Want to skip the upgrade cycle, suggestions please

[nanan00]

I grew up in the era of 2wd buggies and stadium trucks and had many R/C10's T's and GT's and though R/C free for many years I have had the itch again and want to build something new, a monster truck/crawler. Research points me to this as the place with the SCX-10 being the ideal platform but I would like to cut the old cycle of upgrading over and over to find the right parts and just skip to the end and just get the good stuff off the bat now that I am an adult and can actually afford to do so.

Thus far I want a SCX-10 Dingo, a 3+ channel remote, 2/3s lipo, and brushless motor but I might as well be starting off new here as these are all things that came about way after I got out in the late 90's. So, looking for suggestions on those parts and any other suggestions will be appreciated too as I know every system has a weak point so might as well eliminate the obvious ones right off. I have no plans for doing competitions at this time but who knows, I did regional level pro racing for a few years back in the old days and might get into it again.


Thanks for any help that you can provide.

Edit; The list of stuff suggested so far.

Truck: Axial SCX-10 Dingo
Radio: Futaba 4PL
ESC: Castle Creations Mamba Max Pro
Steer Servo: Hitec 7950
BEC: Castle Creations 10A
Batteries: Traxxas 25C 7.4V 2S 2-Cell 4000mAh LiPo
Motor: Tekin Pro4 3300kV
Charger: Thunder AC6 Smart LiPo Balance Charger/Discharger

Body: Tamiya UNIMOG w/ fabbed cage/bed

Misc. truck upgrades:
Robinson trans gears and 32p spur & pinion
MIP drive shafts w/ Gunnar pins
VP stage 1 kit, MIP CVD, Beef tubes?, Metal links, HD Gears
Wheels:
Tires: Proline TSL Super swampers


???

[johnnyh66]

Electronics:
Castle Creations Mamba Max Pro ESC
Tekin Pro4 3300 brushless motor
Hitec 7950 servo

Trans:
Robinson Racing gears and one piece output (or SuperShafty bomb proof trans)
32 pitch spur and pinion

Drive Shafts:
MIP

Axles:
Aluminum Knuckles and CHubs (Axial or VP)
CVD (Super 300's, Axial or VP)
HD Gear Set (I recomend Overdrive in the front and Underdrive in the rear)
Beef Tubes

All metal links (Make them yourself with stainless steel 8:32 all thread and either ss sleves or aluminum or buy the from VP)

[nanan00]

Awesome, the castle esc seems to be a highly recommended unit from what I have seen here on the forums. Any suggestion on a 2/3s lipo in the 5000+ mah range?

Um also while on lipo's, any suggestions on a charger? The last time I was playing with RC stuff I had a Tekin charger that you had to hook up to a 12v source like a car/boat battery or a ac/dc converter... I want something I can plug into a wall and will peek charge in sub 30m if possible.

[mjc597]

You may be hard pressed to be able to charge 5000mah lipos in under 30 minutes...without causing a fire I would think..my 5000mah/5800mah lipos are only 2s and from my cutoff (3.3v per cell) they take around an hour to charge at 5.0a...

[Tmaxxed]

This is what I have. Its a great charger. Will charge my 2 cell 5c 5000 mah lipos in just over 10 minutes. And my 2 cell 2c 5200 mah lipos in about 30. http://www.revolectrix.com/pl8_description_tab.htm

[nanan00]

Originally Posted by mjc597

You may be hard pressed to be able to charge 5000mah lipos in under 30 minutes...without causing a fire I would think..my 5000mah/5800mah lipos are only 2s and from my cutoff (3.3v per cell) they take around an hour to charge at 5.0a...

Good to know, I had a charging rig for races that consisted of a heavy carry dolly with a deep cycle battery on bottom with a charger rigged to the dolly frame on back, above the battery was a squirrel cage fan blowing into a box with 6 heat sinked spaces just big enough for the 6 cell packs with my tekin charger on top. This let me charge packs and keep them cool when i was running two classes back to back for Mod buggy and truck.

Guess I don't need to worry about quick charging so much when the batteries last 5x+ longer...

[mncrawler89]

At crawler speeds, a 5000 lipo will give you a couple hours of crawling time unlike the 20 minutes of short course racing speeds. That being said, you don't have to worry about charging your battery fast to get back into action.

[dittohead]

A 5000mah battery is way to big for a crawler if you actually have performance in mind, they are simply too big and heavy. I personally run 1300s and 2200s in 3s and and i get nearly 2 hours out of a 2200mah. 2 of those and you will probably run out of terrain before batteries.
As for electric upgrades id go with a good 45t motor, fxr or mmp esc, castle 10amp bec, hitec ti geared servo.
For drivetrain i use vanquish stage 1 kit and their ti steering linkage. Axial cvds for the front axle, heavy duty lockers f/r along with hd axial gears, i like underdrive rears and stock ratio front myself. The trans needs rrp or hot racing gears and thats it. The driveshafts i prefer mip but junfac are also very good.
Tires i recommend 1.9 pitbulls or the new proline swamper XL, with crawler innovation foams. As for wheels i only use vp slw compatible wheels and my favorites are TSS wheels. Best bang for your buck IMO.
Ive had a truck setup like this for 4+ years and all ive ever broke are link ends. A scx built like i described is very capable and extremely durable.

[Tmaxxed]

Originally Posted by mncrawler89

At crawler speeds, a 5000 lipo will give you a couple hours of crawling time unlike the 20 minutes of short course racing speeds. That being said, you don't have to worry about charging your battery fast to get back into action.

I've never got even an hour out of my 5200mah. Are you talking just very slow creeping or a mix of all kinds of trailing? I have a couple honcho on 2.2s and get about 45 minutes.

[93flareside]

Dynamite makes some good chargers that don't break the bank too bad. I have their Passport UltraForce charger.

[Tmaxxed]

If you want a good charger and don't mind waiting an hour for a 5000mah to charge, the AC6 is great. And cheap. Can be bought for around $45.

[dittohead]

Originally Posted by Tmaxxed

I've never got even an hour out of my 5200mah. Are you talking just very slow creeping or a mix of all kinds of trailing? I have a couple honcho on 2.2s and get about 45 minutes.

You either pin it 100% of the time or your battery isnt charging completely. The 5200s in my short course truck last 1/2 hour or more.

[Meatwad]

Originally Posted by johnnyh66

Electronics:
Castle Creations Mamba Max Pro ESC
Tekin Pro4 3300 brushless motor
Hitec 7950 servo

Trans:
Robinson Racing gears and one piece output (or SuperShafty bomb proof trans)
32 pitch spur and pinion

Drive Shafts:
MIP

Axles:
Aluminum Knuckles and CHubs (Axial or VP)
CVD (Super 300's, Axial or VP)
HD Gear Set (I recomend Overdrive in the front and Underdrive in the rear)
Beef Tubes

All metal links (Make them yourself with stainless steel 8:32 all thread and either ss sleves or aluminum or buy the from VP)

This...

But also a bec!!

[Tmaxxed]

Originally Posted by dittohead

You either pin it 100% of the time or your battery isnt charging completely. The 5200s in my short course truck last 1/2 hour or more.

No, don't pin it 100%. Probably 40-50%. I have a powerlab 8. I know I'm getting 100% charge, it tells me so LOL! I do run in very knarly terrain, wide open hill climbs, and there is quiet a bit of hard throttle stuff. I run with a couple people and we all get about the same. So its probably the terrain we run it. We do run em hard!

[johnnyh66]

This past weekend I timed a new 1300mah lipo at 1hr 3min of run time.

MMP, Pro4 3300
3s 1300mah 40c lipo.

[johnnyh66]

Originally Posted by Meatwad

This...

But also a bec!!

and Gunnar pins for the cvd's and hex's.

[mncrawler89]

Originally Posted by Tmaxxed

I've never got even an hour out of my 5200mah. Are you talking just very slow creeping or a mix of all kinds of trailing? I have a couple honcho on 2.2s and get about 45 minutes.

A mix of slow crawling, steep hill climbs and full throttle in between.

[Meatwad]

Originally Posted by johnnyh66

This past weekend I timed a new 1300mah lipo at 1hr 3min of run time.

MMP, Pro4 3300
3s 1300mah 40c lipo.

What gearing, rig weight? I've been weary of the lil baby packs and the pro4...

[Meatwad]

Originally Posted by johnnyh66

and Gunnar pins for the cvd's and hex's.

Those too!

[65BAJA]

Originally Posted by johnnyh66

Electronics:
Castle Creations Mamba Max Pro ESC
Tekin Pro4 3300 brushless motor
Hitec 7950 servo

Trans:
Robinson Racing gears and one piece output (or SuperShafty bomb proof trans)
32 pitch spur and pinion

Drive Shafts:
MIP

Axles:
Aluminum Knuckles and CHubs (Axial or VP)
CVD (Super 300's, Axial or VP)
HD Gear Set (I recomend Overdrive in the front and Underdrive in the rear)
Beef Tubes

All metal links (Make them yourself with stainless steel 8:32 all thread and either ss sleves or aluminum or buy the from VP)

A good list.

Personally I don't like the one piece RR output gears. It limits your options in the future too much. Get the steel out put gear #1552. That way if you decide to get a dig unit or upgrade to some CI 4340 outputs or supershafty 6mm outputs you can.

3300kv on 3s is a lot of fun. 2300kv ROC on 4s is more fun.

Stay in the 2200-2700mah range for batteries. Do you plan on running G6 type events? If so get the 2700. Just having fun? Get the smaller pack. Get 3 or 4 batteries. Maybe a spare TX batt too.

For a charger get something with more than one out put. like a Hitec x2 Ultima or even an X4 Plus if you want AC/DC.