Not feeling the love with my B-max 4 111 but it's coming

[wylie]

So far I have done three meetings with my new car and i haven't finished a meeting yet :mad:.
Meeting 1; my fault a wheel came loose, I tightened up the rear wheel nut not realising that the wheel had rotated on hex, proceeded to strip hex, I thought the noise was a driveline issue, didn't discover till the afternoon that the noise was just a stripped hex.

Meeting 2; started morning with a quite carbut a strange noise was devoloping, thought it was a wheel hex again took off wheels, nothing wrong there, took diffs out they looked fine retired early & went home, looked at car on the Monday found two seized bearings, replaced them.

Meeting 3: front bulk head (gear box top) snapped in open practise session at start of meeting, luckily I had Durango in the boot of the car & that was trouble free.

I hope it rewards me soon with some love.

[discothesnake]

A bit harsh if I'm honest.

First meeting was your own fault by your own admission.

Second meeting two bearings give up. Fair enough, I'd be pissed off with that on second meeting.

Third meeting you break a gearbox case. I take it you crashed? Strange if it broke with you hitting anything.

I ran mine for first time last week and it was great. Noissues whatsoever.

Give it a bit of time and I'm sure you'll like it.

[neallewis]

Bummer, loving mine tbh. far better than my xray was.

Were the failed bearings on the same corner as the improperly handled hex?

[traffman]

You prefer it to the other cars youve ran Dave?

[discothesnake]

Hard to say Paul as I've run it just the once and that was indoors. Xray was lovely to drive so once I go outdoors I can really judge it. Is a nice car tho.

[wylie]

[QUOTE=neallewis;831119


Were the failed bearings on the same corner as the improperly handled hex?[/QUOTE]

No, it was a front diff bearing and front outer wheel bearing

[AfroP]

Get different wheel nuts
Make sure you oil bearings when you build the kit with proper bearing oil
Dont crash, any car will break if you crash it hard enough

[OneKiwi]

Bummer, loving mine tbh. far better than my xray was.

Were the failed bearings on the same corner as the improperly handled hex?

In what way is it beetter than the XB4? Im still really tempted to get one. I have the XB4 and mr2 and several others in the club have the XB4 and are getting the XB4-2 so parts and setup help is pushing more towards a 2wd swap.

[skyaflake]

I do like the III as well. Haven't driven it as much as I'd like but soon I'll be racing it more.

I've driven the XB4 (and B-Max4 II) as well. My comparison:

XB4 is great to wrench on. Quality is top notch, same for Yokomo. Both cars are great and are just close in comparison. It's a bit of personal preference. My preference is Yokomo since I also drive the B-Max2.

With several top drivers "switching" to Yokomo (see the EOS of last weekend), it 's easier for me to get a decent setup on medium/high grip tracks. For the 2WD I'm getting it sorted out by myself, but 4WD is just something I tend to race outside the meetings, basically just practice. So I don't want to spend all the time I have on finding out a decent 4WD setup.

If people at your club are racing X-Ray, I would go for X-Ray. You can help each other out. If people are racing Yokomo, go Yokomo. If they are indeed racing X-Ray and you still want to run Yokomo, you are the best lad. :thumbsup:

[neallewis]

In what way is it beetter than the XB4? Im still really tempted to get one. I have the XB4 and mr2 and several others in the club have the XB4 and are getting the XB4-2 so parts and setup help is pushing more towards a 2wd swap.

xray is a great car for high or medium traction. I spent a year trying to get it to work on low traction indoor tracks and it doesn't. the setup info that xray themselves put out is just wrong, I bought new "low traction" parts and it was worse. no amount of driver overcompensation for lack of rear traction will help you win a race. it's just a handful. also design flaws like the protruding front bumper which digs in all the time. some aspects are very good quality, some material choices are designed to wear out quickly.

I ran my bmax 4 for a few races, instantly faster on the same low traction surface. a pleasure to drive, something I could never say about the xray. easy to dial in the right amount of rear traction. parts of a higher quality material (apart from the over hardened hingepins) and cheaper too.

[wylie]

I wasn't moaning about the car, I realise that all cars break when you crash hard enough. I just wanted to complete a day without issues, whether there my fault or not.
On the subject of wheel nuts, can you get serrated nyloc nuts that will fit the front as there is not a lot of thread left when wheel is mounted. ?

[MiCk B.]

These might do:

Serrated M4 nuts: http://p-dubracing.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=25&products_id=248

I can measure the thickness if you like.
Another option would be some thread lock on the nut / axle.

MiCk B. :-)

[tyreman]

These are the wheel nuts you want, they have a sharp edge to the serration and won't come loose. They are from Inside Line Racing http://insidelineracing.co.uk/new-products/screws-nuts-spacers-etc/nuts/m4-serrated-nut-black-details

The only time i had a front wheel come off was when the front wheel bearing collapsed.

[discothesnake]

I've never had an issue with any serrated nuts. You just need to make sure you give them a good ol' tighten!

I've probably put the kiss of death on that now.....

[andys]

Bummer, loving mine tbh. far better than my xray was.

Were the failed bearings on the same corner as the improperly handled hex?


Heyup Neal.

After watching yours at Worksop - I should have asked - what do you prefer over the Xray?
I loved my XB4 after this weekend, 10K oil in both diffs and fresh shock oil and it was as near as damn it perfect.

If I was buying another car - I would previously have being tempted by the Yokomo as the quality of the kits is generally so good, but now I'm considering the XB4 14!

[wylie]

I've never had an issue with any serrated nuts. You just need to make sure you give them a good ol' tighten!

I've probably put the kiss of death on that now.....

Thats probably where I went wrong on the first run, I'm use to nyloc nuts that don't need to be wrenched on really tight.
Would still like to find low profile serrated NYLOC nuts in M4 Probably not made as there wouldn't be enough material to have any thread and nyloc together. Are the front axles that short to make it fit in the scrutineering box?

[freddie]

I've done 4 meetings with mine on high grip an low grip it is by far the best 4wd I have ever driven !

[ufoDziner]

Thats probably where I went wrong on the first run, I'm use to nyloc nuts that don't need to be wrenched on really tight.
Would still like to find low profile serrated NYLOC nuts in M4 Probably not made as there wouldn't be enough material to have any thread and nyloc together. Are the front axles that short to make it fit in the scrutineering box?

FWIW, I run these (http://www.jconcepts.net/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=724) with great luck on my buggy. They're very low profile and have nice serrations.

[dpackster1980]

Deleted.

[muratti]

The issues you have raised are self inflicted. You didn't tighten the wheel nut properly in the first place.

You over tightened the wheel nut when you put the wheel back on crushing the spacer between the bearings as these quite thin in comparison to other manufacturers. This is what caused the bearing failure.

Gearbox top was obviously from a serious crash or lots of little crashes.

Verdict: USER ERROR

+1 agree!

[jokersat]

i just became yokomo owner i notice the max4iii has 2 major isseus
1.the front carbon tower cracks very easy:thumbdown:i have made metal to protect us xray has
2.Gearbox top at tower hold cracks with no hard crash:thumbdown: just updown and caboooomm

i have change from kyosho to yokomo because the kyosho has some isseus and the max4iii has some manufacture major isseus with front end

[Loheswaran]

I wasn't moaning about the car, I realise that all cars break when you crash hard enough. I just wanted to complete a day without issues, whether there my fault or not.
On the subject of wheel nuts, can you get serrated nyloc nuts that will fit the front as there is not a lot of thread left when wheel is mounted. ?

I hope you aren't jinxed with Yokomo:o

I regrettably have that problem with Schumacher cars - I think they are great cars, but every time I have ownership of anything schumacher - even shims on a car - I have a car that either doesn't finish a race or drives horribly.

Joking aside I am an average TC/club driver - rubbish at off road - but I have noticed that even the likes of Stafford/MArtin etc make mistakes and crash - very different to TC where you can't get away with a mistake - simply put it's easy to have a little accident - especially when getting used to a new cars handling - don't let it put you off though.

[wylie]

Ah at last someone who understands, thanks for kind words as opposed to some of the other comments.
I do plan on running the car for at least a year maybe two, I kept my Durango for over three years, mind you it's a bit like Triggers broom!! but the Durango was driven to an inch of it's life and had some crashes over the years.
All I was trying to say that the car has been unrelaible in my hands and from what I have recently read on rctech forum a few others are having similar problems, I can't see why manufactures sometimes make backward steps ie; serrated nyloc wheel nuts, twice the security, and why such short front stub axle's so you can only use low profile nuts, there isn't enough material arond the bottom of the shock tower to fasten against the upper part of the gearbox casing.
And to those who say don't crash, I try not too, but some times I make mistakes, the Durango was a strong car perhaps I was expecting something better.
Better stock up on front gear box cases now.
Awaiting the Yoko lovers too respond!! (It's all my fault) makes me laugh along with people who can't type anything but +1. lol

[Loheswaran]

Try the corresponding parts from the first generation Bmax4 - I think the plastic used maybe a little more relient although a tad less stiff

[wylie]

Finaly had a good morning with the car and have now found the major cause of the noise it was to much up and down movement on the centre spur gear, I have now drilled the alloy top plate and tapped two m2.5 holes and loctited two grub screws too hold the bearings down but not squash them, I had always discounted the spur gear as it looks like new so thought that all was well, I would have been expecting to see some wear marks on the teeth as it was chattering along.

[ReneT]

Finaly had a good morning with the car and have now found the major cause of the noise it was to much up and down movement on the centre spur gear, I have now drilled the alloy top plate and tapped two m2.5 holes and loctited two grub screws too hold the bearings down but not squash them, I had always discounted the spur gear as it looks like new so thought that all was well, I would have been expecting to see some wear marks on the teeth as it was chattering along.
Yeah, it can be pretty noisy.
You can also put a small piece of thin foam between the bearing and the top plate.

[Al3xis007]

xray is a great car for high or medium traction. I spent a year trying to get it to work on low traction indoor tracks and it doesn't.

That's a joke, didn't the xb4 win the euros on dirt aka slippy loose track? It took me a few meetings to set it up for slippy conditions, now it's sorted
Yes the set up options are misleading, so just work it out for yourself, or copy someone else's set up off Petit website