Mayhem Wicked J UCW, CrawlerInNOVAtion, Panther Leopard, BUILD AND REVIEW

[jcboof]

Well, Most guys don't do a build thread on their wheels/foam/tire combos, but I'm gonna do one!

Its been about a month since I received a package from Dan at Mayhem Engineering, and I figured that i'd better get as much drive time behind the wheel as I could and post up HONEST results of what i have found. So, here it goes.
The next day, I received my package from Eddie at Crawler InNOVAtions! A fresh set of Panther Leopards and his Legendary 2-Stage Foams!!!!!

Heres the Setup!

THE WHEELS: Mayhem Engineering 2.2 Wicked J Ultimate Comp Wheels

THE FOAMS: Crawler InNOVAtion 2-Stage Foams

THE TIRES: Panther Leopard Crawler Tires


I opened the package from Mayhem and was immediately impressed with the careful packaging of the wheels, each wheel/ring set was individually wrapped and protected, Very nice touch! after unwrapping everything I was FLOORED by the machining quality of these wheels, Mayhem DEFINITELY stepped up their game with these ones!! ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!!! Its a damn shame I gotta cover most of these wheels with foam and rubber! The machining on the supports is almost MIRROR FINISH!

Ok, Now most of you are probably wondering how to weight these wheels. SIMPLE!!!

I simply took my wheel weights and trimmed them a little to fit in the gaps under the support rings! THEY FIT PERFECT!! and I was able to add the perfect amount of weight to them! You have to loosen the support screws before you push the weights under them, then tighten them back up and they are not going anywhere! Super easy and clean! Oh, and the weights that I used were 1/2oz weights, For the guys using 1/4oz weight, just stack 2 together! Easy as that!!

Ok, next, The foams....
I send Eddie from Crawler InNOVAtions a pm one day and three days later, a package arrived in my mailbox!! Super fast shipping!!
It was a fresh set of Panther Leopards and a set of his 2.2 2-Stage Crawler Foams!!

After trimming 1/4" off the inner foam, I channeled the inside of the foams to fit the support rings on the wheels

I then gently stretched the inner foam first over the wheels and aligned them up. Then I installed the outer foam over the inners. Then I STRETCHED the Panther Leopard tire over the entire Foam/Wheel assembly. I found it much easier to do this rather than stuff the foam in the wheel first and then fight to get the wheel in place. This way you can align the support rings from the wheels in the foam and also align the foam inside the tire too! Works slick!!

Sorry but I don't have any pics of me doing that but I can assure you it looks just as I described it!

Heres a pic of the mounted wheel/tire combo next to an unmounted foam for size reference.

The foams look a tad big, but not to worry, they are a perfect fit for these tires and rovers also!!!!

Heres a fully weighted and mounted shot! 15.7oz total wheel weight! Perfect!

On this set of Leopards, i decided to sipe them as Eddie has described in his other threads, I siped the side lugs and the center tread section.

So far this is turning out to be one SWEET A$$ setup!!!

Here are a few shots of this setup in action!!

 

[Mayhem Eng.]

"thumbsup"8) I like the weight idea.

 

[Nova's Ark]

I love the look of the Wicked J's"thumbsup". Mayhem has such great quality wheels. Thank you for such a complete write up as well. I am grateful that you bought your tires and foams from me. I really appreciate the business and the write up. Now go win some comps:mrgreen::!:

 

[jcboof]

Ok, Now the REVIEW!!!!!

The wheels performed EXACTLY as I hoped they would, The weight distribution that i used was perfect, and the UCW design is a real asset to my crawler. The tall support rings make undercuts a thing of the past! They simply work! Holes that would normally cause a tire to fall in and wad up were no match for this setup! The supports are tall enough to help in holes and undercuts, yet short enough to still allow the tire to fully flex and still wad up a bit on high traction surfaces! The are completely functional as well as good looking! The ring seems to prevent the tire from wadding up as much and keep more of the tread in contact with the rock surface.

Mayhem Wicked J Ultimate Comp Wheels, A+ "thumbsup"


The Foams,

Crawler InNOVAtions foams are the BEST i've seen and used to date! They are just right, The outer foam material is very soft while the inner is firm but not too firm. Tuning is very simple on these foams, the only tuning i've done so far is just narrowing the inner foams by 1/4" and channeling out the centers of the front foams. Very simple yet very effective design.

Crawler InNOVAtions Foams, A+ "thumbsup"


The Tires,

Panther Leopards are the newest Crawler tires out as of now. The were highly anticipated, and they are now beginning to prove themselves as being worthy of the Panther logo. The tires out of the box do not work particularly well in my experience. The lugs are a bit tall, and the sidewalls are a bit stiff.
This being my second set of Leopards, I decided to try something different on them. My first set, did not work very well at all until the tread was almost completely gone, It seemed that you had to literally wear the tires out for them to work properly. The carcass was stiff and the lugs were too tall.
After reading about Siping the Leopards, I decided to give it a try. I figured it would at least prolong the life of the leopards, considering that my other set was almost completely destroyed and I only had 3 Comps on them!!!!

After several packs through the tires, I still was not terribly happy with the performance of them. I did end up completely removing the side lugs saving the top bit of side lug, This helped soften up the sidewall of the tire and helped with forward traction. However, my old worn out set that were basically Unmodified still hook up better.

I'm basically just gonna wear this set out now. Its a shame that in order to get full potential out of these tires, you have to basically wear them out. Oh well, I'm serious about comping and I still prefer these tires over the rovers.

Panther Leopards, Siped and side lugs cut. B-
Panther Leopards, completely worn out! A+++++

 

[jcboof]

Thank you for such a complete write up as well. I am grateful that you bought your tires and foams from me. I really appreciate the business and the write up. Now go win some comps:mrgreen::!:

No problem at all Eddie!! I'm glad to do business with a stand-up vendor like yourself!! You ought to be proud that people regard your products as the best in the business!!!"thumbsup"

And as for the winning comp thing, I've got that covered! Undefeated with the new setup so far!! Special thanks to Mayhem, Crawler InNOVAtions, and BWD!!

"thumbsup"8) I like the weight idea.

Thanks!! I told ya I had a good idea!!"thumbsup" The wheels are great Dan!! Can't thank you enough!! And I'm also very Proud to represent your company!! You guys truly make THE BEST wheels on the market period. Quality is top notch and customer service cant be beat!! Your company is a true asset to RC Crawling!!

 

[The Eye]

And boy do these work "thumbsup" You got to love thoughs rocks :mrgreen:

Nice write up bro.

 

[jcboof]

And boy do these work "thumbsup" You got to love thoughs rocks :mrgreen:

Nice write up bro.

Thanks bud!!!"thumbsup" Looking forward to crawling with you guys again at the next comp!!

 

[TSK]

Almost a pound per wheel seems like over kill. Then again it's one of those MOA things...

Maybe the leopards should actually be used as slicks?

Regardless, sick setup"thumbsup"

 

[jcboof]

Almost a pound per wheel seems like over kill. Then again it's one of those MOA thing

Regardless, sick setup"thumbsup"

Well. Total weight of my crawler is 6.5lbs, not too heavy at all. I like to have a 8oz difference between my front and rear wheels for proper bias. My rears are at 8oz total weight, I do not run supports in the rear in effort to lighten them up and to help the tires squat a little.
I'm not gonna get caught up in the ultralight fad, most guys who did that are starting to add weight back to their rigs.
However, my axial sportsman rig weighs in at 5.2lbs.

Thanks for the comments though! "thumbsup"

 

[TSK]

I'm not gonna get caught up in the ultralight fad

damn that scorpionking....

 

[jcboof]

damn that scorpionking....

LOL!!!:mrgreen:

Well, with the panthers being a hard tire to tune, They work best on a heavier rig, The foams need to be good and soft for the panthers to hook up well, and with an ultralight rig that some people are going with, You'd need an ULTRASOFT foam for them to work right. Possibly even softer than Nova's foams, or maybe grooving the inner foams like crazy to soften them up would work.

Just my opinion I guess, I've never had any problem running mine at 6.5lbs yet. I wouldn't mind getting er down to 6 lbs but Its not necessary IMO. I'm happy right where she's at."thumbsup"

 

[TSK]

LOL!!!:mrgreen:

Well, with the panthers being a hard tire to tune, They work best on a heavier rig, The foams need to be good and soft for the panthers to hook up well, and with an ultralight rig that some people are going with, You'd need an ULTRASOFT foam for them to work right. Possibly even softer than Nova's foams, or maybe grooving the inner foams like crazy to soften them up would work.

Just my opinion I guess, I've never had any problem running mine at 6.5lbs yet. I wouldn't mind getting er down to 6 lbs but Its not necessary IMO. I'm happy right where she's at."thumbsup"

the main issue I'm having is getting my bias right. i'm trying to adjust it without wheel weights. it's currently at 55/45, so I'm close. I'd feel like I was cheating if i use wheel weights right now. the main issue is having dig and the servo hanging so far back...

 

[joesbruiser]

the main issue I'm having is getting my bias right. i'm trying to adjust it without wheel weights. it's currently at 55/45, so I'm close. I'd feel like I was cheating if i use wheel weights right now. the main issue is having dig and the servo hanging so far back...

Wheel weigts are just part of the game"thumbsup"

 

[jcboof]

wheel weigts are just part of the game"thumbsup"

x2!

 

[Pappy]

Do you have any fold over issues on side hills, or steep uphill turns?

I run UCW's and am looking for setup with Novas.

 

[jcboof]

Well, I honestly have not ran the panthers that much lately, But when I did run them, they did fold over just a touch. Nothing to complain about though. They held their line extremely well as long as you stayed on the throttle. The panthers just slip if you let off the throttle on a sidehill.

I'm now running sedonas on my UCW Wicked J's and I love em. Sidehill like crazy and they work VERY well.

 

[Pappy]

Good to hear, I'm going back to Rovers from Cougers, and am getting Nova foams to go with my Mayhem UCW's. Did you do any cutting on the rear foams to clear the inner bolt ring?

 

[helhedded]

I'm now running sedonas on my UCW Wicked J's and I love em. Sidehill like crazy and they work VERY well.

I am running the same setup and wheel combo and I am loving it. I have actually trimmed a large amount of my double duece inner since the UCW ring supports so well.

 

[jcboof]

I am running the same setup and wheel combo and I am loving it. I have actually trimmed a large amount of my double duece inner since the UCW ring supports so well.

I hear you on that! I have a set of Sedona's mounted on Spiders too that I ran at Battlegrounds this weekend and they worked great too. My spiders don't have a ring in them though. Just Foams and tires! Either way, the ring in the UCW's work.

I'm thinking of asking Dan to send me a set of Shorter support rings and try them out too. The taller rings on the Wicked J UCW's are almost too tall for me. The Nova's foams do such a good job that the ring is almost not necessary any more, but I'd still like to have a little support ring in em in case the foam compress too much.

 

[jcboof]

Good to hear, I'm going back to Rovers from Cougers, and am getting Nova foams to go with my Mayhem UCW's. Did you do any cutting on the rear foams to clear the inner bolt ring?

No, I didn't do any trimming on the rear foams for my Wicked J UCW's. The ring mounts on those are not really a ring, just a tab. I'm sure you could just cut a slit in the foams to get the ring to slip in if you are using the standard UCW's with the mounting ring that goes all the way around. Just make sure to narrow the inner foam about a 1/4" for the rear. If you are running a 1" wheel, the rears tend to like a narrower inner foam than the fronts.