I am a total n00b, please can you give some advice?

[BhunaBoy]

hey there guys, i have virtually no RC experience (i had 1 RC car when i was young) and i want to build an RC rock crawler.

i live in the UK so some stuff may or may not be different to american stuff, i have no idea.

i have a couple of questions:
i know locked diffs are essential, but is is possible to have lockable ones? ie you press a button on your controller and the diffs lock?

how easy is 4 wheel steering to set up? i was thinking standard 2 wheel steering and then press a button to engage the rear wheels if in a tight spot.

also, what is a good starting point, and what do i need to get going? like whats the best chassis, servos, suspension and so forth? i dont mind spending a descent amount for the simple reason i have learned that you get what you pay for and im also planning on building it up over a number of months

maybe this is all a little far-fetched i dont know, thanks guys

sam

[run2jeepn]

Do you like building and fabbing things up? or do you want more of a Full kit to start with?

If you want a Full Kit go with the Ax-10, but if you like to build from the ground up. Get you a set of berg Axles.

For Berg
Chassis: Double D or Zero
Servo: High end Hitec or JR
ESC: Mamba Max or Sidewinder (or even Dual ESC's)
Radio Gear: DX3R or Futaba 4PK

For the Ax-10, Just run what it's given to ya in the kits and change has you see fit along the way.

You need to do more reading and searching, before you make your choice.

As for Selectable Lockers, Not needed, plus nothing is out that would hold up to the abuse.

[barbaricboye]

Originally Posted by BhunaBoy

hey there guys, i have virtually no RC experience (i had 1 RC car when i was young) and i want to build an RC rock crawler.

i live in the UK so some stuff may or may not be different to american stuff, i have no idea.

i have a couple of questions:
i know locked diffs are essential, but is is possible to have lockable ones? ie you press a button on your controller and the diffs lock?

how easy is 4 wheel steering to set up? i was thinking standard 2 wheel steering and then press a button to engage the rear wheels if in a tight spot.

also, what is a good starting point, and what do i need to get going? like whats the best chassis, servos, suspension and so forth? i dont mind spending a descent amount for the simple reason i have learned that you get what you pay for and im also planning on building it up over a number of months

maybe this is all a little far-fetched i dont know, thanks guys

sam

selectable lockers-havent seen any, probably wont hold up as stated-personally dont think they are needed for rockcrawling-more complicated pieces to break

never done 4wheel steer, but it probably isnt hard to do-look into "dig"(if you havent already) dig steers tighter than 4 wheel steer(i read this and believe it to be true)

im a newbie to this stuff also, and wasted money by jumping into. all thats left of my ax10 artr is: tranny, wheels&tires(soon to be changed), axles, wheel nuts, random screws, battery straps, stock skid plate which now hold my esc on the front upper links-thinks thats it.
heres my recommendations:
chassis- there probably is no "best chassis" but i like my GC-2

servo- dont skimp here-buy the right one first and you wont waste money by replacing weak servos- i have the hitec 5955(great)- 7955 is same thing(almost).. jr8711? is supposed to be good

suspension: i use the losi crawler shocks upside down( yes, mine do leak-but the shocks work great)
off top of head:
mip driveshafts-thundertech if running dig
dna dig
rcp billet aluminum axle upgrade kit
if you have months to build a crawler i would just piece it together. if you want a serious crawler youll end up swapping out most of the stock pieces or breaking them
if you already know how everything works piecing it together would be the route to go--if youre clueless or impatient(me) get something prebuilt so you can see how everything works when put together correctly and what you need to do to bulletproof it. then again even if you are clueless many people on here will help you along the way if you get stuck