winslo
Newbie
I am new to RC and crawling, but have found the support by the creeper owners thread to be an invaluable reference.
I will start with some history. I purchased a stage two VC kit from CKRC. Bieng my first time assembling a kit it was very rewarding and I doubt I will ever buy a RTR....maybe if it was used. It came with the stage two suspension set up, a duratrax ESC, towardpro servo, 55turn Venom brushed motor, HB rovers (white) a 27Mhz 3 channel radio and reciever.
I assembled it stock at first, and then tested on some house hold junk due to the weather prior to installing the stage 2 kit and the rovers. Having no basis of comparison I was impressed at what it would do in stock form. I then installed the stage two kit and found out that tires are very important. I cut down the Rover foams by 1/2" and then star cut them as well. The foams are doing good, I may have went a little far though as they wad up real easy.
The stage 2 suspension kit did improve the operation of the crawler but I would recommend just doing it yourself vs buying the kit. The biggest difference was the addition of the Axial firm grey springs.
The first time I ran it on rocks was also my first sportsman comp at the LHS. I placed a respectable...last, but the experience/ people were amazing. All were giving friendly advice and good ribbing all around. The creeper diff lock on the front axel opened and made a bad run worse.
The next day I found the rules online and figured out how much coaching had gone into my first attempt by the LHS staff and spectators. So now that I officially had the itch, I started cutting and tuning the creeper.
My duratrax ESC came apart and stopped working, I replaced it with an FXR from Tekin. I purchased the kit that came with the 35 turn motor as well. I have not installed the motor yet. Next to be installed was a CC BEC that took care of some of the glitching. I then got a Specktrum 6030 servo that works so much better than the Towardpro that the kit came with.
Lesson 1 Do not buy a all inclusive kit with out knowing what the quality of the components are. My Duratrax ESC was $34, the one that works (FXR) was $80. The servo was $11, the one that works (Spektrum) was $80. The 3 channel radio was $39 bucks, the DX5e I have my eye on is about $100.
Conclusion: If you are a newb RC and Crawler enthusiast, spend some time on the online forums and at the LHS and watch a few comps to get your thoughts in line with reality.
I have gleaned a substantial amount of tips and tricks from RMDW's tips and tricks thread. The set up and information contained in that thread can be labled as professionally extensive.
Currently I am running part of the original battery tray to mount the rear shocks since when I was running the stage two setup with the springs and lower links on the some mount broke the mount. This along with a servo plate and 10MM stands I spread and raised the two center links to help with the torque twist. The twist is still there but greatly reduced.
I drilled two additional holes in the stage two aluminum support to mount the front shocks to to keep the tires from getting into them. I have changed out the drivelineds to the Traxxus units that RMDW's thread suggested. The CVD's have dual loctite (blue) set screws in them. the rear skid plate was removed and the lockouts reconfigured to provide maximum clearance.
For the future I have been drawing up a plate chassis in CAD similar to the RMDW's Vulture and AB designs 4VP. I want to fab it myself but at the cost of the material and time for a one off chassis, I'm leaning towards purchasing one. My original body has given up the ghost and I am tired of buying/ searching for the clips all the time. Then maybe a Lipo system since the NiCad is heavy and large, but provides 45 min of run time.
Well this is very longwinded and with no pictures seems boring, so I will end it now and get some pics for the next post.
I will start with some history. I purchased a stage two VC kit from CKRC. Bieng my first time assembling a kit it was very rewarding and I doubt I will ever buy a RTR....maybe if it was used. It came with the stage two suspension set up, a duratrax ESC, towardpro servo, 55turn Venom brushed motor, HB rovers (white) a 27Mhz 3 channel radio and reciever.
I assembled it stock at first, and then tested on some house hold junk due to the weather prior to installing the stage 2 kit and the rovers. Having no basis of comparison I was impressed at what it would do in stock form. I then installed the stage two kit and found out that tires are very important. I cut down the Rover foams by 1/2" and then star cut them as well. The foams are doing good, I may have went a little far though as they wad up real easy.
The stage 2 suspension kit did improve the operation of the crawler but I would recommend just doing it yourself vs buying the kit. The biggest difference was the addition of the Axial firm grey springs.
The first time I ran it on rocks was also my first sportsman comp at the LHS. I placed a respectable...last, but the experience/ people were amazing. All were giving friendly advice and good ribbing all around. The creeper diff lock on the front axel opened and made a bad run worse.
The next day I found the rules online and figured out how much coaching had gone into my first attempt by the LHS staff and spectators. So now that I officially had the itch, I started cutting and tuning the creeper.
My duratrax ESC came apart and stopped working, I replaced it with an FXR from Tekin. I purchased the kit that came with the 35 turn motor as well. I have not installed the motor yet. Next to be installed was a CC BEC that took care of some of the glitching. I then got a Specktrum 6030 servo that works so much better than the Towardpro that the kit came with.
Lesson 1 Do not buy a all inclusive kit with out knowing what the quality of the components are. My Duratrax ESC was $34, the one that works (FXR) was $80. The servo was $11, the one that works (Spektrum) was $80. The 3 channel radio was $39 bucks, the DX5e I have my eye on is about $100.
Conclusion: If you are a newb RC and Crawler enthusiast, spend some time on the online forums and at the LHS and watch a few comps to get your thoughts in line with reality.
I have gleaned a substantial amount of tips and tricks from RMDW's tips and tricks thread. The set up and information contained in that thread can be labled as professionally extensive.
Currently I am running part of the original battery tray to mount the rear shocks since when I was running the stage two setup with the springs and lower links on the some mount broke the mount. This along with a servo plate and 10MM stands I spread and raised the two center links to help with the torque twist. The twist is still there but greatly reduced.
I drilled two additional holes in the stage two aluminum support to mount the front shocks to to keep the tires from getting into them. I have changed out the drivelineds to the Traxxus units that RMDW's thread suggested. The CVD's have dual loctite (blue) set screws in them. the rear skid plate was removed and the lockouts reconfigured to provide maximum clearance.
For the future I have been drawing up a plate chassis in CAD similar to the RMDW's Vulture and AB designs 4VP. I want to fab it myself but at the cost of the material and time for a one off chassis, I'm leaning towards purchasing one. My original body has given up the ghost and I am tired of buying/ searching for the clips all the time. Then maybe a Lipo system since the NiCad is heavy and large, but provides 45 min of run time.
Well this is very longwinded and with no pictures seems boring, so I will end it now and get some pics for the next post.
