first RC in a while. Just ordered a Capra.

[champ198]

was in the hobbie some years ago and had quite a few cars including a wraith that I had modified quite a bit. have been out of it for quite a few years and now my son is wanting to get back into it since he really enjoyed it and we had some pretty good times back then.
so this morning I ordered one of the Capra RTR cars.
for the RTR how is this thing as far as durability?
it seems like it has some pretty nice features with more metal links, looks like a nicer radio than most RTRs and a pretty decent size servo at 201oz.
what are some of the weak links on the Capra to start off with.

[JatoTheRipper]

Congrats!

The RTR should be just as durable as the kit minus the electronics. Axial, thankfully, changed their ways on the newer kits and now the RTRs have the same upgrades as the kits. RTR electronics are never the best so they may fail early and/or you may want to upgrade those.

Another "weak spot" is that the Capra only accepts tiny batteries so make sure you have batteries that will fit.

[high plains drifter]

I don't know what others ( as a consensus) consider to be the weak links but for me...

> The factory plastic dig-servo mounts. Aluminum upgrades are avail from SSD and from Super Shafty. The plastic mounts cause some flex/ slop when engaging/ disengaging the dig unit.

> The factory plastic front servo mount. Again... SSD or Super Shafty.

> I didn't care for the stock tires either... upgraded to more aggressive Flat Irons... better bite/ larger footprint.

> I've seen several pics of front axle-housings that have cracked right at the outer 'C'. Just something to keep an eye on maybe. No problems with this on my Capra yet.

>>> The #1 best mod that I've done to my rig besides a stronger steering servo are brass front portal weights. My Capra crawls SO much better having the added weight. Got mine from Vitavon but other manufacturers are also available.

[champ198]

what batteries are you all running in the Capra. I have to get a charger and lipo setup still that's my next step. have a local Hobby shop here in town so might go to him for some help on what to get as I am far from familiar with this stuff any more.
would like to have something with a multiple charging setup since the batteries are small.

[high plains drifter]

The only battery that I've put thru the Capra is a Lumenier 1500 mAh 3S. I switched from the Spektrum connector and went XT60 which is what this battery is equipped with. Battery space is tight inside the Capra so make sure to double check dimensions.

This thread may be of some assistance although I'm sure there are a lot of other options out there that haven't been mentioned..

Capra Battery Thread

[magic_yeti]

I use 2 small 3s 1300mAh 65c in the Capra. And have a mobile dc charger ISDT h605 Air to charge them from my big lipos on the fly. They give > 1hour drive time. So if i use 1 for driving i charge the other one in the meantime.



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[dezracer99]

Originally Posted by champ198

what batteries are you all running in the Capra. I have to get a charger and lipo setup still that's my next step. have a local Hobby shop here in town so might go to him for some help on what to get as I am far from familiar with this stuff any more.
would like to have something with a multiple charging setup since the batteries are small.

This one fits like a glove, like it's made for the Capra.
https://www.amainhobbies.com/protek-...116-20/p991752
I like Capra a lot. I upgraded the steering servo, motor, tires, radio and speed control. It climbs and crawls like a spider.

[nucklehead]

The dig servo has failed on a few members on their first run so I’d be setting your endpoints right out of the box.The STX3 transmitter is garbage, deep six it if your able to. If you don’t want to invest in portal weights to begin with, I’d suggest looking into the “pen spring” mod. There are several YouTube videos on how to. The Capra sits a little high and tends to flip over backwards under certain conditions, so the “pen spring” mod is a cheap way to lower your rig. There is several YouTube videos that go over the Capra and what mods are recommended. I just purchased my rtr Capra and I spent time reviewing them before buying.

[scottiej]

Quite surprised no one has mentioned this yet but they don't appear to have greased any of the transmission or axles in the factory with the RTRs.

So the first thing i would do is strip the axles and transmission to check and add grease.

[high plains drifter]

Yeah... I completely forgot about that... my gears were all dry too.

[nucklehead]

Originally Posted by scottiej

Quite surprised no one has mentioned this yet but they don't appear to have greased any of the transmission or axles in the factory with the RTRs.

So the first thing i would do is strip the axles and transmission to check and add grease.

I’ll check mine tomorrow

Edit: just checked the rear axle, dry as a bone!

[champ198]

picked up a Charger and 2 1300mah 3s Lipo packs from the LHS. hes a good dude and I buy quite a bit of other stuff from him also since its main digs is a pawn/gun shop.
so this should get us going for a while.
also today ordered 4 more 1300 3S packs so that will give us 6 total but ill need all of them when I order my Capra in the next few weeks but it will have quite a few more mods to it than my sons probably will.

[bluecusion]

I am still on the fence about rtr or the kit..

[NeoPyro]

I have one. I've only driven it twice so far, but I really like it. My only critique are the battery connectors. I've never been a fan of EC3's and by extension IC3's. I find it very difficult and borderline painful to connect/disconnect the battery from the ESC. A simple fix for this would be to cut the IC3 connector off and solder on a connector of your choice or buy/make an adapter which I plan on doing. As for batteries? I run Tattu 3s 1550 mAh 45C packs in mine and I get about an hour of run time per charge, but ymmv. Then for charging I use a Duratrax Onyx 230 with an Astro Flight Blinky balancer but I recently ordered a Hitec RDX1 which should be here in a few days.

EDIT: Unfortunately, the RDX1 is a single channel charger meaning it can only charge one battery at a time. A simple way around this would be to have a pack charging while you're driving or you could get yourself a parallel board that way you could charge multiple batteries at once, but I do not recommend going this route unless you absolutely positively know what you are doing.

[1stGen]

I picked up a RTR Capra as well, first crawler. I've been a competitive RC racer for about 30 years (and counting), but the new local track has an indoor crawling course, racing buddy let me and my family drive his Capra, and so I ordered one up along with an SCX10.3 kit that night, lol.

As far as RTR RC's go it's very good, but a few things I've seen/ noticed:

• The dig servo likely isn't set up completely correct, so plan on setting the EPAs first. It's a bit strange and to set it up the way the manual says the switches should work, you have to set the 4wd position first (the servo drives away from that position when setting the first end point), then you set the dig position. Take the left body panel off to get a good look and listen to the dig servo. Even setting it "correct", you may get inconsistent dig function for various reasons, including a weak servo, weak servo mounts, the servo saver, and slop in the dig actuator arm and the servo saver arm. I have mounts, a better servo, and an XRay micro servo saver on the way to see about getting that better, and will probably switch over to my wife's DX5c as well. Be a while before I could update though, on a work trip until July.
• The stock steering servo is JUST Ok. The first real full day of calling on the local course stripped it out, probably from some bind when my kids were using it, but I replaced it with a 370TBL. The stock servo arm doesn't come with other inserts, so to use a 25T spline servo, you have to supply your own arm. I had a protek aluminum clamping arm, so I used that.
• With the stronger servo, I was getting flickering in the stock lights. I installed a Castle BEC I had, only to discover it was dead, so I installed a "glitch buster" cap on the receiver, and don't get flickering anymore, though I'm going to install a BEC to get even more authority on the steering when I get home.
• Speaking of lights, the light bar likes to puke the LED strip out after a few hard rolls, so adding some clear RTV to reinforce will help keep them in place and protected.
• The transmission, axles, portals and drive shafts are all dry out of the box. I managed to lube everything in about 30min without super major disassembly. With the drive shafts off, the pinion gears can be removed with a 2mm ball driver without taking ask the links loose. Taking the shocks loose can gain more room if needed. Portals are straightforward to get to. Transmission I got out by removing the top cage section and folding the forward middle cage section to the front to remove the driver tray and transmission out the top without a lot of cage flexing.
• Shocks weren't built completely to my preference, and 3 of 4 leaked after a couple tough days of crawling, rebuilt with the stock o-rings with some green slime in the shaft seal area and some AE 40wt. One of the shock cap bleeding screws was over tightened out of the box and didn't want to snug back up correctly, but it's not leaking. I'd be interested in an aluminum cap, if available.
• Dig sometimes hangs up if in a bind, I don't know if a stronger servo situation would cure it, or if some selective polishing is in order yet.
• Tires are much better after some break-in/scuffing. I accomplished this by doing some tight "spirited" figure 8's on my concrete driveway.
• Foams might be a little stiff, but they don't let the tire get pinched and bind the truck like some really soft foams do on my local course.
• Ride height is a bit tall for climbing, but decent for big rocks. Local course had both, so still figuring out the balance.
• Stock ESC and motor seem fine, at stock gearing. Since my kids primarily drive the Capra, and the SCX10.3 will be "mine", I don't plan to change it right away.
• There's lots of battery threads, I'm currently using a Reedy Wolfpack 3s.

Don't take the above as a gripe list. Again, I primarily race, am picky about my stuff, and I don't expect RTR electronics to last as long as stuff I spec out for my builds. My SCX10.3 build is on the opposite side of "budget" than the role the Capra is filling.

The RTR Capra is extremely capable, as long as you know what it's vulnerabilities are with the RTR electronics.

[champ198]

We have had the Capra for a couple weeks now and are in the process of building a crawling area in the back yard. So far my son really likes it and so do I so I'll be ordering myself one shortly that will be a little more modified than his for a while.
We bought one of the Hitec RDX1 chargers and a pair of 1300mah 3s venom packs and I also ordered 4 Turnigy 1400mah 3s packs. So we should be good battery wise for a while. Plan to buy another RDX1 charger so that will give us 2 which will work well.

I took my sons axles apart and greased everything since like everyone else said his were dry.

He did order some tires and some clear body panels so he can paint it a different color.

I was pretty impressed at how capable it is out of the box.
Servo for small stuff like he has been doing is fine for now but I'm sure we will have to replace it before long. But so far we are happy with the rig.


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