Team Associated RC18B2 or T2 Kit Build

[Doozer]

[Doozer]

I went T2 ... already had a buggy with the dromida so I decided to build the truck.

This was my first car kit build. The build was very easy if you have experience building helis. Because it uses a belt drive, uses similar linkage, similar electronics, similar screw and bolt sizes, and similar tools required to get the job done, the heli experience really paid off. However, I think that somebody with zero experience would not find it quite so simple. Without the tools, or experience, I wouldn't recommend this be a first ever build.

The instructions read like a comic book. They are short on words, but the pictures of parts are very good, and it's easy to understand how to build MOST of the parts. But... in a few places the directions do not match the bags. Somebody without experience might not know to look in the next bag for parts or screws that are missing from a particular step, and that can be frustrating. When I unpacked the box, I was amazed at how well the kit was arranged, but once I started building I slowly became disappointed at what I found. I'll try to explain along the way. I do have to admit to watching the entire build sped up, but to be honest, it was little help because the parts are small, the camera distance is too far, and the guys hands are in the way constantly. I followed the manual so that's how I'll post the build:

Shock Build:








These pieces are very small, those are micro pliers and they are necessary. They don't come with the kit Also notice that I'm using a shop towel. I can't tell you how many times that saved me in this build. I would have spent hours on the floor searching. White is a good color for this build.


The C clips go on either side of the of the piston head. This is probably the hardest part of this build. The top is hard to get on without damaging the piston head. Also, I should not be holding the shaft with the pliers. If you knick the shaft, it could damage the rubber o-rings that it has to slide through.


Two piston sizes. One set for the short shocks, and the other for the long.


Throw a drop of shock oil on these O-rings, then put them in the bottom of the shock then snap the bottom shock cap on. It should make a snapping sound.








The rest of the shock build is pretty straight forward. Blue springs on the front shocks, and silver on the back.

Turnbuckles:

At first I was happy about turnbuckles, but after I installed them, I found it extremely difficult to adjust them without them popping off, and it's hard to get the tool in place to adjust them. In this case, they or more of a burden because the threading is reversed on one side :/


You can use the the manual to size your links if you don't have calipers.




Four camber, and two steering links. The four camber links are all the same size. It may be necessary to adjust the steering links.

Differential Build:






Put my bearings and screws in denatured alcohol to remove any oil residue on the outside.


This part of the build could have been explained a little better. The directions fail to mention that you need to make two gear diff cases. It looks like three. Again, if you didn't know any better this could be an issue. These are the teeth where the belts ride. There's a wide one and a narrow one.


Gears






It's hard to tell in this picture, but the gear shafts slide into notches in the case. Make sure the notch on the shaft for the first set of gears is facing up. Make sure to apply the black grease before this step and after.


like Lincoln logs. Grease here too.





Installing the Differentials:





Sorry but right here my camera battery needed charging. I slowed way down, but I missed installing the differential case, steering arms and the belt tensioner onto the chassis.


Here they are installed


Belt tensioner

Spur Gear Build and install:





So... I tried to install this gear before the stock gear. It doesn't work. It's too big and rubs the rear differential case. So I had to rebuild the spur gear with the 60T gear. Disappointing :/ That makes this no better than the Dromida in the gear selection department.


Slipper spring tensioning nut. Needs to be at 1.5mm


You can use the cross wrench to install it.


Completing this step was a bit aggravating because the manual shows the build up of the gear differently than you actually have to build it. You need to build the spur on the shaft by sliding the the hubs over the shaft.


These screws are supposed to be in bag "D"




Again, the manual doesn't say the center top plate is in bag "E" Potential snags for the new builder.








Front differential case





Shock Towers:









Suspension Arms

A word about flashing. This is lazy. This kit was $130 (shipping and tax) for a small amount of plastic (1/18th scale). This should not happen for this kind of money:



Now I have to clip and sand the wall of a tube that takes a lot of stress.








Had to go to bag "G" for these screws. Again, in the wrong bag.



Caster Blocks and Rear Hubs Build and Install:




Again... extra plastic to cut and sand on such a small and well used part.
















Spring goes here













Electronics Install:




This is another issue. As you can see, I'm using an aircraft ball link for steering servo linkage. This kit comes with a servo savers with adapters, but not an adapter for a Hitec servo. Hitec... big servo name, especially in the mini and micro market. The servo setup for this kit is based on using the servo saver. I don't like the way I have this servo set up, so this is temporary.















I didn't show the tire build because I didn't build them. I originally bought these tires for the Dromida thinking they were 12mm hex, but nope. So now I have spares in the box.

Body Work and Paint:

I cut the body out with my Dremel and then barrel sanded to the score marks on the Lexan. Then I used a sharpie and marked off my pattern on top of the protective film covering.


As you can see in the picture I used blue tape. It doesn't leave a residue, but I wish I would have used Frog Tape.





You can clearly see the sharpie marks through the blue tape. I used a SHARP hobby knife (X-acto) to trim the tape along the lines. I cut each piece of tape individually, but I try to lay the tape so I don't have to cut.



At this point I haven't put it on the car yet. I still need to enlarge the mounting holes.

Finished!!!





I had to trim away some of the body for the motor :/ Also, I installed the wing with the truck. I think it looks pretty cool like that, but you have to cut away a major portion of the rear of the bed so the body doesn't interact with the wing supports. I cut away just enough, and this was a test fit cut retest method to get it right (read: a bit tedious).

Colors: Tamiya Black (PS-5); Tamiya Fluorescent Green (PS-28)

My Impression:
**There was no play in the rear differential. I used an extra shim on one side, but those shims are so slight I'm not sure it made that much difference. The differential sits rock solid with no play at all, so it seems that the issue was fixed, or people can't follow directions and build.

**The belt is was not too tight. I've had tighter belts on helis. I set the tensioner at it's lowest level and the belt is fine. Whether it shreds or not is yet to be seen, but I've run two packs through, so far so good.

**There is zero slop in the steering. Again, this was a problem that many have complained about. Also again, either these problems have been addressed, or the people complaining have made mistakes while building (it happens).

**The car has limited gear choices. The 66T spur gear will not fit in the car. It rubs against the rear differential. I bought three of these gears.

**The wheel choice is limited. The wheel installation is a problem. Instead of pulling a wheel off and putting another on, you have to go through a process of lining up a pin that is inserted loosely on the axle. If you turn the axle before the pin is inserted in the wheel, the pin falls out and you have to start over.

**Even though the shock bodies are metal, the caps are plastic. However, the shocks work well, and I'm pleased with their performance.

**Poor local parts selection. None of my local hobby shops carry parts for this car, or any 1/18th car for that matter.

I think this was a fun and easy build. However I expected better quality from a highly recommended manufacturer like Associated. I don't think this is a newbie kit. It's belt driven, and when I say that to people, most say, I've never had a "belt driven car." The belt allows you to mount the motor in such a way that you can fit your electronics on the floor of the chassis. So your expensive electronics are more secure. Time will tell if the belt is a better option. It's hard to find kits to build in this size. Most are sold as RTR, and I guess they make more money that way. I want to build another kit now, but I think I'll have to go up a size since 1/18th is not a popular size.

Car Specs:
Car: RC18T2/B2 Kit - $130 (shipping and Tax) - Purchased through Amazon
Motor: Castle 0808 5300KV Motor - $120 (combo price with ESC) Purchased through Horizon Hobby
ESC: Castle Mamba Micro Pro
Spur: 60T
Pinion: 10T
Servo: Hitec HS-65MG - $35 - Duncan's RC
TX/RX - FlySky GT3B / 3 Channel RX combo
Battery: Hyperion 3S 1600 35C or Hyperions 3S 1100 25C (to cut weight)

[Doozer]

Build up! My son kept coming over to drive my Dromida, so I decided to change rx in the Dromida so he can use that TX, and built this kit so we can drive together. In other words, the Bipe isn't finished yet. The build took me about 6 hours including stopping to take pictures. So it wasn't too bad.


 

[r/c basher]

Nice build! The car looks great, I've always looked forward to your builds, they're always a ton of pictures and very detailed.

A couple of things I want to point out or suggest, for the steering servo link is it possible to flip the ball around so it's facing the other direction? It looks like if you were able to do that it would be less of an angle.

As far as the way the wheels mount with the pin, that's pretty much standard for 1/18 or rc cars in general. My 1/10 Associated T4 mounts the same way, last night I actually ordered up the parts to do a 12mm hex conversion.

Also you missed the boat on the 1/18 scale craze about 6-7 years ago. I think every rc car manufacturer had an 1/18 scale car at that point after the launch of the Losi Mini-T that started the craze. There used to be a lot more options for wheels, tires, bodies and hop-ups in general for 1/18 scale. Now though the craze has died down a lot and most the cars are discontinued.

[Doozer]

Thanks for the suggestions RC and Happy Birthday! 

It's funny, my son and I love this size, you can have big fun in a small area. I would think that more people could race these because they aren't expensive, they aren't expensive to break and fix, and they don't need a big area to race in. Anyway, I went out and bought another servo today. I took the servo saver adapters with me. Funny thing, Hitec Feather servos have different spline sizes. I bought a HS-65 MG. But when I got it home I found out two things. One, the mount was not wide enough. I had to shave the inside of the mount almost to the mount hole.  I put servo tape on the bottom, and it doesn't move. And Two, the bolt for the spline provided for the servo saver was way too small. I took me an hour to find a screw that was the same diameter and the length I needed. I was a little pissed, but it all worked out. Now the steering is set up as it should be. 

I'm working on the bodies tonight. While I was at the hobby shop, I picked up some rattle can lexan paint (Tamiya). Probably going to use white and blue. 

[r/c basher]

Thanks, I had a pretty good birthday!

Those are some of the main reasons why the 1/18 scale exploded in popularity. You could race practically anywhere and people were having there own backyard races everywhere.

I also ran into the same problem with my RC18T I tried using an Exi 213F MG Digital Servo but the mount was too small.

I'm also painting my first decent paint job soon for my Associated T4, I bought the body last week and ordered the spray cans and masking last night. Always before it was one or two color wonders for me. Painting this body candy blue, with yellow drips, the bed of the truckish body black and random zig zags gun metal gray. If this paint job works out I'll paint another with the same paint scheme for my HPI Blitz so the 2 cars that I race have matching bodies.

[Doozer]

yeah, I'm going to stick to two colors. I would love to airbrush it but I really want to put the body on so I can cut loose a bit. So I'm cheating on the truck body, then I look into inside out paint jobs. 

[Doozer]

Added some paint pics and the specs.

[r/c basher]

Thats a nicely painted body! Love the black and green, hopefully mine will turn out just as well. I'm going to be using liquid masking tape, so there's less chance of paint bleeding through the edges. I've used this stuff before and it works pretty well and it's easy to cut to make designs. Just brush a few coats on and wait for it to dry.

www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXC099&P=ML

I'll be posting a build log for my T4 makeover here shortly, just waiting on stuff to come and to get time to take pictures. Not sure how soon I'll be able to paint the body, work has me pretty busy.

[Doozer]

Nice! thank you for that link. I'm going to buy some of that for sure. Thanks to the miracle of decals, you can't see where my tape failed ^^ Not all are for that purpose though, Just the ones on the top. Ever see the movie "League of Their Own?" Where all the pictures of the women's league baseball players are close ups except for the ugly farm girl That made me chuckle a bit.

Anyway, here's some pics with the new servo installed:





Also, in an effort to procrastinate studying for an exam I have tomorrow, I started changing out all of the nasty phillips fasteners (screws). I hate them. There should be a law forbidding them. I am replacing them with 1.5 and 2mm socket caps. Socket Caps, the screw of the gods.

[r/c basher]

Never seen the movie, I just googled it and it looks like it would be a good one especially since it has Tom Hanks!

Stuff is starting to come in for my T4 facelift. I took pictures but too tired to start posting the build.

Also your servo fix reminds me, my servo on my RC18 is stripped, and the servo saver is junk. I should get that fixed for this spring.

[Doozer]

According to the Associated web site, they've improved the servo saver. Just make sure you have a long enough screw that's the right size, because the one they provided was too small (in diameter). It comes with four adapters, but none of them work with the 5055. :/ 

If you like baseball movies you'll like "A League of Their Own." It's sort of "chickie," so you can watch it with a girl and gain some sensitivity points. 

[Doozer]

To be honest man, I was a little disappointed with this cars speed. My son came over today to hang out and bash, he's talking about buying a savage, and were out front messing around and I start driving down the street and I open it up... the next thing I know the Dromida is walking me down. Then one of the screws came out of the motor mount. I must have forgotten to put threadlock on it. My son starts flipping the Dromida, and I'm thinking... wow... either somethings wrong with this motor or this car is just slow (I had this motor in the Dromida first).

So we make the video, then he has to take off. I start charging the batteries for both cars. I make longer bolts for the motor by cutting a couple of spares down to size. I put the motor in to get the mesh set, and I plug up a battery then turn it on. I started messing with all the functions of the flysky. Maybe the endpoints were wrong or maybe there was a setting that I was missing?  Then I started messing with the throttle, and it was here that I realized that my motor was going faster in reverse than it was forward. It was going the right direction, but reverse was definitely faster by a lot... a helluva lot.

I was going to come here and ask, but I thought I'd do a search first... sure enough, a list a mile long of forum posts with people having the same issue. Turns out, all I needed to do was switch two wires around and then reverse the throttle channel in my radio. I couldn't wait until tomorrow to try it out. I went outside under the street light and oh my god....  if I gunned it from a standstill it would just spin out. I had to ease into the throttle to keep it at a blur. That's no exaggeration. This thing got away from me a few times and I had to go look for it in the dark.  I am so stoked right now. This was the speed I was looking for.  

[r/c basher]

Yup, I've done the same exact thing before haha. Also make sure you recalibrate the throttle on the esc cause that can also cause the same issue.

Hpi Savages are good, I've never owned one but they have a massive following. I've owned an E-maxx T-maxx and Revo that are the same size and are competitors of the savage.

All this talk about the RC18 I'm thinking about getting mine up and running again.

[Doozer]

Tore up the inside of the diff outdrive :X doh!   I was warned that 3S would do that. I was actually doing a little rock crawling when it happened. I thought it was the belt, then I thought it was an axle bearing... then I saw it. The "dog bone" was only spinning some of the time.  I was sad. I just got working as intended (seen above) and a few hours later, I'm ordering parts. :/   So... I ordered the factory team chassis upgrade ($20 cheaper from A-Main than from the TA site) www.amain.com/team-associated-factory-team-1-18-scale-chassis-conversion-kit/p417926 and I ordered the factory team ball diffs. I have the MIP bullet proof super diffs (metal outdrives) that work with those differentials. Should be here by next Friday. I'll do another build. I'm going to call the car Fawkes.