Heavy crawler vs light crawler

[holycaveman]

So I watched a guy win a 65 driver comp with 1lb of weight in each wheel. Truck weighed in at over 9lbs. Running rock claws tires. I don't think a tire ever left the ground!

Considering everyone is running light these days except. Just wanted to get your opinions on this?

And yes heavy trucks break more parts.


Thoughts?

[Krawler23]

Well a light truck can jump gaps better and has well a light feel haha. I personally like heavier rigs because I think the lw perks don't outweigh the heavier rig perks, but everybody is different. Glad he won them with rock claws because those are the same I have, you don't see em too much anymore.

[holycaveman]

Yea that's true.

There is always a compromise. I love the control of a heavy truck, it stays planted and doesn't do anything stupid. But there are some times where the tires just wont hold the line do to it being so heavy. Then there are times when the truck is to light and the tires don't have enough traction.

I eventually will come to a happy medium.

[shooter125]

exactly! both have advantages and disadvantages! lighter rigs usually side hill a little better cause gravity isnt sucking it down so bad but at the same time it had a harder time planting a tire like a heavy rig. My comp rig weighed more than anyone in our class and i consistently place at the top with the light rigs. All depends on the driver and the terrain. It all up to you. personally i have learned to like a heavier rig, but thats just me! they require two different driving styles..........you just gotta figure out if your a chubby chaser or not






I know i am

[dstrbd1]

Its definitely whatever fits your setup and style. For me I noticed that the heavier setup didn't climb or breakover as well. At the same time I noticed that when I went real light dig turns were not as tight. So I favor a medium weight rig with a little weight in the rear to keep it planted during dig and decents and enough weight in the front to get a nice 60/40 bias.

[JeremyH]

I prefer my trucks to be somewhere between 5-5.5 lbs. They just suit my slow driving style well...

[buggynutt]

I would just have to point out its not really how heavy or light it is. Once you drive a rig enough you just learn how it reacts, if you dont like it you change it up abit and drive it and see if its where YOU want to be in the handling curve. You could get 10 people and give then all the same rig and at the end of the day they will all handle different because they mod them to a personal level. This is why every rig is a one off, even if the parts are all the same you end up tweakin it here and there to get it to just work for you. I run weight in the front/rear almost the same because I like to be able to drive down as well as climb up something, a heavy front to me seems to make a decent down almost impossible with out rolling over(i dont have a dig). It come down to how much weight works for the driver. I helped put weight in my father inlaws scx10 and the next day he took it all out because it handled to well and made everything less of a challenge.

Hope this helps

[Kratos]

so far ive been diggin my truck between 6lb-6lbs 4 oz rang. it just seems more predictable to me. granted it doesnt jump major gaps like the light trucks but those are few and far between(at least around here) so i dont worry about it

[Almighty Malach]

It's not what you drive, its how you drive it

[AG74683]

I noticed a huge difference in the capabilities of my SCX-10 when I added weight to the wheels (granted, I added Pitbulls at the same time so the difference could have been that...).

That said, I believe the weight helped a ton . I was able to control the rig much better and could make it climb things it stood no chance at getting up before.

The truck weighs around 5.5 pounds with 4oz in the front tires and 2 in the rear. Its much more enjoyable to drive now as I can pick more difficult lines and be able to complete them without flopping the truck over constantly.

[CruisinMT]

I've got a 2200 mAh 3cell lipo up front on my servo and no other weight up front and none on the rear axle. What would you recommend for the rear? It likes to endo on a steep decline. The truck is a maxstone 10, ax10 clone.

[holycaveman]

If you can put the battery low mid chassis that should work good.

Having it on top of the servo will cause problems.

[holycaveman]

This bully has been my first heavy Crawler. And I am actually liking it. I weigh in at about 7.7lbs right now. Once I get my new chassis and rims finished I should be at about 7.2lbs.

I thought it would lack on side hills compared to lighter trucks bet this is not the case. It all comes down to suspension/ truck set up, tire and foam set up.

I was jonzen to get some light weight parts but honestly can't come up with a logical reason why? What's funny is all this focus I see on making light crawlers. I crawl with some pretty good drivers and I just don't see a reason.

So I keep testing and hoping there will be a climb or a off camber that my tank wont navigate. Then I will jump on the light truck band wagon.

[AX10wannabe]

my ax10 and my honcho weigh about the same, they are in the 5.5lbs range. my ax10 has 7oz each front wheel and 4oz in each rear wheel. my honcho has no weight at all in the tires, but with a nimh battery behind the shock hoops it will crawl pretty much same places as my ax10 will on the same course at a friends house. granted the honcho takes a little more throttle but they both are running 55t motors.

i like the weight of my crawlers. my honcho when i bought it over a year ago i spent the year getting it to where it is now, when i bought my ax10 last december i did a couple free mods then in january when some birthday money, GST cheque came in i piled a bunch of dough on the ax10 all at once.. im still not done but i have got it to the point where i can sit back and just drive it the way it is without having to rush and upgrade this or that..

the biggest thing for me was going from a scaler on the same course to going to a comp rig on the same course. sure i know the rocks very well but taking the lines in the same rocks was different. im doing my taxes very soon and according to previous years i got like hundreds of dollars back but i still cant afford to dump money into the ax10 as i have other bills to pay off first..

not to get off topic but in my opinion its a personal thing, the racing lawnmowers are the same, most of us run the same engines, transmissions, transaxles, steering,linkages, brakes, same style mowers but not 2 mowers are the same. yes if one guy has 2 mowers they might build them the same but not 2 different guys. with racing mowers you want the lightest possible mower you can build without sacrificing strength but its tough to do. my uncle's mower is 260lbs my old mower was 326lbs but i can beat him around the track because i race mine harder than he did.. my JD mower is weighs in at a hefty 356lbs and it aint done yet.

to me, weight doesnt matter as long as your having fun either by yourself practicing at home or out crawling with your buddies thats all that counts. a couple weeks ago my friends and i went crawling at a friends house and a couple new guys showed up, one has an XR10 with the M2 dig and the other one has a rc4wd with the copperhead chassis, my friends and i were all over them like flies on a pile of shit checking them out. haha just my .02..

[Stormin2u]

I've run both ways over the years and in between seems best to me. Both my comp trucks are just over five pounds right now but I can achieve a 60/40 balance at a weight below five pounds on both. The advantage you have building a truck with a low RTR weight is you can put additional weight were you need it and really low if possible for a lower CG. I've also noticed my tire and foam selections changing with the lower weight machines.

[J.DUKE]

On my last ax10, I put 12oz in each front, and nothing in each rear, but I put the 1800mah lipo on the back servo plate for a touch of rear weight.

That think could climb brutally well. Breakover was insane.
Gap jumping? Nooooo.... It would dive head first into a gap like nobody's business.
But I set it up that way just for fun, and some of the lines it did were so unrealistic, I was smiling the whole time!

I vote for the happy medium, 6lbs-ish...

[asw27x]

i like my rigs to run about the middle like was said before my xr-10 with no rear weight and about 3.12oz in the front is at 5lb's 10oz and it drives amazing for me

[mcannon111]

i think a happy medium would definitely be the solution. or change it up for different comps if you know the terrain!

[gottorque]

My scaler weighs around 7lbs rtr. A pound of that is the wheels alone. Definitly noticed the performance gain when making the jump from unweighted plastic wheels to aluminum wheels. As far as scalers are concerned, more weight just looks better too.

[holycaveman]

Originally Posted by Stormin2u

I've run both ways over the years and in between seems best to me. Both my comp trucks are just over five pounds right now but I can achieve a 60/40 balance at a weight below five pounds on both. The advantage you have building a truck with a low RTR weight is you can put additional weight were you need it and really low if possible for a lower CG. I've also noticed my tire and foam selections changing with the lower weight machines.

Good point and was my original plan. Make everything as light as possible then knuckle weight it................

Until I messed around the other night and raised my chassis about an inch and a half. No other changes. Hit one climb where I always has difficulty do to loss of traction on a very steep rock. Walked right up! Lowered the chassis back down hit the climb spinning. Jacked the chassis up. Traction again.

Many times I have seen low cog trucks fight for traction. So there actually can be a limit in which the low cog hurts you.

What helps is being able to repeatedly run a line using different truck set ups. Don't make the line a one in 10 shot. Make it an almost every time line.
This way you get a feel for each setup instead of worrying about making it.