Maisto Rockzilla- Pretty fun for 50$… Build thread?

[Goatman4rc]

Just thought i would post this truck i found at Sams club the other day-

It has 2.2 ripoffs of axial ripsaws and it is a 1:10 scale. will post more pics tomorrow.
Edit: It does not come with this body, it is off a old toy i found at a thrift store.
Radio Control Rockzilla Pro Series - Sam's Club

 

[NorCal69]

Are you kiddin me....$39 @ Amazon. Gettin some pretty good reviews. Looks like this could be a possible rc intro "throw a way" for the grandkids. Dang, tempting

 

[nowinaminite]

Looks the same as the 3xl but with a different body style.

I recently got hold of a customer return 3xl dirt cheap which had no battery or charger, the standard pack is a 6.4v li-ion made out of two 14500 cells.

I'm not a hardcore hobbyist (yet lol) and I wanted to get it working quick and cheap so I just got a 6xAA battery holder, snipped off the wires and added some thicker wire and a mini Tamiya connector and ran it with 6 Eneloops and it works pretty well, the Tamiya connector needs some trimming to fit the Maisto but it will click in safely once you've done that.

It runs pretty good on 6 AA cells but I don't have any basis for comparison, it goes for about 20 minutes with good climbing ability and after that it gets a bit hesitant to go up hills but it will carry on going on less steep terrain for probably another 25-30 minutes. The stock battery only seems to last about 10-20 minutes so it's not a bad start.

Its a bit faster than the standard size and much faster than the junior but not outright fast in absolute terms, it seems to be really good at climbing, I guess the size advantage over the smaller ones helps here but it really can get up some steep hills and of course copes with grass a lot better due to it's size.

The throttle has 2 settings which isn't great but a step up from the smaller models at least, the steering isn't proportional and can be slow to lock when moving forward at speed, it responds instantly but doesn't lock and seems to pause a while before locking fully, seen a few people on youtube mention this. When it does fully lock the turning circle isn't bad, better than the junior version for sure!

Obviously this thing would benefit from a little more current and AA is probably the worst power source for this, even though it's only 500mah the standard pack can probably put out a little more current due to it being lithium but like I say I have no means to compare.

The 6AA battery holder fits completely inside the compartment with clearance to spare if you dremel out the protrusions, you could add another tray again and still only have minimal effect on ground clearance so I may try to run another 6 in a 6s2p setup, it will cost about £1.50 to do!

The obvious answer would be a more capable power source but I'm just not invested enough in the hobby to go LIPO just yet.

I do think though that a 7.2v sub c nimh pack would fit in there just about so that might be an avenue I explore down the line but for now it's going to cost almost nothing to see how a 6s2p AA setup works. I know it's not ideal but it's very cheap.

I have the standard sized crawler too and added an extra 2xAA in series and it works every bit as good as my friends one that has a 9.6v nimh pack which I suppose makes sense as that pack is just made up from AA nimh cells but I think the 3xl/rockzilla would benefit from a little more amperage than AA can deliver either in the form of individual cells or a pack.


I will report back after I try my cheap 6s2p experiment.

Sorry for waffling on, I just haven't seen much discussion about these larger Maisto crawlers compared to the standard size so I was eager to sing up and post!

 

[CM9000]

WWWHHHHYYYYYYYYYY
the FFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUU** is this in here....

 

[NorCal69]

Bought two 6 mo. ago for grand kids 3 & 5 to run on the street. Run time 20 - 30 min. Top end around 15mph so i've got fuel tubing on bacside of throttle to reduce trigger travel down tp 5 mph. Beware spare parts are an unknown.

 

[snowman13]

Anybody want a chocolate covered pretzel?��

 

[Bigdicrex95]

I modified my sons Rockzilla with old rc parts...Savage big block springs and Tmaxx spring spacers. Had to cut the old springs off with a grinder! Made a big difference. I also fitted a stampede body on it with a little trimming on the back wheels for full flex. Width and wheel wells lined right up but the body fits perfect over the front bumper which is good you don't have to hack or cut the truck. Not bad for kids but your not going to win an comps lol