Full Throttle

Latest Happenings At Misbehavin-RC

Behind The Scenes

Last time around I talked about the web logs and information I've learned from them. I explained why that counters are not very reliable and how to get an accurate picture of web traffic you need to examine your server logs. I then gave you the statistics for the first quarter of 2003, which were as follows:

• Total pages requests 1st quarter of 2003: 92,352
• Broken Down: January-29,230, February-29,173, March-33,949
• Total times links were followed from Traxxas forums in this past quarter: 23,501
• Total of times Google was used to find the site, in this past quarter: 4,356

I thought I'd follow those numbers up with the results for April, which I just recently finished compiling.

• Page Requests-33,949
• Total times links were followed from Traxxas forums: 3,560
• Total of times Google was used to find the site, or information on it: 2,380

As you can see the number of page requests keep steadily climbing. Well except for February, you might think. However I'll point out that February is a short month, so had it been 30 days it would have eclipsed the total for January. All of this means that either a lot of people must be hitting my site by mistake, or I seem to be doing something right!!!

I've had several inquires asking me when, or if, I planned on putting videos on the site. Well this past Christmas I received a camcorder as a Christmas gift. One of my plans since receiving this was to make a few movies of our trucks in action. Originally I was hoping to have something available on the site by now, but I haven't gotten to that point yet. I've been doing some filming, but I'm not satisfied with what all I've assembled yet. With several other non-RC related things on the horizon (a baby due in June, and the fact I'm handling the Summer Camp preparations for Zac's Scout Troop), I probably won't have enough footage to satisfy myself until sometime late this summer. However rest assured, eventually there will be some movie clips available.

Latest Updates

There are several updates this time around. I've had several comments on the interactive sections for oil/fuel mixing, speed calculations, and the gearing comparison calculator. So what I've done at this point is I've taken the concept a little further and applied it to a few other areas of the site. Now you can comparison shop the specifications of the metal-gear servos, ESC's, and chargers. Hopefully this will help you make the decision on what to purchase a little easier.

You may also notice that the Strengthening the Shocks section appears to be gone. It really isn't, it's just been moved around a little. There is now a section called Shocks that not only contains information about how to strengthen them, but also how to rebuild them, and suggests aluminum replacements as well. Hopefully anyone looking for more information on shocks for their truck will find this useful, especially if you bought a RTR and never built the shocks like you would have if you had purchased a kit. There's also a new walkthrough demonstrating how to swap the Maxx bellcrank bushings out for bearings. This is a worthwhile swap as it gives you a much smoother functioning bellcrank mechanism. It also eliminates the steering slop that can occur when the stock plastic bushings become worn. One other noteworthy item is a walkthrough of a fix intended to cure a common problem with the MRC Super Brain.

I mentioned the oil/fuel calculator above, and it has seen an improvement as well. Before it would only give the results in fluid ounces, but now you can select between fluid ounces, tablespoons, or milliliters for the result. This should help give you a measurement method that will work with something you have around the house, or in the kitchen. Between those three methods you shouldn't have a problem finding something to use. Just don't let you wife or mom catch you if you use something from the kitchen!!!

There are quite a few updates this time around so be sure to check them all out.

Of RTR's and Kits....

If you haven't purchased a Traxxas kit before now, chances are you will never have that opportunity. Traxxas has discontinued all their kits and is now only producing RTR versions of their trucks. I know that this disappoints many people such as myself, as many of us actually loved to build the kits. However reality and sales always takes front stage. The sales of the kits compared to their RTR counterparts were pretty dismal overall. So, with this change, it seems Traxxas has decided to streamline their product lineup. Even though this decision disappoints me, I support the step they've taken. They didn't put themselves where they are in the RC industry by mistake, it took very solid business decisions. I see this as another of those smart decisions on their part.

So what does the future hold now that Traxxas kits are a thing of the past? Personally I hope they will be able to move product more efficiently and faster to eliminate backorders that can occur sometimes with their parts and product lines. It's also possible that a new vehicle is one the horizon (I'm purely speculating on this however). If that's the result of this change it will definitely be worth it. No matter what, I'm sure we'll continue to see top quality parts and products shipping from their headquarters in Texas.

Latest Purchases

I haven't made any significant purchases lately, but there is a pretty big change coming. I've managed to mutilate my stock body to the point that it isn't very functional anymore, so as a result I'm planning on painting a new body for myself in the next week or so. I have a couple of spare bodies that I had planned to paint and throw on eBay, so I grabbed one of these unpainted bodies for my own. I'm not going to let any details about the body or paint job slip out, but I will say that if all goes well I should have some photos of the work in the next update.

I also wanted to be able to do a few "body off" shots to showcase my Integy shocks, as I thought this would be the perfect time to do that as well. So I've spent some major time cleaning up the T-Maxx in preparation for a photo shoot. I have actually torn my T-Maxx down to each individual part so that I could give the pictures that new T-Maxx look!!! So look forward to some nice pictures in the next update.

Until next time, keep on bashin'!!!

Recent Updates

• **New** Maxx Bellcrank Upgrade T-Maxx and E-Maxx
• **New** MRC Super Brain Fix
• **New** Shock Section Electric Rustler, Electric Stampede, Nitro Rustler, Nitro Stampede, E-Maxx, and T-Maxx
• Expanded Charger Section
• Expanded ESC Section
• Expanded Metal Gear Servo Section Electric Rustler, Electric Stampede, Nitro Rustler, Nitro Stampede, E-Maxx, and T-Maxx
• Improved Oil/Fuel Calculator Section
• Added Novak Ionic AC/DC to Charger List