Nutech Thunderbolt 2

[Pipeous]

This arrived today. I am just tinkering with it and checking things over. This is a pre production model so I'll have to work through a couple things as I go.

To start with first impressions...

The good
Biggest thickest shock shafts I have ever seen.
Helical cut gears are usually exclusive aftermarket items.
Tires are decent and sticky. Look like Crime Fighters.
Lots of aluminum goodies stock. All the important parts are allready covered
Servos are big beasts with built in heat sinks.
Tank is beef as is the cap and threads.
Lighter than I expected it to be.
Thick dogbones

The bad
Body seems kind of cheap. we'll see how it holds up. lucky it's a buggy and won't take much abuse.
Radio tray makes finding a battery to fit a pain. I like lipos with a bec, so probably going to have to get a custom sized lipo to fit. and not much room on the chassis. I have been placing a couple all over to see what I can do and scratching my head (decided to post some pics while I think about it some more)

All in all I can't wait to take this thing out for a burn. I took a couple pics beside mt FG VW. The FG has Firehammer MT arms so is actually wider than a stock FG. You can see the length and width comparisons. I took a side shot to show the balance and COG

[Pipeous]

[Pipeous]

I put the silencer on. I like how it angles out from the rim and it bolts to the rear bumper.
I didn't even add the zap straps as it's really secure
Took a pic of the radio too. It has dual rates for both channels, epa's for both and trims.

[mradlin]

Looks great Barry!!

For my radio box I used a battery pack from a baja 5b. Then I added a FG radio box on top for the receiver.

[Pipeous]

Here's some pics of my shoe goo/drywall tape mod to body. I strengthened the weak area and also added some wherever the body will rub to save the paint a bit.
Also a couple pics to show my radio box cut to fit the lipo and my foam body supports

[Pipeous]

Here's a video to show the strength this has added

[Pipeous]

Took mine out to get it run today but the servo problem is still there. I got a video of it running anyway, but just sitting still. It tried to run away when the serves started tweaking so I killed it and did a video to show what the servos are doing... and it's doing it with all 3 radios I have. Am going to put this GWS servo I have in the throttle first and try it out. if not then I order some new ones tonight.

At least I swapped modules with my one radio with a bud. He has 1 rx and one module. I have 8 rx's but my module only works with the 1 rx. I have the v3 rx and tx, but my other 7 rx's are v1's. I don't need built in failsafe so we traded and now I have lots to choose from. no more rx swapping woohoo

[Pipeous]

This shows the servo problem

[mradlin]

The Jetpro pipe does sound great Barry!!

Sorry to hear about the servos.

[Pipeous]

Well I got lucky. I have a GWS servo here. it was steering in an mt. I looked at size. it's the same width but a deeper servo. it wouldn't fit in the steering location without some modding to the mount and linkage... throttle it will fit. I fired up the electronics and didn't take long to get it twitching. I unplugged the throttle servo. was fine. unplugged one bec was fine. plugged in the gws to throttle and it's fine on one bec... even loading the gws up by grabbing the servo horn to try and stall it.... so I just have to pop that in for now. I can order some hitecs up and call it done...

also got allthe white paint off my vw, my original paintjob is still underneath so a little sanding, touch up with airbrush and some clear and it will have a new/old look

[Pipeous]

Both servos are pooched and the gws doesn't fit. so I ordered a couple hitec 5745's today

[mradlin]

The 5745's will work good in there Barry. Any other plans for the TB2?

[Pipeous]

Since I have a couple weeks to wait, I am going to pull the motor and do the mesh mod, add the usual air filters and outerwears. Then look at the steering and see what I can come up with. I'll play with the fg's for now and mod the tb2. by the time the servos arrive, my kill switches will be here and so will some goodies I have coming for the vw and semi. the gt5r should be here about the same time. and I can play with the tb2 and gt5r. I'll have to order a couple more servos for that one too eventually, but there will be a big parts swap going on.. my real car is acting up. I have someone looking it over while I sleep. we'll see once I start ripping it apart anyway. have to fix the vw pull start first and get the bec back in today. starting to get too many toys and losing focus on any one anymore... lol

[mradlin]

This is the mod I did for the steering link on my Nutech TB2

First I bent the original steering linkage, so I decided to see if I could come up with something a little stronger.



After looking through my parts drawers, I came up with a FG steering rod and ends part # 6208-1 and # 6029. To raise the height on the servo saver i used a long ball end I had left over from my Smartech Titan. I don't know the number, maybe Chris could find out.





The steering link kit is available here http://www.fgsupply.com/Hurricane_C5..._link_kit.html .

[Pipeous]

I probably have all that stuff here. if not 6mm ends I can do the same as the vw with 8mms. I have a huge chunk of threaded rod. good mod. I should take the buggy over to Martin at Golden Horizon and show him the drag link and say fix it fix it fix it (Phillip J Fry)