HP CR-18p Evo Pro

[Gramps]

I had never heard of the CR-18 Evo Pro til yesterday though I had heard of some of it's cousins. Watched some videos and decided to give one a try. Like all micros it will need a bit of work to make it better. We all have to make these things better don't we? I don't have my hands on it yet but it will be shipped today so should have it by the end of the week.

[JatoTheRipper]

They look tempting. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on the quality and see what you do with this rig.

[Speedy-Triple]

waiting for this one to hit the states ... so I can pick one up .. I think it be a good addition to the stable and pretty capable.

[chevy55]

I think you are going to be pleasantly surprised on just how much you’re going to save on mods with this rig. I have the brushed and brushless version absolute beasts out of the box!
Only thing I opted for was some brass wheels and that’s about all I plan on doing to them. This has to be the best micro ever produced to date!


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[B-MOW71]

Following to hear and see more. I do like the looks of it.

[Gramps]

Originally Posted by Speedy-Triple

waiting for this one to hit the states ... so I can pick one up .. I think it be a good addition to the stable and pretty capable.

I got mine at HeliDirect

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by chevy55

I think you are going to be pleasantly surprised on just how much you’re going to save on mods with this rig. I have the brushed and brushless version absolute beasts out of the box!
Only thing I opted for was some brass wheels and that’s about all I plan on doing to them. This has to be the best micro ever produced to date!

The truck on the left is great! Is that a Proline Cliffhanger body? If so, what scale is it?

[Speedy-Triple]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

The truck on the left is great! Is that a Proline Cliffhanger body? If so, what scale is it?

I think that is the lizzard body ... helidirect has it listed on thier site ... does look similar or possibly the same as the cliffhanger

Originally Posted by Gramps

I got mine at HeliDirect

I been on their site multiple time and last time i checked it was still in preorder.... wants and needs

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by Speedy-Triple

I think that is the lizzard body ... helidirect has it listed on thier site ... does look similar or possibly the same as the cliffhanger



I been on their site multiple time and last time i checked it was still in preorder.... wants and needs

Thank you!

[chevy55]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

The truck on the left is great! Is that a Proline Cliffhanger body? If so, what scale is it?

Like Speedy triple said it’s the lizard body. Kind of cliffhanger ish but a bit bigger. It comes on the brushless version half painted up for some reason.



https://a.aliexpress.com/_mMZDY1G


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[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by chevy55

Like Speedy triple said it’s the lizard body. Kind of cliffhanger ish but a bit bigger. It comes on the brushless version half painted up for some reason.



https://a.aliexpress.com/_mMZDY1G


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Awesome! Thank you!

Half painted…friggin’ Chy-na!

[Gramps]

The Cr18 Evo Pro arrived this morning. Pretty impressive little rig. I charged the battery and to it to a couple of places and try it out. A little chilly here cloudy and 45 degrees. I was pretty amazed at how well it was doing. It comes setup in full droop. With new tires and cold rocks I thought it did real well. I haven't driven it enough to decided what it might need. Off hand I'm thinking a little more weight on the front. The low-end resolution in unbelievable for an RTR, I would say it's as good as my Lizard Pro. Not real enthused about Hobby Plus's choice for a battery plug, I think they are called mini Losi. I'm thinking it will get a XT30 sooner rather than later. Did run it long enough to tell how long the 380 mAh battery last. The batteries are so small you could carry a couple extras in your pocket. Not a big fan of the body clips they are tiny and my big paws don't work well with them.

The rx uses the ANT protocol so it will not bind to my MT12 and ANT uses a chip that is not in the 4-in-1 module. The manual says it will bind to the Flysky GP7P haven't tried it and don't see a reason to try it either. The little TX it comes with is pretty nice. Easy one handed driving and it's small enough to put in your pocket.

I'm going to try it on my indoor course later but I don't think there is any thing on it to challenge the Evo Pro.

Took some video of todays run, I'll link it later when I get it edited.

[Gramps]

Took the Evo Pro out for a little crawl today, not sure what happened but I broke a front driveshaft. They are backordered at HeliDirect and not expected to be in stock until Feb 9th. Guess it's out of commission until then. I had heard that the driveshaft was a weak point, now I know it's true.

[chevy55]

That’s a bummer. Haven’t had it happen yet on either of mine. Wonder if it was a bad batch of plastic. I’ve heard of others having the same issue.

In stock at motionrc

https://www.motionrc.com/products/ho...d48747c6d56d2c


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[Gramps]

Originally Posted by chevy55

That’s a bummer. Haven’t had it happen yet on either of mine. Wonder if it was a bad batch of plastic. I’ve heard of others having the same issue.

In stock at motionrc

https://www.motionrc.com/products/ho...d48747c6d56d2c


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Thanks for the link had never heard of MotionRC, they had a nice selection of parts for the Cr18p

[Gramps]

The new HobbyPlus stainless steel driveshafts showed up yesterday and got installed yesterday afternoon. I forgot to take any photos of the installation. The rear was easy just dropped the lower links and rolled the reared back a little to remove the plastic drive shaft with the SS one. The front is a little more involved. I could not see any way to get to the screw on the transmission end. So I removed the 3 screws in the bottom of the skid plate that hold the transmission. Next I removed the 4 screws the hold the skid plate and the 2 screws for the from lower links. Spread the frame a little and popped out the skid plate and rolled it rearwards. This give you full access to the screw in the driveshaft. Replaced it using the included screws. Reversed the above procedure putting everything back in place.

I didn't like the hard foams so I took the stock ones and punched holes in the tread face of the foam to soften it some. I used these in the rear. For the front I had some Crawler Inovation 1.0 firm foams that I cut in half. Chamfered the hole for the ring some. Put the foam in the tire and stretched it over the 1.2mm ring from the stock wheels. Remounted the tires. Now the front tires have good squish, but I think they might still be a little to soft for the rear and I think the medium Crawler Innovation 1.0 .foams would be a little to soft.








I took the Cr18 Evo Pro out on the rocks today to test the new driveshafts and tire foams. The driveshafts worked well no complaints. I thought the foams worked really well I was happy with the way they preformed. The rear could still stand to be just a tad bit softer. I almost wish I would have put bigger holes in the foams but that's hind sight.

[Gramps]

Bought some 1.3 Injora wheels to mount the stock tires on. To my dismay the offset was wrong and the wheels stuck out way too much and looked dorky to me. Orders some hex extensions for 1/18 scale that were 4mm shorter than stock. discovered that all the micros I have SCX24, TRX4m have 1.5mm pins in the axle for the hexes. The Cr18p has 1.mm pins. Could not find any extensions that looked like they would work. So I decided to 3D print some in the size I needed. Ended up being 5mm long. I also had to print some 5 mm spacers ran out of threads on the axle and the nut wouldn't tighten down.

The front ones are installed and here's the rear one with the spacers.


Front view with the hexes & spacers installed


New wheels in the front and the stock wheels on the rear

[JimK]

Nice work Gramps. The new wheels are gonna look pretty sweet on that truck!

[Gramps]

I held off putting the aluminum beadlocks on the rear to see how the modified foams. I've been pretty happy with the way they have been performing so tonight I moved the stock tires and foams over the the aluminum beadlocks. The offset on the new Injora 1.3 wheels and they didn't set the way I wanted. So I drew up some hexes in Freecad along with a spacer so the wheel nut could be tightend.



The spacer goes between the wheel and the wheel nut


Spacer installed