JimK's SCX24 Gladiator

[JimK]

Well one of my friends at work was looking to get a small crawler to use on the course we're building at the shop. (more on that later) I had this sweet little SCX24 Jeep, full of Hot Racing mods that I haven't touched in a while so I sold to him. It's a great little Jeep but I've really wanted the Gladiator since it came out and this was a perfect opportunity for both of us.



Took my Jeep money and quick as can be ordered me an SCX24 Gladiator. Here it sits fresh out of the box.



Tossed it on the scale to get the stock weight of this little truck as I know it won't stay stock for long.



Some of the first few mods I'll be posting have already been done to the truck and will just be bringing y'all up to speed on where the truck sits presently. I've got a pretty good idea where I want to go with this build so I'll take you along for the ride.

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[JimK]

As a fun reference the SCX24 Jeep weighed 260 grams all modded up and the SCX24 Gladiator weighs 267 grams fresh out of the box. Curious to see what it weighs when I'm done throwing brass and aluminum at it??

I'm excited for this build and I really think this is a good looking little rig!!

[Gramps]

Might want to try it before you throw a bunch of mods on it. I took that camper thing off the top and dropped a bunch of weight. Mine took very in the way of modding to make it a good crawler. Is it a comp crawler, no but is it fun to drive yes.

[JimK]

Originally Posted by Gramps

Might want to try it before you throw a bunch of mods on it. I took that camper thing off the top and dropped a bunch of weight. Mine took very in the way of modding to make it a good crawler. Is it a comp crawler, no but is it fun to drive yes.

Thanks Gramps. I told myself I was going to do just that but then I sat down and started ordering parts and more parts....I just can't help myself!!

[JimK]

Well it wasn't long before parts started landing on my front porch. Some from Amazon and many from a couple of Canadian online hobby shops and eventually A-main Hobbies would enter the fray.






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[JimK]

These RC4WD wheels and tires look great but they are just too small for my liking. I'm looking for something a little bigger and chunkier for this truck. I'll put these to use on a future project for sure.



These TRX4M Canyon Trail tires are more the size I have in mind.....roughly 55mm.



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[JimK]

I ended up putting these RC-Hub aluminum bead locks and a set of Proline Hyrax tires on. Just the right size and nice and chunky the way I like 'em. That Injora steel bumper came off just as quick as it went on. It looked good but was way too heavy and made the front end droop helplessly!!



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[JimK]

The solution to the heavy steel bumper was these sweet Coda Racing aluminum Jeep Gladiator bumpers. IMO these things look fantastic on this truck and they are so nicely machined and finished. Both bumpers bolted up effortlessly.



No more droopy front end.....nobody likes their front to droop!! lol
The front bumper is also much sturdier than the stock plastic one with no up and down movement.



Looking good from the rear too!!



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[JimK]

Next I started installing some weight down low....I love all the shiny bits!!

Hot Racing aluminum skid plate and Maleonn RC aluminum high clearance links.



Popped in an Injora Emax servo with an aluminum servo mount and servo horn to move the Hot Racing steering links. This Emax servo mount will allow for a front 4 link conversion in the future should I decide to go that route? I also installed Injora brass diff covers front and rear.



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[surfishjoe]

Following. My son has this exact jeep. We also removed the bed rack and that improved the performance. May I suggest club5 racing magnetic body mount and sliders, check em out I was highly impressed with those additions. Ours is stock otherwise and does pretty good. Curious to see what other mods you do

[JimK]

Originally Posted by surfishjoe

Following. My son has this exact jeep. We also removed the bed rack and that improved the performance. May I suggest club5 racing magnetic body mount and sliders, check em out I was highly impressed with those additions. Ours is stock otherwise and does pretty good. Curious to see what other mods you do

Thanks! I'll have to check out the Club5 stuff. I have a lot of their upgrade parts on my SCX10III Gladiator. I don't think it shows in any of the pictures yet but I did remove the roof top tent. I'm going to leave the rest of the rack on as I really like how it looks. It's a fun little truck for sure.

[diceman42]

I'm following this as well. I got my kids scx24s for Christmas. The CoG seems kinda high to me when they are trying to climb steep inclines.

[JimK]

Originally Posted by diceman42

I'm following this as well. I got my kids scx24s for Christmas. The CoG seems kinda high to me when they are trying to climb steep inclines.

Ya, in general these little trucks are a little top heavy. Adding a bit of weight as low as possible will help COG and performance for sure.

[JimK]

To get rid of the bouncy suspension action I installed some Injora oil filled shocks that matched the stock shock length. These work great, don't leak thus far and makes the truck much more stable. These are nice little shocks with threaded adjustment collars and aluminum spring perches. They also came with three different sets of springs.



In typical Injora fashion there was a bunch of spare parts and doo-dads left over once the shocks were assembled and installed.



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[JimK]

I also threw on some Hoplex brass wheel hexes with 9.5mm offset to widen the stance of this little beast.



This shot shows the difference in wheel offset with these hexes.



I installed the firmest set of springs and the truck sits a little high for my liking. It doesn't sink into the shock travel at all. I'm going to switch them out for a softer set of springs to get this thing to sag a little bit.



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[Gramps]

Originally Posted by JimK

To get rid of the bouncy suspension action I installed some Injora oil filled shocks that matched the stock shock length. These work great, don't leak thus far and makes the truck much more stable. These are nice little shocks with threaded adjustment collars and aluminum spring perches. They also came with three different sets of springs.

I bought some of the Injora oiled filled shocks a while back and returned them. I don't remember why off the top of my head. It's possible that I got a bad set or maybe Injora has improved them since I got mine. I run stock shocks on my of my rigs. I'm not a big flex guy and I don't want my rigs to look like a truck with a 36" lift kit on it. May have to give the Injora oiled filled another look.

[JimK]

Originally Posted by Gramps

I bought some of the Injora oiled filled shocks a while back and returned them. I don't remember why off the top of my head. It's possible that I got a bad set or maybe Injora has improved them since I got mine. I run stock shocks on my of my rigs. I'm not a big flex guy and I don't want my rigs to look like a truck with a 36" lift kit on it. May have to give the Injora oiled filled another look.

I don't prefer my trucks sitting all jacked up either. Swapping out for the softest springs allowed the truck to settle nicely. So far I'm very happy with these shocks. They stick in position when the truck sits for a while but I just have to cycle the suspension a couple times and they're good to go.

[JimK]

The truck has gained a bit of weight (113 grams) the last few weeks. It was 267 grams before any mods started.



A set of Injora metal rock sliders arrived.



Installed the rock sliders and I also put on a different set of wheels and tires. The wheels are plastic Traxxas wheels off of a TRX4M Defender and the tires are Traxxas Mickey Thompson Baja Pro's without foams.



These tires are pretty chunky and they hook up pretty good.



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[JimK]

I ordered me an Injora LCG carbon fiber chassis and it showed up a couple days ago. I finally got around to installing it.



Installation was pretty straight forward and all of the original parts bolted up without and issues. The skid on this lcg chassis is angled for clearance so when I bolted the rock sliders on they sat at a goofy angle. That's not gonna work!



All back together minus the sliders....workin' on that now.



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[JimK]

I used a small needle file to slot one of the mounting holes and this allowed me to put the rock sliders back on. I also installed a Hobby Fans 0.050 66T motor while I was swapping out the frame rails.



Ready for the rocks once again. You can also see in this picture that I trimmed the back edge of the front fenders to get rid of some minor tire rubbing issues when things get flexy.



The battery sits a little lower and further back now due to the longer motor can so the battery lead didn't reach the the esc anymore. To resolve that issue I soldered up an short extension lead. A plus to this fix is that I leave the lead plugged into the esc and plug the battery into the lead so I'm not repeatedly plugging and unplugging directly into the esc.



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