Got my first Clod!

[simon170]

Got my first (and second, but more on that later) Clod the other day and just had to show it to someone

Bought a Thunder Tech Ripper from a guy on a UK forum that came up at a good price. Luckily for me when it arrived it was exactly as he had described and was in good shape.

So far I've mounted a Ford Raptor body, swapped the clod wheels for TXT's, stripped and cleaned the motors, and added radio gear.

Its running Super Rooster ESC, 2 x 645mg servo's and 2 x Magnetic Mayhem motors, I think they are 22turn but not sure. Also not sure if its a Ripper or Ripper Pro... anyone know?

Had quick go round the garden with it, seems to go well, not massively fast but great torue and enough to be getting on with in the mean time. Handles well and I'm looking forward to seeing how she flies when shown some jumps.




I'm thinking of adding 2 Turnigy Brushless combos to it soon, 3520KV 540 size 4 pole motors and 80amp ESC's. Hoping this will give a good balance of speed and low end.

The other truck I bought was from Kingclod27, a "Pounder" chassis compete with upgraded axles. But that needs a bit more work to get it going.
Think I'll end up putting all the goodies on one truck, not sure which, and setting up the other for my girlfriend to use.

Thanks for looking

[Calderwood]

Race colds are awesome. Do you have races local to you? That's the only thing preventing me from owning one.

[Mudsy]

Pretty sure you have the Ripper version. I used to have one years ago.

Ripper has G-10 chassis and standard kit parts.

Ripper Pro have carbon fiber chassis and some cnc machine parts included.

That's what I remembered.

[simon170]

Originally Posted by nigels_world

Race colds are awesome. Do you have races local to you? That's the only thing preventing me from owning one.

Nope, no clod racing round here, I'm not too fussed about that though. Done the racing things for a few years. It all gets a bit serious and takes the fun out if it, well for me anyway lol just gonna have fun with it bit of crawl/bash/jump

Originally Posted by Mudsy

Pretty sure you have the Ripper version. I used to have one years ago.

Ripper has G-10 chassis and standard kit parts.

Ripper Pro have carbon fiber chassis and some cnc machine parts included.

That's what I remembered.

The chassis is carbon fiber, has cnc top link mounts and lower arms.
No cnc bits on the main axles though.

Might be a Ripper with a few upgrades?

[Mudsy]

Looks like you got the Pro version minus cnc sway bar arms. It was only $40 dollars difference between the versions when it came out.

[simon170]

Thanks for the info mate

Just took the truck out in woods, really impressed with it, I can't believe how stable it is! It's a blast to drive, turns on a dime and hopes over logs with ease, and it didn't roll once! That maybe partly that it's not the fastest thing on earth with the 22 turn motors but seems to be a really well thought out chassis design.
Think it needs some more shock oil as it seemed to bottom out pretty easy and there wasn't a lot if damping, but thats easily sorted. 20W oil do the job you think?

After using it I'm now wondering if I should stay with the motor/speedo setup, and try it 3s instead of going brushless. What do you guys think?

[simon170]

Opened up the shocks, and they were full after all. Must just have been incredibly thin oil, have changed it for 50w now so we'll see how that goes on the next outing.
Also going to give a 7cell nimh a go, to see if it gives a little more speed.

[realismfan]

I do like that raptor body. It almost looks like a hard plastic body. Are you enjoying it?

[HDMM]

Nice Clod!

[simon170]

Yeah it is hard plastic, I enjoy it when I get to take it out, which isn't easy as it seems to be monsoon season here in the uk lol
I think I'm going to lower the body and cut the arches a bit, then maybe up the power a touch.
I have another truck, more of a scaled down monster truck type chassis design, just got RC4WD alloy bead locks for it and some B&H monster truck tires. No electrics at the moment though.

Another project to sink money into lol