Master Smacker!

[kaylon]

Have just got a Master Smacker to use as a club car and I just had to post here to say... Outstanding!!

My god these cars are tough...it was running for almost 4 hours none stop, being driven by an 8 year old girl, her 12 year old brother and their Mum and it just kept on going...took some huge knocks and was driven hard for the 4 hours..

I'm so impressed with how tough this car is...I can see where I will have to get spares eventually so have already ordered them up

I'm going to get another one, they are awesome. Think I'm going to get the Truggy too..the Royal Flash. I just have to find some clear shells now that fit.

If anyone is looking for a tough, budget 4x4 then look no further then the Ansmann Master Smacker, I wish I'd gotten the Smacker before my LRP Blast, far better build quality on the Ansmann, I might not drive the LRP Blast ever again...I'll use it for donor parts like the big bore shocks.

J

[DCM]

Just wait till you try racing it, or do silly things, like change a motor....

[Battle_axe]

does this car have a slipper?

[kaylon]

Nope..it does not...performs excellently, it really does...

[Battle_axe]

Originally Posted by kaylon

Nope..it does not...performs excellently, it really does...

but i will strip diffs with the 5.5 in there with no slipper

[kaylon]

Be hard to strip a master smacker diff...they are solid tempered steel...

J

[Battle_axe]

Originally Posted by kaylon

Be hard to strip a master smacker diff...they are solid tempered steel...

J

hmm i may get one to run as a club car as 4wd indoors gets a bit rough i will ofc be running the x4 pro at most events

[Shannow]

I got one at the same time as my Mad Rat - Like Kaylon says they are hard as nails and I had some success with mine against a lot more expensive opposition. Great starter car and ideal for the younger driver.

Problems do tend to arrive when you try to make them go quicker tho, and they don't like bumpy tracks too much. Like DCM says the motor mounting arrangement is probably the worst I've ever seen and a complete pain. I ran mine with a 5.5 EZ Run with a custom made stainless spur gear (standard spurs tend to get shredded due to the lack of a slipper) and the difs were fine, but the lack of a slipper made it a bit tricky to get the power down.

[Battle_axe]

Originally Posted by Shannow

I got one at the same time as my Mad Rat - Like Kaylon says they are hard as nails and I had some success with mine against a lot more expensive opposition. Great starter car and ideal for the younger driver.

Problems do tend to arrive when you try to make them go quicker tho, and they don't like bumpy tracks too much. Like DCM says the motor mounting arrangement is probably the worst I've ever seen and a complete pain. I ran mine with a 5.5 EZ Run with a custom made stainless spur gear (standard spurs tend to get shredded due to the lack of a slipper) and the difs were fine, but the lack of a slipper made it a bit tricky to get the power down.

i will order one and there must be a way of geiing a slipper in there i would think

[Jony P]

Models in Motion have them in stock!! Just been to get a few bits and saw it on the shelf! after seeing you guys talking about it popped straight out at me lol.

[Battle_axe]

ha good please let me know how the build goes i will be asking ansmann for mine i will build a pro car of it i think with the ansmann shocks and othe bits and bobs

[Thomas B]

Is there a slipper that may fit to mont in the smacker?

Thinking about to buy me a really cheap 4wd to participate in a race indoors on a clay court and considering the Smacker or LRP Blast. The Smacker is realy cheap but the lack of slipper is that makes me hesitate on Smacker. My main event is the 2wd with my Cougar and i only want to test 4wd the day after.

[johnnygibbon]

dude me and mates had these. brill at first then everything breaks and wears. diffs internals are fine but drive gears go in 6 weeks. get the x4 pro. master smaker flash is ok until ya see the x4. cheap though. and to be fair it got me back rc ing again . basher but cant handle big brushless power.

[[email protected]]

i have recently bought a smacker after a break from the hobby. Turned up and ran it for a evening and realised what i had been missing. do not buy one of these if you want the tq spot, do not buy one if you want to be top trumps in the pits. do buy one if you want bomb proof budget fun. I race indoors on a small track of mostly polished wood. All you need is some yellow mini pins (fronts all round cos normal size rears do not fit), the standard kit motor (the track is so small there are no straights) and enjoy what is good about the sport. New friends, pit lane comarades, and a few hours away from the worries of modern life.

[Mad-Wolfie]

I must say, i have just bought a Master Smacker & believe it or not i raced it at Ardent at the weekend in the winter series. Main reason i bought it was because the chassis on my main car has bust & i couldn't get a replacement part in time for the weekend, so the choice was pull out of the event, or spend half of Saturday trawling up & down the M6 until i found a model shop with the parts i needed to fix my Tamiya in stock or just buy a cheap car & turn up to have a giggle, so on friday afternoon i went to the local model shop & got the Smacker & built it ready to take to club on Friday night knowing full well on Sunday i'd just be making up the numbers.

I have to say a few things, i took the car to club on Friday (literally within an hour after i finished building it) for a shakedown & the spur stripped within a lap, i then discovered why, there is a lot of flex in the chassis so when meshing the spur/pinion always fix the top deck, i didn't 1st time so when i bolted the top on, the chassis lined up & made the mesh way too tight, so on that basis the manual is not a good thing to go off if like me you built the car as per the book followng the page order. I spent most of Saturday morning & afternoon rebuilding the car & undoing all the cock-ups that the manual had pointed me towards, thankfully i had a spare spur gear handy so all was not lost & i didn't have to buy any bits. Another thing is the pinion that comes in the kit is a heavy old Brass lump, so fitting a .6 pinion from a Tamiya will fit & shouldn't risk bending the motor shaft because of the weight, thankfully i had a few handy so swapped the heavy brass 22 pinion for a nice light alloy 22 Tamiya one.

With regards the build, the manual also implies you should fit the drivetrain (both diffs & the main prop) before the steering arms & servo saver assembly, this however is completely wrong & totally useless because before you can fit the servo saver assembly you have to remove the centre driveshaft, which means one of the gearbox assemblies has to be removed to get the centre shaft out, so fit the Servo Saver assembly 1st before starting on page 1 of the manual.

Another gripe i have with the car is with the wheels/tyres, not so much the kit ones as i didn't run them, but if you want to fit aftermarket tyres & rims (i ran wide mini-pins on the rear), you need wheels with a wide offset because standard off-set rear dished rims won't go on at the back end & foul on the wishbone & the hub / upper arm, thankfully Fastrax do the wide offset rims & i had some handy to graft mini-pins onto after a quick boiling session to get the tyres off the standard rims. the car is as wide with the wide off-set tyres (all round) as my mate's kyosho Laser ZX5 & is just about as long.

To be fair on Sunday the car didn't do to bad, my intention was to not come last with it & i have to say job done & I really think i could if i'd been more aggressive with my driving & not held back so much i could of got it higher up. i stuck in a 9t ezrun motor & 35a ESC (didn't fancy risking anything more potent just yet) & was running cells & initially took my time to get round, not breaking any records just pootling round to get the feel of the car & not driving it like a spanner in case i broke something. I had to make a few adjustments such as the rear shocks really needed to be filled with lighter oil (about 20wt) as it tends to rebound on landing from jumps so i couldn't fly the big tabletop jump without it ending up on the cars roof & one of the shocks started weeping on the friday night, a quick rebuild & it was fine, the only other problem is when jumping, the car tends to nosedive so you have to take the smaller jumps slow on the approach & then nail the throttle as soon as you get any air to level the car out.

Mostly the problems i had were down to battery problems. because the battery tends to fly out, so tape it in by wrapping tape over the strap, but i also had a cell come off the battery bar in one heat & a connector fail, this could be down to bad soldering (using that lead free solder isn't the best for making cells) or simply because the cells rattled themselves loose with vibration, only time will tell. In the last qualifier i drove the car a bit harder than i had done with the intention of getting a good run in, however the transponder wasn't working so it didn't pick up any times, gutted. Still i managed to get it into 6th in the E final. Another problem is the shock bottoms tend to work loose, this may be because i was running with no adjustment spacers fitted & the droop was not set.

Question is now, do i run the car again at the next round or switch to my Tamiya.. i may just sell the Tamiya & buy an X4 if the smacker is anything to go on, but i hope the build manual is better!

[Sonny979]

Hi, i run x2 pro for 2wd and got myself a master smacker recently cheap 2nd hand just 2 take part in competitions , i mainly race for fun not 2 serious about winning! anyway i checked the masteer smacker and noticed that when i tighten the wheels the seem 2 tighten so thet the wheels cant turn, when i losen the nuts so that the spin freely they seem 2 have alot of sideways movement !!!
Is this a common problem or am i alone with it, maybe cause the previous owner changed something? if so maybe someone can sugest some insight in to solve this problem
Thanks

Also good 2 hear that u can use the smacker in competion if u not serious about winning, was nice 2 hear about that well down

[Mad-Wolfie]

Originally Posted by Sonny979

anyway i checked the masteer smacker and noticed that when i tighten the wheels the seem 2 tighten so thet the wheels cant turn, when i losen the nuts so that the spin freely they seem 2 have alot of sideways movement !!!
Is this a common problem or am i alone with it, maybe cause the previous owner changed something? if so maybe someone can sugest some insight in to solve this problem
Thanks

sideways movement is pretty common with plastic hex's so nothing worry about, you can shim them if you wish, but usually the best way to fit wheels on plastic hex's i find is always to do them up tight, then loosen them half a turn. fitting wheel-nuts with the dimpled flange helps keep it in place if you are worried about it coming off during a run.

A problem i found though is with regards the steering, the arms seem to go over to the left on full lock, on right turns they go half-way, it seems the pivotball (if you fit the shouldered one the manual suggests) catches on the bar that connects the steering linkage, it may be you have the same problem somewhere & something is catching stopping the action.