Danchee ridgerock

[Jlane]

Jlane, I love your build, do you have any more pics and do you have a run down on what all you have done on your build?

bbolden516 all I have done was the hyrax tires, made my own links and added a little bend to them. I did have weight in the wheels about 2oz but I felt like it was to much strain on the motors, even though it handled great! I did the spring mod on the shocks but I cut it in half, the full spring mod seem to have to much drop, and then I cut the body down. I have to give props as you are the one that gave me some ideas. I also moved the wires up to get them out of the way. Almost forgot I upgraded the servos(Amazon special) Now I have picked up some Berg v1 axles and a UGC Viper II chassis and I’m building one from the ground up.

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[bbolden516]

Jlane, looks awesome, alot like mine, cant complain though, I posted my build because of how impressive this budget moa rig is for the money. And with a few mods its right there with the more expensive rigs. Glad to see your enjoying it as much as me, hope others do the same cause it will certainly give you the bug of RC Crawling for not very much money. "thumbsup"

 

[bbolden516]

On another note, Jlane, I too did the weight in wheels and yes performance is good and cg is super low but with only having 380 cans and plastic axles and gears and drive links its to stressful for sure, when you build your berg setup, you can make or buy weighted knuckles to get the cg down low and not have centrifugal mass, good luck on your new build and cant wait to see pics of that as well.

 

[Jlane]

On another note, Jlane, I too did the weight in wheels and yes performance is good and cg is super low but with only having 380 cans and plastic axles and gears and drive links its to stressful for sure, when you build your berg setup, you can make or buy weighted knuckles to get the cg down low and not have centrifugal mass, good luck on your new build and cant wait to see pics of that as well.

bbolden516 you are correct! I loved the way it handled with that extra weight, but I was worried every time I took it out! Your rig did give me all the inspiration for working on mine. I’m actually thinking about painting the body, just to change it up a bit. I will definitely post up my Berg build and look for the weighted knuckles, but it is a slow build so I’m not sure when it will be done.


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[bbolden516]

Jlane,weight down low is the best for handling for sure, to bad the little danchee is low on power output and no worries on the time line just post when you get to it, you could even do a build thread, those are always fun and if you ever need to you can go back on your build thread and see what worked the best, id follow it. Any ways any thoughts on 4ws front or rear dig or both? just wondering "thumbsup"

 

[madsry]

Just wanted to thank you guys for the informative thread. I'll be watching closely, and have nearly decided to forgo an Everest 10 in favor of this rig (with the well judged modifications shared). I'm pretty enamored with the 4WS and MOA design and while trucks like the popular TRX4 look interesting, I just don't think the scale thing is enough to sway outright performance. Plus I wasn't looking to spend that kind of money up front.



Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but starting with a setup like what you've shared, then as parts wear out or break, eventually moving to upgraded axles, servos, etc, would likely get me a very long ways down the road and still not have crazy money into the sport... Am I missing something...? With a smart metal parts build, I'd be into everything what, $400, $500? (aka a similar price to a stock capra or decent scale truck but better parts/performance..?). Maybe I'm getting carried away, but I'm sure you get what I'm asking..

 

[WhiskeyThrottle]

bbolden516 all I have done was the hyrax tires, made my own links and added a little bend to them. I did have weight in the wheels about 2oz but I felt like it was to much strain on the motors, even though it handled great! I did the spring mod on the shocks but I cut it in half, the full spring mod seem to have to much drop, and then I cut the body down. I have to give props as you are the one that gave me some ideas. I also moved the wires up to get them out of the way. Almost forgot I upgraded the servos(Amazon special) Now I have picked up some Berg v1 axles and a UGC Viper II chassis and I’m building one from the ground up.

Not bad on the flex. LOL

 

[bbolden516]

madsry ("Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but starting with a setup like what you've shared, then as parts wear out or break, eventually moving to upgraded axles, servos, etc, would likely get me a very long ways down the road and still not have crazy money into the sport... Am I missing something...? With a smart metal parts build, I'd be into everything what, $400, $500? (aka a similar price to a stock capra or decent scale truck but better parts/performance..?). Maybe I'm getting carried away, but I'm sure you get what I'm asking..")

If you end up buying axles and everything you might see 4 to 5 hundred but really if you shop around on ebay you can find decent stuff for good prices also on here just take your time, as far as this rig goes servos tires and links and its pretty much good to go, really its a great rig for the money, and yes scale rigs wont beat the performance of a moa the weight is up to high and torque twist is another killer on performance in scale rigs. hope that helps "thumbsup"

 

[ferp420]

i wonder if there is a small brushless motor that would fit in those axles to bump up the power a bit

 

[bbolden516]

ferp420, Ive done that before on my redcat rockslide rs10 and man what a worm hole, these can be upgraded but honestly better to just get a set of axles that will take a 540 or 550 motor imo. The knuckles are plastic the gears and so on so if you add weight or power or both these things will break. But again for the price and the capability I'm pretty happy.

 

[madsry]

So we finally got my daughters Ridgerock delivered today and two things:
1. My 6 year old daughter did great right out of the gate! (insert proud daddy here My 4 year old daughter did surprisingly well too, and both had squeals of joy echoing through the neighborhood!
2. These things are a blast. I just finished driving it around some more, via flood light in my back yard, where we built a little course.

I think I might just buy another one or two of these and start modding one up (and learning along the way). I suppose it will ultimately transform into its own rig, but the building and piecemealing is half the fun. I’d also like to continue learning where I can utilize my 3D printer for various parts, using a carbon/PC blend or some other high strength/impact polymer would apply.

Could I get some specific recommendations for axle upgrades to start keeping an eye out for and why? I’m happy to dig and hunt for particularly good values...

 

[bbolden516]

madsry, bully, New Age Enroute Berg, are some of the best out there, Hot Racing SCP12LCXX for the axial AX10 could work also those are all of the metal MOA ones I can think of. Some of the 1/8 scale crawlers were set up to take large 540 and 550 motors but mite need to be narrowed any ways happy hunting and glad you and your girls are enjoying these little rigs. "thumbsup"

 

[Brunel]

I dig my Ridgerock. Bought it try try out the crawling world and got hooked. Made it up a 30ft construction dirt pile one of the first few times I really took it out. It had one tumble before I finally was able to make it up. Still took like 10/15min to shimmy it's way up there. Have a video of it I'll be uploading soon. Looks like a little bug crawling up this big dirt pile. I enjoyed this Ridgerock so much I researched a nicer scale crawler. Wanted the Ascender, mostly because of it's old school look/body/tires/axle articulation, but after much research I figured I'd go with ol trusty TRX4, K5. I've enjoyed this TRX a lot and really understand now why it's great out of the box. So I took the TRX to the same dirt mount, which is very steep and mostly loose soil, and the TRX couldn't make it up to the top. Closest I got was 3/4 the way up, and I was following it closely so I didn't have a long tumble. Tried for about 30min, but decided to call it. I've got pitbull tires and some front brass portal covers in the mail and once I install those, I'll try it again. So, this $120 crawler is pretty fun little thing. The only thing I did to it was put a deans plug on it to run a 3s 2200mah lipo. But I've ran it through muddy water, had some pretty big hill tumbles, but still working great. I don't intend to upgrade it, but might try the wd40 tire trick.

 

[bbolden516]

Brunel, im glad to see you are having so much fun in this hobby, to start with the danchee is a very capable 1st rig to have and the fact that it is 4ws and moa will be really challenging for any scale rig to compete with, having moa or Motor on axle really brings the weight down low and that weight is unsprung and not torquing on the chassis like a scale rig so you can see this is why a scale rig with have to be very well set up and a veteran drive to make it competitive for any moa rig. then throw in 4ws or 4 wheel steering with selectable modes and you further the capability. have fun and always great to hear from another that has been bitten by the crawler bug. "thumbsup"

 

[braindancer]

Hey folks - newbie here... Got this Ridgerock as my first foray into this hobby, very happy with it so far. That said, I had one of the servos die after a few rides. I decided to replace them with 20kg that bbolden is using (or at least I think so - $53 for 4 of them on Amazon, look same too). Now, after just 2-3 minutes of lazy scooting around the garage, both servos are stuck in leftmost position... Restarting the controller and the buggy itself doesn't help - they straighten out, but then as soon as I make a turn it goes all the way to the left and gets stuck again. Tried changing 4ws modes, no dice... Did my servos somehow get fried? I use a 7.4v LiPo battery, it was working fine with original servos (well, for a while at least).

Also, I noticed that these servos have more range of motion than the originals, so at the extremes of either turn directions the tires rub on the plastic joints. Did you run into that? is there an easy fix? Thanks!

 

[ferp420]

Hey folks - newbie here... Got this Ridgerock as my first foray into this hobby, very happy with it so far. That said, I had one of the servos die after a few rides. I decided to replace them with 20kg that bbolden is using (or at least I think so - $53 for 4 of them on Amazon, look same too). Now, after just 2-3 minutes of lazy scooting around the garage, both servos are stuck in leftmost position... Restarting the controller and the buggy itself doesn't help - they straighten out, but then as soon as I make a turn it goes all the way to the left and gets stuck again. Tried changing 4ws modes, no dice... Did my servos somehow get fried? I use a 7.4v LiPo battery, it was working fine with original servos (well, for a while at least).

Also, I noticed that these servos have more range of motion than the originals, so at the extremes of either turn directions the tires rub on the plastic joints. Did you run into that? is there an easy fix? Thanks!

sounds like you over volted them not all servos can take 8.4 volts straight from a 2s lipo might work fine if the battery has been discharged to 6.5 or 7v but as soon as you charge it the volts are too high for the servo maybe try discharging the battery a bit and see if that helps or get a cheap bec and run them at 6v

those your running now may or maynot work right again hard to say but worth a try with lower voltage

 

[braindancer]

Thanks for replying! Hmmm. This makes sense generally (they're rated for 6.8v after all), but bbolden indicated that he ran them with 3s with no problems... Or am I missing some required step to downvolt specifically for the servos?..

I have also ran multiple 3s lipo packs threw it with zero issues.

 

[ferp420]

Thanks for replying! Hmmm. This makes sense generally (they're rated for 6.8v after all), but bbolden indicated that he ran them with 3s with no problems... Or am I missing some required step to downvolt specifically for the servos?..

maybe i missed something are you trying to power both servos from a seperate battery or from the stock electronics the stock electronics wont push enuff amps for 2 servos and the servos wont handle a 2s lipo so you need a bec

the bec is the voltage regulator they have different voltages and amp rating volts dont vary that much but amp ratings can get one with enuff amps to run both servos
castle make a nice one will handle both servos no problem and is programable

or if you had a servo rated for 8.4v you ciuld run it straight of the 2s lipo

 

[bbolden516]

I run my danchee with the amazon special 20kg servos bought 4 for like 54 bucks I think, and I have been running my rig from day one with 3s lipo threw the stock electronics with no bec, although I probably should get one, mite have got a bad batch of servos it dose happen. mite be able to return them, good luck to you and hope you get it sorted out. "thumbsup"

 

[ferp420]

I run my danchee with the amazon special 20kg servos bought 4 for like 54 bucks I think, and I have been running my rig from day one with 3s lipo threw the stock electronics with no bec, although I probably should get one, mite have got a bad batch of servos it dose happen. mite be able to return them, good luck to you and hope you get it sorted out. "thumbsup"

1 servo should be fine 2 is not and your not trying to run the servo directly off a 2s battery like it sounded like homeboy was trying to do some servos are rated for 2s lipos some manufacturers even recomend them most arnt

though most servos are rated for 6.6v



the bec would.take some strain off the stock electronics but i dont know if it needs one or not