warfish
Rock Stacker
I bought a MRC about 3 weeks ago and really expected it to be nothing more than a desktop toy. But after finding out about all the good mods and getting to work my little crawler has become very capable, I must say I am more than impressed with it at this point.
Mods done so far include...
-Removed foam from tires
-Added 7 grams lead inside each tire (attached to inside of rim)
-Removed the plug between the motor and the esc (this actually seemed to help smooth out low end power)
-400 MAH Li-Po battery (I have 1 and 2 cell but prefer the 1 cell)
-Changed out steering servo with a Hi-Tech 65hb
-Removed servo saver
-Replaced springs with Micro T rear springs (white in front red in back)
-coiled springs over end caps of shocks
-Inverted shocks
-Notched and lowered ESC plate and battery tray
-Removed ESC from case
-Stretched truck (most the stretch is in the rear, front is only slightly longer than stock)
-Custom links all around
-Rear lower links are bent for clearance over rocks
-Removed body posts, added Velcro
-Lengthened drive lines
-Reversed transmission
-Clocked axles
-Softened tires with 2 hour WD40 soak
-Metal nuts for wheels
-7 grams lead formed into knuckle weights over both axles
-59 tooth spur, 10 tooth pinion
-Moved front shocks to inboard position
-Filed front links to allow full articulation
I am at about 55 degrees of articulation and think it is just about right, almost too much at times.
I started on a course at the same time as I started the upgrades. I had to keep increasing the difficulty of my course as I went, rebuilt the entire rock formation 3 times before deciding I had it challenging enough. I would rate my course as having a very high technical difficulty rating.
My goals when creating it where to have a very challenging to extremely challenging (but possible) course that also has a sense of realism about it to set the mood well when driving. I have some experience in model railroading that I was able to fall back on for the scenery aspect.
Here are a few pics of what I have going
Mods done so far include...
-Removed foam from tires
-Added 7 grams lead inside each tire (attached to inside of rim)
-Removed the plug between the motor and the esc (this actually seemed to help smooth out low end power)
-400 MAH Li-Po battery (I have 1 and 2 cell but prefer the 1 cell)
-Changed out steering servo with a Hi-Tech 65hb
-Removed servo saver
-Replaced springs with Micro T rear springs (white in front red in back)
-coiled springs over end caps of shocks
-Inverted shocks
-Notched and lowered ESC plate and battery tray
-Removed ESC from case
-Stretched truck (most the stretch is in the rear, front is only slightly longer than stock)
-Custom links all around
-Rear lower links are bent for clearance over rocks
-Removed body posts, added Velcro
-Lengthened drive lines
-Reversed transmission
-Clocked axles
-Softened tires with 2 hour WD40 soak
-Metal nuts for wheels
-7 grams lead formed into knuckle weights over both axles
-59 tooth spur, 10 tooth pinion
-Moved front shocks to inboard position
-Filed front links to allow full articulation
I am at about 55 degrees of articulation and think it is just about right, almost too much at times.
I started on a course at the same time as I started the upgrades. I had to keep increasing the difficulty of my course as I went, rebuilt the entire rock formation 3 times before deciding I had it challenging enough. I would rate my course as having a very high technical difficulty rating.
My goals when creating it where to have a very challenging to extremely challenging (but possible) course that also has a sense of realism about it to set the mood well when driving. I have some experience in model railroading that I was able to fall back on for the scenery aspect.
Here are a few pics of what I have going
The scenery is my specialty for sure, but now that I have that done and the truck set up well I am going to attempt to make the crawler look scale too. Stay tuned on that one, hehe :ror:
