QUADIFYRC.COM
  • RC Cars
  • Car of the Month
  • Quad Reviews
  • About & Contact

QUADIFYRC RC Car Review and Upgrade Guides

WL Toys 104001 is too Slow. Get 20% more speed for $2

7/5/2021

Comments

 
Now that I've finished my review of the new WL Toys 104001 4wd 1/10 scale RC buggy it's clear that this is nowhere near as fast as the earlier 124018/124019 and 144001 models which uses essentially the same electronics. In this article I look at how easier it is to close this speed gap and the theory around it.
Picture
When the 144001 was released, the speed they got by using an oversized brushed 550 motor was impressive - around 50km/h flat out. This was due to an oversized motor and tall gearing in a fairly small car. Obviously we've seen smaller brushless setups like even this budget one go much faster but the brushed electronics keeps the price down. Moving on to the new 104001, we have essentially the same electronics but the motor is no longer oversized, rather it is more appropriate for this size of car.

​Many people have said that the 104001 is slow because it uses the same running gear with more weight. That is only *slightly* true - acceleration is inversely proportional to weight (F=m.a)  which gives the sense of speed but top speed is only tenuously linked to weight. The main reason the 104001 is slower is actually due to shorter effective gearing. As much as I did moan about the gearing in the 144001/124019/124018 being to tall, this really did bring out the performance which feels lacking in the 104001. The good news is that with a more common gear pitch and an adjustable motor mount this is an easy fix. If you don't want to go into the theory below then skip the next section and go to the solution
Gear ratio theory and comparison
RC cars and indeed real cars use reduction gearboxes that not only transfer the rotational energy from the motor to the wheels but also reduce the speed in order to take advantage of the motor's power band. This means the for every revolution for the motor, there is less than 1 revolution for the wheels. This gear ratio is a result of the differing gear sizes in the car namely the motor pinion to spur gear and then the differential pinion to differential ring gear. Lastly the diameter (or rather circumference) of the wheels then has the final say as mentioned in my article on wheels here. So let's cut to the chase and do a direct comparison,
WL Toys 124019
Picture
44t spur : 27t motor pinion = 1.63:1 reduction
30t diff ring gear 12t diff pinion:  = 2.5:1 reduction
Overall reduction = 1.63 x 2.5 = 4.1
This means you need to turn the motor 4.1 times to get 1 turn of the wheels
Wheel circumference = 3.142 x 72mm = 226mm
​Therefore car will travel 226/4.1 = 55mm for every turn of the motor
WL Toys 104001
Picture
70t spur : 22t motor pinion = 3.18:1 reduction
40t diff ring gear : 14t diff pinion = 2.86:1 reduction
Overall reduction = 3.18 x 2.86 = 9.10:1 reduction
This means you need to turn the motor 9.1 times to get 1 turn of the wheels
Wheel circumference = 3.141 x 85mm = 267mm
​Therefore car will travel 267/9.1 = 29mm for every turn of the motor
This is pretty astonishing information - assuming the motor is reaching it's maximum speed this would mean the small 144001 should be roughly double the speed of the 104001, even taking the smaller wheels into account. Clearly this is not true as the top speed of the motor is being limited by friction and other real world conditions.
Regardless, this is a massive opportunity to increase the speed of the car through gearing. At this stage in the absence of other spur options we need to change the pinion. The good news is that mod 0.6 pinions that fit this car are readily available in a wide range of sizes and are super cheap - like $2 cheap when you buy in a 5 pack as below:
Picture
Surpass Hobby M0.6 Metal Gear 3.175mm Set 01: 13-17t
Picture
Surpass Hobby M0.6 Metal Gear 3.175mm Set 02: 18-22t
Picture
Surpass Hobby M0.6 Metal Gear 3.175mm Set 03: 23-27t
Picture
Surpass Hobby M0.6 Metal Gear 3.175mm Set 04: 28-33t
The largest pinion that is presently available and fit without modifying the motor mount is 31t. Without going back through the maths this will give over 40% more to speed from gearing at around 41mm travelled for each turn of the motor. Alright, lets get some real world results and test our hypothesis that a 31t pinion will net us a 50% increase in top speed. We can ignore friction for now 😅. You'll note below that I had to remove the gear shroud to fit the 31t pinion - 29t is about the largest that will fit with the shroud.
Picture
These Surpass Hobby pinions are actually really nice - see the printed text with gear modulus and teeth count 👍. grubs screws are included and require a 1.5mm hex driver
Picture
31t is too big to fit with the shroud
Picture
So off it came!
Picture
Job done - the shroud is not needed to secure the spur gear assembly but take care with wire routing as more moving parts are now exposed
Does the new gearing give us more speed?
First of all lets check the speed of the stock car with the factory 22t pinion
Picture
...And now with the 33t pinion
​
Picture
Another 8km/h represents a 20% increase in top speed for just $2: this is a noticeable difference in anyone's book and it definitely does look faster too. No, it's not *quite* as fast as the 124019 but it's a darn sight better than stock.

​It is worth noting that the car does take a while to wind up to top speed on this gearing. If you are doing straight line runs the ESC and motor will get only just warm but as soon as you start cornering, accelerating, decelerating, skidding etc the motor and ESC get hot quickly and battery life takes a hit. This is a sure sign that the gearing is too tall for the weight of this car on day to day bashing and the like. Good thing you have lots of spare pinions in the pack then to experiment which gives you the best balance of speed, acceleration, heat control and battery life for the way you drive on the surface that are unique to you. Personally I've settled on a 28t for now.
Thanks for reading and if nothing else you've found a way to get a little more speed out of your stock car for not a lot of money but more importantly you have more of an appreciation for gearing - an option we never really had for the earlier WL Toys models. Enjoy!
​Thanks for reading, if you found this article useful please feel free to like or share, the facebook links below directly link/like this article. I don't believe in asking for money by patreon nor by paypal but if you do wish to help me, the affiliated links in these articles help me buy the bits and services I need to produce this type of content. If you are looking for RC ​cars, quads or parts check out my coupons and discounts page which I keep updated with only the RC cars, parts and quads I like at a proper discount
Comments

    Categories

    All
    1002s
    104001
    104002
    104009
    104072
    1/10
    124016
    124017
    124018
    124019
    14209
    14210
    14301
    14302
    144001
    144002
    144010
    16886
    16889a Pro
    184016
    284010
    284131
    284161
    4s
    4 Things
    Am-x12
    Anti Roll Bars
    Balance
    Basher
    Battery
    BL3FG
    Brushless
    C24
    Charging
    Cogging
    Crawler
    D22
    D32
    Diatone
    Diatone Q25
    Drift
    Drop In
    Dumborc
    Eachine EAT14
    Eachine EC30
    Eachine EC30B
    EMB-MT
    Ex07
    Ex16
    Flyhal
    Flysky FS-G7P
    Flysky Noble Pro
    FMS
    FPV Car
    Goolrc
    Guide
    Gyro
    HBX
    Hbx 901a
    HS10422
    IFlight M4 AC
    K989
    LC12B1
    LC Racing
    Lipo
    Metal Parts
    Micro
    MJX Hyper Go
    Mod
    Monster Truck
    Mx-07
    Pincone
    Pinion
    Preview
    Program Card
    Project WLCRacing
    Q33
    Racerstar
    Radiolink RC6GS V3
    RC Boat
    Receiver
    Review
    Rlaarlo
    ROCHobby
    SCT
    Setup
    Sg 1602
    SG 1603
    SG 1604
    SG Pincone 1002s
    Snt
    Soldering
    Spectre
    Speed Run
    Stance
    Surpass Hobby
    Timing
    Transmitter
    Tuning
    Tyres
    Upgrade
    Vinyl
    Wheels
    WL916
    WLToys
    WL Toys
    WLToys 2428
    Wpl
    X6pm-350
    Y60
    Zd Racing

    RSS Feed

Thanks for visiting QuadifyRC.com Follow us on facebook below to get all the latest updates
  • RC Cars
  • Car of the Month
  • Quad Reviews
  • About & Contact