Maxstone 8 budget multi-purpose trail rig

[gsbuickman]

Hiya Guys ...

Wow, it's been a while since I posted anything, 5 years but it sure doesn't seem like it's been that long. Guess I got out of crawlers and pretty much 10th scale RC all together and focused on 8th scale nitro & brushless fast electric boats as I have more fun with them.

With that being said fast forward to last week when a good friend posted a nice 8th scale Maxstone 8 moa crawler for sale for $100 . Well, I had some $ in my PayPal that I forgot about and it was too good of a deal to pass up so I jumped on it before someone else beat me to it. I don't compete in the local crawler comps, so I thought it would make a real nice budget multi-purpose mud & trail crawling rig. It has the stock 7.2v / 8.4v nimh esc, 12 turn 540 motors & a 208 oz. Gradient RS-HVD201-15KG-TG servo in it.

For the last couple of days I've been looking at options and shopping around putting a list of stuff together to order for this rig and I was wondering what y'all thought so far ? :

(2) 27 turn Axial motors
(2) Hobbywing Quicrun 1060 waterproof 2s-3s speed controls
A Turnigy 8-26v sbec to match the extra bec I have
A 1/10 scale Maxstone servo plate & hardware from nitrorcx to setup rear steer & a Turnigy Power HD WP-23kg waterproof titanium geared metal cased servo.

I'm planning on setting up the rear steer with the 208 oz. servo for now, and the dual esc's each with their own external bec @ 6 volts powered from a 5000mah 50c 3s lipo. If need be I'm thinking I can weigh the wheels with some grade 5 Nuts and Bolts thru the holes in the wheels, each one can hold eight bolts for a total of 32 on all four wheels. That's quite a bit of weight but I'm thinking I don't need that much weight for a multi-purpose Trail rig ? ...

[gsbuickman]

Wow, really, no one?. Apparently this board has gone the way of the dodo since Photobucket is no longer hosting images. Oh well ...

[StomperCrawler]

Sounds good, but I'd skip adding weight as it breaks things and drains battery. Focus on tires and foams to match your terrain, lowering COG, and getting smooth suspension. Also, I'm guessing those are 550-size motors but I could be wrong; if they are then maybe stick with that size. As for servos, you can pick up a pair of JX PDI-6221MG 20KG (not 360) from Banggood for the same price as the one Power HD, and stay matched. I run 3s lipo on my 1060 ESC with a 35t motor and still it's too fast to crawl well (scx10ii stock gearing).

[gsbuickman]

Originally Posted by StomperCrawler

Sounds good, but I'd skip adding weight as it breaks things and drains battery. Focus on tires and foams to match your terrain, lowering COG, and getting smooth suspension. Also, I'm guessing those are 550-size motors but I could be wrong; if they are then maybe stick with that size. As for servos, you can pick up a pair of JX PDI-6221MG 20KG (not 360) from Banggood for the same price as the one Power HD, and stay matched. I run 3s lipo on my 1060 ESC with a 35t motor and still it's too fast to crawl well (scx10ii stock gearing).

Thanks, I'll look into those servos and add them to my watch list on Amazon ,and / or eBay for later use, until then if the 208 Oz servo I swapped from the front to the rear doesn't work out I'll probably replace it with another Power HD to match the one I put on the front of it. I got both 1060 speed controls installed with the 27 turn axial Motors on a 5000mah 3s 50c lipo. I also got the Y connectors that I ordered in today so I plugged both speed controls into a Y connector off of Channel 2 and both servos into another Y connector and into Channel One and then realized I can't do that because it won't steer right so I have some rearranging to do for the rear steer.

[ferp420]

The gears suck and there arent any good options to replace them integy dose make metal gears but there a joke and striped out faster then the plastic ones you can end up spending more on the maxstone axles than a good set of moa axles other than that the4e fun rigs i just got tired of breaking stuff spent a hole bunch chassing broken parts just to have the upgraded parts fail

[gsbuickman]

Thanks for the heads up but I realize this isn't an XTM X-Factor, Losi Nightcrawler or Axial Wraith but you missed the OP. I don't go out and compete in the crawler comps I just like to have fun in the mud the dirt and on the rocks so I'm turning this into a multi-purpose Trail rig that's capable of a little of everything, which is why I chose to upgrade the stock 12 turn motors to 27 turn Axial Motors instead of 45 turn motors for more wheel speed on 3s.

Now that I upgraded this rig with dual ESC's, axial motors, a better servo, rear steer & lipo power, I need to address the tires. Before I buy new tires and Foams for this rig I'll take my body scissors and trim all the 1/2 lugs off the factory tires making them more aggressive similar to what you see in this video which should work nicely for a multi-purpose Trail rig :

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=tItJlx8hY9k

[gsbuickman]

On another note, I plugged one of my 3 channel receivers from my FlySky dimension GT3X in this rig. Luckily this radio has crawler mode which turns channel 3 into a rear steer Channel and clones the channel one signal over to channel 3 and you can set channel 3 up so the rear servo operates in forward or reverse mode so the rear steer will turn with the front wheels or opposite of the front wheels which ever you need. I did figure one thing out about the crawler mode on this radio however : according to the instructions Mode D actually operates as Mode C and Vice versa so I had to use Mode C so the rear servo would turn opposite of the front Servo so it steer's correctly.

[ferp420]

Stock up on parts when you can i went through alot of gears axle shafts and chubs and knuckles if you stay 2s lipo you mihht be fine but 3s eats parts like candy

[gsbuickman]

Originally Posted by ferp420

Stock up on parts when you can i went through alot of gears axle shafts and chubs and knuckles if you stay 2s lipo you mihht be fine but 3s eats parts like candy

thanks, I would like to order a few spare parts to have on hand just in case but as far as parts are concerned there is nothing available from Exceed RC, asiatees or nitrorcx. I've actually spoken with the guy that runs Nitro rcx in person and he's told me that they don't expect to have any parts in stock for the MaxStone Crawlers for several months at least.

From what I understand the MaxStone 8 is the same crawler as the high Moto 4880 so maybe I can find some parts for that that will be interchangeable.

::: HIMOTORACING.COM :::

Apparently the MaxStone 8 uses the same axles that are in the Turnigy Irock and the metal gears and axles from the Turnigy are supposed to be the way to go but I haven't been able to find any parts for them anywhere as of yet.

https://www.integy.com/st_prod.html?...0#.WuSm3elMFdZ