Well I recently got a Losi Micro Crawler for a scale build and caught the RC bug yet again. Now I have built a few Crawlers/Scalers before and sold them. I wanted something new that could "crawl" and have some fun at the same time without having to do a lot of changes. I have read a lot of bad things about the CK. Here is my Opinion/Review on the CK.
1st off HPI did mess up with naming this Rig for a Crawler audience. If you are new to crawling and that is all you want to do then do not buy this Truck. It will do some serious four wheelen' and some crawling but not Competion Crawling. If you are looking for more of a Scale Rig ( I use the term Scale loosley cause I know there are some Hardcore Scaler guys out there.) with big fun then this is it!!! I am very pleased with it. With the Stock Gearing and 55 turn motor with a 3300 nimh mah 7.2v pack I was able to run for over 30 minutes at full throttle up dirt hills spinning tires and all. Plenty of torque to go over rocks and climb hills and still have plenty of fun wheel speed.
Put a stiffer shock spring in the right rear to get rid of the Torque Twist typical of the Wheely King. I am running 90 Weight oil in all 4 shocks. I took one of the stock shocks and stretched it to double the size, cut it in half and used that for the stiffer shock. The stock springs are pretty soft. I replaced those with some shocks from my local hardware store they are way better and way cheaper than regular shock springs.
Now it barely has any steering due to the Huge tires and chassis mounted Servo. The stock Servo is O.K. The wheels turn more easy when on the throttle. I am going to replace the servo at some point. That is the CK's worst all around Negative. The ESC could be a little better but certainly does what it is supposed to. real working Beallock tires aloow you to change tires with ease, The stock Tires are Pretty Cool in my book.
So after all that I just wanted to dial in on the Crawler King because it is doing exactly what I wanted it to. So do not think of this Rig as a Typical Rock Crawler but just a affordable 4 wheel drive, drive it anywhere old school fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Because you cannot spend all your time building!!!!
1st off HPI did mess up with naming this Rig for a Crawler audience. If you are new to crawling and that is all you want to do then do not buy this Truck. It will do some serious four wheelen' and some crawling but not Competion Crawling. If you are looking for more of a Scale Rig ( I use the term Scale loosley cause I know there are some Hardcore Scaler guys out there.) with big fun then this is it!!! I am very pleased with it. With the Stock Gearing and 55 turn motor with a 3300 nimh mah 7.2v pack I was able to run for over 30 minutes at full throttle up dirt hills spinning tires and all. Plenty of torque to go over rocks and climb hills and still have plenty of fun wheel speed.
Put a stiffer shock spring in the right rear to get rid of the Torque Twist typical of the Wheely King. I am running 90 Weight oil in all 4 shocks. I took one of the stock shocks and stretched it to double the size, cut it in half and used that for the stiffer shock. The stock springs are pretty soft. I replaced those with some shocks from my local hardware store they are way better and way cheaper than regular shock springs.
Now it barely has any steering due to the Huge tires and chassis mounted Servo. The stock Servo is O.K. The wheels turn more easy when on the throttle. I am going to replace the servo at some point. That is the CK's worst all around Negative. The ESC could be a little better but certainly does what it is supposed to. real working Beallock tires aloow you to change tires with ease, The stock Tires are Pretty Cool in my book.
So after all that I just wanted to dial in on the Crawler King because it is doing exactly what I wanted it to. So do not think of this Rig as a Typical Rock Crawler but just a affordable 4 wheel drive, drive it anywhere old school fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Because you cannot spend all your time building!!!!
