Jamara Tiger EP 4WD 2,4GHz 1:10 503851

Please remember that this is an ongoing post (last update June 19 2015).

So, you bought a Jamara 503851 - Tiger EP 4WD 2,4GHz 1:10 brushed!
The parts are somewhat expensive and hard to find outside Germany (in Romania it is). The shipping cost usually exceeds or is too high compared to spare part price. Upgrade parts (ex. Aluminium) are basically nonexistent for this model. What to do about that, you ask?



Well, I digged the Internet and found out that this Jamara Tiger is exact match to several other RC MT sold by different brands.

Here is the list I found so far:

Brand	Model	Link
Jamara	Tiger EP/BL, some other model from Jamara also	Jamara Tiger Ice EP 4WD 2,4Ghz
FS RACING	Victory 53805 - same chassis 53810/53633 Victory (confirmed parts) - longer chassis	FS RACING 53810 Victory
TAMCO MOTOR	Ranger (confirmed parts) - same chassis	Tamco RC Ranger 4WD 1:10 EP Jeep TAR0003
Helion	Dominus 10SC V1 - longer chassis	Discontinued, v2 uses different base/chassis
Reely	Titan - same chassis	Reely Titan 1:10 RC Modellauto Elektro Monstertruck 4WD
-	-	-

All models listed above are mostly identical (parts spec wise). They may have different motors, ESCs, servos, batteries but the the rest is the same truck. Same chassis (confirmed visually - there are two versions of the chassis: the short one that can be found in Jamara Tiger, Tamco ranger, Reely Titan and the longer one that is present in Helion Dominus, FS Racing Victory), same diff casing (confirmed visually with purchased FS Racing part), same A Arms (confirmed physically), motor mount (two version of motor mount for the two versions of the chassis), etc. The body is sometimes different (see Tamco Motor Ranger), the wheels may have different size, the spur with other teeth/diameter, but the main parts are the same.

Parts listed below are confirmed size and perfect fit for all models in table. The table contains part name, followed by  brand and price. Helion is omitted because the discontinued thing and Reely Titan because is obscenely expensive (and Conrad exclusive it apears)! Green means is confirmed fit and purchase, yellow means pending approval (order is shipping).

Part	Jamara part no.	Price	Tamco part no.	Price	FS Racing part no.	Price
Fender Tiger upper front	505089	6.4 EUR	TAR538002	£1.99	-	-
Control arm Tiger lower front	505089	9.8 EUR/ 35 lei	TAR513007	£1.99	FS-513007 - Alu	$13.90
Driveshaft Tiger	505091	11.8 EUR	TAR538004	£5.99	FS 538104	$3.94
Steering hub set	505079	35 lei	TAR511484	£2.49	FS 511484 / Alu	$3.53 / $14

I assume the original manufacturer of said trucks is in fact FS Racing - China based.

The Review Goes Here

It is cheap and it is 4x4. Except for the spur gear, all transmission is metal.

The good

• Cheap newbie truck. If you are new to the hobby this is a good place to start. 
• Nice big 5inch (12.5cm) wheels.
• Motor and ESC splashproof. I ran through puddles, snow and cleaned it in the shower. The ESC is as good as new. I now use velcro to secure the ESC and Rx cover so cleaning it is very easy.

The not so good

• Stock 2000mAh 6 cell NiMh battery and charger. Battery lasts 5-8 minutes with stock brushed motor and the 200mA charger output takes a long time to charge it (10 hours).
• Important components does not have easy access - take motor for example, the screws are hard to get to. In  order to get to the spur gear you have to disassemble the gear box (take off the cap) .
• Battery compartment design allows some cooling but also may allow some puncturing to a LiPo, in case you use one (not hardcase).
• The aluminium chassis. You may think that aluminium chassis is durable, but in this particular case poor design make it bend (slightly for now) in front. Another issue is that it is small. It is impossible to fit a velcro cover for use in harsh environment. (moved to realy bad section)
• Wheels wobble a lot! Mostly the back wheels. Video coming soon.

The really bad

• Front bumper design! Is terrible! I am not a hard basher and this is not a fast truck. It goes 20 mph top speed. If the bumper does not break, the gearbox case does. Both cheap parts, but shipping takes forever (in Romania that is) and gearbox case is hard to replace!
• Spur gear and pinion gear cover allows for rocks and dust to get in there. This will prematurely wear your plastic spur and brass pinion.
• The aluminium chassis! It is the most fragile part and will bend after some jumps. It is hard to find in stock and very expensive (Jamara one is 40 EUR or $40+). It is so fragile that it is easy to bend by hand! I am considering building a custom one from thicker and stronger(7075 alloy) aluminium.

Transmitter 

This is the well known widespread FS GT2 transmitter pictured below:

This can be found on so many RC's with different brands/names but is, in fact, the same product. You can get receiver end (3 ch receiver) for this product for like $6  on eBay, etc.

Repair/Crash log

The truck is pretty solid but I am no hardcore basher! Also I run it rarely (like once a week).
So far the following parts failed:

• Front bumper (505089 / TAR538002) after a direct hit with a big tree. I was running a brushless 12T 3330 KV motor 60A ESC (motor and ESC are HobbyWing copies, ESC here, motor here) with LRP 6 cell 5000mAh NiMh (link here). The hit was not that hard, it was not full speed (and top speed is slow), maybe 10-15 MPH.
• May 16 2015 - (Front) Gear Box Set (Original Jamra 505075 2-3 EUR, but I went for FS Racing one from banggood - free shipping FTW -  FS 511005 $3.83, link here). This time, the replacement bumper was stronger than the plastic gear box. Again, not full speed... Ran into a ditch.

• June 14 2015 - No damage except for bent chassis (again) - aluminium is very weak now after other crashes and bends easily :(. And maybe some suspension pins. I will reinforce it with some 3mm metal sheet (stainless) front and back... I hope not too heavy (150 grams worth of metal...). Note: the plastic parts are so solid, nothing broke! Pics with the damage:

Upgrade log

Here are some upgrades:

• 16T and 19T(Part no. 6919) 48dp  HPI metal pinion gears. They work pretty well but I believe the stock spur is not 48dp but 0.6 metric... This is not ideal but it does the job for now.
• Brushless 12T 3330 KV motor (Hobbypower Racing 60A SL V2 Brushless ESC for 1/10 Car). The brand is Hobbypower, a copy after Hobbywing, but half the price.
• Brushless 60A ESC (Hobbypower 3650 12T 3330KV Brushless Motor for 1/10 RC Auto Car Truck), pictured below:

• Jamara CCX 2,4 Pro 3 channel Transmitter and receiver pack. This is a rebrand of the Fly Sky FS-GT3B 2.4Ghz (review here by UltimateRC - TheJang):


• Jamara 505148 from different Jamara model was a perfect fit! Too bad the rocks find way inside and damage the spur.

Update 5/12/2015 

I ordered from eBay a HSP spur gear (64T) and some pinion gears. I hope they will fit as the hole of the spur is the same 5mm... I will post updates here after receiving/testing the HSP parts.

I also discovered that original FS RACING 53633 Victory has a slipper clutch as option part!!!
Part number is FS-539054 and I could not find it anywhere. I found the truck available for sale on banggood (product link here) and asked the seller about the slipper clutch option part and said it will be available for purchase shortly (here you can see discussion). I will update this post as soon as I have something new about this topic. Slipper clutch will be so nice to have and the truck can finally get some speed :)

The Dominus 10SC also has optional slipper clutch with part number  HLNA0177. Price is around $20 but it is not a confirmed fit as I suspect the Dominus chassis is longer...

Update 5/19/2015

Ran couple of packs in the weekend. I measured speed using Nex 5  and SpeedView: GPS Speedometer. Maxed out at 33 Km/h (20 mph) using 12T 3330 KV brushless/60Amp ESC/6 cell NiMh/72T-16T gearing. Pretty lame, but still fun :). It was visible that 6cell NiMh was struggling to keep the motor running, as there was no torque. The motor heatsink and fan worked magic and it kept it cool throughout the "bashing" session. In case you wonder it is a cheap $5 model (yeah, you guessed it - banggood, Metal Heat Sink 5V Cooling Fan For 1/10 Car 540 3650 Motor). Here it is:

Update 6/14/2015

Purchased 3S LiFePO4 from HK (ZIPPY Flightmax 4200mAh 3S2P 30C LiFePo4 Pack). I ran 30% of the pack, then switched to my NiMh pack. Did the chassis damage on NiMh hitting rocks...

Switched again to 3S LiFe (with the damage above) and ran the rest of the pack. I have a video of it (keep in mind that in the video the chassis is bent as you see above):

This truck is pretty strong regarding plastic parts. Wish there was an upgrade (or should I say downgrade) with plastic chassis! I plan to make it stronger and hope to make it a real bashing truck.




TO BE CONTINUED...