Restoring a Taiyo 9.6V Typhoon Hovercraft
Created forum thread for Jono's questions on restoring a Taiyo 9.6V Typhoon Hovercraft.
Latest comments at bottom!
Always wanted one of these as a kid and finally picked one up today locally here in Australia. It’s in pretty awesome condition really but just a couple of questions
(1) Is there a source to buy repro instruction manuals or somewhere I can download and print one myself?
(2) is there a source for repro decals or boxes?
(3) Is there a source for buying the air skirts?
(4) Can anyone recommend a rechargeable battery pack to go inside the typhoon?
Sorry for all the questions. Any help is greatly appreciated.
Cheers
Johno
Hey Johno, and welcome!
I’ll have a go at giving you my thoughts on these, though others may have a better idea!
So I’ve not seen any reproduction manuals anywhere – it’s common to find Tyco manuals on US eBay, but finding a specific one is going to be hard. I’d set a saved search and wait.
I think you may have just applied to the Facebook group? Approved, if that’s you. There’s a guy on there, Nostalgia RC who does decals. Not sure if he does Typhoon, he may, worth asking him. See his details and samples here. One guy does boxes, but not per original sadly.
How to get Custom RC Decals for RC Car Mods and Restoration – Tyco Collectors
Getting new skirts / air cushions is the hardest part with these. They’re rare. Sadly you may have to buy a Typhoon to ransack it for parts if yours isn’t functional. The skirts do appear online though, I managed to get one (sorry, it’s mine!) so it is possible, but super rare.
All my Typhoons have the 8xAA battery tray where you insert AA batteries, same as this one, so just any Alkalines will do. If you have a different one which takes the 9.6V turbo packs, you can find them on eBay (advertised as 8xAA battery pack), the trick will be getting a matching connector for your Typhoon.
I hope that helps.
As to the 9.6v packs – yes my typhoon just has the 8xaa battery tray, but i thought that maybe they all could take a rechargeable 9.6v battery pack? i’m a novice with this so probably totally wrong? i was thinking something like this may be suitable??or this one ?
is the taiyo connector the same as tamiya by any chance?
Also can you use the handheld controller of a typhoon on a mini typhoon or t3 typhoon (or any other models) if you don’t have a handheld controller for them as I assume you can’t buy the controllers for easily? I mean one at a time too not trying to run 2 x hovercrafts off the one controller.
Are you happy for me to ask these questions here or should I ask on the facebook page?
Cheers
Johno
Answers
So those batteries should be good! I checked my Typhoons battery pack, and it appears to be Tamiya compatible, see photo attached.
It's not too hard to find Typhoon controllers on eBay, there's some listed on the 1988 Taiyo Typhoon's page right now actually (USA though).
It all depends on the chip inside the controller, but as a general rule the different controller design means a different chip. So a Typhoon Mini and Typhoon original won't share the same controller, nor with a T-3. You'll need one for each generally.
See list of all controller designs here or look at each Typhoon model on the site and see how its controller is styled, and try to find one that matches. Just because a controller has a sticker of another car on it does'nt mean it won't work, it's all about the year it was made (thus design) frequency, and sometimes color of the frequency sticker can indicate a difference. Of course, the Typhoon only has 2 vertical sticks so that does limit your choice in what other controllers you can buy, but it won't be too hard to either get an original, or one from another car that works.
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