axial artr noob build

[discgolferlee]

well i wouldn't exactly call it a build since it came assembled.
I dremeled the windows out and replaced with screen.
made a mounting plate for my moped esc on the front upper links
dremeled skid plate to bring links inside chassis.got to clean it up little messy looking
also after sitting my integy 55t motor in the crawler i noticed the end bell hangs over the skid plate and it got me wondering if it might hang up on rocks and/or just get damaged. I made a little skid plate type deal to protect the motor a bit and keep it from hanging up on rocks. nothing fancy just enough to keep the motor from making direct contaact with rocks.
after my split pack gets here from cheapbatterypacks.com I am going to make some battery mounting plates for front axles.
on kind of a tight budget but heres the specs.
axial artr
integy 55t v10tt motor
moped bravo esc
already had a spektrum dx 3.0 receiver lying around so im using it.
servo right now is just a ofna metal gear high torque untill I get a towerpro mg995. i been using the towerpros in 1/8 scales and they are great torque servos for cheap cheap. haven't had a single issue yet with them.
any suggestions on cheap or free mods are welcome. not building a comp crawler or anything sonot going to fork out a lot on it. prob next upgrade might be losi shocks or at least softer axial springs

[bigmodean]

Get it up and running and let us know how it works for you...

[JBHardwear]

I run comps with my rig, it is the OG kit version. The stock axles shocks have done great for me, just use the soft springs.

[discgolferlee]

alright finally got her ready to fire up tonight. I wanted to buy some battery mounts for a split pack on the front axle but with my budget already a little overspent i set out on a trip to walmart( nearest hobby shop 1 hour away UGGG) to try and get some ideas for some materials to use to make my own. believe it or not for 94 cents I bought a black spatula which after some dremeling I made 2 mounts. they arent the prettiest but the batteries cover the whole tray so you cant even see them. eventually i will get some carbon fiber ones but I was desperate to get this thing running. I got some wire clean up to do and maybe a few changes to make but she's alive. Its dark out so I got my headlamp out of my workvan and headed out to the yard. I got some landscaping bricks stacked 2 large bricks high and made a run on them and the tire grip was awesome and the beast went right up em. I can't wait to find some spots to crawl and really test it out.
oh yeah and I only ran it for like 10 minutes but the moped esc worked great on my 7 cell split pack. I will post some pics sometime and possibly some video of it crawling.

[discgolferlee]

Originally Posted by JBHardwear

I run comps with my rig, it is the OG kit version. The stock axles shocks have done great for me, just use the soft springs.

do you use softsprings on front and back or just front. and are they the red super soft or just soft springs

[discgolferlee]

alright so moved my receiver to underside of axial stock battery plate to protect it in rollovers. also zip tied my wires up and most importantly am installing a heatsink on my moped esc. I have only ran it a bit and it doesn't seem to get too warm on 7 cells but it nevers hurts to be prepared.
I cut an old computer heatsink and it had some scratches so i roughed it up with the dremel to give it a rugged metal look. It looks better than it did with its ugly gold color and scratches. I did realize though that my thermal adhesive in my computer toolbox has dried up. so tommorrow I am going to get some more to attach the heatsink. The mosfets inside claim to have heatsinks but really its just thin aluminum attached to them, not very functional if you ask me but for the cheap price I cant complain. Their is one pic below of the moped without heatsink installed. Haven't had a chance to really push the truck yet but so far im impressed with the crawling and the esc works great. I want to add weights to the front wheels or maybe bb's inside the tires. would the bb's work better than the memory foams that come in them. any feedback comments welcome

[bigmodean]

Looking good so far,I used stick weights (3 oz each tire front/2 oz each tire rear)and this works great!Never used BB's,personal pref. I suppose.I was blown away with the AX10 ARTR performance with I few easy upgrades.Oh yea,supersoft springs in back,soft up front.I took out my Sidewinder ESC and put in a Traxxas XL5 that works great!I think big named expensive ESC are overrated for crawling.

[discgolferlee]

thanks for the tips man and the comments. being my first crawler I'm still learning allot about em but I am very impressed with the handeling so far and love making changes to increase performance. I love working on this thing.

[85toycrawler]

looks great man.

[aztitan]

i love that body.......mmmmmmmmm

[barbaricboye]

an upgrade youll need: driveshafts

mine popped off in first 1/2 hour....just got some mips--you can use traxxas(#1951) as a cheap alternative thats better than stock......now Iam off to try to get rid of my torque twist

[bigmodean]

I will second that on the driveshafts,look at my recent thread "whats with the drive shafts",its got every idea and remedy concerning this oversight by
Axial,blew both mine out by the second run.1951'2 holding up well since.

[discgolferlee]

alright didn't have my camera and it was getting dark but here is a cell phone pic of it in action tonight

[85toycrawler]

looks good man.

[discgolferlee]

alright so I drilled vent holes in rims and this helped traction a ton.
also added 4oz of weight to each front wheel and 2oz to each rear wheel.
The truck is handleing pretty good but tonight I ordered a few things for it from the crawler store.
TCS Edge tuber chassis
MIP driveshafts
Losi rock crawler shocks
few other small parts
can't wait to get the stuff.

Only problem I have had with this truck is driveshafts popping off the yokes. I bought some hot racing drive ring retainers and they suck big time. the setscrews won't tighten down hardly at all and the driveshafts still pop off almost as much. but with the mip driveshafts coming the problem should be eliminated.

[broncobill]

For now, put some tiny zip ties on the yokes. I blow my yokes with in minutes of my first run. I also swapped in a set of soft springs from my MGT. They are not as long as the AX's, but seem to work pretty good. If you are in a bind for wheel weights, I tape pennies to the rims. Between the foam and rim. I did this to a set of Moabs. I place 16 per wheel.

[discgolferlee]

couldn't find stick on weights anywhere in town. I fianlly stopped at the craft store hobby lobby and they had stick on weights for pinewood derby cars.

[XPLORx4]

I picked up 6 sticks of adhesive weights from my local tire store (Wheelworks in Sunnyvale) while I had them do a free tire balance/rotate/alignment check on my car. They gave them to me free of charge!

[SCORPIAN670]

heat shrink around the yokes works for me or if you wanted you could do the whole driveshaft....just my 0.02 cents

[AreCee]

Those HR rings not only have tiny setscrews but the allen key they give you is too small for the screw. I just drilled out the hole and tapped it for 3mm setscrews. The MIP shafts are great but if you have a DIG they are too long and can't be cut easliy. For now I'm using Traxxas Stampede shafts reinforced with the modified HR rings.