Model Forum / Radio Controlled / Land Models / April 2007

What do you expect? You're driving it in winter on a cold day of course the
plastic will get more brittle and be easier to break.

If you want to make the car tougher then remove the suspension components
and put them into a pan of boiling water, take the pan off the heat and wait
until it is cool. That will de-stress the plastic and help reduce the
breakages. This is an old trick from years ago.

I experienced the exact same thing with the RC10TC when it first came out,
on cold days (below about 5 degrees C) it was very easy to crack/break a
wishbone. Once I treated the wishbones, hubs, uprights and shock towers the
car was much better at surviving cold weather crashes. Of course once
Associated started to get feedback they released much more beefed up
versions of the wishbones for the car, the wishbone pivot pins went from 2mm
to 3mm and the wishbone increased in size around it.

One thing you have to remember is that these cars are designed and tested in
warm climates (above 15 C) and by drivers who don't necessarily crash as
often as you or I will, and may even be designed to be run just indoors. I
know all the people round here who have 1/18 scale cars and would never
think to run them outside as they just won't stand the terrain and so they
never get into the colder temps.

Chris