What are the differences between HPI Crawler and Wheelie King

[Outlawaresee]

I have my first Crawler, the HPI Crawler King and of course am looking at parts and upgrades. The CK parts seem to be a little harder to come by than the WK parts but it sounds like a lot of the parts are shared between the two...

Same parts:
Chassis
Axles
Tranny

Different parts:
Tires
Suspension?
Motor

Correct me if I am wrong as I am guessing at some of these because I don't know much about either, but I am listing what appears to be pretty obvious differences.

What other differences are there between the two trucks?

PS: I thought I read somewhere there was a section dedicated to the Crawler King but I can only locate the Wheelie King section.

[Outlawaresee]

One thing I REALLY want to do is protect the linkages on the front axle. I have done many searches on Ebay, Google, etc and am unable to locate a bumper or bumper mount that would go directly to the frame instead of the body...or a skid plate of sorts to come out from the axle. I'd like something solid to push against a rock or obstacle instead of hitting the linkages or axle directly. The standard body mounted bumper is useless when attempting to function against a solid object.

Anyone with links? Pictures?

[Outlawaresee]

Something interesting I just found also. HPI Rock Grabbers are banned from the crawler competitions. Why?

Not that I am going to be entering any sort of competition with this truck, but does this mean the banned tires are "better" than some that are not banned? Or is it the size or something else?

[Outlawaresee]

Specifically my preferred bumper is the approach angle guard like shown in the 2nd or 3rd post with both trucks showing

Old junkyard car hauler

Hopefully someone else will chime in here so I don't feel like I'm talking to myself, LoL
I know I probably don't have a preferred rig, but so far my son and I are having a blast with it.

Not to mention at 10 oclock at night with a bunch of drunk rednecks trying to see who can crawl up the 20 foot hill behind the house...well, you get the picture.

[Outlawaresee]

Well, I'm just feeling sort of lonely here now...guess no one looks at the HPI threads?

[lonleycreeper]

Originally Posted by Outlawaresee

Well, I'm just feeling sort of lonely here now...guess no one looks at the HPI threads?

Welcome to the site. Yes this section is slow. I check here frequently, if you have any questions ask away.

Grabbers are illegal because they are not "scale" they work great though, nice and tall and very sticky for a stock tire.

For bumpers you have a couple of options,
1 extend the frame with aluminum or another metal.
2 or build a new chassis.

There are not many chassis options to purchase anymore, so you are often left with shoehorning the running gear into a chassis not designed for it, or building one your self.

[Outlawaresee]

Thanks for checking in lonleycreeper and confirming my sanity, I was starting to answer myself on a few issues. Appreciate the information.

I see it appears the Crawler King is discontinued...I am assuming they still make the Wheelie King?

Are these axles any count? I see a few spares available on Ebay, but would it be better to upgrade to something different if/when I need a replacement?

So far it's pretty tough, but I'm sure I'll need some parts along the way.

[lonleycreeper]

Forgot to answer your main question.

Differences between the WK and CK are this...
Wheels\tires
Link lengths, 10.5" wb (Wk) 12.5" (Ck)
Lockers(Ck) open diff's(Wk)
Motor27t(Wk) 55t (Ck)

The Wk and Ck have recently been rereleased as water proof:-) .
For upgrades check Rc4wd, and Hot racing, I use rc4wd's vvd's in the front of my 6x6 and snap dogbones frequently in the rear. You will eventually strip the gears in the transmission especially as you start adding weight to your scaler. Rc4wd has steel replacement gears still.
Looking forward to seeing some pictures.

[Outlawaresee]

Am I correct then that the chassis is the same? Maybe the links are longer/shorter?
Sounds like a lot of parts can be used from the WK on the CK...

You mentioned they were recently released as water proof, I was under the assumption at least the CK had been discontinued but still notice a few new trucks around on different sites.

[Outlawaresee]

I also have a few brushless motors sitting here, and have a new ESC coming so I will be going brushless with this truck soon. It doesn't look like it's built to handle much speed, so my goal is going to be to have it set up for about the same amount of top end (maybe a bit faster) but have some real good low end grunt and front tire crawling power. I can turn it down from the TX if needed.

I think the gearbox is the same between the two trucks, so I might get the gear reduction box to use depending on how different the brushless setup goes.

[lonleycreeper]

#113225 Crawler King 1973 Ford Bronco

The chassis is the same link lengths as what make up the wheelbase. Good gearing is 96\14, if you want something to trail run/crawl. For bashing the stock 86\20 gearing is fine. The gearbox is not designed for brushless! You will strip each and every gear in it.
The GRU is great and cheap just slow.

[Outlawaresee]

I see they have a steel gear / gear box available. I assume that would help a lot?

What is the next weakest link, would the axles hold up?

From what I can tell there may not be diff gears installed but lockers instead so I would think that design might hold out better than a spider gear set up.

Good to know they have / are releasing a new CK. Maybe I won't have to worry so much about parts. They still seem to be a little scarce to come by used...

[lonleycreeper]

The next weak link is the dogbones, I have never broken a locker, but have snapped 6-8 dogbones. Finally upgraded to Vv-d's.

[Gula]

You can mod losi lst carriers, and cvd axles to work on w/ck axles!

[Outlawaresee]

Do you have a link for either of those?

I came across some metal drive shafts...

It's actually already got some metal upgrades such as knuckles and some of the linkages. Need to locate the CVD axles.

[Gula]

Hate to give the dude that ripped me off credit, but search "snoopmaxx" I advise against contacting him to make anything for you though!

[Outlawaresee]

Looks like he is pretty freakin handy at making parts...how did he rip you off?

[Gula]

Was making me exactly what your wanting. Custom rear lockouts, 6mm solid rear axle shaft and LST cvds treatment for the front. Took my money and never heard from again. Had good deals with him in the past though! Shame I lost $100 on that

[Outlawaresee]

Is there a two speed gear box that will fit in this truck?

Even a manually changed gear box would be nice so it could be the best of both worlds, have a touch of speed then shift it into low when the crawling area comes up...

[Gula]

Not for the stock chassis! You could make a custom one and use a summit/emaxx transmission.