Radio Control Blog
After doing a lipo battery upgrade to my friend’s 1st gen (3906) E-Maxx, we discovered that if you went full reverse followed by full forward, the truck would basically do a flip in-place.
We didn’t consider that this is very unfriendly to the drivetrain. After about 10-20 flips (or attempts) the E-Maxx was now front wheel drive.
My good friend Joe has an old E-Maxx – not wanting to miss out on any bashing and crashing fun, I had him dig it out. It’s an oldie but a goodie. A 1st Generation E-Maxx with dual motors, dual batteries and a 2-speed transmission. It’s the one with the chassis that looks like this:
It’s also a bit of a relic. NiMH batteries, brushed motors, and AM radio aren’t exactly state-of-the-art. But I don’t want to upgrade everything, I just wanted to get it back on the road – so where do we start?
What better way to kick off 2018 than to look back 30 years. I somehow found this video on YouTube and the second I saw “Rad Max” turn around and take off his sunglasses, I knew I had seen it before. What a throwback!
I don’t remember if a friend had purchased it through RC Car Action magazine or if our local video rental store “Mr. Movies” had it. But I had definitely seen this one.
Check out the Kyosho Raider and Optima bashing it out at 14:35 (if you can make it that far 🙂). When you go to your hobby shop, make sure to tell ’em Rad Max sent ya.
Many would argue that the golden age of R/C buggies in the 1980s was truly golden, a standard set by Team Associated’s RC-10 – a racing buggy which featured a gold-anodized aluminum tub.
As a kid, I couldn’t afford an RC-10. I kept hacking away at my intermediate Kyosho Raider, upgrading parts piecemeal as I could afford them. But my friend Adit convinced his parents to buy him an RC-10. He had never driven one, but he knew it was the best – probably because I told him so.
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The year was 1988, I was 11 years old. The Minnesota Twins were fresh off a World Series win. After taking my Sears Lobo II to it’s limits (whatever that means to an 11 y/o), it was time for an upgrade.
I had purchased a copy of Radio Control Car Action magazine from the local hobby shop – Jolly’s Toys and Hobby in Apache Plaza. Inside, I found this article with all of its 80s flair:
My first radio control car that was of any significance was a Sears Lobo. I don’t recall if it was a Lobo, Lobo II, or a Super Lobo, but I found this old eBay listing that looks spot-on:
I had other cars before it, some that had wires – “remote control” as they were called. Another early radio controlled car had a single button on the controller. The car would go forward with no input from the controller. When you pressed the button, it would go backwards and turn at the same time – effectively giving you an option to point it in a new direction. The Lobo put all those others to bed.
