Baja 5B Electric roller for $345 should I do it?

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danl said:
Would someone care to help me understand where Losi, Rovan, and HPI all fit together with these rigs? Are they a shared open design? Or did someone copy the other when a patent expired? What are the differences? Who currently makes what?
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HPI made the first Baja 5B's back in 2006.

They are petrol/gas powered, IC, 23cc RTR 1/5th scale buggies. Variants such as the Baja SS were updated with anodised parts, a 26cc CY Fuelie engine and were in kit form. Truck variants came out and were super popular.

Then came the Flux versions for those that preferred 8S Brushless powered machines.

Following the whole Traxass/HPI patent 💩 saga, it became apparent that King Motors and Rovan were making clones. I have no idea if these events were linked or not, but it was just an observation.

Essentially, the parts between the HPI variants and the King Motors/Rovan were interchangeable. Many to this day insist that the HPI parts quality was better. There were subtle differences, the main one being that King Motors and Rovan tended to be a little heavier - the frames and mouldings were thicker.

More recently, ROFUN - seemingly a sister company to Rovan - has come about.

Imminently - HPI Baja SBK is to become available - in Brushless or Petrol/Gas versions.

https://www.modelsport.co.uk/product/hpi-baja-5b-flux-sbk-kit-1346889

https://www.modelsport.co.uk/product/hpi-baja-5b-gas-sbk-kit-no-engine--1346890

The clone companies also make versions of the Losi B, which by all accounts are very good. 30 Degrees North also make versions. Since Losi stopped producing these, clones are most welcome.

Ditto for Baja 5B - in a weird twist of fate, clones and the wild aftermarket parts have been the Baja 5B's saving grace. It's become a legendary Buggy.
 
Horatio said:
Essentially, the parts between the HPI variants and the King Motors/Rovan were interchangeable. Many to this day insist that the HPI parts quality was better. There were subtle differences, the main one being that King Motors and Rovan tended to be a little heavier - the frames and mouldings were thicker.

More recently, ROFUN - seemingly a sister company to Rovan - has come about.
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ROFUN is as far as I can tell just a marketing name for Rovan, they're all made by Rovan.


Some preview pics, still not finished with it. Note the body side pods have been replaced by the Baja 5T underguard instead. I also replaced the roof lights that came with it with an aluminum plate and and upper roll cage / handle.

baja_001.webp


baja_002.webp
 
What I mean is that the cheap bicycle GPU speedometer I'm using only shows current or max mph and doesn't log anything.
 
BashingBrian said:
Challenge accepted, what car, what terrain, what battery S's.??
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Baja 5B. 26cc Fuelie (16 years old). Tarmac. Keep us posted. 👍 Zero driving aids - no auto throttle or gyros.

@AngrySection8 will be busting out his Bartolone engine and smashing this 0-40 time in 3...2...1... 🤣

Regardless of engine, Vs brushless - it's going to be very interesting. Multiple factors come in to play.

You can also refer to the thread here:

https://www.corallyforum.com/threads/post-your-0-60mph-times-here-3s-4s-6s-8s-what-have-you.1205/
 
Horatio said:
Baja 5B. 26cc Fuelie (16 years old). Tarmac. Keep us posted. 👍 Zero driving aids - no auto throttle or gyros.

@AngrySection8 will be busting out his Bartolone engine and smashing this 0-40 time in 3...2...1... 🤣

Regardless of engine, Vs brushless - it's going to be very interesting. Multiple factors come in to play.

You can also refer to the thread here:

https://www.corallyforum.com/threads/post-your-0-60mph-times-here-3s-4s-6s-8s-what-have-you.1205/
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I need traction first! My off-road testing on frozen ground just isn't cutting it. Ultimately I need to give it a go on tarmac, guessing it'll be a few months before I start posting Baja times but definitely interested in what others can achieve, I'd really like to know how my gasser compares to the brushless stuff in the acceleration department.
 
AngrySection8 said:
I need traction first! My off-road testing on frozen ground just isn't cutting it. Ultimately I need to give it a go on tarmac, guessing it'll be a few months before I start posting Baja times but definitely interested in what others can achieve, I'd really like to know how my gasser compares to the brushless stuff in the acceleration department.
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Nah! Your best Baja times so far have been done on frosty grass! 'Need' is far too strong a word. 😝
 
I believe brushless will have the torque and HP advantage. But.

0-40mph will be a great equaliser - believe me. 😁
 
You can only put so much power to the ground before the tires give up and a 12s 7500w motor is likely beyond that wall. I'd have to get into ridiculous things like duallies to make an improvement but I'm more interested in just bashing. I know that it goes fast and that's enough.

EDIT: After adjusting the camber to neutral (out of the box the Rovan baja has high negative camber) and with the tarmac buster tires top speed was 62mph @ 49v. I think that's plenty fast so I am now ignoring the little voice telling me to gear it up.
 
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These springs are 2.2mm for the front and 2.5mm for the rear compared to 2.5mm for the front and 2.7mm for the rear on the stock Rovan springs (I feel the Rovan springs are too hard)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/126209887277

I value simplicity so I ordered these single piece aluminum rear hubs. I generally don't like aluminum suspension parts because they are easily damaged but I make an exception for rear hubs because they are protected by the wheel.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/202855578218

I have also ordered this three piece diff housing so I will only ever have to do a complete disassembly of the rear end to get to the diff one time.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/195081435928

The Rovan e-baja comes with standard 8mm dogbones and drive cups not the HD 9mm ones. However they seem to be holding up to 12S fine and the cups and point show no visible wear so far (why don't Corally cars use drive boots and grease?). I will eventually change them out for the HD version at some point.

The shocks show some silicone oil residue inside the boots but no visible leakage (Rovan uses silicone oil not fork oil like HPI). It's likely oil is gradually working it's way out of the shock via the shaft moving so I think tighter seals are in order. The shocks clearly have air in them, they rebound quite a bit. I was already expecting to need to redo the shocks correctly.

I noticed that the wheel hexes have a thread for a screw pin but Rovan provides only plain pins.
 
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Atomic Skull said:
You can only put so much power to the ground before the tires give up and a 12s 7500w motor is likely beyond that wall. I'd have to get into ridiculous things like duallies to make an improvement but I'm more interested in just bashing. I know that it goes fast and that's enough.

EDIT: After adjusting the camber to neutral (out of the box the Rovan baja has high negative camber) and with the tarmac buster tires top speed was 62mph @ 49v. I think that's plenty fast so I am now ignoring the little voice telling me to gear it up.
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You know how fast. The stock 8S flux can achieve over 60mph.

But how rapid can you get it to go? That's where the challenge lies. 0-40 times are where it's at.
 
62mph on asphalt with street tires 41mph on a rough field of wet dirt and grass with knobby tires. Acceleration feels no different than the 6s Shiroi I ran on the same field afterward, one is a 12lb car and the other is a 28lb car. I would like to be able to wheelie it though so I will be gearing it up, it was only hitting a max of 140A and only briefly, usually at full throttle it was around 100a or so. There is plenty of headroom for increasing the gearing with the 250A ESC.
 
I received and installed these rear hubs:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/202855578218?var=503023563021

The quality of the machining and tolerances is extremely good, the bearings are just shy of an interference fit you can coax them in 99.9% of the way with fingers however you will still need either heat or a press or vice to get the bearing that last 0.2mm or so into the seat. I don't foresee retaining compound as being necessary here it will just make it more difficult to change out the bearings later.

The camber link ball is a little sloppier than stock but that's something I have seen a lot with metal ball links (I suspect these are just off the shelf parts). I will see about getting some tighter plastic links later (the stock ones are angled and due to the orientation these hubs require a straight link). Also they do not provide a jam nut for the camber links, you need a nylock nut to tighten against the link to torque the threads and keep it from wallowing out over time. They do provide a pair of new hinge pins and e-clips though. There's nothing different than stock about these it's just a free set of hinge pins. They also provide a new set of m5 cap head bolts and nylock nuts for the camber links as these are shorter than stock.

With the bearings fully seated there is a tiny bit of slop between the 24mm wheel hex and the bearing, as expected. About 0.1~0.2mm that needs to be shimmed out.
 
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