RCCrawler Forums - Late start to the hobby, here is my HPI Venture FJ Cruiser

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Re: Late start to the hobby, here is my HPI Venture FJ Cruiser

Quote:

Originally Posted by smog (Post 6121144)

that thang is brawwny! very cool.

Do you have to pull the interior out to get at the battery or does it slide in from the front?

I have to unbolt the dash (4 screws), but also the battery is adhesive taped. Kind of a pain but I wanted to make a big battery work and be somewhat functional still lol.

Re: Late start to the hobby, here is my HPI Venture FJ Cruiser

Thank you for the response👍. I picked up the front bumper, it's in the way. The rear one might be a problem for me, that conversion bracket doesn't seem to be available anymore, same with the side sliders.

I'm finding that because I got into this so late, aftermarket support is drying up because it's discontinued.

I did pick up that spare tire cover, do you have a pic of how you mounted it to the body?

Re: Late start to the hobby, here is my HPI Venture FJ Cruiser

Quote:

Originally Posted by bonewrench (Post 6121591)

Thank you for the response[emoji106]. I picked up the front bumper, it's in the way. The rear one might be a problem for me, that conversion bracket doesn't seem to be available anymore, same with the side sliders.

I'm finding that because I got into this so late, aftermarket support is drying up because it's discontinued.

I did pick up that spare tire cover, do you have a pic of how you mounted it to the body?

That sucks on the rear mount. Maybe there's an overseas version? Or if it were me I'd probably fit another conversion mount made for a different chassis and try to fit it to the HPI rails. That's if you're certain you want to run the TF2 bumpers.

Took some pics for you. The spare tire mount is a universal one from overseas. The spare would keep getting loose and fall off under crashes so I made a few holes in the male piece to accept a body clip. I wanted the spare cover to hug the back door as close as possible and wanted to add the ladder so I melted the shape of it into the back of the spare cover.

Furthermore, I want to make some kind of brace that connects the spare mount and the rear-most roof rack clips just for some added reinforcement to support the spare cover on the lexan. I had made a few from the spare plastic links but they broke lol.

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Re: Late start to the hobby, here is my HPI Venture FJ Cruiser

Nice pics of your rear end!:oops:

Just kidding! Thanks for sharing the pics of the rear tire mount. I've been thinking about adding a spare tire to my new FJ build, but I don't have the rear bumper with tire carrier. The way you did yours just might work out for mine. Great job on getting it mounted! Looks great!

Re: Late start to the hobby, here is my HPI Venture FJ Cruiser

The more I study these pics, I think I'm noticing some finer scale details, like a rear windshield wiper and also a rear door hinge? Did you 3D print those? I have a fuel door as well as door handles that I have added. Also, regarding the rear spare tire mount, do you have a link or perhaps a part number? I'm OK with purchasing a part here & there from overseas. Thx again.

Re: Late start to the hobby, here is my HPI Venture FJ Cruiser

Quote:

Originally Posted by bonewrench (Post 6121991)

I didn't print the wiper or hinge. The wiper is actually a universal one although was listed as the rear wiper via Exclusive RC. The real wiper has a tiny blade so keep that in mind, I just left it alone. And the hinge actually had a huge antenna on it but I cut it off because I only wanted the hinge lol.

Link to exact spare mount:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/20317514102...mis&media=COPY

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If you compare these 2 stock photos from the listing with mine, you can see I reversed the mounting position and cut off the support ribs so the mount is flush against the body.

Re: Late start to the hobby, here is my HPI Venture FJ Cruiser

9T RPP pinion installed. Seems to be promising with this 2300kv Fusion Pro moving a 10lb rig.

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Yet to test but plan to before Sunday 2/12 for a meet. This picture shows the motor can bottoming out on this motor mount-gearbox screw and still has some room on the left hand side (for those unaware, the motor rotates down to the passenger side for pinion mesh adjustment).

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The servo mount in stock form (this one is the GPM aluminum one) not only braces the shock towers, but also mounts to the motor mount. To gain more clearance for smaller pinions (had loose mesh 12T), I deleted the area of the servo mount where the motor sits above (shaded grey area) which left me with a 2pc servo mount, sorta. The servo mount itself is still supported by 2 sides (passenger shock tower and motor mount), and the other piece still connected the driver shock tower to the motor mount. Well, that piece just became redundant as I've now mounted the driver shock tower with nylocks, and there's just no more screw there for the motor mount-gearbox lol. My rigs do not see any form of abuse so I think it should be just fine. You can see in the sample photo of what I had as the "2pc" servo mount, and then what I now removed to run the smaller pinion.

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Re: Late start to the hobby, here is my HPI Venture FJ Cruiser

Modification for the smaller pinion seems to be holding up ok as it's seen a few hikes since then. Other than needing some maintenance and cleaning done, I'd like to get the rig a little lighter. Doing little things such as cutting excess body posts off, swapping the printed inner fenders to styrene, same for panels in interior etc.

A necessary upgrade this needed was a stronger winch. It didn't make sense to have a scale winch when it's hidden, so I went with the Reefs 422HD V2 (I have the 777 for steering so why not keep it Reefs). But also it frees up a bit of room under the hood. It's not a bolt in procedure for the RC4WD bumper, so here's what I did to make it fit.

Out with the old, in with the new.

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Here's a few other angles, showing how the servo is secured to not only the original servo mount, but also into the aluminum bumper mount that also shows that it's now 2 pieces to make room for the spool and line.

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Notice the 3 flush mount screws and one socket head screw to mount the servo. The socket head screw is only used because I drilled the hole into the bumper mount too big so had to use a nylock instead which works out fine.

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Still need to clean up the wiring.

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Nice and tidy resting in front of the motor and steering servo.

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Re: Late start to the hobby, here is my HPI Venture FJ Cruiser

Dang nice Toyota collection.
Blue LandCruiser is my Fav tho. :D

Re: Late start to the hobby, here is my HPI Venture FJ Cruiser

Man, there's a lot going on in the front end! Nice job making the servo winch fit in there with the Fushion!

I think you're gonna like that new winch setup! Much better system than the RC4WD winch.

Re: Late start to the hobby, here is my HPI Venture FJ Cruiser

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zukiiholic (Post 6137561)

Dang nice Toyota collection.
Blue LandCruiser is my Fav tho. :D

Thanks! I've yet to take a picture of the current collection in one whole shot but in due time. And the blue Land Cruiser, it honestly drives so good and messing with the 2spd and locking diffs is a blast. I recently removed the Traxxas receiver and transmitter and set up the Radiolink RC8X on it. Now the diffs are individually controlled which is even more fun.

Quote:

Originally Posted by B-MOW71 (Post 6137627)

Man, there's a lot going on in the front end! Nice job making the servo winch fit in there with the Fushion!

I think you're gonna like that new winch setup! Much better system than the RC4WD winch.

I've yet to test it but I know that as a fact I will and stoked that I made it work in there.

Re: Late start to the hobby, here is my HPI Venture FJ Cruiser

Ran this rig at Scale Challenge West #5 at Donner Ski Ranch this weekend. I attended A Crawl for Hope here a few weeks ago as well, and I started to run the Venture on the trail when I suddenly lost 3/6 screws in the driver rear wheel hub and I didn't have the specific bit in my bag to tighten them all up. I finished the trail with another rig.

So fast forward a few weeks from that, the Venture is still mudded up and I left it that way for scale lol. But I rebuilt the shocks with 3k CST all around and the damping is absolutely perfect (all the shocks had about 1/3 oil in em haha). These Gmade shocks need a super thick oil, and with the 2 hole pistons I'd say these compare to a stock Element shock that has 45w.

As for any other changes to the rig, minimal.
- Added a Twisted Tree RC antenna for super scale whips.
- Put the sleeping bags in the net back on the roof rack along with a scale tote housing motor oil/first aid kit/GI Joe backpack.
- Added sand ladders, drilling mounting holes in the Thule bar to fix them into place.
- Glued a Matchbox silver FJ Cruiser to the passenger seat.
- 1/12 figure with a pumpkin as the head!

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The rest of the pictures plus a gnarly gap line I recorded.

https://youtu.be/u90V21VzkkM?si=-YrX-GSJrJ5boSma

These pictures will be in order of them being taken if that's anything to mention.

I first start heading up to the start of the trail and here I spot a Utron! Pretty cool side by side shots.

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Buddy in the Gladiator got impatient and started to pass us.

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2 Metrics and a Jimny. There's a Scout blocking our path, as the fella was taking a smoke break lol. We were one of the last groups in the trail so there was no rush and just enjoy the time out there and all the chit chat. Also you can see I have the winch lead out. I was one of 3 trucks that hooked onto this custom 8x8 rig. 2 were up front pulling it and I was on the side up on a ledge to help turn him around a corner. It was pretty sweet yet nobody has any footage of it. The Reefs 422 performed without a hiccup.

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Gotta have some cool flex shots. At least these are in the wild and not on my desk!

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Ran into another group. Cool Axialfest billboard shot.

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Tad too wide for this tree trunk.

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Had to stop at Dutch Bros for the last downhill stretch.

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And a cool side shot before the last few gates.

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Re: Late start to the hobby, here is my HPI Venture FJ Cruiser

Great pics, and a great looking truck! Looks like a good time was had!

Re: Late start to the hobby, here is my HPI Venture FJ Cruiser

Awesome pics! The FJ looks so good out on the rocks!

Looks like it was a good time. I've been seeing people post pics of the Scale Challenge on the socials. You guys are blessed with outstanding terrain!:)