Crawler Innovations "Big Blue" - 2.2 KOH Crawler; wraith based

[Nova's Ark]

ETXRCC had a evening Get Together on May 31st and the MORE light bars performed as expected. I had plenty of light and navigating through the night courses was a breeze. Our next get together is June 28th"thumbsup":

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[Nova's Ark]

Here's a 3 minute video that has some footage of Big Blue during the pulling sled challenge at the RECON G6 in O'Fallon, Missouri.

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[evan03]

Sweet video and sled pull

 

[Nova's Ark]

Our local club ETXRCC had a Get Together @ Barnwell Mountain ORV Park in Gilmer, Texas last weekend. It was an evening get together. We decided to stay the night ahead of time in order to test and record the following morning. Here is a collection of footage from that test and tune. Big Blue performed as expected. No parts failures and I ran 7 battery packs through it. The RTR weight of this truck as filmed is 10 pounds 9 ounces. :shock: This video shows a little crawling and a lot of jumping:mrgreen:.

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[Szczerba]

Glad to see three rigs I help build still going strong, yota, forced wraith and this one!

 

[Nova's Ark]

After watching a few DVD's of the Tough Truck Challenge, my son and I decided to make our own TTC Tank Trap. Using a rototiller and shovels, we created a soupy mix. The C.I. FOFFer could not drive through it, but it could drive on top of it until the spur gear stripped. Big Blue lost the ESC, and the Clodbuster Basher lost the front motor. It made for an afternoon of fun."thumbsup"


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[evan03]

Dude sweet video.

 

[Nova's Ark]

So the video ended up killing the rear servo in big blue. Since the front servo is quite old and seen a lot of service, I use the opportunity to install new Hitec 7954 servos. This time I disassembled the servos and filled them with Corrosion X. The goal is to have this rig 100% water proof.



..Uploaded from the lab @ the C.I. Compound...

 

[Nova's Ark]

Ottsix sent a set of their new proto type U4 tire that arrived today.


I wasted no time in glueing them up to CI 6 Bolt Wheels with Deuce's Wild 2.2 Standard Foams. I have them mounted on Big Blue and will be running them this weekend at Barnwell Mountain for our local club get together.














..Uploaded from the lab @ the C.I. Compound...

 

[Mudeater67]

So how do they Perform so far? Can't wait to get a SET from Matt "thumbsup"

 

[Nova's Ark]

Crawler Innovations was sent a set of the Ottsix U4 tire to test. This tire is designed for the New Axial Yeti and for competition in the U4RC series. C.I. tested them on the 2.2 KOH rig "Big Blue" The truck weighed 8 pounds 9 ounces RTR as tested in the video. The tires were tested with Deuce's Wild 2.2 Standard foams and 6 Bolt 1" wide glue on wheels. The tires were tested on various terrain at Barnwell Mountain ORV Park in Gilmer, Texas. The chassis is custom made and uses VP AR60 Axles and VP SCX Trans.




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[axial 4x4 crawler]

Those are some nice looking tires, I bet they work very good just by looking at them. I might try out a set of these some day, even though I don't need new tires at the time..

 

[lowlow]

Remind me of pitbulls at first glance.. I still cant get over buying the original ottsix tires , sheeeshh. :roll: God they suck/sucked. They should offer a refund or credit for them.. Haha. As always your rigs looking good though!

 

[Nova's Ark]

East Texas Radio Controlled Crawlers held a G6 on August 24th, 2014 at Barnwell Mountain ORV Park in Gilmer, Texas. This is a 5 minute video compilation from the G6. After I had run the course myself with big blue, I filmed another group running the course. Big Blue makes an appearance towards the end of the video. I used the Rock Beast 2's for this G6 since Harley still hasn't returned my Ottsix U4 Golds I loaned him. :ror:

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[Nova's Ark]

On August 24th 2014 ETXRCC held a G6 competition at Barnwell Mountain ORV Park in Gilmer, Texas. Once the competition was over, the group headed out to free crawl the Weenie World Extension trail. What follows in 5 minutes of many different trucks having fun climbing the mountain. Big Blue's in this video as well so I'm posting it here.


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[Nova's Ark]

After 6 months of use, it's time to change out the motor and try something else. The ROC 412 3100KV does well in the truck, but it draws A Lot of amps. The MMP Esc thermals with back to back battery packs. I use this primarily as a rock crawler and general trail rig. It's not a U4 rig really because it doesn't have the suspension for it. It's geared low with 60 spur and 9 pinion on 4S lipo.


The only way to access the motor is to remove the skid:


I did not want to pull this motor from my FOFF rig, but I think it will work well in this application to. Holmes Hobbies sensored outrunner:





..Uploaded from the lab @ the C.I. Compound...

 

[Nova's Ark]

Huge improvement in crawlability with the Holmes Sensored Outrunner!! I had to go up to a ten tooth pinion for clearance, but everything else is the same. Motor and esc temps is so cool now! Before the esc was blazin hot and the motor was just slightly warm. I did lose some top end speed, but I'm OK with that because the low speed control and crawlability on this very heavy rig is much improved. Thank you Holmes Hobbies for sponsoring me and continuing to create innovative motors and controllers that allow us to push to new plateaus.


..Uploaded from the lab @ the C.I. Compound...

 

[Szczerba]

How do those motors like water?

 

[Nova's Ark]

How do those motors like water?

Seemingly well.

The 412 has been dipped in Corrosion X, has six months of use on it, and was used in every video in this thread. It will now be going into the 2.2 Ultra 4 "Take 2". So far the 412 has held up much better than the Pro4's, but it has not made it to the magic one year mark. For whatever reason, every single Pro4 loses the magnets on the rotor after the one year mark and I have a pile of motors for proof. I have discussed a theory with Holmes about the possibility that maybe the corrosion x over times breaks down the epoxy on the rotor, causing the failures. I have put the 412 motor through a lot. The tank trap video fried the rear servo, all other electronics are still going including the 412. Big Blue is a beast weighing in at 10 pound 9 ounces:shock: So it's a true test of parts durability and strength.

The Holmes Outrunner has been in several vehicles now and it has impressed me in each vehicle. I can't wait to get more of these or test new designs. The outrunner now in Big Blue was in the FOFF truck in the Tank Trap video. So it definitely handles water no problem. It was dipped in corrosion x is the only mod.

 

[Nova's Ark]

Remember this story the next time an Adult asks to drive your rig...

Mikes Hobby Store is Dallas is being forced by the State of Texas to move because the state is widening the freeway in front of the store. CI showed up to show support and crawled his small crawl area and answered customer questions. One father and son talked with me for some time. The dad had airplane experience and had never heard of a Holmes Sensored Outrunner. He was intrigued by the idea and asked to try big blue. I hand him the transmitter... Too which he grabs it, starts slow and then throws it into full forward followed by full reverse. It locked up the truck, which I knew was trouble with all steel everything. *€+#!

Pics of the carnage:

You can see the drive pin sheered off in the RRP slipper base.









In total, four teeth off the top gear, one off the center.


..Uploaded from the lab @ the C.I. Compound...