My son's GC1 TLT

[Nova's Ark]

This is my son's GC1 now with TLT's. He started with an Axial AX-10 kit, then got upgraded to the GC1 with Axial axles and now he has been upgraded to this. In my opinion, well built TLT's are an upgrade to Axials. My other crawlers are all Tamiya based and having spare parts on hand for just the Axial was an inconvenience. Plus I really didn't like the sloppy lockers and the plastic mount tabs on the axle. We only bought the AX-10 kit because everything was right there in the kit and we didn't know how far our son would want to take it. The only thing left from the original kit is the transmission.

Well he really enjoys rock crawling and has a natural eye for lines. The hardest thing is keeping him focused at comps towards the end of the day. By then he's tired and would rather play Transformers so he tends to rush through the course and make mistakes he wouldn't normally do.

Here is a link to his original build thread:
My son's AX-10

Here is a link to his GC1 build thread:
My son's GC1 AX-10

Here are the current specs to his crawler:
- GC1 Chassis w/ custom made link plates
- Axial transmission with VF Dig and custom servo mount for the Hitec 645MG dig servo
- TLT axles which include:
Shimmed ring and pinions, locked using 6 spider gears, RCP CVD's front and rear, Fat Rock C's with Flanged bearings for steering, RCP max clearance aluminum steering knuckles, both the steering knuckles and C's have been clearance for maximum steering, RCP rear lock outs, full bearings, shaved housings,
- Maxx drive shafts
- Maxx Big Bores with shock cap mod
- Losi white springs up front and Losi yellow springs in rear
- MSD 8 shooter bead locks
- ACE doughnuts up front, full losi foams in rear
- Losi Rock Claws
- Mamba Max ESC mounted on rear axle inside a Traxxas Receiver box
- CC BEC
- Axiom 55 turn motor
- 8 cell saddle packs
- Hitec 5955TG steering servo
- Futaba 3PM FM TX & RX

[eric113]

Looks good. But it look tall.

I would try mount shocks to either inside or outside of the links on the axle end.

[Nova's Ark]

Originally Posted by eric113

Looks good. But it look tall.

I would try mount shocks to either inside or outside of the links on the axle end.

I totally agree. I was going to address that next. I have a few ideas of things I am going to fix. I am going to redo the dig servo mount in order to flip the servo and lower the center of gravity. I am going to change the axle link mounts and lower the belly clearance. The shock cap mod made the Maxx shocks perfect for Axial axles, but too long for TLT's.

I will change the link mount first and possibly limit them internally. Even though it looks really tall, it only has 3 inches of belly clearance in those photos. Those photos are over a week old and I had to change a couple things the night before the DFW comp. The Hitec servo was one of those things. In ten minutes my son had stripped a gear in the KO Propo servo that is pictured above.

[Nova's Ark]

Here's a couple photos of him driving this weekend in the DFW comp #8.

He placed 16th out of 25 crawlers in 2.2. He aced the first course.






Transformers break between courses


On to course 2:

[Hildy]

Cool truck your son has

[Stormin2u]

He's lucky to have such a cool dad

[ronbeck]

Originally Posted by Nova's Ark

Here's a couple photos of him driving this weekend in the DFW comp #8.

He placed 16th out of 25 crawlers in 2.2. He aced the first course.






Transformers break between courses


On to course 2:

Very Cool

My son comps with me as well. He is a little older, but it makes the sport way more fun!

And Transformers Rock!

-peter-

[Nova's Ark]

Originally Posted by Hildy

Cool truck your son has

Thank you.

Originally Posted by Stormin2u

He's lucky to have such a cool dad

You are too kind. I still have much to learn about being a dad. And as far as crawling goes, he is teaching me a few things.

Originally Posted by ronbeck

Very Cool
My son comps with me as well. He is a little older, but it makes the sport way more fun!
And Transformers Rock!
-peter-

I totally agree with all your points. I left nitro racing for crawling and have never looked back. RC Rock Crawling is something we can do together and he does make it so much more fun. The two hour + drives to comps is quality time well spent with him. I highly doubt I would be as interested in it without his involvement.

[Nova's Ark]

Well I had a little time last night and installed the RCP CVD's in the rear axle since I had broken the stock axles in the rear at the last comp over the weekend while playing with my son's crawler. I want to adjust the link mounts and experiment with a few ideas, but I just don't have the time right now. I have a crawler to build for another member and a couple RC's to fix for a local guy as well. I want us to be able to change one thing at a time and test it to see what the effect is. At this point I haven't had the time to do it.

We did play with it a little on our rock garden last night. My son laid out a course and we each tried it. He lays out some very technical and difficult courses. He gets everything he can inside an 8 gate course. Sidehills, off camber, vertical climb, switch backs, etc. I could not get through it cleanly. Had we been keeping score I would have pointed out. He did a little better, but would have suffered the same fate. At one point in the course, being able to free wheel would have helped greatly. So we discussed the option since he using a Futaba 3PM FM radio. He said he wanted to try it.

So late last night I tried to set it up. It did not work out. After an hour of programming and adjusting, I thought I had it. I attached the dig linkage to the servo in order to fine tune it and it burned up the Hitec 645MG. By that time it was midnight so I went inside to shower and get some sleep.

So I plan to change some things up and will post up my findings as time allows. I was already planning to do the link mounts like Hildy did with his GC2. I think our GC1 has too much belly clearance, but I haven't experienced a downfall to this yet on the rocks. So it will just have to be trial and error. One thing that is very nice about the TLT's over the Axials is the link mount options. The switch will pay off in the long run (IMO).

[crash]

Thats so

Looks like you have the same thing going on as I do with my son--gotta love it

[Nova's Ark]

As has been already stated, this is my son's crawler. Since it is his crawler, I consequently don't use it and never really spent a lot of time tuning it. I traded my own 2.2 comp crawler away for a nice Hilux scaler, so I no longer have a 2.2 comp rig of my own. At first it wasn't a problem, but when the East Texas Chapter of TXRCRCA started the '08-'09 points series in July, it became one.

My son allowed me to compete with his truck at the season opener. It worked out well, I was judging so I was able to drive last, and he drew low card and was first in the driving order. He finished 4th that day. In driving his truck, I noticed that things we not as good as they could be or should be. I was experiencing slight torque twist, binding / unsmooth articulation, and the front and rear suspension were not working together. The front axle would max out in articulation and the rear would not or vise versa. We were also beginning to have issues with the DNA / VF dig being unreliable.

I started researching the GC1 and now the GC2 all over again. After reading through builds and posts from Tanis, Yukon635, Grizzly4x4, Gatekeeper and a few others, I realized some of the errors in my ways and decided to go back to basics.

One of the first things to consider was the Jato rod ends I had swapped in place of the Revo ends. I was trying to get the pinion angle up in the rear by using the longer Jato ends, but in doing so, it changed the geometry. At first it didn't seem like that much of a problem, but in hind site, the increased link length would not allow the suspension to articulate as smooth as Gatekeeper designed it. So I went back to a standard GC link plate in the rear, removed the Jato rod ends, and installed Revo ends on both the front and rear upper links.

Next problem was the 4.5 inch long shocks. The Traxxas rod end on the shock cap made them a half inch too long to use them with a standard TLT double hole link mount. I had originally made the shocks for a GC1 with Axial axles, but when I switched to TLT's axles, I never really addressed the issue, but it was now clear I needed to. So I swapped out the double hole TLT link mount for a single hole link mount. This lowered ride height, and it gave me some tuning options for lower link and shock placement. It allowed me to be able to stand the rear shock upwards more and run softer springs.

I had originally built this truck with all four lower links high clearanced. I noticed that on certain obstacles it would become high centered with no real hope of recovery if that object was flat. In searching, I found that more experienced builders are keeping the front lower links straight in order to help transition the crawler smoothly over an obstacle. So I replaced the front lower links with stock Traxxas 5318 links.

With the crawler apart, I disassembled the DNA dig. One of the problems was the drive cog had come loose. The small 3mm set screw had backed out. I decided to drill and tap both sides of the drive cog to 8/32. By doing so it put more surface area locking onto to the out drive.

I installed a Crawler Design Works 6mm long chrome molly front out put shaft. I also installed a Kimbrough 96 tooth spur and 12 tooth pinion. My son and I really like the gearing combo. Tremendous amount of low end torque and decent wheel speed with a 55 turn Axiom on 9.6 volt. The only drawback to this gearing is the motor now hangs out the side of the chassis more. Tight V notches or gaps become a problem because the motor catches.

I had never been to happy with my servo mount for the dig. It functioned well, but the high center of gravity was a concern. So I made a new mount and also a new receiver and CC BEC mount. I also moved the wiring around in an effort to start lowering the center of gravity. I have also been experimenting with Hybrid tires, wheel weights, and track widths.

All of these changes have made noticeable improvements. My son and I are much happier with this crawler. I am a working on a GC2 for myself now. I had bought a second GC2 for my son, but he is content to stick with his GC1. He likes it and wants to see how I do with my GC2 before he switches over, if at all.