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Not the first time someone has done this but I had this project planed out for at least 3 years now. Mike did it on his Ultima and I thought I would try it for this RC10. The challenge was to make the front work with BB like a standard wheel. I think this turned out perfect. (better that I thought).



First thing was to cut the inside ring out of the wheels to make then narrower to fit wide front buggy rubber. I use this blade and took my time going around like 1,000 times until I got a nice smooth cut.











Then started by looking at several different hex adapters from AE, HPI and Traxxas; looking at material and thickness of the spacer to be able to use a rimer bit to fit a BB and to be able to play with the wheel offset to work with the RC10.





I rimed it to fit a standard 3/16 BB and it worked ok but because I ended up with a thin edge of material and it deformed a bit (still feels ok to me but not perfect). Went at it again but this time to use a older RC10 5/16 BB and it was perfect.

On the rear the standard HPI adapter for modern RC10 and Losi was perfect (it came on the HIP adapter kit). On the front I used a Traxxas adapter that had the perfect thickness for the wheel.

I did the wheel and then the adapter and that is it. Ended up using some flanged BB and it was a perfect fit.







The offset on the wheel is substantially different that the standard RC10 wheels. On this car I had already adapted some B3 steering carriers that brought the front width inside a bit and then these wheels brought it back out. I did try this with Truck axles and it look a bit wide so I when back and installed some Ti B3 axles up front.





More photos of the car here: RC10 Black World's Car custom

Very trick trick Miguel! I just bought a set of these HPIs for my Ultima Pro, and have the RB5 front hubs same as Mike did. Funny, I deliberated for a while on which wheels I was going to go with - HPIs newer Ultra5 wheel, which has NO dishing/offset on the front, and no dish but a little offset on the rear. IN the end my wife ( of all people ) talked me into doing the SS wheels, and I'm glad I did - they look awesome. (Don't have mine assembled yet, but will post a pic here when I do.)

I was even considering switching my RC10 over to RB5 hubs to have more "spoked" wheel options on it. Nice to know that I don't necessarily have to now.

Couldn't you essentially put most any hex drive wheel on the front now - using the same trick?

Here's some options:

HPI super nitro mesh wheels (BBS look- think Kyosho has some too (super ten)), Ultra 7 wheels (ultima look), Ultra5 wheels (Jrx2 look)......

Love to see more pics...
this is Mikes Ultima.

mikedealer - Ultima Buildup

Here's a preview of what mine will look like:





I was worried that the depth of the "dishing" on the front would look weird, but come to think of it, the flatness of the original HPI SS 2WD fronts didn't really match with the rears.

That will look cool for not being a RC10
I do like the fact the front and rear are the same and I like the gray, I plan on getting a set in black and gray.

Here's mine all done...In case you haven't seen it. I thought the offset on the front might look weird, but it turned out great. BTW, don't you have an Ultima too Miguel?

That looks good man,
I do have an Turbo Ultima and my plan was that these wheels where going to sit on the Ultima but later decided to keep the original wheels on it.
http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=12085&start=0
I am also working on a new Ultima custom build, soon.

miguel, is that front adaptor nice and tight in there? or does it look/feel like it would take a couple of good hits before the wheel starts wobbling?

littleVETTE wrote:miguel, is that front adaptor nice and tight in there? or does it look/feel like it would take a couple of good hits before the wheel starts wobbling?

The adapter feels tight but If i was going to race it I would glue it to the wheel.

Question - can you buy HPI front wheels instead of modding the rear wheels like in the first post? Or is that the only way to do it? I bought the metal HPI wheel adaptors on ebay then realized that there are so many hex adaptors out there available for this application - I've even seen Associated hex adaptors so it must be pretty easy to do right?

RC104ever wrote:Question - can you buy HPI front wheels instead of modding the rear wheels like in the first post? Or is that the only way to do it? I bought the metal HPI wheel adaptors on ebay then realized that there are so many hex adaptors out there available for this application - I've even seen Associated hex adaptors so it must be pretty easy to do right?

There are no front HPI wheels for 2wd buggy any more. You may find some older ones on the bay but they look a bit different. Any hex adapter will work but they are made of different materials and I found the traxxas ones work better for this application. But you should try it with any adapter you have.

hope this works for you.

Thanks. So these wouldn't work then?

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXXSA0&P=7

those wheels have a 12mm hex. they are for a 4wd chassis HPI makes, don't match with the 5-star wheels. they sell the rear pair though, so you can have a matched set. You could use them if you adapted the front of your car to run hex axles.

Can you point me to where I can get the wheels in this thread please and the adaptors?

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