CFX-W kit + '81 Hilux + Ladder Rack = Work Truck Build

[Goro Majima]

#7 of 10, of the 1/10 Toyota lexan crawler fleet.

I chose this kit because I wanted to give MST a try, but also I get the nice J45C body to use for #10 of my collection. I told myself I wouldn't start another build until one is completely finished, but that became impossible in both wanting to modify/add parts and the eagerness of waiting for stuff (#6 Gen8 V2 4Runner isn't finished).

The '81 Hilux body, is slightly wider than the TF2 hard body (which this ladder rack is made for). But the fitment is pretty spot on otherwise for my satisfaction. The rack actually is what inspired me to start this build and make a work truck.

Some images of the assembly for whatever.

As you can see I went with Losi Mini T springs since I felt the MST springs are all firmer. Med up front and firm in rear. With the rack on, the body sits level. Now this is a bit more droop than I want to run on this, so I will do firm in the front and do a set of the stock springs in the rear. Whatever extra scale bits I add will determine the final spring setup.

Chassis complete. The Axial military wheels will be used for the #10 J45C build but these MST tires will be used on some Carisma Plastic beadlock steelies. Kinda want to stick with licensed scale tires for all my builds but I like this tread pattern.

Went ahead and grabbed the MST steel skid plate in attempts to help aid the to-be super top heavy truck. All my builds will be CMS so since this kit is axle mounted servo I also grabbed the CMS conversion kit.

Got the rack where I want it and cut slits in the bed. Because the rack is so heavy, I need to add bracing underneath so it's got some sort of structural integrity (idiot mounting steel on lexan). I've got an idea of how to go about it but if anyone has any examples feel free to share. I want the rack to be removable still.

You can see in the next image that the body is slightly larger than a Marlin, where the rack mount tabs are inset more than the bed floor width.

The front rails of the rack needed a bit of rounding off to clear the triangles of where the bed meets the cab.

CMS kit installed. Now since I didn't figure out a panhard setup for this, I left the 4 links in and spaced up the drag link a whopping 14mm. I haven't researched a proper solution yet but doing this plus spacing the servo back 8-9mm's gets it in line and with minimal bump steer. Might invest a whole 50 bucks into the aluminum knuckles and use aluminum spacers instead later down the road because I have a feeling there will be a ton of flex in this area.

 

[durok]

Sweet build!

Gotta get going on my J45C build one of these days... "thumbsup"

The MST tires from this kit are unlicensed, but scale copies of the Nitto Mud Grappler Extreme Mud Terrain tires:

https://www.nittotire.com/light-truck-tires/mud-grappler-extreme-mud-terrain-light-truck-tire/

 

[Goro Majima]

Sweet build!

Gotta get going on my J45C build one of these days... "thumbsup"

The MST tires from this kit are unlicensed, but scale copies of the Nitto Mud Grappler Extreme Mud Terrain tires:

https://www.nittotire.com/light-truck-tires/mud-grappler-extreme-mud-terrain-light-truck-tire/

Thanks! And I wouldn't mind a set of a softer licensed Nitto. My 10 builds will nearly have all different tires.

 

[King Dork]

Goro, awesome rig! I have a MST CFX-W AND I’m a contractor so I’m absolutely digging it. Hahahahaha! I hope you have better luck with the suspension than I did. Built per kit my MST had the absolute worst torque twist of any rig I’ve ever owned or driven. Thinking it’s because the gears in the portals are all the same size so there’s no gear reduction. Messed with 2 different sets of shocks, stock and aftermarket 10mm lower and different oils, and the torque twist still sucked. Ended up saying screw it and put the stock shocks back on, removed the springs to run it full droop, and put 50wt in it. I don’t trail this truck just crawl and it’s an absolute savage. I did add the front brass portal weights (not the portal covers, but they screw on to the outside of the portal covers. Xtra Speed I believe) and swapped the body for a Cliffhanger. Never ran the stock tires but they should do very admirable for trailing.

 

[Goro Majima]

Goro, awesome rig! I have a MST CFX-W AND I’m a contractor so I’m absolutely digging it. Hahahahaha! I hope you have better luck with the suspension than I did. Built per kit my MST had the absolute worst torque twist of any rig I’ve ever owned or driven. Thinking it’s because the gears in the portals are all the same size so there’s no gear reduction. Messed with 2 different sets of shocks, stock and aftermarket 10mm lower and different oils, and the torque twist still sucked. Ended up saying screw it and put the stock shocks back on, removed the springs to run it full droop, and put 50wt in it. I don’t trail this truck just crawl and it’s an absolute savage. I did add the front brass portal weights (not the portal covers, but they screw on to the outside of the portal covers. Xtra Speed I believe) and swapped the body for a Cliffhanger. Never ran the stock tires but they should do very admirable for trailing.

I've got an extension ladder for the rack already and some other bits lol. Since the bed isn't true in depth, I may make a flat plastic piece cut to the shape of the bed and glue things to it to mimic the bed being full of stuff like half of a welder sticking up etc.

As for the use of this thing, it's gonna be more of a trail truck since it's gonna be very top heavy and these hard tires will do. But I feel it's gonna be very fun to try and scale crawl some stuff as well.

 

[Goro Majima]

Small but structural update. First off, front fenders got a trimming.

Here's the bed with the 4 holes in the corners for the rack mounts to fall into. The rack does not mount to the lexan whatsoever.

Here's the mount setup for the rack. Piecing this together reminded me of building Erector sets. These are 4 types of brackets I used, each type was used per corner. The floor support is 2 sheets of 1/16" ABS glued together.

At first, I didn't want to go this route on the rack mounting. If I had it my way, I would get a 3D print of the underside of the bed for full lexan support. But these brackets support the rack true to the chassis and without drilling new holes. I can handle the truck from the rack comfortably, and I believe it would survive a roll over or 2 but not a fall. It won't see that usage anyway.

So to take the body off, remove the 4 corner screws and the 4 body clips. Since the rear is mounted solid, I may do without using the body clips since they aren't necessary anymore.

Once the body and rack are removed, the main structure stays intact with these 4 countersunk screws that mount further in from the corners and hold the floor in to the brackets. They mount to the same brackets for the rack mounts so it adds to the durability.

Next update should paint and decals, swap rear springs to front and install stiffer rears, move the battery to the very front behind the grill (2200mah). Doing this, the weight bias is barely front heavy lol. But lastly I will add stuff to bed and rack.

All in all, I like this mounting setup for it. After all it is a work truck!

 

[Goro Majima]

Update time. Color is mostly Tamiya PS14 Copper but I did add a stage of Nato Brown after a few coats but probably hardly noticeable. Added the Mojave OE Hilux graphics as well as the CChand Toyota and 4 wheel drive emblems. The headlight decals were really ugly and unfitting, so I blacked out the housings and just went with the tinted headlight cover look (meh). Putting the truck to work today, it did go buy itself a set of deep dish wheels and more aggressive tires.

As for some suspension tuning when it comes to adding stuff to the ladder rack, I've used the 4 MST medium springs in front with minimum preload and 2 MST firm + 2 firm Losi Mini T springs with the preload collars maxed. With the ladder rack, the rear is barely stiffer than the front. This has lots of body roll which makes this really fun to drive.

Speaking of driving, with the current 4 link + CMS, steering is absolute ass. In a matter of scale crawling minutes, I managed to heat up the Flash Hobby 35kg servo pretty well, maybe even ruined it. I think I left the BEC at 6v as well. As much as I wanted all my 10 Toyota crawlers to have chassis mounted servos, this one just might have to revert back to the axle like it comes stock and I really don't feel like making a custom panhard setup. Maybe because it's very top heavy now, it deserves servo on axle. If the servo is done, I may swap in a NSD 500 direct powered servo from another rig while itself would get an upgrade.

I've moved the battery to the very front of the rails, just in front of the motor utilizing a 2200mah 3S. Chose that specific battery just because these trucks in real life are light so why not relate it to battery size haha... I'll snag a picture once I install the parts shown.

I had some Carisma plastic beadlock steelies on it before but now I've these Gmade VR01s that suite the era better. Also I need to use one of the Carismas to use as a spare to mount on the rear of my LC80 TRX4 build.

I'll add more things to truck, utility wise. Tons of spare suspension links looks pretty cool in the bed but don't have enough to cover the whole floor so it isn't visible. But I'd like to get some footage of this thing to make some comparison videos. Before/after of the brass parts, and footage of the rack on/off. Any other suggestions let me know. More pics to come as I continue to work on builds.

 

[Goro Majima]

Running footage!

https://youtu.be/LcDbp2Lw3yw

As I kept switching up the wheel & tire setups, I decided to make a tire shakedown video between the stock CFX-W's, Proline's Flat Irons, and RC4WD Dick Cepek Extreme Country's 4.19. Kind of an odd trio but what's staying is the Cepeks because they work best with this rig in my opinion (and the wheels sorta match the decals). The Flat Irons mated with the deep wagon wheels are a good combo look so I'll utilize those on a different rig.

I installed my spare *HPI Venture servo (25kg guts) for the footage and it kinda surprised me how well it performs. But it will eventually go into my loaner Venture build as I plan to have "stock looking" electronics back into it and this one will get the aforementioned budget NSDRC servo. Showing the hacked Element battery tray bolted up front as well. The stock battery tray is still in between the rails and I may replace it with some bracing.

I'm sad that I can't really gear down from the stock 17T pinion. I modified the motor plate to allow wiggle room for the motor and 12t pinion but the spur gear shaft is in the way. To get better down low crawlability, I may experiment with a higher turn motor (8T currently). I have a spare Dynamite 12T I can put in.

With all that said and done, I think I'll do up 1 or 2 other videos of this before I install the brass parts. I might combo the video with another rig also to make a fuller video.

 

[Goro Majima]

Finally installed brass on this dusty work truck. Unfortunately I couldn't install the Beef Tubes since they are for the CFX and not the CFX-W...

Modified the Samix portal covers to be able to mount the Xtraspeed weights onto them. You can see where I grinded away towards the bottom in the first photo.

5mm hexes won't clear the weights up front so I've got some 8mm's on the way. It could be a combination of the Boom Racing hubs but I don't mind the few mm spacing. Forgot to mention I installed the stock hubs on the wheels to bring the fitment in. It doesn't look as goofy lol.

Next is to add some scale stuff to the bed and rack. And work on my other rigs.

 

[B-MOW71]

Not sure how I missed this build! Looks good so far!

I had forgotten that there was a lexan version of the Toyota Hilux available. Looks really good and nice rigging of the rear ladder rack!

 

[Goro Majima]

I appreciate you always BMOW.

First off, since the Knightkeeper got a HW Fusion Pro, the HH 13T went into this! Just a quick test, the initial throttle control is a lot more stable.

So I added RC4WD headlight lenses and gave the rear a roll pan look. I did the roll pan by cutting the corner line on each side, taped the new slit corner line on the outside of the body to hold both sections in place, then E6000 and drywall tape on the underside letting it cure.

Now that it resembles a Hilux more, I just had to see what it looked like slammed. 1 of 2 things will happen here. A - it remains a work truck with the suspension doing it's job which is fun to trail around, or B - I slam the piss out of it and give it minimal articulation! Because I like the way the headlights turned out on it and the roll pan, I am seriously thinking of getting another body to build an LCG platform on...

And a few more with the rack on as well.

 

[AK KRAWLER]

Looks awesome! I dig the lower stance.

 

[smog]

Nice build, such a cool looking rig. Low looks right, so does the dished wheels with those fat tires. I really do need to build a Hilux...damn

Like with the BOM, MST put the motor up high between the shock towers. How much do you sense its there when you are controlling the rig?

I also have a J45C body in my cupboard. It's a special one i think

 

[Goro Majima]

Looks awesome! I dig the lower stance.

Thanks, and yeah it gave me a whole nother vibe that made me put another order in. Bought some other bodies to sell and take advantage of the shipping cost.

Nice build, such a cool looking rig. Low looks right, so does the dished wheels with those fat tires. I really do need to build a Hilux...damn

Like with the BOM, MST put the motor up high between the shock towers. How much do you sense its there when you are controlling the rig?

I also have a J45C body in my cupboard. It's a special one i think

I have truly not driven this without the rack yet. But I can imagine the side hill isn't as great as others. At the time I'd drive this thing I was more dealing with the poor initial start-up of the 8T motor and the ladder rack weight.

 

[Speedy-Triple]

are those watanabe looking wheels for crawler? beadlocks?

 

[Goro Majima]

are those watanabe looking wheels for crawler? beadlocks?

Yep but unfortunately not beadlock.

 

[B-MOW71]

Looks damn good slammed! Nice touch on the rollpan!

I would like to see this body on an LCG chassis. I wonder how hard it would be to bob the bed???

 

[Goro Majima]

Looks damn good slammed! Nice touch on the rollpan!



I would like to see this body on an LCG chassis. I wonder how hard it would be to bob the bed???

LCG build in the future for sure. I will have 5 bodies on hand and 2 I will keep. And bobbing the bed shouldn't be too hard at all, as I'd probably do a similar method like I did my LC70. Even just a cab build would be cool too... This is really bad for me hahaha.

 

[Goro Majima]

Got a new desk setup with a lot more work space now and proper scale pictures, just awaiting a shelf set to put on it to store some rigs. Here's an official ride height picture with the "revised" suspension lol. Also I forgot if I mentioned it but I finally swapped out the 8T motor for the 13T that used to be in my Knightkeeper.

Relocated the bottom shock mounts to the lower link mounts and added some aluminum brackets to bring the shocks back upright. That wasn't enough so I ziptied the axles up using the old shock mounts on the axles. I didn't want to swap softer springs on so it's easily reversible. Spun the collars all the way tight for fun. It's got about an inch of articulation haha... It's actually really fun to drive!

Up next, real reason for updating. Mojave II Hilux interior! This lexan body is slightly larger in size as y'all know so here's what I did to fit it. It's not in the final form as far as fitment goes, but everything is where it needs to be and mounted. Just need to start painting stuff and add styrene to the floor to cover the gap between the dash piece and floor.

Here's what I've done to fit the interior. Mounted the door panels to the body first. With the added mirrors, I didn't want to modify those so I slimmed the door panels down by removing the supports behind them and drilled a hole for the mirrors. I think I want to paint over the copper paint so it isn't visible from the cabin, but after that decision I'll glue the panels to the body.

Next I took a measurement from the bottom of the door panels, added a few millimeters, and that gave me the mounting height of the floor. 44mm's worth of nylon spacers, and used some existing holes in the sliders.

The dash was too far away from the windshield so I took another measurement, roughly 12mm. Used these aluminum angle brackets to fix it into place.