History and gerneral
info
The Tamiya 3 speeds include 4 trucks, I only have Bruisers
though so I will not cover much for the others. The trucks
are the Blazing Blazer, Toyota Hilux, Toyota 4x4 Bruiser,
and the Toyota 4x4 Mountaineer. The trucks were in production
from the 80's to early 90's. The trucks have since become
collectable. Many people look to ebay for their trucks, and
some get lucky finding them at yard sales among other places.
Transmission
The Tamiya 3 speed transmissions feature a on the fly shiftable
transmission. They are shifted via a third channel on the
radio, they can however be shifted without the third channel
but must be locked into one gear. The first gear is the slowest
but also enables 4 wheel drive. Second and third gear are
rear wheel drive only. Second is a great all around gear.
Third gear is fast for this truck and can cause roll overs
in turns. I have rolled mine before in top gear but rolled
off the pavement and into sand.
Axles
The axles on the Tamiya 3 speed axles can handle mild crawling
and pulling but they can break. The cases are cast from pot
metal, this is a weak metal. The inner axle is a solid piece
with pressed on metal gears. Being that the axles are a solid
piece, there is no actual differential on the axles. To lessen
the stress on the front axle and allow for more steering Tamiya
used one way bearings in the front hubs. However some people
will run rear hubs on the front axle for all time 4 wheel
drive. There are aftermarket internal axles available as well
for those that wear out the originals. Nobody has made a outer
housing yet.
Bodys and detail
The Tamiya hard bodys have always had wonderful details and
these trucks are no exception. The main body is in two halves,
the front cab and the rear bed. The Bruisers rear half included
a sleeper cab. While the Mountaineer was a full bed with a
chrome roll bar. The other scale parts include a detailed
interior, clear windows, headlight lenses, fog lights, and
tail lights.
Frame and other parts
The frame of the Bruisers and Mountaineers are stamped steel
and can polish up nicely. There are 4 cross members. The front
two have mounts for the motor and transmission. while the
back two are for the electronics box and rear body posts.
A set of shackles mount to the frame and allow the leaf springs
a range of movement. The leaf springs do tend to go flat and
some opt for Juggernaut springs as a replacement.
I bought my first bruiser in the spring of
2002 and I have been collecting them since. You can find out
about each of my Tamiya Bruisers in the links below. |
