HPI Wheely King ?? Any Good?? What do you think??

[RPP Hobby]

Just wanted to see what everyone thought of the HPI Wheely King? I was thinking of bringing some in. I am not sure that it will compare to the TLT axles wise. Any input apprciated. Thanks Corey

[Thorsteenster]

JIA is putting wheely king axles now under ralph, that should be a good a test as any for axle quality

[Rat1]

I think they would be great but they are only 2wd and the parts to make them 4wd are not in stock and have not been in stock for quite some time. Also it is expensive to make them 4 wd.

Alot of people have been hoping for a packed conversion kit for adding 4wd but there has been no word from HPI that I know of.

[Stampedo]

Originally Posted by Rpp Hobby

Just wanted to see what everyone thought of the HPI Wheely King? I was thinking of bringing some in. I am not sure that it will compare to the TLT axles wise. Any input apprciated. Thanks Corey

I have ran one pack through it totally stock and it was fun to play around in the yard with. Run time was around 20 min. with the included battery which is a 1500 mAh Ni-Cd. Must have used decent cells, because when I charged it, it held just over 2000 mAh on its first charge. It is a little on the bouncy side, but all solid axle trucks I have ran are like that to some extent.

After the run I took it inside and pulled the stock wheels/tires off and replaced them with some Ofna Pirate 10 wheels that are so offset it is like using wideners and some Imex 2.2" All-T's. The Imex tires are almost the exact same size as the stock tires with the Imex being maybe a hair taller, but I am seriosly only talking about a hair.

Now the thing that was most surprising to me......I removed the X brace that is attached to the lower rear suspension links and WOW!!!!!! This thing has tons of articulation. I will try to attach a flex pic with it sitting on some stock Pede tires for reference. Wheelbase is a little short for a crawler (approx. 9 1/2") but the artic. is so good with the stock links, I think I'm going to run it this way a few times to see how it does. I plan to move the battery to the front also.....looks like a couple cable ties should get that done quite easily for now. Just wish the parts were available to make it 4wd....might have to pick up another truck for parts The axles look to be much beefier than the TLT, but time will tell on that one.

.....almost forgot the whole wheelie thing......lets just say "Hello Wheelie King, good bye Lunch Box"....this thing will hold a really gooooooood wheelie in stock form if that is what you are after. -Dan

[slobin3d]

mine will be here tuesday. I'll see what kind of damage i can do to it

[RPP Hobby]

Wow thanks for the pictures. Can you take one of the trans? They say it can be made to 4wd, just curiose how the trans would? Does the manual show or say anything?

[Stampedo]

Originally Posted by Rpp Hobby

Wow thanks for the pictures. Can you take one of the trans? They say it can be made to 4wd, just curiose how the trans would? Does the manual show or say anything?

There is a front output shaft already in the tranny. It just has a cap over it from the factory. Pop the cap off and you are ready to install a front drove shaft and the front axle housing appears to be ready for gears/axles as well. The attached pic is of the front of the tranny with the cap removed. You should be able to see the shaft. -Dan

[RPP Hobby]

Thanks alot how is the gearing? Seeing as its name has wheely my first thought is its fast. And not a crawler pace.

[Stampedo]

Originally Posted by Rpp Hobby

Wow thanks for the pictures. Can you take one of the trans? They say it can be made to 4wd, just curiose how the trans would? Does the manual show or say anything?

Here is a couple more pics. First shows front axle with cap on the "input/pinion area" and the second is with the cap removed. Third shows inner part of front outer axle and third is a side shot with the Imex ALL-T's installed.

[Stampedo]

Originally Posted by Rpp Hobby

Thanks alot how is the gearing? Seeing as its name has wheely my first thought is its fast. And not a crawler pace.

Top speed is slower than my stock XL-5 Stampede, but it could benefit from lower gearing for crawling although in my opinion it would probably be fine with just a lathe motor installed. Haven't taken the gear cover off yet to see how much adjustment there is for fitting a smaller pinion. I have built a couple TLT crawlers with Pede trannies and always ended up gearing them higher than I had originally intended to in order to increase the wheel speed. I am by no means a "pro" crawler, but have found that in some cases you can benefit from more wheel speed to claw/spin your way over/up extreme obstacles. Granted that even when geared up my crawlers were never even half as fast as a stock Stampede and a Lathe motor alone is going to slow down the WK noticeably. -Dan

[Thorsteenster]

theres no way hpi isnt making this as a base vehicle, buy it and front axle components and it looks like you got a pretty decent crawler, or buy a tlt and mod it out. its not being marketed as a crawler but unofficially i think it is. afterall, how long can tlt axles pretty much dominate the 2.2 class?

[JasonInAugusta]

Snippet of an email I got from a buddy at HPI:

"Hello Jason,

You and I both know that this is not a crawler, rather a nice scaled monster truck."

I laughed and told him that's fine with me. You make the truck, I'll make it a crawler.

Stampedo, if you take the brace out of the rear lower links you'll get some nasty torque twist.

[Stampedo]

Originally Posted by JasonInAugusta

Snippet of an email I got from a buddy at HPI:

"Hello Jason,

You and I both know that this is not a crawler, rather a nice scaled monster truck."

I laughed and told him that's fine with me. You make the truck, I'll make it a crawler.

Stampedo, if you take the brace out of the rear lower links you'll get some nasty torque twist.

Yeah, I kinda figured that was going to be a problem. Haven't ran the WK with it removed yet, but my TLT's had torque twist too......easy enough to take it on/off to switch between crawler and wheelier.

[HYPERactive]

Originally Posted by Stampedo

Just wish the parts were available to make it 4wd....might have to pick up another truck for parts The axles look to be much beefier than the TLT, but time will tell on that one.

I thought I read somewhere(probably JIA's original thread on the Wheely King) that this thing uses NRS4 diffs. Looks like it should be fairly easy to source parts for the 4wd conversion.

[Rat1]

Some people keep saying that HPI is going to come out with a packaged conversion kit to make them 4wd or that the parts will be available soon to make them 4wd but I do not see it happening yet or have we heard any official word that they will do so.

I am sure many people would like to know if HPI will do something so people can make this thing 4wd without having to purchase a complete kit just so they can use one axle and a drive shaft.

It sure seems like a lot of money, buying to complete kits, to make one functional truck plus people will end up with a bunch of unwanted parts.

[JasonInAugusta]

Originally Posted by Rat1

Some people keep saying that HPI is going to come out with a packaged conversion kit to make them 4wd or that the parts will be available soon to make them 4wd but I do not see it happening yet or have we heard any official word that they will do so.

I am sure many people would like to know if HPI will do something so people can make this thing 4wd without having to purchase a complete kit just so they can use one axle and a drive shaft.

It sure seems like a lot of money, buying to complete kits, to make one functional truck plus people will end up with a bunch of unwanted parts.

Who are these folks that are saying that HPI is coming out with packaged conversion kit?

I know several have aid that they hope or would like to see a kit offered but I have yet to see anyone say that HPI will be offering a kit.

Until parts are available you'll have to use two complete trucks to build a 4WD WK.

Hyperactive NitroRS4MT diffs. NRS4 is a touring car.

[HYPERactive]

OOPS missed a letter, but I have an excuse...I'm getting old and the memory ain't what it used to be.

With those diffs, the aftermarket(or even HPI) should make most of parts needed easily obtainable; and with the creative souls on this board, someone will figure out the needed combo of parts to get it 4wd economically, in short order.(I hope)

I haven't even seen one of these i our LHS's yet(we're usually a month or 2 behind on getting new products up here), but I'm watching closely 'cause this may be the start of my first scaler/crawler.

[swhenrik]

JIA has a thread on the truck in "Scale Rigs" section, here's a link:
Wheely King Axle Breakdown pics
In it I have all the parts listed to convert to 4wd on page 3. Some of the parts are not available yet, like the 3 necessary drive shafts, but should be soon. Otherwise, check the link above, page 5, to see how I converted mine to 4wd.

My truck build will be here:
Wheely King, CXT, camper trailer

[DumpsterRC]

I saw this on the HPI website. Kind of an ugly set of wheels/tires but it has a front drive shaft. Probably parts from two trucks. Sorry about the huge picture. Like it says on the left "Newbie".