thinking about a clod...

[Phantez]

Im thinking about buying a clod for rock crawling, but dont plan on spending much money on it. How does it crawl stock, with the diffs. locked? How bout compared to a stock emaxx with locked diffs? if i do plan on upgrading it, how much should i plan on spending? Does it come as a kit or is it prebuilt? What does it need that doesnt come with the truck other than batteries and charger? Is it hard to upgrade?
A lot of questions, thanks for the answers!!

[Phantez]

Ooh, a couple more things, how much flex does it have stock? Any pix too? Can you fit a Proline Maxx body on it very well?

[SR5Dave]

A stock clod comes with a crappy mechanical speed controller, and the truck itself. If you look on ebay you can get one with an ESC and radio for under 200$, and then its prebuilt.. although you'll dissasemble and reassemble anyway im sure

Stock flex sucks, you can take off a shock and clearance them but you'll start hitting the plastic tub. The only thing stock clods are is bulletproof! Just replace the anti rotational bracket with a metal one (super easy to make) and you're good to go.

How good of a crawler? Not toooo good. The ABS tub is tall, and made for a high COG. We love the clod because it has more potential than anything else, in stock form it aint all that great! But there is soooo much you can do to make a better clod

[SR5Dave]

Stock flex.. mine when it was new.. ah man, what did I do!!! 8O

[Grizzly4x4]

I never even assembled my stock chassis so I cant tell ya. PoRiggity is still runnin a stock chassis, maybe he'll chime in too. I have seen Ace's stock EMaxx with silly putty diffs and it works really good, theres nothin wrong with it until you meet up with a Mod Clod, TXT, electric X-factor, or any number of the other creations out there.

To make a Clod work great all you need is a new chassis, servo mount, rear steering lockout, and lower gears. Any basic chassis (Zilla II, Gecko 1 or 2, skoolbus's chassis, or a homemade one) will make the clod a contender. Another interesting option would be to use a TXT chassis, cut the bottom off real high cuz you dont have a tranny there and hook the links to Clod axles. Easy and cool.

Kinda like this : http://www.rccrawler.com/postt694.html

Lock the diffs, change the gears, mount a servo on the axle (2ws is fine for 90% of what you will do) and have a blast.

From there you will learn what you need to push it even more.

[Phantez]

sounds to me like my emaxx will kick a stock clods ass. Maybe i should just see if i can get a chassis for cheap, some clod axels, and wutever else i would need (ill need ur help here, i dont know diddly spit about clods at this point.) But i dont wanna spend over, say, $300. What setups do u think i should get?

btw, wut batteries should i get to get about 45 minutes of runtime? Just some GP 3300's?

[SR5Dave]

Originally Posted by Phantez

sounds to me like my emaxx will kick a stock clods ass. i think i will just get something prebuilt for crawling off ebay or something. btw, wut batteries should i get to get about 45 minutes of runtime? Just some GP 3300's?

Great batteries: http://www.amondotech.com/index.asp?...amp;ProdID=407 give out up to 30A, I love mine!

Your stock E-maxx will probably do better... but it doesn't have as much potential as the clod IMO ;) In other words... My clod can kick your maxx's ass :P

[Phantez]

Originally Posted by SR5Dave

Great batteries: http://www.amondotech.com/index.asp?...amp;ProdID=407 give out up to 30A, I love mine!

Your stock E-maxx will probably do better... but it doesn't have as much potential as the clod IMO ;) In other words... My clod can kick your maxx's ass :P

eeh

[skoolbus]

I built my first clod for well under $150.00 8O
I bought a serious POS clod off ebay because it had a super-rooster w/it. The ebay clod also came with a duratrax radio, and a servo. ($118.00) cha-ching.
Then a set of e-maxx shocks ($9.00) :o
THen I went back and forth from bloodclods and Matts RC page until I was ready to build my chassis. So if your broke, you can do it for real cheap, you just got to put the effort in.

P.S. Thanks for the chassis plug there grizzly.

[Grizzly4x4]

Here's what I would do:

Do just like skoolbus, find a Clod on ebay wif a esc, hopefully a radio too. PM skoolbus about one of his chassis. If it dont have a radio get a Traxxas TQ 2 or 3ch, they are cheap. Build a front servo mount and rear lockout.

As far as esc's go, the Super Rooster is best but a Rooster will work. I am currently running a Rooster in The Duke with Magnetic Mayhem motors and BFT (7") tires. I had to add a Y harness and receiver battery pack to run the steering servo but so far no problems.

I am working on a tech article to have Jason put on the main page that shows all I have done to build my Clod. In another month or so my jigs should be done and I will be offering my chassis for sale.

No problem skoolbus I like what you have done.

[Phantez]

hey, i was talking on AOL IM with a friend, we were looking at clods on ebay, he found on he really liked, so he offered to sell me his. He took these pix... http://www.team-xoc.com/Rccar/ of it for me to see it. (I helped him pick it out on ebay. I never meet the guy in real life tho.) Tell me if u see something rong or if any flags go up. He wants $250 for it ($275 with shipping) Whatdaya think?

[Phantez]

ooh, and he says he doesnt know what kind of trasmitter he has, but its a pistol grip. He also says he doesnt know wut ESC it is, its black and he beleives its called a tekin.

EDIT: now i got him to take a pic of the esc. He says the transmitter is at his dads, so he cant show it.

[Grizzly4x4]

Personally, I think you could do better for the money . $275 easily gets you a running clod with with a skoolbus chassis (much better chassis IMO). It's tempting cuz it all seems to be there but I dont know how well it will work.

This is interesting:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...94746&rd=1

This'd be a good start too:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...46966&rd=1

[Phantez]

Originally Posted by Grizzly4x4

This is interesting:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...94746&rd=1

lol, thats the one he mite buy to sell me his

[Grizzly4x4]

I like his way of thinking. Seems like he knows what he's getting rid of, if you know what I mean.

[Phantez]

lol, btw, he updated the pix of it. same link

[IceCrawler]

I dont think you guys know what your talking about because this is a good deal i got it for 285 with S&H with no ESC and im selling it for 275 with S&H with a ESC... and it will outcrawl yours.. here are some more pictures.. www.4x4customs.org/Rccar it comes with 2 bodies, esc, controller, reciever, battery, alot of spare parts, 2 servos, 2 Speed Gems² 15 turn motors, locked and unlocked diffs, manual... and you need is there and comes with truck..

[Grizzly4x4]

Lighten up IceCrawler, someone asks my opinion I give 'em my opinion. I am sorry it conflicts with your opinion but that is life. I am just tryin to help Phantez out. Maybe I am wrong, that is for Phantez to decide.

Out crawl The Duke? Hmmmm...Interesting proposition.

[IceCrawler]

thats nice.. but i can do that too :P

[Grizzly4x4]

Oh OK, sorry. I thought those rocks in your picture were bottles of Metamucil or sumpin.