couple bucks to spend

[Manfjourde]

So I have a few bones and want to get my first upgrade for my first crawler. Ima thinking:

Bent links

Wheels weights

Rover tires

What say you about ONE of them being the most effective/essential to di first?

[Snipervision]

Wheel weights. Add 2-2.5oz in front & maybe a little in the back. Move battery to front via small plastic tray on links. Tray is made by cutting small piece of plastic & then holding it in place with 4 tie wraps.

[Manfjourde]

Thanks Sniper, do you just recommend the weights that I hear are at local tire stores? Open the wheels and wrap them on the rim? This is a pro roller btw and sadly my little blue and gens ace lipos don't fit in the front

[benchemist]

If you havn't yet, outboard the lower shocks. This will give better stability and will allow you to outboard the upper links on the chassis.

If you don't want to open up the wheels, you can place the weights on the inside of the rims between the spokes.

Going to Rovers or softer foams with the stock tires also help.

My suggestion for order of upgrades:
1. Added weight to the wheels.
2. Outboard the shocks.
3. Rovers or softer foams
4. Bent links

After that, just upgrade plastic parts to aluminum as they break.

[cboggs]

Dont know how many "bones" you got but the only upgrade that is gonna cost is the tires. Here is what I recommend in order.
1. Weight the wheels- ask your tire store, sometimes they will give them to you for free
2. Outboard the shocks and upper links- #LOSB1446 around $5.00
3. Get some Rovers- around $40.00
4. Aluminum C's #LOSB1412- around $20.00
5. Aluminum knuckles #LOSB1432- around $20.00
6. Bent links #LOSB1416- around $12.00

[thomanator]

bent links can be free. I just put my MRC pro links in the vice and bent them they turned out great! and it was free =)

[Manfjourde]

Thanks for the input guys, I think I'll pick up some weights and outboard the shocks for now, that is nice and cheap.

Cboggs - the price list and part numbers are awesome, thanks!

Are all tire shop weights the same size or do I need to ask for the smallest size/weight of them? So many ounces per piece?

[generem]

I went to a local tire shop in my area and offered to buy sone stick on weight off them. The guy handed me the box and said. Take what you need. . Doesn't hurt to ask

[Manfjourde]

I was able to score some weights from a local shop today and just put them in and tested it - huge difference! Thanks for the recommendation. I only put 1.5 oz total on the 2 front wheels but it helped a ton. I might add a bit more too.

Question - do tires get better/broken in as they are driven? I might have to wait on the rovers for a bit and am wondering if the mrc pro tires get any better like wine with age?

[Charlie-III]

Originally Posted by Manfjourde

I was able to score some weights from a local shop today and just put them in and tested it - huge difference! Thanks for the recommendation. I only put 1.5 oz total on the 2 front wheels but it helped a ton. I might add a bit more too.

Question - do tires get better/broken in as they are driven? I might have to wait on the rovers for a bit and am wondering if the mrc pro tires get any better like wine with age?

2-3oz/tire seems normal, depending on your rocks.
Yes, most tires work better with use/age. A number of people have cut off the small lugs on the tire parting line (center of the tread) to allow better grip from the bigger lugs.

[redemon]

All the small lugs from the center?

[RickM]

I realize this is a budget build but here is my thought. To purchase rovers you will need a rim with a true beadlock. Buying plastic axial beadlocks with rovers will be a HUGE improvement over stock RTR wheels and rims, but it does cost some extra coin. I do not like the Pro idea inserting a rim as it also gets rid of foam room. I sure do know a lot of builds on here are doing great things with these rigs with very little cost. For instance purchase your own delrin or ti and create your own bent links. It is cheaper and gives you some extra material to play with.

Word of warning. I did not see where you mentioned whether you are runnig a pro or RTR but the RTR comes with plastic lockers. As you add weight and improve traction you will blow out the lockers.

Here is an idea. Assuming you are running the RTR why not buy a pro roller for 78 bucks or whatever and you will be killing a lot of bird with one stone. Better chassis, better shocks, better tire compound, real lockers (even though they are not that great), steal lockers, CVD axles, straight rear axles, and better steering setup. Stick your current electronics in and just run until you fry stuff. Save your RTR stuff for breaks. You would get all that stuff for the price of rovers and rims.

[Getrag]

He did mention that it is the pro roller above. So it looks like your in good shape there.

So there have been a lot of good things mentioned.
First do the free mods:
- Bend your current links or make some. I used 1/4" aluminum rod stock from Home Depot. Making your own also assumes you can drill and/or tap there are other ways to do it with all thread (rod that is threaded down the whole length).

-Outboard your shocks on the axle end: I used an old flanged ball from a link as the spacer so I didn't have to buy an outboard kit. I don't have a good picture at the moment to show this. If your not sure what we mean let us know and we can get a good picture up for you.

-Another thing that will improve how it crawls, and this is personal preference, but I would lower the center of gravity more, not only with wheel weights but also suspension set up. Pull off your shocks, and preload them by putting a spacer material (most ppl use fuel tubing from nitro RC cars or springs from a ball point pen) on the inside of the shock piston shaft. Its difficult to explain but search "droop suspension" and you might get some good pictures.

And best thing to do, is to just drive the hell out of it and then change one thing.

I've said this in other posts, but so far my favorite part about RC crawling has been to make a single change and drive it for a few weeks, and get a feel for how it is progressing. You will gain an appreciation for all the little tweaks you do that way.

[RickM]

Ah ha. I did not see that. I just looked at the first post. In that case, from what I have heard, the stock pro rollers tires are a ton better than the rtr's.

One way as Getrag suggest to get the COG lower is to pull your rx out of its case and shrink wrap it. I hate stuff on my upper links on a 1.9 so I cut a small piece of lexan and attached a CC sidewinder micro and the rx down low close to the skid and ditched my bec in favor of a 7.4 cell and the right motor. Another COG trick was to try and get the front servo mounting tray as low as possible. Dropping it down makes a decent difference and this is a cheap mod.

There is so much free stuff you can do that really makes a difference for sure. My favorite recently which was about 17 bucks was to install ax10 staight axles in the rear of my rig. It was a pretty simple mod and adds some heft to the rear end as well as reducing slop.