RICrawler's mini adventure...

[RICrawler]

So couldn't help myself when I saw this MRC in the for sale section and jumped on it. This is basically how it came out of the box, to tell the truth I'm not even exactly sure what's what with it yet since I only even took a mini interest this week!









Sort of just wanting to get it running right away, and will start modding it slowly. Smashed a mamba micro and castle bec for it this afternoon and trying to find the sweet spot for mounting. Think it'll be on the front uppers for now with battery on the front mount beside servo, which I think will be a spare 7954 that's lying around.

Was told motor is a holmes but not sure, and no idea if any over/under gears are in it but I doubt it. That will be something I will definitely want to do and need to learn about, any advice about the easiest setup for that will be very much appreciated.

Batteries should be in the mailbox tomorrow so hopefully I'll get to run it a bit and see what it needs first... Definitely want to run at NENQ and Nats this year and hope to do my part to help keep 1.9 class alive! Looks to me like a great time to jump in with the new parts and ideas coming out!

[MRCrackhead]

Awesome.

Thanks for your support for 1.9 rigs.

Welcome to your newest obsession.....to go along with all the other obsessions.....lol.

[RICrawler]

Originally Posted by MRCrackhead

Awesome.

Thanks for your support for 1.9 rigs.

Welcome to your newest obsession.....to go along with all the other obsessions.....lol.

Learning a lot from watching you! Your build looks awesome, might have to take some ideas of yours... That front axle looks killer!

[winnerone23]

Is that a 23t horn on a Hitec!?
Is this Bob from RI!? ;)

Awesome to see you in the mini section! You're goin to start a new class in it area.. I can see this little girl getting a good work out by the guys in the club, till they have there own..

Learn a lot from Kevin on building, then come to town to watch him drive.. He's competition fo sho!

I'm watching my friend..

[RICrawler]

^ haha... Like I said , this is how it came out of the box!

[Sh0rtBus]

Yup.....you're in trouble now. Minis are too much fun. A's set up right, they crawl like goats. Looks like you got a pretty decent rig out of the box.

[RICrawler]

Had it running around the house a little last night, seems to do ok crawling over backpacks and boxes... Lol. Gonna clean up the wiring tonight and call it good for this week, got some work to do on the 2.2s...

Wheels are a little heavy, and the holes cut in the sidewalls of the rovers don't make me very happy. Also gotta pull the 7954 out of my twin hammers to use on this rig... The vaterra can have the 645! And yes Troy, I'll be using a 24 spline horn!...

Also got to play with the shocks a bit, the blue springs seem a little stiff on the back of this rig. Got some more silvers but they might be too soft...

[RICrawler]

Made a front upper link mounting plate for electronics and managed to barely fit a mamba micro, castle bec and a spectrum reciever on there. Got all the wires as short as possible and mounted a 2s 250 Mah lipo, everything clears and flexes nice so gonna run it like this for a while.



Ordered some new MRC housings, some wraith housings, and some VP knuckles and scale chubs. Not sure if I can get the chubs to work yet but was super happy with how easy it is to do positive steering stops with them.

Also have a set of axial 8 hole 1.9 beadlocks that I plan to mod and make some plate faces for, and a couple torn voodoos that I'm thinking will soon become 1.9's for this little guy!

[MRCrackhead]

Originally Posted by RICrawler

Ordered some new MRC housings, some wraith housings, and some VP knuckles and scale chubs.

Sounds like a recipe for an MRC60 to me! Sweet....

You should post a pic of just how the scale hubs give you the stop you're talking about. The current sporty photos don't give up the secret.

I've been eyeing those hubs since they came out because I thought the "clamping" feature would come in handy making my last two axle creations.

My theory was, you could shave down the area behind the splines, cut some spline off, slide the hub on a bit further, and still lock it down nice and tight.

Narrow axle, full width c-hubs, and a factory look to boot.

Just couldn't bring myself to drop the coin on a "maybe"....lol.

[Crawling Calvin]

I am surprised mini's haven't been as big as I thought. That said it looks like you got a good rig to start with. Now all you got to do is bling it out and drive it

Take my advice... the rig will need weight. I made the mistake of trying to make a super light rig like a 2.2 and it backfired. The rig could climb it just couldn't get traction to save its life other than that just go out and have fun

[RICrawler]

Got it out on the rocks for a good shakedown today, didn't have any micro deans connectors around so had to run a 2000 Mah strapped to the to of the chassis. Was a bit top heavy but got to drive at least.





I'm happy about how it did considering the current setup, biggest thing lacking is steering. Thought the 645 would push it around a little better... Nope. Was too exited to drive it and too lazy to get out the 7954, now I know I want it bad so that'll motivate me...

I can see how keeping the weight on will help this rig perform, so I'll be on the hunt for some more brass weights. Can't wait for the new parts to start rolling in so I can add some tech to the thread rather than ranting on and on...

Anyway, fun little rig! Drove it a lot more than the others today and makes the 2.2 rigs seem like supers now! Glad to be a part of the 1.9 crew...

[RICrawler]

Some parts are starting to roll in...



Hopefully get to spend some quality time with the dremel this weekend!

[winnerone23]

Don't do it!
I'll trade ya used wraith housings for the new ones.. ;)

[RICrawler]

Ahhhh.... That feels much better!



Finally made some progress today after hearing how happy MRCrackhead is with his setup, good to hear and hope you don't mind... but I think I did a pretty good job so far of recreating your little masterpiece! Took a little patience and a bunch of assembly and disassembly but think I've finally got it... May have to go the same route as you with the narrowed chubs, but also like your idea of extending the splines and bringing the scale chubs in a bit. I think I'll be a touch over 8" at the outside of tires at this point. I'll have to address that another day though... Wife is home and work must stop for the night!

[winnerone23]

Show off! ;)

Looks fancy Bob.. Keep it coming, Ur goin to need it done for next weekend... :cool:

Ok ok, atleast for the NENQ..

[RICrawler]

Thanks Troy! Doubt it'll be done for next weekend... But you never know! still gotta decide on chubs, cut down shafts, make wheels, make servo mount, links, remount electronics, and iron out all the details...

I do feel a bit closer now to the goal though!

[winnerone23]

All simple stuff Bob.. You con dew it!!! ;)

[MRCrackhead]

If it weren't for the two "scars" on the front of my axle, where the dremel kinda got away from me; I'd swear you cut and pasted that photo...lol

Totally awesome job.

What a PITA, right?

You didn't waste one second of your time, it will pay back very large.

[RICrawler]

Haha... Thanks! Dremel got away from me a couple times as well! It was a pain but totally worth it... Can't wait to get it done and on the rig! Gotta say though, credit goes to you for the great idea and having watched your thread and you answering a few questions for me really made my job a lot easier than yours!

[RICrawler]

Had a little time to make some progress today... Cut up some axial 8 hole wheels, narrowed the fronts, made some wheel faces and mounted them up. That showed me what clearance issues I had and took care of all of them, wheels spin beautifully with no rubbing, very tight but perfect if you ask me.

Once I had that done I decided to tackle the overall width issue... Ended up taking off about 3/8" total, so my overall width as of now is 7 9/16" wheel face to wheel face. That should be about right, still haven't mounted a set of tires but think it should be about perfect! So now I can keep the scale chubs and have a nice tight clamp with a clean stock look.



Very happy with how its turning out, next thing will be loading up the insides now!