Fallen's HPI KOH Venture
 

Alright, alright, first the pictures, because that's all you guys really want to see... All pictures show situations that the Venture was driven into and out of, even though the last one might be sort of hard to believe.

https://image.ibb.co/iukSg7/rps20180505_143009.jpg

https://image.ibb.co/hzyPTn/rps20180505_143107.jpg

https://image.ibb.co/gr4L17/rps20180505_143138.jpg

https://image.ibb.co/bzd2ES/rps20180505_143206.jpg

Onto my brief review, after 3 battery (2S, 4000mah) packs:

AWESOME!

Changes I've made:

1. Unglued (by boiling) the tires, painted the wheels, then re-glued the tires.

2. Made inner fender wells out of tupperware, and painted them black.

3. Painted the D-rings red.

Pros:

1. Performance is awesome out of the box! I know everybody hates the stock steering servo, and yes, it is quite weak. But in my opinion, it does not need to be changed right away, or even anytime soon. The stock tires look sort of goofy, but they perform too well for me to be willing to get rid of. The stock foams feel pretty nice too. Not Crawler Innovations nice, but also not Axial crummy.

2. Looks. This body is hot! In fact, the body is the primary reason that I bought this truck, and it lives up to the hype. The stock suspension settings make for realistic body roll and reactions to trail features, and combined with the rad body, this truck really looks good when trailing.

3. Speed. The stock electronics' top speed is slightly faster than my natural gait with the stock gearing, making for a sweet hiking rig. The drag brake is effective (mine is set to 100%) on all but the steepest of descents, and makes for realistic looking crawl descents.

Cons:

1. None that I've seen yet. Once again, the stock servo is weak, and I know no one likes the stock plastic suspension links. But trailing performance is rad, even with both of these items as they are. Eventually I'll change both, but I'll be focusing more of my attention on adding scale details, unless something fails.

Summary: Anyone looking for a rad scale trail rig, that is truly "ready to run" out of the box should scoop the Venture up. In my experience, Axial rigs tend to need upgrades right away for them to look realistic, and perform realistically. Not so with the Venture. It's almost annoying how little this thing needs to provide satisfying, scale performance. I want to throw money at it, but it already looks so good, that I can't really justify it (yet).

I ran into this snake on my way back down the mountain, and if anyone can tell me what it is, that'd be cool. Being that this was in Southern California, I suspect that it's a gopher snake, but I've never seen a gold gopher snake before.

https://image.ibb.co/hevhES/rps20180505_143234.jpg

Re: Fallen's HPI Venture
 

Regarding your cons,there are simple things to do.Get a better a servo and make your own metal/aluminum/brass links

Re: Fallen's HPI Venture
 

Thanks.

For now, I'm happy with the stock servo, even though it's noticeably weak.

I would eventually like to make some links though. Did you have to cut threads into the brass, or do you pass all-thread through a hollow brass sleeve?

I like the creativity of homemade upgrades.

Re: Fallen's HPI Venture
 

I drilled holes to the brtass bar and then cut the threads

Re: Fallen's HPI Venture
 

Be careful with assuming the stock servo is ok.

It's biggest downfall is the fact that it's got plastic gears. One big tumble and those gears will break/strip. (I'm ignoring the fact it also has a servo saver on it and that should go in the garbage asap..)

Now, I've heard that HPI is changing the build spec so the servo will be metal geared. I don't know if that's happened yet, when it might happen, or if it's even true..

For now, if I was you, I'd have a replacement servo handy so you don't get stuck out on the trail.


I absolutely love my Venture, I hardly ever run my 10.2 anymore..


(I've got extra stainless steel lower links made, pm me if you want a set)

Re: Fallen's HPI Venture
 

Killer man, I'll PM you about those links later tonight. Thanks for offering to sell them.

Re: Fallen's HPI Venture
 

All I've done to my venture is add a kayak to its roof and a new servo. One of the best ready to runs around. The straight drivetrain is one of the best features in my opinion. Very easy on the bearings etc

Re: Fallen's HPI Venture
 

https://image.ibb.co/nayhYp/rps20181010-202541.jpg

Finally, a decent update. I took the Venture for a fun crawl. The track I took it up, was a mix of loose, deep silt, dry hardpack, and big rocks on a steep hill. The Goodyear Wrangler MT/Rs were perfect for such a mix of technical terrain.

https://image.ibb.co/kkPd69/rps20181010-202235.jpg

I added some lead weights to the chassis. 140g to be exact, some of which has been hidden in the front bumper. With the extra weight, (plus aluminum wheels, interior, scale items and a heavy 3S battery) the stock steering servo really started to struggle to keep up. I finally swapped it with a Traxxas 2075 that I had in a Tamiya M05.

https://image.ibb.co/mHDueU/rps20181010-202359.jpg

I shaved off the body pin nubs, and sank the all-thread for the Pro-Line body caps into the body mounts. The body is super secure, and doesn't waggle up and down at all.

https://image.ibb.co/jciGtp/rps20181010-202439.jpg

This is the Pro-Line interior for a Jeep Cherokee body, along with my driver: Lazarus, who my daughter made at VBS.

https://image.ibb.co/dr2WR9/rps20181010-202609.jpg

This is a super rocky, steep section of the track. These rocks are covered in dry dust, just to make the climb extra fun..My scale hi-lift jack has had the foot broken off in this picture, from rolling over onto it.

https://image.ibb.co/ifcLKU/rps20181010-202701.jpg

This shows a different angle of the above photo, which makes this section look not quite as challenging as it really was. This section (and a few others) were risky because they were steep, littered with big rocks, and required momentum to get up. I had to treat the Venture more like a U4 truck than a crawler on these sections, but it made it.

https://image.ibb.co/mXsWR9/rps20181010-202726.jpg

https://image.ibb.co/bO9NYp/rps20181010-202854.jpg

Finally to the top. Those RC4WD Goodyears are almost the same size as the stock tires. I'm running the Vanquish 225 hubs to get them as tucked as I can. I slightly trimmed the rear side of the front fenders so that there wouldn't be any rubbing.

Re: Fallen's HPI Venture
 

A while ago, I said that I bought the Venture to crawl, and if I wanted a rock bouncer, I would have built a rock bouncer. Well last week I was jonesing for a new project, and had this idea...

https://image.ibb.co/hOEPH0/rps20181119-200152.jpg

Which came to this...

https://image.ibb.co/bE2dc0/rps20181119-200235.jpg

https://image.ibb.co/nGqyc0/rps20181119-200213.jpg

Those are some crummy, non-action pictures, I know. Hopefully I'll get her out for a crawl soon, and actually take some pictures.

I ran her at the beach today, and my son took turns driving too. It's a blast to watch the suspension hit bumpy sand at speed, and then slow the wheels down to dig yourself out of a hole when necessary.

Re: Fallen's HPI Venture
 

Took her out for a brief crawl with my son, and snapped a few pictures.

This thing makes for a pretty awesome U4 truck, with a 3S pushing the stock electronics.

And yes, in case you were unsure, that is an Axial Yeti cage.

https://image.ibb.co/dSea9q/rps20181120-192438.jpg

https://image.ibb.co/dyxqaV/rps20181120-192452.jpg

Re: Fallen's HPI Venture
 

https://i.ibb.co/KKbZ2qv/rps20181125-201003.jpg

I decided to move the cage aft a bit, to not only look better, but to prevent the front tires from rubbing at full articulation + full steer.

Now the lowest, forward portion of the cage sits slightly aft of the leading edge to the sliders. Sweet!

I also added (after some severe chopping) the Jeep Cherokee interior, so now I have a 5 seat, 1.9 wheeled, solid axle Yeti.

I have the front bumper off in the photo above, which looks a lot nicer. However, I definitely want a front bumper, but one that doesn't look like a mustache. The stock Venture bumper is just too wide in my opinion. Anyone know of any narrow bumper options that fit the Venture?

As it currently sits, I have to use a 2.5mm hex driver to remove 2 screws, in order to change the battery. The front of the cage then pivots upward, and remains attached at the rear to allow access, just like on the Yeti. I eventually want to change that so that no tools are needed, but I haven't come up with a way to do it yet. In time...

Re: Fallen's HPI Venture
 

So, a number of changes have been made since my last update. Here are the changes since my last update. I'll start with the axles:

Front Axle: Beef Tubes brass in the housing, STRC brass C-Hubs and knuckles, and HPI CVDs. Steel lower links by Queso Del Diablo.

Rear Axle: Beef Tubes brass in the housing, and STRC brass lockouts. Steel 4 link set-up by Queso Del Diablo.

Chassis: 1. Slipper clutch delete. I just replaced the spring with spacers, but that is because I couldn't get the spring back in. It's super hard to compress by hand.
2. Lexan chassis plates, painted black to hide the electronics which would be visible under the roll cage.
3. RC4WD front bumper adapter, and CC Hand (sold by RC4WD) steel front bumper for the Trailfinder 2.

https://i.ibb.co/wM1kSQT/rps20190209-151222.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/w61Dwcw/rps20190209-151241.jpg

Body: 1. Wrapped the Yeti cage with the Pro-Line bug body. I cut the roof and windows off of the body so that the cage can show through.
2. Gearhead RC roof rack, along with their Trail Torch blue/white front bar, and KOH rear bar.

https://i.ibb.co/jGXTL46/rps20190209-151037.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/v16wx2n/rps20190209-151057.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/F6DyrfH/rps20190209-151149.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/H7831p5/rps20190209-151204-1.jpg

This is what the bug body looked like prior to the Gearhead parts, and front bumper:

https://i.ibb.co/tLbXqPS/rps20190127-195809.jpg

Putting the Yeti cage on really got the ball rolling for me on upgrades and ideas. I've used the bug body before in an attempt to accomplish this look, but I wasn't successful, so I put it on the shelf. The reason it didn't work in the past, is because I left the windows and roof on the bug body, and they make the roll cage disappear completely, which doesn't look good to me. This time, I was able to accomplish the Blake Wilkey desert bug look. But I've always liked the performance of U4 cars, as they're the Swiss Army knife of the off-road world. So now, I've got somewhat of the Ultra 4 performance, with somewhat of the desert bug look. I'm stoked on it!

I still have new sliders by Scalerfab on the way, along with some fresh King shocks by RC4WD to try out. Hopefully in the months to come, I can get some shots of her in the wild.

Re: Fallen's HPI Venture
 

No pictures in this update, unfortunately.

I was able to get my KOH Venture out for it's first real KOH style test: Some high speed running in deep, bumpy sand (Carlsbad, CA). When I say high speed, I should explain that I installed a 3300kv brushless system, and was running it on a 2S battery with stock Venture gearing.

I also upgraded the steering servo to a Savox SC1256-TG that I took out of my old 1/8 scale buggy. That servo + the CVDs and the steering is great, even with all of weight I've added to this truck. Speaking of weight, I added some tungsten weights to the aluminum wheels, so each wheel weighs 200 grams.

I also upgraded the shocks with Pro-Line's Scaler shocks in the 95-105mm length. I put the single stage springs on them, with 35wt oil in them,

So, after 30-40 minutes of hard running in the sand, not one threaded connection came loose. Everything held together well, and the Venture handled surprisingly well. I have a lot of weight down low, but I was still surprised by how fast I was able to take turns in the sand, with no rolling over. Lots and lots of jumping over and off of bumps in the sand was done, with the Venture never really getting upset by it. It drove fast, and very well. It made for a lot of enjoyable suspension movement for me to watch.

To add to the torture test, I even let my 10 year old son drive it in the sand for about 20 minutes. He enjoyed it, and managed to roll it over one time as he was seeing if he could treat the Venture like a drift car in the sand.

So, the open desert test of my KOH Venture is a check. Now, the rock test will come next, but we already kind of know how that test will go. I might however, switch back to a brushed system, but with a lower turn motor than stock. I'm thinking a 15-20 turn motor. My brushless system really lacks low speed control, but that was predicted.

Re: Fallen's HPI Venture
 

After my last run at the beach, everything operated properly and there weren't any signs (sights or sounds) of any problems.

But when I went to re-install the stock brushed motor, I removed the motor mount access panel and saw this:

https://i.ibb.co/vkVkwyH/rps20190317-193203.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/6wycHVV/rps20190317-193240.jpg

So prior to re-installing the brushed electronics, I needed to clean this up. Since if there was sand in there, there could have been sand elsewhere in the drivetrain, I looked in the axles for sand and didn't find any. I also felt the transfer case's operation and it felt nice and smooth, so I assumed there isn't sand in there.

I can't see where the sand got in from, but it obviously did. While it's a bummer that the transmission isn't as well sealed as I'd like, I think HPI still deserves some props here. I couldn't hear or feel any abnormalities while running, so maybe they designed the case to accept stuff like this, and keep on trucking. I'm glad they built it with steel gears, because if there had been plastic gears in there, we know how my gears would look now.

I re-installed the brushed electronics, and the spring for the slipper clutch. But I put a 19 tooth pinion on, hoping to get some more speed out of the Venture. I'll probably step up to a 25 tooth, as on 2S it still isn't very fast with the stock motor. I bought an RC4WD 20t motor to put in, but I'd like to keep the torque of the 35t.

I also put the Scalerfab sliders on. They do precisely what I wanted them to do; make the gap between the old sliders and the bottom of the roll cage disappear.

https://i.ibb.co/xh0wQ7r/rps20190317-193559.jpg

To add a Venture-ish touch, I made my own body caps out of the old Venture hubcaps, which I don't think look good on my wheels. I glued shock pistons inside of the hubcaps, and the shock pistons thread onto to all thread which goes through the body to hold it on. Now, the body and the spare tire can be removed with no tools.

https://i.ibb.co/bQhLxv2/rps20190317-193425.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/0Jg02FC/rps20190317-193632.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/SryCXCG/rps20190317-193701.jpg

With the brushed electronics back in, the low speed control is back, so scale performance is back on point.

Keep building gents. While I'm stoked that Axial finally released a 1.9 Wraith, I still think my Venture is more rad.

Re: Fallen's HPI Venture
 

Looks very nice with that body. You do some great work. Waiting to get my SBK out hopefullly this week.

Re: Fallen's HPI Venture
 

Thanks.

I think I found where the sand got into my transmission from, and it was allowed by the brushless motor I was using. The Dynamite Tazer 3300kv has several slots milled into the face of the motor which butts up against the motor mount.

Those slots made for gaps between the motor and the mount, I believe allowing sand to get in between the two, then consequently into the transmission.

So as long as no one else makes the mistake of using that motor, or any motor with slots milled into the mounting face, then you probably won't run into debris getting into your transmission like I did. Since I've swapped that motor out for the stock brushed motor, I think my transmission will stay clean.

Re: Fallen's HPI Venture
 

Sweet rig, nice to see something different with the Venture. Dig those sliders, been looking at some for my rig..

Re: Fallen's HPI Venture
 

Thanks man. The sliders are worth the wait, as Scalerfab makes them once you order them. I actually think they'd look even better on the stock body than they do with my body, but I'm still stoked on them.

One of the benefits of not knowing what the **** you're doing, is that you make a lot of mistakes, and sometimes those mistakes turn into magic. My Venture has fortunately been one of those, and I'm really enjoying it. I actually thought putting the Yeti cage on was going to be a big waste of time when I did it, but now I'm glad that I did.

I'll definitely be running my Venture on 3S. I tried it out yesterday, and with a 19 tooth pinion, the speed is so much closer to what a KOH vehicle would run than 2S is. My 3S batteries are big, heavy 5000mah hard cases, but I'll just run them for now, and eventually buy some lighter ones. It is nice though, that I can get 40-50 minutes out of one battery.

Re: Fallen's HPI Venture
 

I repurposed some honcho scaler Fab sliders. Just needed a couple new holes and they are perfect

Re: Fallen's HPI Venture
 

Updates updates updates. A few since my last so see below:

https://i.ibb.co/SJw8dq1/rps20190925-210211.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/StWFdmy/rps20190925-210234.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/DMmKNxF/rps20190925-210259.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/YZGgbCz/rps20190925-210333.jpg

I've obviously stuck with the bug body and cage, but I'm not really feeling the Ultra 4 vibe with this build, and would rather keep it crawly. I changed the tires for a smaller set (3.85 OD) of Dirt Grabbers as I think they look better. It was the dimension between the trailing edge of the front wheels and the leading edge of the rear wheels that made the 4.19 tires look too big for me. I did however stuff the 4.19 foams in the 3.85 tires to make them look a bit more full.

I put a Traxxas 21t 550 motor in. My Venture is pretty heavy, and I toasted the stock motor on a steep, long climb on an 80 degree day.

I chopped up the FJ roof rack and put it on the roof of the cage. I also put the mirrors onto this body and the Venture hubcaps on these wheels.

I finally sorted out a good way of securing the cage, using only body clips, but I forgot to get a good photo of that.

https://i.ibb.co/tDwS3G5/rps20190925-210402.jpg

I added the Axial Yeti interior to the cage. The driver prefers you give him some space.

https://i.ibb.co/KGw6WHn/rps20190925-210434.jpg

I dropped the rear light bar into the cage work. Axial supplies a box of light buckets that mount here, but I removed them and cheated the Gearhead light bar in its place. The guys at RPP told me how to do this.

https://i.ibb.co/j3Hvypb/rps20190925-210506.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/vsZBP40/rps20190925-210535.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/6Xt4fBK/rps20190925-210601.jpg

Finally, based on tips from you guys, I added spacers (rod end eyes) between the servo and it's mount to lower the servo a bit. This was to delete the servo saver, and get my Axial aluminum servo horn to clear the chassis rails.

It still crawls great and those Dirt Grabbers tires do better in sand than I would have imagined.

Enjoy your Ventures! I'm sure they'll be impossible to find 5 years from now.