My....Longest....build.....ever

[new2rocks]

Nice build. Nicer wife! (Mine tolerates but doesn't buy gifts.). What part of NC?

[mikl]

So I was able to meet up with another forum member, new2rocks, who just happens to live down the street. hung out for a bit and had a good time checking out his collection and builds in progress and running for a bit at a cool rock garden. He made a couple of good suggestions to change on my truck that made an improvement. I hadn't even experimented with the throttle expo so it wasn't a surprise to hear, whoa- that's a little jumpy. So at his suggestion, I've tried a new throttle curve and it is much smoother now. A lot better to drive in rocks.
I also will try a pinion maybe one tooth smaller as soon as I can buy one.
I've also had to swap out my servo for a ProTek 170s I had a on hand. The Futaba 9157 servo gears stripped with only 2.5 hours of use and I sent it in for warranty evaluation. To my disappointment, gears are apparently not a part covered under warranty. brand new servo and I have to shell out $48 to have it inspected and fixed. I have to say at this point I am VERY disappointed in Futaba. So far their customer service has been the worst in the hobby that I have experienced. I have tried to contact an actual person to find out why gears aren't an item covered under warranty. So far I have spent almost 3 hours on hold in their service dept phone system and never managed to actual talk somebody. Then, fed up, I emailed them at the address they supplied and it has been almost a week with no reply. At this point I'm totally frustrated and will not be purchasing any Futaba product in the future. Oh well. There are lots of other quality product on the market.
The 170s held up well so far but I don't have much run time on it.

I have a question for others here- the front axle truss that the servo attaches to is constantly coming loose. It only takes about 10-15 mins of running for the two screws to loosen in the axle housing. Is there anything you guys do to keep them from coming loose so quickly?

[SouthernComfort]

I put the next size larger and longer screws and all is well, and I have over 400 oz of servo.
Also a one piece servo mount !

[mikl]

Good suggestion. I will look to see what hardware I have.

[mikl]

Beautiful Thanksgiving day here. Sunny and warm. I was able to get out for a while. Every time I drive it, I am reminded how much fun this truck is.
I made some upgrades. I had issues with my Futaba servo and their customer service so I put in a ProTek servo and it worked well, but I still needed a servo for my truggy. I bought HiTec 7950 servo and put the ProTek back in the truggy. Also got these goodies a while ago-
BEEF TUBES! and a couple of new pinions to try and some soft springs
Beef tubes went in great and now provide some metal for the lock outs, chubs and truss support screws.
Ran it today with the 12t pinion and soft springs. Crawled great and ran very cool.

[TAT76]

Haha love how your build has went. Mine always seem to take forever as life steps up and drops off. It looks good and I'm glad you get out and enjoy it because that's really what it's about. Wife just ordered me a spawn yesterday and I'm hoping I love it like I do my race, basher, air and scale rc rigs.


Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[new2rocks]

Well done, sir. Irony of ironies...I left Cary for Florida this week, and I think you're getting the better of the weather, lol. Look forward to seeing this thing in action when I get back!

[mikl]

Running out on the trails at the local park a while ago and hit a little snag. My truck was a fair bit away from me in a ditch along a greenway. It seemed to get stuck, so what do you do when your truck is stuck? Pin it! Well that wasn't the greatest idea. It was far enough away that I didn't see that a front wheel was wrapped up in some landscaping netting. I guess a ROC412 on 3s can tear up an axle pretty quickly.


I got the VP VVD axles for Christmas. They don't have as much turning angle as the stock uni's but I'll see how they last.



Still having a great time with this truck.
I also got some VP knuckle weights. Can't wait to see if they make a difference crawling on the rock gardens at my trail spots.

A question- I have Ottsix Voodoo tires. Currently using CI single density foams that seem to work well for trail running. But I want to try something a little softer for better crawling. What would be a good foam to use?