B-Max4 III Front wishbones
 

Hi,

My son who is very much a novice is running my old car and breaking an insane amount of front wishbones. Now I know he's learning and crashing a lot but I've restricted his speed accordingly. I noticed that MB models have "hard" versions for just over a pound extra, anyone have any experience of these?

I'd keep to the standard ones as they will have more flex an be more forgiving when he crashes, the hard ones will break more easily

BOth the normal as the hard ones brake on this car, but then again it's more or less the only thing that breaks on this car. You might try to boil the arms for half an hour to make them softer, some people have had good succes with it.

Or could you knock up some sort of plastic bumper while he practices?

I recommend to run a bumper as well. Harder arms will break more easily. So would not recommend running that. Boiling makes them a lot softer - however, if you boil too long (i would recommend only 10/15 minutes) they become very easy to break.

I think RPM arms of an B44.3 could fit with a little modification.

You break those you get a new set.

I know that RPM do a good bumper for the B44.1 as I used it when I first came back to RC 2 years ago. I don't know for sure, but it may be able to be modified to fit a BMax4iii

If you go for a bumper, try to mod a T-Bone bumper. If you break it, you will get a new one for free.

http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/d...sw9jh2fjj.jpeg
http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/d...sbldtmsvk.jpeg

Already have a bumper installed from a Tamiya blackfoot, I think he must be clipping the wheels. I will look at boiling the arms, not bother buying the hard version replacements and turn his speed down a touch more. It doesn't help that we are on a tight indoor track atm. Hopefully when he gets outdoors there will be a bit more room.

Thanks for the advice guys

I see the comments are they "will" break easier, not they " do" break easier. That sounds to me like they have no personal experience of them. I however do and can confirm the harder items take a fair bit more punishment. I used to run these solely on my bmax and had much more durability. There was a number of drivers convinced by them on RCtech if you canfind the thread. However like mentioned above, anything breaks if provoked enough.

front bumper did the trick for me on my Schumacher aero 4wd for indoor racing. i have driving the B-max4 iii for in 2015 and did try the hard arms , i did not break a lot off arms, but can say that on hing grip astro or carpet , the hard arms are quicker to brake, the snap sound proves it :eh?:
i bought 2 used cars last year and both had bend hinge pins and pieces broken out of the arms . the RPM arms are indeed a good solution, but remember, the guaranty wil be lost when you start to grind stuff away...

The hard front arms broke a lot easier for me. The stock ones took far more abuse.

I heard the old B-Max4 (II) arms BM-008F are tougher, but I never had a 4III to compare. In this video you can see my son's B-Max4II take some serious abuse and keep going

I took his current ones off and boiled them so will see how that works out this weekend. May look at the II versions :thumbsup:

The bmax4ii wishbones were a bit beefier, and it was obvious which were stronger from looking at them. May be very difficult to find any now, as the part codes were the same (BM-008F) and the Bmax4iii part replaced the older one.

May sound like a silly response, but have you thought about giving him a solid 2wd car like the BMAX2MR to learn with? They are cheap enough second hand, and very solid. 2wd is a bit more forgiving for a learner, as well as being lighter and a bit slower.

Yes he started out with a Cougar SV2 which I fitted the same bumper to and was bullet proof but then I upgraded to a ZX6 and he (being six years old) naturally assumed the B-Max was his now! It's a hobby I want him to enjoy and while he's racing I get less grief from the missus for racing so I guess a few wishbones every now and again is a small price to pay. :woot: