B-MOW buys a TF2 Marlin Crawler

[Topher Builds]

Glad you’re enjoying it B! It’s definitely a different experience. Truck is looking good

I have the same issues with the front driveshaft, seems to be common.

[high plains drifter]

Really neat that you've got a dedicated crawling area there. I was born and raised in central Ohio so I always love seeing pics of the area. Last time I was there, I hardly recognized my old stomping grounds lol. Rig is looking good. I'm following along and will be interested to see how the TRX4 shafts work for you since I'm intrigued by the A&M skid plate upgrade.

[B-MOW71]

Originally Posted by Pant Danza

Glad you’re enjoying it B! It’s definitely a different experience. Truck is looking good

I have the same issues with the front driveshaft, seems to be common.

Thanks Danza! It is a fun truck to drive. Yeah, the front driveshaft is a problem, but it should be an easy fix. I just need to find the time to grind down the pinion and output shafts so the replacements will fit on.

Originally Posted by high plains drifter

Really neat that you've got a dedicated crawling area there. I was born and raised in central Ohio so I always love seeing pics of the area. Last time I was there, I hardly recognized my old stomping grounds lol. Rig is looking good. I'm following along and will be interested to see how the TRX4 shafts work for you since I'm intrigued by the A&M skid plate upgrade.

Thanks Drifter! I would like to take credit for the crawling playground, but these pics were actually taken at a comp I went to in southern Ohio. It is home to the KOG (King of Guru's) in Logan, Ohio. It is a really cool place with different courses set up for different classes. My goto crawl spot about 40 mins. from my house is Honeyrun just east of Mt. Vernon, Ohio. It has a nice waterfall and some pretty cool trails and cliffs. Maybe you have been there or heard of it. The A&M skid plate is a really nice upgrade that tucks the t-case up in the chassis and allows for more clearance.

Thanks for following along!

Here are a couple pics of the Honeyrun falls.

[high plains drifter]

Man that's beautiful. In my college days we'd head down from Columbus to Hocking Hills to get away from the city and do some camping/ photography. From what I remember, Logan is around that same area. And wow ( small world) my mom and stepdad would go to Honeyrun every year to celebrate their wedding anniversary ( Inn at Honeyrun iirc). I've never been there but I've seen plenty of pics. It always looked very scenic and secluded. He was actually a local celeb... weatherman for channel 4 in the 70's.

Yeah.. I'm going to upgrade the driveshafts on my TF2 but between Junfac, MIP, etc... still not sure which to go with. Adding the A&M skid-plate into the equation, I want to make sure I have the correct length.

Thanks for the nice trip down memory lane lol. Very cool!

[Natedog]

Sweet looking crawl spot, cool that your dad was the local weatherman there!

Lots of driveshaft choices, Traxxas TRX-4 on my TF2 been doing well. Whatever you chose make sure they can accommodate the angles required at both ends.

[high plains drifter]

Thanks so much Nate. Much appreciate the input. Also it's so crazy to hear out of the blue, someone on rcc mention a couple places that have been such a wonderful part of my life as well as that of my mom. It's almost surreal. My stepdad was indeed a great person in many ways and he loved my mom dearly.

Brian... so sorry for the hijack. You really brought the feels here today lol!

[B-MOW71]

Originally Posted by Natedog

Sweet looking crawl spot, cool that your dad was the local weatherman there!

Lots of driveshaft choices, Traxxas TRX-4 on my TF2 been doing well. Whatever you chose make sure they can accommodate the angles required at both ends.

Yeah, it is a nice little hidden spot that's somewhat close to home and supplies just enough fun to keep me happy for a few hours.

I will probably use the TRX-4 driveshafts for now. I'm trying to decide which shafts I will go with long term. The Supershafty HD MIP's (designed for the A&M Garage skid) or the Incision Scale shafts. I have the Incision on my VS4-10 now and I am really happy with how the perform.

Originally Posted by high plains drifter

Man that's beautiful. In my college days we'd head down from Columbus to Hocking Hills to get away from the city and do some camping/ photography. From what I remember, Logan is around that same area. And wow ( small world) my mom and stepdad would go to Honeyrun every year to celebrate their wedding anniversary ( Inn at Honeyrun iirc). I've never been there but I've seen plenty of pics. It always looked very scenic and secluded. He was actually a local celeb... weatherman for channel 4 in the 70's.

Yeah.. I'm going to upgrade the driveshafts on my TF2 but between Junfac, MIP, etc... still not sure which to go with. Adding the A&M skid-plate into the equation, I want to make sure I have the correct length.

Thanks for the nice trip down memory lane lol. Very cool!

Originally Posted by high plains drifter

Thanks so much Nate. Much appreciate the input. Also it's so crazy to hear out of the blue, someone on rcc mention a couple places that have been such a wonderful part of my life as well as that of my mom. It's almost surreal. My stepdad was indeed a great person in many ways and he loved my mom dearly.

Brian... so sorry for the hijack. You really brought the feels here today lol!

It's crazy how small the world really is! I didn't expect to talk to someone on here that lived roughly in the same vicinity. That's cool to hear your parents went to Honeyrun for their wedding anniversary. I sure can see why they picked this place. It is a beautiful hidden gem! It is great spot to go tiny trucking without the worry of a State Park Ranger asking you to leave. I used to go to Mohican State Park, but the Rangers there have put a stop to us driving our little tiny tires there because the say we are tearing up the trails. I really don't think so, but that is another story!

Also cool that your stepdad was a local celeb. I remember as a kid in the 70's, my dad used to watch channel 4 news which I believe was one of the Columbus news channels. After growing up and moving out, all of my news from satellite TV comes from Cleveland, so I don't get the chance to watch the news out of Columbus anymore.

No worries about hijacking! I'm glad you to hear it brought back great memories for you!

Oh yeah, and Logan is down in the Hocking Hills area. It is such a beautiful area. I wished I lived a little closer to it. Unlimited places to crawl! The Logan/Hocking Hills area reminds me a lot of West Virginia. I make a once a year trip to WV for my wife's family reunion down in the Beckley area. It is truly a beautiful area with endless places to go tiny trucking.

[B-MOW71]

Just a quick update. Going to add a HW 1080. Also going to add a HW 1060 I picked up a year ago for another build. I'm going to use the 1060 to power the cheap knockoff Warn winch i found on eBay.



More later...

[B-MOW71]

I haven't had much time lately to work on Marlin, but I did get a couple more things done to it over the weekend.

A few weeks back I picked up a Hobbywing 1080 ESC. These are great ESC's at a great price. This is the fourth one of these that I have bought and have had great luck with the others. The first three were bought for my SCX10.2, TRX-4 and my GCM J2 Skeleton. I ended up replacing the ones in my 10.2 and TRX-4 with the Castle Mamba X and using the 1080's for servo winch controllers. These work really well as winch controllers.

I also had a HW 1060 ESC laying around, so I installed that as a winch controller for the cheap Ebay special fake Warn winch that I purchased awhile back. And installed an RC4WD fairlead onto the front bumper.

I fabbed up an aluminum plate to stretch across the frame rails right behind the t-case. I used the existing holes in the frame rails to mount it to.









I also replaced the stock driveshafts with a set of SuperShafty MIP HD shafts designed for the RWB TF2 with the A&M Garage skid and t-case mount. These shafts are really nice and should last the whole life of the Marlin. I have these same MIP HD shafts on my TRX-4 and have held up very well. The nice thing about these shafts is that I did not have to grind down the output shafts or the diff pinion shafts.

[Topher Builds]

Nice! Looking great. I like that skid and love some super shaftys. Have them in two others and they have been great.

Electronics mounting is nice and clean too. How big is that little fella of a battery capacity wise?

[B-MOW71]

Originally Posted by Pant Danza

Nice! Looking great. I like that skid and love some super shaftys. Have them in two others and they have been great.

Electronics mounting is nice and clean too. How big is that little fella of a battery capacity wise?

Thanks Danza!

I put some black paint on the skid. It started rusting up since it has been sitting for a few weeks. I like the black better, but I'm sure it will all get rubbed off.

Yeah, Super Shafty shafts were the ticket. Just bolt them on and go!

I can't remember this size of the battery, I'll let you know later on today after work.



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[B-MOW71]

Originally Posted by Pant Danza

How big is that little fella of a battery capacity wise?

Here is a pic of the battery. It is the Tattu which I believe is made by Gens Ace. I ended up buying these at my local Hobbytown for about $15.00.

I originally bought these batteries for my GCM J2 Skeleton and figured I'd try them out in Marlin. They have a decent amount of runtime. I'm not sure exactly how long they will last since I've only had Marlin out once. I ran it for about 45 minutes and it did not hit LiPo cut-off.

[Topher Builds]

That’s not too bad. I may have to grab a couple like that to try them out. I liked going down to a 2200mah battery and have been considering something like this as well.

[mthomson]

Beautiful electronics work. I may have to consider swapping to Lipos to dump some weight.

[B-MOW71]

Originally Posted by mthomson

Beautiful electronics work. I may have to consider swapping to Lipos to dump some weight.

Thanks! And you may gain run time too! LiPo's are a much better battery compared to NiMh.

[smog]

I really like what you have done with the rig B-MOW.

The HW1080's are pretty swet, no doubt. It seems I am slowly getting one into all of my crawlers. I experience absolutely no let down from my brushed Tekin to the HW. Makes it hard to justify spending any extra $.

Sweet crawl spots you have Love the pics!

[B-MOW71]

Originally Posted by smog

I really like what you have done with the rig B-MOW.



The HW1080's are pretty swet, no doubt. It seems I am slowly getting one into all of my crawlers. I experience absolutely no let down from my brushed Tekin to the HW. Makes it hard to justify spending any extra $.



Sweet crawl spots you have Love the pics!

Thanks smog!

Yep, 1080’s are hard to beat for the money. They are very reliable and easy to program.



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[dezfan]

Well, you already saved me $10.00!

I had planned to pick up a set of the Bowhouse rear leaf spring holders, but seems like RC4WD corrected that issue already!

I’m doing very similar upgrades to my Marlin, I guess they’re pretty common on most prople’s Marlin builds.

I’ll be following along.👍🏼

[high plains drifter]

Originally Posted by dezfan

I’m doing very similar upgrades to my Marlin, I guess they’re pretty common on most prople’s Marlin builds.

I’ll be following along.����

I didn't chime back in on your thread since Brian really was the best one for you to get this info from. I'm following his mods and upgrades too!

[B-MOW71]

Sent Marlin to the paint shop for a quick paint job. I wanted something a little different than the standard red.

I wanted to black wash all of the body panel lines, but my LHS didn’t have any wash. So I taped off and hand painted each line black. I then sprayed a clear coat over entire body hoping it would help keep the black lines from fading away.

I also sprayed the roll bar and dash panel with a flat black to get rid of the shiny black plastic look. And also painted the chrome around the headlights flat black. Added some clear yellow to the headlight lens to go with the “Dark Marlin” look!

I am not sure if I want to keep the chrome wheels with red bead lock rings or find a set of all black wheels. I’ll decide that later.



This was kinda of a rush job as I’m planning on taking Marlin with me to the Team KNK TTC6 this coming weekend. I’m not sure yet if I’ll run it in a class, but wanted to take it along to play around with in my downtime between events. I will be mainly running my VS4-10 in the Class 2.5.


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