My first scaler adventure

[uclabruins89]

I have always owned fast RC trucks, never a scaler or crawler. I decided to branch out and get a SCX10 rubicon and prolly went a little overboard with cost on this... here are a couple pics from my first adventure at a local park.. I can take detailed pics if you wanna see anything in it. I have a lotta vanquish parts, rock beast 1.9s, mounted the battery up in front of motor as low as i can, got the currie axles, winch. Vanquish light bar plus JK head n tail light kit, all mount and glued under the body. Love it so far.

Jury is still out on the currie axles, used them once and thinking about trying the plastic ones and selling the curries, we'll see.

Any tips for getting water out of foams? I have holes in tires, and drove it through a creek. Should I just take the wheels apartment and let them dry everytime or can i just throw them on my SCTE and blast them.

Also, any good tips for balancing the foams? Some of my tires wobble and I can seem to fix it lol.

[raceeng18]

May not be the foams. I can't tell what wheels you have by your photo's. If they're bead locks, the tire bead may not be seated correctly. If they're glued, maybe an uneven glue job. Keep your axle nuts tight too. Welcome to trails and crawling.

[Geezer]

This is just my opinion and only my opinion but Currie axles are over rated. Major big time heavy duty bling factor. They do look impressive. As far as a performance enhancer not so much. Figure it this way. Aluminum is soft. Grabby. Plastic is harder and smoother therby slipier. So in my opinion you pay a lot to get hung up on a rock everyone else with plastic axle housings go over easily. It won't take long for that great aluminum machine finish to start looking like poopie doodie. Stock axle housings with Beef Tubes and aluminum chubs with stock CVDs are a stronger, cheaper and better crawling setup. So if you were considering selling them, do it. You should have enough money left over to buy more parts and a beer.
It does sound like a well put together truck. Have fun with it and welcome to the addiction!

[cmbscx10]

uclabruins89,
Looks like a nice little creek. The Rubicon looks great so far. Diggin the sleeping bags and rolls.

[RCTRUX]

Well you definitely have a nice first crawler, are those Vanquish OMFs?

[uclabruins89]

Originally Posted by RCTRUX

Well you definitely have a nice first crawler, are those Vanquish OMFs?

Yes.

I'll post a lot more close up pics tomorrow (maybe tonight), in the process of putting it back together. Planning to waterproof it this weekend. I def went all out with my first scaler, bought every upgrade before I ever even drove the stock. 50% of stock parts were never even used lol.

[RCTRUX]

Originally Posted by uclabruins89

Yes.

I'll post a lot more close up pics tomorrow (maybe tonight), in the process of putting it back together. Planning to waterproof it this weekend. I def went all out with my first scaler, bought every upgrade before I ever even drove the stock. 50% of stock parts were never even used lol.

Nice, can't go wrong with Vanquish

[uclabruins89]

Here are a lot more pics of my first rig. Hard to see the brake lights in the "lights on" pics. Can show anything in detail if anyone is curious about this build. I am working on moving the electronics up front somewhere for weight. Maybe a Jevne battery plate is in the future, as it should clear the servo on the axle. Don't think I'm gonna do the Vanquish CMS unless anyone has a good argument for it. The winch is hooked up to the radio trim button on MT4, with 4 speed settings, in fast, in slow, stop, out fast. Love it! The two light systems are hooked up with a 4 pin deans connector when I attach the body, and the wiring is attached to the body using Shoe Goo. I still need to waterproof the entire system, including light systems.

Dont be too critical I only got into scalers 3 weeks ago lol. Was into the short course thing for a couple months before that.

[Erbing]

Looking good, put some door lines,hood lines and It'll be perfect.

[uclabruins89]

Originally Posted by Erbing

Looking good, put some door lines,hood lines and It'll be perfect.

I dunno if I have a smooth enough hand to free hand lines.. Any tips for getting smooth drawn lines with a sharpie?

[Erbing]

Originally Posted by uclabruins89

I dunno if I have a smooth enough hand to free hand lines.. Any tips for getting smooth drawn lines with a sharpie?

I myself have bad hands, look at my jeep pics in the new tsl xl threads and you can see its not straight...lol

[DBoger82]

you can always use an acrylic paint wash to do the panel lines.

[uclabruins89]

Bump any other comments or anything? Have no RC friends to talk nerd with haha

[RCTRUX]

Is the vanquish light bar powered by the same battery you run the rig off of?

[uclabruins89]

Originally Posted by RCTRUX

Is the vanquish light bar powered by the same battery you run the rig off of?

Yeah LEDs are low power so I'm never too worried about it. I have 1 5000mah and 2 3000mag 3s batteries. Never have a problem with batteries running out quickly, as I can barely manage to go a couple hours without wanting to come relax in the AC. I don't even get through 1 battery in that time.

I've never ran without the bar so can't do a comparison as to how much faster it runs the battery. All i've read is LEDs are low power so don't worry about it

[fj40jay]

Nice Jeep, you need to get a friend hooked on crawling also. The draw of the led,s is minimal, but I think that light bar was designed to run at 7+ volts, and a lot of us are curious to see what it looked like off stock bec...It is bright as hell, very nice man.

[RCTRUX]

Originally Posted by fj40jay

Nice Jeep, you need to get a friend hooked on crawling also. The draw of the led,s is minimal, but I think that light bar was designed to run at 7+ volts, and a lot of us are curious to see what it looked like off stock bec...It is bright as hell, very nice man.

It's designed to run of 3s, i was just curious if he wired it with the main pack or ran a separate smaller 3s

[Catlover3178]

Awesome jeep. +1 on getting rid of the curries though, every aluminum axle housing I've run had gotten hung up 3x as fast as stock resin housings. Just my 2c

[uclabruins89]

Originally Posted by Catlover3178

Awesome jeep. +1 on getting rid of the curries though, every aluminum axle housing I've run had gotten hung up 3x as fast as stock resin housings. Just my 2c

Yeah i've been debating this all day. I do think I get hung up a little more, but they look sweet.

Just put the stocks on and gotta get another 4 link truss before I can finish, but now that I packed both full with marine grease I kind of want to put the curries back on haha. I cant decide!!!!

[uclabruins89]

So I stuck with the curries, they are just too cool.

But for an update to my build, i broke the fragile roof rack so am looking into replacements. I'm possibly adding another vanquish light bar to the roof rack for some ridiculous front lights. Also planning to add 2 led bars to the sliders pointing down for some rock lights, and possible some sort of downward light in the rear. Will probably also use vanquish bars for that but we'll see.

I'll post pics as I purchase and install the new light systems. Going to do the slider led bars first along with the roof rack. Not sure yet if a 5" vanquish light bar is overkill right above the 6" bar, but i'll think about it.