After 3 years, I finally did it!
 

Deja Vu! Lets start this again... Chris



Woooooo!!!! At long last, I have a Baja!!!!! After three freaking years of thinking about it, i've at long last done it! After deciding to get back into R/C after 12 year of absence back in Dec of 06 and going into with a Revo 3.3 and getting frustrated and burnt out from nitro ownership within a few months. Over a year later, I wanted to give RC another go and I still yearned deep down for a Baja, especially after learning about the new Baja 5T in early 09 when they first came out.

However, I again didn't wish to spend that kind money and got hooked on the Lipo and brushless bandwagon promptly after seeing the new Savage Flux in action. After having my fill with Brushless lipo power through the summer of 09, I even decided to give RC helicopters a try with a Blade mSR and recently, the new SR. But I quickly found out I just didn't have the patience to learn and enjoy RC helicopters and after two attempts and decided it wasn't for me, it was more enjoyable for me to be on the ground and not worry about crashing and burning with every movement of the joystick.

Now, after 3 years of thinking, wishing, hoping, plotting, saving and basically impatiently waiting to the point where I couldn't wait anymore, I flashed out the good old Visa card to take care of that leftover "balance" at the LHS and now I"m gonna have a farking awesome weekend taking this baby out of the box, getting it all prepped up for its maiden drive!

A special thanks to all of you who have supported and giving me lots of information, tips and encouragment to see this come through and finally realized!

I can hardly keep my excitement contained just looking at inside my house, I can't imagine what it will be like when I hit the throttle for the first time!! Woooo!!!


http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...a5T/atlast.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...5T/atlast2.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...5T/atlast3.jpg


Plus my kitty, Buzz has a new playhouse!

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...oy4buzztoo.jpg

:surprised: err joke... :oops::whip:

Hey that gotta be one awesome ride Wish I had the room to run one all the time never tried it good luck with that monster

what a hell of a conversion to make thats awesome what brushless motor are you going to use :whistle::lol:

Allright, thanks Arc, i'm glad we got that little miscommunication cleared up. :yes:

Ahhh how about nooooooo? :no: :mdr:

Ahh, gas rc. Fun stuff, but i warn you to not get tempted by the "lure" of more power and put a tuned pipe on. You will then have a decreased powerband, and the kind of noise a nitro motor can only dream about. Forget about playing with it in front of your house, as the neighbors will crucify you. So leave it stock.

As far as fun goes, unless you have a really big space (that gravel pit you had vids of looks good) the baja is not much fun. And 2wd gets old. But have fun!

I can only imagine where you would be now if you had some decent packs for that flux, say 2 3s g3 hyperions and a smaller pinion.... You will miss 4wd and you will miss brushless, especially when you get a sock full of 2 stroke....

But have fun. And give the baja forums a try, lots of knowledge there.

ah, the ol' sock full of 2 stroke, what fun that is!! the 'whoops' that keeps on giving

Good luck Freezebyte, I spend more time upside down than going forwards when I drive these things!!

Hey!! what happened to the two pages of comments? I wanted to see what response my funny post got.......

Man, I missed alot recently? Oh well.

for the short time i had my baja clone, i drove it with the stock can pipe for about 1/2 a gallon and then 1/2 with a tuned pipe. trust me freezebyte, if you want more power, don't get a bigger engine. a decent tuned pipe will add may more power than a bigger engine. my baja clone went from being a complete slug to pulling wheelies just by changing the pipe. that's actually how i fried the diff:oops:. luckily, the 5t has the alloy diff, so you shouldn't have that problem.

these things are fun, but only if you know the right spots to bash them. i think you will have a ton of fun with your 5t, especially at those sweet bash spots from your savage vids.:party:

Sorry linc, going to have to argue with your entire post lol.


My savage flux on 6s is sitting in the corner, like an abandoned child. I bought my 5b early in january and don't think there has been a day yet when I havn't driven it, worked on it or bought parts for it. The tuned pipe part is NOT true. They make a huge difference. Yes it's too loud to run in front of the house, do I want to drive it down a crowded road anyways? Nope.

I just got my 30.5cc full mod broken in, but havn't had the chance to rag on it yet. The savage is fun, but it just doesn't make the noise that the 5b does. Louder the better.

Again taking bets on how fast freezebyte has this one up for sale........:intello:

Call your bookies now, it is on! :rules:

Ive had this same itch as Freeze...enjoy it and let us know how it goes. Congrats on a sweet ride...nothin betta then crispy new!!:party:

I enjoyed my 5b years back, gret RC and super tough !
Tuned Pipe made it a new animal for sure, loud as all hell tho.

My Cons;
NO reverse is not Fat Kid Friendly
2wd kinda blows when you really want to get some serious off roading or some climbing.
Tricky learning to jump, no in air corrections possible.

I'm sure you'll enjoy !
After having the Flux, It's just a matter for how long ?

The no reverse is actually the "hpi exercise program":lol:

I know I know. Everyone and everything in this world is telling me I'm fat. even my R/c's now... :neutral: Guess it's time to buy a golf cart to go get it...

I hate loud tiny motors. I even pulled the muggy exhaust off the 12r cause it rattled my helmet. Nothing against people who do like loud stuff though, just as long as they are out of earshot! I guess I am just used to what a tuned v8 sounds like, and anything else just seems rough and weak to me...

I understand the tuned pipe will make a difference, but it will never be 4wd, and it will always be heavy and need a large area to play in. My bashing spots are 1/8 friendly, but not 1/5. Plus the gas was too slow for me, I guess I am just used to brushless acceleration.

To each his own, all the baja owners need to get out and enjoy those big rcs!

Woooo, man, what a project to take that thing down to nearly the frame for the first time! Spent 7 hours last night and 5 hours today on this sucker! Definently crap loads more parts then my Savage Flux with a bit more complexity. Finally got all the outerwears on so I shouldn't have to worry about my motor for a good long time.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ja5T/apart.jpg

So, on my first take down and working on the Baja, I've already come across a few things that stood out to me.

1. Freaking elastic outwears for air filter was a bitch to put on, shoulda gotten the drawstring one :cursing: Stock foam outside filter is a pain to keep on straight. Collar holder assembly was a complete bitch to take off due to stupid clip design, grrrr.... :censored:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ntakeouter.jpg

2. Clutch assembly isn't as scary as a thought, but it's alot to keep track of when apart :*( I just left it alone this round.

3. SOB, those wheel hex nuts were on farking tight! I had to bang them loose with a hammer and hex remover and that took several tries and nearly an hour! I even tried a huge crescent wrench and only managed to mar the hex huts :censored: :glare:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...5T/hexnuts.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...5T/hexnuts.jpg

4. Getting to the diff and out is a fair amount of work, I hope I don't have to go digging into that thing often. Good thing I checked it like everyone said to, it was pretty much empty except a light coating of oil. That alloy diff casing is huge!!! :eek:

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...ja5T/empty.jpg

5. Its easy and quick to take off the protection plates all over the chassis, thank god for body clips

6. The body clips attached to the rubber holders on the body shell are a farking godsend to put them on and off! The rubber seal also helps keep the body from getting scratched on the posts and from vibration, thank you HPI! :clap:

7. Stock exhaust gasket was utter junk, it completely ripped itself apart when I took the exhaust off. :glare: Had to scrap the remnants off with a knife. Installed a nice, new HD gasket, shouldn't have to worry about blowouts now.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m.../newgasket.jpg



8. Having to take the entire motor out to attach the outerwears crankcase filter was alot of work. I sure hope I don't need to do that very often....

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...a5T/covers.jpg

9. Throttle linkage and servo needed some adjustments and no matter what I did, I can't get that throttle servo arm to be at a perfect 90 degree angle but after fiddling with it, it should be fine. First drive will confirm or deny this.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...T/servoarm.jpg

10. Following a pit tip I saw on RC Car Action, I cut the the flywheel outerwears near the pull start string hole so it would be easy to take off and on without having to undo/redo the pull starter knot every time. I put on some CA glue to keep the threads coming off but I forgot CA dries kinda white, owell....

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...T/outermod.jpg

11. Supplied goodies, oils, tools and what not outa the box were pretty useful and nice to have off hand. I think I will reuse the HPI 2 cycle oil bottle to accurately measure my synthetic oil for gas mixing, its quick and simple.

12. Radio box seems pretty cramped, dunno where I'm gonna put that killer Bee kill switch in there

13. The included RX battery charger sucks major, not even a damn LED for status of the charging not to mention slow as hell. That's gonna get upgraded promptly. :mad:

14. Shocks look pretty intimidating to take apart and rebuild. Sure hope the o-rings last for awhile, might get shock socks soon to help reduce wear and tear, I hate shock rebuilding

15. Pushing the RX wire through the antenna tube was a royal PITA. I spent over half an hour trying to get that damn thing in. 2.4ghz short antenna wire FTW.

16. I'm DEFINITELY gonna need that rotating Team Fast Eddy Baja stand, this thing is a bear to move around while I work on it.



Those are my initial first time noob thoughts and impression on my first hands on tear down of my new 5T! Was alot of work just to put on some filters, but I learned alot about the Baja design and now I'm more familiar with how to maintain it and take it apart while it was nice and clean. THe whole time I was working on it, I thought about the new color scheme/mods/parts/hop ups and even the trucks new name once im all done with it.

Ahhh crap, so this is the Baja bug i've been hearing about? Great....

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...cktogether.jpg

Very nice! Definitely get a tuned pipe for that beast, it makes a HUGE difference in power.

So, when we bashing little pussy cat? :rofl:

As soon as you get your lazy ass down here :tongue: I've got no money for gas right now, just took a friend of mine to Helena last night (made good time pinging off the governor at 130) and until he can pay me back for the gas I have no money to go up there with.

Darn your lack of speed limits! I'd love to let my car stretch it's legs...

Looking good freezebyte. I can't wait to see some real bashing of it!

Um, they got rid of our beloved "Reasonable and prudent" speed restriction years ago, we've been on speed limits for awhile now up here

Lol, we've got plenty of time and its gonna get warmer anyway

I think this truck is sweet. I've got to run a couple Bajas and wasn't really impressed. Then last summer a local racer got the 5T and it ripped pretty good right out of the box.... much more impressive to me. We were shredding grass with big smiles. :) It does require a big area to really let her run, but if you have a good place, I think it's a great bashing toy.

Bummer...though I don't know if 155mph would have qualified as "reasonable and prudent."

Oh, I have nothing but room in Montana. This is our Bash Pit

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...20Pit/pit1.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...20Pit/pit3.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...0Pit/pit15.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...20Pit/pit7.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...20Pit/pit4.jpg

Lucky SOB...
I have a tiny street and a lopsided lawn.

It went from "Reasonable and Prudent" to "Go fast enough and we won't bother" a few years ago :( I drove from Bozeman to Helena and back the other day bouncing off my Subaru's 130 MPH governor and never had any cop troubles.

That bashing pit is definitely amazing, but I have 1/4 tank of gas and $25 to last me until Tuesday then I have a car payment, insurance, and registration to pay so I'm screwed on bashing for at least another 2 weeks.

No prob bud, I've got my girlfriend coming home along with her birthday and doctors appointments so i'm gonna be busy. We've got all spring and summer to play :intello:

Indeed we do! I took my Baja out a few days ago and the radio is fried, so unless I can steal the radio out of one of my other RCs it'll be even longer :diablo:

how did you fry a radio?

Not sure, it smoked last year then worked for a while and now it just makes a squealing noise lol.