Newbie Wants A Crawler But Which One?

[ShaynDaPain]

Hear me out before you answer.

I have two reasons to buy a crawler. The first is, for fun. Okay, for the fun.

BUT, the MAIN reason is for work. I inspect homes for a living and I'm tired of crawling under houses. So I'm looking to grab a crawler, attach an HD 1080p camera for FPV, with a gimble(?) so I can take photos of the subfloors, framing, foundation walls and such.

Needs:
1. Low clearance - 10 inches tall or less.
2. 4 wheel, able to climb over 6 inch pipe.
3. Cheap. I'm sorry, but I'm cheap.
4. I'll have to be able to transmit reliably from outside/inside homes, with interference like walls, flooring, and piping.
5. Ability to view the FPV through my android cellphone, and take pictures as well.

Please, help me.

[JatoTheRipper]

Welcome to the site!

I don't know of any good, 1/10th scale crawler that comes with FPV capabilities out of the box. The TRX-4 will be a good base for this project though.

[Timmahh]

Many of the current platforms would be a solid base. However, there are some ins and outs. Most of these can climb over a 6 inch or taller obstacles without too much issue. the issue becomes the obstacle itself. Crawling over plastic pipe of 6 in diameter may be a tough one as the tires likely wont get much traction on the pipe and just slide on it, and not crawl up it. Some tires may be better for grip to grab and move up and over larger pipes. Especially plastic ones unless the pipe is somewhat into the dirt and not just setting on top of it.

I do similar work and often end up in the crawl/attic as I am a bit of a skinny guy and can fit. lol I get it very well. lol

So my suggestion would be to find someone near you that has crawlers or a decent branded on. Get with them and some 6 inch pipe and see if/how you can get the crawler to crawl over the pipe. If you can't do that at some point, you may be on the right track, but just have to adjust your path. Maybe if a crawler wont do it. a small drone can. Some of those are really small, but flying is harder than crawling. especially when it comes to crashing. heh

I would see if you can crawl over a 6 inch tall plastic pipe. If it can, that is one of the most cool Tool Write-Off EVER come 2020 Tax Time.

[ShaynDaPain]

Timmahh, thank you so much for the advice. I think this is very good advice.

[HumboldtEF]

Yeah no out of the box Crawler seems suited to this. TRX4 was also my first instinct, the extra clearance provided by the portals will be useful. Now I normally wouldn't recommend this for regular use but a set of bigger 2.2" tires might be enough to help get over these pipes. You'll lose some steering angle and be a bit more top heavy though. As for a height under 10", the TRX4 Sport comes in at 9 1/2" tall but if you need it even shorter you could just remove the body and body posts. If you add 2.2" tires that will raise the entire truck a bit.

I have no FPV experience but I wonder if there are any good 360 degree camera options? I would think that could be useful when you cant get the rig pointed in the right direction to get the image you need. You'll probably want some lighting too just so the cameras can have a better chance at getting a good image.

I'd suggest learning the ropes/limits of driving these while you aren't under a house so hopefully you wont need to crawl under just to get it back on its wheels.

If you want to have this ready to go at any time consider getting a NiMh battery as it can be safely stored with a full charge. A Lipo on the other hand would need to be storage charged when not in use as no lipo should be fully charged longer than 3 days.

Oh and the TRX4 does come with fun