Soze's Element Enduro Knightrunner Build

[soze]

Yes, I did get a Knightrunner last year. Yes, I haven't posted any of my builds since last year. I'm going to try getting back to posting here regularly. It's been busy all around, and I think I've also got too many builds going on at once as well. I haven't driven this rig all that much since I've gotten it due to all the other builds I was working on as well as just not wanting to drive it without it being "perfect" for scale videos.



Follow my Knightrunner build on YouTube.

Most links are to eBay. As an eBay Partner, I may be compensated if you make a purchase

Kit:
Element Enduro Knightrunner (eBay)


Parts:
Armory RC Magnet Mount system for bodies with holes
Knight Customs Element Knightrunner Overland Pack
Knight Customs Element Knightrunner Lowered Chassis Armor Set
Dylan Richardson's Knightrunner Rock Sliders
Interior for 1/10 RC Crawlers (eBay)
Tamiya Driver (eBay)


Electronics:
Armory RC Katana 500oz Servo
Hobbywing Quicrun Fusion Brushless Motor/ESC (eBay)
Turnigy GT5 Radio (eBay)
Turnigy FS-BS6 Receiver (eBay)
MyTrickRC Dragon DG1 with LEDs


Tools:
Versachem Brake Caliper Grease (eBay)
Noleen SF3 Grease (available on eBay)
Permatex Anti Seize Lubricant (eBay)
Associated 1656 FT 1/4 in Driver Handle (eBay)
Tamiya Side Cutter (eBay)
DEWALT DCF610S2R 12V MAX Cordless Lithium-Ion 1/4 in. Hex Chuck Screwdriver Kit (eBay)
MIP Metric Speed Tip Set MIP9512 (eBay)
Bob Smith Industries Blue Thread Locker (eBay)
ProTek RC Shock Pliers (eBay)
Duratrax Shock stand (eBay)
Hakko FX-888D Soldering Station (eBay)
Multistar Rubber R/C Work mat
IWISS Crimping Tool (eBay)
Universal Servo Cable Wire Connector Crimp Pin Kit (eBay)
E6000 Adhesive (eBay)

[soze]

Here is the rig as I got it out of the box.






Some assembly is required for the body out of the box




You need to ream some holes out for the snorkel












You need to ream out some holes for the bed rack as well.














I plasti-dipped the rear bed.

[B-MOW71]

Glad to see you're back with another build thread. Always enjoy watching your vids of the Knightrunner.

I'll be following along to see what you have planned for it!

[DirtMerchant]

I like the plasti-dip idea on the bed. That looks nice.

[soze]

Alright, first thing I did was get rid of the body pins and moved to magnet mounts. Usually when you start using magnet mounts, you want a nice fresh body with no reamed holes in the body.

Well with the Armory RC Magnet Mount system for bodies with holes, using magnets on the stock body was not an issue.












I drove it around like this for a bit before I loaned out the rig to MyTrickRC

[soze]

As I stated in my previous post, I lent the rig out to MyTrickRC right before Pro-Line by the Fire 2021. Some of you who attended probably saw the rig at their booth or scale city.

He went ahead and added some of the Knight Customs parts like the light buckets, grill and inner front fenders.

He also added a custom rack he designed to showcase his LED lights. Also added were the Dragon DG-1 system as well as some bumper pods (which I've since redesigned... more on it later) and rock lights.





This is how it sat at PLBTF 2021




I have a love/hate relationship with lighting. I love the way they look, but I hate the mess of wiring.




Anyway, once I got the rig back.... it sat in the corner for months... I just refused to run it without an interior, because of video purposes. There were also a few little issues that were bothering me as well.


First one was the light buckets. They were painted with more Molotow chrome than I would have liked, so I decided to re-print them and have them more on the black side.

Next up was the grille. As you may well know, the Knight Customs files comes with a blank grill without the Toyota logo. I went and meshed in the Toyota Logo and re-printed the grill as well.

Lastly, the bumper pods looked awesome, but the LED strip exited the housing with the ribbon in a vertical manner. This resulted in the body having to be raised in order to not damage the LED ribbon cable. I redesigned the housing so that the ribbon stays within the pod and the wiring is able to exit either the rear or bottom of the pod (if you cut notches in the bumper). This allowed the body to sit flush on the bumper like it was originally designed to do.

[soze]

After sitting for half a year since I got the rig back, I was really itching to drive it. I've been putting it off for so long, because I wanted to take care of those bumper pods, interior and the Knight Customs IFS lift before I drove it again.

After finally having time to sit down and redesign those bumper pods, I messed around with the eBay interior (before I found out about fitment issues with battery), and finally got around to printing out the Knight Customs IFS lift for the Knightrunner.

The Knightrunner version has a different skid and is mounted differently at the top. It has a shallower angle and looks much better from the front.


Here are the printed parts I used




Looks pretty good all mounted up!




Here is the difference between the IFS Lift for the Knightrunner and the normal IFS Lift files. You can see that the Knightrunner skid has a shallower angle than the other version that has been on my Trailwalker for a while now.

Before:




After:





I also added a set of rock sliders that I found off of MyMiniFactory that extend the length of the body and has a kickout design with a top plate. I thought it looked great.




About the interior... so I'm trying to coax an eBay interior into this rig, but there are a few challenges. It's too narrow for the body, and it interferes with the battery when there is a battery in the battery tray. So far it's about a 75% failure. I also printed out the Knight Customs interior, but it's heavier, and I'm still having issues with battery tray clearance. I think I'm going to have to relocate the battery.

[soze]

So back to the interior.

There was no way I was going to get the Knight Customs Interior fitted in time to take the rig out for my Sunday run (it was a Saturday night, and my day was mostly taken up by family activities). I went back to the eBay interior idea which was originally supposed to use the Tamiya driver along with it. Well, that is when I discovered the battery issues that would push up on the interior. I chopped away at the interior and decided to just run it without the driver on Sunday. (It was already getting late)

Well, I rushed out Sunday morning for my crawl time and guess what... I freaking forgot to bring the damn interior with me. Oh well, I had no other choice but to run it as-is.

Here are some shots from that day.












Dammit! I forgot to turn on the bumper pods for the photos! *Sigh* it was just that kind of day...


I have video, but I'll post it up later when I have it posted up on YouTube.

[DirtMerchant]

There may have been some hiccups that day, but the photos still turned out nice. Your Knightrunner is looking sharp.

[B-MOW71]

The KR is looking great! All good stuff here!

I like them magnet body mounts. I need to look into getting a set for mine.

MyTrickRC did a great job on the lights. I'll agree, I like lights too, but the wiring nightmare underneath drives me nuts. I still need to wire up my lights on my GK-Knightrunner and this is the reason why I've been putting it off.

The interior is another problem I've been working on. Nice to know the eBay interior doesn't work. I almost picked one of those up. I started printing the Knight Customs, but man it takes forever to print.

I just saw the YT vid pop up. I'll be heading over there to watch it.

[soze]

Originally Posted by B-MOW71

The KR is looking great! All good stuff here!

I like them magnet body mounts. I need to look into getting a set for mine.

MyTrickRC did a great job on the lights. I'll agree, I like lights too, but the wiring nightmare underneath drives me nuts. I still need to wire up my lights on my GK-Knightrunner and this is the reason why I've been putting it off.

The interior is another problem I've been working on. Nice to know the eBay interior doesn't work. I almost picked one of those up. I started printing the Knight Customs, but man it takes forever to print.

I just saw the YT vid pop up. I'll be heading over there to watch it.

THe eBay interior can work. You will need to relocate the battery to the sliders though. I'm actually having the same issue with the Knight Customs interior even though it has more room given for the battery. My battery may just be too tall. I'm using a 3700mah 3S Shorty pack. A thinner 2S would probably be fine, but who still runs 2S???

[B-MOW71]

Originally Posted by soze

THe eBay interior can work. You will need to relocate the battery to the sliders though. I'm actually having the same issue with the Knight Customs interior even though it has more room given for the battery. My battery may just be too tall. I'm using a 3700mah 3S Shorty pack. A thinner 2S would probably be fine, but who still runs 2S???

Yeah, who runs 2S! I didn't really want to move the battery to the sliders, but may have to if necessary. I've got the weight bias right where I want it and moving the battery would more than likely eff that up!

I may try the eBay interior and trim it a little. I like the looks of the KC interior, but not a big fan of all that weight of the 3D print hanging inside the body.

The joys of the hobby!

[durok]

One of the Element upgrades I picked up (ages ago) and have not installed yet is the aluminum Samix battery tray - it places the battery lengthwise between the front shock towers.

Frankly, I don't know if it will work well with any of my planned builds, but here's the link in case anyone is curious as to if it could help with interior space:

https://www.amainhobbies.com/samix-e...35-bk/p1142370

It requires an aluminum front bumper mount/servo mount to work properly...

[soze]

Originally Posted by B-MOW71

Yeah, who runs 2S! I didn't really want to move the battery to the sliders, but may have to if necessary. I've got the weight bias right where I want it and moving the battery would more than likely eff that up!

I may try the eBay interior and trim it a little. I like the looks of the KC interior, but not a big fan of all that weight of the 3D print hanging inside the body.

The joys of the hobby!

This is everywhere I had to trim the eBay interior with possibly more trimming to do around the steering wheel...

[B-MOW71]

Originally Posted by soze

This is everywhere I had to trim the eBay interior with possibly more trimming to do around the steering wheel...

Awesome! Thanks for the pic and tip!

Next question is, which interior is this? I remember seeing a few different ones the last time I checked eBay.

[soze]

Originally Posted by durok

One of the Element upgrades I picked up (ages ago) and have not installed yet is the aluminum Samix battery tray - it places the battery lengthwise between the front shock towers.

Frankly, I don't know if it will work well with any of my planned builds, but here's the link in case anyone is curious as to if it could help with interior space:

https://www.amainhobbies.com/samix-e...35-bk/p1142370

It requires an aluminum front bumper mount/servo mount to work properly...

You are forgetting the Knightrunner is IFS! Funny thing is I also bought that setup for a SCX10.2 but never used it.

Originally Posted by B-MOW71

Awesome! Thanks for the pic and tip!

Next question is, which interior is this? I remember seeing a few different ones the last time I checked eBay.

It's the knockoff Pro-Line PL-C interior.

[B-MOW71]

Originally Posted by soze

It's the knockoff Pro-Line PL-C interior.

Thanks! I'll check it out.

I forgot to mention something in my comment on your Knightrunner vid. You had said you wanted to change out the steering rack. You probably already know this, but the Bowhouse steering rack will not work with the KC printed parts. It lowers the links to far and causes massive bump steer. I made the mistake of buying it only to find out that I had to put the stock alum rack back on. You can use the Bowhouse bell cranks though. These are much needed!

[soze]

Originally Posted by B-MOW71

Thanks! I'll check it out.

I forgot to mention something in my comment on your Knightrunner vid. You had said you wanted to change out the steering rack. You probably already know this, but the Bowhouse steering rack will not work with the KC printed parts. It lowers the links to far and causes massive bump steer. I made the mistake of buying it only to find out that I had to put the stock alum rack back on. You can use the Bowhouse bell cranks though. These are much needed!

Yeah, I noticed some people mentioning it. I bought the Bowhouse piece when it was first released unfortunately. I guess I'll just have to whip up my own fix.