Komodo came in!

[GravelDuster]

Had a surprise waiting for me today at the office. Ill post up more pics this weekend when I start the build. My wheels and tires also arrived today along with the kit. Went with Ottsix Voodoo KLR's, SSD wheels and Ottsix 2 stage foams. Looking at the kit, it all looks to be high quality. I cant wait to start the build.

[scaled]

Daughter's came in yesterday. Need to build it up for Christmas. Looking at the videos, buy yourself some light shock oil. Pretty bouncy with shocks included from the videos I watched.

[GravelDuster]

yeah I noticed that. Rcsparks put a video on youtube, he swapped to 110mm King Shocks, made the truck look much better. I'm not a fan of the Kings personally but I may swap the stockers out for some proline scalers.

[GravelDuster]

Quick size comparison between the stock Gmade MT-1903 and the Ottsix Voodoo KLR. The Voodoo is a much bigger tire and should crawl better than the stock set-up. The wheels and tires included in the kit seem to be a nice compound, just a tad too small IMO. They are also EXTREMELY light when mounted on the rim. If you plan to run the stock wheels and tires lead weight is a must.

[GravelDuster]

Got some more goodies in last night. All of the machined parts seem to be of very high quality. Also ordered the stainless steel hex hardware set.

[GravelDuster]

I got wrapped up in my build and didn't take any pics. Everything went together really nice. I'm impressed with the quality of the kit thus far.

[scaled]

I spent much of the day building. Just starting the frame build. Observations so far:

• Why do all the kits have plastic transmissions?
• I hate Philips head screws. Used up much of my stainless hardware.
• Stock foams are a new low, not even a donut of foam.
• Tires are scale size but very thin and poorly made. Will use Trepadors off the Deadbolt.
• Instructions are good, a few mistakes but not bad.
• good build quality.
• Many parts a step up from an Axial but not all.

I am sure upgrades are in order. There are too many plastic parts that should be metal. I will reserve jugement till it is run. For the price of the kit the parts should be of higher quality. An Ascender is a better buy IMO.

[TrailDawg362]

Originally Posted by GravelDuster

I got wrapped up in my build and didn't take any pics. Everything went together really nice. I'm impressed with the quality of the kit thus far.

Can't wait to hear your review of the Voodoo's, that tire and wheel combo will look sweet!

As for upgrades, did you get the zero Ackerman knuckles? The stock setup doesn't seem to give alot of steering.

One thing that worried me about the kit was how small some of the bearings are......time will tell if they hold up or not.

[scaled]

So went to the hobby store and what did I see, a Komodo sitting on the counter! Talked with the guy for a while, his complaints were similar to mine but he likes the Gmade crawlers and says they hold up well. He gave me a couple of tips:

Use the shock pistons with 4 holes.
The shocks were still over dampened with 30wt silicone oil so I bought some 20wt.

Hopefully I can get some time to build without the daughter around and do some testing.

[GravelDuster]

I agree with the above complaints. The Phillips hardware sucks and is stupid they include that now a days. I did swap it all out to hex head which made the build much easier.

The shock are not my favorite, but I had a set of Proline shocks laying around so those went on.

I did go with the zero ackerman knuckles and CVDs to get more steering angle.

The plastic is of a higher quality that Axials, which is good.

One HUGE thing I love about this truck is NOTHING threads into plastic. All of the bolts attach on the other side with a locknut.

I do dislike the fact that the tranny gears are plastic, but I haven't ready many issues with durability. If all else fails how hard could it be to bolt in an SCX tranny?

MY ESC and motor haven't arrived yet but so far the truck seems very solid. Everything fit together nicely and there is no slop in the drive train. The flex is good (slightly less than stock because of the shorter proline shocks). The steering angle is great, but it sucks you have to buy extra parts to get it. Overall I'm very pleased with this truck. Hopefully soon I can get out and drive it.

[scaled]

I used 20w silicone oil in the shocks and it works much better than the videos of the stock setup or a Komodo I saw at the hobby shop with 30w oil. Mine is built and runs good with 2S and a 35t motor. Using a lot of parts already on hand, that is the benefit of building a slow scale rig. I started to paint, ran out of black for the bed so back to the store for more. I hate painting lexan, cleaned up the body and it still doesn't stick well.. I really need an air brush.

[fullsizecrawler]

I ran a castle 3800 kv setup on 2s in my sawback and had no issues with the trans , they are pretty strong

[GravelDuster]

Got it wired up with a Holmes Hobbies ESC and the Stubby Puller 2200kv. Super smooth. I can wait to get out and run it. Hopefully the weather clears up soon.

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by scaled

I spent much of the day building. Just starting the frame build. Observations so far:

• Why do all the kits have plastic transmissions?
• I hate Philips head screws. Used up much of my stainless hardware.
• Stock foams are a new low, not even a donut of foam.
• Tires are scale size but very thin and poorly made. Will use Trepadors off the Deadbolt.
• Instructions are good, a few mistakes but not bad.
• good build quality.
• Many parts a step up from an Axial but not all.

I am sure upgrades are in order. There are too many plastic parts that should be metal. I will reserve jugement till it is run. For the price of the kit the parts should be of higher quality. An Ascender is a better buy IMO.

Thanks for input, I too hate phillips head screws...hey manufacturers it's 2015 hex head hardware is much better.

Originally Posted by GravelDuster

I agree with the above complaints. The Phillips hardware sucks and is stupid they include that now a days. I did swap it all out to hex head which made the build much easier.

The shock are not my favorite, but I had a set of Proline shocks laying around so those went on.

I did go with the zero ackerman knuckles and CVDs to get more steering angle.

The plastic is of a higher quality that Axials, which is good.

One HUGE thing I love about this truck is NOTHING threads into plastic. All of the bolts attach on the other side with a locknut.

I do dislike the fact that the tranny gears are plastic, but I haven't ready many issues with durability. If all else fails how hard could it be to bolt in an SCX tranny?

MY ESC and motor haven't arrived yet but so far the truck seems very solid. Everything fit together nicely and there is no slop in the drive train. The flex is good (slightly less than stock because of the shorter proline shocks). The steering angle is great, but it sucks you have to buy extra parts to get it. Overall I'm very pleased with this truck. Hopefully soon I can get out and drive it.

Sounds and looks very nice, keep the updates coming. Love that it uses metal locknuts instead of plastic everywhere. It would be hard to have lower quality plastic than Axial.

[rc2000]

How does the body integrate with that bumper?