Maxstone / R1

[FLIPCO]

Originally had this in the Gmade section but realized it's more a Maxstone on a Gmade R1 chassis.

New to the forums....my first post here.......I've been reading a lot mostly til now.

I put this together using a R1 chassis and the drivertrain, suspension and wheels from a Maxstone 10.

I've been running nitros for 10 yrs and have a brushless wide Pede and I just decided to try out crawlers. I didn't want to spend lots of money on a kit or a RTR crawler in case I didn't like it so I started out with a budget crawler such as the Maxstone 10......I liked what it was capable of doing right out of the box but the whole look didn't do it for me. I tried a truck body on it and it reminded me too much of a monster truck that would tip over a lot. So I found me a deal on a Gmade R1 tube chassis and swapped pretty much everything over from the Maxstone except for the side plates, battery tray, servo and motor.

Things I changed or did:
I cut the tread on the tires. Stock Maxstone tires didn't give me too much of a good grip.
Star cut the foams and added 3.5 ounces to each front wheel with stick on weights and added 2.5 ounces to each rear wheel.
For servo I'm using a Futaba S3305 high torque.
Motor is a Holmes Hobbies TorqueMaster Expert 27T
RX/TX is Spektrum DX2 which is what I use on my nitros too.
Battery is a Venom 2S 7.4v 3800 60C.
I cut and grind all the tabs off for the stock Maxstone diff guards that were on both axle housings so that they don't catch on anything while crawling.
I made use of the Maxstone diff guards by mounting one up front with the aid of some brace support that is attached to the R1 dash plate. Now my ECS is mounted under the front hood panel and the RX is mounted on the dash plate.
For the other Maxstone diff guard, I attached that to the rear battery tray which I also flipped over to lower it a bit. The guard blocks the battery from sliding out from the rear area even though I have the battery velcro and strapped down.
On the Maxstone rear axle housing, stock set up would allow for future rear wheel steering. I removed the center link, swapped the steering hubs from left to right so that they wouldn't hook on anything while rolling. I added the adjustable links so that toe in/out can be adjusted to the rear wheels.

Over all,....I love the look of the R1 chassis....If any of the Maxstone drivetrain fail on me, I will upgrade those parts to Axial since there is more parts support for Axial than there is for the Maxstone.











UPDATE

I just got rid of all the green......

[Phins Fan]

Interesting cut on the tires. How well do they hook up for you on the rocks?

[FLIPCO]

Originally Posted by Phins Fan

Interesting cut on the tires. How well do they hook up for you on the rocks?

To me compared to original tread, it works better than before, especially with the foams cut and wheel weights added.....but I have nothing else I can compare it to for me to really say much more.

[FLIPCO]

Just swapped the Axial 55T for a Holmes Hobbies TorqueMaster Expert 27T....great torque crawling with some speed.



With the Venom 2S 3800mah 60C installed.

[FLIPCO]

[CTRC]

Why are you not running the portals that come with the R1. The look of the R1 is nice, but the axle setup is the whole point. When the Maxstone stuff breaks I would grab the G Made portals.

[FLIPCO]

UPDATES

been running the Holmes Hobbies TorqueMaster Expert 27T on a 2S and it's been great. Speed is there, slow crawl torque is great and it stays pretty cool while running. Hasn't got hot on me yet.



Also I changed the suspension link geometry by placing them closer in where mounted to the chassis plate. I had to cut the plate up for now to try it all out before I order the Delrin mounting plate. I think it in combination with the tuned shocks has helped out with the torque twist. I barely have any torque twist.



Ride height is decent. I placed the rear shock at a lower mounting point. That raised the center height a bit. But I also went with shorter rear upper and lower links. That pulled my wheel base in from the rear about 3/4"....I'm gonna play around testing this set up out. I may order shorter links for the front or just keep it at this wheel base length.





I switched shocks over to the Gmade G-Transition shocks that have 2 internal springs in the shock body rather than an external spring. There's 2 springs inside that allow you to tune them either droop or sprung. I tuned them the sprung way and added 100 weight silicone oil in them. The thicker oil helps out a lot with these shocks. I've used thick weight oils in shocks when I raced 1/8th nitro buggy and it worked out great.
Suspension articulation is good for now.....I'll see how it does for various terrain and obstacles to crawl.

[cameron20118]

I like the way that turned out, looks great.

[mowheelin]

I thought I was the only person in the world who would think a R1 and Max axles seemed like a good idea. GMax Holmes 13t. BRXL waterproof ans Savox waterproof servo. Tons of fun.

[FLIPCO]

Originally Posted by mowheelin

I thought I was the only person in the world who would think a R1 and Max axles seemed like a good idea. GMax Holmes 13t. BRXL waterproof ans Savox waterproof servo. Tons of fun.

nice set up but I snapped both left and right rear axles over the weekend. Since one of the maxstone axles are out of stock everywhere I searched, I ended up making new axles by grinding down long old dog bone shafts and then grinding down the inner part of the locking diff as it was plastic and then filled it up with jb weld where my modified axles were then jb welded into it locking it all in place. The dog bones I grinded to make axles out of are actually thicker than stock maxstone axles. Works great!!

For the front diff and axles, I had one complete spare AX10 diff / axle and used that up front as Axial parts are easily available more than maxstone crap....I will soon be getting rid of all the maxstone junk except for the links.

The only thing really left that is maxstone is the center trans, links, wheels, esc, and modified diff guards that I added to the R1 chassis.