WLTOys 184016 vs 144010 and 144001: Which parts are Compatible and why you might want to swap.

The WLToys 184016 is a small scale brushless RC car from WL Toys. It is clear on closer inspection that rather than being an updated version of the poorly-designed A959, it is in fact a compact version of the widely known 1/14 scale 144001 and 144010. I say compact rather than shrunk because it shares all the main parts from the driveline and suspension setup albeit with a smaller track and shorter wheelbase. My full review will follow soon but for now please read on for which parts you can swap between the two cars (and why you might want to do this).

The Driveline

The driveline is the first place you usually look and is often unique to a car. Not so here, check out all of the parts that are the same:

This is the same 27t pinion gear, spur gear, and motor mount as the Eachine EAT14 and 124017 V1. There are many pinion gear options now as you can see from my Eachine pinion gear guide here

Diffs front and rear are identical for both 1/12-14 cars and the 184016. This means the 184016 is definitely over-engineered for it's size and weight

Front (and rear) hubs are the same as the entire 1/12 and 1/14 range from WLToys as are the bearings

Even a proper 12mm hex is used on the 184016 like the bigger cars meaning a great range of wheel options are available

And here are the parts that are different yet compatible:

The 4wd prop shaft is obviously shorter but otherwise shares the same fixings.

Here is a rear dogbone driveshaft from the 1/14 and 1/12 scale car on the front (top) and the 184016 (bottom) showing a 15mm length difference. They are otherwise identical

The rear diff housing is a different mould which allows the motor to sit back just a little further and allow for more room in the chassis

The overall out-take from the similarity in drivelines between the new small scale 184016 and the larger scale 1/12 and 1/14 cars from this range is that it is well-overengineered for this small and light cars which should make it very durable. Even if you do have issues then replacement parts are cheap and readily available on these wear items. You even have a reasonable range of ready made gear ratios available, certainly more than we had at the launch of the original 144001 anyway where we had to work hard to get alternative gear ratios. I'm very plelased with this design choice and amazed they managed to shoe horn it in to this little car.

Suspension

Next, the suspension is where we'll focus. Not so many common items here except for the key fixing components:

Front and rear a-arm hinge pins and hinge pin holders are the revised units from the 144010 and more recent cars that are actually a bolt and nut rather than a pin. Using this same hardware means parts are interchangable

And the suspension parts that are different in this new, smaller car are:

Like the driveshafts, A-arms on the 184016 are only 40mm long from pin to pin compared to 55mm in the 1/12 and 1/14 cars. Of course the camber and steering tie rods are shorter too and this is repeated on the rear of the car.

Aluminium shock towers on the 1/12 and 1/14 cars are replaced with plastic on the 184016. Shocks are shorter to suit and are a smaller bore with softer springs to suit the lighter weight of the car. Oddly they come devoid of oil so if course I topped mine up and they work much better.

So, why am I so obsessed with what is different and what is the same? ​Here are a couple of different scenarios that are now a possibility for us:

By putting the shorter a-arms, tie rods and driveshafts from the 184016 on any of the 1/12 or 1/14 scale cars (144001, 144010, 124016, 124017, 124018, 124019) you can make a car that has a smaller track by 15mm side i.e. 30mm in total. This will make compatibility with bodies like the phat bodies Escort or mini much better and may even open up some of the bodies from the Tamiya 1/10 scale touring car range.

PHAT BODIES - FORD ESCORT MK2 BODYSHELL FOR LOSI MINI 8IGHT, WLTOYS 144001, LC RACING EMB-1

PHAT BODIES - BANZAI MINI BODYSHELL FOR LOSI MINI 8IGHT, WLTOYS 144001 LC RACING EMB-1

Conversely if you have a 184016 you can use the longer A-arms, tie rods and driveshafts to make a very wide tracked car for maximum stability during bashing. This will also allow you to bump up your ground clearance too, particularly if you run some larger wheels - e.g. the Remo P6973 will make this look like a monster truck.

Electronics and power train

Other than a physically smaller ESC the electronics are identical between these two cars. This means that replacements and upgrades that apply to the 144001 family also applies to this range. Ditto with motors and gearing - this car essentially comes with the powertrain from the Eachine EAT14 and so all of the pinion gears and motor mounts and any of the brushless upgrades I've ever done are all compatible with the 184016. Just remember to take into account the smaller diameter wheels change the effective gear ratio. If you were that way inclined, you could even use a 144001 motor mount and fit a 3650 brushless motor but strictly for speed runs and not without consideration for the battery and ESC.

My guess is this is a 30A ESC on the 184016 compared to a 45a unit on the 144010 / 124017 / 124016. It is slightly smaller and has a different switch but can still be programmed with a surpass hobby programming card. Other than that the receiver and remote are the same

Steering

The last section I'll cover is the steering because there is enough of a change so as to make a difference:

The 184016 uses the same 17g 3-wire servo but has the servo saver built in to the servo horn. The drag link setup is also more lightweight and compact due to the smaller amount of room available.

Here on the 144001 / 144010 / 124016 / 124017 / 124018 / 124019 the servo saver is built into the steering mechanism rather than the horn.

So that's it for my comparison of the new WL Toys 184016 mini brushless 4WD buggy comparison which is remarkably similar to the popular 144001 / 144010 / 124016 / 124017 / 124018 / 124019 models. This makes for great spare parts availability but also some more parts options to customise your cars further. I'm really looking forward to the Frankenstein builds that come out of this. Of course, my review won't be too far away!

Thanks to Makerfire for sending me this model to review, they have the WL Toys 184016 in stock ready to ship and if you use this link and code QUADIFRC you'll get $15 off your purchase

Remember buying from any of these links in my review/guide supports my page without any cost to you and is appreciated especially since I don't ask for money via patreon and the like. If you want to get involved in this discussion, feel free to join the QuadifyRC Facebook Group Here or like my Facebook page below ↓ ↓ ↓ ​