# Original Aurora Tuff Ones thoughts/pics/ramblings...



## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

Sometimes I wish Aurora had released the Tuff Ones chassis as an option under any Thunderjet body with wheel wells that would fit. These are all original Aurora bodies with uncut wheel wells and screw posts. The chassis are all original Aurora Tuff Ones, with the exception of the Camaro which is an Aurora Thunderjet with JL wheels, and the Toronado and Mako Shark which are JL chassis. It seems to me that this is the way that God and Derek Brand intended these to look...



















I guess it was easy and cheap enough to buy the Tjet you wanted, with or without chassis, and then buy a Tuffy chassis to put under it...

It's snowing. I'm bored.

--rick


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

I was never a big fan of Tuffies when they came out because they were so prone to overheating. I'd like to get my hands on some NOS chassis and see if the addition of Super II or JL magnets cures the overheating problem. I suspect it might.

I like the look of the Tuffy chassis on the GTO and to a lesser degree the Firebird, but on the rest of the chassis it comes out looking a bit exaggerated. Too wide in the rear and too narrow in the front. In fact, a wheel and tire half the width of the Tuffy rear would have been the perfect size fore and aft on the TJets. I wish JL had corrected that deficiency instead of blindly copying the Aurora model.

Better you than me with the snow. Last year we had around 180 inches. More is not better.


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

AfxToo said:


> ... on the rest of the chassis it comes out looking a bit exaggerated. Too wide in the rear and too narrow in the front.


 From a pure realism standpoint, I'd have to say you're right. But the proportions of Tjets are on the cartoony side anyway, and I like the way the Tuffy wheel/tire setup works with that. Besides, it reminds me of what us knuckleheads did to our cars in high school... Gabriel Hijackers with N50s on the rear, skinny little standard size fronts...



AfxToo said:


> Better you than me with the snow. Last year we had around 180 inches. More is not better.


 It's kinda ticking me off because it's the weekend. I'm a teacher. I actually LIKE digging out of a foot of snow if it's in place of going to work. I do NOT like doing it on my day off when I have other stuff I'd rather be doing.

--rick


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## sethndaddy (Dec 4, 2004)

I'm hoping it snows all night so I can call off work tomorrow.


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## buzzinhornet (Jan 20, 2000)

AfxToo said:


> I like the look of the Tuffy chassis on the GTO and to a lesser degree the Firebird, but on the rest of the chassis it comes out looking a bit exaggerated. Too wide in the rear and too narrow in the front. In fact, a wheel and tire half the width of the Tuffy rear would have been the perfect size fore and aft on the TJets. I wish JL had corrected that deficiency instead of blindly copying the Aurora model.


My thoughts exactly AfxToo... 



ParkRNDL said:


> Besides, it reminds me of what us knuckleheads did to our cars in high school... Gabriel Hijackers with N50s on the rear, skinny little standard size fronts... --rick


ROTFL That brought back a few memories...  

GP


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## sethndaddy (Dec 4, 2004)

WOW, you guys did things with your cars, thats great. I drove a beat to hell 1969 chevelle, complete with car first aid kit in trunk (gallon of water, for when it overheats, a hammer, big screwdriver, and a roll of duct tape) ahhhh the good ole days. now the engine light comes on for no apparent reason, you take it in and their computer can't find anything but hell the lights off now.....cha ching 190.00 bucks.
the latest dinger.......engine light again, complete with the flashing transmission light, AGAIN, no problems running at all, but now it may cost me up to $2,500.00...for some trans problem I can't feel when driving.
gotta love my 99 Isuzu Rodeo, 130k miles, anyone want it? i'll cut you a good deal, BEEN SERVICED REGULARLY............


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

Hey Ed, I got a package going out to you once we get dug out... 

--rick


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## sethndaddy (Dec 4, 2004)

Cool Beans, Thanks Rick........actually I Forgot About It.


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## AMX (Nov 1, 2005)

If they had really good silicone tires back then they could have made a tire half as wide that would have stuck as good if not better.

Tuff Ones are still my most favorite slot car of all with non mag being a very close second if not a tie.


Mine never really melted down.....I wonder why they got the reputation of running too hot? I like them with 3 ohm arms and they still survive....


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

> Mine never really melted down.


I think I may still have a couple Tuffy chassis where the brushes are permanently embedded in the chassis, rotated several degrees off center. The Tuffy problems were very real and were due to a combination of several things. The superspeedway gearing on the Tuffys tended to bog down the motor on short tracks. Anytime you bog down a DC motor it wants to draw more current to make up for a deficiency in back EMF. Stronger magnets improve this situation by requiring less current to make up the difference. The 6 ohm arms in the Tuffy could draw more current. The more current, the more power dissipation in the form of heat. Without adequate cooling the heat would build up and the little car would start to cook. 

It's the combination of several things that cook a Tuffy: 1) gearing that bogs the motor, 2) low ohm arm, 3) weak magnets, 4) inadequate cooling, and 5) a power supply that can supply all the current the arm demands that leads to a cooked slot car. If you take away one or more of these things the situation improves.

My favorite Aurora of all time, the AFX, had much better cooling. It helped. I'm not sure if the AFX magnets were stronger. You could still cook one of these if you didn't stay on top of it. The power supplies that started appearing around the AFX time frame were much lower current wallwarts too. 

The magnatractions probably should have been the all time best barbecue cars because of the extra load presented by the magnetic downforce. But they circumvented the problem by upping the arm resistance to around 15 ohms.

The JL cars have wicked magnets and a high ohm arm so they run much cooler than the Aurora Tuffy.

Yes, you can run a 3 ohm arm in a Tuffy with stock magnets. But as with a stock Tuffy or AFX, at the very first sign of performance degradation you absolutely must pull the car from the track. Trying to sneak out another lap or two may turn your little hot rod into a smoker, and that's the end of that chassis. I run my cars are lot harder now than I did as a kid, but I run them a lot smarter too. At the first sign of trouble I stop and fix the problem. I also maintain and set them up much better to begin with.


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

Regarding wider tires: take a look at what's happening with HO race cars today. The magnet cars are all moving to narrower rear tires. It does two things, allows more space for wider traction magnets but it also keeps the tire running on the track surface and off the rails. You're seeing a lot more TJet racers with the inside of the rear tire stepped up so it doesn't contact the track, or the rails.


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## roadrner (Jul 21, 1999)

ParkRNDL said:


> Besides, it reminds me of what us knuckleheads did to our cars in high school... Gabriel Hijackers with N50s on the rear, skinny little standard size fronts...
> 
> --rick


Nothing like a set of 70s or 78s on the front of your car when your running 50s on the backside to give you that race car look. Talk about the memories. LMAO. :thumbsup: rr


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## Marty (Oct 20, 1999)

ParkRNDL said:


> Besides, it reminds me of what us knuckleheads did to our cars in high school... Gabriel Hijackers with N50s on the rear, skinny little standard size fronts...
> --rick


In the early '70s I had a '67 Dodge Dart GT, 235hp 273cid, 4 speed, Metallic Blue w/G70's on the back and D70's on the front mounted on Cragar 5 spoke mags. I would have liked bigger tires on the front, but the fenderwell exit Hooker Headers forced me to the smaller size. Yes the torsion bars in the front were cranked up all the way and Air shocks to bring up the rear.

Man I miss that car!!

Marty


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

Tweaking the torsion bars and pumping up the air shocks - been there - done that.

How many of you vintage Mopar fans busted off a driver's side wheel stud or two before you realized they were threaded lefty-tighty instead of lefty loosey?


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## Marty (Oct 20, 1999)

AfxToo said:


> How many of you vintage Mopar fans busted off a driver's side wheel stud or two before you realized they were threaded lefty-tighty instead of lefty loosey?


Never broke one off but the wheel *BOLTS* on my '48 Plymouth gave me H**L the first time I tried to remove a wheel!

Marty


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## Marty (Oct 20, 1999)

BTW - Try the Toronado with Tuff Ones rear wheels on the rear & front.

Marty


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

Marty said:


> BTW - Try the Toronado with Tuff Ones rear wheels on the rear & front.
> 
> Marty


Actually... I've done that using AFX wheels. I've been meaning to switch to Tuffys because they're lower profile, but I never got around to it. BTW, I also made the car FWD so it's "anatomically correct"...



















See the whole thread here:

http://www.hobbytalk.com/bbs1/showthread.php?t=124448

--rick


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## tjd241 (Jan 25, 2004)

*Can you say highschool hotrods?...*

I knew a couple guys who actually bought their own set of rims and tires and used to slap'em on their parent's car (when they had permission of course).

BTW... How do you all manage to get such nice large pics posted? After I re-size mine to get under the limit they end up like postage stamps???


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## ParkRNDL (Mar 20, 2002)

tjd241 said:


> BTW... How do you all manage to get such nice large pics posted? After I re-size mine to get under the limit they end up like postage stamps???


When you include pictures as an attachment, they have to be resized kinda small. I usually don't put them in that way... I post them to my Web site using an FTP (File Transfer Protocol, I think) program and then put a link to the Web address of the pic in the thread.

I love that gold GTO, by the way. I think that's the best-looking color MM makes it in.

--rick


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## roadrner (Jul 21, 1999)

AfxToo said:


> How many of you vintage Mopar fans busted off a driver's side wheel stud or two before you realized they were threaded lefty-tighty instead of lefty loosey?


I fought my 70 RR trying to get the front driver's side wheel off until the previous owner reminded me of the old way. 

I had forgotten about those MOPAR feats of engineering. :lol: rr


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## tjd241 (Jan 25, 2004)

ParkRNDL said:


> I love that gold GTO, by the way. I think that's the best-looking color MM makes it in.
> 
> --rick


When slot mfgs. do a "real" looking color... it's the first one I'm attracted to. I like MM bodies...especially when they do them up like this one was. I wish they had a stronger capacity to come out with new things though.


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## buzzinhornet (Jan 20, 2000)

tjd241 said:


> When slot mfgs. do a "real" looking color... it's the first one I'm attracted to. I like MM bodies...especially when they do them up like this one was. I wish they had a stronger capacity to come out with new things though.


I like the MM bodies too but ever since the "tplus" fiasco they've been in a funk... 

GP


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## Mad Matt (Dec 16, 2004)

sethndaddy said:


> WOW, you guys did things with your cars, thats great. I drove a beat to hell 1969 chevelle, complete with car first aid kit in trunk (gallon of water, for when it overheats, a hammer, big screwdriver, and a roll of duct tape) ahhhh the good ole days. now the engine light comes on for no apparent reason, you take it in and their computer can't find anything but hell the lights off now.....cha ching 190.00 bucks.
> the latest dinger.......engine light again, complete with the flashing transmission light, AGAIN, no problems running at all, but now it may cost me up to $2,500.00...for some trans problem I can't feel when driving.
> gotta love my 99 Isuzu Rodeo, 130k miles, anyone want it? i'll cut you a good deal, BEEN SERVICED REGULARLY............


C'mon, you know the new Technician creedo... "It's Normal" (Until your vehicle goes out of Warranty that is)


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## Rolls (Jan 1, 2010)

Is there any reason to replace the worn out, incorrect original tjet chassis that came under my ebay purchased Aurora Willys Gasser Tuff Ones car with a NOS Tuff Ones chassis rather than an AW Ultra G with the magnet removed and the pickup shoes & springs tuned? I'll run this car at home, so it'll see lots of use. It's not a shelf queen or collectible. Standard NOS t-jet chassis seems too mild / slow for this car.


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## resinmonger (Mar 5, 2008)

Rolls said:


> Is there any reason to replace the worn out, incorrect original tjet chassis that came under my ebay purchased Aurora Willys Gasser Tuff Ones car with a NOS Tuff Ones chassis rather than an AW Ultra G with the magnet removed and the pickup shoes & springs tuned? I'll run this car at home, so it'll see lots of use. It's not a shelf queen or collectible. Standard NOS t-jet chassis seems too mild / slow for this car.


IMHO, there are three reasons you'd want to put a NOS Tuff One chassis under an original Tuff Ones body.

1) The body is really mint and you want to build a completely accurate car to sell for best price.

2) As above but you want to display it as a nice collectable piece.

3) You just want to drive a "real" tuffy around the track for nostalgic reasons.

You've ruled out cases #1 and #2 right off the bat. As to #3, what is it worth to you to have a Tuffy versus an AW clone? From my searching, I can get a complete AW chassis for 1/2 to 1/3 of what I'd spend on a NOS Tuffy. I do have a few NOS Tuffies for old times sake but I'm not going build up a fleet of them. I personally would prefer a nice TJet chassis. But AWs are relatively cheap and run OK so I have them as well.

Hope this helps.


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