What's likely to break?

[aramid]

I'm fairly new to crawling, in terms of hours driven (although I've owned my OG SCX10 since they came out), and I came from fast bashers before that.


With monster trucks and stadium trucks, you break stuff more or less constantly. Those things take a lot of impacts, and you generally keep a stockpile of spare parts, many of which you need to carry with you every time you go driving.


It doesn't seem like crawlers take quite as much punishment; in the time I've owned mine I've seen very little damage. I twisted a driveshaft up and I can easily imagine tearing a sidewall or burning up a servo or cheap ESC, but everything else is holding together nicely so far. So as to not interrupt my driving, what sorts of spare parts should I pick up ahead of time? What actually breaks?

[dacaur]

All you can do is research your particular model and see what people tend to break. Even then, there are no guarantees, as what you break largly depends on your driving style. So people will break the same part over and over, while others will never even break one of that part. When I got my maxtone 10 i read all over than the lockers and the axles strip and break, so I bought spares with the truck. Have never broken a single one.....
For crawlers in general, driveshafts are the most likley thing to go after servos. On a RTR the ESC will likley go at some point, especialy when you start hopping things up/adding weight.

[2mtech]

Rod ends. Always rod ends. And plastic Axial transmission gears.

[UncleJohn]

Like Dacaur said, servos are most likely to go. Servo horns tend to be weak too. If you upgrade the servo horn and servo you'll be ahead of the game.

[Ninomaniac]

Originally Posted by 2mtech

Rod ends. Always rod ends. And plastic Axial transmission gears.

This! I have M3 rod ends all around, a mix of Traxxas, Axial, Gmade, SSD - and all of them have failed at some point. On a 3.7kg (8ish lbs) Wraith. Usually after a rollover or some violent get-over-that-ledge-throttle treatment.

Other stuff was fine once upgraded (servo, metal horn, steel tranny gears, steel lockers if you have a bit more power going through).

Driveshafts (WB8s) and axles (Axial CVDs) have held up fine, but as always, YMMV.

[Teng]

On 2S you hardly can break anything. But if you on 3S that is different story

[jokersinsanity]

Bearings u can never have enough spare bearings! CVDs as well.

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[Col_Sanders]

Need to know what model crawler you have as well as what power (2s or 3s) and motor you're running through it. Your post did say OG SCX10, so I'll assume that's what you're talking about.

Axial's rod ends are junk and they get very sloppy. The front 3 link Y on the OG SCX10 is especially crappy. It will start popping apart after a little use. A washer on the screw side will help stop that or best bet is to swap to aftermarket 4 link or 3 link with panhard and chassis mounted servo. The plastic idler gear in the trans will also strip if you run 3s and/or add much weight such as steel bumpers and sliders. The Tactic servo is junk. The stock shocks are also junk but they wont necessarily fail, just not give optimal performance.

Assuming the SCX10 is in fact what you have, it has tons of room for improvement,but honestly I would stop right there and just run it. You can end up spending a lot of money on it and it will not live up to the new generations of truck. You'll end up spending half the amount of a new truck trying to get the steering up to par, then you still have the huge diffs. The diffs hang up a lot compared to a TRX-4, SCX10 II, or Ascender. Plus the gears are pot metal, as are the lockers.

[aramid]

Originally Posted by Col_Sanders

Need to know what model crawler you have as well as what power (2s or 3s) and motor you're running through it. Your post did say OG SCX10, so I'll assume that's what you're talking about.

Yeah, it's an SCX10 running a Holmes Crawlmaster Expert 13t on 3s with 87/12 gearing. I didn't specify at first because I was thinking in a more general sense. With stadium trucks, every brand breaks steering knuckles and suspension A-arms, and I was wondering what the equivalent weak points were for crawlers. But I suppose it makes sense that the main failures would be over-torque situations, which pretty much means drivetrain components.

Even then, it seems weird what people talk about breaking, compared to what I've broken. I have enough torque to roll the truck into a wheelie if I hold the back wheels, and I've twisted up a driveshaft and spun a wheel hex, but the transmission and diff gears have been fine, even though they're plastic and pot metal. I suppose that might change as things fatigue, but it still seems like the axles will protect the trans if I don't change them out for something sturdier. Plus, I've got the slipper opened up so I can just barely do that wheelie stunt.


I appreciate the list of the other weaknesses. My truck is pretty light, with a 2.2 Ah pack and mostly plastic parts. I built from a kit, so I don't have any of the Tactic junk in there. And yeah, I've noticed the rod end slop; that's going to need addressed at some point, but I don't want to spend a ton of money on it. As you said, it's silly to try bringing an old truck up to totally modern standards.

[lonleycreeper]

The plastic geares do fatigue after a while of use.... usually the most inconvinient place possible.

My F150 is Ax10 based with the better geometry of a wraith skid, and trailing arms off a Twin Hammers...
That said it has all the possble upgrades, including a 3000kv 4 pole briushless motor, on 3s 2200 mah lipos.

The part that breaks for me is the front cvd's... everything else holds together rather well.

My wifes Og Scx10 is mostly stock, and is the rig I hand over to newbies to try out a truck....

The new Scx10II is a great rig, and besides tires/wheels and some free upgrades she is stock. that said My big tall F150 out climbs the Honcho anytime, anywhere....
The little Honcho is more manuverable and squeezes through tight spots the F150 has to twist through or power over.... Mostly due to stock steering....

[Col_Sanders]

If you are running Axial cvds, the pins are usually the weak link. Music wire is stronger. There was a guy selling precut music wire pins on here, but it has been a few years since I bought them so I am not sure if he still sells them.

[durok]

^^^ Are those the "Gunnar" pins?

[Col_Sanders]

I believe so. I broke a couple of the Axial pins and once I swapped to his I never broke another one.

[JennyC6]

I'm not sure what you're doing with your fast ones that means you need a stockpile of spares. My nitros never need repairs...adjustments and maintenance, sure, but I've never outright broken one since I retired my old CEN in 2008 or 2009 on account of worn bearings causing it to eat clutch bells for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.


As for crawlers...I'd have to say bearings and servos are the hardest stressed parts on the rigs. That's what my CA-10 chews through like butter(Though hopefully now it should be good, got high quality bearings in it, packed 'em with grease to keep water out, and MG servo is holding like a boss). I also lunched a driveshaft and a pair of ring gears, but that's because I took a RWD farm truck RC intended for 35-55t brushed motors fed by nickel packs and put a 5700kV castle creations brushless motor in the nos, hooked in a pair of 50c 5000mAh 2s lipos in parallel, then proceeded to do donuts with it. A LESU axle and RC4WD driveshaft solved those problems but that's more a 'my bad' than a 'truck's bad'.