 On-road RC racing cars are very sensitive to minor adjustments. This means maintaining your car is quite important if you want it to perform at the highest level possible
Your instruction manual will likely provide a list of recommended tools. For most of these tools, you can get away with using whatever you have access to. There are a few that are worth invest in high quality however Three Most Important Tools: 1. 1.5mm Hex Driver. This will be used primarily for tightening your pinion gear screw. This screw is small and the last thing you want to do is strip the screw from using a low quality or warn out tool. Invest in a good quality 1.5mm hex driver and you won't regret it 2. 2.0mm Hex Driver. A 2mm hex driver is among the most used tool in EP touring cars. Although the quality of this tool isn't quite as important as a good quality 1.5mm for your pinion gear, you'll be using this tool a lot and a good tool will help avoid stripping and/or damaging the screws on your fancy new RC car 3. 7.0mm Nut Driver. This is for your wheel nuts. You're also going to use this one a lot. The quality of this tools isn't quite as important as your hex drivers but, if you're shopping for tools and it's within your budget, consider getting a quality 7mm nut driver to match your other tools Brands: There are many good RC tool brands to choose from including Hudy, MIP, Arrowmax, MR33, Protec and many more. You want to focus on quality and availability. It's all well and good to purchase a nice tool from MR33 for example but it will be a little bit harder to complete your set as these are not readily available in North America (I important them from Germany upon request but this sometimes takes a month or more). Here are the two brands I recommend: Hudy I recommend Hudy for several reasons - they are very high quality, they are readily available (through me or online) and you can complete your tool set with all the tools you'll ever need in the future. Hudy tools are expensive but if you view them as a long term investment, they are actually a good value. Another bonus with Hudy tools is that you can replace the tip should you ever wear one out MIP MIP tools are also very high quality and are generally a little lower price when compared with Hudy. They are also a little bit easier to obtain locally. Before switching all of my tools over to Hudy, I used and enjoyed my MIP tools. The issues I have with MIP include non-replaceable tips - if you break or wear out a tip, you'll have to replace the entire tool. The 2mm driver is too short to adjust camber screws on some of the modern touring cars and lastly, if you like everything to match, MIP doesn't offer setup tools etc the way Hudy does Avoid: Avoid the temptation to buy the no-name brand, made in china tools. The "deal" may look too good to pass up but the frustration from stripping and damaging screws just isn't worth the hassle. Buy fewer tools and focus on quality Tool hack: If you already have a set of tools with removable tips, you may be able to upgrade the tip to a Hudy. This will be cheaper than buying a complete Hudy tool. You can upgrade the tip of the most important tools and keep the others as-is for now Future Considerations: There will be many more tools that will come in handy but these top three will get you started. Later, we'll look at some chassis setup tools and maybe some of the specialty tools but for now, these three are all you really need Where to buy: I primarily sell MR33 and Hudy hand tools. I can also get some of the other brands like Arrowmax and occasionally MIP. Your local hobby store may be able to get some Hudy and likely most MIP tools well. Please try to support those that support our hobby whenever possible If can't source what you need locally, you can use this referral link to buy from Amain Hobbies (I'll earn a small referral fee if you use that link) Alternatively, you can try to source some used items by posting a wanted ad on our local Facebook buy and sell page but be careful when buying used tools as a worn out tool is no better than a cheap one: Comments are closed.
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