RCCrawler Forums

toyotatrucks83 · 03-20-2011, 09:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DWinnIII

Thanks alot Toyota! totaly makes sence, you helped me alot! ill show ya the finished product lol.

Your welcome. Look forward to seeing your progress.

jereosbou · 03-21-2011, 02:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by toyotatrucks83

Ahhh yes. The first post. I must have missed that when I read it. Thank you for pointing it out. I believe I will make the upgrade soon. So far the stock axle stubs are holding up ok to my increased steering. But I'm sure not for long. Nice to know I now have a fix. Thanks again.

well like i say time will tell lol but i will keep you posted

DWinnIII · 03-21-2011, 04:49 PM

Oh ya Toyota, quick question. what size bit and tap did you use for the linkage on the chassis?

toyotatrucks83 · 03-21-2011, 07:19 PM

Dwinn. I'm not sure what size drill bit I used because all the bits I use are just loose. I just eye balled it. The taps I used are 3mm x .5 for the bigger stuff. And the small screws are 2mm x .4. With the 2mm screws I usually don't bother tapping them. All mine have gone into plastic so I just use them like self tapping screws. It is is the 3mm into metal that I have been tapping mostly.

toyotatrucks83 · 03-25-2011, 12:00 PM

I just installed a tacon 2040 3600kV brushless motor with the 18A hobbywing ESC into one of my EMS16s. From what I can tell this is going to be a sweet upgrade. It is requiring some mods to the motor mount plate just to fit.
I also installed a Venom 370 brushed motor with the stock ESC. It is working awesome as well. But it is such a big motor I'm unable to reduce the tooth count on the pinion to gear it down. It is a little fast.
Just wanted to drop a little of an update. If anyone has found any way to make these or other cheap motors fit even better let me know.

On the Losi cvds upgrade I should be posting some stuff soon. I keep breaking the factory half shafts. So I'm doing the upgrade to the cvds. I will be installing the MRC c-hubs and knuckles to go with it.

billybob_81067 · 03-26-2011, 12:01 AM

Well my son has bashed the heck out of his 16 so far and it's still ticking! The one I built for him is pretty top heavy cause of the steel truck body and I slapped a 5300 MAH stick pack up there for some insanely long run times!

So it's not quite as crawler capable as it could be, but it's still a blast to bash around with!

Looks like I'll have to build another one for my daughter's b-day and my nephew fell in love with this one so I gotta build another for him too... So I went ahead and ordered 3 more of them from nitrorcx tonight.

toyotatrucks83 · 03-26-2011, 01:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billybob_81067

Well my son has bashed the heck out of his 16 so far and it's still ticking! The one I built for him is pretty top heavy cause of the steel truck body and I slapped a 5300 MAH stick pack up there for some insanely long run times!

So it's not quite as crawler capable as it could be, but it's still a blast to bash around with!

Looks like I'll have to build another one for my daughter's b-day and my nephew fell in love with this one so I gotta build another for him too... So I went ahead and ordered 3 more of them from nitrorcx tonight.

That's how I ended up with 5!!!

jereosbou · 03-29-2011, 05:21 AM

oh an update on th cvds and something for anyone to be aware of. the exceed knuckles have a different spacing between the two mounting surfaces of the bearings so if you run the cvds in a exceed knuckle you cant tighten it down enough to get the hex to touch the bearing like it should. it was causing some wobbling. i switched to the losi zero ackerman knuckles i ordered and no more wobble. now that leads me to a second observation the losi knuckle mounting screws sems to eb slighlty ifner threaded then the exceed ones so your going to strip them out. solution new set of plastic hubs from exceed and now i got the knuckles mounting screws tight.

also the over drive of the front axle being exceed and rear being losi is great so far its crawling really nice. also the gc3 chassis is great im really enjoying it.
im super busy with work and have no time for picture posting for a few weeks but will try to get some up soon.

Dizzle Chuucha · 03-29-2011, 08:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jereosbou

oh an update on th cvds and something for anyone to be aware of. the exceed knuckles have a different spacing between the two mounting surfaces of the bearings so if you run the cvds in a exceed knuckle you cant tighten it down enough to get the hex to touch the bearing like it should. it was causing some wobbling. i switched to the losi zero ackerman knuckles i ordered and no more wobble. now that leads me to a second observation the losi knuckle mounting screws sems to eb slighlty ifner threaded then the exceed ones so your going to strip them out. solution new set of plastic hubs from exceed and now i got the knuckles mounting screws tight.

also the over drive of the front axle being exceed and rear being losi is great so far its crawling really nice. also the gc3 chassis is great im really enjoying it.
im super busy with work and have no time for picture posting for a few weeks but will try to get some up soon.

Wondering if you wouldn't mind taking your extra axels apart to see if the pinions can be swapped from the losi to the maxstone housing. Side by side pics would be great when disassembled. This would be a great thing for all Maxstone owners if we could use the losi parts instead of the traxxes. Also gear counts on both the diff and pinion would be greatly appreciated.

toyotatrucks83 · 03-29-2011, 09:09 AM

Dizzle, I have done the side by side comparison of the MRC axle to the EMS axles. The pinion and ring are so close to swapping but don't. I'm not sure on the tooth count for the overdrive but I believe Jereosbou is doing something with that.

I did do the MRC CVDs swap into my EMS. I used:
EMS axle housing
EMS diff and pinion
EMS knuckles
MRC c-hubs
MRC CVDs
MRC hardware

I had to shave the CVDs down like Jereosbou posted pictures of. I also had to shave the end of the EMS axle housing down to accept the MRC c-hub. But that is all the modifying I had to do. After that everything bolts into place. Here is a picture of the axle housing mod.

In this picture I have filed the front half of the axle housing down and held it up to the back portion to show how much is getting filed off. Obviously both halfs need to be filed down.

I hope that with this picture and Jereosbou's picture of the modified CVDs it will be easy to understand.

jereosbou · 03-29-2011, 10:59 AM

i swapped the ring gear from the losi into the exceed housing but there is too much slop with the pinion and ring gear mesh. im pretty sure youd strip it out quick. the exceed ring gear is to tight and wont run smooth with the losi pinion.

also im probably goign to go the same route as toyota and add mrc c hubs. do me a favor though toyota and see if you have an slop with the exceed knuckles and the losi cvds. or are you using stock exceed hexes? i switched to the losi because the pins are smaller and i didnt want the slop between the hex pin and the hex.

jereosbou · 03-29-2011, 11:01 AM

oh ps ive got to look the exact numbers up but i think its 3.63 to 1 for exceed and 3.72 to 1 for losi axles or something like that so not a huge overdrive but it is helping anyway.

toyotatrucks83 · 03-29-2011, 11:11 AM

Jereosbrou, I'm using EMS16 aluminum hexs. I do have slop with the pin. But I do not have the wheel wobble like you talked about. I'm ok with the little but of slop because in my opinion it gives almost a little bit of diff action for the super tight steering I have put in it.
I have MRC knuckles as well. But the have not been modified for the near zero Ackerman steering I'm running. I'm just waiting to break stuff before I go changing anything in the front just yet.

I did break a half shaft in the rear axle now. Didn't see that coming. I believe I will be doing the solid Losi shafts to the rear. It will take the same mod as the front.

Dizzle Chuucha · 03-30-2011, 09:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by toyotatrucks83

Dizzle, I have done the side by side comparison of the MRC axle to the EMS axles. The pinion and ring are so close to swapping but don't. I'm not sure on the tooth count for the overdrive but I believe Jereosbou is doing something with that.

I did do the MRC CVDs swap into my EMS. I used:
EMS axle housing
EMS diff and pinion
EMS knuckles
MRC c-hubs
MRC CVDs
MRC hardware

I had to shave the CVDs down like Jereosbou posted pictures of. I also had to shave the end of the EMS axle housing down to accept the MRC c-hub. But that is all the modifying I had to do. After that everything bolts into place. Here is a picture of the axle housing mod.

In this picture I have filed the front half of the axle housing down and held it up to the back portion to show how much is getting filed off. Obviously both halfs need to be filed down.

I hope that with this picture and Jereosbou's picture of the modified CVDs it will be easy to understand.

Crap! Wonder if the traxxas parts are going to work.

toyotatrucks83 · 05-12-2011, 09:45 PM

Just wanted to throw an update up here. I have my EMS about where I want it. Now I only am changing stuff because I'm bored.
Here is a run down:
Tacon 2040 3600kv motor
Hobbywing 18A ESC
Hitec HS-645MG
2 cell 800mAh 20c Gens Ace batteries
4 link front and rear using MRC pro servo plate and custom tranny mount
MRC CVDs in a modified EMS housing. MRC plastic c-hubs and knuckles. (the EMS front diff has had the axles epoxyed in because one time I tried a 3s and stripped it. It is holding up very well with the epoxy and 2s.)
Rear axle has had some custom lock outs made from PVC and stock EMS parts
Shocks are oil less because it keeps leaking out and is using pen springs
Losi MRC pro tires and wheels

That is about all. Just saying that sounds ridiculous. But it is working really well. I'm plenty happy with it. I also bought a MRC pro recently and it is running the same servo, batteries, and tires. It has a 18.5 mongoose system in it. It rocks. When comparing it to my EMS it is better but only a little.

nook66 · 05-17-2011, 09:43 PM

Hi,

I have been following this forum with great interest as I also have a maxstone 16. In Australia it is sold as a HSP and it appears in different guises elsewhere. I have totally transformed the crawler and as you can see the only thing original are the gearbox, axles, bumpers, and the lower links (now acting as upper links). The biggest mod is the Mini GC3 Chassis Kit by Austin Dunn. It was on special at Towers and I couldn't pass up the opportunity

. There are a few things you have to do to adapt it to the EMS:

- Only 2 out of 4 holes in the skid plate would line up
- There is a lot of friction between the lower links where it joins to the skid plate. You need to dremel the skid plate a bit to make it not bind
- EMS's drive axles are too long and thus restricts articulation. I had to shortened the axle by about 5mm. If you do this you need to cut 5mm out of both male and female ends.
- servo mounting holes are too small

With a bit of work it all comes together really nicely and the crawler really performs!

Here is a list of non-EMS items:

Hitec HS645MG servo in the front and TowerPro 996R servo at the back. I have setup 4WS using the Remote Start switch on my Spektrum DX2S radio. The SPST switch enables or disables the rear servo so that you can have 4WS, 2WS, or crab crawl. I butchered a servo and connected it to the Spektrum SR300 receiver's AUX output. The Lego brick you see is innards from a servo doing the switching.
Novak Mongoose ESC with 18.5T sensored motor using 16T pinion.
Losi wheels
Maxamp 860mAH LiPo
Losi threaded shocks set

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMAG0159.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMAG0158.jpg

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMAG0157.jpg

jebster · 06-14-2011, 05:58 PM

it's been awhile since i've posted up anything. not a lot going on with my son's maxstone. i love watching him toss it around on our new rock course (jebster's backyard rock course). the rig has proven to be very durable.

i did just recently purchase some MRC pro wheels/tires from the for sale section on RCC for a great price. we also got some wheel widener to give the rig a more stable stance. haven't got it out on the rocks with the new shoes yet but i'm looking forward to seeing how much better it crawls with the softer/sticker tires.

my next project will be to make a new front axle servo/battery plate. with the wideners i have enough room to get the battery on the front axle. i'm going to do it when i drive the rig (

) but will keep the battery in the cab when my son uses it to provide more protection. you'll see in the last pic the size battery i want to use. just have to make a new aluminum plate and shift the servo over.

a few pics of the current setup:

jebster · 06-16-2011, 06:25 AM

i was curious. i know several of you maxstone 16 owners upgraded to the same brushless esc/motor combo i did. are any of you running 3s lipos? i'm been running my 2s lipos no issue but with my thought of making a front axle battery mount i would want to use my small 3s lipos i'm using in my venom creeper and xr10. i'm worried about the esc and heat issues running on 3s. it is rated for 3s but i like to hear if others have seen issues.

toyotatrucks83 · 06-16-2011, 06:43 AM

I'm going to guess your referring to the hobbywing 18A esc with 5200kv motor.
I actually was screwing around with this set up just the other day for fun. I ran it withal 11t pinion and a 450mha 25c 3s battery. It is so fast I didn't know what to do. I jumped over some stuff and spun donuts in the dirt. It was rediculous. I ran it for about 10 minutes pretty much full throttle because it won't go slow anymore. I got 145 degrees off the motor, 105 degrees off the esc, and 98 degrees off the battery. This little 18a esc has held up incredibly. I've run it with a 4210kv 2040, 3600kv 2040, 2900kv 2445 (briefly), and the 5200kv 2030. I've even tried most those with 3s just to see how it would perform.
Hope this answered your question.

jebster · 06-21-2011, 06:48 PM

i think i'm going to hold on on the 3s upgrade. i'm very worried about how well it will hold up to the power.

i also made another discovery. the wheel wideners are not ideal. while i like the added width for stability having the wheels that much further away from the knuckles was acting like a lever. i could see the knuckles twisting and flexing as i pushed the maxstone on my rock course. so, off they go. i will say the new wheels/tires are great. i like the softer compound. really grabs and gets good traction on the rocks. i do need to add some weight to the wheels.

here are some pics of the rig on the course. (as you can see it didn't do so well at the end of the bridge!)

05-17-2011, 09:43 PM	#356
nook66 Newbie Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Sydney Posts: 4	My Build Hi, I have been following this forum with great interest as I also have a maxstone 16. In Australia it is sold as a HSP and it appears in different guises elsewhere. I have totally transformed the crawler and as you can see the only thing original are the gearbox, axles, bumpers, and the lower links (now acting as upper links). The biggest mod is the Mini GC3 Chassis Kit by Austin Dunn. It was on special at Towers and I couldn't pass up the opportunity . There are a few things you have to do to adapt it to the EMS: - Only 2 out of 4 holes in the skid plate would line up - There is a lot of friction between the lower links where it joins to the skid plate. You need to dremel the skid plate a bit to make it not bind - EMS's drive axles are too long and thus restricts articulation. I had to shortened the axle by about 5mm. If you do this you need to cut 5mm out of both male and female ends. - servo mounting holes are too small With a bit of work it all comes together really nicely and the crawler really performs! Here is a list of non-EMS items: Hitec HS645MG servo in the front and TowerPro 996R servo at the back. I have setup 4WS using the Remote Start switch on my Spektrum DX2S radio. The SPST switch enables or disables the rear servo so that you can have 4WS, 2WS, or crab crawl. I butchered a servo and connected it to the Spektrum SR300 receiver's AUX output. The Lego brick you see is innards from a servo doing the switching. Novak Mongoose ESC with 18.5T sensored motor using 16T pinion. Losi wheels Maxamp 860mAH LiPo Losi threaded shocks set http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMAG0159.jpg http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMAG0158.jpg http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...6/IMAG0157.jpg Last edited by nook66; 05-18-2011 at 12:53 AM. Reason: Worked out how to attach images

06-14-2011, 05:58 PM	#357
jebster I wanna be Dave Join Date: May 2010 Location: The east coast Posts: 2,599	it's been awhile since i've posted up anything. not a lot going on with my son's maxstone. i love watching him toss it around on our new rock course (jebster's backyard rock course). the rig has proven to be very durable. i did just recently purchase some MRC pro wheels/tires from the for sale section on RCC for a great price. we also got some wheel widener to give the rig a more stable stance. haven't got it out on the rocks with the new shoes yet but i'm looking forward to seeing how much better it crawls with the softer/sticker tires. my next project will be to make a new front axle servo/battery plate. with the wideners i have enough room to get the battery on the front axle. i'm going to do it when i drive the rig () but will keep the battery in the cab when my son uses it to provide more protection. you'll see in the last pic the size battery i want to use. just have to make a new aluminum plate and shift the servo over. a few pics of the current setup: Attached Images

06-21-2011, 06:48 PM	#360
jebster I wanna be Dave Join Date: May 2010 Location: The east coast Posts: 2,599	i think i'm going to hold on on the 3s upgrade. i'm very worried about how well it will hold up to the power. i also made another discovery. the wheel wideners are not ideal. while i like the added width for stability having the wheels that much further away from the knuckles was acting like a lever. i could see the knuckles twisting and flexing as i pushed the maxstone on my rock course. so, off they go. i will say the new wheels/tires are great. i like the softer compound. really grabs and gets good traction on the rocks. i do need to add some weight to the wheels. here are some pics of the rig on the course. (as you can see it didn't do so well at the end of the bridge!) Attached Images

03-21-2011, 04:49 PM	#343
DWinnIII Newbie Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: antioch Posts: 5	Oh ya Toyota, quick question. what size bit and tap did you use for the linkage on the chassis?

03-21-2011, 07:19 PM	#344
toyotatrucks83 Rock Crawler Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Reno Posts: 646	Dwinn. I'm not sure what size drill bit I used because all the bits I use are just loose. I just eye balled it. The taps I used are 3mm x .5 for the bigger stuff. And the small screws are 2mm x .4. With the 2mm screws I usually don't bother tapping them. All mine have gone into plastic so I just use them like self tapping screws. It is is the 3mm into metal that I have been tapping mostly.

03-25-2011, 12:00 PM	#345
toyotatrucks83 Rock Crawler Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Reno Posts: 646	I just installed a tacon 2040 3600kV brushless motor with the 18A hobbywing ESC into one of my EMS16s. From what I can tell this is going to be a sweet upgrade. It is requiring some mods to the motor mount plate just to fit. I also installed a Venom 370 brushed motor with the stock ESC. It is working awesome as well. But it is such a big motor I'm unable to reduce the tooth count on the pinion to gear it down. It is a little fast. Just wanted to drop a little of an update. If anyone has found any way to make these or other cheap motors fit even better let me know. On the Losi cvds upgrade I should be posting some stuff soon. I keep breaking the factory half shafts. So I'm doing the upgrade to the cvds. I will be installing the MRC c-hubs and knuckles to go with it.

03-26-2011, 12:01 AM	#346
billybob_81067 Rock Stacker Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Rocky Ford Posts: 84	Well my son has bashed the heck out of his 16 so far and it's still ticking! The one I built for him is pretty top heavy cause of the steel truck body and I slapped a 5300 MAH stick pack up there for some insanely long run times! So it's not quite as crawler capable as it could be, but it's still a blast to bash around with! Looks like I'll have to build another one for my daughter's b-day and my nephew fell in love with this one so I gotta build another for him too... So I went ahead and ordered 3 more of them from nitrorcx tonight.

03-29-2011, 05:21 AM	#348
jereosbou Newbie Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: llano Posts: 47	oh an update on th cvds and something for anyone to be aware of. the exceed knuckles have a different spacing between the two mounting surfaces of the bearings so if you run the cvds in a exceed knuckle you cant tighten it down enough to get the hex to touch the bearing like it should. it was causing some wobbling. i switched to the losi zero ackerman knuckles i ordered and no more wobble. now that leads me to a second observation the losi knuckle mounting screws sems to eb slighlty ifner threaded then the exceed ones so your going to strip them out. solution new set of plastic hubs from exceed and now i got the knuckles mounting screws tight. also the over drive of the front axle being exceed and rear being losi is great so far its crawling really nice. also the gc3 chassis is great im really enjoying it. im super busy with work and have no time for picture posting for a few weeks but will try to get some up soon.

03-29-2011, 09:09 AM	#350
toyotatrucks83 Rock Crawler Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Reno Posts: 646	Dizzle, I have done the side by side comparison of the MRC axle to the EMS axles. The pinion and ring are so close to swapping but don't. I'm not sure on the tooth count for the overdrive but I believe Jereosbou is doing something with that. I did do the MRC CVDs swap into my EMS. I used: EMS axle housing EMS diff and pinion EMS knuckles MRC c-hubs MRC CVDs MRC hardware I had to shave the CVDs down like Jereosbou posted pictures of. I also had to shave the end of the EMS axle housing down to accept the MRC c-hub. But that is all the modifying I had to do. After that everything bolts into place. Here is a picture of the axle housing mod. In this picture I have filed the front half of the axle housing down and held it up to the back portion to show how much is getting filed off. Obviously both halfs need to be filed down. I hope that with this picture and Jereosbou's picture of the modified CVDs it will be easy to understand.

03-29-2011, 10:59 AM	#351
jereosbou Newbie Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: llano Posts: 47	i swapped the ring gear from the losi into the exceed housing but there is too much slop with the pinion and ring gear mesh. im pretty sure youd strip it out quick. the exceed ring gear is to tight and wont run smooth with the losi pinion. also im probably goign to go the same route as toyota and add mrc c hubs. do me a favor though toyota and see if you have an slop with the exceed knuckles and the losi cvds. or are you using stock exceed hexes? i switched to the losi because the pins are smaller and i didnt want the slop between the hex pin and the hex.

03-29-2011, 11:01 AM	#352
jereosbou Newbie Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: llano Posts: 47	oh ps ive got to look the exact numbers up but i think its 3.63 to 1 for exceed and 3.72 to 1 for losi axles or something like that so not a huge overdrive but it is helping anyway.

03-29-2011, 11:11 AM	#353
toyotatrucks83 Rock Crawler Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Reno Posts: 646	Jereosbrou, I'm using EMS16 aluminum hexs. I do have slop with the pin. But I do not have the wheel wobble like you talked about. I'm ok with the little but of slop because in my opinion it gives almost a little bit of diff action for the super tight steering I have put in it. I have MRC knuckles as well. But the have not been modified for the near zero Ackerman steering I'm running. I'm just waiting to break stuff before I go changing anything in the front just yet. I did break a half shaft in the rear axle now. Didn't see that coming. I believe I will be doing the solid Losi shafts to the rear. It will take the same mod as the front.

05-12-2011, 09:45 PM	#355
toyotatrucks83 Rock Crawler Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Reno Posts: 646	Just wanted to throw an update up here. I have my EMS about where I want it. Now I only am changing stuff because I'm bored. Here is a run down: Tacon 2040 3600kv motor Hobbywing 18A ESC Hitec HS-645MG 2 cell 800mAh 20c Gens Ace batteries 4 link front and rear using MRC pro servo plate and custom tranny mount MRC CVDs in a modified EMS housing. MRC plastic c-hubs and knuckles. (the EMS front diff has had the axles epoxyed in because one time I tried a 3s and stripped it. It is holding up very well with the epoxy and 2s.) Rear axle has had some custom lock outs made from PVC and stock EMS parts Shocks are oil less because it keeps leaking out and is using pen springs Losi MRC pro tires and wheels That is about all. Just saying that sounds ridiculous. But it is working really well. I'm plenty happy with it. I also bought a MRC pro recently and it is running the same servo, batteries, and tires. It has a 18.5 mongoose system in it. It rocks. When comparing it to my EMS it is better but only a little.

Sponsored Links

06-16-2011, 06:25 AM	#358
jebster I wanna be Dave Join Date: May 2010 Location: The east coast Posts: 2,599	i was curious. i know several of you maxstone 16 owners upgraded to the same brushless esc/motor combo i did. are any of you running 3s lipos? i'm been running my 2s lipos no issue but with my thought of making a front axle battery mount i would want to use my small 3s lipos i'm using in my venom creeper and xr10. i'm worried about the esc and heat issues running on 3s. it is rated for 3s but i like to hear if others have seen issues.

06-16-2011, 06:43 AM	#359
toyotatrucks83 Rock Crawler Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Reno Posts: 646	I'm going to guess your referring to the hobbywing 18A esc with 5200kv motor. I actually was screwing around with this set up just the other day for fun. I ran it withal 11t pinion and a 450mha 25c 3s battery. It is so fast I didn't know what to do. I jumped over some stuff and spun donuts in the dirt. It was rediculous. I ran it for about 10 minutes pretty much full throttle because it won't go slow anymore. I got 145 degrees off the motor, 105 degrees off the esc, and 98 degrees off the battery. This little 18a esc has held up incredibly. I've run it with a 4210kv 2040, 3600kv 2040, 2900kv 2445 (briefly), and the 5200kv 2030. I've even tried most those with 3s just to see how it would perform. Hope this answered your question.

RCCrawler Forums

Thread: exceed rc maxstone 16 upgrades and tuning?