Official venom factory support thread

[BrentH]

Originally Posted by CREEPERBOB

I have my diffs JB'd but I still have lots of slope from side to side. I'm wondering if it is slack in the ring and pinion? I litterally have 30 degrees or more movement from side to side, of course some of this does come from the hexes too.
I use blue "Loctite", I clean threads on stub axle & nut with contact cleaner and then apply the loctite, install the nut and forget about it till I run it again, usually the next day.

I have slop too. Mine is a combination of slop in the cvd joints and a little with the ring and pinon. Between the cvd's, ring and pinion and where the axles seat in the diff...it creates a pretty good amount of slop.

[CREEPERBOB]

I know , it drives me nutty. these are really fun little rigs, I have 3 of them , I don't Comp with them , only back yard fun. My wife and I have a blast with them, Of course I have a couple nitro Savage's for when the grand kids come over too. I've e mailed Venom about a couple issues I've had in the last couple of weeks , I hope they can help me out.

[BrentH]

Originally Posted by CREEPERBOB

I know , it drives me nutty. these are really fun little rigs, I have 3 of them , I don't Comp with them , only back yard fun. My wife and I have a blast with them, Of course I have a couple nitro Savage's for when the grand kids come over too. I've e mailed Venom about a couple issues I've had in the last couple of weeks , I hope they can help me out.

It doesn't bother me too much though, I run really slow and the drag brake helps out with it. What other issues are you having?

[CREEPERBOB]

Just got off the phone with Venom, I do'nt care what anyone says , I've had to contact them I think this is the third time and they have never hesitated to assist me or offer to send out any replacements for broken parts. A+++++.

[fasconal]

Where can I buy the Safari body and the mounting posts?
http://www.venom-group.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=8420

I already have the Venom Creeper Kit.

[CREEPERBOB]

Originally Posted by fasconal

Where can I buy the Safari body and the mounting posts?
http://www.venom-group.com/itemdesc.asp?ic=8420

I already have the Venom Creeper Kit.

try E bay

[rooktakesqueen]

I got a Venom Safari and when I took it out of the box, it sounds like there's a bolt rolling around in the T case or something. What do I need to do about it...I don't mind taking it apart BUT if it's all f'd up, I want to be able to send it back.

[rooktakesqueen]

I'm glad you're having good luck with them...I've put out more than a few calls AND emails and haven't heard a thing back from them....I'm not really happy about it either.

Originally Posted by CREEPERBOB

Just got off the phone with Venom, I do'nt care what anyone says , I've had to contact them I think this is the third time and they have never hesitated to assist me or offer to send out any replacements for broken parts. A+++++.

[rooktakesqueen]

A locking washer will 100% fix this problem

Originally Posted by CREEPERBOB

yes i have the same problem, i have to tighten 2 of my wheels about every 20 minutes of driving because of the hexes being loose in the wheels and the nuts back off. I'm going to contact venom about this. All other issues i've had with my creepers (3) venom has been real good about taking care of it.

[Rolly]

Originally Posted by rooktakesqueen

I'm glad you're having good luck with them...I've put out more than a few calls AND emails and haven't heard a thing back from them....I'm not really happy about it either.

the holidays might have something to do with them not responding back to you.

[Rolly]

Originally Posted by rooktakesqueen

I'm glad you're having good luck with them...I've put out more than a few calls AND emails and haven't heard a thing back from them....I'm not really happy about it either.

ive learned from the past that trying to communicate or order or talk to companies during the holidays is gonna be a pain in the ass...i dont even bother ordering parts during the holidays because its just gets too buissy, then you have to wait till they get back from holiday vacations etc. my best advice is to try and be patient and wait till after new years to contact them...there is a good chance that if you explain your problem to them they will just simply send you a replacement for the broken part without you having to send yours back. i hope they can get you taken care of bro...good luck.

[rooktakesqueen]

Sounds like a plan

Originally Posted by Rolly

ive learned from the past that trying to communicate or order or talk to companies during the holidays is gonna be a pain in the ass...i dont even bother ordering parts during the holidays because its just gets too buissy, then you have to wait till they get back from holiday vacations etc. my best advice is to try and be patient and wait till after new years to contact them...there is a good chance that if you explain your problem to them they will just simply send you a replacement for the broken part without you having to send yours back. i hope they can get you taken care of bro...good luck.

[rooktakesqueen]

I take this back! A rep called me and took care of everything....really really nice about it too!

Originally Posted by rooktakesqueen

I'm glad you're having good luck with them...I've put out more than a few calls AND emails and haven't heard a thing back from them....I'm not really happy about it either.

[Rolly]

Originally Posted by rooktakesqueen

I take this back! A rep called me and took care of everything....really really nice about it too!

thats really good to hear bro...keep us updated on your build and post some pics.

[jimmyshor]

The Creeper arrived a week ago, after traveling 10 days from LA to Romania (5 days to Bucharest, 5 days 220km from Bucharest to me). But that's another story. I forgot to mention - i ordered a Safari Creeper.

The really CREEPY (indeed) story begins when i tried to see the oil level in the shocks. As they never closed again without leaking. Well, what the heck, no problem at all, i tried to use the aluminium shocks i had on my old and dead Crawler King, the shocks i ordered first for my other crawler, AX10. Surprise...They were to big to fit at a glance, so afte hours and hours of oil filling, spring tunning, madness, and ecstasy, i finally got to an almost perfect solution. The torque twist was almost gone, the driveshafts were in an almost perfect position, i even gained some ground clearance. All that beeing said and done, i wanted to see how the Creeper performs in the house, where my boots and a toolbox where the "rocks".

Well, my wish is still a wish, because a strange sound come out from my Creeper, and, despite the motor that wanted to move the Creeper, the Creeper didnt wanna move. Well, first i said the battery is low...lets charge it...in the mean time, i do have another battery thats full, lets try with this one. The Creeper moves an inch and stalls....that was Creeper's first and last inch with the tunned suspension.

Obvioussly, i got mad and disassembled the transmission gear box...well well well...surprise...the pinion from the motor ax and the spur (???) where ... toothless. I forgot to mention i had a very difficult time opening the transmission box..). Well, after seeing this problem, i wanted to close the transm.box..but i could not. The two identical parts from the transmission shaft set got curved..

Now, i bought this crawler because i saw some pictures made by a non-professional photographer and i just liked it. When i bought it i didnt know anything about it. Later, all i found on the internet were minuses, but i didnt want to cancel the order. At this point, i am asking...what can i do ? Don't want a refund, just the full gearbox replaced. And the bad part of all is that what happend happend in an artificial and control environment, if i may say so, nothing difficult, no bashing, nothing out of the ordinary.

If by some miracle the factory sends me a fully equiped gearbox (without the digunit, wich i might add is a pain in the a...), shoud i expect another broken pieces ?

No offence, but even HPI CK (wich i consider the worst crawler ever built, by design and materials used to build it) lasted way longer than the Creeper (i have video that can proove that). I dont wanna end thinking i made a bad choice.

Regards,
Chris

PS. Up to a point, i consider it a good rig. From there, it's up to the designer and producer to maintain that image.

[Rolly]

Originally Posted by jimmyshor

The Creeper arrived a week ago, after traveling 10 days from LA to Romania (5 days to Bucharest, 5 days 220km from Bucharest to me). But that's another story. I forgot to mention - i ordered a Safari Creeper.

The really CREEPY (indeed) story begins when i tried to see the oil level in the shocks. As they never closed again without leaking. Well, what the heck, no problem at all, i tried to use the aluminium shocks i had on my old and dead Crawler King, the shocks i ordered first for my other crawler, AX10. Surprise...They were to big to fit at a glance, so afte hours and hours of oil filling, spring tunning, madness, and ecstasy, i finally got to an almost perfect solution. The torque twist was almost gone, the driveshafts were in an almost perfect position, i even gained some ground clearance. All that beeing said and done, i wanted to see how the Creeper performs in the house, where my boots and a toolbox where the "rocks".

Well, my wish is still a wish, because a strange sound come out from my Creeper, and, despite the motor that wanted to move the Creeper, the Creeper didnt wanna move. Well, first i said the battery is low...lets charge it...in the mean time, i do have another battery thats full, lets try with this one. The Creeper moves an inch and stalls....that was Creeper's first and last inch with the tunned suspension.

Obvioussly, i got mad and disassembled the transmission gear box...well well well...surprise...the pinion from the motor ax and the spur (???) where ... toothless. I forgot to mention i had a very difficult time opening the transmission box..). Well, after seeing this problem, i wanted to close the transm.box..but i could not. The two identical parts from the transmission shaft set got curved..

Now, i bought this crawler because i saw some pictures made by a non-professional photographer and i just liked it. When i bought it i didnt know anything about it. Later, all i found on the internet were minuses, but i didnt want to cancel the order. At this point, i am asking...what can i do ? Don't want a refund, just the full gearbox replaced. And the bad part of all is that what happend happend in an artificial and control environment, if i may say so, nothing difficult, no bashing, nothing out of the ordinary.

If by some miracle the factory sends me a fully equiped gearbox (without the digunit, wich i might add is a pain in the a...), shoud i expect another broken pieces ?

No offence, but even HPI CK (wich i consider the worst crawler ever built, by design and materials used to build it) lasted way longer than the Creeper (i have video that can proove that). I dont wanna end thinking i made a bad choice.

Regards,
Chris

PS. Up to a point, i consider it a good rig. From there, it's up to the designer and producer to maintain that image.

give venom a call, explain to them what happened....in about 90% of these types of cases they will send you a replacement gear box at no charge. then go through this forum and look through the build tips. sorry to hear about your problems with your creeper but if you talk to anyone on this forum and ask how they like their creepers then you will realize that your problem is more of the rare situation. get your replacement parts and be patient with the build...and dont be afraid to ask anyone on this forum for any help, everyone here will go out of their way to make sure you enjoy your rig as much as they do. good luck bro

[jimmyshor]

Thanks man ! I'll email them with my problem, because to call them and exmplain would cost me more than the value of the gearbox. Trust me, after i ordered the Creeper, i started to read about it (bad things mostly, but i did not pay attention). It's human nature to be proud of our own rigs (i have an ax10, so that's the best rig, i have an Losi Night Crawler, that is the one, not axial and so on. But when i saw in comps stand besides Losi, Axial and others, i knew i made a good choice.

I hope the issue will be solved.

[CREEPERBOB]

I HAVE TO PIPE IN TOO ON THIS. I HAVE HAD 3 SEPERATE OCCASIONS I HAD TO GET IN TOUCH WITH VENOM, AND EVERY TIME I HAD IN MY HANDS WITHIN A WEEK ANYTHING THAT HAD FAILED, AND IT HAS'NT BEEN A SHORT LIST . I'VE HAD TO KEEP 3 CRREPERS GOING OVER THE LAST YEAR, ACTUALLY ONLY 1 IS STILL IN MY POSESSION BUT I SOME HOW SEEM TO HAVE TO WORK ON THE OTHER 2 ALSO , ANYWAY , VENOM HAS BEEN GOOD TO ME.
NOW , AS ROLLY SAID ABOVE THERE IS MORE THAN ENOUGH INFO HERE TO GET EVEN THE MOST NOVICE IN THE CROWD ( NOT REFERING TO YOU ) UP AND RUNNING STRONG. YOUR TRANNY ISSUE IS A RARE ONE,,,
THAT BEING SAID , THESE TRANNYS ARE TOUGH LITTLE BASTARDS,
AND USSUALLY , AND I'VE PROBALLY READ EVERY CREEPER THREAD IN THIS FORUM, PROBLEMS WITH THEM IS MOST OFTEN DUE TO ASSYMBLY ERROR, WRONG LENGTH SCREW IN THE WRONG HOLE, BEARING NOT SEATED IN ITS RECESS PROPERLY OR SOME OTHER SMALL PIECE OF FLASHING NOT CLEANED OUT OF SOMEWHERE, AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST, PROBALLY THE BIGGEST MISTAKE IS THE GUY THAT WAITS UNTILL HIS WHOLE CHASSIS IS ASSYMBLED AND THEN TRIES TO INSTALL THE MOTOR AND SET GEAR BACKLASH (USSUALLY WITH A FLASHLIGHT) INSTEAD OF DOING IT WHILE THE TRANNY IS STILL IN YOUR HAND , LONG BEFORE INSTALLING IT IN THE CHASSIS,
ANYWAY , THAT WAS MY 5 CENTS WORTH, SO GET AHOLD OF VENOM, EXPLAIN YOUR NOT A NEWBIE TO THE HOBBY AND THAT THERE WAS SOMETHING AMISS WITH YOUR KIT, THEY ARE MOSTLY REASONABLE PEOPLE AND VERY FAIR, BETTER THAN ANY OTHER MANUFACTURER I'VE DEALT WITH,
GOOD LUCK TO YA , ROBERT

AS A SIDE NOTE, IF THERE IS A MARKET FOR CRAWLING OVER IN YOUR PART OF THE WORLD ASK ONE OF YOUR LOCAL HOBBY DEALERS TO INQUIRE ABOUT BEING A DEALER FOR THEM , NEVER KNOW

[CREEPERBOB]

Originally Posted by jimmyshor

the creeper arrived a week ago, after traveling 10 days from la to romania (5 days to bucharest, 5 days 220km from bucharest to me). But that's another story. I forgot to mention - i ordered a safari creeper.

The really creepy (indeed) story begins when i tried to see the oil level in the shocks. As they never closed again without leaking. Well, what the heck, no problem at all, i tried to use the aluminium shocks i had on my old and dead crawler king, the shocks i ordered first for my other crawler, ax10. Surprise...they were to big to fit at a glance, so afte hours and hours of oil filling, spring tunning, madness, and ecstasy, i finally got to an almost perfect solution. The torque twist was almost gone, the driveshafts were in an almost perfect position, i even gained some ground clearance. All that beeing said and done, i wanted to see how the creeper performs in the house, where my boots and a toolbox where the "rocks".

Well, my wish is still a wish, because a strange sound come out from my creeper, and, despite the motor that wanted to move the creeper, the creeper didnt wanna move. Well, first i said the battery is low...lets charge it...in the mean time, i do have another battery thats full, lets try with this one. The creeper moves an inch and stalls....that was creeper's first and last inch with the tunned suspension.

Obvioussly, i got mad and disassembled the transmission gear box...well well well...surprise...the pinion from the motor ax and the spur (???) where ... Toothless. I forgot to mention i had a very difficult time opening the transmission box..). Well, after seeing this problem, i wanted to close the transm.box..but i could not. The two identical parts from the transmission shaft set got curved..

Now, i bought this crawler because i saw some pictures made by a non-professional photographer and i just liked it. When i bought it i didnt know anything about it. Later, all i found on the internet were minuses, but i didnt want to cancel the order. At this point, i am asking...what can i do ? Don't want a refund, just the full gearbox replaced. And the bad part of all is that what happend happend in an artificial and control environment, if i may say so, nothing difficult, no bashing, nothing out of the ordinary.

If by some miracle the factory sends me a fully equiped gearbox (without the digunit, wich i might add is a pain in the a...), shoud i expect another broken pieces ?

No offence, but even hpi ck (wich i consider the worst crawler ever built, by design and materials used to build it) lasted way longer than the creeper (i have video that can proove that). I dont wanna end thinking i made a bad choice.

Regards,
chris

ps. Up to a point, i consider it a good rig. From there, it's up to the designer and producer to maintain that image.

one other thing, about the shock leakage, you have to put the little rubber cup seal on top of the shock body first , then push the top rod end down on the cup then screw the metal ring down while keeping the 2 lil tits in the notches in the ring as you tighten it, that should eliminate the leaking (of course unless a seal got damaged), Robert

[jimmyshor]

Got that, Robert, thanks.

Unlike you (my bad) i did not read all the threads regarding the Creeper. I am kind of new on this forum, never had issues as bad as this one. I cannot say i am an RC guru, but i'm not a newbie. Anyway, i think this has little relevance in my issue, as the rig was a RTR, factory built and ansembled. Those beeing said, i almost regret i did not buy a kit, though.

In the last 9 months, i bought:
- 2 HPI Savage X4.6 (let's say one is damaged about me, though i always wondered what the hell happend with the spur, and then with the clutch bell - i dont care right now, i wont get into details). The other one is staying dusty, unused...i dont care anymore about nitro.
- 1 HPI Sprint 2 Flux - when i got it out of the box in the first 5 minutes of walking back and forward, the pinion from the motor ax was gone from the ax. That was also a RTR. The next day, after fixing this, the transmission belt broke. After fixing this, the back differential gear broke. I disassembled the car, using the motor, the ESC and the LiPO pack
- 1 Traxxas 1/16 Slash - that is a piece of work. I really tried to wreck this up, i couldnt. Instead, i upgraded to 1/16 Revo (i changed some items and the wheels), and now my daughter plays with it. Splendid, i might add.
- 2 HPI Crawler King (both of them are declared driveshaft brakers). The first one i donated to a friend of mine, not to be alone when i go "ride" the rocks.
- 1 AXial AX10 Scorpion, RTR, almost fully upgraded, but still working on it as we speak, did not brake anything on it (except 1 spur, my bad, i admit)
-1 Axial SCX10 Dingo (now i made it Honcho), nothing to complain about
-1 Losi Micro Crawler 1/24 scale, now i am working to adapt a body for it, as i dont like the stock one.
1 Creeper Venom, who's story you already know.

Judging by all this, i think i do have some idea about RC generaly speaking, particulary about auto RC.My madness regarding crawling and trailing went even further - i videotape every "session", so i can analyze driving style and rig behavior. What is wrong, what can be improved, and how to improve. That's not all, though, i rented an old storage house and built the first RC Crawling indoor circuit in Romania. Alone. No help at all, nor financial or physical. Costed me more than 2.500$, and now, it's abandoned at my wife's parents in the backyard, no time for playin' :(

Anyway, i wrote Venom an email, let's hope they see it and respond to it. Thanks for encouraging me, as soon as i have some news, i'll post here.

Respects,
Chris