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Old 05-06-2017, 08:50 PM   #1
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Default And then there were 4

And then there were 4! Sent my Ascender off to the great trails of CA and got a nice FJ CR01 in trade. I have a ton of hop up parts sitting around from my other three, finally am able to put them to good use.

This one came pretty much bone stock...I wanted to leave this one as close to stock as possible since I have three now very heavily modified. I wanted to keep the cantilevers, but the amount of play in them drives me nuts, so off they came, along with the springs....that's the only major change. The rest is in the details.

First thing is beefing up Tamiya's weaksauce driveshafts. Since Axial Wild Boar shafts are all but non-existent right now (due to Axial's supply chain debacle) I had to make do with the stockers. I drilled out the male end and sleeved it internally with brass for strength. Then I cut down 2 female sections, glued the male in one and cut down the other so that only a minimum amount of the male shaft was exposed. This should be much stronger than the stock spaghetti shafts. Time will tell!


Apparently the FJ kits came with the luster silver chassis. I would have never bought one as there's no performance benefit, but it does look pretty nice compared to the stock parts. Made some shock towers to match and bolted on some Vaterra shocks. Modded the pistons, limited travel by 10mm, and converted over to single spring. Super smooth!


Mounted up my 3 racing portals..they didn't work well with the aftermarket hubs before, but seem to fit much better on the stock parts. We'll see how they hold up.


Nice shiny bumper to match the chassis, and sleeved the stock tie rods as they were already bent a bit.


Weighted Tamiya rims and new Proline Hammers I've been holding on to. The tamiya wheels just clear the hubs, I've got about 1mm to spare. The challenge with the portals is to find wheels that have enough offset to clear the portals, but not too much that the axles look super wide. I just took this body off my SCX10, and they are a perfect fit for CR01 chassis...


In fact, I already have one. One is Tamiya Copper, the other is Pactra Fiery Orange...not sure which is which anymore, but they both look cool....


Side by side, you can really see how the modded one (right) increases the ground clearance. It's also far lighter! That one goes on the serious trail runs. This one will be for mild trail use and tooling around the backyard...
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Old 05-06-2017, 09:40 PM   #2
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Default Re: And then there were 4

Nice! I haven't seen much action in the CR-01 section, but interested to see more info since I've got a bronco cr01 sitting in storage as well. In fact it's the first crawler that I actually bought. I masked off the body... read the instructions... saw how many areas needed the screws to have loc-tite... and decided to hold off for the time being. Then came along the other crawler kits in my collection. I'll get to this one eventually.
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Old 05-13-2017, 09:12 AM   #3
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Default Re: And then there were 4

I'm really the only one in here anymore.

It does for sure have a ton of screws, and it's not super easy to work on. Fun in stock form, and with just a few simple mods it gets much more capable. Changing up the suspension and tires alone make all the difference in the world.
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Old 05-25-2017, 03:30 AM   #4
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Default Re: And then there were 4

Do you have a build thread on the highly modded one? Your CC01 builds are highly informative and fun and have inspired me to mod mine and buy like 3 more kits to tinker with.
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Old 05-25-2017, 06:23 AM   #5
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Default Re: And then there were 4

They are littered about in here...

Jeep above
3rd time's a charm

Evolution of my first one... from a 2.2 to 1.9 jeep to a crawler bug.
CR01 Custom chassis build

More...
Putting the CR01 on a diet.
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Old 05-25-2017, 07:19 AM   #6
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Default Re: And then there were 4

Quote:
Originally Posted by OSRC View Post
I wanted to leave this one as close to stock as possible
Suuuuuure. That's what we all say in the beginning.

Would the Traxxas shafts work on this truck for driveshafts?

My Land Cruiser didn't come with those nice chassis rails, but I know they were an option part. I wanted them, but they were always priced too high.

I should pick up a set of those 3Racing portals if they're still available. EDIT: Grr they sadly appear to be OOS everywhere just like the aluminum axle housings.

I like the long and low stance of this new truck. It looks mean!

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Old 05-25-2017, 10:03 AM   #7
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Default Re: And then there were 4

I'm broke, don't have much choice!

They will. I use WB shafts and they've held up great. All the chop shops have dried up though with Axial's stock issues, so I was forced to mod the stock shafts for this one.
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Old 05-27-2017, 07:07 AM   #8
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Default Re: And then there were 4

You haven't tried the ziptie trick on the cantilever arms? I have mine ziptied for years. They are tight and rock solid, no slop

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Old 05-27-2017, 07:55 AM   #9
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Default Re: And then there were 4

I did, but it bound up the cants enough that I took them back off.
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Old 03-05-2019, 06:51 AM   #10
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Default Re: And then there were 4

And then there were 2.... sold off 2 CR01's, still have 2 lurking around. I still mess around with these trucks... long after it's been abandoned by the crawler crowd.

Decided to take an afternoon and make some changes and upgrades to my Copper Jeep. Aside from the awful steering, this truck actually wheels pretty good. Just wanted to make a few changes...Two biggest issues it had were a fairly high COG and a somewhat low hanging skid.

Used some industrial grade HDPE and made a new trans mount. The old one was aluminum and pretty much stuck on everything. The HDPE should slide much better. The white is kind of annoying, but it's what I had.


View from the top..


Made a new battery tray that moves the battery much lower. Sized for 2200 packs.


Had a Vaterra 2 speed trans laying around not doing anything in particular, so in it went. Works great with the axle ratio - slow creeper gear, and a perfect trail speed in high gear.


To lower the COG a bit, I ditched the barrel springs and cut down the stock springs by about 1/3. Entire truck now sits much lower overall. Some 70mm shocks were a perfect fit.


When I cut the new skid, I also removed 10mm from the bottom of the chassis.. now the chassis doesn't hang down nearly as much - it's about as flat as I can get under there. Kind of had to with the smaller springs.



Went back to 1.9's. I used some old Proline wheels as they had the most positive offset I could find. Motoworks "max backspace" wheels would be perfect but they aren't in the budget at the moment. CR01 axles are a little too wide for 1.9's, so I need to narrow the track as much as possible.


THey don't tuck as much as I would like, but I can live with this...



Also modified the crawler bug.. added 4WS - needs all the help it can get in the steering department. I like the tires - old Moabs with some DS foams. They still grip pretty decent. I'd like to switch out the wheels, just didn't feel like removing all those screws just yet.



Last edited by OSRC; 03-05-2019 at 06:53 AM.
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Old 03-05-2019, 08:11 AM   #11
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Default Re: And then there were 4

I really need to get mine running again. I was in the garage looking for my still MIA Wraith and the Land Blinger was looking sad and lonely. I've only run that thing twice.

Do you think that HDPE would take to black Rit dye?
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Old 03-05-2019, 09:53 AM   #12
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Default Re: And then there were 4

LOL, I haven't started my CR01 Bronco yet. Maybe this year...
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Old 03-05-2019, 01:35 PM   #13
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I have no idea if HDPE will take dye.. I don't think it will. It's pretty dense.
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Old 03-06-2019, 06:27 PM   #14
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Default Re: And then there were 4

The Jeep looks plenty tucked from that angle. Just a bit of tire outside the fenders looks like any brotastic Jeeps you'd see driving around regularly

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Old 03-07-2019, 09:05 AM   #15
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Default Re: And then there were 4

There's a copper 4 door at my gym that looks very simliar. Wider black/silver wheels, flat flares, hardtop with a roof rack and lights...it's like he copied off me! I'd take a pic, but he doesn't look like the kind of guy who would find it amusing.
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Old 07-18-2019, 08:00 AM   #16
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Default Re: And then there were 4

Ah, the old CR01. Loneliest truck in the shop. Since the TRX4's have arrived, haven't even looked at it. Haven't even driven it since I made the last round of changes. So I threw a battery in and went out to see how it did.




Surprisingly good actually. Not much suspension travel, but it's stable and crawls well - very planted and predictable, though the steering is just awful. Max steering lock...sheesh.


BUT in the interest of science, decided to experiment a bit. What helps a truck with craptastic steering? Overdrive of course! Would have loved to swap in a front axle with more steering, but the gear ratios and the wide CR01 axles made it tough. Stock Tamiya gears have a 2.66 ratio and are 195mm hex to hex. I did have a box of older SCX10 parts, and a found enough parts to cobble together a rear axle. Plastic housing with beef tubes, HD gears (std. ratio) and a Locked up locker. Not bad for rummaging through some spare parts.


After some fiddling around, got it mounted up out back.


Fudged around with some shocks and got a stance I liked, and used some Gearhead wheels with adjustable offset to match the track front and rear. It's about 5mm wider at the front axle so it came out pretty close.


Running a 2.66 ratio up front and a 2.92 out back gave me just a touch of overdrive (just about 10%). I also shaved the knuckles and axles to gain a bit of steering..




Honestly, it wheels pretty good for what it is. Still needs a bit of shock tuning, but it's surprisingly capable. That steering though....I just can't get around it. I've been spoiled by new trucks! The rear UD helps, but it can't change basic geometry. Not sure what I want to do with this one. Sell it and get a Sendero maybe... that will fix the steering problem!
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Old 07-18-2019, 10:16 AM   #17
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Default Re: And then there were 4

It still looks good though

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Old 07-27-2019, 06:22 PM   #18
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Default Re: And then there were 4

Thank you sir! We'll be in your neck of the woods tomorrow @ Green Lane (well, used to be)

Sadly, the CR01 will not be in attendance. Ascender and one of my TRX's get the nod tomorrow.
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Old 07-27-2019, 07:04 PM   #19
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Default Re: And then there were 4

Oh very nice! I moved out of Harleysville at the beginning of July and now live in Chestnut Hill area of Philadelphia. There is a nice park right up the road from me for crawling as well as Wissahickon Park and Creek about a mile away too. Already was hiking there and was thinking I should have brought my rig

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