My Creeper build with review and carnage

[1\4elliptic toy]

Ill try to keep this short and sweet, I have had this kit a week and have built it, modded it, broke it and have come up with some ideas about how I plan to improve it. So i will try to outline some of the good and bad I have found so far.

Let me start by saying that I was going into this a little biased, I like new.. I like to have something different than everyone else So as I open this kit I am on venom's side.

First thoughts: I open the box and everything looks good, I think DAMN thats alot of parts! As I start to rifle through the bags and see whats in there... I find 2 large scratches in the top of my new body :-( kinda bummed me out that this made it past QC, Ok so I figure ill just start assembling it and see where it goes.... I open and lay out the kit...Damn thats alot of stuff!! As I get started the first thing I notice is that none of the 9 million bags of parts have no part numbers on them....this for the record sucks! It took me easily twice as long to build this kit for this reason alone!! I cant tell you how many times I searched and searched for the right screws or bolts, not to mention that I like alot of others were missing a few random screws and bolts. I took me a week of nights to build this kit and several cocktails

So here is my thoughts so far:
Kit labeling gets and F
Kit ease to put together gets B
Quality of kit is an A
Size of hardware gets a C alot of small screws specifily the beadlocks!
Out of the box skills of this Crawler gets an A
Turning gets an A
Flex gets an A

Overall this rig gets an A from me it has been far better than my axial from the box.

Ok here are a couple things I dont like about the kit:
1: The upper shock mounts are on the battery tray making it (the tray) something that has to be kept this is a heavy plastic peice way above the CG, As well as the shock screws thread into the plastic on the tray....I see these getting torn out over time or stripped out as people need to remove them time and time again to make adjustments.
2: The skid plate hangs to low. It has got caught many times on me where my axial slides right over.
3: To mount the motor you need to fish the bolts through from the back of the tranny inside the tranny to mount the motor...this is going to pose a problem with the huge battery tray hanging above it.
4: The beadlocks have very small screws holding them on...I have already stripped out 2.

Carnage:

I am one of the lucky few that got the bad axle shafts, I broke my passanger front shaft today crawling on some steep but basic sandstone.

The other thing that I ran into is that on my rear axle, the locking ring with the 3 pins in it has started to spin its way through the plastic housing and will eventually need to be replaced.

I have added a few pic's they are random... the one of the diff if you look close you can see how it has started to spin. One the broken shaft. One of the kit and a few randoms on the rock.

Comments and questions welcome.

[88_Pathy]

Man I hear you on the motor mount screws. But the thing that is a little disheartening is the lockers. Mine is built but not driven yet. So I will see soon enough.

[1\4elliptic toy]

Originally Posted by 88_Pathy

Man I hear you on the motor mount screws. But the thing that is a little disheartening is the lockers. Mine is built but not driven yet. So I will see soon enough.

Yep I had to mod my tranny to get that little outrunner in there, It was a bitch to mount, I am not sure what happened to the locker, We pulled it apart because it popped out and wouldnt go back in and found it looking like that....needs to be metal.. It does still work fine, I will pull apart tomorrow and see if it got worse.

[Kootenai Krawle]

Looks great!

Send me an email to the address listed in the manual with your mailing address and I will get you some of the replacement axles.

--Paul
Venom Customer Service

[webster420]

nice dude. pics look good. i wanted to come out with you guys today but have been waiting for my steering servo. i got my dig all done and ready to go. this is jordan if you dont know hahaha.

[1\4elliptic toy]

Originally Posted by Kootenai Krawle

Looks great!

Send me an email to the address listed in the manual with your mailing address and I will get you some of the replacement axles.

--Paul
Venom Customer Service

Paul, email sent thanks!

[werty]

Originally Posted by 1\4elliptic toy

the one of the diff if you look close you can see how it has started to spin.

that happed to mine I just supper glued the ring with the pins to the plastic after i filed the plastic down. How do you like the rovers? I was very impressed with the performance after I put them on my creeper.

[1\4elliptic toy]

Originally Posted by werty

How do you like the rovers? I was very impressed with the performance after I put them on my creeper.

I love them, I never even mounted the tires that came with the kit. I gotta tell ya I am really impressed with this crawler out of the box, it has done some really hard lines, I will shoot some video as soon as I get my new axle.

[CRAWLINGAROUND]

So what about the stock tires? How about a comparison? You didint even try them? lol

[ktmkurt]

Originally Posted by CRAWLINGAROUND

So what about the stock tires? How about a comparison? You didint even try them? lol

Yeah what about the stock tires. I plan on running the stock
ones once I get the electrics installed. The look and feel real nice.

[1\4elliptic toy]

Ok first let me say that the customer service I have received from venom is second to none! I sent Paul an email this morning, he had replyed within 10 minutes letting me know that everything was taken care of and my parts were being shipped....second to none! I am a small business owner and customer service to me is VERY important...Great job guys!

Chris, i just ordered the weight kit, I will do a full write up and review between the tires after this weekend with video..Hows that?

[HOLLYWOOD7]

I used the stock tires fore little while then i got hb rovers man what a differance

[webster420]

thats awesome about there customer service. hopefully its up and going this weekend so we can go put it to the test. i wanna see those pics from the other day to.

[1\4elliptic toy]

Pictures of my new shock mount mods, I just want to keep my pictures and build in this thread.

My new shock mounts.

[goldmember]

Venom told me you couldn't mount any other tire to their wheels than the stock ones? I wanted to run these wheels with a weight set as a cheaper alternative to Vanquish wheels (or similar). Based on their comment I bought some Vanquish wheels. :-(

[1\4elliptic toy]

Originally Posted by goldmember

Venom told me you couldn't mount any other tire to their wheels than the stock ones? I wanted to run these wheels with a weight set as a cheaper alternative to Vanquish wheels (or similar). Based on their comment I bought some Vanquish wheels. :-(

thats too bad, they went on with no hassle at all...Like they were designed for them.

[CRAWLINGAROUND]

@ 1/4
Thats great, I'm very interested to see how they work for you.

@ Goldmember
The rims are not designed to accomodate any other wheels due to our Beadlox tire design. If any other tire happens to work thats a bonus for you but we dont have a list or any info to suppot that. Maybe through the forum we can start a thread to show compatability. Sorry for the confusion.

Chris

[TURTLE]

Glad to hear they took care of you. Paul is usually pretty on top of everything.

[dezfan]

Why design your wheels to only work w/ your tires? Seems like your missing a lot of sales. I love the look of the Venom wheels, but knowing that they may not work w/ other manufactures tires would prevent me from buying more or recommending them to anyone else.

I plan on trying the stock tires, but I'm fairly certain that Panther Cougars will end up on my rig. I hope they work w/ the Venom wheels, if not, that is just another cost I will have to incur.

Another swing and a miss IMO.

[1\4elliptic toy]

FWIW, I have had losi carvers and the rovers on mine so far they both mounted fine.......ALTHOUGH I have stripped a couple of the bolts on my rims already, I am very careful about mounting and unmounting too I am not just forcing them to go.