RCCrawler Forums

jmini · 05-07-2010, 07:19 PM

so im finally putting my hilux high lift build on here. i figure i work/play around with this thing enough so i'll make a thread for my build. hopefully i'll get some opinions and some help along the way. i've had my truck for almost a year already but i haven't put it up. i'll post a brief picture sequence of my build in it's stock form (you've all seen enough stock build already)

so heres the stock stuff.

simply put, i didn't know what electronics to get so i got whatever.
-it's the stock motor
-a Duratrax intellispeed esc (at first i didn't know any better)
-futaba 3-pm remote
-futaba servos (old ones my dad had, i spent enough buying this thing for now)
-i also put a light kit. I just wanted to have it for the “cool” factor

thats it or the stock things. Here is some stock crawling

This was really fun, but crawling with my friends cr-01 fj made me a little jealous. Modifications NEEDED!
i found so many limitations with this truck but the shifting was probably the best part.
I took out the old battery holder and moved it between the frame behind the tranny. Its a lot more hidden.
i didn't want to spend any money so i eventually got to moding my stock build.
-chino mod to leafs for more flex. But only to the one side of each leaf.

-got a pretty good amount of flex

-clocked my tranny 90 degrees for more ground clearance

-This is how I mounted it

-i also 86’d the old skid plate and made my own with more scape metal and spacers from the old skid plate. It protects the tranny pretty well.

-So with the tranny being moved a bit, I had to adjust the shift servo

-the steering was bulky on the side, so I moved it under to hood next to the newly relocated shift servo

-the steering got a lot more solid

With the tranny being higher, the angle of the shafts were pretty steep and probably caused this. Not to mention the shafts get warn pretty fast.

-Basically I did away with the extra weight.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get any new pictures of me crawling with these mods but TRUST ME, THEY ARE WORTH IT. It was a lot more fun.
I pretty much only used the low and mid gear which was fine with me.
I did notice, however, my rig got a little more top heavy due to the tranny being on the frame rather then in.
I did everything I could with my build without spending a cent more.

I saved some money to buy some upgrades. And here they are.

-rc4wd steel stamped stock rims and rok lox tires for more ground clearence

-it opened up the stance a little and looks great!

-rc4wd ltl lock outs for more solid feel in the rear. Btw, I really had to make these work with the high lift axles. It was a bit of a pain but I got it to work the end results are great.

-remember that broken bevel shaft? Heres rc4wd steel bevel shaft. It feels so much more smoother then the stock on as well. I turned the front and rear seperately and the one with the new bevel shaft was so much more smoother? I may get another to replace the existing stock bevel shaft

-rc4wd aluminum knuckles to replace the plastic ones. Unfortunately the ones I got were kinda ugly inside so I shipped it back. It’s been three weeks nothing yet. They’re waiting to get it from their supplier as well.

-AND LASTLY. My rc4wd r2 transmission. It was hard for me to decided which one to get. I know I’d miss shifting but I didn’t know how more steeper my drive shafts could go if I got the two speed. So I got this instead since it is proven to be awesome!!!

-to mount the tranny I used the skid plate from earlier stock mod and mounted it on that. It’s a little flimsy but it’ll do.

Other mods since the new parts include:
-chino mod to “both” ends of the leaf. My rig got lighter so the articulation didn’t change much. Maybe I’ll add weight to the wheels to keep them planted? I lowered body for nicer look.
Its more solid with better axle ground clearance. And solid rear end.

-here is are pictures with it all together.

OVERALL, I really liked it. BUT… guess what?

“I MISS SHIFTING!”
I just knew I would. ): tried to believe I wouldn’t but I did.
The r2 tranny works great even with my stock, 27t tamiya motor. Of course it originally didn’t take the motor, so I had to grind down the r2 case to take it.
It crawls smooth but I miss the speed when I want it! I changed the pinion gear from the 8 tooth that came with the tranny, to the stock 13 tooth(I think thats the count? I forget)
I just kept the 8 tooth because I figure it better be good at crawling slower > then to be okay with speed and junk with crawling.

We’ll see what I’ll do next. I have a couple things in mind. But this being my very first build thread.

WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK?

crunky · 05-07-2010, 08:18 PM

i think your on the right road towards addiction

i run that same transmission in my crunk rock chevdog...
except i run a 35T in mine, so it's even more of a cement mixer.

jmini · 05-08-2010, 02:16 PM

addition already has taken over!

lol yeah. i've been thinking about getting a 35t motor. we'll definitely see in the next couple weeks.

jmini · 05-09-2010, 04:40 AM

transmissions

so i've been wanting to get a 2 speed transmission.

either a r2 2-speed trans. or possibly the summit 2-speed.

i still want a little torque with my low gears so i'll get a higher turn motor like a 35t or 45t. A 55t might be too high right now but we'll see.

i've been considering the tekin fx-r esc. those things are exactly want i want to get. it compact, has onboard adjustability, and mainly has the ability to adjust the drag brake right on the unit without hooking it up to a computer.

also considering a 3 racing winch.

i've been eyeing these things out for a while now. i may need to get a new remote. which brings me to my next addition. traxxas 4 channel LINK system with 5 channel receiver. i'll mod the 3rd and 4th channel with epa's so i don't burn up any servos.

i can run my 3rd channel to shift between the two gears and 4th channel for the winch. (: cannot wait.

jmini · 05-10-2010, 08:46 PM

i took my truck out for a test run.

i noticed that my truck would wheely up hills or vertical obstacles.
this was a detail i never thought about.
After changing my transmission from the stock high lift transmission to the r2 trans, i anticipated the truck being lighter and having a lower center of gravity = a better crawling ability.

i also didn't realize that the stock transmission placed most of the weight toward the front for the truck. which is possibly a plus. also, when i clocked it 90 degrees i gained ground clearance but raised the CG. though the CG was raised, i really liked the performance it crawled up hills fairly well.

when i put the R2 in, i lowered the CG once more but i might've canceled it out by adding my significantly taller roc lox tires.

i haven't decided what i'll do next. thinking about fooling around with weights to the truck. i know it wont be lighter but i'll help balance the ruck out again. hopefully then i can keep the front wheels planted going hills.

jmini · 05-18-2010, 03:56 AM

I noticed that when im driving on flat ground my truck shakes quite a bit. I honestly believed it was the chino moded leaf springs but since i've adjusted/fixed that, there still is that chatter.

When i hold the wheels off the ground and apply throttle, the front wheels are NOT smooth? it sorta... "skips", "jumps" around.

i removed the drive shaft and spun the bevel gear by had. it sort of binds a little then frees up, then binds a little again.
my rear axle does not do this. in fact its real smooth.

so i took my front axles completely apart and inspected the parts. i didn't find any grinding or gouging of metal so idk whats up?

anyone else have this problem? or have any ideas?

jmini · 05-28-2010, 01:12 PM

well, i have figured out what was up with my axle. IT WASN'T THE AXLE AT ALL!

i should've known it was my driveshaft. i barrowed my dad's axial driveshafts and found that it smoothed the ride out real great!

on to my next problem. so i wanted to increase the strength of my steering with a new servo. i went the cheep way and bought a mg995 off of ebay for $16.

i got it the other day and they... how do i say this... "SUCK" when i turn fully left or right and let my steering wheel go back to center. the servo finds center then goes through a full throw left and right. it keeps going back and fourth until i stop it by hand.

BUT, when i slowly turn left and right and slowly back to center, the servo works fine.

so idk whats up. other have said this servo would twitch but a "twitch" is an understatement when trying to explain this issue.

i've already contacted the ebay seller and i hope all will be solved.

src · 06-29-2010, 05:25 AM

hello
how did you go with your mg995 servo

jmini · 07-26-2010, 09:27 PM

The servos are working great. i found out that the problem was actually my esc. i guess it wasn't putting out enough juice. but since then i upgraded my esc to a tekin fx-r with a 35t motor. from there i was able to run my servos just fine.

but before i bought that i checked with that ebay seller and told them my problem. of course i was assuming it was the servos fault at the time. but then they sent me two more mg995's free of charge!!!
Awesome customer service. so for 16 bucks i pretty much got 4 MG995's

they work just fine with the new esc and im currently running one for my steering and one for a servo winch. it's perfect! (: i'll soon post up pics of the set up as it currently sits.

attme · 07-27-2010, 05:10 AM

looks good keep it up

i know its hard to give up the 3 speed i will not give my 3 speed up in my f350.

vipxj · 07-27-2010, 01:18 PM

Hey,nice mods to your hilux,so you chopped your 3 speed up yet?

that4byguy · 07-27-2010, 04:09 PM

looks good, I like what you did for a trans and am thinking of going the same way, any suggestions or would you change it? Thanks.

jmini · 11-15-2010, 01:33 AM

thanks so much for the complements guys, i really appreciate it.

vipxj, i know this is a bit late. well, its REALLY LATE, but no i haven't, im too scared of really messing it up. lol, maybe in the future.

Quote:

Originally Posted by that4byguy

looks good, I like what you did for a trans and am thinking of going the same way, any suggestions or would you change it? Thanks.

that4byguy, i'd say its a great mod. better ground clearance without interfering with the hilux cab. not bad i'd say.
one downside is when going on an off camber obstacle the higher transmission causes my rig to be very top heavy. thats when i just went to the rc4wd r2 transmission. it worked great! but as i mentioned earlier, shifting is so much fun.
i'll say that the hardest part about clocking the transmission 90, is the mounting. sure i mounted it, but it was kinda ugly.
another downside is that the driveshafts get really taxed being at that angle. i pretty much messed my driveshafts up completely from this mod.

but since using the r2 tranny i replaced both driveshafts with rc4wd plastic ones. these ones would probably pop off constantly with the 90 transmission mod so its kinda hard to say what you should do with this.

if you have any more questions please feel free to ask. i'll give you the best advice i can.

thanks again.

05-07-2010, 07:19 PM	#1
jmini Newbie Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Honolulu Posts: 49	my hilux high lift stock... to stock mod... to... added goodies (: so im finally putting my hilux high lift build on here. i figure i work/play around with this thing enough so i'll make a thread for my build. hopefully i'll get some opinions and some help along the way. i've had my truck for almost a year already but i haven't put it up. i'll post a brief picture sequence of my build in it's stock form (you've all seen enough stock build already) so heres the stock stuff. simply put, i didn't know what electronics to get so i got whatever. -it's the stock motor -a Duratrax intellispeed esc (at first i didn't know any better) -futaba 3-pm remote -futaba servos (old ones my dad had, i spent enough buying this thing for now) -i also put a light kit. I just wanted to have it for the “cool” factor thats it or the stock things. Here is some stock crawling This was really fun, but crawling with my friends cr-01 fj made me a little jealous. Modifications NEEDED! i found so many limitations with this truck but the shifting was probably the best part. I took out the old battery holder and moved it between the frame behind the tranny. Its a lot more hidden. i didn't want to spend any money so i eventually got to moding my stock build. -chino mod to leafs for more flex. But only to the one side of each leaf. -got a pretty good amount of flex -clocked my tranny 90 degrees for more ground clearance -This is how I mounted it -i also 86’d the old skid plate and made my own with more scape metal and spacers from the old skid plate. It protects the tranny pretty well. -So with the tranny being moved a bit, I had to adjust the shift servo -the steering was bulky on the side, so I moved it under to hood next to the newly relocated shift servo -the steering got a lot more solid With the tranny being higher, the angle of the shafts were pretty steep and probably caused this. Not to mention the shafts get warn pretty fast. -Basically I did away with the extra weight. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any new pictures of me crawling with these mods but TRUST ME, THEY ARE WORTH IT. It was a lot more fun. I pretty much only used the low and mid gear which was fine with me. I did notice, however, my rig got a little more top heavy due to the tranny being on the frame rather then in. I did everything I could with my build without spending a cent more. I saved some money to buy some upgrades. And here they are. -rc4wd steel stamped stock rims and rok lox tires for more ground clearence -it opened up the stance a little and looks great! -rc4wd ltl lock outs for more solid feel in the rear. Btw, I really had to make these work with the high lift axles. It was a bit of a pain but I got it to work the end results are great. -remember that broken bevel shaft? Heres rc4wd steel bevel shaft. It feels so much more smoother then the stock on as well. I turned the front and rear seperately and the one with the new bevel shaft was so much more smoother? I may get another to replace the existing stock bevel shaft -rc4wd aluminum knuckles to replace the plastic ones. Unfortunately the ones I got were kinda ugly inside so I shipped it back. It’s been three weeks nothing yet. They’re waiting to get it from their supplier as well. -AND LASTLY. My rc4wd r2 transmission. It was hard for me to decided which one to get. I know I’d miss shifting but I didn’t know how more steeper my drive shafts could go if I got the two speed. So I got this instead since it is proven to be awesome!!! -to mount the tranny I used the skid plate from earlier stock mod and mounted it on that. It’s a little flimsy but it’ll do. Other mods since the new parts include: -chino mod to “both” ends of the leaf. My rig got lighter so the articulation didn’t change much. Maybe I’ll add weight to the wheels to keep them planted? I lowered body for nicer look. Its more solid with better axle ground clearance. And solid rear end. -here is are pictures with it all together. OVERALL, I really liked it. BUT… guess what? “I MISS SHIFTING!” I just knew I would. ): tried to believe I wouldn’t but I did. The r2 tranny works great even with my stock, 27t tamiya motor. Of course it originally didn’t take the motor, so I had to grind down the r2 case to take it. It crawls smooth but I miss the speed when I want it! I changed the pinion gear from the 8 tooth that came with the tranny, to the stock 13 tooth(I think thats the count? I forget) I just kept the 8 tooth because I figure it better be good at crawling slower > then to be okay with speed and junk with crawling. We’ll see what I’ll do next. I have a couple things in mind. But this being my very first build thread. WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK?

05-10-2010, 08:46 PM	#5
jmini Newbie Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Honolulu Posts: 49	interesting/unexpected discovery i took my truck out for a test run. i noticed that my truck would wheely up hills or vertical obstacles. this was a detail i never thought about. After changing my transmission from the stock high lift transmission to the r2 trans, i anticipated the truck being lighter and having a lower center of gravity = a better crawling ability. i also didn't realize that the stock transmission placed most of the weight toward the front for the truck. which is possibly a plus. also, when i clocked it 90 degrees i gained ground clearance but raised the CG. though the CG was raised, i really liked the performance it crawled up hills fairly well. when i put the R2 in, i lowered the CG once more but i might've canceled it out by adding my significantly taller roc lox tires. i haven't decided what i'll do next. thinking about fooling around with weights to the truck. i know it wont be lighter but i'll help balance the ruck out again. hopefully then i can keep the front wheels planted going hills.

05-18-2010, 03:56 AM	#6
jmini Newbie Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Honolulu Posts: 49	front high lift axle issue I noticed that when im driving on flat ground my truck shakes quite a bit. I honestly believed it was the chino moded leaf springs but since i've adjusted/fixed that, there still is that chatter. When i hold the wheels off the ground and apply throttle, the front wheels are NOT smooth? it sorta... "skips", "jumps" around. i removed the drive shaft and spun the bevel gear by had. it sort of binds a little then frees up, then binds a little again. my rear axle does not do this. in fact its real smooth. so i took my front axles completely apart and inspected the parts. i didn't find any grinding or gouging of metal so idk whats up? anyone else have this problem? or have any ideas?

05-07-2010, 08:18 PM	#2
crunky I wanna be Dave Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: cape crud... will you be my friend Posts: 2,102	i think your on the right road towards addiction i run that same transmission in my crunk rock chevdog... except i run a 35T in mine, so it's even more of a cement mixer.

05-08-2010, 02:16 PM	#3
jmini Newbie Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Honolulu Posts: 49	addition already has taken over! lol yeah. i've been thinking about getting a 35t motor. we'll definitely see in the next couple weeks.

05-09-2010, 04:40 AM	#4
jmini Newbie Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Honolulu Posts: 49	transmissions so i've been wanting to get a 2 speed transmission. either a r2 2-speed trans. or possibly the summit 2-speed. i still want a little torque with my low gears so i'll get a higher turn motor like a 35t or 45t. A 55t might be too high right now but we'll see. i've been considering the tekin fx-r esc. those things are exactly want i want to get. it compact, has onboard adjustability, and mainly has the ability to adjust the drag brake right on the unit without hooking it up to a computer. also considering a 3 racing winch. i've been eyeing these things out for a while now. i may need to get a new remote. which brings me to my next addition. traxxas 4 channel LINK system with 5 channel receiver. i'll mod the 3rd and 4th channel with epa's so i don't burn up any servos. i can run my 3rd channel to shift between the two gears and 4th channel for the winch. (: cannot wait.

05-28-2010, 01:12 PM	#7
jmini Newbie Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Honolulu Posts: 49	well, i have figured out what was up with my axle. IT WASN'T THE AXLE AT ALL! i should've known it was my driveshaft. i barrowed my dad's axial driveshafts and found that it smoothed the ride out real great! on to my next problem. so i wanted to increase the strength of my steering with a new servo. i went the cheep way and bought a mg995 off of ebay for $16. i got it the other day and they... how do i say this... "SUCK" when i turn fully left or right and let my steering wheel go back to center. the servo finds center then goes through a full throw left and right. it keeps going back and fourth until i stop it by hand. BUT, when i slowly turn left and right and slowly back to center, the servo works fine. so idk whats up. other have said this servo would twitch but a "twitch" is an understatement when trying to explain this issue. i've already contacted the ebay seller and i hope all will be solved.

06-29-2010, 05:25 AM	#8
src Newbie Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: sunshine coast Posts: 3	hello how did you go with your mg995 servo

07-26-2010, 09:27 PM	#9
jmini Newbie Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Honolulu Posts: 49	The servos are working great. i found out that the problem was actually my esc. i guess it wasn't putting out enough juice. but since then i upgraded my esc to a tekin fx-r with a 35t motor. from there i was able to run my servos just fine. but before i bought that i checked with that ebay seller and told them my problem. of course i was assuming it was the servos fault at the time. but then they sent me two more mg995's free of charge!!! Awesome customer service. so for 16 bucks i pretty much got 4 MG995's they work just fine with the new esc and im currently running one for my steering and one for a servo winch. it's perfect! (: i'll soon post up pics of the set up as it currently sits.

07-27-2010, 05:10 AM	#10
attme Rock Stacker Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: midland Posts: 62	looks good keep it up i know its hard to give up the 3 speed i will not give my 3 speed up in my f350.

07-27-2010, 01:18 PM	#11
vipxj RCC Addict Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: tauranga north island new zealand Posts: 1,786	Hey,nice mods to your hilux,so you chopped your 3 speed up yet?

07-27-2010, 04:09 PM	#12
that4byguy Rock Stacker Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: in my room Posts: 59	looks good, I like what you did for a trans and am thinking of going the same way, any suggestions or would you change it? Thanks.

Sponsored Links

RCCrawler Forums

Thread: my hilux high lift stock... to stock mod... to... added goodies (: