The terrible capra

[terrible]

I wanted one of these when the first announcement came out but it left my head after I picked up an element. After a few months of playing with an couple scale toys the itch to build was upon me. After a dinner and drinks with the wife unit quick stop at the LHS revealed they had one in stock, I couldn't get the plastic money out of the wallet fast enough! (dang 8% IPA has cost me a lot of money).

This was probably one of the most frustrating builds I've done in a while. The manual blows goats. Screw sizes wrong, pics that didn't show blind holes. Just not good all over. Then to find out my planned motor was WAY to much power for this chassis, and my back up low-turn motor had bad bearings.

I also didn't realize that the chassis took a "shorty" size pack. Not a big deal but the LHS has zero in stock and I ended up buying a guys tiny 1500ma 3s pack he was using for tire warmers :0 More packs are in coming but small 3s packs with decent MaH rating aren't real popular.

I've already had the transmission out of it 10 times changing or adjusting. The bad bearing in my 10 turn cost me a day of hunting. I ended up with a castle mamba X with the 1900 motor that the LHS happened to have in stock. The remote adjust drag brake is going to be fun to play with. Any how, pics. I attempted to do some ghost lace patterns in the paint with the metal flake and pearl paint. I'm happy with it and will pick up some more panels to try it again with more white and less pearl next time.

[mewalsh100]

Looks good man! I like the Powder Blue with the Gold Element wheels. I do agree, the manual blows. (they did publish an update available for PDF download). I was able to steer clear of the "gotchas" and "bugaboos" by scouring other build threads here and on youtube though. In particular, SOZE here on rccrawler (revolutionx_rc on Insta and youtube), bmow71, Topherbuilds, Siggy, and many others. To be honest, I was really glad I ended up waiting a while to pull the trigger on this rig for that very reason. Thankfully we've got a great group here on rccrawler that takes the time to provide updates and info on builds. Have you had a chance to shake her down yet? The weather where I live has been crap, so I've only been able to get two quick runs in, and nothing of any consequence.

[terrible]

Originally Posted by mewalsh100

Looks good man! I like the Powder Blue with the Gold Element wheels. I do agree, the manual blows. (they did publish an update available for PDF download). I was able to steer clear of the "gotchas" and "bugaboos" by scouring other build threads here and on youtube though. In particular, SOZE here on rccrawler (revolutionx_rc on Insta and youtube), bmow71, Topherbuilds, Siggy, and many others. To be honest, I was really glad I ended up waiting a while to pull the trigger on this rig for that very reason. Thankfully we've got a great group here on rccrawler that takes the time to provide updates and info on builds. Have you had a chance to shake her down yet? The weather where I live has been crap, so I've only been able to get two quick runs in, and nothing of any consequence.

If you're in Medina Ohio your weather is much the same as it is here in WV ;)

No runs yet and I was wanting to head out today but the rain started as I was getting a couple other trucks ready. I may toss a walmart bag on my remote and go for it though!

And one 1500mah pack isn't going to last long

[Panther6834]

Welcome to the tribe...you're gonna love your goat. Being a "go fast" guy, and wanting to give the "go slow" side a try, the Capra was my first crawler. While I've since built the majority of my second crasher (TK), and will soon be starting a third (TF2), I'm enjoying the Capra do much, I'm currently building a second one (tho, I gotta admit, the only actual Capra parts being used in this one is the cage, and associated parts).

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

[mewalsh100]

Originally Posted by terrible

If you're in Medina Ohio your weather is much the same as it is here in WV ;)

No runs yet and I was wanting to head out today but the rain started as I was getting a couple other trucks ready. I may toss a walmart bag on my remote and go for it though!

And one 1500mah pack isn't going to last long

I am in Medina, OH. Do quite a bit of mountain biking in WV though.

[terrible]

I like it! My SMC 4Kma 3s packs showed up early enough to get out for a minute. I have a few trails built at my dads house with a couple nice rock climbs surrounded buy WV red clay. The castle 1900 slate is awesome. Plenty of wheel speed on 3s to clean out the RB2's. The mamba X is good but I have some quirky stuff going on with reverse not kicking in if the truck is coasting forward a bit (will hook up the link again and double check settings). My old savox servo is still jam'n and making a ton of noise so it's like new (roll eyes)

It needs: more weight on the axles. I'll look into portal weights but I don't want goofy ball sacks hanging on the inside of my wheels. I'd rather have the stock portal covers but made of brass.

I'm going to bite the bullet and buy some aluminum wheels as well. The enduro wheels do look good but more wheel weight would be nice.

Figured I'd be doing all kinds of suspension work but TBH it's pretty good. I'd like to get the truck a little lower but it did do well. If I had a spare channel I'd put a suck down winch on the front axle for climbing.

All in all I like it. Heading to VA for a weekend trip and hope to find some trials and rocks to play on.

[mewalsh100]

The Vitavon brass portal covers are not too bad visually. Hit them with brass black and they pretty well blend in. I did the internal pen spring mod on my shocks, and went with Element springs. Definitely gets the ride height down where it should be.

[terrible]

Originally Posted by mewalsh100

The Vitavon brass portal covers are not too bad visually. Hit them with brass black and they pretty well blend in. I did the internal pen spring mod on my shocks, and went with Element springs. Definitely gets the ride height down where it should be.

Got a set of stock element shocks sitting here, thanks for the info! The spring rate is a bit lower but no too much. I'd like to have some shorter body shocks but seems like most just shorten the shaft and not the body so the compressed length is still quite long. The enduro springs may do the trick though.

[Panther6834]

Originally Posted by terrible

Got a set of stock element shocks sitting here, thanks for the info! The spring rate is a bit lower but no too much. I'd like to have some shorter body shocks but seems like most just shorten the shaft and not the body so the compressed length is still quite long. The enduro springs may do the trick though.

Alternately, you could just install limiters inside. This provides two benefits. First, like the 'pen spring mod', it shortens the overall length...but, it does it without creating the "spring compression" effect that the pen spring creates. Second, even when the shock is fully extended, it leaves some oil between the bottom of the shock body & under side of the shock's piston, this there's no 'suction' (from the shaft/piston "bottoming out").

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

[JatoTheRipper]

That's a great looking rig! What color blue is that?

[terrible]

Originally Posted by Panther6834

Alternately, you could just install limiters inside. This provides two benefits. First, like the 'pen spring mod', it shortens the overall length...but, it does it without creating the "spring compression" effect that the pen spring creates. Second, even when the shock is fully extended, it leaves some oil between the bottom of the shock body & under side of the shock's piston, this there's no 'suction' (from the shaft/piston "bottoming out").

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

Yes exactly! Finally some one that doesn't just say "put spacers in them". I run some pan car springs inside my terrible taco and they do a good job of keeping ride height low but they still let the front extend too much on climbs and off camber trails. With the torque the capra can make against climbs id rather have short shocks or even limiting straps. I can't believe I'm thinking limiting straps on an r/c truck. TBH if If I could shorten the eye to eye I'd kill two birds, no mixing of oil/air and not worrying about knocking the caps off the shocks on bottom out.

[terrible]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

That's a great looking rig! What color blue is that?

Createx opaque sky blue. But! it has PSE metal flake blue and silver and a coat of PSE pearl white sprayed through some lace ;)

[Barndog Racing]

Looking good!

[Panther6834]

Originally Posted by terrible

Createx opaque sky blue. But! it has PSE metal flake blue and silver and a coat of PSE pearl white sprayed through some lace ;)

Createx has great paints, especially their 'Wicked Colors' line. I started using their paints...mostly for airbrushing t-shirts...30 years ago.

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

[B-MOW71]

Good looking Capra!

Nice color!

The Capra would be the perfect rig for the awesome WV terrain. I need to take mine the next time I make the trip down to WV.

[terrible]

So we ended up in Douthat state park in VA this weekend for the wife's birthday. Just me, her and two dip-stick dogs for four days. Of course we took the mtb's but I drug along a few toy cars too. We took a good hike up a few mountains that ended up being several hundred "scale miles" for the toy trucks. But since this is the capra forum we will stick to info about that for now.

The cabin had a nice river rock planter in front with nothing planted so I played on that for the first night. Turns out the dig is good for dropping the nose over ledges and keeping the rear end slowed while it drags the rest of the truck over. I haven't had a truck with dig before this one so it's all new to me.

The next day we went for a nice hike up the mountain at the resort and it was a HUGE quick climb. I was surprised at the amount of vertical per foot. I didn't break out the capra until we headed down but I still had plenty of time to side hill and mess with the dig on our way down. The truck was really planted and very predictable. No odd torque twist or picking up one front wheel more than the other on climbs.

Our last day was a short bike ride but more low land walks to take it easy on our 12 year old Siberian husky (hip issues). We found the back side of the dam after a quick bike ride and came back after lunch/beers. It was like a scene from the KOH race! The park has lowered the water level for winter and the spill way was dry as a bone(unless you went looking) so we could stumble around and goof off. I didn't have to pick up the capra once! This thing just slinks it's way around rocks, finds traction and just goes.







I'm going to see if I have what it takes to edit a few videos but bear with me since that's new to me.