Tommy R's Gelande II D110

[Tommy R]

Now that I had a little trigger time with the rig it was time to finally get out to meet some of the rather large group of local crawlers. About the time I faded from crawling a few years ago due to being a bit burned out, a Facebook group was just beginning to start. Prior to then we had a strong core group of about 6 of us, but we struggled to get the group to grow beyond that. It kinda sucked and was a bit frustrating. Well, since then the FB group has grown and we now have quite a few locals in the area getting together pretty regularly. Now that I have a running rig it was finally time to catch up and meet these folks.

They were all cool and super friendly. Most are running Axial based rigs like SCXs, Deadbolts, and Wraiths with Lexan bodies so clearly my Defender was out-gunned in the performance department. But that's okay! I still had a great time even if I had to look for different obstacles.

Here's a few pics I took:




Yes, I found some mud. Surprisingly, the tires chugged right on through.






And it turns out Wes from Brazin RC chassis has moved to Austin so I got to meet him yesterday. He's also got a pretty nice camera and took some killer pics. Here's some of the Defender....








I eventually made it up!

[Tommy R]

Been super busy working on 1:1 stuff, but managed to get some goodies for the D110.


I love my Locked Up RC wheels, but the Landies really just fit the nature of this build much better I think...


They're far too white and new looking so I need to at least hit them with some black wash or something.


Now I need to get some singles for spares....and finish installing the lights!

[chino63]

I like it, color choice is a good one. Also like the stock appearance and the less capable aspect of it. I have plans to head down that path someday.

[NXPRSS]

Nice build!! Great action shots!

[Tommy R]

Cory (StangKillaSS) and I did some crawling today. I took the D110 and he took his "Class Zero" JK....

No, I didn't realize I was missing a lug nut. Oh the humanity!


Found a friend! Actually, I think it was just the shell with no turtle inside. Poor little feller...


Kept on crawling and ran into this little guy. Too bad we didn't see more of them or we could've had a boil!




I swapped out the stock "dampers" for some Axial SCX units and it feels so much better now. Has more bump AND more droop travel, too!






Hold on!!




Cory!! Noooooooo!!!


Things went well 'til I blew the rear driveshaft. And as you can see, the truck saw quite a bit of mud today.




Pics from Cory...




So thoughts from today... I definitely need better tires. These aren't particularly awful, but they were really holding me back and I had no hope of keeping up with Cory on most challenging obstacles. I'm debating about what to get, though. Gotta be shorter than 4.2", though. Thinking of the RC4WD Scramblers? I also need new driveshafts for sure. Maybe Axial Wild Boars? Lastly, the truck turns much better to the left than to the right. I'll need to look into that soon.

More updates to come!

[Di_Spencer]

[QUOTE/]So thoughts from today... I definitely need better tires. These aren't particularly awful, but they were really holding me back and I had no hope of keeping up with Cory on most challenging obstacles. I'm debating about what to get, though. Gotta be shorter than 4.2", though. Thinking of the RC4WD Scramblers? I also need new driveshafts for sure. Maybe Axial Wild Boars? Lastly, the truck turns much better to the left than to the right. I'll need to look into that soon.

More updates to come![/QUOTE]

There a couple different Pitbull tires under 4.2 and there, there are the new 4.19 klrs and there is the upcoming release of the 4.19 rock beasts.

Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

[Tommy R]

Originally Posted by Di_Spencer

There a couple different Pitbull tires under 4.2 and there, there are the new 4.19 klrs and there is the upcoming release of the 4.19 rock beasts.

I love Pit Bull's tires, but they're smaller tires all have tight tread patterns with little voids. While the compounds are great, they'll get packed up too easily in the terrain I play in.

I've seen the KLRs look like they have potential. The pattern looks like a performer, but not very scale, IMO. And at $60 for a set withOUT foams? Ouch.

Is Pit Bull releasing a 4.19 Rock Beast?? I've searched, but haven't seen anything about it. Do you have more information? I'm about to place an order, but may wait if Pit Bull is releasing something soon!

[Tommy R]

Best I can tell, the 4.19 Pits will be for a 1.55 wheel and that's too small for this truck. Yeah, I could stretch them onto some 1.9s, but I've yet to see that done where the sidewall looks "right".

I really, REALLY liked my RC4WD MTZs, but I wanted to try something different. I narrowed it down to the RC4WD Genius Sem Limites or the Ottsix KLR MTs. To be honest, these tires don't look very scale to me and normally there's no way I'd consider running them.....BUT the Genius is an actual tire (presumably in Europe?) and while the KLR is unfortunately not modeled after a real tire, it's not that far off from some of the other tires I've seen on European trucks.

So I opted to try the Ottsix KLR in the regular MT tread pattern and red compound. The KLR AT tread pattern looked too tightly packed and the MT X didn't look remotely like a real street tire to me. So I went with the regular MT. It doesn't come with foams, but I've got some I can experiment with. Can't wait to get them and see how much more capable this pig becomes.

[STANG KILLA SS]

anxious to see there width. and how scale they look.
i do with the voodoo sidewalls were a little more scale. instead of slick with giant letters.

[Tommy R]

Originally Posted by STANG KILLA SS

anxious to see there width. and how scale they look.
i do with the voodoo sidewalls were a little more scale. instead of slick with giant letters.

The width is pretty good and, IMO, look appropriate for the D110. They look to be a smidge wider than your MTZs. Overall, the tires look quite scale, but are proving to be a challenge to mount on the RC4WD steelies. The inside diameter of the tires almost seems to LARGE! Weird, huh? I've got one done, but am experimenting with foams at the moment. I'll try to get a pic of them installed on the truck once I get them done.

Speaking of foams, supposedly these require less foam support because the carcus of the tire is so firm compared to others on the market. I've got a request in to Crawler Innovations to get their recommendation.

[Tommy R]

Currently just running some generic RC4WD foams. They will likely be replaced because I think they're going to be too soft. Worth trying out, though... Overall, I think I like them. They're definitely taller, but some slight trimming of the bottom of the flares should be all that's needed to get them to clear properly.

Here's some pics....

[STANG KILLA SS]

your right width doesnt look bad at all. i wonder if the narrower internal beadlocks are helping with that.
all the pics i saw of them on traditional beadlocks, they kinda looked to wide.

[Tommy R]

To anyone considering a set of these tires to mount up on RC4WD steelies..... Don't. The inside diameter of the tires is too large and makes it a royal PITA to mount them without the bead popping out. I've tried countless different foams (because, of course the Ottsix ones come with none), but so far none of the foams I've tried have helped. I managed to get two done, but the others seem to be a lost cause.

So for those of you thinking of buying these tires, I'd look elsewhere if you plan to run steelies.

[eric113]

Maybe a different inner ring? Rc4wd sells a ring made for proline tires.

[Tommy R]

Originally Posted by eric113

Maybe a different inner ring? Rc4wd sells a ring made for proline tires.

I'm not sure how different the rings are, but maybe? I managed to get them mounted, but it was unnecessarily difficult. I'll try to get some pics later...

[Tommy R]

Took the D110 with me to Big Bend National Park for Memorial Day. Only got a handful of pics, though.




Then I ran with a group from San Antonio yesterday. Here's some pics.












A couple notes... These tires with plain ol' RC4WD foams work well and the weight is supported nicely. The rig climbs well, but ground clearance is minimal....even with 4.19" tires. Body roll is horrendous. This rig sidehills horribly and is VERY prone to barrel rolling down hills. I've already put heavier shock oil in (50WT), but I'm looking into heavier springs and, ideally, I'm interested in a rear sway bar.

Also, the torque twist when turning to the left is abyssmal. I really need a good way to control roll/twist on this rig.

[mccustomize]

I have some proline flat irons, 4.2" tall that work very well. We need to get together and hit up miller springs, looks like a great spot!

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by Tommy R

What wheel and tire is that on the back?

Great looking D110! I'm not the biggest fan of these vehicles as I prefer the D90, but yours looks awesome.

[Tommy R]

The spare in that pic is an RC4WD Dick Cepek FC-II on an Locked Up RC wheel.

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by Tommy R

The spare in that pic is an RC4WD Dick Cepek FC-II on an Locked Up RC wheel.

Thanks!

They're awesome looking tires, but they are way too tiny at 3.79" OD!