Any areas that need Improvement on Carson / Smartech

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drbelleville

drbelleville

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I am an owner of a FG Marder, and am now considering a car for my cousin as a gift. Being that the Smartech / Carson / Duratrax are more affordable than the current FG cars, I would like to inquire if there are any Improvents (upgrades) that I should be aware of and make for a better Buggy? I am not looking for speed, just reliability. I have already have an FG Front Brake set that I will use should I purchase this type of buggy.

Thank you for your help
 
I would get the following after experiencing some pains with mine:

1) steel pinion (largescalerc.com now has this and it is on ebay for 72.99 with a steel spur, you can't go wrong with this combo)

Eventually:
2) alloy diff housing (the plastic may be fine with a stock muffler, but with a tuned pipe, it's going to break eventually, which means the gears will probably strip out, you'll lose a dogbone and an outdrive, expensive to wait, cheaper to buy early and not have to worry about it again.)
3) large alloy motor mount


Those are really the only needs in my opinion. Someday you may get yourself the ball drive set which will eliminate broken dogbones. I have a posting on it in this area here.

Also, go to Tower Hobbies and purchase spare parts, they are cheap and getting about 40 bucks worth is a great thing to do before you even start running!

Also, look for a good deal on these, there are some clones out there that are priced right in my opinion. Knowing what I know now, I would have spent 500 bucks on a firehammer clone and then used the remaining 300 bucks on all the upgrades above.

The radios in these things are either good or they suck really bad. Mine was bad, it would glitch frequently causing the failsafe to kick on. Spektrum DX3 is an awesome radio replacement.
 
^^^^ I'm with csp1971 on the upgrades needed.

What are you willing to pay for the Firehammer/XTM/Smartech buggy?
Some are less shipped without radio.

The diff housing is a must! No matter what. IMO
 
Price to pay

I have seen them for 699.- with the radio. Although if they are available without at a lower cost, I would be willing to consider as I have a radio and servos left over from constantly upgrading the ones in my FG.

As far as the Aluminum Diff cage, do the FG ones work on the Smartech series?

Thanks for all the help.
 
csp1971 said:
I would get the following after experiencing some pains with mine:

1) steel pinion (largescalerc.com now has this and it is on ebay for 72.99 with a steel spur, you can't go wrong with this combo)

Eventually:
2) alloy diff housing (the plastic may be fine with a stock muffler, but with a tuned pipe, it's going to break eventually, which means the gears will probably strip out, you'll lose a dogbone and an outdrive, expensive to wait, cheaper to buy early and not have to worry about it again.)
3) large alloy motor mount


Those are really the only needs in my opinion. Someday you may get yourself the ball drive set which will eliminate broken dogbones. I have a posting on it in this area here.

Also, go to Tower Hobbies and purchase spare parts, they are cheap and getting about 40 bucks worth is a great thing to do before you even start running!

Also, look for a good deal on these, there are some clones out there that are priced right in my opinion. Knowing what I know now, I would have spent 500 bucks on a firehammer clone and then used the remaining 300 bucks on all the upgrades above.

The radios in these things are either good or they suck really bad. Mine was bad, it would glitch frequently causing the failsafe to kick on. Spektrum DX3 is an awesome radio replacement.
Click to expand...

totally agree about the alloy diff, here is a picture of my Carson CRT diff after todays running, have recently fitted the Dominator torque pipe. luckily i have a spare FG diff which has dropped right in. happy days once i have stripped it down i'll post up some more pics

314otbs.webp
 
Thats exactly the mess that happened to my FH when I upgraded the motor to the 27cc and the Dom pipe, except I had no idea it happened and I tore the entire diff apart inside and out. I now have new gearing bearings and a completely new diff just waiting for my alloy cage to come in. It was to be here the end of last month now this month - Some day.:sleep:

Seems to take a beating on that side, at least all the photos I've seen are failures on that side. Must be thinner there since the flare? Funny I have not had the problem with my Fg but I will be upgrading that now too, the gears are twice that of the firehammer.
 
I've never had a problem with the FG one (yet) but I have a FH alloy one on order and I think I'm going to get two and upgrade the Fg one too. The only problem is they keep changing the dang date it will be in from month to month.:( The only difference between the FG and DTX is the gearing inside and outdrive thread. I was tempted on switching out the diff gears and outdrives on the Fg too cause the only thing that breaks int he rear of the MT is the outdrives and the DTX's are 1/2 the price.
 
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