Tamiya Konghead Project

Page 2: Upgrades!

The Konghead certainly doesn't need any upgrades given what it is made for, and that's what I told myself for a couple of months. Then my nature got the better of me and I bought some stuff anyway. I started by replacing the cheap plastic friction dampers with some aluminum oil shocks. These are actually made for the 4 wheeled version of the GF chassis so I needed to get two packs of four which left me with two extra. They are really nice and I'm sure I'll find a use for them somewhere.

Next up is the motor. The kit came with the standard 27 turn silver can motor. I got a 23 turn Tamiya Super Stock BZ with replaceable brushes. Besides the difference in turns, this is just a much nicer motor and makes the vehicle considerably faster while not being ridiculous.

These images show the chassis before and after the upgrades. The shocks are pretty obvious. The new motor is made for off-road use and comes with a small foam end bell cover to protect the brushes and contacts.

I really enjoyed the new speed and damping, but the model remained pretty bouncy due to the large tires with no inner support. I found some foams that were about the right size and they made a huge difference. This thing is much more stable over the bumps now. I highly recommend this change.

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