A Noob's First G6 Adventure

[dungeonracer]

Am planning (or rather, hoping) to go to G6 in July. It will be a first for us as well.
At 1st, was planning on the 3 hour FIX Enduro, but saw a video today what that's all about. At 60 yrs old, I ain't running after a truck for 3 hours...

So will be doing the G6 trails both Friday and Saturday. Sounds more relaxing It will be me, wife, and at least 1 grandson (maybe 2). We'll be running a TRX4 Bronco, a couple Redcats Gen8's and an old SCX10 that's been all rebuilt. Like you, I've been getting the rigs ready as much as possible to meet the requirements. Got a couple local-ish guys doing some 3D printing for the scale stuff (guitar, tool boxes, First Aid kits, etc)

We'll be tenting at the Blue Rock Campground. We'll be in lot 159. Maybe we can meet up for a beer or a glass of wine in the evening?

[Arctic Cat ZRT]

So I found out that I had a weekend trip planned with my wife and her family that weekend. But with everything going on we will see what happens. I really want to make it! I’d just travel daily as I’m only 45 mins away.


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[OSRC]

Originally Posted by dungeonracer

Got a couple local-ish guys doing some 3D printing for the scale stuff (guitar, tool boxes, First Aid kits, etc)

We'll be tenting at the Blue Rock Campground. We'll be in lot 159. Maybe we can meet up for a beer or a glass of wine in the evening?

Awesome! I'll keep an eye out! Thank you for the invite. I'll be making all my stuff out of styrene... Hopefully.

Originally Posted by Arctic Cat ZRT

I really want to make it! I’d just travel daily as I’m only 45 mins away.

Cool! Can certainly just do a single day, I was thinking of doing it last year, but the timing just didn't work out.

[OSRC]

I need a winch on both trucks.. the SCX10 was no problem, but the TRX had me scratching my head a little bit. Decided to go with a servo winch, but the BOM bumper does not have any accommodations for a fairlead.

After some thought, I picked up a few cheap fairleads to mess with. The bumper has 2 holes in it for lights....hmmm. A piece of aluminum L bracket was hammered, drilled and filed down and voila! Fairlead mount! I had to file down the fairlead a bit as well to get it to fit into the bumper.


Bolted the fairlead to the bracket, then bolted the entire thing into the bumper. The fairlead fits perfectly between the tubes of the bumper, and is recessed nicely. It's rock solid after bolting it in.



Painted it flat black on top, and ran the wire out. The winch is an RC Issues winch I found on Ebay mounted on a Bowhouse mount. Winch feels pretty decent, seems plenty strong and it's powered right off the battery so it's got decent speed also. I'll go out and give it a few pulls and see how it does. Also using a YR Wireless controller since I was out of channels on the radio which so far works great. Not overly happy with the mount as the print quality was very rough, and it took a lot of sanding to get it to fit in the frame rails. It's very solid when mounted though. Overall though, pretty happy with how it all turned out.

[Arctic Cat ZRT]

Good job with the bracket!


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[dungeonracer]

How is it looking as far as PA allowing businesses to open up for July?
We're still planning on going, and I've been busy getting the rigs ready.
Parker did a live video last week stating that the event is still on. Hope it stays that way.

[OSRC]

According to herr governor, businesses will never fully be reopened until there's a vaccine. Which is insane, but I digress... that's for another thread.

Camping is currently "allowed" and there are no restrictions about coming in from other states, so I guess we're good. I'm going in any case, unless the event is shut down.

[dungeonracer]

I'm going in any case, unless the event is shut down.

That's pretty much where the wife and I are at. Fingers are crossed

[OSRC]

Finally got a chance to get the G6 rigs out for some testing. Both did pretty well! Didn't get many pics - it was 90 something with very high humidity and I was leaking fluids everywhere. Like running in the jungle... my phone was fogging up, it was just nasty out there. Still, we got 3 hours in. Not bad!

The Jeep SCXv2 was really unsettled last time I ran it. Outboarding the shocks on the axles really helped calm it down. I do think I need some harder springs as it was a bit soft still, but the truck was much more under control. Also, since I'm using TRX4 shocks I had a lot less flex... sometimes that was good, sometimes not so much. Just needs a bit of tweaking and it'll be good to go. The winch worked great, Holmes motor was super smooth and really, not much needs to be changed. I do need to change the pinion though, it's apparently not a good match for the spur. It was loud - really loud. Almost painfully so. So much so, I took off the gear cover and checked the mesh thinking it was too tight or I put a mod6 gear on by accident... it was fine and the correct pitch. Guess the gears just don't like each other... I'll swap on another one and see if it helps.


The Sport also did great, as expected since this truck has seen lots of miles already. Suspension was perfect, winch worked fine, and the grip from the Predator TSL's was absolutely fantastic. The Crawlmaster sport 550 felt really soft though. I need to bump up a few teeth on the pinion as it was a bit under geared and check my ESC settings. It had no punch, I might not have set the ESC from the factory specs and usually the punch is dialed down. I'll dig into it, I'm sure there's more power there somewhere.



I've got 2 weeks to make any changes.. If I want to swap out a truck now's the time. I'm pretty happy with both trucks though, I think I'm good to go. I can hear my Trail King calling though... Hmmm.... I do need to start making the odds and ends though - first aid kit, instrument, etc. I'm not good with styrene at all, this should be interesting.

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by OSRC

I was leaking fluids everywhere.

Apparently your backpack was missing an important item.

[dungeonracer]

It's a little more than a week away. How are things looking?
I got 5 rigs more or less ready...

[OSRC]

LOL Jato...

Looking good on my end, still need to fab up some of the little details. Can't wait to get out there... hopefully the weather holds, it's been crazy weather here lately.

dungeonracer, you have 5 rigs ready? Are all 5 set up to meet the specs of the event or are you just bringing a few different trucks to run? I am debating bringing some others just in case, but they don't meet all the criteria.

[dungeonracer]

dungeonracer, you have 5 rigs ready? Are all 5 set up to meet the specs of the event or are you just bringing a few different trucks to run? I am debating bringing some others just in case, but they don't meet all the criteria.

2 are for sure, at least I think they are. They have musical instruments, 1st aid boxes, and other items. The other 3 are kinda sorta. Not going to have music sheets or blue seude shoes.

Right now it's just the wife and I. We're hoping to drag along a grandson or 3, which is why I have 5 trucks.

Looking forward to going. Gonna be spending this weekend going thru the camping gear...

[SubaruDriftBoy]

See yas there! Gonna be a fun time for your first g6. And if you have any questions I'm sure you'll see me. (Look for the orange "but did you die?" Shirt there lol. I'm sure your rig will be plenty for the lines there. I'll have a tf2 as always and my ifs enduro.

[OSRC]

Awesome! I'm so looking forward to this, I love my kids more than anything, but we've been cooped up in the same house since mid March. All day, every day.... I need some Dad time!

Made some tweaks to the SCX10, I swapped on some stiffer springs. Taking it out Sunday to see how it does, as well as monitor battery usage...not sure of what I have will make it through the enduro - this should give me a better idea. I think it will, but better to know than to guess.

I've got most of my scale doodads done, including the blue suede shoes. I need a soap carving...this should be interesting.

[OSRC]

Test run with the new springs... I refilled the shocks on the Jeep with 50wt and dug around in my spring box until I found some stiffer rate springs. They are a bit bigger in diameter than the TRX springs, but fit fine with some larger perches. Front springs were short, but fit fine with some extra preload. Rears are progressive Redcat springs from an old buggy.



And out doing work... I like a heavy, softly sprung truck so it took a little getting used to with the stiffer suspension. Really helps though, the cage on the jeep is somewhat heavy and makes the truck tippy. Definitely felt more in control. Doesn't sidehill very well, but otherwise goes down the trail very well.





Tested battery consumption on both the radio and battery. 2h 44m of moderate runtime and had plenty of battery left. Radio was at 88% as well. Wasn't sure how long my radio would run since I lipo converted it. Hours apparently.... Should be plenty of capacity on both for a 3 hour Enduro.


On a side note, my buddy found out the hard way...never drive off the edge of a rock if you don't know what's on the other side.


Back home, wanted to get as many of the scale doodads done as possible so I wasn't doing any last minute scrambling. The sport is my G6 truck, and has a harmonica, "blue suede shoes" and some sheet music. Think I still need the first aid kit.. I made one, it's here somewhere. I just have to glue it on.



Did a little weathering on the sand ramps...they look so much better than they did bright orange.


All the required recovery gear strapped to the top of the cage. I debated trimming it down, but I like the way it looks so it stays!


Jeep got all its scale goodies done too. Plenty of tow straps and recovery gear.



Fuel cell, extinguisher, and "cowbell" .... Some fishing gear on top in case we run into a good fishing hole.



And a backup rig. Old faithful Defender is on standby if needed.


Plus packed up all the tools, spares, and tuning parts I might need. Got the brakes sorted on the popup too - think I'm just about ready to go!

On a side note, when you paint all your Snowrunner trucks the same colors as your RC's.....might be an OCD thing, I'm not sure.

[OSRC]

Today's the day! Yahoo!

Dropped the kids off at Grandma's, 2 cups of coffee down, and about to start loading the truck... it's gonna be a good day.

Tomorrow is forecasting AM/Afternoon rain... :( Going to make for a muddy course. Other than that, looks like it's going to be a good weekend. A hot weekend too...

SubaruDriftBoy has his shirt picked out, I haven't packed a damn thing yet... . Time to get cracking. I will be the guy with the Tamiya 4-way wrench necklace, that's about as far as I got.

Off to pack, pics and a noob's take on the weekend to come.

[Natedog]

Sounds fun, hope y'all had a great time, looking forward to your updates!

[B-MOW71]

Looks like your rigs are ready and your all set!

Have a fun weekend! Can’t wait to see pics!


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[OSRC]

We came, we saw, we crawled!

Holy cow, what a fun weekend. I'm sure this stuff is old hat for a lot of people, but for my first time it was an amazing event. I haven't done an organized RC event since my my offroad racing days 20 years ago, and it was worth the wait. I've got a ton of pictures...follow along if you like for a complete weekend rundown!


Packed up and ready to go Thursday afternoon. First time I used the popup and my old F150 did pretty good, though he was working might hard on some of those hills. I really need to look into the brakes, but it hauled ok.


Most of my camp, my buddy joined me later and brought an awning, as well as fans and 2 cases of beer. Great move! The weather was in the mid 90's with very high humidity. It was absurdly hot over the weekend, and I'm still paying for it. We were about 1/2 way up the hill, and it was awesome seeing so many campsites there with RC trucks. Kind of a festival atmosphere were I was at.


An honest to God outhouse. Haven't used one of these in years, my grandparents house up in the sticks of Centre County had one until I was 10 or so. Turns out I don't miss it much. There was a much nicer shower house down the hill, but this did in a pinch.


The people who own Blue Rocks must be Bronco fans, there were several very cool old Bronco's rolling around. I've got a Bronco body unpainted on my CFX - think I'm going to base it on one of these... Yes, the blue one is an obstacle.


This truck sounded amazing! It was rumbling around the campsite all weekend.



Gorgeous... Probably my favorite.


Nice Mustang hiding in there too...


Old Nash welcomes you to the campground... A friend of mine has one exactly like this, fully restored. Same colors and all. Very cool campsite!



Thursday night there were no events but the Fix Enduro course was open for running. So after getting camp set up, we went out around 5 and ran the courses, and basically explored the site until dark. We found the "Rock River" at the top of the hill, and it's a sight to see. It's like a river of rocks literally ran down the mountain. Nature is awesome!



There was a pretty steep hill climb on the course, and while the trucks got to the top ok, we had some issues.. The next day they put a rope up to help people get to the top.


Lots of creek crossings...my aversion to running in water was going to be tested this weekend.


Trails run all over. The G6 crew did a fantastic job setting up the courses. Well marked, lots of variety, and challenging.


Whoa....found this on the G6 course. Turns out it was very stable, but I had nightmares about getting LVC 1/2 way across.


And that was Thursday... we ran until dark, drank a ton of water, got a feel for the layout of the place and headed back to camp for some more refreshing liquid ingestion. Official fun starts tomorrow