Father Son Crawler Build

[phritchey]

And so it starts, a couple of weeks ago my 9 year old son asked me on Ice Cream Friday (we snuck out late at night to get some ice cream while the rest of the family was sleeping) if we could build a crawler, and of course I jumped all over it like stink on Broccoli. Here's a little background I (Dad) have been into RC cars since the age of 13 (I'm 39 now) and each of my kids (Girl, Boy, Boy) have their own Traxxas Stampede's tailored to their skill level and I have an SCX 10 and a Traxxas Rustler, all in operational order and we use them nearly daily. So, moving on... we started researching different crawler styles and looking for parts, now its safe to say that we (Dad) has $ to spend but it's not a free for all either. what we settled on is that we have a bundle of spares from the Traxxas scene and beleive that we can utilize what we do have and will do our best to come up with a fun little crawler for my son to enjoy side by side with dad. So without further ado I hope that you enjoy reading about our crawler build.... Here goes.

[papabash]

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with. My son (now 16) has been crawling with me since we discovered it about 4 years ago. My daughter (13) dabbles now and then, but would usually rather go shopping with mom(go figure). Anyway, it's a great hobby to enjoy with your kids, welcome to crawling!

[Charlie-III]

Congrats from one Dad to another.

I started RC in the mid 70's (sailplanes), then 1/10th cars late 70's with my step-father.
Mid 80's I started indoor racing in 10th & 12th pan cars and a Losi JRX-2 buggy.

I got my son into it (now 17) when he was little, mostly 10th buggies and my daughter (almost 15) drove ours until she received a mini-T.

About 2 years ago, my son found crawlers & this site. He started crawling & I drove him to comps. The next Christmas, he built me a crawler from used parts & I started comping with him last spring with GSRCRC in NJ.

It's a fun thing to do with your kids (although can get expensive) but this is what memories are made from.

Keep up the good work, have fun, search, ask questions.

[new2it]

Love the "sneaking out to get ice cream". I do that type of thing with my older son and it really creates some great memories. Looking forward to the crawler build.

[phritchey]

Well here is dad doing the dangerous stuff, we decided to utilize 2 Stampede chassis, 1 of which we already have and mate them together back to back, and since we will be fighting the anti-articulation bug with the A-arm configuration we would like the mating surfaces of the chassis to be pivoting,

[phritchey]

OK fellas, today was very productive, we were able to gather the compiled parts, and assemble our basic roller with the electronics installed. I'm working on the whole Photobucket thing as we speak and will have a link for you soon, I know most of the hardcore guys are thinking were not gonna get much out of a Pede, but I gotta say with the chassis pivot working as planned and no real fine tunning I was able to lift the right front tire 9 1/2" without pulling any tires off of Terra Firma. Pics soon

[phritchey]

Here we go, this is the link to Photobucket.
Pictures by phritchey - Photobucket
Enjoy.

[cloudswimmer]

Thats very cool. when I was your sons age my dad and I built a scale replica of the wright flyer, quite large with an 80" wing span. The night we finished it, before we ever flew it, my dad hung it up from the ceiling above my bed for me to admire. He then tucked me into bed, and when he stood up the head on his 6'5" frame crushed the glider into pieces against my relatively low ceiling. Though temporarily devastated we both were, that father son bonding during model building has never been destroyed. Have fun the two of you, I'm sure you'll both get much more out of this than just rock crawling thrills

Chris S

[dezfan]

Awesome, my boy and I will be doing the same thing when he receives his birthday present.

[phritchey]

We did some tuning on the shocks and springs today, mounted the batery pack hold downs and made some steering linkage, still have a lot to dao as far a s fine tuning and getting everything to work smoothly. Updated photos on Photobucket check em out.

[THX_138]

Your pictures are easily posted here just by transferring the link code that Photobucket has provided for you with each picture.

Copy & Paste is your friend

[phritchey]

Well... had a good week on ebay, I picked up some ripsaw 2.2's off of a Wraith and a body for him, he really wanted a blue body and a great buy came up on a Blue venom creeper body, hopefully I will see them early next week, also found out that I am missing the inner bearings on the front axles because I used the 4x4 stampede knuckes and didn't know. Time to start some research on Motors and start moving in that direction, we're getting close to test drives . P.S. thx for the tip THX_138

[phritchey]

Off to the Hobby shop to pick up a few parts and tackle locking the differentials installing some bearings and fine tuning the steering adjustment.

[phritchey]

Made some progress on the crawler, updated the photobucket. enjoy

Pictures by phritchey - Photobucket

[gerr]

This thread is all WIN!

Congrats on finding a project you and your boy will remember a very long time.

I really dig the "spare parts" type builds, use what you have and have a great time doing it!

[phritchey]

Made some more progress, body is mounted, the flex of the crawler twisted the body WAY too much so the fix was to eliminate the front mounts and mount the body from the sides and the back, thus alowing the chassis to flex within the confindments of the body. also received our RC4WD 55T Crawler motors and installed them. I originally wired the motors in series and that was an epic FAIL, the motors were not receiving enough voltage to turn the gears, so the fix was to wire them in parallel and now it works like a champ, to get the low crawl speed I used an 11 tooth pinion and a 90 tooth spur. I updated the almighty Photobucket so... hope you enjoy.

Pictures by phritchey - Photobucket

[phritchey]

[IMG]http://i1262.photobucket



OK THX 138 this was my miserable attempt at posting a pic. looks like my theories on wiring in series and posting pics can be thrown in the trash can (sigh)

[Big Mike]

Originally Posted by phritchey

[IMG]http://i1262.photobucket
OK THX 138 this was my miserable attempt at posting a pic. looks like my theories on wiring in series and posting pics can be thrown in the trash can (sigh)

You just missed some of the link when you copied is all. If the little "direct link" screen does not tell you "copied" when you click on it, you have to highlight the whole link and right-click copy it. That is a link to your Photobucket image, and if all the HTML code is there it will appear as a real link you can click on...

http://i1262.photobucket.com/albums/...y/100_1563.jpg

Then you paste that link into the "insert image" box to post the image directly into your thread...



I also love the "use what ya got" builds, especially when it gets a kid involved. Big Props to you my man...

[Hulldiver]

Looks like a good time. My son is only 3. iv got a couple more years until we can build cool stuff. Cant wait to see the finished product.

[phritchey]

Updated Photobucket to show current chassis, motors installed and wired, rear differential locked, just need to install the front clutch, pinion, and spur gear and do a little fine tuning to the steering and my boy should be able to use it. I did a little test drive in the garage and the gear combination along with the 55T motors really makes it crawl, I was able to make it to the point where it was just barely creeping and was very controlled, so far I'm happy with it, can't wait to get it out in the real world. Enjoy.

Pictures by phritchey - Photobucket