Tamiya Durga DB01 EP Buggy (A cheaper 501X?)

[jimmy]

Originally Posted by Migs

Hey guys, ive now tested the db01r at two tracks and it had its first club meet on the sunday just gone and im well impressed, so im going to run it this year as my 4wd, but now i want to make sure im not going to have any reliability issues, Primarily im looking at a few issues

Turnbuckles/ballstuds/ballcups having read a lot of threads about this car, i havnt seen many if any complaints about the standard items, anyone know of any issues? just from a a feel point of view, taking off a ball cup, it doesnt feel as tight as maybe an RPM one, this might sound like a silly question, but being an imperial racer for my career, im wondering if everything in the linkages is in metric including the actual ball of the stud, like are rpm 4-40 ball cups usable? if not, what is a good alternative, or is the general consensus that the standard items are up to the job

Wing mount - 3 racing do an aluminium one, my standard ones got bent up badly after one bad landing off a jump, ive seen a pic of two with people using them, or is it better to put up with replacing bent up plastic ones everynow and then

Shock towers, Atomic carbon ones look nice and ive seen a few people with them on their cars, worthy upgrade, i think a 5mm thick carbon front shock tower would be close to indestructable

aluminium steering bridge etc, has anyone found any benefit from using them, i dont think it would ever break but i suppose it could be flexing a bit under load, but i dont think i'll worry about it

aluminium front hub carriers/knuckles/rear hubs, on my xxx4 i used to break front hub carriers just by looking at the car, then i got metal ones and had no dramas, again, with the db01 i havnt heard people complaining about breaking any of those items, im thinking the hubs and knuckles and im already getting a bit of play in the bearing seats

thanks

Turnbuckles/ballstuds/ballcups
Not sure what ball studs the DB01R comes with - but the flagship TRF511 comes with cheap almost-comedy quality ball studs that really need replacing. The DB01 ones were ok - as long as they aren't those nasty bright silver ones then they'll be fine.
The ball cups work ok if you never pop then on and off - the more you do, the quicker they die basically. They get sloppy quickly from repeated assembly.

Tamiya have some grey ball cups on the way - but not available yet. Supposed to be better.

On my 501X I used Hot Bodies ball studs (from the D4) and Losi ball cups. The Hot Bodies ball studs are metric (so fit the Tamiyas) but use a smaller imperial sized ball cup like the losi.

Use the plastic wing mounts - they flex for a reason. Alloy is a really bad idea. I've never broken one.

The front tower on the db01 I think is about as indestructable as you'd want tbh - but the Atomic stuff is nice and I'd definitely consider the rear tower.

The alloy steering stuff - pretty worthless in my opinion. It looks great but doesn't really add anything performance wise.

The standard hubs are pretty strong to be honest - I think I broke two hub carriers on the front of my Tamiyas over the years (501X, 511, dbo1) and a couple of steering knuckles. The rear hub I never broke. I personally prefer them plastic.

The main upgrade on the DB01r would have to be full-metal differential halves instead of the half plastic items carried over from the original db01 (as far as I know anyway). I'd get those ahead of any of the other things you're considering.