CR-01 Upgrades/mods

[Giznad]

Evening all. It seems that I'm going to be getting a CR-01 in a trade. Looks pretty good and is RTR. I'm pretty stoked about it. What are the must do mods/upgrades for these things? And where the hell do I find upgrades/aftermarket support for this thing? I found the basic stuff off of the Tamiya site and some stuff from Integy, but that can't be it.

Thanks for your help guys!

Giz

[Giznad]

Ok, with a bit more search time I found some do's and don'ts. And also some great set ups. So I have some stuff to do when I get the truck. But, I'm still at a loss for aftermarket vendors. Any ideas?

Thanks,
Giz

[1natehundred]

I'm looking as well. the stock shocks on my cr leak like a siv after about 2-3 hours of use on the rocks in my basement

[Giznad]

Well, unless someone that knows where to find the aftermarket stuff, it's looking pretty slim for these rigs. Almost makes me steer away from the trade i'm about to do.

[ugly duck]

What kind of aftermarket stuff do you really need? I guess it depends on what you want to do with it, but the stock Tamiya stuff works really well and is cheap to replace & common as hell. The CR-01 in stock form is neither a scaler nor a crawler, but is a tremendously fun rig on the woodpile or on the trails.

People say that the shocks leak but mine have been fine, and I'm thinking of emptying them anyway since I've already got 10 weight oil in mine and it still doesn't bounce "scale". Empty shocks don't leak! With some imagination you can adapt MANY shocks to them. Or if you don't like the cantilever system you can easily adapt it to a conventional crawler setup. Do yourself a favour though, and slap some zip ties on the cantilevers & try them out first. With some tuning they can allow ridiculous (way too much) flex.

The driveshafts are a known weak point but I've broken one, and there are plenty of metal and plastic upgrades. The cheapest and probably best looking are the Traxxas versions, which aren't a direct bolt-on but are close enough. A quick search will tell you what to use here - I'm going Traxxas once I use up my Tamiya shafts.

People really haven't explored the scale aspect of this truck too much yet, but I think it's coming. The axles are about 1.5" wider than a TLT-1, even wider than a High Lift, so fitting them under a body is tough. They look just about right under my 1:6 New Bright body, but I've got other ideas for that one & I like using my un-scale CR-01 too much to cut it up. I think they'd work perfectly under a Dragon Willys Jeep, though.

With a TVP chassis and some other mods, I'm pretty sure that the CR-01 can crawl pretty well, but it'll never be that maneuverable because of those steering links and dogbone axles. CVDs and modded alloy parts would make things better, but why fight a losing battle? 4WS is alright - I ran my truck that way for a while, but I like 2WS better and I modded my plastic stuff to give me somewhat better steering. I'm not hardcore with mine so it doesn't flip end over end down a rockpile too often...

[lowslowTJ]

I am a fan of this BTA (Behind The Axle Steering) set up. It helps the CR-01 with steering more sharply and its free...unless you cut off the extra arms from your original steering knuckles:

CR01 BTA

[Giznad]

Hey thanks for the input guys. I didn't know that it was really that tough in stock form. Well I went ahead and got the truck. It needs a couple of things replaced (twisted front driveshaft) and possibly reworked. I'll post up some pics and get your guys opions on it. So far it's pretty cool and I like it.

Giz

[bigjayb05]

i found some stuff at rcmart.com or even ebay. now im trying to figure out how to hook up rear wheel steering and upgrade my driveshafts to a little more beefier, mine keep binding and slipping off at the u-joint. but other than that this is the funnest ive had in rc.

jay

[Giznad]

So far this is the cheapest site I've found. http://www.stellamodels.net/catalog/...sort=2a&page=1

Lots of stuff.

GIz

[Giznad]

I was hoping to find some sliders, smooth skid, front and rear bumbers. Seems like everyone is on the honch bandwagon. Not that it's not nice as hell and has a large and popular company pumping them out, but it would be nice to see some of our vendors offering for other rigs. But it's all good. I'll just have drag the torch out and put the new bender to work. See what I can catch on fire.

Originally Posted by ugly duck

What kind of aftermarket stuff do you really need? I guess it depends on what you want to do with it, but the stock Tamiya stuff works really well and is cheap to replace & common as hell. The CR-01 in stock form is neither a scaler nor a crawler, but is a tremendously fun rig on the woodpile or on the trails.

People say that the shocks leak but mine have been fine, and I'm thinking of emptying them anyway since I've already got 10 weight oil in mine and it still doesn't bounce "scale". Empty shocks don't leak! With some imagination you can adapt MANY shocks to them. Or if you don't like the cantilever system you can easily adapt it to a conventional crawler setup. Do yourself a favour though, and slap some zip ties on the cantilevers & try them out first. With some tuning they can allow ridiculous (way too much) flex.

The driveshafts are a known weak point but I've broken one, and there are plenty of metal and plastic upgrades. The cheapest and probably best looking are the Traxxas versions, which aren't a direct bolt-on but are close enough. A quick search will tell you what to use here - I'm going Traxxas once I use up my Tamiya shafts.

People really haven't explored the scale aspect of this truck too much yet, but I think it's coming. The axles are about 1.5" wider than a TLT-1, even wider than a High Lift, so fitting them under a body is tough. They look just about right under my 1:6 New Bright body, but I've got other ideas for that one & I like using my un-scale CR-01 too much to cut it up. I think they'd work perfectly under a Dragon Willys Jeep, though.

With a TVP chassis and some other mods, I'm pretty sure that the CR-01 can crawl pretty well, but it'll never be that maneuverable because of those steering links and dogbone axles. CVDs and modded alloy parts would make things better, but why fight a losing battle? 4WS is alright - I ran my truck that way for a while, but I like 2WS better and I modded my plastic stuff to give me somewhat better steering. I'm not hardcore with mine so it doesn't flip end over end down a rockpile too often...

[warmanjames]

I found a nice little site called asiatees.com that has a ton of alloy upgrades for cr-01's. Decent prices too. I've pretty much completely swapped out the plastic stuff for alloy and titanium from there. The other good site I found was Team Integy. They charge a little more but the bits are top notch. I got my spring mounts and driveshafts from there (had to use a honcho/wraith shaft on the front as I stretched my wheelbase a little - straight fit too!). I like the way mine crawls now as all the alloy parts effectively moved my c.o.g lower. Makes it a bit easier to keep on its wheels now when i use 2.2's.

[Gunngee]

I love driving my CR with rear steer. I ran it on it's own channel so I have independent control over it, took some getting used to but now I don't even think about what to do I just do it. The bta wasn't as easy as the write up in this forum stated. The only way I could make it work was to rotate the outers and even then I had to put a slight bend in my tie rod to get it to work. I have fun driving it and so does the wife. She like it so much that I got permission to buy another crawler so she can play with the CR when I am at my RC club meets. Not going CR on this though, it's just a chassis and links. This one's gonna be a custom built unlimited class crawler.