Bought my first crawler. Build thread?

[Jcplante]

They wont mount right on round tubing. There are some that i saw on here before that are made for round tubing but i forget where. Maybe rc4wd? Axle mounting gives a much more predictable and solid feeling ride. Its just not easy to get everything right

[MountainStorm]

You should look at the Maxstone shock mounts. I was looking around for mounts that will fit round tube and there they were in the Parts/Upgrades section on the NitroRC site. I am doing almost the exact same mods to my RS10...which is funny because I didn't see your thread till tonight. Great minds? lol. I am guessing your next mod will be a BFA.

I did the BFA steering mod today. I saw a tutorial over on CPE Crawford Performance Engineering : CPE-BTA2: Redcat RS10 BTA Steering installation Guide - $0.00 But I had to do a few different things to the servo mount.

Looking good. Interested to see what you come up with for links. I think I will cut mine out of 1/4" aluminum so I can put multiple shock mounting holes. Plus polished aluminum will look sick.

[MountainStorm]

Clever! I got my 7 year old girl a Maisto Extreme Rock Crawler and it is remarkably capable. We go trailing together and it gets over almost everything the RS10 does. I'll probably end up giving her my RS10 when I build a scale trail rig. I really like the RS10. But I love scale realism. RS10 body fits that Maisto pretty good. Hmmmm. I wonder what the Maisto body would look like on my RS 10.

[mtm]

My 2 year old has a maisto crawler that I converted to 7.2v nimh. I did this so he could crawl with me and its only $30 if he tears it up. He insists on playing my rs10xt because "it has a blue body"

He has a hard shell crew cab f150 that he doesnt play with anymore. Its just sitting on the body posts in these pics but I think it'll be pretty cool... Then the redcat body can go on the maisto and hopefully he'll be interested in it again =P













- Matt

I have my steering set at 60-70% to avoid tire contact with the motors. But just in case I made some shields from some spare thin plastic I had








- Matt

The white plastic looked rigged up so I went another direction when I found some black plastic caps that fit good over the motors. Drilled some holes in them and secured with zip ties.











I also removed the stickers from the Ford body, drilled some holes for the body posts and put it on



















- Matt

I removed my electronics as well as the tray. I then put down some industrial grade Velcro on the tray and the opposite in the bottom of my esc, receiver, and lipo alarm. Cleaned it up quite a bit and I have the ability to rearrange things if need be.











- Matt

[jsowens]

That's a really clean wiring job. Looks great!

[bladefan]

I feel like this is a dumb question but I need to replace my servo arms. What is it that you are using? The aluminum ones at my LHS are a little short but probably useable. Most of the links that I am finding dont say how long their arm is.

One servo is Hitec and the other is a CPE
Crawford Performance Engineering : CPE-SER4: CYS Hi-Torque Metal Gear Servo - $19.99 (futaba splines it says in the description).

thanks!

[mtm]

Here's the servo horns I'm using.

http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item...d=191012906466

- Matt

Got a chance to work on the truck tonight. I made some new bent links to clear the motors and allow more ground clearance. I took a picture of the parts I used if anyone is interested.



[IMG]http://img.tapatalk.com
/d/14/04/13/gegu7uhu.jpg[/IMG]











Factory straight link at the top



Before:



After:







Still gets pretty good articulation as well for being squatted that much.





- Matt

[MountainStorm]

Nice work Matt. Thanks for posting a close up of the link mounts. Good research on finding those.

[mtm]

No problem. They need a little cleaning up and finesse as the diameter was supposed to be 1/4" but wouldn't fit over my 1/4" tubing. I'm using the factory plastic mounts for right now.

My boys love this thing. Might have to get them one...

- Matt

[TakeOffYouHoser]

You have a son ...

kids = no more toys of your own

Which means it's a great excuse to buy 2 of everything.


All joking aside - very happy to see you both had a great time!

Qrawlity time.

[mtm]

I have 2 sons so maybe i need to buy 3 of everything lol.



- Matt

[Overkel]

Looks great. A couple quick tips. If you cut the small lugs off of the center portion of the tire, it will perform surprisingly better. Put a zip tie or 2 around that servo. They have more strength than the weak plastic can work with for extended periods of time. I have had 2 of those crack the plastic case because the metal gears were so much stronger than the case holding them..

[bearz]

to get the droop do you only have to change the shock mounts or what else is there to do. cheers

[JCon]

Mean lookin' ford

Looking good.

like most of us, I think u need to remove the orange though, from the rings and chassis plate. Stands out too much on a black rig.

[mtm]

Good tips overkel thanks. Bearz, i got my droop from building the S links and adjusting the position of the shocks.

- Matt

[mtm]

Cut the little lugs from the center treads as suggested as well as snipped the center of the chevrons to make them a little more pliable.









- Matt

[Overkel]

Looks great. Those tires are stiff enough that you can run them with out foams. Just be careful how you store the car to avoid flat spots developing.

Don't forget to put a zip tie on that servo to get a little longer life out of it.

[mtm]

Yeah i took the foams out a little while ago. I keep it supported on top of a can of plastidip to prevent the tires from getting flat spots. I have some stick on wheel weights im going to put on the inside of the wheels before remounting.

Also, im going to zip tie the servo when i put the wheels back on.

- Matt

[Jcplante]

If you can avoid weighting the wheels do it. With these rigs being underpowered the weight really robs power. Try to get the weight on the axle like knuckle weights. If there is no other way then don't go overboard with the weight.

You will be happier with the tires cut like that. They are not as good as nice comp tires but still an upgrade for sure.

[JCon]

i found after washing my tires once in hot water they softened up a lil bit.

but like most tires the more u drive em the better they will start to bite.

Jcplante is right try to get the weight on the axle not in the wheel.

good luck.