goliath rock crawler?

[turbored21]

anyone have any experience with it..? if so any drawbacks to the design? i was looking at the axial kit.. but the goliath is growing on me.. just lookin for general opinions and such

FYI i already have a clod and a wheely king... the king is gettin 4wd thursday already on axle 4ws moving the battery box soon to the front "unless i work up some on axle mounts and split the pack into two 3 cells"

the clod is getting a 19inch wheelbase via a savage chassis with slight modifications OR its getting a stick chassis.. havent fully decided yet

so im lookin at the goliath as another choice over the axial... and im not really a fan of tlt crawlers.. so..

thanks for reading

[BrandonW]

personally i think you get more for your money with the axial rock crawler, but it really comes down to whatever one YOU like and what you want to do with it.

[Thorsteenster]

yeah, i'd go for the axial. be one of the 1st to have one. besides, the pti's suck out of the box, they have no reduction. from what ive heard anyway.

[jetboat]

Goliaths are good out of the box with some mods they are great that being said...the axial looks better. And Im a big fan of the goliath.

We realy need a goliath forum

[tomik]

Originally Posted by jetboat

We realy need a goliath forum

That's so true... My goliath should be in the customs any day soon . It'll be my second (I was stupid and sold the first one).

I also thought of getting Axial, but thought a little bit more... How about spare parts? Are there going to be plenty of them if there happens to be a weak link in the car? There's always a possibility something like that could happen, because it's a brand new car.
I'll be getting one after a couple months if there will be plenty of good comments.

We'll see . Axial sure looks awesome!

[K_Willis]

I'll chime in again for the goliath. It is hands down the best out of the box crawler out there. The axial hasn't been released yet, so anything said about it to this point is pure speculation.

The only thing the goliath needs to be competive is a gear reduction, which you can pick up for $10-15. The axles are pretty well designed, and the servo mount is nice. Only complaint I have about the kit... Some of the screws seem a little too short and strip out if you're not careful. Not a tough fix tho.

There are a few other minor things to be done straight out of the box before running, have a search here and you'll find most of them, or on the www.one18th.com PTI forum.

[Rockpiledriver]

Originally Posted by tomik

I also thought of getting Axial, but thought a little bit more... How about spare parts? Are there going to be plenty of them if there happens to be a weak link in the car?

Yes, RCP Crawlers will be carrying the complete line of spare and replacement parts for the Axial Scorpion.

[franeich]

I am very happy with my Goliath. You need gear reduction and you are ready to go. Some have had problems with the gears in the diff but mine have held up. And yes e do need a PTI section/ Forum!

[jetboat]

I realy wish you could buy complete goliath axles or even a kit for just the axles. IMHO they are better than TLT. I know I will get slammed for that comment. (hey RCP start carrying PTI axles Ill buy the first set)

[turbored21]

well instead of a gear reduction could i use a lathe ? or an outrunner low kv high tq?

and i like the axial.. but the platform of the goliath really appeals to me so it may be a toss up well have to see

those of you with one other than the gear reduction.. are theyre any other mods needed at all? how are the stock tires? shocks that sort of thing..

thanks for reading and your opinions.. they are greatly appreciated

[K_B]

I've had the original MMT for a loooong time now. Of course it's modified to a 12" wheelbase and all that now. When I first completed it, I tried running an outrunner with no reduction. It works well as a basher but not as a dedicated crawler. The reduction is needed for crawling, period. MAYBE you can get away running a 75T lathe.

The nice thing about the chassis is it does lend itself well to a scale build due to the fact that it incorporates solid frame rails in the design. Just shortening the sideplates and adding higher shock mounts would net you a decent looking scale chassis. And personally, I like the stock chassis as a comp setup too. But I also think that chassis design plays as smaller role in performance than setup. A properly setup PTI chassis is gonna do much better than an SW2 (or any other chassis) with a suspension that's setup wrong.

The stock tires are a mixed bag. It depends on the terrain. The guys up here have had good luck with them. They work well in the mud and have good flotation. I have not heard many complaints about the shocks. I know that the cantilever suspension requires some tweaking to get things operating perfect. I just removed all that and went with a traditional suspension setup.

[turbored21]

thanks for your reply KB if you dont mind me askin.. what kv outrunner did you use?.. i was thinking about a 600-900 kv 400 size outrunner on whatever cell count gives me the best tq while keeping the wheels slow and strong

[tomik]

Originally Posted by Rockpiledriver

Yes, RCP Crawlers will be carrying the complete line of spare and replacement parts for the Axial Scorpion.

That's nice to know. Now all I need to do is start saving .
Will there be any Axial retailers in Europe (shipping costs are insanely high, which of course is not your fault...)?

[jetboat]

I ran my goliath for about 6 months with a 55 turn and no reduction, I added a gd600 and it brought the thing to life. even with the 55 turn it is way too fast to crawl. Stock tires were decent, not the best but decent. I have started doing a more scale build with mine and trying to piece together a set of goliath axles for a tuber.

[K_B]

Originally Posted by turbored21

thanks for your reply KB if you dont mind me askin.. what kv outrunner did you use?.. i was thinking about a 600-900 kv 400 size outrunner on whatever cell count gives me the best tq while keeping the wheels slow and strong

You're in the ballpark. Mine is an AXI 2212-26 which is 400-size (I think) and runs 920kV. It works well in light rig like mine (~4.5lbs) but would most likely struggle in anything heavier without running a minimum of 8 cells.

[cwazyduck]

Originally Posted by K_B

The reduction is needed for crawling, period. MAYBE you can get away running a 75T lathe.

Well I tried a 75T lathe with not so great results. The speed without a gear reduction was in a decent range, maybe even a bit slow to recover from a noseover, but there was absolutley no torque, the motor would just plain stall out. Unless my esc just doesn't agree with that motor. My 14T triple with a 4:1 gearhead was more crawlable. A bit twithchy with a lot of top end, but it still had some low end grunt.
I'll be happy when I get my Novak crawler system back.

[tomik]

My PTI still hasn't arrived, but I've already ordered 4:1 GRU.
Friend told me PTI is like a dream with 55T and 4:1 .

[kawika]

Make sure you reinforce the motor plate. The increased leverage caused by the GRU will bend the motor plate back and possibly cause you to strip a spur gear. It happened to me during my first comp.:-(

[jetboat]

easy fix is a ziptie around the frame under the motor

[tomik]

Thanks for the advice!