Fallen's HPI Venture

[Fallen]

Thanks again Mitch. I got a dual shock mount figured out and kept the sway bar, all at the axle, and all using stock locations to attach stuff at the bottom.

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Up top I got a bit creative by adding a Losi 22 v1.0 wing mount to my shock tower, which gave me a few extra mounting holes. The Losi wing mount bolts right to the towers without having to drill any new holes in anything.

I'll be doing more tweaking with my sway bar too. Those down links are too tall.

The shocks are a 105mm set (sprung) and a 95mm set (no spring). The spring shocks still have 40wt oil in them, which is too much damping. The unsprung shocks are empty which brings me to a question:

If I put 30wt oil in both shocks (speaking of one side of the truck) is that like having 60wt oil in one? I'm trying to eradicate too much trial and error here, by making sense of how the shocks play off of each other before I start tinkering. Thanks for any help!

[Fallen]

I got a few more things done on my Venture, including beating my 11 year old son in a 2 mile, Ultra 4 race we did up and down a trail here in San Diego. I didn't take any pictures as we were too busy racing. He was driving his Axial Yeti Jr, but there was enough flat, high speed terrain on the trail to make it a fair fight.

I installed Falken Wildpeak tires by Axial. They're 4.7" tall and I put some Pro-Line Dual Stage XL foams in them. I think the tires look too tall for the Venture, but boy do they perform well.

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The nice foams + the extra height really makes for great performance on technical terrain. My diff covers used to drag on everything on this trail we raced on today, and I only had a few slight hangups today. The tires themselves look good enough that I think they're a good compromise between performance and looks. The added clearance is great, and these Pro-Line foams really make the tires hold their shape and not let the truck slip off line from excessive folding over, while still allowing the tires to conform to the trail.

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I also finished my FPV set-up. It's a Runcam Micro Sparrow controlled by a Spektrum VTX which is powered by the 2S LiPO XH adapter. Since I stepped down from 3S to 2S in this truck, I went to a bigger pinion gear. I also took a lot of weight off of the truck, and it feels very similar to stock again, which I'm happy with. FPV isn't that fun though. You can't see small details on the trail, which makes it hard to crawl with it.

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My son wants a rematch soon, as he doesn't like losing. I only beat him by a few seconds, and we don't take things very seriously. Hopefully my U4eeya Venture can repeat, and keep my family U4 title.

[M1tch]

Looking good as usual . Not much time spent on my Venture although I have a few ideas. I have been fine tuning my Twin hammers, and might play around with some things soon.

[Fallen]

Thanks Mitch. The Twin Hammers is an incredibly capable crawler when set up well. Enjoy tuning it up!

[meatmonkey]

I'm always excited to see this thread updated as it's about the most non-cookie cutter Venture I've seen! So please keep on modding, tuning, and driving your beast of a machine.

How was the fitment on your strc rear lockouts? I ask because mine were so loose on the housing when compared to the snug fitment of the plastic stickers that I opted not to run them.

[Fallen]

Thanks meat. The bad news is that I feel this rig is pretty dialed now. I've also been getting back into mountain biking, which has taken my focus off of RC cars. However, I have 3 sons who love RC cars, so it's unlikely I'll ever "finish" this rig. I'll be buying new ones for them, and further modding my Venture to defeat whatever they build.

As far as your lockout question, my screws snugged up tight, but that's because I sort of cheated. My rear axle has the Beef Tubes brand brass tubes, which go all the way to the outboard ends of the axle housings. The beef tubes give your lockout screws a chunk of metal to bite into, instead of just the plastic from the axlehousing. I don't remember if the lockouts themselves were loose around the axle housing, but with my screws turned tight, mine don't have any slop.

I installed the STRC lockouts at the same time that I did the beef tubes. The beef tubes do unfortunately require you to shave a plastic boss off of the inside of the axle housing, but it was easy to do with a drill bit.

[Fallen]

So I decided to temporarily go traditional with my Venture. I can't commit to one body, so I know I'll eventually put the bug body back on, then switch back to this and so on...





This body required that the stock bumper go back on the front. That bumper is fully tucked in, but the way the body is mounted to the cage makes it look likes it's sticking way out.

[M1tch]

Reminds me I must do something with my Venture.

[Fallen]

If you really need something to do with your Venture, you could send it over to me...

I'm sure my sons would love to play with it!