cr01 or ax10 artr ?

[4xfloored]

I'm new here, been lurkin in this site a few day ... my 3 yr. old son and I have been Youtube crazy watchin these things.. The 1st. ? is which one to go with ... I want the scaler look prob. a early bronco body but would like a good rock crawler that will be used mainly out by the creek.

2nd ? which of the two can be made more capible for less ?

already have a radio and servos and peak charger...

3rd. what esc and motor do I need to buy that most would be happy with?
( I've read about breaking on the hills/rocks.._

4th. what is entailed to water proof one of these? what will it cost me?

[fatwoul]

Hi. I'm fairly new myself, but I am lucky enough to have one of each of the two crawlers you're choosing between.

Here's my 2p:

1) In my opinion, having built and used both, I would suggest the AX-10. The CR-10 looks pretty, is fun to mess about with, and I love mine. However, the AX-10 is a more capable crawler straight out of the box than the CR-01 is.

2) Although already pretty capable straight away, the AX-10 can also be made an even more capable crawler. I got mine in the wrong order. I bought my CR-01 first. I should have got my AX-10 first and used it to learn the basics of crawling. The AX-10 is a far simpler build than the CR-01. For me, half the fun is in the build, so I wouldn't buy an ARTR kit unless it offered significantly different features to the basic kit. In this case, I believe the only major difference is the bodyshells offered with each kit, and if you're fitting a bronco anyway, that doesn't matter too much, so whichever kit would be fine, depending how much building you want to do.

3) If you buy a CR-01, you get a Tamiya silvercan motor with the kit, so to get the thing running you only need an ESC. I started with an MTroniks Eco-27, which doesn't cost much, and has the benefit of being waterproof. Personally, I should have stuck to the stock motor before progressing to anything fancier, but I am in the minority in that opinion. I feel it would have served me better to have used the basic motor and Eco-27 for a few weeks, learning things, before deciding on ESC and motor combination for more serious use. My CR-01 now has a Novak Goat Combo in it, but has also been used with a Novak Rooster with Fifty-Five motor. My experience has been that Goats are more powerful, quieter, and more capable of both crawling and zipping about on flat ground - they are able to offer more wheelspeed, and are smoother at very low speeds (as I understand it, one of the benefits of a brushless system). However, I have found both my Goats to be much more twitchy than the Rooster/55.

I now have my Goat fitted to my CR-01, which is becoming more of a scaler, and my Rooster fitted to my AX-10. This is because I have found the Rooster to be more stable, and since I don't do any wheeling with my AX-10, I don't need the wheelspeeds the Goat can dish out.

4) Both these Novak ESCs are more sensitive to water. I've killed a Goat in water. There are all different discussions in the Electronics section about waterproofing. However, if you expect to use the crawler in water on a regular basis, and expect to really drench it now and then, I would strongly advise you once again consider the MTroniks Eco-27, as it is designed to be completely waterproof, and mine has proven to be so. Most brushed motors don't mind getting wet - in fact some people break in new motors by running them underwater. So any 35-55 turn brushed motor would be fine. Personally, I wouldn't spend a fortune on electronics if you're going to be doing a lot of swimming.

Other people are going to give you completely different advice, and probably based on far more experience and knowledge than me, so if someone else says something different, go with that. The above are my thoughts based on my experience since August.

The main thing is this, and something I think most other people would agree with: So long as you and your boy are having fun with whatever crawler you get, then you got the right crawler. If you can try any out before you decide what to get, that might help.

[Rev]

Originally Posted by fatwoul

Hi. I'm fairly new myself, but I am lucky enough to have one of each of the two crawlers you're choosing between.

Here's my 2p:

1) In my opinion, having built and used both, I would suggest the AX-10. The CR-10 looks pretty, is fun to mess about with, and I love mine. However, the AX-10 is a more capable crawler straight out of the box than the CR-01 is.

2) Although already pretty capable straight away, the AX-10 can also be made an even more capable crawler. I got mine in the wrong order. I bought my CR-01 first. I should have got my AX-10 first and used it to learn the basics of crawling. The AX-10 is a far simpler build than the CR-01. For me, half the fun is in the build, so I wouldn't buy an ARTR kit unless it offered significantly different features to the basic kit. In this case, I believe the only major difference is the bodyshells offered with each kit, and if you're fitting a bronco anyway, that doesn't matter too much, so whichever kit would be fine, depending how much building you want to do.

3) If you buy a CR-01, you get a Tamiya silvercan motor with the kit, so to get the thing running you only need an ESC. I started with an MTroniks Eco-27, which doesn't cost much, and has the benefit of being waterproof. Personally, I should have stuck to the stock motor before progressing to anything fancier, but I am in the minority in that opinion. I feel it would have served me better to have used the basic motor and Eco-27 for a few weeks, learning things, before deciding on ESC and motor combination for more serious use. My CR-01 now has a Novak Goat Combo in it, but has also been used with a Novak Rooster with Fifty-Five motor. My experience has been that Goats are more powerful, quieter, and more capable of both crawling and zipping about on flat ground - they are able to offer more wheelspeed, and are smoother at very low speeds (as I understand it, one of the benefits of a brushless system). However, I have found both my Goats to be much more twitchy than the Rooster/55.

I now have my Goat fitted to my CR-01, which is becoming more of a scaler, and my Rooster fitted to my AX-10. This is because I have found the Rooster to be more stable, and since I don't do any wheeling with my AX-10, I don't need the wheelspeeds the Goat can dish out.

4) Both these Novak ESCs are more sensitive to water. I've killed a Goat in water. There are all different discussions in the Electronics section about waterproofing. However, if you expect to use the crawler in water on a regular basis, and expect to really drench it now and then, I would strongly advise you once again consider the MTroniks Eco-27, as it is designed to be completely waterproof, and mine has proven to be so. Most brushed motors don't mind getting wet - in fact some people break in new motors by running them underwater. So any 35-55 turn brushed motor would be fine. Personally, I wouldn't spend a fortune on electronics if you're going to be doing a lot of swimming.

Other people are going to give you completely different advice, and probably based on far more experience and knowledge than me, so if someone else says something different, go with that. The above are my thoughts based on my experience since August.

The main thing is this, and something I think most other people would agree with: So long as you and your boy are having fun with whatever crawler you get, then you got the right crawler. If you can try any out before you decide what to get, that might help.

As electronics are the only difference between us...fatwoul took the word right out of my mouth

I love runnin my CR-01 around. I mainly use it as a basher. Lots of fun to drive. I went with the AX -10 to use in comps and mainly crawling.

There is alot of info on this forum about your other concerns so I will let you do the searching and decide on what is right for you.

Have fun...

[Mriswith]

Originally Posted by 4xfloored

...
The 1st. ? is which one to go with ... I want the scaler look prob. a early bronco body but would like a good rock crawler that will be used mainly out by the creek.

2nd ? which of the two can be made more capible for less ?

already have a radio and servos and peak charger...

3rd. what esc and motor do I need to buy that most would be happy with?
( I've read about breaking on the hills/rocks.._

4th. what is entailed to water proof one of these? what will it cost me?

1 - Axial, then get then once you want a little more scale, TCS X-Trail chassis or the new Axial chassis once it's available. HPI Makes a nice '73 body.
2 - Axial.
3 - 35T lathe for motor to start with, as for ESC, if your brand loyal, go with that one. I prefer Novak's Crawler, but Tekin has a couple, Castle Creations has a couple, ect... they all have something that will work.
4 - Lathe motors have such a low draw that the ESC rarely get warm when geared conservativly. Most common method is to put the ESC and reciever in a small sealable plastic container. Cut a couple notches for the wires and seal over that with something like Shoo Goo. I run a bead of shoo goo around the case seams of the steering servo to seal it up. Usually theres enough grease at the horn thats it's sealed well enough.

[fatwoul]

Originally Posted by Mriswith

...seal over that with something like Shoo Goo...

[hijack]

We can't get that stuff here anymore. I think it's deemed toxic and illegal or something dumb. Anywhere you recommend for getting it online?

[/hijack]

[Mriswith]

Any silicone sealant will do. Well anything that won't melt plastic. I prefer shoo goo because when it comes time to remove it it peels off very easy. But if it's not available, your basic toothpaste tube type of silicone will work. I would imagine that most household tile sealants would work, just check it on scrap lexan or plastic to make sure the solvents don't eat it. Clear would be my suggestion, looks better than white (or whatever color) film smeared all over the place.