Name: Kevin Guhman
Business: The Crawler Store (TCS)
Location: Glendale , Arizona
Products: R/C Rock crawling trucks and parts
Website: www.thecrawlerstore.com
RCC: How long have you been into RCs?
TCS: Since the late 80's.
RCC: You started crawling quite a while ago. How long has it been and how did you get started?
TCS: In 2003, when I was still living in Long Island , NY , my buddy Rich told me about rock crawling. At the time, I was really into my HPI Savage and thought crawling would be really boring. Rich mentioned rock crawling a couple times but I had no interest. Finally, one day I decided to go crawl and I loved it. It was a great change of pace compared to running the nitro truck.
RCC: How did you get started as a designer/supplier of RC parts?
TCS: I've always been very technical and engineering oriented…..looking for ways to improve things, or figuring out how things worked. That is one of the aspects that attracted me and kept me in rock crawling. In 2003, almost everybody was making their own chassis. So I loved the design, engineering, and fabrication part of crawling.
In 2004, I went to my second out of state comp which was located in Moab , Utah . I took the win, proving both my driving skills and my chassis designs were successful. My wife and I were really happy and talked a great deal on the way back to Arizona . During that long drive, my wife mentioned opening up an online crawler store. That ignited both our interests.
It's been a long hard road to grow the store to what it is today. At that time I worked as a full time technical consultant and lived in very small apartment with my wife. We started off with the little money we had with a few simple products. I worked my day job and spent countless hours in the evenings and weekends running the store. I still work as a technical consultant, be it at reduced hours. I hope The Crawler Store grows large enough one day to do it full time. We've grown so large since then because we have earned the respect of a great deal of people in the industry. I think we've earned this respect by treating people fairly, and by being honest and respectful to both customers and other manufacturers. We are happy to contribute to the RC community. Most importantly, I'd like to thank our customers.
RCC: Can you tell us about one of your earliest crawlers?
TCS: My first truck was an E-Maxx. I spent countless hours modifying it to increase its crawling performance. I made significant suspension mods to increase suspension travel 50%. I lowered the motor significantly to lower the center of gravity. And, I lifted the transmission up to increase belly clearance. That was the first incarnation of my E-Maxx.
Eventually I took the chassis out of that truck and made a new one with a 16" wheelbase. I mounted the motor/tranny assembly forward in the truck. It was much lighter, had much more forward weight, and better ground clearance. At that time I got a Clod Buster based rig and it quickly proved that the solid axle is far superior for rock crawling compared to the independent suspension of the E-Maxx.
RCC: You've tried some “wacky” chassis experiments….could you tell us a bit more?
TCS: My most well known wacky experiment has to be the stick chassis. Born from a brainstorming session, it quickly proved to be a superior design.
RCC: As a chassis designer, what do you see as a limitation or area of improvement going forward?
TCS: I really don't see any limitations. Technology will continue to improve over time in rock crawling and in RC in general, as well. The rock crawling market will continue to use the latest RC technology to increase rock crawling performance. New RC crawling specific ideas will continue to emerge to help push the limits of crawling.
RCC: Can you share a good general chassis setup tip with our readers?
TCS: This is a question I've been asked countless times by customers and is very difficult to answer. Chassis setup is so specific to driving style and terrain. I love my stick chassis and wouldn't drive anything else in a comp. But, Jason Hensel, one of the owners of rccrawler.com, who has owned both an NN and a stick chassis, prefers to drive an NN. So, driving style and terrain really determine the type of truck and its setup.
RCC: Where do you see the crawling hobby going from here….performance-wise?
TCS: The biggest advances in performance have come in the past couple years. I think we have pushed these trucks to a very high performance level and I'm proud to have been part of that advancement and early development. But in any field, you will have a spike of advancement in the beginning, then a much slower pace of advancement afterwards. I think we have passed the spike and are now going to see a much slower advancement pace.
RCC: Is Phoenix hot enough for you?
TCS: Nope, I love it. The oven like heat can be uncomfortable at times in the summer. But you can't beat having nine months of great rock crawling weather!
