My First real crawler - AX10 RTR

[monkeyracer]

The best bang for your buck is really the ARTR. You get everything locked and even the rear lockouts plus metal links and the shocks already lowered. You get the "better" tires over the Kit and RTR and you get to choose your motor and electronics instead of having to replace the stuff the RTR comes with (because you will).

For me, the RTR ended up being less expensive because I am fine with the stock electronics. I'm getting the 55t, and using the 27t in a different project (non-crawler) so I don't have to buy two motors. Also, I don't like the orange links, so since I'd be replacing them anyway, it was cheaper in the rtr. As far as tires go, I'd have probably switched out the tires eventually either way, and to some extent the skill of the driver can outweigh the compound of the tires. Lastly, the lockers are included, and pretty easy to install. I'm more than satisfied with my purchase, but I advise anyone out there looking, to do their homework. Google Shopping is a great resource, and is how I found the best deal on what I got.

I Just got my RTR up and running today. I did the 14t Pinion, but I still need to seriously slow this beast down. I'm shopping for a 55t motor as we speak!

The 55t motor will help a lot, I can't wait to get the last of my parts to get this thing going.

I don't really plan on competing, yet, maybe. I don't really have a whole lot of time on my hands to go to any of the comps (and the points race has already started for this season) so that's not an important factor I had to consider.

I started to paint the body, and realized I didn't have the colors I thought I did, so I'm painting the first body Satin Black with metallic green accents. It's a temporary solution until I find the body I really want for it.

I keep promising pics, but it's not much more than the stock rtr, and we've all seen one before.

Anyone know of a quick way to get rid of the "new tire" smell that's permeating my apartment right now?

 

[monkeyracer]

I finally got all the parts in, and started to take it all apart, until...

I find 65mm posts in the color pack instead of the 55mm posts.

That sucks. I don't know what to do to get the right posts, but I paid for the color pack, and I should get what I'm supposed to get from the color pack. I sent an email to axial customer service, and will probably call them tomorrow to see if they'll ship me the right posts.

I still installed the lower links, the front diff locker, the soft springs, and the 55t motor with 14t pinion.
The diff locker was easy. There's four screws on the axle housing ends that hold the hubs on, and four screws that hold the housing together. Unscrew those, and the diff is inside, unscrew the four screws holding the diff together, remove the gears, install the locker and screw it all back up. Took maybe 5 mins or less.

Since I'm waiting to run it until the right posts come in, I am going to inboard mount the lower links. I was going to take a bunch of pictures during the process, but once I found out I got the wrong posts, I put the camera away.

 

[Syd]

ok thanks so when you first got the rtr was it a good performer of was not as good as you expected cuz ive herd a lot of people say its not that great of a crawler

Locking the fron diff is so easy! I did it in like 20 min Lol. It is a good crawler, but if you going to "Crawl" then its a certaint for really low gearing an weigh the sucker down, if you dont, then when you first lay on the throttle it will litterally flip itself over, an its more of a "Bash Rig" but if you wanna go crawler, weights,low gearing,etc..

 

[grimgard]

I Just got my RTR up and running today. I did the 14t Pinion, but I still need to seriously slow this beast down. I'm shopping for a 55t motor as we speak!

Get the Novak ESC Motor Combo

 

[ltdanyj]

Second day with mine.... First Crawler I've owned. Installed the front locker and 14t pinion... Felt it was too stiff as well, so I swung by the hobby shop and the guy recommended a set of HPI Savage green springs... dunno if I went the right way or not with it... lol.... Tonight I'm gonna cut the foams, and do some more research to slow this thing down!! I agree with what everybody has said, it's just way too twitch right now!

 

[monkeyracer]

Despite having the wrong links, I decided to try to put it all together with the original plastic upper links, and took it outside for a little fun finally.

I definitely need to vent the wheels, mod the foams, move the battery, and put some weight in the wheels. It was a fun day though, and I tried to find a good spot to try out some technique.

So far, I've done the following:

Inboard mounted the lower links (cut the skid plate)
Installed front diff locker,
Installed 14t Pinion on 55t motor,
Cut, lowered and painted the stock body,
Installed axial soft springs,
Installed upper link plate to mount elecs,

That's it so far.

As far as the esc is concerned, it was glitchy inside, but once I took it outside, it was just fine. Not sure if that had anything to do with it, but it didn't have a single glitch on the rocks.

 

[monkeyracer]

I got the wheels vented, and ordered the battery pack from cheapbatterypacks.com (not here yet), and I just wanted to go out and crawl, so here's just a couple pics of today's short crawl-

I lost a body clip somehow, and these rocks were large and spaced far apart, so I kept getting stuck in the crevices. I want to find a good crawling spot near lakewood, CO, so that I can get some good practice in.

 

[monkeyracer]

I got the batteries in, and I weighted the wheels.

I added 4.5oz to each front and 3.0oz to each rear, and it seems to do just fine on the rocks. Now that the weight is low, I can stand it on the side of it's wheels, so that tells me the center of balance is somewhere within the tire's diameter. For the wheel weights, I took some bb's and put them in snack size ziplocs, and then taped them to the rim. This way, they don't move around and make all that crazy noise, but the weight is there. I left the foams stock, but with whatever tires I get, I'll get memory foams with them.

I still have a hard time climbing stairs though, I think i'm going to get bent links for the front, and maybe taller, stickier tires, but that's going to have to wait until taxes come in (just waiting on one more tax form to show up.) I'm also still waiting on my 55mm posts for the upper links and chassis posts, axial sent them thursday, which means they got in the mail friday, and should be here by tuesday.

There's a comp coming up in a few days, but I'm not sure I'm going to make it this time or not (schedule...) so we'll see. If I go, I'll post up some pics.

I can't wait to get my custom chassis cut and installed, and stop using this huge lexan body. Again, extra cash flow would be needed to get that going.

 

[monkeyracer]

some video from todays crawl:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HdxpkbAn7-k

 

[dynacrawler58]

Ordering axial rtr from tower great deal! $308.00 delivered

Axial rtr w radio and esc 254.00
duratrax peak charger a/c dc for nicad and nimh 47.50
duratrax piranah nimh 2500 battery 24.99
$15 gift certificate free
3 months of rc car action free
$30.00 instant rebate -30.00

free shipping

total cost delivered 308.00

 

[monkeyracer]

Axial rtr w radio and esc 254.00
duratrax peak charger a/c dc for nicad and nimh 47.50
duratrax piranah nimh 2500 battery 24.99
$15 gift certificate free
3 months of rc car action free
$30.00 instant rebate -30.00

free shipping

total cost delivered 308.00

Nice, pretty good deal!
Welcome to the forum, there is a ton of info here for us noobs.

Some mods that I recommend right away would be some of the ones I did right away: Vent either the tires or the rims, upgrade to aluminum links, either move the battery to over the front axle or get a new pack from cheapbatterypacks.com or maxamps.com, try to get the center of gravity as low as possible.
Later you may want to upgrade to a better radio, better tires, new chassis, etc. It's all in what you want out of it.

 

[monkeyracer]

more pics with my "halfie" suspension installed:

Balance point:

Articulation shots

About 3" GC at rest, but COG is still low enough to handle more sidehill than the tires will handle. Full extension adds about another inch.

Two springs in shock body, medium over piston, soft under piston, I'm calling this a halfie set-up, since the piston at rest is at about half travel in the shock body.

A lot of people say more than 2.5" of gc is too much, but without a body, and everything where it is, the COG is low enough to not tip while crawling.

 

[Grump]

And let the upgrades just keep coming. I've been building and rebuilding mine since the ax10 kit came out. Now i'm into mine around $1800. It adds up quick when you get bit by the bug. Quality parts are not cheap, and cheap parts are not quality. Save your money and go in steps just like you are doing. Great job doing your homework.

p.s. Put some weight in those front tires and you will really see a differance!!!

It does add up quick. I picked up the AX10 kit. Was I supposed to stop at $1800.00? :shock:

 

[monkeyracer]

Update:

There is a weak point in my first design where the skid attaches to the chassis. Since I tried to provide a ton of mounting options, there are a lot of holes, leaving not a whole lot of material. Well, I went stair jumping to test the durability of the design, and yup, it cracked on both sides exactly where I thought it would. Other than the little crack, the chassis stood up to some pretty bad abuse. To fix it temporarily, I made some lexan side plates that reinforce the side of the chassis.

Here are the updated specs on the rig:
- Stock Axial driveline (trans to wheels),
- Stock Axial electronics (servo, esc, rx),
- Axial 55t Motor,
- Stock Axial shocks, droop style (now the fronts are inboard, and the rears, out.)
- My own custom 4-link plate on the rear, still needs a little trimming
- Delrin links all around except front upper links are still stock 3-link aluminums
- Delrin steering and drag links
- HB Rovers Soft Compound Tires - Better than stock for sure, but not as tall as I thought they would be
- BB's in wheels for weight, 4.5oz in front, 3.0oz in rear, taped in a zip lock so they don't make any noise. I may want to add a little more weight all around though.
- My custom Lexan chassis (obviously)
- Moved the stock battery plate over the servo to protect the batteries and servo since there's no body, held together by velcro straps that were holding the batteries.
- Monster Energy can body panels (Original monster on servo top plate, hood and roof, khaos on side panels.)
- 85t or 83t spur (can't remember now), 22t pinion (I think) - not my ideal set up, but I stripped the stock 87t spur, and had the other gears sitting in my parts box. I want to go back to a 87/14 set-up, maybe 87/18 for a little more wheelspeed


Ok, so on to the pics:

Electrics mounting has been an adventure, but I'm still trying to figure out the best placement for them. Here's how they sit now (kinda high up for my tastes)

Close-up of the side panels, if you look VERY close, right under the K in Khaos is where the weak point is. The side panels reinforce that area now though. The second version of the chassis solves this problem.

Servo top plate made from stock battery plate

4-Link Plate - Still needs trimming though

Articulation is still good (still has more to go in this shot) but limited with a little fuel tubing.

Now, if I would just actually drive it!