Issues with new HP Venture
 

After a lot of good advice from all over RCCrawler.com, I ordered a HP Venture. It arrived Monday and I have a few issues I'm hoping to get some help with. The most obvious problem is the upper panhard bar bracket (the one that attaches to the chassis) is broken. I've tried calling and e-mailing the vendor but haven't heard back yet. Should I just order some of the STR machined parts as higher quality replacements? If so, is there anything else I should replace with a STR upgrade?

More importantly, the steering servo seems to just free run. I can zero it out with the adjustment on the transmitter, but if I apply any steering command, the servo just runs without any apparent motion in the servo arm. With the vehicle powered off, I can move the wheels from full right to full left but I only hear the servo gears spinning at the very ends of the range. There is a deadband with no noise from the gears in the middle 2/3 of the steering range. I've noticed several people have posted that they've upgraded their servos. If that makes sense, what are the most bullet proof options? I'm not doing any serious rock crawling, I just need something that doesn't break.

This whole effort is for a project for my work. This vendor was the only one I could find with any Venture in stock. So returning it may cause a serious delay until Ventures are back in stock somewhere. On the other hand, investing another $50 or so in parts to get up and running isn't a big problem.

Thanks

Re: Issues with new HP Venture
 

Shoot so the metal panhard mount came broken?

Typically the manufacturer will provide the warranty support, try reaching out to them directly. https://www.hpiracing.com/support/

Heres the parts you should need,https://www.amainhobbies.com/hpi-ven...116881/p662804
it comes as a set but includes the panhard chassis mount. Its dirt cheap right now because Amian doesn't want to carry these parts anymore (I assume).

As for the servo, the servo horn itself is a servo saver which is a spring loaded arm for the RTR model. Its possible the screw holding it together may not be tight so check that, also if its a plastic horn it could have stripped the teeth off. You could also source a normal (solid) servo arm to replace it but I dont think that's necessary.

The stock servos dont hold up long if you're rock crawling which is why they get replaced but for your application it should be able to do the job.

Regarding the STRC upgrades, you dont really need any for your application, they also use low grade aluminum from my experience so at times they're worse than the stock plastic parts.

Re: Issues with new HP Venture
 

Sounds like the front end has seen some trauma. Broken panhard mount and what sounds like some stripped servo gears. You might get lucky and be able to rotate the stripped teeth away from the normal range of motion of the gear.

I would suggest returning it and going with a different truck if you cant find a RTR Venture.

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Re: Issues with new HP Venture
 

This is the first I've heard of quality control issues, get in touch with hpi or send the vendor a legal threat.

Re: Issues with new HP Venture
 

Yeah I haven't sent any out of the box with issues. The electronics aren't amazing and a new servo would be wise. The panhard on the other hand leaves me wondering if this was new or second hand possible

Re: Issues with new HP Venture
 

It almost seems to me that this truck was broke and returned, repackaged and sold again. Everything being messed up in the same area. I could be wrong but that is the first thing that came to mind. I would contact HPI go from there, meanwhile if it were me I'd just order a new panhard mount and a better servo with a aluminum servo horn. A DS3218 would work fine in this rig, it's cheap on Amazon and comes with a aluminum servo horn.

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Re: Issues with new HP Venture
 

Hmm. I thought I commented on this yesterday but apparently I didn't complete whatever I started. I'll to re-iterate, excuse the point form.

-Contact HPI, the Vendor likely won't ever do anything for you. That's pretty common in this industry.
-The stock servo is junk anyways, you should replace it and get rid of the servo saver in favour of a metal horn.
-Your problem might be caused by the servo saver being loose. Tighten it to see if that improves anything.
-When ordering alum parts I always recommend c-hubs and steering knuckles, that's a standard baseline upgrade for any rig imo.

-If you want, I've probably got an extra panhard mount here. PM me if you have trouble finding one.

Re: Issues with new HP Venture
 

Just for reference GeneM isn't building a crawler so his needs are a little different. He's using the crawler as a base to make a measurement robot of sorts http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/newbi...nce-units.html

Re: Issues with new HP Venture
 

Touche, I forgot about that.

Disregard what I said aluminum c-hubs and steering knuckles..