Late to the party- getting into minis in 2016

[TownsendTdi]

I know I'm only 5 years too late, but I really got interested in minis earlier this year. I've been into micro rc's for a few years, and had a AX10 scorpion. The AX10 was too big for my rock piles around the house, and I don't compete, and prefer not to have to drive somewhere to play with my toys- I mountain bike too, which requires travel plus I drive a lot for work, so sold the AX10 and picked up a used MRC pro with a mongoose brushless system, rovers, and MIP driveshafts.





It came with some crazy 1" wheel wideners and a badly peeling vw body that wasn't mounted right. I bought a new beetle shell for it but hadn't painted it, so I was using it with an old trail trekker body- it was functional and didn't rub. I don't think anybody around me competes 1.9 anymore unless it's scale, so no worries on body length! Those damn wideners are stuck on so I rocked them, and put some taller flat irons on to match the width.

I had been deciding between the Dravpnir chassis and BWD LP2.0, but I picked up a used BWD wedge low pro on the classifieds with a few cool parts on it. (Thanks jenijohnk!) Came with a BWD motor plate and some huge knuckle weights. It also had a BWD servo plate with the battery protector- even though I have a huge selection of small lipos from my micros, I didn't have anything that fit it well. I wanted to center the servo anyway, so I whipped up a new servo plate. Ditched my stupid 645 for a shiny new 7954sh too! That 645 was weak even for a mini.









The mongoose esc can't really be de-cased so the only place it fit well was in the "windshield" of the cab. All of those brushless wires were dangerously close to the spur though, so I chopped the front half of a gear cover off and it does a good job of keeping my wires spur-free.






Put the rx on a diet.







Need to make some panels and a little wiring, hope to fire it up later today. This rig saved me a ton of time- I have a Traxxas pinion for o.d. and some mini late model shocks I was going to mod for the mini but this rig already has them! More time for other projects!
I still want those sexy Dravtech axles and chassis, but I'll get some practice not crashing so much on this guy first.

[arnieH]

Nice MRC. Like you, I'm late to the party too. And, with a mildly modded MRC, even.

Your opening paragraph describes crawling activities pretty much in line with mine. Be following along on this thread to see how your MRC progresses. Good luck.

Cheers, arnieH.

[Ausomecrawl]

Nice mrc. I just got my losi mrc pro this year too. I also have the novak mongoose with 18.5t motor on mine as well. I got into these little guys because they are perfect size for the living room. great at entertaining the baby.

[chevy4life]

What is the micro wraith looking crawler in the second photo? I'm liking the looks of it.

[clod booster]

Originally Posted by chevy4life

What is the micro wraith looking crawler in the second photo? I'm liking the looks of it.

If the big one is a losi mini crawler id guess tiny one is a losi micro crawler.

Glad to see MRC's are still kicking, kinda debating getting a second one to make more of a comp crawler but nobody around me comps.

[TownsendTdi]

Quick first test. I ran out of time before my weekend ended and the servo is only plugged into the rx, so it's way under powered. I don't think it would damage it, but it sure didn't sound happy, so I'll finish the wiring before I take it back out. I need more rocks- my crawling area was built for micros so not a lot of hard lines for a capable mini. I've got some tiny cones I can use for gates.

I plan to make a little adapter to run a 240mah 2s on each side of the servo in parallel like a little saddle-pack, and to run the servo straight off the lipos. I got about 6 minutes on one 240mah, slowly screwing around though, but not bad.



My servo plate is narrower than the BWD servo/battery plate so I should be able to switch the wheel parts around to suck the weights into the wheels and not have the tires rub.




I've had my eyes peeled for a decent brushed motor for these since most of the nice ones are long gone. I tried a losi mini slider motor, the Team Brood Frenzy (which made its way into a micro: https://youtu.be/psHcvmwWuPI ), and the Xtreme 380, which are ok. I noticed a 7 year old thread about "motorman1600" making a small run of handwound motors (My Mini Crawler Motor) and shot him a PM as a longshot, but he happened to have one left! Cool.







I've got a B1R laying around that should fit that nicely.

Cat-approved

[TownsendTdi]

Originally Posted by chevy4life

What is the micro wraith looking crawler in the second photo? I'm liking the looks of it.

It's a 3d printed micro-wraith chassis for the micro crawlers! "Fungi" on here makes them- Fungi's Specter (micro Wraith kit)

Heres a little thread about it: Silver Specter


And a few photos in better lighting. I'll load this up with pics because it bugs me a lot of them are missing in the threads here.

[Jeff Jenkins sr]

Your mrc pro is too cool!!

[TownsendTdi]

Originally Posted by Jeff Jenkins sr

Your mrc pro is too cool!!

Thanks, I wish I could take credit but I pretty much just added electronics to a roller I bought

Made a funky little saddle pack/servo adapter. Servo is happy now at full juice.



260mah on each side= 520mah mounted pretty low on the axle.

[TownsendTdi]

Plopped a bug body on it. It's the TBG Mini T one, a little smaller than the Proline mini crawler or mini revo one.













I need to trim those side body posts! And scratch it up, but that's the fun part.

[TownsendTdi]

The rear driveshaft was binding, I needed to shorten the rear uppers but the axle plate had no adjustability and the stock links were maxed out (and rusty), so I freshened it up. New titanium links and I cut a new plate from some green g10. That made the rear driveshaft happy. Plus the green matches my new wheels.

[johnnyh66]

Nice!
That's the same motor and bug body I run!
I absolutely love that motor was trying to renegotiate sold them so I could get another for a mechanical build in progress... I was so happy when you mentioned his name... then so sad when you said you got the last one! lol
If you ever decide to sell... I'll take that motor!

[bongsten]

this rig is badass!

[TownsendTdi]

Thanks guys

Just screwing around on my favorite boulder

[bongsten]

Seriously cool rig man! Better late than never! I just got a used mini so that my friend has one to use against me getting back in the game!

[sethstiles]

I'm late to the party too. Running micro right now and loving it. Where I am in Louisiana, for scale reasons, it's just easier to stick with micro and mini, especially since I have to make my own courses and no one else near me crawls and I really dont want to drive to meet others or do a comp. Although, one bright light is that my LHS is starting to sell a few micro's after seeing mine and who knows, may even build a bigger indoor crawling course after I made them a small one to use. I am interested in jumping up to a Losi mini either stock, slightly modded or even the pro model. I see there are still some options out there for me and others who are "late to the party".....or maybe the party might be getting restarted....ha!