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HoBao H4E Pro Touring car Track Test

So the car was finally finished, bodyshell painted, stickers applied. After waiting excitedly to try the car I finally got to the tra...

So the car was finally finished, bodyshell painted, stickers applied.


After waiting excitedly to try the car I finally got to the track.  The setup I  used wasn't the kit setup. I decided to set it up with a setup that was based on my TRF417.

This is the setup I started with.


With this setup it was easy to drive but really lacked any real front end turn in and tended to understeer quite a lot.  I left this setup on for a couple of races just to get used to the car and make sure that nothing fell off or broke on the car, which it didn't.  I swapped the front springs to the white medium kit springs and removed the 1mm spacers from the steering plate. This made the car much better. It turned in sharper and didn't understeer as much.  The problem then was that I was getting lift oversteer and the back end was loose braking into corners.  I didn't have time to try anything else on this race meeting.

In between the first race meeting and the next I stripped the car down to have a look at how things were.  I was pleased to find that the tightness in the arms and hubs had gone, there was no slop or play forming in anything, no leaks from the gear diff.  One problem I found was that the front driveshafts had bent and the ball on the end had snapped off one side.  I replaced this and re lubed it.
I changed the shock oil to 25wt oil as I wanted the car to change direction a little quicker and also added a 1mm shim under the front of the rear suspension arm mounts.

At the next meeting the car felt great and I was gaining confidence in it until I broke another front driveshaft.  I replaced  it again and in the next race it broke again.  I have been informed that Hobao are currently redesigning the front driveshafts and C hubs to take the bigger driveshafts.  Hobao have also changed the compound of the plastic that they are making the hubs and c hubs from as they have had reports of them breaking due to being  too stiff. I haven't had any c hubs or hubs break to date.

While I am waiting for the redesigned DCJ driveshafts and C hubs I am using a pair of  the rear steel cvds in the front. I have yet to run these to see how they effect the car.

After this meeting I noticed that the shocks were oily on the outside and felt like they had air in.  I opened them up and the oil did have loads of air in.  I put this down to the diaphrams in the shocks. They don't have a very big cup in the middle to seal.  I spoke to Nick at Demon Power Products who had used Xray T4 diaphrams and Tamiya TRF damper bushes in a car he had built so I ordered them up and built the shocks with them. They feel lovely now, smooth, airless and hopefully leak free.

You have to be careful when sitting the diaphrams on as they aren't as wide as the hobao ones and you must make sure the bushings are in the center. I put them together and used TRF 25wt oil as thats what I have been using. The shocks now feel amazing. Never have they felt like they do now. I'll see how it handles next meeting
 Difference in the two diaphrams
These are the parts that I used






Track 2646841863641774004

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  1. Hi, just finished building mine, with largely the same experience regarding fit and finish. The shocks do seem to be let down by the seals and diaphragms - which is strange considering the off-road stuff that HoBao produce have really nice dampers! Regarding the driveshaft circlips, it's important to orientate them correctly - the hook which locates into the drive shaft body must face the direction of rotation, i.e. the remainder of the circlip 'follows behind' so to speak. If fitted the other way around they are prone to coming off under load.

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  2. Hi Mark,

    thank you for your build up article. It helps me a lot. And I had the same issues with the dampers as you. So I used the diaphragms from my ECX Revenge. They fit perfectly into the caps. You'll find them if you search for there part number ECX0890.

    Do you haven't had any problem to build the front spool? I had to use some glue to build it, the first time I have to use glue on a rc car!

    I'll go on with the build the next day and appreciate your recommendations.

    Kind regards schluppy

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  3. Thanks for reporting back after your first drive. I had used both your write ups as a basis to compare my experience. A few things I'd like to have cleared up- do you know why there was four rectangle plates included in the kit ? There was no mention of them being used when following the kits build guide. I'd also like to know what size pinion you chose ..

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