudtilda]

Yeah I was going to get a blazer originally, i saw one on ebay, saw the price and thought F*#k that. Then i was looking on the tamiya website, and saw the f-350, which is pretty much the new bruiser!. Im thinking about getting another one, to keep new in the box. Because I reckon the value on these things will rise just like the blazer.

[grimbo]

This is the updated version of Tamiya's old bruiser duel cab hilux. Pitty they only come in a Ford body, but its the 4b abilty it posses thats the real attention catcher. 3 speed gearbox 2wd,4wdh and 4wd low all controllable from the radio set and also the abilty to make each diff a manual locker as well. It also has real leaf springs as well.

check ebay item no.120081742336 or look up high lift f350.

so he is selling them for 1 cent plus $99.99 shipping, total $100. What else would you need, just radio gear?

[Muckinhell]

Yeah that was when that auction was active otherwise there $449 otherwsie then you have to get radio gear and batery etc on top.

[reddave]

Any advice on a r/c car for a 4 year old, he wants to go 4wdin with me?

[Muckinhell]

Wahooo im actually getting a F350 for me bfday.......cant wait...

[nissan_4ever]

is this beter then other 4wd petrol ones out there..

[mudtilda]

Depends... Electric and nitro, both have their ups and downs..
can you elaborate a bit more on 'better'?

[nissan_4ever]

well, i use to race r/c cars, i have a eletric (tf3) with 2g spent on it... i could run it agenst the petrol ones and it would keep up with most had top speed of 100 clicks...

now i want this just as a bit of a fun car not 4 racing comps.... somthing that will work in the bush as well as parks and picnics

[marty braj]

does any1 want to sell there f350

[Muckinhell]

Here is the finished F350 i got for me bfday. I painted it the same as me cruiser as in white with black flares etc. looks good from a distance but up close the paint didnt excatly do as i had intended, but its awsome fun to play with, and then you put a locker in and it get's even better. Rolled it twice already and taken a mirror off, had it bogged and hung up on small branches etc. Thats just in the back yard cant wait to take it somewhere decent.

[mudtilda]

Awesome truck mate. Looks just like mine when i first built it. I wanna do a coil spring conversion when the springs on mine break or something, just to get a bit more extra flex. And also run bigger tyres, You find it takes of quite easily in second gear?
Heres also a pic of my truck when i finished it

[Muckinhell]

Yeah takes of easy as in second no worries...I love how you did your aerial that looks cool and i see you did opposite to what i did with the roll bar lenses hahahahaha

how can you do coil spring conversion?

[red_swb]

they are so tuff, how quick is it? and whats it like in the rocks and dirt?

[Muckinhell]

Yeah fairly quick but nothing mind blowing as you would want from a dedicated 4b. really fun and very life like in its handling, specially with the rear diff lock in...it gets hung up a bit on the gearbox bash plate sometimes. Havn't really had it in rocks etc yet...theres a few vids on you tube with em doing some awsome stuff.....

[mudtilda]

Yeah with the coil spring conversion, You really gotta engineer it yourself, Make some trailing arms, panhard rods. and get some springs from another car. People have done it before, theres a few vids ive seen on youtube. With coils. when the springs soften up, they flex a bit more. I havent played with mine in a while lol, there hasnt been much rain lately. I took the light bar off, it the lenses fell off after rolling it too many times, and both my mirrors have snapped off as well.
What Radio gear are you using? The Futaba 4VWD?

[Muckinhell]

are you sure there original f350's on youtube? iv seen some other rigs with the f350 cab on em and they look original but dont sem to have the same tough lookin diffs wich give em away to me.

im using Hitec laser 4channel gear for mine and i got a high torque servo for the steering but ended up changing it for the gear changer instead cause the standard servos wernt handling the load and also fitted the servo battery pack to lengthen the run time of the unit overall. Im now lookin to buy another battery and makin an adaptor to make it DUAL battery hahahahahah it will run for ages with 2 3300mah batts for sure.

[mudtilda]

Yeah Im running a battery pack as well, where have you mounted yours? I cant seem to find a good place to put the batteries. I use venom 4600 mAh batteries which last about 40mins straight off a full charge. Yeah im pretty sure their the f-350s on youtube, just modfied a lot. Ive seen speed controllers which take 2 battery packs before, their used on like the massive RC monster trucks. the extra battery weight on the truck would be good, I find it helps with climbs. the wheels are more firmly on the ground. I find with my batteries, they last a lil too long, you want the batteries to go flat and yet they still wont.

[Muckinhell]

I have mounted the servo batts between the rear shock towers and doubled over a rubber band between them at the moment wich seems to keep em in....although thats where ill try mounting the second main batt as well lengthways down the chassis under the tray.

[ice_spy]

Dont mean to be a stick in the mud but just to help with a few things :-"This is the updated version of Tamiya's old bruiser duel cab hilux"
The Taimya bruiser is a single cab with a sleeper on the rear (must be for 4ft japanese to sleep in it:D ), although it was based on a true life mud racer in California USA. It was the new release of the old Bruiser due to many requests to bring back the old 3 speed truck, however nothing is the same, Bruiser was metal, Ftruck is plastic. (metal was cheaper back then)(i would still like to buy one but!) I have herd about the limit of travel, dont worry the Bruiser suffers from the same spring set up.I quess if you want to butcher its original condition its not that hard to add some 4 links and coil overs.(HINT:- remove the inner shock spring and add light wieght damper fluid). The 4 channel stick transmitter is the best option as you can put a shift gate on it to change gears easy. The Bruiser is basicly the most sort after rc truck for any Tamiya collector and is now 23 years old so you might be waiting a while for the Ftruck to become collectable, even though Tamiya does drop thier available cars and parts rather quickly. If you do want a Bruiser, you can find a copy of the real thing at this link:-
http://www.rcrockcrawling.com/product_info.php?cPath=47&products_id=241&osCsid=c5273771e1e69bc9811b5f04b727f0f4
But i have to say the best thing yet for the highlift is this:-
(i know when you see it you will want it!);)
http://www.tamiyausa.com/product/item.php?product-id=53957
WARNING if you watch this vid of the multi function unit installed you will be sold! - down side - cost as much as the kit.:(
http://www.tamiya.ca/58372_110_rc_ford_f350_highlift.htm click on the watch video next to the picture on this page. I want 1 for my Bruiser!!:D

[Muckinhell]

It doesnt matter to much about its limits i mean the real ftruck is limited too with out decent mods....

it gets around alright and is fun to use and lifelike as well with articulation and so fourth....

there is a cheaper kit in the usa just for lights though.....

I have read on some rc club sites that tamiya is developing a winch for the f350, so for my money thats what ill be buying if one comes out to use with that 4th unused channel so far.