Ramblings from a noob

[Crimson Feight]

I'm still quite new to actually owning a crawler, but have been into RC since I was 18 and my parents couldn't stop me owning one (they never had them and deemed it unfair)

I'm thinking about various things and any input anyone could give would be nice.

I'm toying with making a torsion chassis. But it's a little hard to justify that right now, so for the time being I just want to improve what I've got.


Currently I've got an RTR with all the axial alloy, except an integy "Y" upper link
The rear is hot racing 30 deg lowers and integy "Y" upper
Shocks are threaded hot racing
Hot racing front and rear skids and centre curved skid


I know that I need to do something about my battery, having a stick pack that high up does nothing good for side hilling and steep inclines.

I'm tempted by cheap lipo packs, I borrowed one and was impressed at the difference it made.
I'd be tempted by saddle packs, but I just can't find any at a price I'd be willing to pay and not sure if I'd want to make my own as I've not soldered to a battery before.

I'm also thinking about my shocks alot. I've got hot racing threaded shocks with blue springs. I've tried them without springs, just to give a rough idea of what a droop setup might be like and I'm not overly happy with it.
I'm wondering if it's possible to come to some kind of "squat" so the shocks are at about half extension when the AX10 is sat under it's own weight.

I'm not sure if I want to go 4 link or not yet.

I'm very happy with my articulation, it's almost 90 degrees axle to axle. I just want to make her climb a little better

Cheers

[2500hdon37s]

im almost 16 and got a few rc's which i pay for everything even the kits and parts and such. but youll accualy want to limint your flex because its just puts you in wierd situations, i was hard headed and didnt do a few mods on my ax10 for ever and when i did them it was a night and day diffrence, yeah the loads of flex is cool looking but just hurts you in the long run you'll want to internaly limint them and maybe externaly as well, in board your lower links at the chassis/ skid, i also have the bent lower links but from axial and they help a lot and help even more inboarded if you can keep the spring cup off them, and you'll learn that integy is junk i busted their alum. 3 link holder for the axial and thats the only part ui have bought from them and others will say the same oh and saddle packs help a ton buy the tcs saddle pack battery plates or make your own and a saddle pack is worth every penny im always low on extra cash to spend on extra parts but its worth it.

pics would help too and ditch the axle skids they HURT THE PREFORMANCE A LOT

[dblrnut]

x2 on the saddle pack its 21 bucks at tcs less then a dinner

[Crimson Feight]

Originally Posted by dblrnut

x2 on the saddle pack its 21 bucks at tcs less then a dinner

That's a good price, but once I pay shipping and import it'll not be such a nice price. The cheapest I've found them over here is £28, which is quite alot considering that I could make 2 of them for that price if I were confident about soldering to a battery.


calikingcrawler, thanks for the offer of a chassis, I might take you up on it.


I've dropped the rear axle skid as I've hung up on it a few times now. I'll find out how much difference it makes a bit later on.


I've also just mirrored my transmission to reduce the torque twist and I'm very pleased, for 10 minutes work you get a very nice result, thanks to the guy who suggested it and got it stickied


I feel quite lucky having bought second hand because I've got some parts that I've not had to pay for and I can see if I like them or not and it's cost me nothing

[2500hdon37s]

youd be surprised how much a diffrence tires can make. it can make or brake a rig in a comp what tires do you have?

[The Violator]

Originally Posted by Crimson Feight

I'm very happy with my articulation, it's almost 90 degrees axle to axle. I just want to make her climb a little better

Limit the articulation to about 45-60 at most and it will work much better.

[Crimson Feight]

Tyres are rock lizards currently.
I ran a mate's lipo 2 cell lipo yesterday, it was about 1/3rd of the weight of my Nimh packs. Such a big difference.

Just took some pics


I went for an extreme body trim, seems to help my driving



Rear servo mount was because I bought this with rear steer and it drove me nuts, swapped out the rear end but left the mount there.




That's full articulation any further and the rear end starts to lift.

[Locked Up]

Having all that flex is great for pictures ... but not stability. I'd highly suggest you limit your flex.

Max flex I run on my comp rig is just enough to get it on top of a soft drink can. Any more than that will cause issues.

[Crimson Feight]

I've been messing about with the stock shocks to limit the travel before I take the non-leaky shocks apart.

I've got 9mm internal and 10mm external limiters, which does has made a difference. I'm thinking about add 5mm to the internals to limit the travel even more.

Where is a good place to start with shock oil weights. I've only got HPI baja oils so I need to go shopping

[Locked Up]

Originally Posted by Crimson Feight

I've been messing about with the stock shocks to limit the travel before I take the non-leaky shocks apart.

I've got 9mm internal and 10mm external limiters, which does has made a difference. I'm thinking about add 5mm to the internals to limit the travel even more.

Where is a good place to start with shock oil weights. I've only got HPI baja oils so I need to go shopping

I run pretty light weight oil in mine. Since we don't do a lot of high speed/long jumping I want just enough spring action to absorb a 2 foot drop without being springy.

How much weight you have on your axles vs. chassis can make a big difference as well. the more weight on your chassis the thicker oil you'll need. Once you get more weight on the axles you'll need to pay more attention to foams.

[grimgard]

Originally Posted by Crimson Feight

Tyres are rock lizards currently.
I ran a mate's lipo 2 cell lipo yesterday, it was about 1/3rd of the weight of my Nimh packs. Such a big difference.

Just took some pics


I went for an extreme body trim, seems to help my driving



Rear servo mount was because I bought this with rear steer and it drove me nuts, swapped out the rear end but left the mount there.




That's full articulation any further and the rear end starts to lift.

Cool crawler mate, let me give you a little advice from someone who has been crawling for almost 2 years.

Get your chassis low and the lower the better you want to shoot for 2 1/2" to 2 3/4" for your chassis height.

The best way to do this is to limit the travel of your shocks. Put 1/4" to 1/2" of fuel tubing between the bottom cap and the plunger on the shaft inside your shock body and it will lower your truck and reduce your articulation and that is a good thing.

Add weights to your tires 12oz in the front 6oz in the rear

Vent your Rims so air can go in and out of them 1/8" hole top and bottom from the inside of the rim

Move your batteries over your front axle (saddle packs) and get some TCS mounting plates that will alow you to do this.

Lower your AX10 body as low as you can get it and trim it so you do not get any tire rub

Get some Losi Rock claws and trim your tire foams

If you need any help let me know and I can post some pictures.

[grimgard]

This is a realy old picture and does not show what my AX10 is now but will show you how the Saddle packs work. This will do wonders for your truck.



This is the most recent picture (taken today) of my AX10 notice how low the chassis is sitting. It is right at 2 1/2" with fuel tubing limiters inside of my shocks



Hope this helps!

[Crimson Feight]

Grimgard, that's one very nice looking beast you have.

I've tried running the 10mm internal limiters (1/2 inch is 12mm) Not bad, it drags the belly alot more, but it has made a few steeper climbs.

I hope to ebay my brother so I can get the saddle packs. Not so worried about mounting trays as I can probably make some from some stainless sheet I have kicking about.

My foams are cut, the previos owner did that.

I'm going to stick some 20 weight oil in the shocks and go back to the threaded ones as they're smoother and will probably leak less than the plastic ones.

[Crimson Feight]

Ok, so no luck in selling my brother, turns out I need to pay to have him taken away... which means no new batteries for a while.
Also no dig, which is something I'd like to get.

I found my hot racing centre skid was hanging up alot, so I've modified the stock one to get the links inside the chassis.
After the bearing exploded inside my servo I've gone for fitting an ace 1015, which is so much more responsive.

I was told that if I went with droop shocks I'd never go back to springs. So I'm just messing about with the idea, need to pick an oil weight and perhaps some internal limiters.


Under own weight

Maximum clearance


Maximum twist

[Crimson Feight]

Well I did like my droop shocks, but I found I was hanging up on way too many things.
I went sprung again and was enjoying everything except my COG.

So while I was out I bought a plastic chopping board to make a torsion setup