- some pictures and videos of my Stampede bashing
- the 12V power supply I made from an ATX PC power supply to plug my charger
- a battery pack for my Airtronics MX-3 transmitter
My Stampede
I wanted to make a come back to the RC car world, when I was younger I had a Kyosho Pegasus, a buggy. I wanted another style and a monster truck was appealing to me but a big 4x4 is pretty expensive, so instead I took a look at touring cars like the Tamiya TT-01 chassis.
Then one day I discovered the Stampede, an RWD MT when I was looking for AWD TC! When I saw some videos showing its capabilities and indestructability, I made my choice :)
After some research, I found that on a lot of forums or personnal pages the first advice is to upgrade to the RPM wide front bumper, RPM hubs carriers and ball bearing, as I had a rebate at Towerhobbies and the shipping is flat, I ordered them with the MT.
A lot of interesting stuff about the Stampede can be found on this site: Project Stampede especially in the hop-ups section. Also you must not miss Misbehavin site which is full of good stuff. The own Traxxas forum for the Stampede is also of good value.
I changed all plugs for Deans Ultra Plug on the ESC, batteries, motor, charger. I also added a 40mm fan and a guard. I also made Deans<->Tamiya adapter plugs for both male and female so I can exchange batteries or charger with friends. Since then my XL-1 took something like two drops of water inside and smoked :-/ so I now have an XL-5 ESC.
To have a better machine, I bought some upgrade parts at my LHS, mainly the front and rear adjustable turnbuckles with rod ends, the aluminium idler gear, white lithium grease to pack the differential. Then the whole suspensions pins set with tie bar.
I also removed the plastic thing that hold the receiver/battery because it's a pain to always remove the pins to change the battery. I did the receiver strap mod and the battery strap mod using heavy duty velcro.
More for "show" than "go", and as the body is purple, I bought the RPM gear cover, ESC mount plate, and spring cups, all in purple :), see them in pictures below. I also bought some Dubrobody-klip, purple of course, so now I will not lose my body clip, it's a very useful item. And it matches my dubro purple antenna too.
Pictures of my Stampede setup
Sterilite box model #1758, perfect size!
Everything fits inside
A box I found at my local Wal-Mart, very useful for small parts
My stampede quarter front view
Another quarter front view
From the front, with the compulsory RPM bumper
General view of the chassis
Another chassis view
View of my new XL5 ESC mounted on the RPM plate
The Integy purple heatsink mounted on the motor, I needed to remove a little part of the transmission case as shown here, I kept the mount screw for the wheelie bar mount which acts as a rear bumper
The velcro straps system I am using for the receiver and the battery, idea comes from Misbehavin'RC, see here and here
home made snow chains, works pretty well!
Items number
Just to let you know, here are products numbers of what I have, most of them can be bought in online store, LHSs or eBay, just google the number to find them.
TRA3606 Traxxas Stampede RTR w/Radio & ESC A5 27195 (discontinued)
RPM81162 RPM Wide Front Bumper Traxxas
RPM80372 RPM Front Bearing Carriers Rustler/Stampede
RPM80382 RPM Rear Bearing Carriers Rustler/Stampede
DTXC1549 DuraTrax Bearing 5x11mm (10)
DTXC8345 DuraTrax Pinion Gear 48P 15 tooth w/Set Screw
DTXP4002 DuraTrax Piranha DC Peak Charger NiCd/NiMH
ORI10901 Team Orion 6-Cell 3000mAh Super Duty Plus NiMH (2)
ORI25113 Team Orion 17T Double Method R Motor
TRA1633 E-Clips/C-Clips/R Pins
TRA5148 White Lithium Grease
TRA1996X Aluminum 30T Idler Gear
TRA1937 Truck Turnbuckles 54mm (front)
TRA2335 Turnbuckles 72mm (rear)
TRA1942 Big pack of rod ends
RPM80408 Gear cover (purple)
RPM80368 Esc mounting plate (purple)
RPM73158 Shock Spring Cups (purple)
DUB2250 Body-Klip Retainer (purple)
DUB2336 Dubro Purple Antenna
TRA3677 Wheelie Bar Mount
TRA2532 Tie Bar Fiberglass SRT
TRA2636 Susp Pins 26mm Hard Chrome
TRA2640 Chrome Susp Pins, 44mm
TRA2639 Susp Pins 48mm Hard Chrome
TRA2637 Susp Pins 31.5mm Hard Chrome
TRA1747 Traxxas Nylon Locknuts (10)
TRA1552 Traxxas Hex Motor Screws
TRA3018 XL-5 Forward/Reverse/Brake ESC
CEN-TECH 93983 NON-CONTACT POCKET THERMOMETER
C22374PURPLE Integy Motor Heatsink Type III Wrap Around Purple
KIM121 Kimbrough Servo Gear Saver Large
MX-3 Airtronics MX-3 75MHz FM transmitter and receiver
My Air Hogs Aero Ace
Okay it's a toy. Also known as the AHAA, it's a small RC biplane (20g iirc) in EPP foam, available for less than 40$ at Wal-Mart or Toys'r'us, easy to fly. For my maiden flight there was a little wind, maybe 5mph, and the plane went on my neighbour's roof!
My second fly lasted a good 10 minutes, there was 0 wind, and it's a pleasure to fly. It had too much porpoising so I bent a little bit the empenage and using a 30% throttle, it flights really right.