New Capra

[Siq6Six]

Almost picked up a Capra @ PTBF last Saturday, but then I saw Horizons website had it for even less & at a price I couldn't pass up! So now I have a 4WS Capra coming my way.

Which CI foams are you guys running with? I plan on using the stock tires with aluminum beadlocks so long as the Nittos perform.

Any "must do" mods or known issues to remedy? Sounds like this thing is pretty solid straight out the box.

[indybama]

U dont have to upgrade right away. Get out n run it, get a feel for it n upgrade from there. Yeah the HW1080 would be alot better than the stock esc, but otherwise run it til the servos decide to crap out. Some people will tell up to upgrade EVERYTHING straight out the box ^^^, thats not nessasary. Alot of people like the nittos, others dont. Aluminum beadlocks will help for weight down lown, u want unsprung weight, it helps to keep the rig planted.

Just take it out, have fun, find your driving style n the weaknesses of the rig on your terrain. Then upgrade from there

[1fox2go]

You don't have to upgrade anything right away. My non 4ws Capra has the less desirable ESC and motor combo and its been ok. The dig servo died which they warrantied.

My friend suggested to do the "pen spring mod" but I'm not entirely sold on that. But maybe something you want to look into.

Only thing I would suggest would be some heavier wheels. The Nitto tires aren't bad but they aren't Hyrax, Swampers, or Krawlers in the Predator compound...

[Goos3]

Just ignore CB entirely. Go get you some drive time.

[Damion10]

I would switch to an 11 Tooth Pinion ( not sure what the RTR come With ) as a first mod. Helps with the rather tall gearing the Capra has. After that run it and see what you think.

I would guess tires would be among the first thing to change, as well as adding some overdrive to the front. Its a fast and fairly cheap mod that makes a big difference in performance.

[chilly]

I got a capra a couple months ago as my first crawler. I got the RTR on sale so figured it was good to get familiar with how crawlers work and how they go together. I've upgraded a few things just for the heck of it (weight, wheels, pinion), and they make a difference, but not really necessary.

The only thing I really upgraded because something in the RTR was unacceptable was the ESC. The stock one worked fine generally, but on a steep descent with drag brake holding the car - as soon as you gave the slightest bit of throttle it would turn off the drag brake completely and it would runaway down hill. The 1080 has a setting 'freewheel' that lets it keep the drag brake engaged as you creep down the hill with slight throttle. So it's wayyyyy more controllable in these situations. I just couldn't creep down a hill at the limit with the stock ESC but the 1080 works great. But starting with the RTR let me figure out how things work and what the benefit of a upgrade was.

[ScaleLifeNewbie]

Originally Posted by chilly

But starting with the RTR let me figure out how things work and what the benefit of a upgrade was.

Agreed. I personally think it’s a horrible idea to drop a ton of money on parts before you even drive it because a lot of times they’ll either make next to no difference or even hurt performance. Plus why not drive it out of the box as it’s made? You did buy an RTR after all, why not treat it like one? You’ll save money not buying stupid things like metal battery trays or trans housings and probably have more fun doing it this way learning what you really need & what you can skip on.

The only time you should buy stuff from the get go is if you have personal experience with the same exact truck and know what’s good and what’s not; not some guy linking YouTube links telling you what to get.

[King Dork]

Originally Posted by Goos3

Just ignore CB entirely. Go get you some drive time.

Drive time x 2. Enjoy it. If something breaks ask then if there’s something better than stock to replace it with. Upgrades are only relevant once you get some drive time in and the rig isn’t doing what you want it to do.

[indybama]

Originally Posted by ScaleLifeNewbie

Agreed. I personally think it’s a horrible idea to drop a ton of money on parts before you even drive it because a lot of times they’ll either make next to no difference or even hurt performance. Plus why not drive it out of the box as it’s made? You did buy an RTR after all, why not treat it like one? You’ll save money not buying stupid things like metal battery trays or trans housings and probably have more fun doing it this way learning what you really need & what you can skip on.

The only time you should buy stuff from the get go is if you have personal experience with the same exact truck and know what’s good and what’s not; not some guy linking YouTube links telling you what to get.

'Some guy' just happens to b a newb himself, but is tellin people they "need" to upgrade this n that. And not all yt vids are the right thing or right way to do things, as is fakebook from wat i hear lol.

Best thing is to just go drive it, have fun n upgrade when somethin breaks

[Siq6Six]

Thanks for all the responses! Sorry it's takin so long to get back, been a pretty busy week+.

So the Capra showed up surprisingly fast. I didn't realize it was shipping from like 45 minutes away or I would have just picked it up in person! I ran it bone stock @ Horseman's last Friday. It really surprised me with some side hilling it pulled off, while some other things not so much. Who knew the Capra is a back flip king - when your trying to climb something. The car is super light and sits a bit high. Shocks need to be tuned or replaced. (Pen-spring mod comes to mind). Also the tires are a little stiff - be it the rubber compound, foam or a combination. Maybe the tires & foams will soften up and the springs will begin to sag after a few battery packs or some extra weight gets added to the buggy. I went ahead and got new tires & foams. Proline Krawlers w/ CI foams & mounted them up to aluminum beadlocks. I'm also going to try some 90mm Dezert Lizard's I pulled off my Element (once I'm done rebuilding them).

The drag brake feels weak. That or there's a setting I need to find & tweak. The (high) gearing could also be part of the problem. It took a heavy trigger pull a few times to get the tires spinning as well. So I see some changes coming in the near future here. I'll probably look into gears before going the motor/esc route.

The servo's did alright. There were a few times when they were bound up and couldn't turn, but I try to be mindful of tire placement so I wasn't turning while they were bound up.

I'm going to keep running it on the stock radio for now as well. Down the road I'll either toss a Futaba receiver in it and use my 7PX, or another setup that will give me full control of the rear steer. I'm a little hesitant to risk taking a spill and dropping the Futaba or I would have already swapped over lol.

So with the extra weight from the new wheels, the shocks set for a mild droop, I should see some performance increase. I do need to add some front brass to move the weight bias forward, I just haven't ordered anything. It's easy to go from 0-60 ordering upgrades, and even easier to throw away your money because you realized a month later you should had bought X instead of Y. (ie Parts I got for my Element to use w/ stock Sendero body, but have since decided it needed the JConcepts Creep body). I'm gonna go finish up these shocks & get everything ready to spend some time on the rocks after work tomorrow. We'll see how this works out.

[high plains drifter]

Very helpful update. I've been looking at this one lately. Nice to hear solid unbiased thoughts on it.

[Damion10]

I have the desert lizard shocks on mine, they work very well, its set up mostly droop with the smallest softest springs.

I also added front brass portal covers to get some low weight up front, this helped tremendously with very steep climbs.

[Siq6Six]

So I went into work for a couple hours of OT and it turned into a 10hr day. Got home, grabbed everything and took off to the rocks. Had about 15-20 minutes before the battery died. Thought the battery had more charge. Amateur move. I would have "topped off" if I had gotten home sooner, oh well.

What I did see was the Capra was able to crawl up rocks that flipped it backwards last week. Shocks & tires made a very noticeable difference. There is absolutely less articulation now, with the Dezert Lizard shocks installed. I have them setup with the soft short spring in the body, the soft mid-length spring on the shaft up front and the medium short spring in the body, soft mid-length spring on the shaft in the rear. 4 hole pistons and axial 30-weight oil. I didn't want to start with too thick of oil and it was that, 50 weight or 55 weight. I may end up going with soft/soft in the rear shocks, but I'll continue to test this for now.

The tires gripped much better than the stock tires as well. Being able to turn up and crawl into some spots that the stock tires had no hope of biting in to was a nice improvement. The Lil' Nova's are dual stage, but 3-pieces. Since I went w/ soft front/rear, I took the outer ring off for the front tires. The difference in minor but should add a little stability to the rear.

So it still did a lot of unnecessary jumping and rolling when getting 'stuck' on objects. While I don't have a lot of faith in the ESC/Motor, I want to see how much of an improvement changing out the gears will actually be. I'm about to place an order for the 11t Robinson Racing spur gear & Vanquish underdrive gears for the rear axle. If my math is right, it should bring the final ratio down from 25.92 to 40.05 front & 44.05 rear. 10% difference in wheel speed. This should help the stock esc/motor out quite a bit w/ start up & drag brake. We'll see...

[RKS]

I also just purchased a Capra. It needs droop (lower links level) to help it's climbing ability. I've seen mods on YT that show the ball point spring mod,but it causes you to loose articulation. I also seen another one where softer,and shorter springs were used,and it allowed better articulation. What are you guy's using to get the proper droop on the Capra? Thanks,Ron

[jamesbernatchez]

I picked up a 4WS RTR on sale. Right away, knowing what i wanted it to do, I swapped tires/wheels, added brass portal covers, removed the lower spring retainer to allow more of a droop suspension and swapped out to an HW Fusion combo. So far it's a beast. Much better than the kit I original put together when it first came out.

[mikeyd5051]

Only upgrade I'd reccomend out of the box is to take the bottom cups off the shocks. I tried the pen spring mod and hated it. Taking the cups off drops the body and you keep all the flex.

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[bmxbryant09]

Just started building my capra kit this week. I'm pumped to get it going. I was thinking about upgrading parts but I still need the electronics

[mikeyd5051]

Originally Posted by bmxbryant09

Just started building my capra kit this week. I'm pumped to get it going. I was thinking about upgrading parts but I still need the electronics

Mine has the Castle micro mamba x2 and Holmes Hobbies 2700kv Puller Pro Stubby but if I could go back I would've put the Hobbywing Fusion pro in it. I have that in my Scx10 2 and it's so smooth

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[Ots]

My Capra really likes the brass weights all the way around for climbing. I added HH TM 540 Pro with 11T pinion, Savox 2290SG servo and 2.2 wheels/tires and I'm real happy with it, even with stock suspension.