Xmods, available only at Radio Shack, are the cheapest hobby quality R/C car you can find.  For $49.99, you get a car that is extremely upgradable (R.S. upgrades and after-market upgrades), performs well, and comes with a pretty nice storage box. Don’t confuse the Xmod with the many toy R/C cars that are out there, this is the real deal.  Xmods are high quality and highly detailed. To see what I mean, look at the shots of my car below. It could almost be confused with a real car!

For someone looking to ‘get their feet wet’ in the world of R/C cars, the Xmod is a great choice.  For short dollars you can buy a great car that’s lots of fun. Should you decide the hobby isn’t for you then you’re not out that much money.  However, if you fall in love with the hobby then the sky’s the limit.  You know when you’ve been infected by the R/C bug when you rack your brain trying to figure out ways to make your car perform better and you are always scanning the web for the latest and greatest upgrades for your car. Believe it or not, you can easily sink over $500 into this little car in upgrades (aluminum, titanium, and carbon fiber upgrades, electronic upgrades, custom paint jobs, etc.).

Don’t get me wrong, the Xmod isn’t without it’s shortcomings.  But for a price of $50 you’ve got to expect it to be lacking in some areas. First off, the number of electronic ‘steps’ or increments in the steering and throttle is very small. If you slowly turn the wheel or pull the trigger you’ll see the wheels don’t turn and the car doesn’t accelerate very smoothly; it’s a little bit ‘notchy’ and if you’re perceptive you can detect the increments.  In a higher level hobby car there would be 10 - 15 times the number of increments rendering the steps impossible to detect.

An other area where the car is lacking is in the radio.  Personally, I have a love/hate relationship with this thing.  I love how sleek it looks, how it folds up neatly, and it’s ergonomics. I hate it’s short range (20 feet or so) and the fact the steering trim is erased when the radio is turned off. I also hate that you can’t use another radio with the car (due to the car’s integrated electronic speed control, not the radio itself).

Even with these shortcomings there are some areas where the car really shines and pulls away from its competitors. First, the car has 4 wheel independent suspension.  Next, the center of gravity can be fine tuned by sliding the battery holders fore and aft,  all wheel drive upgrade is available (a huge plus!!), and just about everything can be customized on the car. For example, the suspension springs can be replaced in order to fine tune the handling, a light kit can be installed which give the car working head and tail lights, different wheel and tire combinations are available, stock plastic parts can be swapped out for parts with a more exotic composition, and more. Finally, the car comes with a sweet plastic carry case that makes a great place to store your Xmod and all its stuff.

So let’s say you did it, you took the plunge and you just bought yourself an Xmod and now you’re wondering what you can do to make it better. Well, you’ve come to the right place.  Read on to see what modifications I suggest you consider making your Xmod to erase some of it’s faults and make it a really great ride.

1. Brand Name NiMH Batteries: Don’t even think about running your Xmod with regular non-rechargeable batteries.  Not only will you be disappointed to find that your Xmod will exhaust a set of batteries in about 15 minutes (putting you in the poor house) you’ll also find that as the batteries drain, your level of performance will be greatly reduced. Therefore, make sure you purchase quality rechargeable batteries. Radio Shack carries quality batteries, but be aware that you can get them cheaper elsewhere.  Simply search around the Net and you’ll save money. My favorite brand of batteries is Gold Peak, sometimes referred to as GP.  For more on batteries, visit my battery discussion here.

2. Quality Charger: Don’t skimp on a charger! A quality charger will not only charge your batteries to the maximum capacity, it will also do it quickly. Skimp on the charger and you’ll be waiting for hours for your batteries to charge and when they’re done, they won’t have the ‘punch’ that they’ll get from a top line charger.  While you’re at it, why not consider a charger that charges AA, C, D, and 9 volt batteries too!

3. Bearing Upgrade: In order to hit the price point of $50, Radio Shack had to install plastic bushings rather than metal bearings in the car.  Bushings are fine for regular use, but if you want your car to have a higher level of precision, greater efficiency, and higher top speed then you can’t beat bearings. Radio Shack sells a full set of bearings for the Xmod however you would be better served to visit an Xmod enthusiasts site and check out their offerings. You’ll see that not only do they offer sealed bearings (dirt can’t get into them), they offer slightly wider bearings for the wheel hubs. This is important because the wider bearings remove some of the wheel slop that’s inherent with the Xmod.

4. Light Upgrade: OK, this won’t make your car any faster, but it will make it look a whole lot better!  C’mon, what’s better than tail lights that brighten when you hit the breaks???

5. AWD Upgrade: The value of this upgrade can’t be under estimated. Sure, the extra drag in the drive line will reduce your acceleration and top speed a bit, but what you gain in traction and cornering more than makes up for it. Plus, if you plan on installing a more powerful motor, you’ll need it. Otherwise, you won’t be able to get all that power to the ground.  Here’s a hint, toss the steel driveshaft that comes with the AWD kit and replace it with a graphite shaft. Not only is it lighter, but it’s lower rotating mass will mean faster acceleration.

6. More Power!!: The easiest way to make your Xmod faster is to give it more voltage and the easiest way to do this is to add more batteries. In it’s stock form, the Xmod holds four batteries. At 1.5 volts per cell, this gives a total voltage of 6 volts. However, if you’re running NiMH batteries (which you should be), you are only running at 4.8 volts.  That’s because NiMH batteries only have 1.2 volts per cell. They seem more powerful than non-rechargable batteries because their discharge curve is much flatter. Non-rechargable batteries have the 0.3 volt advantage only for the first few moments of use.  Anyway, 6 NiMH batteries will provide you with 7.2 volts which is below the maximum voltage the Xmod’s electronics can safely handle.

7. Motor Upgrade: As you may know, Radio Shack sells their so-called stage 2 upgrade. While I can’t say anything bad about this upgrade, I know where you can get a superior motor for less money. Where??  Inside a Crest SpinBrush. For $3.99 you can get a motor that blows away the Stage 2. The stock motor will give you a top speed around 10 MPH, the stage 2 around 17 MPH, and the SpinBrush motor around 20 MPH. You see, the SpinBrush contains the same sized motor as the Xmod (130) but with lots more torque. A tutorial instructing you how to complete a SpinBrush upgrade is in the works and will be posted soon.

8. Trim the Steering Knuckles: The section of the steering knuckle that mates with the steering rack has a little extra plastic on it for reinforcement.  This reinforcement, however, often rubs on the inside of the front wheels. Simply filing off the extra plastic from the knuckle will solve the problem. Use a file to remove the excess plastic. Do not try to cut it off.  The plastic is a little brittle and may snap.

9. Decrease the Turning Radius: One area of frustration with many Xmod owners is the car’s rather large turning radius. Plus, to add insult to injury, the controller has a setting on it that actually allows you to increase the radius even more. Why???

Well, the first time I cracked open my Xmod and looked at the servo I noticed that the servo horn doesn’t even come close to hitting the servo stops. It appears that the servo is electronically limited from reaching it’s full potential. It turns out that the designers may have limited the Xmods servo movement on purpose.  I suspect this was done because full wheel travel is OK as long as you don’t have the all wheel drive upgrade installed. Otherwise, if the front wheels turn too far, the front wheel universal joints bind and can break. To me it seems that the servo was intentionally ‘dialed down’ in order to prevent this from happening. My solution is to restore the full servo movement and if you have the AWD upgrade, then simply dial down the servo travel with the controller’s servo adjustment dial.

your car’s electronics.  Once your batteries are removed, go ahead and carefully disassemble the car. I always disassemble my car on a cafeteria tray. That way, all the small parts stay right on the tray.  Nothing’s worse than dropping one of the tiny screws onto the carpet! Once your car’s apart, move everything aside except for the electronics. Your electronics look like the image below (not the tray!).

Looking at the servo, you’ll see three wires coming out of the middle of the servo and two very thin wires coming out of the servo’s potentiometer. Be very careful not to damage the pot’s wires, they are very thin and break easily. The wire’s were concerned with are the three wires in the middle of the servo. Cut the brown and orange wires near the bottom of the servo. Leave about 1/8 of an inch of wire sticking out of the servo.  Do not cut the red wire.

Below you can see the results. The red line shows the original steering travel. The blue line shows the increased travel resulting from this modification.

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