New 2014 Beetle build for beach running...opinions appreciated

[XLR8]

WOW, the car looks awesome! Nice job!! The Centerlines and GoodYear branded tires really add scale realism.

[shodog]

My experience is that it’s isnt wise to run anything on the beach that you care about. The sand will tear everything up. The salt water rusts all your ferous screws. Your beetle looks way too nice to run at the beach. All that power you have planed might spin the hubs on your wheels.

My beach runner buggy is a Rough Rider that I built up using marginal parts. Not indestructible but built stoutly to take the abuse of the beach.

[Lonestar]

it's very sexy

[ahenderl]

The salt water rusts all your ferous screws. Your beetle looks way too nice to run at the beach. All that power you have planed might spin the hubs on your wheels.

Pretty or not...this Beetle was purpose built to run in the sand and relive some mid-80's middle school. I've replaced all of the screws, nuts & washers with stainless hardware. The rear tires hook up reasonably well on asphalt & the wheels don't seem to spin on the hubs, however, I do have satin chrome 2.2" Turbo Scorpion wheels en-route that I plan to install for bashing that are hex's in the rear. That should take care of any worries about the hubs spinning on the wheels.

it's very sexy

Thanks...I do dig the way it came out. The decals supplied in the kit make it very easy to get the box-art look with a single color paint job. The driver figure took more time and effort than the body.

As a whole I've really enjoyed building the Beetle which is pretty much the same as the Turbo Scorpion I built before it. With the changes I made it is the same except for the body, the rear body mount posts and the front post...along with a tub cover which is one reason I decided on the Beetle when I wanted a beach toy.

The rear suspension seems to work really well. It is smooth and very supple. I'm still waiting on the HG shocks to arrive, so I robbed the shocks from the Turbo Scorpion (which are the same length as the HG's...only they use clamps style collars instead of threaded collars) to get it on the road. I don't know if it is the shocks or something inherent to the suspension design, but while the rear works really well, the front seems kind of stiff. The stiff front suspension coupled with the ridiculously hard front tires makes for a buggy that is very hard to control at any sort of speed. With the front shocks removed, the suspension seems to move freely...I don't know. If the HG's aren't any different as far as dampening than the stock Turbo Scorpion shocks, I may play with the springs or shock oil to try to get the front end a tad softer. Hopefully that along with a tire compound that is softer will get the front end working a bit better...I know, I know...it's a futile attempt to make this Beetle into a RC10B6 or even a 1984 RC10 but I think it can be better than it is now.

[ahenderl]

it's very sexy

Dang...you are right...sexy, sexy!! The brighter yellow is exactly what I hoped for...that rarely happens for me.

[ahenderl]

WOW, the car looks awesome! Nice job!! The Centerlines and GoodYear branded tires really add scale realism.

Thanks. Got to admit that the scale look of the re-re's kind of drew me back into the hobby, as well as the chance to build a few kits I couldn't afford as a kid.

[NomadRacer]

Really nice, driver figure and all!

[ahenderl]

The HG shocks arrived yesterday.

The HG's are buttery smooth. They are tons smoother than the stock Turbo Scorpion shocks I had on the Beetle. I wasn't sure when the HG's would arrive, so I robbed the shocks off of my re-re Turbo Scorpion to use on the Beetle temporarily. The front suspension seems to be much better with the HG shocks. I haven't had a chance to run it yet, but the difference smoothness is very dramatic.

Here they are installed:

[Coelacanth]

Very purty! They also match nicely with the box-art paint & sticker scheme.

[Garage Hack]

Very cool build. Do you recall what weight oil you used in the shocks? I have HG's on the way but didn't know what oil to use.

[ahenderl]

Very cool build. Do you recall what weight oil you used in the shocks? I have HG's on the way but didn't know what oil to use.

I used 25wt Kyosho shock oil that was from my Turbo Scorpion kit. I'm no shock oil expert but it seemed to work well.

Btw, I never posted an action shot...

It did well but was (as others suggested) way overpowered. I've since removed the esc & motor & will replace it with something a little more tame...probably the Kyosho LeMans 240S & 15.5 turn brushless motor.

Big power makes the Beetle very hard for me to drive. I've built a re-re Javelin, Optima & Turbo Optima and they are fun & easy to drive with tons of power, but my opinion is that Turbo Scorpion & Beetle are better suited with 13.5 or more turns brushless.

[JTSpeedDemon]

Overpowered is not a word in my dictionary.....

[coxbros1]

Nice rig!

[XLR8]

Overpowered is not a word in my dictionary.....

JT, I think that running an RC buggy with a 5700kV motor would be like running your kart with this motor.

drag motor.jpg (98.62 KiB) Viewed 1585 times

drag motor.jpg (98.62 KiB) Viewed 1585 times

The results would be the same: plenty of backflips and broken parts.