New guy with RS10XT

[Damion10]

Hey, been creeping ( no pun intended ) the forums for a while, was debating on getting a crawler. Finally pulled the trigger on a RS10XT. It seemed to be the best bang for the buck with decent support. I've also went through this forum about three times taking in all the info I can.

After having it for a couple days, I'm loving it. The only downside so far is the shortish runtime. 2-3 hours would be nice lol.

So far I've removed the foams from all tires and put about 3oz of stick on weights in each wheel. For now it does pretty well. Tires are the next upgrade. Thinking of going with the mud slingers. I've also put fuel line bushings on the lower links ( I found they rotated way too much )

Two of the factory foams were badly flat spotted. Will they come back around?

Gonna look into new servos, aluminum servo arms and a bigger battery

[cabron]

metal gear servos would be best. a bec is highly recommended. the servos will perform at their best
between 6.0 to 7.5 volts depending on the servo. read the specs on the servo and check the specs on the receiver.
there are ways of using the bec to power just the servo and not the receiver if you want to go up into the 7.5 volt
range. 12kg torque can be had for around 10 dollars, 15 - 20 kg can be found for under 40. then there are the expensive servos .......

mudslingers are more for the scaler guys going for looks. rovers, sedonas, panther leopards, are good and affordable crawler type tires
and also try to use memory foams. when not in use try to keep the crawler on a stand of some sort, or a block of wood, to keep
the weight off the tires and avoid flat spots.

big batteries cost big bucks, and are very heavy and bulky. having several reasonable sized ones charged up and ready
will let you just swap them out, it is what most guys do. avoiding big heavy concentrations of weight is a good thing.

some things that really seem to help the rs10 are lowering the center of gravity, widening the wheelbase either by putting on
some wideners about 1/2" at each wheel or getting wheels with about 1/2" more offset, this so the tires will not rub on the
links/motors/shocks on tight turns. play with the length of the wheelbase, I try to climb the stairs and find that 13.25" to 13.5"
seems to work the best for me but other guys have found that 12" has worked out better for them. so experiment.

have fun, the rs10 is a great little crawler with lots of room for manipulation

[jsowens]

Well said cabron! In regards to batteries, I also recommend a few smaller batteries instead of one large one. When I was running a RS10, I ran 1300mah 2s lipos. I had 3 of them, which combined cost around what a larger battery around 4000mah would cost...and they are a third of the size so they could be fit anywhere. It takes very little time to swap batteries.

If you're going to splurge for new batteries, take this time to do the upgrade to lipos and invest in a good charger. For the charger, I use an Imax B6AC and I use sky lipos in my crawler and short course trucks. The battery size is ultimately up to you, but I recommend something in the 1300-2200mah range at the largest. Pick up a few of those. You'll also want to do a plug swap and solder on some deans or XT60 plugs onto the ESC, batteries, and charger if it needs it. Aside from that, it's a good idea to pick up a lipo low voltage alarm as well. The last thing you want to do is over-discharge them and damage them.

A good charger is mandatory for r/c IMO. I despised the charger that came with the original RS10. It took forever and had no indicator as to when the battery was fully charged. I upgraded and didn't look back.

[Damion10]

I won't be doing any comps with it so weight isn't really a concern. Just some yard crawling. That being said is why I was looking at the mud slinger tires, they seem to be a good overall tire. I find the crawler specific tires aren't very aggressive for mud etc.

But I'm still open to tips / opinions

[cabron]

don't misunderstand... this hobby is about you having fun and any opinions we impart are only
to help you decide what to do.

that said when I talk about weight it is to help the crawler from rolling over when crawling sideways on a slant.

fun in the mud

[Damion10]

I'm doing my best to try to keep the weight down low. ( added weights to the inside of the wheels ) and my RS10 is the new version with a long battery pack that is held in by Velcro, and has the wing delete from the factory.

As a side question, did anyone notice that when they added weight was there any loss in runtime?

I'm also gonna look into some bent lower links and probably look into the shock on axle mod this weekend. I'll make some brackets to mount the factory shocks up to the frame.

Also, I noticed tonight the suspension is very slow to droop or twist down into a hole or dip ( 3 wheels on a surface and the 4th isn't supported ) any tips for speeding that process up? Maybe I have the lower links on the frame tightened too much when I put the fuel line bushings in.

[jsowens]

When you add more weight to a rig, more power is required to move it, and it can have an effect on the run time. However, if you opt for a better battery, you'll likely not notice much of a difference unless your rig is crazy heavy. That's where lipo has an advantage...the power doesn't taper off like a nimh battery does. It stays consistent until cutoff.

As for the shocks not rebounding fast enough...sometimes shocks come out of the box with a heavier shock oil inside, or no oil at all to control them. You can speed up shock movement by adding thinner shock oil. Suspension setup is a pretty key player in how a crawler performs. My suggestion is to pick up a couple different weights of oil and even some different spring rates if you want a certain feel. You can sometimes find packs of springs in different weights.

[Damion10]

Mod update,

So far added to the above mentioned mods, I've made some bent lower links from aluminum, flipped the electronics tray and dropped the body an inch ( more for looks than anything ). I also fabbed up some clip keepers that use the factory body holes.
I also painted the wheels, and polished the outer beadlock rings. I'll try to get a couple pics soon

Also got a 2500 mah battery and a much better charger ( charges in about an hour )