Continue upgrading my WK?

[Mudman]

Hi Guys,

I've had my wheely king now for a little over 3 months and just did the HPI crawler conversion today. And Although it does seem to climb better and have more articulation, I was wondering how capable the King is without heavily modding everything. Right now it still has the stock wheels and they seem like way too hard of a compound for climbing a lot of things. Will buying new rims and tires make that much of a difference in terms of climbing? The types of terrain I would be doing are urban type of things i.e. Stairs, living room appliances, shoes, and also loose sand over rocks/bolders outdoors.
What tires and Rims would you guys suggest? I was looking at the Axial 2.2 8 hole beadlocks, and 2.2 rock lizard tires.

Would you say it's worth it to keep modding things or just save up and buy an AX10? Everything on the wheely king just seems to have the weight up too high (I know it was intentionally made this way)

I also upgraded to a Hitec HS-645 MG servo, and although the steering is a lot more powerful, there still seems to be a little bit of struggle when steering on carpet (climbing around the house). All of the linkages for steering exept the rod that uses a threaded shaft has noticable flex/play. Is there a way to fix this? The truck also has the Reduction gearbox because I couldn't really afford to buy a new motor and ESC right away.

My plan was to keep modding the King slowly, but was wondering if it would be cheaper in the long run to buy an AX10 as it seems to climb better right out of the box.

Future mods would include aluminum transmission gears from CKRC, axle servo mount, Novak rooster cralwer and 55t system, clocked motor mount.

sorry if this is a long post, but I really wanted to put a little more detail into this.

Thanks!

[scootgarage]

Just get an Axial RTR. That way you have a capable crawler but still have the ability to make upgrades. The only Wk parts I still have are my axles and trans. Everything else has been replaced or built from scratch. You can rebuild your WK from scratch to be a decent crawler. Or you can buy an Axial and have a nice crawler you can modify for fun, not necessity. The WK was made to bash, the Axials are made to crawl. Have fun with your WK and save your money to buy an Axial.

[Frankenwheely]

Originally Posted by scootgarage

Just get an Axial RTR. That way you have a capable crawler but still have the ability to make upgrades. The only Wk parts I still have are my axles and trans. Everything else has been replaced or built from scratch. You can rebuild your WK from scratch to be a decent crawler. Or you can buy an Axial and have a nice crawler you can modify for fun, not necessity. The WK was made to bash, the Axials are made to crawl. Have fun with your WK and save your money to buy an Axial.

X2!
That's exactly what I did word for word. (Thanks SG) The WK is a great way to get your crawling skills started. The WK is top heavy, so it takes a little more love to get it around all those rocks. I ran mine for about a year before I got my Axial ARTR.
Bottom line...
Wheely King is a capable crawler and even better scaler/crawler. But for a all around fun crawler, I would go with the Axial ARTR.
PS
Your hitec is good for the WK and I would go with the proline eight shooter wheels and either the proline chisel or HB's Rover tires.
Have fun.

[Mudman]

thanks for the replies guys! I already ordered the servo relocation kit and metal gears for the tranny from CKRC. So I guess I will keep modding the Whheely king with little things until I have enough side money saved up for an AX10. The 1/10 Losi comp crawler also has my attention. I should also be picking up the wheels and tires tomorrow.

[brokenb4]

I'd give the WK a chance, you just have to get a little creative with mods.
A friend has a WK tube frame rig that he built from junk laying around that will go everywhere my axial will go and more.

The tires will make a big difference.

[Nerve]

I started with a WK back in 07, never really got around to using it much for comps all last summer, but I have attended 2 comps so far this year. Although I never placed, I still beat out some other guys.

I'am one of the few guys (or lone) running WK axles and I don't really want to change over to ax10 axles because it would mean my "rare" WK offset Mayhem wheels wouldnt be used anymore..heh. I'am still out to beat all the ax10'ers w/ my WK axles. Just need to drive better.

But you are right, it does take some heavy modding to get it capable. Tires also make a big difference. Proline Hammers, Badlands, HB Rovers, Chisels are the popular tires with our club now. I wouldnt use the Axial lizards if I were you.

Only the axle cases, ring/pinion, bearings, axle shafts and C hubs/knukles (rear only) are the only parts leftover from my WK. Lockers are from an ax10, trans is ax10, has a DNA unit and sw3 with swx skid plate.

I was previously running a hs5645mg servo and upped it to a HS7955TG servo and noticed a BIG improvement on steering. As in it steered like it wanted too.. LOL.

Here is a photo of mine of how it sits currently:





Otherwise, if you did go the ax10 route,..yah ARTR by far.

[Mudman]

great thanks guys! I guess I'll try to see how far i can go with my wheely king. That's one sweet rig Nerve! Do you have any more photos of the setup without a body?

What do you guys think about the Flatirons? I like the way they look.

[Mudman]

BTW with that HS7955TG servo running at 6volts- do you notice a considerably shorter runtime since its pulling so much power from the battery?

[Mudman]

Picked up my Proline 8 shooters and Prilone Hammer G8 tires today. What a huge difference in climbing!!!

[Mudman]

how many people here are running the gear reduction unit?

[rottenbelly]

Originally Posted by Mudman

how many people here are running the gear reduction unit?

If you are gonna crawl you dont need it. Just put a 45 or 55 turn motor in with 14t pinion and 96 t spur. It will do just as good! Less weight up high.

[Nerve]

Originally Posted by Mudman

great thanks guys! I guess I'll try to see how far i can go with my wheely king. That's one sweet rig Nerve! Do you have any more photos of the setup without a body?

What do you guys think about the Flatirons? I like the way they look.

I have some body off photos of what it looked like prior to installing the dig and ax10 trans etc. But nothing current as of that photo I posted above. I will have to get around to that ... lol.

Hmm, as far as I have seen, Flatirons good for scale, not so much for comp use.

As for the servo, I run 6 cell 1500nimh packs and a CC BEC as well. As for runtimes, our last comp was 5 mins max per course. So anything after 5 minutes doesn't really matter...heh. With my old servo I was about 45mins or so (running on rocks @ my cottage).

[MSB]

you don't need the reduction unit if you gear/motor/tire combo it for comps


that being said, i use it on one of mine that has LST tires and is a semi scale/semi super hodge podge

after the ax10 came out, i regretted the WK for the simple fact that parts were everywhere, but now, that i've had two i wouldn't trade them for ax10s if nothing else but for the fact i have something different with parts that are extremely versatile and cheap

[lwarc]

The gear reduction unit was designed to work with the stock 27 turn motor. If you run a Novak 55t or something similar - then you don't need it. Plus it adds a lot of weight up top - just where you don't want it. I like the WK because I can throw on the Jeep Rubicon body or Defender Body and it looks like a scaler - or you can put on a comp body and comp it. The AX10 is a great rig to be sure but the Wheely king is all about custom modifications, less about off the shelf solutions and it really stands out at a comp!

[Mudman]

Thanks again for all the reassurances guys! I will definitely keep modding my Wheely King now. It's pretty fun changing, adding, and making parts for the crawler. :-P

I just picked up the CKRC servo mount for the front axle, and metal transmission gears. Up next will be the Novak Rooster crawler 55t, and the Vanquish DH procomp wheels with .6cal weights!

Originally Posted by rottenbelly

If you are gonna crawl you dont need it. Just put a 45 or 55 turn motor in with 14t pinion and 96 t spur. It will do just as good! Less weight up high.

Yeah, The gear reduction unit was just a quick fix to give the truck more torque without buying a new motor right away. I plan to pick up the novak rooster sometime soon. But I cannot deny the awsome torque the truck has with the GR unit- before I put it on, the truck would get super hot super fast from just driving around normally. Then after the GR unit- I was able to pull around my freind on an office chair with the motor only getting barely warm to the touch.

Originally Posted by Nerve

I have some body off photos of what it looked like prior to installing the dig and ax10 trans etc. But nothing current as of that photo I posted above. I will have to get around to that ... lol.

Hmm, as far as I have seen, Flatirons good for scale, not so much for comp use.

As for the servo, I run 6 cell 1500nimh packs and a CC BEC as well. As for runtimes, our last comp was 5 mins max per course. So anything after 5 minutes doesn't really matter...heh. With my old servo I was about 45mins or so (running on rocks @ my cottage).

lol, well I'd love to see more photos of your truck. It definitely gives me a lot of motivation to keep modding my WK.

Originally Posted by MSB

you don't need the reduction unit if you gear/motor/tire combo it for comps


that being said, i use it on one of mine that has LST tires and is a semi scale/semi super hodge podge

after the ax10 came out, i regretted the WK for the simple fact that parts were everywhere, but now, that i've had two i wouldn't trade them for ax10s if nothing else but for the fact i have something different with parts that are extremely versatile and cheap

I will agree with you on this one.

Originally Posted by lwarc

The gear reduction unit was designed to work with the stock 27 turn motor. If you run a Novak 55t or something similar - then you don't need it. Plus it adds a lot of weight up top - just where you don't want it. I like the WK because I can throw on the Jeep Rubicon body or Defender Body and it looks like a scaler - or you can put on a comp body and comp it. The AX10 is a great rig to be sure but the Wheely king is all about custom modifications, less about off the shelf solutions and it really stands out at a comp!

I will probably pick up the rooster crawler in 2 weeks or so on my next paycheck. My plan was to purchase the new Losi crawler when it comes out, and continue to mod my WK until its finally competition ready.

[Nerve]

Originally Posted by Mudman

well I'd love to see more photos of your truck. It definitely gives me a lot of motivation to keep modding my WK.

Sorry for the slow update, but I finally got around to snapping the photos as you had asked me last month:
















Enjoy.

[Mudman]

Thanks for the photos Nerve! that's one great looking crawler. I'll definitely give a shot at modding my wheely king more once my AX10 build is complete.

[8upboyz]

Looks like it will crawl the wall