Project Dirt Cheap U4

[struhall]

One of my local tracks has decided to put on a U4 series so I figured I had the perfect chance to build a new truck and see how cheap I can make it happen. I'm going to call her Project Dirt Cheap. With everything I have so far I'm right around 115. That's not bad for a complete truck minus electronics.

Couple months ago I picked up 2 SCX10 sliders for 125 for the pair. I did a little mixing and matching and this first chassis is just about ready to race. As of right now everything I have except the body and Beef Tubes are from the original purchase.

What I have so far:
HR 4 link mount in the rear and HR 4 link truss up front.
Unknown brand aluminum lockouts out back and aluminum knuckles and hubs up front.
HR remote reservoir shocks.
Beef Tubes in the front axle
Integy aluminum trans case with metal gears, slipper eliminator and metal gear.
Battery tray mounted sideways.

All I need to finish her off are electronics.
I know I'm going to buy a PowerHD servo and I need a RX.

I still need an ESC and motor but I've never built a go fast truck so I need to learn.

I have been building crawlers for 5 years now and I have never had a Honcho body so I found one on here and picked it up. I also bought the Beef Tubes here.

I have a Vanquish stage 1 kit that I may swap on but it's silver (what they call clear) so I'm trying to trade them for black or I'll paint them first.

She sits a little high for my taste but I'm going to try it out and see how it handles. If I don't like it I'll end up finding another set of shocks.

 

[Brake Weight]

I don’t think of a Honcho as a U4 rig. But if you wanna give it a go, I’d get some sort of bracing between the shock hoops and I’d also get a droop kit to bring the ride height down some. Try some knobbier tires as well. Maybe some of the $15 Chinese Swampers or Hyrax to stick with the Dirt Cheap. Although I wouldn’t skimp on the foams.

And some better driveshafts than the original Honcho shafts.

 

[struhall]

I'm building it to go in the 1.9 trail class. I'm not going to build something more advanced and expensive for a faster class unless I see that it's actually going to take off and happen more than a few times.

The ride height is already a concern but I'm going to run it with these to at least test and see what she does. The track we're running on is normally a race track for 1:10 and 1:8 scale stuff so its smooth as glass except where they added the new obstacles. It was intentional leaving the plastic shafts unless I mess them up too easy, I want my failure point to be something cheap and easy to replace. I've tumbled an older truck that had metal shafts and broke trans parts that took me out for the day.

 

[mewalsh100]

I'm building it to go in the 1.9 trail class. I'm not going to build something more advanced and expensive for a faster class unless I see that it's actually going to take off and happen more than a few times.

The ride height is already a concern but I'm going to run it with these to at least test and see what she does. The track we're running on is normally a race track for 1:10 and 1:8 scale stuff so its smooth as glass except where they added the new obstacles. It was intentional leaving the plastic shafts unless I mess them up too easy, I want my failure point to be something cheap and easy to replace. I've tumbled an older truck that had metal shafts and broke trans parts that took me out for the day.

Plastic/Derlin Spur versus plastic shafts will be cheaper and easier to replace. You're probably going to have to get one any way to get the gearing where you want it for a U4 type of rig running on a short course. Just my .02 pesos."thumbsup"

 

[struhall]

Plastic/Derlin Spur versus plastic shafts will be cheaper and easier to replace. You're probably going to have to get one any way to get the gearing where you want it for a U4 type of rig running on a short course. Just my .02 pesos."thumbsup"

What motor and gearing do you run? This is the first crawler truck I've ever built that I need to actually go fast. It's hard to find anything about builds for U4. All I find in that section is race results.

 

[struhall]

Well, added a little money to the build over the last week. I finally bought my first set of Vanquish wheels, they are the plastic kit wheels but it's the same name so that counts right?

I needed a chassis brace for this and my son's truck and asked locally for them and plastic beadlocks. A guy sold me a full set of braces and then some and 2 sets of the Vanquish VS4-10 wheels for dirt cheap. Also found some used 1.9 Pit Bull Rock Beasts and got those as well.

Mounted up the black wheels and the Trepadors already just to get them done. I'll put the Rock Beasts on the chrome wheels once I pick up some Crawler Innovations foams. Chrome wheels are brand new, black ones are lightly used.

And the used black wheels mounted.