Twin Hammers King of the Hammers build questions

[Genghis Ken]

I’m starting to build my TH kit . I’ve looked at some KoH vids and I want to build my Hammers for that kind of action. Hi speed with some controlled rock bouncing for the rocky sections. I’m hopefully going to be able to stealth build a track at little travelled area in the woods near me.
I’m pretty poor nowadays so it’s going to be a budget build, but I’d like to hear your thoughts on how to set up a TH for U4RC style running.
Everything from open diff vs diff locked, Whether it’s better to stick to the kits trailing arms or go to aluminum ones. Where the best battery placement will be. And motor ESC choices. I’ve got a Viper 13.5 VS 10 combo that I was going to put in it, but I’m seeing lots of Mamba Max sensored combos going in the builds I’ve been looking at.
Your thoughts and help are as always, very much appreciated.
GK

[Dbx]

Hey GK.
Your plan is exactly what the TH is good at. The TH kit is probably the best starting point too.
If you are on a budget, i’d say the best bet is to change as little as possible to start with. Run the rig hard, and see what you want to improve.
There are easy mods to make initial improvements, like removing the spare wheel. You can also get a small battery to sit on top of the steering servo. These mods will improve the c of g, meaning she’ll stay wheel down more.
After a bit of use in the dirt, I’d almost guarantee you’ll find steering performance drops off as the steering rack starts sticking. That’s when you’ll start thinking about bell crank conversions.
Have fun!

Edit: For mixed use, the unanimous advice you will get is to keep the diff open and use as thick a diff lube as you can get. 500k wt, or 1000k cst if you can get it. Diff putty if you are more slow speed biased.

[BumpyRoad]

Agree with DBX comments. If you care a bit about speed your CoG is the key because the TH is very tippy. Definitely leave the front diff open with heavy oil and as soon as you can afford it go for the bellcrank steering.
Since you are thinking KOH which is a mix of high speed and crawling I'd say keep the hi-lo gear servo: 13.5t is a good motor to start with: not crazy fast, but still too fast in high gear for any kind of crawling: you'll need to change gears in a KOH style track.
I have the Mamba X which is awesome and fully waterproof, but quite expensive and the ESC is quite heavy: I moved the battery in the pan of the buggy, but then perched up about 100g of electronics

The key for me is having fun running the buggy and tinkering with options to make it better for how you like to drive it.

[Genghis Ken]

Thanks for the input guys, I appreciate it. It’s not going to be as budget a build as I thought it would! I forgot I bought the GCM upright shock mount plate and Irie’s bellcrank steering kit, to go with the kit, so those are going in. I wish I could relocate the servo like you did DBX but that doesn’t look feasible so I guess the batts going up front, but maybe I can swing something by using that electronics tray or make something similar, the VTX 10 has a smaller footprint than a mamba. Hmmmm maybe speedo and receiver on the GCM plate? I’ll have to see what looks like it will work best.