HawnMT's Redcat Ground Pounder by CPE Review

[hawnmt]

Yup it seems I was one of the first to get mine delivered, UPS took only 5 days, to Hawaii no less. Anyway as soon as it arrived I cracked open the box and did a quick once over.
Some measurements others might want:
Wheelbase: 12.5"
Axle width(hex to hex): 11"
Axle ratio: (estimated) 3.3:1
hex size: 12mm pin drive


First Impressions:
She's a lot bigger than I had expected. Even though Brett Crawford of Crawford Performance Engineering (who designed and tested the truck) did some comparison shots I thought it would be smaller. Here's some shots comparing her to one of my TXTS.


Fit and finish seems to be pretty good. The body even surprised me by being nicer than I thought(I was gonna chuck it but now I'll run it for awhile). Plastics seems to be some type of composite, I like it, not the soft flexible stuff like Axial and not the fragile stuff like Tamiya. Lots of aluminum, from the chasssis, to the links, to the shocks, and some other stuff there's quite a bit of annodized bling on this truck, not important to me but very nice. But not so much aluminum that the truck is heavy, in fact this truck is light. I wish I could scale it but my mail scale is broken and my bathroom scale won't go under 10 lbs. Tires are soft, no foams(which surprised me), but since the truck is light it's not a big deal.
Things I like:
Overall a great looking truck, nice stance, and the chassis looks great. I very impressed with the axles, they look tough, and although the size of the driveshafts worries me a bit I like the low gear reduction in the axles. I'm not a big fan of Maxx type tires but they look good on this truck and the soft tire looks like it will perform well.


Things that concern me:
Again not crazy about the small size of the driveshafts but I understand they'll be under less stress because of the lower gear reduction. And I also saw metal units in pics of the display truck at iHobby so a stronger unit will be available.

One big thing that I saw that I don't like at all is the motor plate being seperate from the transmission, it's mounted to the upper electronics tray. While this may be OK because all the parts are aluminum I'd rather the trans and motor be connected as one unit. Not just for strength and reliabilty but also for modification purposes.

Also no servo savers. I've seen Clods without servo savers break thick plastic arms after one jump so we'll have to see about this one.

[hawnmt]

Some problems I noticed:
First thing I tried to do was loosen up the suspension. From the factory, the shocks are tightened down all the way. But when I started unscrewing the sock spring the collar hit the chassis. The standoffs were too short.

As I started to add a conical washer and longer screws Brett PMs me asking if I had this problem.

He said others were and that a shim kit would be on it's way so he's aware of it and has already figured out a fix.
Another problem I had was when I tested the electronics I found that the rear steer servo was on channel 1 and the fron servo was on channel 3. I got it all straightened out and let Brett know. So far it seems only I had this problem.

....to be continued tomorrow for test drives.......:tmb

[STANG KILLA SS]

ive had my eye on this truck for awhile. looks awesome! looking forward to you getting the kinks worked out and the truck dialed in. VIDS!

[hawnmt]

I made some changes to the truck and it started last night before I even ran it. The shocks kept bugging me because they were so stiff even with the spring adjustment all the way up to it's softest. So I went ahead and drained all the shocks and replaced the oil with 30W. While this got the shocks to operate very smoothly they were still stiff. I did a quick run early this morning and indeed they were to stiff. I also noticed the the tires were rubbing the shocks. I thought about it at work and came to the conclusion that I should change shocks. While I could have softened up the stock shocks I would still have the tire rubbing issue.
So here it is the new shocks, I have no idea what brand they are but I had them so they went in. What I didn't realize was how HUGE the stock shocks were. The replacements are standard 4" ones but they look tiny compared to the stock units. I feel bad taking the stock shocks off though because they are probably the best shocks I have ever seen that came with a truck from the factory.

First Run: Stock Motor, 7.2 NiMH battery pack
As I said my first run was in the morning, I just couldn't wait until after work. I didn't take any pics, just connected the batteries and turned everything on. On a side note the esc beeps just like Castle's escs when you turn it on.
Pulled the trigger and off she went, suprisingly fast. The truck is geared high, maybe a little too high but only a little. It's tough to estimate the speed but it is easily faster than a stock Clod or TXT. Since it's a single motor and geared high it isn't crazy with acceleration but it is decent. In these shots I took on the second run I reversed then hit the throttle forward to get the wheelies.


As I said the springs were stiff so the tires were doing most of the suspension work. The exposed pinion and spur does makke some noise but everything else runs smooths. The tires proved to be well suited to the truck and provided excellent traction in the grass and the dirt. At these speeds the high CG created by the battery being mount up top didn't affect performance any.
Second Run: stock motor, 2s lipo battery
When I got home I changed the shocks and immediately went into my yard. And while I had a camera it was to difficult to take pics and drive but I did manage to take a few that I could post.
The shock change proved to be a good one. The suspension is now soft enough for the truck's weight to compress the shocks on small bumps and when jumping off the ramp. The bad news is torque twist started to rear it's ugly head. It was very slight but it was there. I was going to have to figure out swaybars anyway so that should take care of it.

Also having the full steering arc without rubbing is nice. This truck takes very sharp turns even without the rear steer.

I did try out the rear steering but it can really only be used at slow speeds to keep from flipping the truck. One strange thing is when you select the rear wheel steering only the tires steer in the direction that you turn the wheel rather than turning in the direction that will steer the truck in the direction of the wheel(which is opposite). Maybe that's just me...
I have to say after concentrating on racing for most of this year I've forgotten how much fun just bashing around with a truck can be. This truck is stock form makes a perfect basher. Good speed, solid frame, tough parts, and great features. It still amazes me all that you get for the price.

I need to figure out the next step. I'm debating whether to put a little faster brushed motor in or just do the jump to brushless. I have a Novak Havoc with a ss5800 motor but I don't want to possibly break the truck this early and then be stuck for parts. The end result will be I want to race this truck at our next race. That means it will have to be able to go off our 1080 ramps at speed.:shk

[Karadjas]

A nice redcat?

Waiting for the long term reviews

[BADASSPONY]

Ive been looking at that truck but Im not sure I like the chassis.

[Szczerba]

I saw this truck pop up somewhere the other day. Looks pretty good. Thanks for the write up.

[hawnmt]

Originally Posted by Karadjas

A nice redcat?

Waiting for the long term reviews

I know what you mean. Had this been just a Redcat truck I know I wouldn't have preordered it or maybe even bought it at all. But CPE(Crawford Performance Engineering) designed, built, and tested it so I knew I wouldn't be left hanging in case there was something wrong, and I haven't. CPE has been ther every step of the way trading emails and even sending me a spur gear when I stripped doing something stupid(brushless).

The truck in stock form is solid. It was designed as an entry level basher and is perfect for that. At $250+shipping for a complete RTR monster truck with battery and wall charger you won't find a better deal anywhere.

I, and a few others, got them to see how far we could take it from the stock kit. I've gone a little far but Tad from Tweaked racing has already gone full brushless(mamba max/6900) in a custom race chassis:

http://www.rcmt.biz/bd/showthread.ph...315#post114315

The truck has been out a week and a half and it's already gone this far, who knows how much further it'll go.

[hawnmt]

Well I haven't updated in awhile because I went a tried a brushless setup and stripped the spur gear. When I set up the brushless I also reversed the electronics tray so now the battery is in front and the motor is in the rear. I prefer this setup because it puts the weight biased up in front on the wheels that steer. It also helps when jumping to keep the truck level. And last it helps keep torque twist in check. It is a setup I also use on my TXTs.
New reversed setup:

Anyway, CPE was kind enough to send me another spur gear and I was finally able to get it in the truck. I decided to play it safe this time and stick to brushed motors. I went ahead and installed a 16 turn triple wind with 19t pinion on the stock esc(I had no idea if the esc could handle it). After doing some bench testing I took in out into my yard and everything seemed alright. That is until I hit the brakes and I heard the spur grinding. I had read about this in Tad's and Dominic's threads on RCMT so I wasn't totally surprised. I looked at the spur and it looked alright.
I had read Tad's thread about how he added a crossbrace to the upper part of the tranny to keep it steady so I decided to give it a try. That turned out to be a HUGE SUCCESS!!!!! I made the crossbrace out of a TXT crossmember and cut it down to fit. I also notched it so it would sit flush against the tranyy(I didn't want to grind the tranny). It sounds simple but it's was really time consuming because the brace has to be in the right position and not move the tranny from it's original postion. Here's sme pics:
Here's it is with the electronics tray removed.

With everything on the truck, as you can see it's now in the way of seeing the gear mesh of the pinion/spur:

I've been running the truck around and testing the brakes and everything works great. I've even done full speed runs and then slammed on the brakes without any skipping.
Now that the truck is moving pretty fast I'm really able to see how she handles. I love the steering on this truck, it's very precise and I modded the rear steering servo for less throw so now I can even use rear steering. The suspension is also doing well but I need to tune it for better landings of jumps. I also need to get to work on some swaybars even though torque twist hasn't been a big issue with the new electronics layout.
We have a race this Sunday so I'll get some videos then.

[CPE MT]

For those who don't frequent other sites, we're excited to announce that Sudden Impact Racing will be adding a new truck to their arsenal for 2010, the Ground Pounder! Through a partnership with Redcat Racing, the Ground Pounder will take to the track within the first quarter of 2010 ready to pound the competition! Based around the newly-released Ground Pounder 1:10th scale R/C monster truck, both trucks will be sure to bring excitement to fans both young and old!



Developed, prototyped, and tested by Crawford Performance Engineering and distributed by Redcat Racing, the Ground Pounder comes packed with features commonly found only on fully customized trucks. The Ground Pounder features shaft-driven 4 wheel drive and 4 wheel steering plus a fully anodized aluminum frame. With it’s oversize monster tires, it’s at home whether tearing up the backyard or pounding the competition.

[william g]

Here is mine. No paint yet, still some trimming but had to test new refurb camera

[hawnmt]

I know it's been awhile since I've posted up but now that our racing season has ended I have some time. I've got a lot of run time on the truck at this point, probably 20+ packs, mostly because I was using it to cycle my batteries for our finals.
I know I said I would get some vids but the RC gods must not be on my side because everytime I try to set it up something happens that prevents it. The first time was because I mangled the rear driveshaft yoke when I was prerunning the race course with the truck. So it was done before the camera came out.

I figured just to get her back up and running I'd make a driveshaft with stampede shafts and a pair of Traxxas steel yokes I had. I didn't think the shafts would last long but the shaft is still in there to this day with barely a sign of wear.

After I got that shaft in I really started put some runtime on it and that's when I noticed that the when the motor got hot the pinion would start skipping again. It would take most of a 3300 pack of constant running before it started but once it did it would keep doing it until everything cooled down. So I added the motor brace(white block on motor), to go along with the tranny brace, to keep everything straight. It hasn't skipped since, and this is the same spur CPE sent me.

After getting multiple packs through it with no problems I went after tweaking handling. I made a set of swaybars out of 3/32" piano wire. I want to use 1/8" but the store was out. I used the holes right above the lower link mounts on the chassis and secured them to the links with tie straps, nothing special but they work.

I changed out those blue 4" shocks I replaced the stock shock with in favor of these HPI 5" ones. I like the fact they are the same length as the stock shocks but are much softer. They are still a slight bit stiff but they do compress on landings so it's definitely an improvement.

I shaved the tires so the truck wouldn't have so much bite on turns. The stock tires work very well on dirt but since I mostly run on grass(even though it's covered in dirt:tong). I needed to take away some of those lateral tread surfaces to keep the truck from flipping on turns. I also did a slight back cut to the treads.

This truck is still mostly stock, the only things that I've changed are the shocks and the motor. The only things I've added are the motor and tranny braces and the swaybars. The electronics(transmitter, receiver, esc, servos) are all still stock. And suprisingly even though the esc is rated only for a 20T motor it has held up to my 16T triple wound with 2s lipo. I haven't even added a servo saver even though I probably should.
I have been very happy with this truck especially after getting the transmission problem settled. It took some tweaking to get to this point but what truck doesn't. I'm still trying to figure out a configuration so I can get the battery lower. It's not that big a thing but would definitely help in increasing the turning speed and rate.
Next step will be a brushless motor. I'm going to see if I can get 17.5 novak motor for my Havoc esc since that will mean I can have a sensored setup which should be easier on the drivetrain but still give me good performance.

[Catweasel]

Has any one gone into the axles yet? I'm looking at locking my diffs, and from what I can gather from diagrams, it looks much the same as the TXT. Therefore the dis-placed pinion trick should work. Does any one know? Good truck though.

[hawnmt]

Originally Posted by Catweasel

Has any one gone into the axles yet? I'm looking at locking my diffs, and from what I can gather from diagrams, it looks much the same as the TXT. Therefore the dis-placed pinion trick should work. Does any one know? Good truck though.

Since the diff uses four spider gears another one won't fit inbetween the exsisting ones so the trick can't be done. Here's pic of the diff:

[Tommy R]

Looks like it could be easily "Lincoln locked" just like a 1:1 open diff by using JB Weld.

[hawnmt]

This truck has gone through extensive changes. Rather than bore you with all the details let's just say I've found(along with a few other people) a few problem areas and addressed them as best as possible. But if your interested here's my detailed thread:

http://www.rcmt.biz/bd/showthread.php?t=13132

This is the final stage of that evolutionary process. A brushless (Novak Havoc/ss5800 motor), lipo(2s), Clod tired, racer/basher. The truck has become one of my favorites, so much so I picked up another used one. It has proven to be very durable once the common weak points are addressed. The last area I have concern over are the axle housings which have broken on a couple of occassions when doing big jumps. Anyway here's the new look I just completed, Grave Digger.








....and yes they work....


Some shots of it racing in our last RCMTC-HI race

Near the end of the course against mugen69's(also a member here on RCC) Backwards Bob. For those that don't know the real Backwards Bob, he is not going the other way the body is mounted backwards so it looks like it's going in reverse. But mugen did miss the ramp

[Szczerba]

Very nice final truck. You are making me want one.

[Catweasel]

I've put TXT wheels on my GP to see how it looks. Any comments?

[crazyorigin]

Man, thats a sweet truck, first time i have seen it. I want to build a mud bogger, those axles and tranny look like good candidates for that project. The price is great, i will definetly look into it.

[Zapper2003]

I picked up a pair of Proline Giant tracs at the hobbyshop when they went out of business. I dont know if i can find a rim to fit my 1/8th scale buggy or not, if not i'll have to get rid of them.