🧰 Maintenance Guides

RC Hardware Reference: Screws, Bearings and Springs

How RC hardware is named and what the numbers mean. Why M3x12 button and M3x12 flat head aren't the same length, the backwards-turn trick that stops self-tappers stripping plastic, the universal bearing sizing system, and an honest note on what no database anywhere can tell you.

SAFETY

How to Solder Correctly — the RC version

Every other soldering guide teaches circuit boards. RC is fat stranded wire onto battery connectors and motor tabs, next to a charged LiPo. Real temperatures, the failures that actually bite, and how to tell which one you have.

After a Wet, Muddy or Snowy Run: Stopping the Damage That Happens Later

Water does most of its damage in the days after the run, not during it. Ten minutes on the night — in this order — is what decides whether the bearings survive.

After a Dry, Dusty or Sandy Run: Why You Never Wash It First

Dust damages mechanically, not chemically — and washing a dusty car turns the dust into grinding paste and drives it into the bearings. The dry-first order, then what to check.

The Post-Run Teardown: Ten Minutes That Stops Cheap Damage Becoming Expensive

Clean before inspecting, inspect before tightening. The full order to work through, a three-tier checklist for every run versus periodically, the extra list after a crash, and why the motor temperature reading is only valid in the first minute.

Bearing Care: Four Tests, a Full Rebuild, and How to Buy the Right Replacement

How to tell a good bearing from a dying one with four one-minute tests, clean and re-lube one properly, decode the size so you can buy them anywhere, and know when cleaning stops being worth it. Plus why one dragging bearing costs you a motor.

Waterproof vs Water-Resistant: The IP Standard RC Marketing Ignores

There is a real international standard for water protection (IEC 60529) and almost no RC product quotes it. What IPX4, IPX7 and IP67 actually mean, what each component really tolerates, why salt water is a separate category, and the after-run protocol that decides whether it survives.