# New MaxTrax setup @ Xence' house (long)



## Xence (Oct 2, 2007)

So here in my quiet basement in the central ct. locale I have purchased and now set up a brandy new maxtrax track. Took me 2 months or so to get it, I'm not whining that's just how long it takes from the initial order, and after that small amount of time ... WOW is it ever worth it. I originally had a 12'x4' tomy setup, while they do work pretty well and all I realized I had been spoiled back in '03 when I was able to race on someone else' maxtrax setup. Ever since then ... well the bug had bitten me. So here it is around 5 1/2 years later and I now own one of these beauties. Let me tell you folks this thing is genuinely ... THE BOMB! of tracks. I know there are other REAL nice tracks out there but I would never claim I know one lick about them as I've never raced on any of them. I only ever knew the maxtrax and was always enamored with that setup. I'll try to post pics later but as of right now I only have a few pics in my phone and I can't upload them right this second. 

Micyou3 has already asked if he can put a cot in my basement.... lol 

The first thing I did was to remove all of the tomy track from the table and be as careful as possible while packing it. Once that was all put away I vacuumed the table off so as to get any debris off of the track. I swept it off as well just to make sure there was even less dust/debris. Went to joanne fabrics and bought 4 yards of green felt & a can of 3m spray on glue. Sprayed the table down with the glue and then put the felt on top of it making sure there were no wrinkles in the felt. Nice and flat that came out so it looks really nice. I was very pleased with myself.  I then opened the box up that contained my track and begun laying the pieces out on the table. If you're not aware the maxtrax track doesn't connect in like the tomy track perse, it has these connectors that you have to sort of mash into each slot. Have to be careful though otherwise you'll really make a mess out of the track itself. I used a piece of cardboard to push the little connectors in so as not to destroy my thumb and/or the track. After doing this for like 4 hours the track was almost completed. I noticed as I got nearer to completion that I was missing like 5 of the connectors so I put a call in to Dave @ maxtrax yesterday. Dave's been a pretty danged stand up guy and has answered all of the questions I have had so far. Just waiting to hear back from him on the missing connectors but last night I took some time and with some help from micyou3 (I haven't done any sort of electrical work in lord knows how long) I wired up one of the lanes just to check it out. 1 word is all I can say .... "un-be-stinkin'-lievable" wow is that ever an amazingly nice track. Smooth as all get out and once I ran a few laps there were no stops/starts none of that, just a real smooth quick startup every time. 

If you guys ever get a chance to race on one of these don't let the opportunity pass you by. For me personally this really is where it's at concerning racing. Incredible. I'll post a few pics later on once I get home.

Cheers,
Xence


----------



## tjd241 (Jan 25, 2004)

*Yes!*

.... *pictures* would be great... Good luck with the new track. Better yet, maybe Mic can shoot some video?... After all he'll be sleepin there next to it.  nd


----------



## tomhocars (Oct 19, 2005)

Good luck with the new track.I love my Bowman track.Some people like the click,click,click but I grew up with 1/24 routed tracks.I love hearing the cars accelerate.
Tom Stumpf


----------



## Dyno Dom (May 26, 2007)

Xence, Good luck w/your new Max-Track. Great to hear you are pleased
w/the quality & smoothness.  You did very well on the wait time, I waited
much longer for mine. Although, I certainly can't complain about that as my track was rec'd. in March & is still boxed.  No excuses, I started prepping table from previous Tomy layout but have to finish sanding & paint surface.
Will you be securing track pcs. to table? Any other suggestions for assembly,
especially w/keys?


----------



## Xence (Oct 2, 2007)

Sorry this took me a couple of days to get pictures up. I took like 3 or 4 but only posted 2 as that's all I really needed anyways. Hope you guys enjoy.

So in response to Dyno Dom's questions I'll do my best to answer your questions, my overall thoughts, & whatever else I can think of to make life easier for others. Hey if anyone here knows of something I'm missing please don't hesitate to put it up here. I am NOT an expert with these by any way shape or mean, I'm a complete novice when it comes to maxtrax tracks. 

Like you dyno I had a tomy setup. I had a huge 4 lane setup 12'x4' so making the switch over to the maxtrax (to me) was a sort of logical progression. Start with the tomy stuff and work up from there. Micyou3 & I took and wired 2 lanes of the track up tonight as I'm awaiting a few of the keys. Dave miscounted when he sent those to me because i made a couple of changes to one of his layouts. Concerning keys: I found that the screwdriver that was sent to put the keys in DOES work very well but if you miss you'll gouge your track or your hand, either way ... bad news. So instead I took a piece of cardboard and pushed them in with that so as not to wreck my hand or the track. Took me around 10-15 minutes per track. I' sure I was being overly cautious but these things are expensive and I didn't want to take a chance at wrecking this masterpiece.

ok it's 11pm ... I'll post more tomorrow. I'm whipped and 4:45am comes pretty early.

Cheers,
Xence


----------



## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

Nice track and a great layout. I've run on a slightly different version of that exact layout. I've always loved the Max tracks. Very smooth and the extra lane spacing is nice. The rails tend to have more magnetic pull than Tomy track so you may have to go to a taller tire on your true race cars. But box stock cars will rock on that puppy right out of the package and make for some awesome side by side racing. The first time you nail it midway through the sweeper heading into the big straight and hear nothing but the acceleration of the motor and mesh of the gears ... the two month wait will seem like a millisecond. 

The felt looks nice. Not sure how it will stand up over time to metal pins and such, but it looks good now. 

Enjoy your new life in Smoothville.


----------



## Xence (Oct 2, 2007)

ok so a new day has arisen and I have a bit more to post on this as I was just absolutely whipped by the time 11pm rolled around last night. 

When racing w/micyou3 we noticed that many of the cars that ran great on the tomy didn't run so hot on the maxtrax. The two of us believe that the tires are an ENORMOUS factor here and like afxtoo said I think the tires are too short. Seems like many of the cars, the MT's especially, seem to drag on the track unlike the tomy track. So I believe that given a bit of time we're going to be having to buy a boatload of new silicone tires or something. I have a pile of weird jacks and they ran great on the tomy but they seem to work alot differently on this track. Now please bear in mind this is my absolute first observation on this. I don't know that I'm right as I don't seem to have my cars really dialed in to this track. I've only run this track at any length for a couple days now.

Another observation that I noticed was that on some of the tracks at the joints several of the cars would get stuck. In talking to micyou3 we both kinda think that it's just a simple matter of making the correct adjustment to the track so the pieces line up correctly. VERY tight track so being a little finicky, imho, is worth it. Heck these things aren't cheap so spending a bit of extra time making sure the track runs as flawlessly as possible doesn't bother me in the least.

Has anyone had to put secondary power taps anywhere on the track or does it seem to work well enough the way it's set up?

Tell you one thing though. This track is amazingly technical, so it is NOT for the faint of heart. My old tomy layout was fun as heck but nowhere near as technical as this one is.

ok that's about all for the moment. Hey if anyone here has any insider information on getting these to run better, a certain way they set their's up ... etc... post a story ... whatever. put it up. I'm open for it. I like reading what others do with their real nice tracks.

Cheers,
Xence


----------



## micyou03 (Apr 8, 2003)

I had a great time at Xence's last night. The track is awsome.

That yellow GT40 is mine. The wierdest thing happened to it. As I excellerated out of the big sweeping turn the body jus lifted off one side and got tucked unter the chassis on one side and made the car stop. I had just got done oiling it and made sure the body was on good. I ran abot 10 laps before this happened.


----------



## tjd241 (Jan 25, 2004)

*Sounds fun...*

Just a tease until you get one similar Mic?? Until then though, just make sure Xence get's yer breakfast to you downstairs on time every AM...:lol: nd


----------



## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

*What dreams are made of*

Really nice set up. You got all us have nots droolin' for sure. :thumbsup:


----------



## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

Checkout Steve's notes about his Max on his web site. He covers a lot of ground that you will want to follow.

http://home.comcast.net/~medanic/SRE-1.htm
http://home.comcast.net/~medanic/Tech-1.htm

Like I mentioned earlier, the only difference (beyond the smoooothability) that I have seen on a Max with magnet race cars is the added downforce. I love racing on these style tracks. I'm teetering between building another big Tomy or going straight for a large scale modular smoothie, i.e., Max or WizzTrackz.


----------



## BRPHO (Aug 1, 2006)

One of the gentleman in the slot club I run with has a big max trax tri oval that I got to run on for the first time.

Wow! what a smooth and quiet track to run on plus I like the width of it also.

The evening I got to run on it we were running Life Like renegade sprinters that were stock except for taller rear tires. It was a blast seeing them all running together.

The second race was t-jet dash roadsters. That was a lot of fun too!

Wish I had the room for a Max Trax myself.

I highly recommend them!

Enjoy!

Wayne :thumbsup::thumbsup:


----------



## Dyno Dom (May 26, 2007)

Xence, Nice layout! :thumbsup:
Did you get the track fastening clips @ joints? Good tips on assembling track keys. Like AFXtoo, I prefer a sectional modular over a fully routed track for an upgrade. I like the wide lane spacing & track shoulder width of the Max. Steve's articles have a lot of useful info.


----------



## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

The large format modulars allow you to easily extend the layout if you find yourself with more space to play with in the future. Xence's layout is especially nice and I would definitely incorporate aspects of it in any track I'd do, regardless of brand. When you run CCW on that track you are really getting a big 360 degree continuous turn heading into the main straight. When running a magnet car through that section just right. the sensation is like a major league pitcher winding up and slinging a fastball over the plate. It's highly addictive and smile inducing.

To me the choice between a Max and WizTrackz comes down to rail preference. The Max is magnetic stainless and the Wiz is conventional cold rolled steel. Both great products, both big step ups over race set track. I've raced on both and always walked away thinking "I want one of those."


----------



## Xence (Oct 2, 2007)

Dyno ... yeah I bought the fasteners but have yet to put them down. Micyou3 & I got 2 of the lanes wired up the 1st day he was over and we were so excited just to race on something like this the last thing I was thinking about was putting the holders down ... lol 

One thing I've seen people do as well was to drill holes into the edges of the track to fasten it but man I was honestly have major reservations about putting holes into such a beautiful track. I know people do it and the look is awesome but I was just afraid of wrecking something. The track is just too danged expensive for me to be playing that game so I got the fasteners. I'll get around to it .. lol .. sooner or later ...

In response to afxtoo ... those sites don't come up for me BUT I'm at a campground right now writing this post so it's highly possible that the wifi here just isn't up to snuff. I'll check it out when I hit my raceway. Now ... what to name it .. what to name it ...

I saw someone name theirs "kastleburg raceway" and I've seen some other real cool names here and there but I haven't come up with one just yet that has caught my fancy. The next thing to add is the foam core board on the edges so the cars aren't destroyed every time they come off the track. Almost wrecked a couple already and I'm not playing that game.

Cheers,
Xence


----------



## Xence (Oct 2, 2007)

So after reading the steps on Steve's webpage about how to set up his maxtrax I followed his examples. Everything worked like a champ. Afxtoo, you mentioned that you may need a taller tire, micyou3 was telling me that he read in my directions that the rails are higher so that would necessitate the need for a taller front tire. I put a taller O-Ring tire on there and there is absolutely NO clackity-clack going from one track to another. I was almost horrified it was so quiet. All I can hear is the whine of my 512M whipping around the corner. NO track noise, that was almost disconcerting it was so smooth. Took me awhile to get it up and straightened out while following steve's directions but lemme tell ya ... it was just TOTALLY worth it.

Having so much fun just messing around with it that I STILL haven't put the foam core board up around the edges. I'll get around to it I just haven't done it yet is all. One thing I noticed as well with this track is that you really need to tweak your pickup shoes so they are as flat as possible. That's one thing that has made a huge difference for me.

ok off for now.

Cheers,
Xence


----------



## fordcowboy (Dec 27, 1999)

I love my two max-track alot. Iam not to happy with my buck track. lendell


----------

