Bought my first Tamiya!

[Sixtysixdeuce]

Just ordered an 801XT truggy kit, pretty excited about this one. Would rather do an RC8T, but I've never seen one for near the price I just gave on the Tamiya kit, so Tamiya it is for now!

Should be a pretty quick build, as I already have most of the other components. Got 4" VTR wheels and tires, a pair of Kyosho KS200 MG servos, and I'm going to steal the Novarossi .28-7RT out of my street fighter for this truggy. Oughtta be a runner!

Will update once the kit is here and the build begins, but in the mean time, I'd love to hear from other 801XT owners about ideal shock and diff set-ups for fairly rough tracks with large jumps and a few technical corners. I'm thinking 37.5 wt shock oil and 10/20/10 in the diffs. I run 20/20/20 in my OFNA Ultra Comp, and that has worked out pretty well, but I'm betting the wider track and larger tires are going to result in understeer if I run 20 in the ft & rr diffs.

Opinions?

[rccars4sal]

I saw those on ebay for crazy cheap. Was tempted for sure. Be sure to take lots of pics!

[knixdad]

I think I saw them down to $99 on the Scratch and Dent portion of the Tamiya USA site. I just couldn't pull the trigger, just too many things I would have to change and add to it the fact that it was discontinued so soon after release.

[Sixtysixdeuce]

I just couldn't pull the trigger, just too many things I would have to change and add to it the fact that it was discontinued so soon after release.

They're not discontinued. They may become discontinued, but per my conversation with a Tamiya rep last month, it has not yet happened. Tamiya also supports discontinued kits for at least 5 years.

What would you want to change about it? These things are awesome as-is! All I did was add the aluminum chassis braces and rear skid plate.

[knixdad]

Convert it to electric to begin with

Anytime a kit goes from an MSRP of $800+ to $99, I consider that "discontinued." Don't get me wrong, I love vintage, discontinued and one-off kits. I just had so many other projects that I just couldn't do it.

Or maybe I should and toss it on the stack of unopened kits in the corner

[Sixtysixdeuce]

Convert it to electric to begin with

Well, that's my intention with the 2nd one I bought. lol. I just have to decide if Tekin is worth the $120 premium over the fantastic Hobbywing Xerun combos. Initially, I bought the other as a parts vehicle, but seeing the way they're put together, I doubt I'll need much. Arms, front caster blocks, rear carriers and lower shock tower mounts are about all I can ever see breaking, and those are cheap parts. I was gonna wait until I had some miles on this one before doing the electric, but as I write this, I'm trying to decide on which electronics, and whether I want to spend the $100 on the RCproductdesigns kit, or simply mill my own 7075-T6 motor plate and use a carbon fiber strap as a battery hold down..

Anytime a kit goes from an MSRP of $800+ to $99, I consider that "discontinued." Don't get me wrong, I love vintage, discontinued and one-off kits. I just had so many other projects that I just couldn't do it.

I voiced that concern to the Tamiya rep I spoke with, but he assured my that it hadn't been yet, and I got the strong impression that the idea was to take a loss on the overstock to get their name out there in 1/8 off road. Tamiya is well known in scale and on-road, but they've never had a significant presence on the dirt track. I suspect that, combined with a higher price than the competition on a truggy that didn't include wheels and tires is why the 801 never gained a following. It is a fabulously built truggy, but I can understand; If I were deciding between the $520 RC8T FT kit and the 801Xt that had been retailing at $689, I'd have absolutely stuck with AE. But at $99, Tamiya got my attention, and now I have to say that, if priced comparably (as in, include wheels/tires and drop the price down to ~$550), they'd likely give AE, Kyosho, Xray and Mugen a run for the money.

[mikea96]

I watch there scratch and dent section and they always heavily discount these items

[Sixtysixdeuce]

Well, had it for a month, still lovin' this thing! I did KO a rear carrier & shock with a hard impact on the stands at probably 20-25 MPH, but otherwise it's holding up well.

I also finished up the second kit, an e-conversion of my own design. I did not care for the chintzy motor mounts available, so I built one from a hunk of 7075-T6 that supports the can on 3 sides, and uses four 3mm screws on the front. It also uses the existing nitro mount point. Battery tray may be revised, but my polyethylene piece is working well for now. I milled it to accomodate 3S and 4S soft packs.

[kaiser]

holy moly, i didn't realize these things were on clearance. what a deal. i never mess with nitro, but a price like that makes me reconsider.

[Sixtysixdeuce]

i never mess with nitro, but a price like that makes me reconsider.

You can always e-convert. I like nitro better myself, but did the other one as a brushless because 1) it seemed kinda silly to build a second one exactly the same as the first and 2) I had the 2150KV 1/8 sensored motor sitting there without a home.

1/8 truggies are awesome, put the handling of any other off-road kit to shame, save for 5th scale. Even on my first day running these, none of the nitro or brushless 1/10 SCTs could keep up on that rough track, no matter how experienced the driver. These Tamiyas are pretty tough, too.

[jimbobarooney]

These look pretty cool. There is a review on Oople where the reviewer goes through the whole build as well as driving impression. Nice builds here on both the nitro and brushless conversion!

I was going to buy one but Tamiya only accepts payment from US customers. What a bummer!

[Sixtysixdeuce]

I was going to buy one but Tamiya only accepts payment from US customers. What a bummer!

Where are you at? These exist on eBay UK ($230 USD shipped), eBay AU ($225 USD shipped), etc. I'm thinking much of the extra cost is international shipping on a 10 pound package.

Can also try contacting them directly.

[jimbobarooney]

I live in southwestern Ontario, Canada. I even have a U.S. shipping address in Michigan. I could order it from another US ebay site for around $220 plus shipping but I just can't bring myself to pay almost double for this truck just because I live outside the country.

[Sixtysixdeuce]

Can you not make it work with a Paypal account linked to that address? Tamiya does accept Paypal.

[jimbobarooney]

No, unfortunately I can't link the address to my paypal account or create a US based paypal account. The US address that I use is for a business that offers parcel pickup services. Also I would need a US based credit card which I do not have to create a US paypal account.

I haven't found a way around it yet but haven't given up.