A Tale of Two Crawlers

[Statenheimer]

Well, consider this an intro too I guess. Lurked here for a while after becoming interested in the crawling world. Actually caught the bug scuba diving of all places. Last summer we put in Rockport, MA and when we came back out there was a whole organized course and crawl going on.

Thought it was neat, but have a ton of hobbies, so the idea got shelved... Fast forward to this year. I was thinking about getting my 1/8 scale rally car going again, and came across some super scale crawler pics that blew me away. I started showing them to the gf, and she loved them too.

I pestered and tested her to really make sure this was something she may like, and eventually pulled the trigger on a modded SCX10 on eBay for her birthday. She LOVED it.

List of mods on hers is as follows:
VP over head light, 2 of the LEDs do not work
Front and rear bumper lights
Rc4wd metal bumpers front and back
Rc4wd 90mm king shocks
Blue monkey cms setup, costomized for maximum articulation
Grade metal drive lines
All metal gear tranny
Tekin 30t motor
Holmes Torquemaster esc
Hobby Co servo.
Rc4wd metal sliders
1.9 RC4WD Dick Cepek Reps
Pitbull tires with CI foam
Blue monkey delrin links front and back with revo rod ends
Blue monkey titanium steering rods and cms bar
Hot racing lockers
HD under over drive gears in axles

I basically bought hers hoping it would be pretty sorted, and pretty capable right off the bat. I was not disappointed.

Then I began searching for something for me. Really, just trying to get more bang for my buck than a kit, but not planning on getting anything as modded (or expensive) as hers.

Another eBay find with literally, a two sentence description... But, thanks to the search feature on here and Google, I learned enough to know what I was looking at, and got it for what I felt was cheap, with only a few other bids.

Mods on mine:
Hot Racing links
Unknown aluminum knuckles
RC4WD 35T motor
Novak Rooster Crawler esc
Gmade XD103 shocks
Unknown wheels with scale hubs
RC4WD Super Swampers

First order of business was bumpers. Went with RC4WD F&R, and like the looks of the Hot Racing shackles, so I got them too:

Problem is, the opening in the shackles is tiny, especially compared to the bumpers. A little filing, and they fit perfect. Original Left, Filed Right:

Front:

Rear:

The two together:

 

[Statenheimer]

So I went ahead and built a little crawler playground in the basement which quickly evolved to a whole 1/4 of the basement...
I quickly found that the shocks on the F150 were pretty stiff, so I ordered the soft gmade springs.

Before:

During:

After:

While this truck is not anywhere near as scale as I intend on going in the future, it is fun, and really does look accurate to some of the Upstate NY redneck trucks I saw growing up. I am loving every minute of it.

So far I managed to break one of the random company SS driveshafts (knocked off, and subsequently lost a circlip) so replacements were ordered.

And then last night, while playing around in the basement, she managed to snap one of her C-hubs. So aluminum replacements are on the way!

Cannot guarantee how much I will update this, but I will attempt to. I just want to thank everyone on here for the plethora of knowledge, and friendliness that comes across through all the threads that I have read. There are some incredibly talented people on here, and some complete noobs (me) and everyone seems to coexist harmoniously.

8)

 

[Treyk47]

First off, let me say, awesome trucks! As a fellow newbie I believe that I am qualified to say that you're off to a great start. Pretty soon I'm sure that this thread will be swarming with fellow enthusiast who are more than willing to answer any questions that you may have as you progress with your build ups. I myself look forward to your next update. Welcome to the forum.

 

[Statenheimer]

Thank you Treyk.

I think the XR10 steering mod will be pretty near down the road for both rigs. I had read the comments from everyone on the turning radius, but you don't really realize the implications until you experience it for yourself...