Mass-holes Rock Rey Build Thread

[mass-hole]

I had been out of the RC game for a while and certainly knew little to nothing about brushless. My last truck was a TMaxx 3.3 but i never really enjoyed the nitro engine. I was searching and my cousin had recommended a Rock Rey. I found my Rock Rey used on KSL(Utah’s Craigslist) with a Ultra Power UP100AC Plus charger and 2C 5200 mah LiPo for $325, which was perfect since i was starting from scratch.

This is how she looked when i first picked her up:



Even though i had thought i looked it over, it turned out that the rear right shock was broken at the upper ball and kept popping off:



This led me to these:





I also bought a pair of Powerstrokes for the front but they got sucked into some USPS sorting machine and got completely destroyed. Got a refund and bought a second set which finally made it:



I also did a set of the Vaterra lockers in the rear and center diff since the truck was kind of helpless without it. During that process i could not get the driveshaft off, it seemed fused, and i ended up having to cut it off which destroyed the transmission output. So i got a new outputshaft along with a Hot Racing rear CVD:



I also decided that I wanted it to crawl better so i picked myself up an HH Puller Pro 540 BL 2700k along with a Mamba Monster X. I installed a set of the Castle 6.5mm bullets on the puller pro and am currently waiting on a set of the Castle 6.5mm polarized connectors for the battery and ESC. The puller pro is also a 1/8” shaft so i installed a ECX branded 9T 3mm bore MOD1 pinion:



Also installed this guy along with the Hot Racing 25t servo arm:



Last but not least, and this is how the truck currently sits, i built a set of 18 ga steel body panels:



I need to pick up a new set of screws so they are flush. I also can’t decide if i want to paint the panels or just leave them in the raw steel. I am thining maybe truck bed liner in a rattle can since its pretty tough.

I am also thinking about trimming back the mounts on the lower side panels so that the panels sit at an angle and tuck in closer to the chassis plate at the bottom:



Anyways, this is where the truck currently sits. I am sure i will break things and add more parts over time. I just bought a TRX-4 Sport kit so I am not sure if the HH Puller Pro will stay in this truck or not. My intention was to make this a crawler and basher but i will see how the TRX plays out and decide from there.

[mass-hole]

I got motivated and trimmed the side panel mounts back:

[elRayRay]

The panels look nice! The Baja Rey has a similar gap on the sides of the pan. Presumably it's for ventilation, but it certainly likes to accumulate mud and debris.

I'm considering that servo, as well as the 3225. I'll probably go the latter as they're basically the same price. I'll probably buy a few just to keep handy.

[Thloftus]

The panels look great, especially with the side mounts trimmed! Let us know how you like the Hot Racing rear CVD / how well it holds up.


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[mass-hole]

Originally Posted by Thloftus

The panels look great, especially with the side mounts trimmed! Let us know how you like the Hot Racing rear CVD / how well it holds up.


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I have driven on it a couple times but not enough to really abuse it. It does bind a little when the Powerstrokes are at full droop since they are pretty long. Not completely locked but the cup rubs and you can feel some resistance.

[mass-hole]

Got the truck put together:



I had to make the 10T holes on the motor mount slots for the 9T pinion but the mesh seems good.

Also notice the RPM esc mount. I slotted the holes on the base plate ever so slightly so that it would mount to factory ESC pegs.

Took it on its maden voyage around the living room(we are getting 1’ of snow at the moment) and the new servo is definitely stout. It whips the wheels hard even at the Mamba Monsters default 5.5V setting.

The motor and esc has crazy good low speed control compared to the stock unit. It crawls increadibly slow with zero lugging even climbing over some of my sons various play mats. The motor direction seems to be reversed. I am waiting in my Castle Link to arrive and hoping i can reverse it in software, otherwise can i just swap two wires?

[mass-hole]

I got my CastleLink in and was able to reverse the motor. I have been playing with the drag brake settings and they seem insane. Even just 30% drag brake would result in the truck doing an endo on pavement. I set it to 0 so it just freewheels now. I bought a Flysky GT3C and FS-R9B receiver used on here so I am going to put that in this thing and set the 3rd channel to switch between "rockrace" and "crawl" mode on the Monster X.

Was screwing around today playing with the Monster X drag settings. My son has a little play mat with a nice 30* angle to it so i decided to do an RTI test with and without the rear sway bar connected. Makes a huge difference:

Sway bar connected:


Sway bar disconnected:



Truck went up the ramp under its own power, so this is how it sits naturally. Sorry if the pictures arnt exactly the same. Its pretty hard to take the pic and try to hold the truck in place with the throttle.

Obviously the truck drives like a wet noodle with the sway bar disconnected but it crawls like a beast. It would be nice to run the Hot Racing front sway bars and be able to quickly disconnect both when you wanna get in the rocks. That way it would be stable at speed but still flexy when you need it.

One thing I will say is that with the sway bars disconnected, the rear trailing arms seem to bind on the rear shocks when trying to fully articulate. I think the arms are actually limiting travel, so I may try to open up the slots in the arms to help it twist a little more.

[mass-hole]

Got the RX installed and AUX wire from the Monster X hooked up the channel 3. The TX is set to control channel 3 with the ch 3 trim switch, and i have it set to make 40% jumps so i have 5 drag brake settings from 0-100%(the range on the TX is -100 to + 100). It works nicely. At -100 the ESC is in Rock Race mode with 0% drag brake and has standard reverse. As you move positive the Crawl mode engages “crawl” reverse and the drag brake increases until it maxes out.

[mass-hole]

Coating the panels in Rustoleum rattle can Truck Bed Coating:



I used this stuff on the plywood top on my workbench in the garage. Short of running one of my drill bits into, not much seems to hurt it so i am hoping it will hold up well on the body panels.

[mass-hole]

Panels are done:



I got some M2.5x8mm stainless button cap screw on amazon but they suck. I think the hex is cut to big so my 1.5mm hex drives round them out.

[Thloftus]

Originally Posted by mass-hole

Panels are done:



I got some M2.5x8mm stainless button cap screw on amazon but they suck. I think the hex is cut to big so my 1.5mm hex drives round them out.

The panels loom fantastic! I used the same Rustoleum for the bed in my TF2. It should hold up to anything!


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[mass-hole]

Originally Posted by Thloftus

The panels loom fantastic! I used the same Rustoleum for the bed in my TF2. It should hold up to anything!


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Thanks man.

[mass-hole]

Hogged out the lower trailing arms:



Its not pretty but it lets the powerstrokes flop over a little more before binding against the arms. This gave me another couple inches on my makeshift RTI ramp:



So now the rear tire can actually hit the ramp before leaving the ground

One thing i never mentioned was that i got the powerstroke slash spring assortment as well as the prospec rear spring assortment. I just switched to running the powerstroke red primary(small) spring in the front with a red prospec spring, to running a yellow prospec spring and red primary.

This balances the front articulation a little better with the rear. The rear was bottoming out on the ramp while the front still had maybe 10mm of travel left. The yellow spring knocks that down to a few mm.

[OpisOpus]

Nice job so far. And yes the drag brake is crazy strong on the Castle setup. For my RR I chose the custom setting and set it at 5%. It helps when running fast speeds and trying to make corners bc it slows you down just enough when letting off the throttle to steer (if I let off the throttle lol).


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[mass-hole]

Came down the Moab camping this weekend, which is 3:45 from my house:



Got the truck out on some rocks just a couple hundred yards from the camp site:













I ran without the rear sway bar connected. I feel like i need to swap the front and rear main springs so that the front suspension does some more of the work. The belly pan is definitely wide and gets cause up on a lot of stuff.

I am also extremely motivated to do a traction mod to the front diff. Not sure i wanna go full on locker but certainly heavy lube minimum.

[OpisOpus]

Holy smokes that looks like a dream spot to run a Rock Rey. Truck looks good out there. And yes it does get caught a lot, but just back it up and go faster lol


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[OpisOpus]

Oh and you got any video by chance?


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[Thloftus]

No doubt that looks like a dream spot! Picking my jaw up off the floor, Lol! Thanks for the tips on tuning the shock springs. I have the PowerStroke kit you suggested and am hoping to play around with tuning the springs this week.

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[mass-hole]

Went to the Rim Trail in Moab today to hike with the wife and 23 month old son, so took the truck along:







I didn’t get as many pics because i was too busy trying to keep up with my wife, who was basically running up the trail with our son in a backpack.

I got a ton of great reactions to the car from other hikers. People expect to see 1:1 buggies on this trail, not RC lol. We did run into a troop of Wranglers trying to make their way up the trail but they were only a couple hundred yards in and were stopped trying to negotiate a step.

[mass-hole]

Battle scars from this weekend in Moab: