kart45's Safari Creeper build

[kart45]

Howdy folks, I'm new to the crawler world but not R/C. I like oval stuff when its available but have been settling for 1:10 SC stuff lately.
blah blah blah here's my Safari Creeper so far. Still waiting on Venom to ship the replacement esc that was dead upon arrival.



Going ahead w/the Blackfoot CC conversion. I know the scale might be a little off but I'm diggin it so far. the 1.9's just don't seem big enough around the giant axles and hubs. Anyone have any advice on joining these 2 bodies? I just have them vinyl'd together for the moment. Gonna start gooping on the ABS cement and binding, maybe this weekend.

[kart45]

Little update. Finally got the Venom ESC back. Sorry I waited for it. Need's a BEC/dedicated circuit as it chokes the servo down to 5v. That and it does full throttle when I turn full right but who's to complain

Body mounted and coming along, can't bring myself to dremel on the brand new chrome front bumper just yet...

[lilypadjumper]

lookin good so far. realy liking the blackfoot body.

[Exocaged]

nice and different! are you planning on limiting the articulation to keep the tire out of the body?

[kart45]

Only a cpl months old and spider gears are trashed. Havin' a hard time figurung out why anyone would produce a crawler w/open diff...
Another real nice from Venom.

[Exocaged]

Some don't like it, but I say JB weld them things! I did mine a while back and drive like an idiot with 3 broken shafts and not one diff has came apart. Just mix it correctly.

[kart45]

Picking some JB weld up on the way home tonight... Anyone know if the Fastlane lockers are still available? I have their axles in my Kyosho Ultimas and have had excellent luck with their stuff.
I might have to limit the travel, I broke down and hogged out the front bumper about as far as I could without rounding the bend of the contour and tires are still rubbing. This is just screwing around in my backyard though, haven't hit our local comp parks up yet to really get a feel for what I'm in for...

[kart45]

got 'er all back together, JB weld and all...





Vented the stock wheels w/ (2) 1/8" holes ea, seems to let the tire flex/conform a bit better, might throw some weight at them now and cut up the foams. Memory foam is neat and all, just doesn't make sense to me as good material for a tire insert, I would have figured something with a higher recovery rate would fit the bill better...?

[Billadelphia]

why jb weld a diff when venom will send you the diff lockers for free just call em

[kart45]

I'm ready to pitch the damn thing . Can't drive it for more than 20 mins at a time without something new breaking. I haven't torn it apart yet, but from the sounds of things I'll be ordering up some replacement transmission internals. Trying to screw around at over the Easter weekend and lost the front drive altogether. Heard a snap then grinding. Driveshaft still turns w/the wheels/axle but I hear some nastiness going on in the front of the tranny case.
This damn truck has cost me 3 esc's and a servo, not to mention I don't think I've driven it yet through a full battery pack without something catastrophically breaking... between the differentials and the transmission what else is there in a crawler.
My buddies Dingo, while not having the articulation/clearance and general bad-assness of the Venom, has yet to break anything that disabled the vehicle.

[Exocaged]

My trans has proven pretty darn tough. Did the set screws back out on the driveshaft on the front output? This happens regularly with mine.

[kart45]

Got 'er back up and running. Looks like the motor shifted slightly and wore down the brass pinion. I disassembled and cleaned up the pinion/spur gear, and reassembled with a 'snug' clearances to hopefully allow the brass to wear a little better on the existing spur. I applied a little light oil to help set the gear as well.

I give up on my electronics package though... I'm on the hunt for a new ESC with BEC and servo. What is everyone's preference on ESC's and is brushless the way to go? This is my only brushed rig, and as far as I can tell brushed is actually the way to go with crawlers? I just know I need some serious current to feed a serious steering servo with these 2.2's

[ratterd]

Tekin FXR and a good brushed motor,.

[kart45]

Thanks for the input - they are just up north from me... never actually run any Tekin though lol

[kart45]

Couple new updates. Limping along til I pull the trigger on a new ESC

Threw down some custom camo and picked up a driver and a new name on the tailgate though

[kart45]

Been a while since I've posted but I finally have this thing running with some sort of consistency. I was running it with my FlySky FSGT3B, and I think that's where most of my troubles had been coming from. I threw down for a decent Futaba Servo and went back to the OEM Venom FM 4ch Rx/Tx setup and has been running flawlessly ever since. Got a trip to Lincoln City (Oregon Coast) and a nice day of crawling with my Cousin (Yellow Dingo) in at Werx in Nampa, what an awesome place!







Well it was nice chrome...

[kbuby]

Your proyect looks great, the body is nice.

PS:Thats a great track you have there i like it