RCCrawler Forums

rccherocon · 01-22-2010, 08:09 PM

so i am brand new to the whole rc crawling scene. i know next to nothing and have been reading these threads heavily trying to learn. i just ordered my redcat rs10 the other day and it should be here in a few days.

i just wanted some input on what the first few mods to this crawler should be? i wont be doing competitions or anything it is strictly for fun. after reading some i have already ordered a set of hb rover whites, a bigger lipo battery, and a better charger. i think my next purchase will be new banebot 380 motors. where do i go from here performance wise?

thanks ahead of time!

jsowens · 01-22-2010, 08:14 PM

Welcome to the addiction! The first thing I recommend is checking out the sticky here:
Official RS10 tips and tricks thread.
If you've not taken a look at it yet...give it a read. It's got several good mods in it that cost next to nothing to do and will benefit your crawler. Be careful if you got a lipo battery because the stock ESC doesn't have a lipo cutoff...a few guys have been running them without issue, but you don't wanna over-discharge your batteries. The banebots would be a good choice for motors and you made a wise move getting the rovers. As far as where you go from there...go for what fits your budget and feel free to ask us any questions you have.

rccherocon · 01-22-2010, 08:18 PM

thanks for the quick reply!

would you mind schooling me on the whole battery issue?

jsowens · 01-22-2010, 08:27 PM

Well, first of all...what kind of lipo did you get? 2s, 3s?
What I was referring to is that most aftermarket ESC's have a lipo cutoff built in...that means when the lipo runs low on power it shuts off the ESC...it does this because if you over-discharge a lipo it damages them. I'm not super knowledgeable about lipos, but that's kind of a nutshell way to explain it. I suggest doing a search on lipos and reading up on them. There are a couple of ways you can avoid this...you can either pick up a lipo cutoff and install it, upgrade ESC's, or they make little lipo alarms that plug into the balance plug of the lipo and an alarm sounds when the lipo gets low.

If you picked up a 3s lipo...be very careful about getting throttle happy...the redcat axles have plastic gears and a super powerful battery can do some damage to those real quick.

On a positive note...sounds like you're on your way to an awesome setup...can't wait to see any and all mods you do.

rccherocon · 01-22-2010, 08:33 PM

i bought the CKRC 7.4v 1300mah 20c Lipo Crawler battery pack. i might just look for a cut off and buy new escs later. thanks for the info i will start reading about the lipos!

i will start a new thread with my mods once it arrives at my door. i already have some homebrewed mods in my mind

jsowens · 01-22-2010, 08:36 PM

Right on...nice choice for a lipo...that one would be a 2 cell so it shouldn't be too much power and should be easy on your gears. Here's a link to both a lipo cutoff and a lipo alarm for you to check out.
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXPGM8&P=FR
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=263602_263622

I'm not experienced with either product, but maybe one of the lipo guys on the board know how they are. Do you have any mods in mind that aren't in my sticky? If so feel free to share them and I'll add them to the sticky.

rccherocon · 01-22-2010, 08:48 PM

well after looking into the lipos a little bit it looks like i need a diferent charger and have to be carefull with them. i may still run it but i might buy an extra nimh battery. the mods i have are just body mods. i might think of some others after i get the crawler

rccherocon · 01-22-2010, 08:50 PM

wuts the biggest nimh batery i can get that wont ruin my gears?

jsowens · 01-22-2010, 08:51 PM

Sounds good...there are tons of good lipo threads with plenty of info in them to get you going.

bsn · 01-22-2010, 11:49 PM

One the Nimh battery, you should be ok with an 7 cell. The stock is a 6 cell. I would upgrade the servos before I would worry about the motors. You will tear up the stock servos pretty quickly with the rovers and any tight rocks. I stripped both of mine out after I started to get better at crawling. You will slowly find the weak spots and that was the first one I came across. The 645mg servos are OK but I am already questioning them after running on the rovers for a couple weeks.

As for the battery thing, a good charger is worth its weight in gold. I though I was getting ripped off having to pay $100 to $120 for a charger but after I did, I lost all though about going back to nimh batteries. The lipos are so much nicer. A good charger will charge quicker, ie more run time less wait time, will auto sense the battery and charge it correctly, will have a built in balancer, and just makes life better. I know they are spendy but once you have one, you can charge anything with them for any car and typicaly any battery. I bought the Venom computerized charger and the thing rocks.

First mod I would recommend is move the shocks as close to the axles as possible. I run a droop setup that I have been pretty happy with. A lot of guys are running a spring setup too.

Rear steer lockout is an option, but until you decide to go with a dig, I would have fun with the 4ws.

Oh, and trim the stock body if you are going to stick with it. Cut the front off at the nose of the hood and the back off at the edge of the fast back. Look at some of the rigs in the photo sticky for ideas.

Oh, and the go have fun.

rccherocon · 01-23-2010, 11:37 AM

i might go pick up another nimh battery just to have a backup. i dont want to spend too much money on this crawler because i have an actuall jeep that most of my money goes to. are there any nice lipo chargers for a decent price that wont break the budget?

i planned on moving the shocks down but i still want to have a little bit of ground clearance.

what is a good sized servo to go to for a decent price? i will probably keep the rear steer because thats why i bought the rs10. i figured i can just beef up the motors and stuff so the stalling and other issues wont be a problem

i think thats all the questions i have for now. thanks guys!

jsowens · 01-23-2010, 12:56 PM

Most people suggest just shelling out money for a good charger so you won't need to replace it anytime soon, but if you want a budget lipo charger I hear the Imax B6 charger is a good one...and it's a charger/balancer in one. As for the servo...I run a hitec 645mg servo and it does fine with white dot rover tires...they're about 30 bucks for the servo.

rccherocon · 01-24-2010, 11:23 AM

i found that servo for about $15 on ebay so i may pick two of those up.

thanks for the help! if i have any more questions i will definitely post them up!

rccherocon · 01-26-2010, 08:19 AM

so i finally got my rs10! it was fun screwing around with it in my house. let the girlfriend play with it and now she wants one!

i drove it around with the stock tires then through on the hb rover whites and WOW wut a difference! the only thing i dont like so far is the motor stalling when trying to climb something. but i will fix that soon.

i will be cutting up and painting the body and bead locks today so i will try to post some pictures tonight.

01-22-2010, 08:09 PM	#1
rccherocon Rock Stacker Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Bonney Lake Posts: 68	new to the crawling scene so i am brand new to the whole rc crawling scene. i know next to nothing and have been reading these threads heavily trying to learn. i just ordered my redcat rs10 the other day and it should be here in a few days. i just wanted some input on what the first few mods to this crawler should be? i wont be doing competitions or anything it is strictly for fun. after reading some i have already ordered a set of hb rover whites, a bigger lipo battery, and a better charger. i think my next purchase will be new banebot 380 motors. where do i go from here performance wise? thanks ahead of time!

01-22-2010, 08:14 PM	#2
jsowens RCC Addict Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Blacksburg, VA Posts: 1,882	Welcome to the addiction! The first thing I recommend is checking out the sticky here: Official RS10 tips and tricks thread. If you've not taken a look at it yet...give it a read. It's got several good mods in it that cost next to nothing to do and will benefit your crawler. Be careful if you got a lipo battery because the stock ESC doesn't have a lipo cutoff...a few guys have been running them without issue, but you don't wanna over-discharge your batteries. The banebots would be a good choice for motors and you made a wise move getting the rovers. As far as where you go from there...go for what fits your budget and feel free to ask us any questions you have.

01-22-2010, 08:18 PM	#3
rccherocon Rock Stacker Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Bonney Lake Posts: 68	thanks for the quick reply! would you mind schooling me on the whole battery issue?

01-22-2010, 08:27 PM	#4
jsowens RCC Addict Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Blacksburg, VA Posts: 1,882	Well, first of all...what kind of lipo did you get? 2s, 3s? What I was referring to is that most aftermarket ESC's have a lipo cutoff built in...that means when the lipo runs low on power it shuts off the ESC...it does this because if you over-discharge a lipo it damages them. I'm not super knowledgeable about lipos, but that's kind of a nutshell way to explain it. I suggest doing a search on lipos and reading up on them. There are a couple of ways you can avoid this...you can either pick up a lipo cutoff and install it, upgrade ESC's, or they make little lipo alarms that plug into the balance plug of the lipo and an alarm sounds when the lipo gets low. If you picked up a 3s lipo...be very careful about getting throttle happy...the redcat axles have plastic gears and a super powerful battery can do some damage to those real quick. On a positive note...sounds like you're on your way to an awesome setup...can't wait to see any and all mods you do.

01-22-2010, 08:33 PM	#5
rccherocon Rock Stacker Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Bonney Lake Posts: 68	i bought the CKRC 7.4v 1300mah 20c Lipo Crawler battery pack. i might just look for a cut off and buy new escs later. thanks for the info i will start reading about the lipos! i will start a new thread with my mods once it arrives at my door. i already have some homebrewed mods in my mind

01-22-2010, 08:36 PM	#6
jsowens RCC Addict Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Blacksburg, VA Posts: 1,882	Right on...nice choice for a lipo...that one would be a 2 cell so it shouldn't be too much power and should be easy on your gears. Here's a link to both a lipo cutoff and a lipo alarm for you to check out. http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXPGM8&P=FR http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...=263602_263622 I'm not experienced with either product, but maybe one of the lipo guys on the board know how they are. Do you have any mods in mind that aren't in my sticky? If so feel free to share them and I'll add them to the sticky.

01-22-2010, 08:48 PM	#7
rccherocon Rock Stacker Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Bonney Lake Posts: 68	well after looking into the lipos a little bit it looks like i need a diferent charger and have to be carefull with them. i may still run it but i might buy an extra nimh battery. the mods i have are just body mods. i might think of some others after i get the crawler

01-22-2010, 08:50 PM	#8
rccherocon Rock Stacker Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Bonney Lake Posts: 68	wuts the biggest nimh batery i can get that wont ruin my gears?

01-22-2010, 08:51 PM	#9
jsowens RCC Addict Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Blacksburg, VA Posts: 1,882	Sounds good...there are tons of good lipo threads with plenty of info in them to get you going.

01-22-2010, 11:49 PM	#10
bsn Quarry Creeper Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Scottsdale Posts: 345	One the Nimh battery, you should be ok with an 7 cell. The stock is a 6 cell. I would upgrade the servos before I would worry about the motors. You will tear up the stock servos pretty quickly with the rovers and any tight rocks. I stripped both of mine out after I started to get better at crawling. You will slowly find the weak spots and that was the first one I came across. The 645mg servos are OK but I am already questioning them after running on the rovers for a couple weeks. As for the battery thing, a good charger is worth its weight in gold. I though I was getting ripped off having to pay $100 to $120 for a charger but after I did, I lost all though about going back to nimh batteries. The lipos are so much nicer. A good charger will charge quicker, ie more run time less wait time, will auto sense the battery and charge it correctly, will have a built in balancer, and just makes life better. I know they are spendy but once you have one, you can charge anything with them for any car and typicaly any battery. I bought the Venom computerized charger and the thing rocks. First mod I would recommend is move the shocks as close to the axles as possible. I run a droop setup that I have been pretty happy with. A lot of guys are running a spring setup too. Rear steer lockout is an option, but until you decide to go with a dig, I would have fun with the 4ws. Oh, and trim the stock body if you are going to stick with it. Cut the front off at the nose of the hood and the back off at the edge of the fast back. Look at some of the rigs in the photo sticky for ideas. Oh, and the go have fun.

01-23-2010, 11:37 AM	#11
rccherocon Rock Stacker Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Bonney Lake Posts: 68	i might go pick up another nimh battery just to have a backup. i dont want to spend too much money on this crawler because i have an actuall jeep that most of my money goes to. are there any nice lipo chargers for a decent price that wont break the budget? i planned on moving the shocks down but i still want to have a little bit of ground clearance. what is a good sized servo to go to for a decent price? i will probably keep the rear steer because thats why i bought the rs10. i figured i can just beef up the motors and stuff so the stalling and other issues wont be a problem i think thats all the questions i have for now. thanks guys!

Sponsored Links

01-23-2010, 12:56 PM	#12
jsowens RCC Addict Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Blacksburg, VA Posts: 1,882	Most people suggest just shelling out money for a good charger so you won't need to replace it anytime soon, but if you want a budget lipo charger I hear the Imax B6 charger is a good one...and it's a charger/balancer in one. As for the servo...I run a hitec 645mg servo and it does fine with white dot rover tires...they're about 30 bucks for the servo.

01-24-2010, 11:23 AM	#13
rccherocon Rock Stacker Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Bonney Lake Posts: 68	i found that servo for about $15 on ebay so i may pick two of those up. thanks for the help! if i have any more questions i will definitely post them up!

01-26-2010, 08:19 AM	#14
rccherocon Rock Stacker Join Date: Jan 2010 Location: Bonney Lake Posts: 68	so i finally got my rs10! it was fun screwing around with it in my house. let the girlfriend play with it and now she wants one! i drove it around with the stock tires then through on the hb rover whites and WOW wut a difference! the only thing i dont like so far is the motor stalling when trying to climb something. but i will fix that soon. i will be cutting up and painting the body and bead locks today so i will try to post some pictures tonight.

RCCrawler Forums

Thread: new to the crawling scene