CEN F450 Journey and Mods

[AK KRAWLER]

Well, with this model not really belonging to any one section of this site, I’m dropping it in the 1.9 section. There is already another CEN F450 thread in this section, so now there is two :lmao:

Okay, I just want to start this off by stating that even with the rough start to this journey, I still love the truck and it will be a blast to get it where I want it to be.

Upon unboxing the truck and removing the green protective film, there was a significant scratch on the hood of the tru. It looks like who, or what ever machine installed the body pins, it scratched the hood.
I was a little disappointed, but I understand that things happen. I then sent CEN Racing an email explaining what was found upon unboxing the truck.

I dropped in my 2S battery, switched on the transmitter, switched on the truck and the steering servo started getting loud, jittery and violently slamming the wheels to one direction. I shut it down, then on again, steering did the same thing, then the truck took off in full throttle reverse. Powered it down, then back up and it did the same thing, but now was full throttle forward. I had a hold of the truck this time, so it didn’t go anywhere.

Powered everything off and started composing a second email to CEN Racing explaining the issues.

CEN was pretty quick to respond to the body issue and is sending a new body. Great and fast customer service!

Well, so I thought. It has now been a couple days and no response from CEN regarding the electrical issue.

In hind sight, I just should have requested that they send me a completely new setup, but they didn’t think about that because they were responding and seemed to be working through this pretty easily.

While waiting for their responses, I threw in a Flysky Receiver and bound it to a GT5 Transmitter, everything works pretty good. The servo is still a little noisy, but with my plans, will likely be changed out anyway.

Even with the slower gears, it is faster than what I want it to be. I’ll be on the hunt for a different motor and likely dropping in a HW 1080, as I am not a fan of the brake setup / double tap reverse that it currently has. Not sure if that can really be changed or not.

I’ll keep you all posted as CEN and I work through this and as I do my mods.

Without further ado, here is what everyone was really looking for…

 

[ScaleLifeNewbie]

Nice seeing another one of these on the forum, especially in silver. I feel these trucks are really looked over unfortunately. With a few simple mods, these can be great on or offroad trucks. Looking forward to see what you do with yours!


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[AK KRAWLER]

Well, good news. CEN is sending me a new Tx/Rx. So far, their customer service has been great, a little slow with the Tx/Rx issue, but in the end did the right thing.

I spent some time last night installing a Crawlers-N-Customs lift kit. It’s a pretty nice piece, but I had a bit of a hard time with the instructions and following the video. That was my own issue though, as I’m a bit under the weather.

I also dismount one of the factory wheels and tires, this turned into a mess… which I destroyed a tire. Not really a big deal, as I will likely never use them.
I purchased the tall skinny RC4WD 2.2 Boggers, because I heard they could be stretched onto the 2.6 wheels. Well, yes they can, but it looks like garbage. It has a weird bulge right at the bead area of the wheel, from being stretched. Not really a big deal.
I have a set of cheap 2.2 Mud Slingers on aluminum bead locks. They look decent for now, but definitely not my end goal.
I put the rear skinny hex on the front, to bring them in a little and I have some wide, extended aluminum hexes with the barrel nut, which I put on the rear to space them out a little. All in all, it looks decent and will be drivable.

There will definitely be more to come on this truck and I am having a blast working on it and thinking of where I want it to be.

Pictures coming soon "thumbsup"

EDIT - Some teasers :twisted: This is just with the body mounts jacked up. Funny thing, you can raise the front way higher than the rear. That one makes no sense.







This one, was from the beginning, after disassembling all the cross members and transmission mount.



And of course, once I got moving, I forgot to stop for pics along the way…

 

[AK KRAWLER]

Okay, here are a few of how it currently sits. With the 4.88” tire diameter, I’d like to get the body down a little, but the rear is about as low as it can go.

This is just one step along the way, so don’t be too harsh…









Stock tire against the 4.88” 2.2 Mud Slingers


5.7” 2.2 Tall Skinny Bogger next to the 4.88” 2.2 Mud Slingers

 

[AK KRAWLER]

First little hiccup…

In an effort to slow it down a bit, I pulled out the stock electronics and planned to drop in a 13T 550 Crawlmaster Sport and a HW 1080 I have laying around.

Everything dropped in okay, but I cannot get the spur and pinion to mesh. It’s like the van is a bit too big.

I want to run it on the stock 56/10 gearing before looking for a larger spur.

It is only 4 screws to drop the transmission, so I may take a looking and see if there is a way come up with a little more room from massaging the case a little.

Will report back a little later.

 

[AK KRAWLER]

Okay, I was able to slide the little sleeve thing of of the 550 can and that made enough room for the stock 10 tooth pinion. She is definitely slower, it might be a little too slow. I might order a supply of pinions, as I don’t really have much in that area anyway.

In regards to the HW 1080, I’ll have to do some soldering to get one set up, so I threw the 1040 back in it, just so I could run it for now. I don’t have it in me right now to do the soldering. Unfortunately, Covid is kicking my arse right now…

Plenty of time to work on it when I’m feeling better.

 

[AK KRAWLER]

Well, I couldn’t wait to at least trying one of the tall skinny Boggers on to the cheap 2.2 beadlock wheels.

The kind of have that funny bulge on these wheels too.
I think they actually need a little wider foams and they would fill out a little bit better.

 

[AK KRAWLER]

So, as I stated in my thread up in the Tires and Wheels section, I think I have figured out that I had a set of tires already here that look decent mounted up on the cheap 2.2 beadlock’s. I will likely black out the 6-Lug’s, as it drives me nutz having 6-Lugs on a Super Duty…:lmao:

Here is the stock tire against the Pit Bull Rock Beast II’s


Here she is sitting next to my droop Gen8 AXE F150.

 

[ScaleLifeNewbie]

I like where you’re going with this!

Have you thought about just making some adapters to attach two regular beadlcoks together? I can think of some pretty simple designs to do it. If you have a 3D printer it’ll be a breeze…


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[AK KRAWLER]

I like where you’re going with this!

Have you thought about just making some adapters to attach two regular beadlcoks together? I can think of some pretty simple designs to do it. If you have a 3D printer it’ll be a breeze…

Thanks man, I really like it so far.
I thought about it, but in the end, I like the deep dish of the rear wheels and the opposite for the fronts.

I took it out on a short run through the house today and it looks like all the glitching that happened earlier, destroyed the servo. I was afraid of that, but not too worried about it. I dropped in a 46kg servo I had sitting around, it’s a bit slow, but functional for this rig. Then took it out with the older boy and youngest daughter to play on the ice and snow with their crawlers. They smoked my you know what :shock::lmao:

I dropped in a cheap vehicle sound, it doesn’t sound that great, but start up is pretty fun to listen to listen to though 8)

A couple things I’m not too sure about and it may be a transmission thing, or something else I don’t know, as recently, most of our rigs are crawlers.
Even with the Crawlmaster Sport motor, this rig has little to no rolling resistance when the power is off. Is that a overall gearing thing, or is there something I am missing something?

Overall, the platform is great, but for a V.2, I’d change a few things.
It’s hard to bash anything about it given it’s price point, but I expected more than the dog bone driveshafts, even though I kew they were there. :lmao:
And it definitely needs at least a locked rear axle, but I’ll likely lock both ends.
My last 1:1’s were/are Ford Crew Cab Long Bed Diesels, so I understand the turning radius…:lmao::ror::lmao:

More to come tomorrow.

 

[AK KRAWLER]

Lockers and 3D printed bumpers installed, I still need to do the finish trimming on the body.
I really like the looks of them .

 

[AK KRAWLER]

I took it out for a quick run in the snow. Nothing major, I just packed down some trails in the snow pile at the end of the driveway/yard. She is definitely not a crawler, but still fun to try with.

I just stalled the HW 1080 tonight and expected to get a bit more out of the drag brake, but she still rolls around easily and won’t hold herself on an incline.

I currently have a 13T 550 Crawlmaster Sport in it, is there a better option that will give me the nice smooth start up, and give me a better drag brake? I’d like to stay brushed on this one and am not opposed to trying a different brand of motor.

 

[AK KRAWLER]

Well, I did some discussing back and forth with the Holmes Hobbies folks over the last couple days and bit the bullet on what I am hoping will be a great package for this truck.

I went with a Torquemaster Expert 550 27T and the BR-XL. That is definitely one of the more expensive Motor/ESC combos I have purchased. I guess we'll see how it goes once it shows up.

 

[Bananaclip]

Great choice in electronics. I have owned and loved the BRXL for a long time now.


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[AK KRAWLER]

Great choice in electronics. I have owned and loved the BRXL for a long time now.


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Thank man "thumbsup"

This will be my first one of them and I am pretty excited to try out a "more expensive" brushed motor too.

I will likely, eventually, swap the Crawlmaster Sport 550 13T and HW 1080, over to my daughters Gen7 Pro.

 

[AK KRAWLER]

So, I must have higher expectations, or the gearing is way higher on this rig. The drag brake on the HH Torquemaster Expert 550 27T is not quite what I expected with the BR-XL. It even still slips back, or forward with the Holmes Hold and the Holmes Hold is pretty noisy, not quite what was expected.

EDIT - Okay, thank probably came across a bit off. The power and speed is amazing, I like it, I just assumed there would be more on the drag brake side of things. I’m assuming it has more to do with it the gearing on this truck.

 

[durok]

It's hard to tell from the CEN product vids, and they give very little tech info on their site. Gearing could definitely be the issue. Throw a different pinion on it and give it a spin... "thumbsup"

Also, I found this:

"Holmes Hold (active brake): This feature allows for a much stronger brake at neutral throttle
position. It is controlled by the % of drag brake selected. If this setting is turned too high, it
will cause buzzing and motor creep. When you enable Holmes Hold, try turning down the drag
brake if you experience these problems. "

Also, do you have Quiet Mode turned on in the programming?

Found the Manual here:

https://holmeshobbies.com/downloads/documentation/torquemaster-br-instructions.pdf

 

[ScaleLifeNewbie]

I agree with Durok, I would bet money it’s the gearing in this truck. It was designed around on road driving, so I’m sure it has a high gear ratio.

As far as what it is, I’m not sure. Although iirc, I feel like I seen something about the fear ratio in the transmission, but don’t quote me on that. I’ll try n see if I can find it.


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[AK KRAWLER]

Thanks gents. I’ll mess with a bit more tomorrow.

I already have a 10T pinion on it.
I think I do have it on quiet.
I’m not sure it’s creep, as creep is usually an advancement forward, or in whatever is the upward angle.

It will definitely not be a dedicated crawler, I more just found it interesting and it should be a great tow rig.

While I did expect more, this is also part of the learning stage of this hobby for me.

 

[AK KRAWLER]

Okay, I’m a bit frustrated and think I’m going to shelve this truck for a little while and refocus on another project. I messed with the settings on the BRXL this morning and was not able to squeeze anything more out of the drag brake, or Holmes Hold. I am sure it has its place, but it is not getting the end result I want.

I really dig the rig, just need to think about it a bit to figure out how I want to get there.

I never give up, so there will be more to come on this one for sure.

Here is a pic of the stock gearing: