Umg10 build. Need advice....

[tuf-gmh]

Hey all. Been outta the rc game for about 10years. Use to have a xr10 i use to comp with. Looking for something fun now to have a play with. So i bought a umg10.

What upgrades are worth doing in the build? New to shaftys lol. Im gunna do the wheelbase stretch and not sure what else yet.. open 2 all advice on everything. Alots probly changed in 10 years with electronics etc

Cheers jeremy

[DirtBug]

1. Vanquish Top Shaft for the transmission
2. SSD Brass Heavy Steering Knuckles for the AR44 axles
3. Scalerfab Double Tube Rock Sliders w/Skids to keep the bodywork nice and protected
That's where I would start. After that I would go with tires and wheels. Then I'd probably go with swapping shocks for something less leaky.

[DRED805]

Originally Posted by tuf-gmh

Hey all. Been outta the rc game for about 10years. Use to have a xr10 i use to comp with. Looking for something fun now to have a play with. So i bought a umg10.

What upgrades are worth doing in the build? New to shaftys lol. Im gunna do the wheelbase stretch and not sure what else yet.. open 2 all advice on everything. Alots probly changed in 10 years with electronics etc

Cheers jeremy

I'm in the same boat... Last RC I had was a Tamiya Toyota Prerunner I built in the late 90's, and my first rc since is the UMG kit I picked up a few months ago. What a coincidence that I just found this post while researching how to stretch the rear out a bit. I've done hundreds of hours of research on this thing, but I still feel like I don't know much.

Anyway, I haven't messed with the suspension at all yet, but I've already ditched the rear fender plastics because of rubbing issues with 4.7" Krawler tires and metal beadlocks I got. I don't think it looks bad at all, and now there's enough room to kick the axle back ~1-1/4" before the tires would start rubbing the cage. I've also got rubbing issues in the front, but I'm gonna wait on hacking the fenders until I get a scalerfab low profile bumper, to make it match up as clean as possible.

Electronics-wise, I went with the following:

Hobbywing 1080 ESC
Radon Reedy Crawler 16T 5-slot motor
Savox 1230sg Servo
Spektrum DX5 rugged radio w/5 channel servo
Gens ace 4400mah 50C 3s Lipo batteries

Very happy with all electronics, except the servo is super loud and annoying. I'll be swapping that into the rock rey I just got, and putting something else in its place (ProModeler DS630 maybe?). I also got a 2200mah 45c 2s Battery, just to see the difference, and it's got plenty of power. My big batteries are overkill for sure.

The only other significant mod I've done was the battery/servo relocation mounts to lower the center of gravity, which I picked up on eBay. I put those in at the same time as some Benedict Harry brass internal wheel weights, and I noticed a significant difference in stability. The only issue with the servo relocation is that the servo horn needs to be pointed forward for the stock steering arm to work properly. It steers great, but it looks stupid with the arm angled forward, and the nut on the servo horn wants to catch on everything on approach. I need to figure out a shortened steering arm, so I can flip the horn around 180 degrees and out of the way.

Parts waiting to go in are the Vanquish rear underdrive gears and the vanquish top shaft for the transmission. The top shaft doesn't seem to be any kind of emergency, but I can see the slop in the stock one wearing things out eventually. I've also got some brass diff covers and knuckles, along with some longer desert lizard shocks and shock relocation mounts to play around with eventually.

Hope that helps a little, and I'm looking forward to reading comments from the others with much more experience than me!

-Dustin