My take on a Telluride Trail Truck

[John82601]

I've posted most of this information in various threads but felt it was time to consolidate it into a single location. I'm not wanting to fuel the fire regarding the Telluride being a crawler or not. That's been debated to death numerous times. Why did I buy one? Simply because I wanted one. I've been into RC for the better part of 30 years and enjoy the build and experimentation as much or more than driving them. My goal for this project was to be as capable as possible with minimal modification. It's definitely more capable than the Tamiya CC-01's I've built and comes really close to some of the locals SCX's.

(Originally posted Sept 25, 2013)
Our club is having a trail run tonight and I want to take the Telluride on it's maiden run. I had a little tinker time with it last night and some spare parts laying around.
Traxxas S1 compound tires (well broken in but un-weighted)
Hitec 645mg servo (133oz/in torque)
4mm metal wheel hexes
HPI 7.4:1 GRU and 26t pinion
HPI 27t silver can motor
HPI Defender body from an old Crawler King
Turnigy 2200mah 2s lipo

With the 7.4:1 and 26t pinion, I'm getting a FDR of 67:1 which is almost too slow with the 27t motor. I have a 20t I might throw in if I have time. Changing the location of the outer tie rod end and upgrading the servo made a huge difference in its turning ability. I've ordered a spool for it but it hasn't arrived yet so the diffs are stock for now. I guess I'll find out tonight how it does.

[John82601]

(Originally posted Sept 26, 2013)

The Telluride did great last night. We were crawling along the river on large rip-rap and concrete (riverbank erosion control) so we had a large variety of traction available. The S1 tires hooked up very well and I was able to go most places that the SCX's did. The fun came to an end after an hour or so when the plastic servo horn stripped out. Otherwise it was a lot of fun and the guys were very impressed with it's abilities.

My next concern is the 48p gears. I'm probably going to convert it to a 32p slipper unit from a Slash/Stampede 4x4. The 32p teeth will handle the torque better as will the larger slipper unit. It also opens up the possibility of a smaller spur/ larger pinion combination. Ultimately I'm shooting for a FDR of 50:1 or so.

I tried Axial Ripsaw 1.9's on the Walker Evans wheels. They fit if I use an 8mm wide hex but I didn't like the additional width. I'm going to get a set of SC10 4x4 wheels as they have the deepest offset that I know of and modify my extra set of ProLine G8 1.9 Flat Irons to fit.

[John82601]

Quoted from theJANG Sept 25, 2013

Yeah 1.9" wheels are practically unusable on this platform unless you use really ridiculous hexes Not a good recommendation at all. Even most 2.2" wheels don't fit the Slash/Pede 4x4 as commonly discussed unless they have massive offset. SCT wheels are the only way to fly for a reasonably narrow track, but be aware that you may encounter some rubbing on the shocks at full lock steering with the narrowest offset option (like the ProTrac ones I tried, same as SCTE and older SC10 4x4 offset). Might be worse with your increased deflection, too, but it partly depends upon the width of the tire. If you have an option when doing your custom cut, air on the side of overhanging the shoulder past the outside bead and not the in. If rubbing persists, drill your own alternate shock mounting hole a little farther inboard on each arm and adjust preload to compensate. Should do the trick.


Originally posted Sept 25, 2013
JANG, thanks for the heads-up on the shock rubbing issue. One of the other members is going to let me try the tires/wheels from his Axial Exo. The tires are white dot compound and the fronts are 7mm narrower than the rears (34mm vs 41mm). I'm anxious to give them a try.

[John82601]

I'm having a blast with our Telluride. I'd rather drive it than my Wraith. I was very impressed with the HR spool in the rear and have since added another to the front. I ended up using DE Racing Trinidad 2.2/3.0 SC wheels for a Losi SCTE as they have a very deep offset. I modified them by trimming off the outer bead on the 3.0(inside) half. Since trimming them, the modified 2.2 Flat Irons JUST rub on the shock springs at full lock. I continue to be impressed with the overall bashability of the Telluride as a base to build on. Running a GD-600 gear reduction unit at a 3:1 ratio (39.36:1 FDR) with a 27t motor on 3s we have yet to blow the center driveshaft or any other driveline components. It's a tough little rig. Here are a couple of pics from our lunch crawl by the river.

[Steelfish]

Im following this close

Congrats that rug looks really cool

[Countryhandyman]

Looks nice, I cut up a set of 1.9 rc4wd swamper Irocs for mine, made them into 2.2-3.0 tires and have been running a 17.5 sensored brushless system, driving it rock bouncer style. Very impressed with the durability, it has become the most driven rig in my collection.

[ROWDY RACING]

No Telluride section?

[John82601]

Originally Posted by ROWDY RACING

No Telluride section?

Nope, they could open one, rename this one to Traxxas Crawlers or combine the 2 existing Traxxas forums into a single one with a generic Traxxas Crawlers thread.

[John82601]

I've got another Telluride roller coming so I decided to "borrow" the electronics out of this one. I also wanted to use this opportunity to test out some dirt cheap items I've been hearing about. I purchased a Solar D772 servo ( claimed 368oz/in @ 6v) from a friend of mine to try out. I also purchased an X-Car 45a ESC and one of HK's cheap 6v/5a bec's. The esc is rated for 2s, 45a and has programmable drag break. With the bec, I'm going to run it on 3s until it pops. I'm really happy with the GD-600 gear reduction unit. It's very quiet and makes for a pretty clean installation. The driven gear is exposed vs the HPI being a sealed unit but I don't run in mud so this shouldn't be a problem. I pulled the 27t and replaced it with a Tekin 35t I had in my motor bag. No reason other than to try something different.

I'm also experimenting with more tire and wheel setups. Currently it's running the R35 compound tires off of my Axial Exo. They do really well. Easily surpassing the performance of the Traxxas S1 compound tires and holding their own against the larger, M3 compound, 2.2 Flat Irons.

You can also see where I've added some weight to the chassis. 5oz behind the front shock tower and 2oz on/in the front bumper. The extra weight is definitely noticable as far as overall stability and the ability to keep the nose down when climbing.









Some dimension shots with the smaller tire/wheel assembly.











And, how she looks today



Future plans include:
Replacing the bushings in the steering rack with bearings.
Make a pair of rear suspension arms out of delrin to remove the toe-in and lengthen the wheelbase slightly.
Possibly tear it down and dye the chassis components black and make some sort of inner fenders. Possibly make some attempt to hide or at least make the shocks less noticeable.

It will never be a full-on scaler, I know that. But I'm having fun with it and that's what matters to me.

[meatmonkey]

Awesome idea with the custom longer WB arms. In for that.

Keep us updated with how the plastic(?) axleshafts hold up to the additional gear reduction.

Looks a hundred times better than stock already with just different tires and body.

[TrilloThrillo110]

I'm getting tempted.....

[John82601]

No update on Telly the crawler but the slider I ordered arrived. I installed Telly's original electronics, some Monster Jam tires n wheels and a Bounty Hunter body. I think it'll be a fun little truck.

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by John82601

I've got another Telluride roller coming so I decided to "borrow" the electronics out of this one. I also wanted to use this opportunity to test out some dirt cheap items I've been hearing about. I purchased a Solar D772 servo ( claimed 368oz/in @ 6v) from a friend of mine to try out. I also purchased an X-Car 45a ESC and one of HK's cheap 6v/5a bec's. The esc is rated for 2s, 45a and has programmable drag break. With the bec, I'm going to run it on 3s until it pops. I'm really happy with the GD-600 gear reduction unit. It's very quiet and makes for a pretty clean installation. The driven gear is exposed vs the HPI being a sealed unit but I don't run in mud so this shouldn't be a problem. I pulled the 27t and replaced it with a Tekin 35t I had in my motor bag. No reason other than to try something different.

I'm also experimenting with more tire and wheel setups. Currently it's running the R35 compound tires off of my Axial Exo. They do really well. Easily surpassing the performance of the Traxxas S1 compound tires and holding their own against the larger, M3 compound, 2.2 Flat Irons.

You can also see where I've added some weight to the chassis. 5oz behind the front shock tower and 2oz on/in the front bumper. The extra weight is definitely noticable as far as overall stability and the ability to keep the nose down when climbing.

Some dimension shots with the smaller tire/wheel assembly.

And, how she looks today



Future plans include:
Replacing the bushings in the steering rack with bearings.
Make a pair of rear suspension arms out of delrin to remove the toe-in and lengthen the wheelbase slightly.
Possibly tear it down and dye the chassis components black and make some sort of inner fenders. Possibly make some attempt to hide or at least make the shocks less noticeable.

It will never be a full-on scaler, I know that. But I'm having fun with it and that's what matters to me.

Looks awesome!

[Exocaged]

Originally Posted by John82601

No update on Telly the crawler but the slider I ordered arrived. I installed Telly's original electronics, some Monster Jam tires n wheels and a Bounty Hunter body. I think it'll be a fun little truck.

This one I like! I would love to see some video of it.

[John82601]

Just a quick update. The Telluride is still running great. I had anticipated something failing since going to the Tekin 35t on 3s and locking the slipper but 20+hrs of crawling later and everything is holding up. The only thing I'm still trying to sort out is the steering. Either the Solar D772 doesn't put out the torque it claims (hmmm) or it's asking for more amps than the HK bec can provide (hmmm, part deux, lol). The steering is strong, but not much better than the Hitec 645 I took out. I'm going to switch to a Castle 10 BEC and see if ther Solar wakes up, I bet it will .

Pic of a buddy and I crawling by, and on, the river today at lunch:

[jrkilburn]

Hey john, I had no idea that this thread existed when I bought your other telluride, lol. You are already ahead of me in my ideas for it, no worries, I'll catch up.

This is my first mock up using my exo wheels and tires and hummer hard body.



I'll be looking for lockers you mentioned as well as the HPI GRU. I'm going to use my FxR with my tekin 35 turn and castle BEC.

If you have part numbers for all your upgrade please post them.

[John82601]

Telly took the win this weekend! We had a Trail Comp this weekend and the Telluride did great. The terrain was loose sand, pine needles and the rock was granite and sandstone. Course one was all rock, two was mostly terrain and three was a good blend of terrain and rock. I do have to report that I did have my first part failure a couple of weeks ago. I was on very high bite rock, bound up REALLY hard and snapped the ears off of one of the front axle shafts. I replaced both sides with the Traxxas 6854X's and no signs of trouble since.

Group Photo - We ran 1.9 Trail, 2.2 Trail and Wraith classes.



Telly in action:

[350TacoZilla]

I love seeing this thing out crawling, hope to see few more of them built into trail rigs.

[Bmr4life]

Awesome build.

[Szczerba]

Nice looking truck. Looks like that tub style chassis still does pretty good on the rocks.