New Clod - Gift from the wife

[dzydvl]

So I need some help... Seems my wife wanted to surprise me for Valentines Day, and ordered a new Clod Buster for me. Seems she remembers more than I thought, I mentioned a while back it was a truck I always wanted when I was younger, so she decided to order it.

So I have two options, either I return it which I would feel bad about, it's actually pretty cool of her to do.

Second - buy what I need to make it a decent basher and just have some fun with it.

We all know it's outdated, but that doesn't make it a bad truck. I've looked through all the threads, and as expected parts will be tricky to come by. I'm thinking first would be to order some CVD's and bearings. I was also thinking getting replacements for the Steering links and such, but I'll be honest, I have no idea what would work on the stock chassis.

Thoughts?

[Chumley54]

Bearings are a must...the rest? I ran my clod stock for a few years (just bearings and ESC (Old Clod came with mechanical speed controller). Also, get a streong steering servo (you can start with a single, stock setup.

There are plenty of parts for this old truck.....You can pretty much build a new clod from the parts out there.

Get the bearings, out it together with the bearings and start running it.

Then upgrade as you go....

My second upgrade was the vertical steering servo mount, and 2 steering servos....makes it a whole lot better. (Works best with a 3 channel radio, but HeyOK has a cable that will allow you to do 2 servo steeering with a 2 channel)

The clod is a classic....Wheels. tires, motors, suspension, etc all can be improved or changed.

Like all the other RC cars, you also can easily spend your rent money on upgrades.

My next round will likely start upgrading the axles to those machined aluminum ones....The darn thing will have more invested in it than my real full scale pickup.....

Have fun, Your wife is a keeper.

(My wife bought my Clod for me too....I been keeping her).

[DVS]

There's a lot that you can do with a Clod, Like Chumley54 said you can upgrade to a vertical steering servo mount on the axel. Also you can change it to a 4 link suspension. Change the stock shocks to oil-filled shocks.
One thing that I would do first is check out Clodtalk you can get a lot of information and ideas.
For after market parts Crawford Performance Engineering is a good place to go.

[dzydvl]

I completely agree with the bearings those are a must have....

I was looking at the CPE website as well as Clodtalk, both sites will be a big help. I think I may upgrade the axles and Links, it looks like CPE has them in stock and on sale. From there I will most likely run it for a while...

As for the wife... Yeah she's a keeper for sure. It's a good thing I had already bought her V-day gift, otherwise I may be scrambling lol.

Thanks again for the ideas, can't wait to get this thing fired up.... The first truck I bought when I was 13 was a Blackfoot. This will bring back the memories....

[dzydvl]

Something I Really want to do with this truck is add working lights. I know there's hundreds of options out there, but it's always nice to start with people who have been there already. Any thoughts??

[dzydvl]

So I just ordered the RC4wd Axles, as well as vertical servo mount, and stiffeners from CPE.. I'm going to take a stab at making the 4 link and steering rods myself. There are great instructions on here. I figure worse case if I honk it up I can still buy them.

Once I get those parts I'll start putting her together...

[Chumley54]

I bought a $12 light set and now have headlights, brake lights and turn signals. I also added a 4 light light bar on the roll bar and revolving lights at each end of the roll bar. I need to get some pics. My clod body has 27 years of hard life, but despite being beat up, the lights add some fun. I am using a hacked gt-3b and a 6 channel rcvr. Revolving lights and light bar are controlled by channel 5 and 6.

[dzydvl]

That sounds pretty cool Chumley. I've come across a few light kits, I may just pick up a basic set and go from there...

[OSRC]

I just added bearings, headlights, some left over oil shocks and a few visual perks. Pretty much left the chassis alone. Love the old school monster look and feel, takes me back a ways that's for sure.

Dual 45t motors on 3S and it's a blast. Great snow truck.


I've had quite a few modded clods and always got bored with them after a while and sold them off. I've had this semi-stock one for a long time, it's a lot of fun to bomb around with.