maintenance

[QuicherKryan]

I am new to the hobby and have not owned any R/C's before. I got
a Losi 1/18 RTR Crawler and it's a blast!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytzfIqKDTXY

My crawler got really dusty so I was checking it out and sure enough,
the little plastic spring perch was almost totally off. I kind of knew to
look for that because of this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=743xsgmcMNU

I was reading the literature that came with the crawler and it talked
about rebuilding/refilling the shocks.

My point of this topic is, How often do we have to refill the shocks?
What are the most important items to maintain on the crawler?

Thanks!

[JeremyH]

I rarely rebuild shocks unless they are leaking.

As far as what to maintain....after I run my RCs I give them a good cleaning with some compressed air and if something has been damaged, then I replace it. Other than that, I dont mess with much.

[dirtyal]

I always just dust everything off and make sure all the nuts & bolts etc.... are tight and ready to go. I don't rebuild shocks unless they are leaking.

[soundcolor]

Me personally. I only refilled the shocks on my MRC when I swapped fluid. Mine have never leaked a drop. Most people with the MRC run 50wt shock oil. Your choice of brand. I like Losi's shock oil.

As for the spring cup coming off. If you want to stop it, either add more spring spacers, or pull your shocks apart and build some internal limiters. I just did a write up on how to do it Heres the link

Tubing in shocks

That should have your spring keeping enough pressure on them to not let the spring cup come out.

I agree with the above about cleaning. Compressed air. (either from a compressor, or from one of those "computer duster" cans you can get a walmart, or staples. For you tires, Wipe em off with clean water. You could even use a little soap if you wanted. Just make sure you rinse em well. (and make sure you take em off your truck before you wash them)
That and check nuts and bolts, and your ready to go.

[Nacho]

Like other said, give it a good cleaning and check all of your bolts/nuts...once you learn your rig, just by flexing your shocks you will notice when you need more fluid

[QuicherKryan]

Thanks for the advise. I went to dust it off and I found out
that I actually lost one of the plastic spring perches.

[crawlinlosi]

to keep the spring perches immobile you can buy some "outerwears" to go around the shock (they also help keep it clean so that no debris gets to the shaft to make it leak).