RCCrawler Forums

OSRC · 10-09-2019, 06:30 AM

May as well chip in with mine as well..

Didn't bother with a build thread, there's a bunch going on and I don't have anything to add per-se. I can just say that yes, the manual has some issues, but if you've built a kit before it is a fairly simple build. Went together very quickly actually.

Only issue I ran into is the stub axles have a lip, and it's pretty far out there. With the kit hexes, I couldn't cinch down on the nut enough to secure the wheels. I had to use some washers to get them tight. Ultimately, I swapped over to some Wraith style stepped hex hubs - wheels went on perfectly with those.

Other than that minor issue, my kit went together flawlessly, and the transmission is smooth and quiet.

Can definitely see Horizon's influence in the kit...I'm putting together a Cherokee kit at the same time and they are very different, both in the way they are packaged to the materials involved. Well done guys, it's a great kit imo.

Mine's built bone stock for the moment with the soft springs, always like to do out of the box first before making changes. Can definitely see some axle swapping going on here. Some non portal axles are in this rigs future... purely in the name of science of course. Maybe some smaller shocks.

Nothing fancy under the hood: WP1080, 16T Hackmoto motor, YR 20kg servo and the suggested shift servo. Works great. Just threw on some PL tires I had laying around, and shot the body my usual blue and silver. No decals...think it looks clean as-is. I did paint up the grill a bit and add some headlights. Came out pretty sharp.

Waiting for some 2S shorty packs to arrive so I can get out and play. Semi annoyed that not a single pack I own could be made to fit.

Topher Builds · 10-09-2019, 06:48 AM

Ah man rough go about not having a useable battery to get out with.

The truck looks great though. I like the clean look. Agreed on all accounts about the quality and this one feeling like a different animal from the old axial.

GA Dawg · 10-09-2019, 07:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OSRC

Semi annoyed that not a single pack I own could be made to fit.

Same here. I ordered a shorty pack, but I wish it was a little bigger. It wouldn't have taken much for them to make the battery tray just a little bigger to fit a bunch of batteries that are already out there.

OSRC · 10-15-2019, 03:03 PM

So this truck is cursed.

Drew out the tray measurements to see if my packs would fit when I ordered... looked close. Turns out they dont.

Built the kit, ordered 2 shorty packs that by all dimensions fit perfect...a week of waiting later, nope, the battery leads stick out too far, can't stuff them in.

Still can't drive the truck!

And to top it all off, I put the leads in one of my shorty packs backwards. Plugged it into the WP1080 just messing around and boom, 90C of juice sent it immediately up in smoke. It's done, may have taken the servo with it. My fault entirely, had the leads backwards....but man, so far this rig is not off to a great start.

Pulled all the electronics out of the rig and put it on the shelf for now. I was excited to drive it, but since I wrecked the ESC and don't have batteries anyway, may end up just selling the damn thing. Shouldn't be this hard.

/rant/

Panther6834 · 10-15-2019, 03:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OSRC

So this truck is cursed.

Drew out the tray measurements to see if my packs would fit when I ordered... looked close. Turns out they dont.

Built the kit, ordered 2 shorty packs that by all dimensions fit perfect...a week of waiting later, nope, the battery leads stick out too far, can't stuff them in.

If you read the other Capra threads, you'll find plenty of batteries that people have already discovered fit.

~ More peace, love, laughter, & kindness would make the world a MUCH better place

dezfan · 10-15-2019, 07:02 PM

Sorry to hear about your electronics getting fried!

That sucks.

I’m in the same boat at the moment, none of my Lipos fit in the Capra’s minuscule battery compartment.

This is one area where Axial/ Horizon dropped the ball IMO.

Designing it to not being able to use common packs is a fail.

Panther6834 · 10-15-2019, 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dezfan

Sorry to hear about your electronics getting fried!

That sucks.

I’m in the same boat at the moment, none of my Lipos fit in the Capra’s minuscule battery compartment. This is one area where Axial/ Horizon dropped the ball IMO. Designing it to not being able to use common packs is a fail.

Gens Ace Adventure fits. Reedy WolfPack fits. ProTek shorty fits. Several others (as reported by other people) also fit. Check the "Capra Battery" thread, and you'll find several packs that people have reported that DO fit.

~ More peace, love, laughter, & kindness would make the world a MUCH better place

odomandr · 10-15-2019, 07:37 PM

I have been running 1300mah packs for a while in my scx10 based rigs. I can't reccommend it enough

dezfan · 10-15-2019, 08:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Panther6834

Gens Ace Adventure fits. Reedy WolfPack fits. ProTek shorty fits. Several others (as reported by other people) also fit. Check the "Capra Battery" thread, and you'll find several packs that people have reported that DO fit.

~ More peace, love, laughter, & kindness would make the world a MUCH better place

That’s great, but I have several common Lipos in the 2200 to 3300 range and none of them are close to fitting.

2200 3S Lipos are very common, yet don’t fit.

I’ve referenced the Capra battery thread on several occasions.

Using a pack size that might be common in racing circles in a Crawler is a FAIL.

Still Bill · 10-15-2019, 10:13 PM

You mentioned not being able to tighten the wheels on the stub axles. Did you place the kit provided aluminum spacers onto the stub axles before the pins and hexes?

OSRC · 10-16-2019, 06:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Panther6834

If you read the other Capra threads, you'll find plenty of batteries that people have already discovered fit.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Panther6834

Check the "Capra Battery" thread, and you'll find several packs that people have reported that DO fit.

Started well after I ordered everything, thanks. Battery ordered that fit the dimensions stated. Doesn't fit. Budget spent for now, truck on shelf. Just venting above... very irritated with the situation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dezfan

That’s great, but I have several common Lipos in the 2200 to 3300 range and none of them are close to fitting. 2200 3S Lipos are very common, yet don’t fit. I’ve referenced the Capra battery thread on several occasions. Using a pack size that might be common in racing circles in a Crawler is a FAIL.

I agree 100%...rest of the kit is very nice, not sure why it's so crammed in there. "vent" section of the cage could have easily been wider.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Still Bill

You mentioned not being able to tighten the wheels on the stub axles. Did you place the kit provided aluminum spacers onto the stub axles before the pins and hexes?

Yes, spacers installed. There's a non threaded step on the axle that sticks out a bit past the hex, and the wheel nut only tightens so far. I could not cinch the nut far down enough to tighten the Gearhead wheels. A washer or Wraith hexes solved it completely. No biggie.

OSRC · 10-16-2019, 06:41 PM

Ok, gave it some cool off time and got back to work on this... I was getting way frustrated and almost put it out for sale. Actually I offered it and it almost went, but didn't quite work out. So here it still is. One of those projects where nothing was going right!

Here's where I was a few days ago - packs ordered just for this truck arrived, no go. Turnigy Nano-tech 2600 90C 2S. The packs physically fit fine, but the leads stuck out too far and just couldn't jam them in there. Was stuck here for a while. Also melted my 1080 while messing around. Definitely time to take a break.

Let the subconcious chew on it for a while, and decided to give this a try...couldn't mod the truck really since the leads hit a screw point, but could mod the packs. These are 90c packs and the wires are huge!! Figured my little 16t 5 pole wan't going to be pulling 90C, so I felt ok going to thinner leads. Did a little slicing and dicing and ended up with the modded leads up top compared to stock at the bottom..

Just, and I mean just drops in there....zero mm to spare. Don't have to force it, but there's no wiggle room.

Wrapped up the leads just in case. Temporary solution, I need to get some shrink wrap or something on there.

Yes, that duck tape holding my headlight wires out of the way. Works good, quick, flexible, and under the hood out of sight. Use number 1286.

Put the electronics back in, ready to go his weekend with my rigged up packs (and blown 1080 I ripped out.... on it's way to the circular file)

Took a cue from Jato and ran the programming lead for the 1080 out the back, I'll tuck it in to the "gas tank" later after I make some adjustments... great idea! I give Jato the credit for this, never even occurred to me to do that.

B-MOW71 · 10-16-2019, 06:51 PM

Great looking Capra!

Glad to hear you got her figured out! Yeah, sometimes it is best to just walk away and try it again another day!

Looking forward to seeing the first run pics!

GA Dawg · 10-16-2019, 07:17 PM

That's another good looking red fuel cell. I'm trying hard not to blow mine apart and paint mine too, but I think it'll be a losing battle. Those just look too good.

Panther6834 · 10-16-2019, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GA Dawg

That's another good looking red fuel cell. I'm trying hard not to blow mine apart and paint mine too, but I think it'll be a losing battle. Those just look too good.

Luv the fuel cell...but, fuel cells don't "need" to be red.

~ More peace, love, laughter, & kindness would make the world a MUCH better place

Taper · 10-17-2019, 01:10 AM

Why you don't solder the 90º banana plugs direct to esc wires?

You gain a little bit of room inside battery tray

OSRC · 11-21-2019, 07:39 AM

Finally took this rig out on it's maiden voyage... Based on the threads I have been reading, I expected the greatest thing since sliced bread. It did ok. Definitely needs some tuning. Built mine bone stock to test out, with the soft springs. Way, way too soft suspension out of the box and too much flex. This thing was flopping around all over the place.

First obstacle at my usual stomping grounds... no problem. Hyrax tires got grip everywhere, traction was an absolute non issue all day, even in the cold temps.

Sidehill - good! Can see it leaning over a bit, but it held on. Later cranked down on the shock collars which helped a bit.

Floppy and sloppy.. this rig spent more time with wheels in the air than any of my others. 3 wheeling mostly, but occasionally I managed to stand it straight up and down.

Really had to wait for the suspension to set, though it would sometimes shift suddenly and flip the rig. Nothing a bit of tuning can't change.

Flexing around....way too much. Total change of pace in wheeling an open wheel rig - can't depend on the body to bounce off of rocks and got super bound up a few times. Definitely looking into limiters and swapping over to the stiffer springs.

Wicked line...it's actually wedged in there by the tire, otherwise it would be on the roof. It's stuck there almost upside down. I did manage to drive out of it - more by luck than anything else.

5 slot motor was great - very smooth all day. I thought it seemed really down on torque, thought it kinda went with the territory. But then during a battery swap I checked the punch control and found it was turned way down...whacked it back up and it all of a sudden had plenty of torque....

Nature is awesome...found this cool tree. Could quite get up in there for the picture though.

All in all, it did well. 4+ hour crawl in low 40 degree temps and no breakage or issues all day. I think it'll be killer once I get the suspension sorted. Definitely worth the headache so far.

MAC FAB · 11-21-2019, 09:19 AM