Should I get a TLT-1 or custom build one?

[sim]

Hi all,

I love this site. All your custom crawlers are awesome and it's given me loads of ideas and I am looking forward to starting my first crawler project. I love tinkering with things but my equipment and experience is limited. I have a drill, dremel, hacksaw but no drill press, cnc machine or welding equipment.

Okay, here's my situation...

I got interested in crawling recently but don't have a crawler yet and I'm looking for something about the size of a TLT-10. (VMG too small, Clod too bulky). First, let me describe the RC scene here in Malaysia.... The sole distributor for Tamiya and Traxxas is a toy store that charges exorbitant prices and doesn't carry much part support, so there aren't that many electric backyard bashers around... Also, most of the hobby stores and the RC drivers here are heavily into 4 categories: electric touring cars, nitro touring cars, nitro 1/8 buggies, nitro 1/8 Monster Trucks, and almost nothing else, so if I need to find parts for cars in these categories, it's usually not a problem but if I need... say, a Stampede tranny...I'll get asked what a Stampede is. I once went looking for the Integy 55T lathe motor, and I got more questions than answers and eventually found out nobody in the country sells them or even wants them. Even finding 32 pitch pinions has turned out to be a challenge as I had to ask the LHS owners to dig into their childhood stashes for me.

And so, I thought I'd custom build something like a mini E-maxx style crawler out of some shafty touring car (TC3 or something), although I haven't seen anybody on the net try this (maybe you all know something I don't). Was originally thinking of ripping out an electric touring car belt tranny (from my parts car) to use as the center transmission but since so many have complained about the stock TLT-1 belt and pulley, I might try and build my own out of spurs and pinions (like azvader and ECAMERON87 have done). Stampede trannies are probably out of the question unless I somehow find one lying around while on vacation overseas.

Recently, I found someone selling a TLT-1. It's new in box but going for a decent price (I think I can bargain it down to the equivalent of US$150), and I thought about getting it, but then I thought ultimately, it's going to get modded into a TLT-10 with a new center tranny, so the only thing left stock on it will be the axles, and I can buy a used shaft-driven touring car for about a third that price.

So I'm kind of torn between the two. Should I buy or build? Will the TLT-1 axles last a long time with minimal maintenance and superglue or will I need to find replacement parts for them regularly? Are there disadvantages to e-maxx style solid axles? Has anybody else tried to build a small crawler out of touring car shafts, and if so, what are the problems you ran into?

Thanks in advance. Sorry for the long post.

[TLTCrawlin]

KILLL THE PRIME MINISTER OF MALAYSIA
sorry i had to say that

Okay get soem TLT axles a bulu 2 or another chassis 106 and 96 mm links pede trans shocks u like-losi soft springs- 4" shocks and puta rooster in there with a lathe and hulk third link mount some strong servos and a TQ3 transmitter and reciever

[microgoat]

i made a Traxxas 4-Tec into an off-road buggy, using HPI MT arms and Traxxas sliders. larger shock towers and shocks, too, but i forget where they came from. it made a decent offroad racer, but it wouldn't have anywhere near the articulation you'd want in a crawler.

my advice would be to get the TLT. i'm sure you can find some Maxx shocks and turnbuckles in Malaysia, and a tranny can be made or borrowed. don't think the Pede is the only tranny that works. you've probably got access to some weird Chinese RCs that we don't get here in the States.

half the fun of crawling is making the project work with what you have available. and at least half the frustration is from not having the right stuff available.

if nothing else works, buy parts on eBay.

my $.02

[Plays_with_Toys]

You know what, I am gonna go against every newbie's intuition here.

Lets face the facts. You said you can't hardly get any parts except for vehicles listed above. TLT-1 didn't fit into any of the categories. Heck, tamiya didn't even fit into any category. Unless you can get stuff shipped from taiwan/japan for a decent price, you won't have any back up parts, and crawlers tend to break.

If you have seen the PTI MMT(you can search "goliath" on here) all that is is a Team Associated TC3 with some straight axle tubes and a center tranny. I would say get a shaft driven touring car that you can find parts for, and lock the a arms down and setup it up like the 4-linked maxxes, or make some axle tubes to bolt to the diffs and make it look like a solid axle truck. If you break stuff that you haven't made yourself, you'll be able to find the replacement parts (and hopefully not get ripped off).

Alot of people here are going to say "get a TLT, a bulu, a lathe motor, a stampede tranny, a GD600, a bluebird super special servo ultima GT edition, etc..." because they have a TLT and they're all excited about building it so they read a ton of stuff and they read bulu bulu bulu, stampede stampede stampede, that they think it is the only solution. But being practical here. $150 for a stock TLT. Stampede tranny (maybe never), bulu chassis (do they even ship internationally, do they even have any left if they did ship international), lathe motors aren't available, GD600's might not be either. All of this stuff is available to the US guys but possibly not you, not for a decent price that I'd be willing to pay thats for sure. Adapt to your situation, and by saying that, I think a touring car is the most sensible answer. Not sure shipping rates from australia, but maybe some of the aussie guys can help you out. There's some one here and I can't remember their message board right now, but you could probably find it.

[toyofast]

Originally Posted by Plays_with_Toys

Alot of people here are going to say "get a TLT, a bulu, a lathe motor, a stampede tranny, a GD600, a bluebird super special servo ultima GT edition, etc..." because they have a TLT and they're all excited about building it so they read a ton of stuff and they read bulu bulu bulu, stampede stampede stampede, that they think it is the only solution. But being practical here. $150 for a stock TLT. Stampede tranny (maybe never), bulu chassis (do they even ship internationally, do they even have any left if they did ship international), lathe motors aren't available, GD600's might not be either.

PWT - Are you still bent that people first mention our chassis before yours? Damn, get over it. Just because you sold about 15-17 chassis when we sold over 70 in the same amount of time. You got to experience the same thing we experience on a daily basis when trying to develop/market/sell a mass produced item.


And yes, RCRockGear DOES ship internationally. Hell, we ship to Canada which is international by government standards but we charge no more to ship there than if it were in the US.

No, RCRockGear doesn't have any more Bulu2's left in stock. We plan to get more made up here in a short amount of time.




I'd go with building a hybrid based crawler with the parts you have locally. Might not be a bolt-on affair but you learn a lot and know exactly how your truck will work. People local to the ORCRC group have built 2.2 sized IFS/IRS hybrids which are setup like our(RCRG) Maxx SAS Kit goodies. Just smaller. We have a couple Maxx hybrids and a very nice Savage hybrid running around too.

[sim]

Okay, I'm convinced. I'm going to build my own.

I've been doing a lot of reading on this site and 'wrenching in my head' and staring at the parts on the LHS walls for the past couple weeks, and I think there's enough ideas to hopefully finish the project with the stuff I can find. I'm going to start collecting touring car parts for the 2 axles and I've got some ideas I want to try out for a center tranny already. I've even got a gear reduction unit worked out if I don't end up building my own center tranny.

I know about the MMT 'Goliath' that Dave Palachios designed and sold to PTI and it was actually that truck that got me thinking about building my own out of touring cars (except I hadn't found out about 4-linked maxxes then, so it didn't even occur to me that using dogbones to get more axle clearance was a good thing. I was seriously going to copy the straight axle design and have dogbones spinning inside some pvc pipes ).

Anyway, thanks for all the advice so far. I'm sure I will have more questions for you guys as soon as I pick up the hexdriver.

[4RnrRick]

I'd have to agree, that in your situation of parts availability/location, build one from the stuff you have. Just try to pick the strongest and most common parts to start with. and then build something using the ideas that you read about on here. Also for the motor, you might just try finding/learn how to wind your own high torque motor.

[Madkoifish]

Here is a example of a delapadated touring car gone minimonster, I built this up eh about 16mo ago before this craze for small monsters got going fullbore, I have added bits here and there like the tlt rims/tyres. Its not a crawler per say, but I can see gutting off the rear tranny where the motor mounts as a center diff, some epoxy and the balldiff is locked and one just needs to source some axels and have at it. A coping saw some 6062 al and a few cheapo files andyour set. well maybe a micro saw for rods and what not.



Please excuse the ruddy images snapped em off just now.
hope this helps inspire you and you manage to find what you need ofr supplies!

[sim]

Nice truck. I love the bug body and paint job. The exposed belt drive gives it a sort of MadMax appeal too.

[Madkoifish]

Word of warning, look for a gearbox that will allow ridiclously large spur and tiny pinion. Im at the smallest I can go fo this thing and it still lids itself at 40% throttle. Im sure a lathe mother would work better, but as you said you cant locate them, Me Im to cheap and poor to do this. SO, I have resorted to a 4 cell set up to kill some of the punch. Thing still gets about 30 to 45min run times. Im currently looking to scratch build a crawler as well. Im fighting over if I should spend for a tlt then gut it or just locate the parts trees for just the axels and rip up my old losi lst for the tranny.
As for that um, heh belt dont do belts, if you can avoid it at all. Mine hates reverse. "POP POP POP" Not to mention rs4 mini belts are the only thing that are the right length. (least of what I could find)

[K_B]

From one n00b to another; you may wanna check out Stormer Hobbies. They say they specialize in international shipping and they are strictly mail order. I've bought a bunch of stuff from them, including my spankin' newly built PTI Goliath and they have good prices and I haven't had any troubles with shipping. And I live in Alaska, so I know about shipping problems. I've actually been told by some companies that it would be cheaper for them to ship to China than to ship to Alaska.