Drive Them All! A Year Long Project

[B-MOW71]

Mother nature has been a "B" for the past few days for us lately! All my paint projects have been on hold until this wet weather pattern we are in moves out of here. Seeing snow flakes yesterday was the real kick in the d...!

Good call on the Ecto body on the CC01. That's gonna look cool when it's complete.

Good looking Ecto body on the Gatekeeper rig! I agree, huge difference in weight between the cage and the Ecto body.

Phoenix body looks great! Nice color! Looking forward to seeing more of this build in the future.

 

[OSRC]

well, the weather and time has not worked out the past few weekends, but I've been chipping away at some incomplete projects and getting them ready in case one day the stars align and I get a good day outside!

Rebuilt my VS4 with a new body, G2 ESC and some tires I stole from my JLU

Finished my CC01 w/portals. Took a little finagling with the axle ratios, but got it all sorted out. Gearing is a little high, but it should be ok on a trail run.

 

[durok]

That's a killer paint job on the Ecto, looks PERFECT with the black trim and the military sand/khaki cab!

Build thread on that puppy?

"thumbsup"

 

[twade984]

Yeah the paint is way cool


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[King Dork]

For my money, the UMG was the best kit Axial produced. Aluminum 4mm links, aluminum icons, 5 beadlocks, steel gears all around, light buckets all over and a very good body w/interior for $279 when I got it.

Might get another run later this year..

Couldn’t agree more. Of the 16 crawlers that I currently own, my UMG10 impresses me more than any of them. Mine is amazingly stable as well. Some of my other crawlers might do a thing or two better, but my UMG10 conquers more things that I don’t expect it to. One of the coolest looking kits EVER in my opinion. Glad to hear others who took the chance on this rig and were rewarded with an incredible kit. Any time I let someone else wheel it when we had a local indoor crawler course, were extremely impressed at it’s capabilities, and that was when I had it box stock.

 

[King Dork]

Nice UMG! It too looks great on the rocks. This is a rig that I never bought or paid much attention too because to me it looked really top heavy. I'm sure that is an illusion as you have mentioned that it is well planted, yet looks like it would tip over with a wind gust.

When I first took mine out in box stock form, the only time the body was a disadvantage was on steep decents. It would definitely roll over forwards noticeably sooner than any of my other rigs. The flip side of that coin is that it can dig in and climb really steep slopes. Only mods I did to mine was pen spring mod on stock shocks, which I never had a single leaking issue with. Did have the aluminum shock bodies in the kit. Dropped it almost 10mm. SSD brass steering knuckles, and swapped to a 3 gear trans which moves the motor noticeably farther. Run Duratrax Approach tires with CI dual stage foams on Chinesium Wang Chung beadlocks and it’ll still outcrawl all but a couple of my other rigs and no longer has any forward roll over issues. Good things for anyone who has one of these to noticeably improve performance easily.

 

[OSRC]

That's a killer paint job on the Ecto, looks PERFECT with the black trim and the military sand/khaki cab!

Build thread on that puppy?

"thumbsup"

Not much of a build thread since the chassis was mostly complete, but a little more info: https://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?/topic/103996-cc01-with-portals/

 

[OSRC]

The past 2 weekends have been rainy, and since I've been stuck at the bench, I've been banging out a few bodies I've had laying around and finishing a few old builds. Nothing crawler related, but we're all RC geeks here, right?

Slash crawler got some paint

Tamiya TT-02BR, which fell into my cart by accident last week.

Funco Speed Bandit

Tamiya TD4 Avante...was running out of blue, so I had to switch things up a bit. This is a seriously cool buggy....not finished yet, lots to do.

 

[OSRC]

This weekend was sunny, mid 70's and I had Sunday morning free...that means trail time!! Went into the wayback machine and dug out 2 of my 4 CR01's for a little playtime. Ran into a lot of other guys out and about in the woods, not a single one of them even knew Tamiya made a crawler..

First off, my OG CR01 build from what? 2008? Heavily modified over the years and still running strong. Currently has Holmes/1080 power and a recently installed StealthX to give it a bit of OD.

Honestly, this is one of my best crawlers. It's a bit of a belly dragger, but nothing a blip of the throttle won't cure. I swapped over from the Losi Claws to the Carvers just for looks really. The tires are showing their age and aren't nearly as sticky as modern rubber (should have left the claws on, they are still excellent tires) but it got around just fine. Very stable, and climbs like a goat. The OD really makes a difference.

4WS is a must for these trucks since no one makes CVD's... with dogbones in the axles, steering is just awful. With all 4 wheels turning though, it's not bad at all. Plus, it's fun on the trail working that rear steering....I have yet to master it.

Subjective scores:
Crawlability - 9 One of my best, even with the craptastic steering.
Trailability - 7 It's geared for the rocks, but did very good out on the trail. Low belly hurts a bit here.
Steering - 5 It would be a 2 if it weren't for 4WS
Sexy factor - 8 Love the look and the stance. Nothing scale about it, but it looks right to my eyes.
Uniqueability - 9 I almost never run into a CR01 in the woods.

Avg: 7.6

Put a battery through the Bug, than switched over to this piece. I picked this up from Jato when he left the hobby (still temporary I hope) and built it up OS style. Swapped to a lighter home brew chassis with standard shocks and converted it to 4WS, but left it mostly intact driveline-wise.

Tires make a huge difference... the TSL's were up to the task today. The suspension is pretty soft, but raw grip got me mostly where I wanted to go. This one uses 4ws same as the bug and it's needed for sure. It has a shorter WB, so it was slightly more manuverable.

This one is also kind of a belly dragger. The TVP chassis is somewhat tall, so it hangs down quite a bit. Just had to keep it in mind.

Something growled at me from this hole...took the pic and ran. I had the scene from Elf in mind where he tried to pet the raccoon. Hell no, I'm out!

Only carnage of the day - took a tumble off a rock and landed right on the rear wheel. Popped out the servo! Guess I need 2 screws here... A few moments wrenching and I was back in action.

Most likely the last run for this old girl, she's got a future as a monster truck. I think it'll fit the chassis better.

Subjective scores:
Crawlability - 7 Not bad at all, does tend to lift the left front tire a bit - suspension is a bit on the soft side. Tons of torque and grippy tires save the day.
Trailability - 7 Big tires and lots of flex, no issues other than the low belly. Gets an extra point for 4WS cyclones I could do in the dirt.
Steering - 5 It would also be a 2 if it weren't for 4WS
Sexy factor - 4 It's kind of an ugly duck to be honest. functional, but ugly.
Uniqueability - 9 I am the sole bearer of Tamiya Crawlers within 50 miles.

Avg: 6.4

 

[durok]

Love checking out more of your crazy collection!

Every one shows out-of-the-box engineering..."thumbsup"

 

[OSRC]

Thank you sir, I try to keep it interesting.

Weather looks good this weekend, but family events/softball are going all weekend. Hoping to sneak out for an hour or two. But what to drive? Got a lot on the list yet.

 

[B-MOW71]

Man, that CR01 Bug looks sooo good! I don't believe I've ever seen one in person! Both look fantastic out on the rocks!

Glad to see the weather pattern has finally shifted to a much drier and nicer many days ahead! I hope to get out too during this long upcoming weekend!

 

[OSRC]

Been a while since I've been able to sneak out and do some wheeling...

I thought I'd do a twofer today, and had the bright idea to trailer out my CC01 to my usual test spots. The thought was I'd unload, do some testing, then reload and head to the next test area. All for fun of course! So I loaded up and headed out! My TRX4 is my assigned pulling truck, and it's built to do so. Lots of weight, reinforced rear bumper, super stiff rear shocks, HD rear foams, a first gen Holmes Outrunner geared way low, full lights, plenty of winches and recovery gear, and the only truck I run with an ESS1 sound system.

Pretty quickly I realized that the simplest rocks that I normally never give a second thought to were going to become serious obstacles. The TRX was digging in though, and by picking my lines very carefully, I managed to get to my first test rock.

Where I realized I brought the wrong radio for my CC01! SOAB! That's what I get for loading up first thing in the morning with a hangover. So I reloaded the CC01 back on the trailer and headed back out to the truck. No need to drag around the trailer in that case. I'll definitely do this again though, the trailer part was interesting.

So I freed up the TRX and decided to take it out for some trail work. It's not set up to crawl per-se, but being a TRX4 at heart it still did pretty decent.

Wet ground, slippery tires and lots of weight up top meant my usual test rocks were a no go today as I found out pretty quick.

So I just hit the trails, and the TRX just shined like the sun. I still think this is the best trail truck on the market, hands down. I left the diffs open as usual, just locking them when needed which frankly wasn't often. With the slippery wet conditions, I used a lot of wheelspeed to get up and over stuff and with the ESS system roaring, it was a TON of fun. By far my most scale drive behind the trigger. I would drop into low to navigate the rough stuff, and then back up into high for the smoother trail sections. I took off the drag brake for trailer duty, so if I needed, I just dropped into low gear and it worked out fine. Picking my way up this creek bed working the diffs was unbelievably fun. I really had to DRIVE it, and that's what made it fun.

Battery swap and a chassis shot. Lots going on in there! The huge project box holds my BEC, receiver, and a ton of wiring - it's much lighter than it looks.

This truck is not a sidehill killer, this was at the top of it's limits! A little more white knuckled than most of my rigs.

Wheel spinning, engine roaring, what a blast!

Definitely drove this truck today enough to do some scoring.
Subjective scores:
Crawlability - 7. It's just not set up for the real steep stuff, but keeping the limits in mind, it does ok.
Trailability - 10. Fantastic drive on the trail. Best in my fleet, hands down.
Steering - 8. Opening the diffs make this long wheelbase truck pretty maneuverable.
Sexy factor - 9. Lights, sounds, it got a ton of attention on the trail. I love the look personally.
Uniqueability - 6. Plenty of TRX4's out there.

Avg: 8.0

 

[OSRC]

Even though I forgot the radio for my CC01 project, I always bring a spare truck just in case. So after beating on the TRX4 for 2 hours or so, I had some time to sneak back out and put a pack or two though the Aluminator. This started out as a Wroncho build, but I recently swapped on some metal Capra axles I picked up for all of $60 and added some SSD goodies to. OD gears and portal weights up front, that's really all it needs.

Starting out, the ESC seemed a bit jerky. This runs an older Castle ESC and Tekin 55t. Not sure what was going on, but something seemed off with the throttle. However, with a wide stance, grippy 2.2's and a fantastic weight balance, it was off to a good start.

Sticks very well, both going up and going down!

I didn't get too far in before the jerky-ness was getting worse, and I started hearing some crunching sounds. Not good. I checked the ESC and motor, and both were hot - after some investigation, there was something wrong with the front axle - it was basically locked up. So I packed it up for the day and went home. Turns out the front gears shredded themselves. Whoops! I replaced them with some stock Axial parts and lots of shims. Also, I found there were no bearings at the ends of the axle - hell, that's not good! So I dug out 2 5x11's and threw them in. It's all turning much better now.

Didn't really drive this enough to give it a score. Swapping out the old Castle (since it's limited to 2S) for a 1080 and we'll give it another go.

 

[OSRC]

Finally got a free morning with good weather, 6 battery packs later and I got another 3 trucks in yesterday.

Usually I start with a trail run, then bring the more specialized crawlers in since the primo crawling spot is right by the parking lot. Today I ran the TRX4 Semi Sport on the trail for a good 2+ hours. What a fun truck! Started life as a Bronco, then added an SSD PDK and a Sport body and retained the 2sp and diffs. This is definitely set up as a trail truck - pure crawling is not it's forte, but it does handle itself well.

The PDK really changes the gearing, so over the winter I added a 3:1 reduction in front of the transmission to get the gearing back. I had to go with a 540 motor for clearance and move the servo to a front mount, which is brass. Really moves the weight to the front of the truck which it needs with that heavy expedition cage on the back of the body.

First stop - test rock! I generally run 4.5" tires since I now have straight axles, and I stole the Pitbulls for another truck, so I bolted on the Redcat tires and had at it. Did OK on the test rock, the tires aren't terrible, but not in the same league as the PB's.

Whoa nelly!

This truck really shines on the trails. It's a totally different drive from my other TRX's - it's low and way planted, removing the portals really lowers the COG. With the reduction, it's set up the opposite of my others, usually first gear is my main gear and second is just for flat trails. This one is the opposite - second gear is my main gear for most driving, and 1st is more like a granny gear. With the 540, it's for sure down on torque, so it kind of needs it. It's like driving a 4-banger truck off road - 1st needs lots of RPM's, so it's wailing away like a 22R in there. It's got a cool sound with the reduction in there, almost sounds like a 4 cyl engine. I definitely use the diff lockers a lot more on this truck since it's a bit lower, but it still does great when open. Super scale with the granny gear, and really fun to drive.

Battery swap and jerky time!

Even though it's not really set up for crawling, I headed over to the big boy rocks and gave it a go. There's a line through those monsters, believe it or not. Low or not, it's still a TRX4, and it did very well - just had to watch my lines with the 4.5" tires and lower clearance.

Hell of a rock....scrambled right up there, motor roaring the entire way.

Subjective scores:
Crawlability - 7. It's just not set up for the real steep stuff, but always does better than I expect.
Trailability - 10. Fantastic drive on the trail. Very scale and plenty to keep busy.
Steering - 8. Opening the diffs, OD and a short(ish) WB means great turning.
Sexy factor - 9. Still has the interior from the G6, and full lights though my wire needs repair. Does need a few scale goodies though, that bare rack looks boring!
Uniqueability - 7. extra point for the portal removal.

Total score: 8.2 - Pretty high up there, this is indeed one of my favorites. Wheels/tires, a more scale front bumper, a new body w/fresh paint and fixing the lights are all the the to-do list.

 

[OSRC]

After running the Semi Sport for a while, I came back to the parking lot and grabbed some more dedicated crawling trucks and went back to the technical sections for some more play time. I fixed up the front axle in the Aluminator, swapped in a 1080 and went back at it.

I call it the Aluminator since it's pretty much all aluminum, even the chassis. It flexes like a noodle, but it's a lot lighter than the steel chassis. Based off a V1 SCX10 chassis, I crammed some cheapo Capra axles under it, added brass and OD up front, and am running an ancient set of tires... from what? 2010 ish? That makes them 13 years old, yikes.

It's a spare parts build that has kind of evolved over the years, so I wasn't expecting much. I was wrong.

Best pure crawling truck I own, hands down. This is Mission Impossible I call it, One of the hardest lines I hit, it's the left side of my test rock. Until today, only 1 truck has made it so far. The Aluminator walked right up it, and gave me the finger from the top.

I didn't get many pictures, no point since there's a few above, but the axles held up perfectly and it went everywhere, even lines I don't even try with my more scale rigs. Grip from the tires was amazing, 13 years old and straight up owned the trail. Blown away by this truck.

Subjective scores:
Crawlability - 10. Claws (pun intended) its way up, over and around everything.
Trailability - 4. I do need to work on gearing, with the 3 gear trans and Capra axles, it's somewhat slow. Great for rocks, terrible on the trail. Loud to boot...belt drive on the way to experiment.
Steering - 8. Not terrible by any means, but the Capra axles and wide offset tires meant I gave up a bit of steering
Sexy factor - 6. nothing scale about it, but I love the stance and overall look.
Uniqueability - 7. Mishmash of lots of old and new parts, not much like it.

Total score: 7.0

Next up, the Carbon TRX. I built this around a set of axles... I had some built TRX4 sport axles collecting dust, so I picked up an Injora Carbon TRX chassis and threw it together with what I had laying around. An Ecto body fit the sliders perfectly, just trimmed it along the bottom to match the angle of the chassis. Not quite finished, but good enough for a test run!

First time running an angled skid/bent rear link setup. Pretty impressed, lots of clearance.

Also owned Mission Impossible...2 in one day? Unreal. First time out to boot!

Love this pic...

Fantastic line here, the creek is just low enough to make this possible. Come up the creek bed to the rock on the left, transition across to the next rock, and then climb that big one on the right. Aluminator made it look easy, This truck struggled a bit, but eventually made it.

Not a fan of the Hyrax, but I had them laying around nearly new so I decided to use them - soft foam up front, solid single stage out back. They did very well today, I must have finally knocked the new off them. Not sure if they are staying, but overall they did ok.

Subjective scores:
Crawlability - 10. Just a hair behind the Aluminator, I had to work a bit harder on some of the climbs. Crawls like a boss though.
Trailability - 5. Goes down the trail just fine, kinda boring though. somewhat loud, not 100% sold on that motor mount.
Steering - 8. OD/UD helps a ton, steering was a non-issue.
Sexy factor - 7. Nothing fancy per-se, but love the look and overall stance.
Uniqueability - 5. Injora is on to something, there's quite a few carbon TRX's out there. In fact, I ran into another one on the trail.

Total score: 7.0 - fantastic build, very happy with it. Just a few things to finish up.

 

[OSRC]

Mid year report card thus far:

2023 Totals:
Traxxas Semi Sport 8.2
Traxxas TRX4 Defender 8.0
Axial UMG: 7.8
CR01 "Bug": 7.6
Trail Telly: 7.2
Aluminator: 7.0
Carbon TRX Sport: 7.0
Element Sport: 6.8
CR01 "Jato's leftovers": 6.4
Crawler Telly: 6.2
Element Enduro: 6.2
C-Maxx: 5.8
Axial SCX10 III JLU - 5.6

Interesting that I rated 2 TRX's up top and the SCX10III at the bottom even though on paper they are very similar. Setup goes a long way!

In any case, about 19 more trucks to go:
Sawback
CC01 x3
Ecto
SCX6
3 6x6's
Marlin
Ascender
VS4
2 SCX10 V1's
Crawler Yeti
Ryft
Wraith
Wendigo
...and a few others I can't think of.

I'm sure I'll build something else in there, there's a few loose projects. My Big Hemi is in pieces, and there's 2 more 1/6 trucks I might get to. My TLT truck is down for a new chassis, and I have a crawler King here somewhere. The Bruiser might make an appearance, I don't know. Not sure if I want to bang it off the rocks. In any case, I really need to get my ass in gear! I am going to make this resolution, even if I have to crank out some frosty runs in December!

 

[twade984]

Looks like a good time was had. I’m enjoying this thread


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[OSRC]

Thank you sir- any morning with the trucks (and beef jerky) is a good time indeed!

 

[OSRC]

Making progress! I'm slowly working my way through the RC's, and on track to complete the resolution!

This week we spent a week camping in a nice, rocky, terraced campsite (Jim Thorpe Camping Resort, highly recommended!) I really don't have room to bring my bigger trucks, so I started bringing mini's. I have 2 at the moment, an SCX24 Betty and a TRX4 Defender. Both fit in the overhead of the camper in a single bin and are my official camp vehicles.

I have to say, I never really got mini's. My first drive I was a bit frustrated - their small size was just not capable of running lines and obstacles that I was used to. First run with the Betty I was pretty disappointed. Then, I saw the light! I was running through areas that my 1/10 trucks would run - no wonder I was having trouble. I had to look for 1/18 terrain... so I adjusted my horizons and all of a sudden, I saw lines everywhere. It was like Neo finally seeing the matrix. Every minor washout was a deep ravine, simple tree roots were mountains to be conquered, and tiny rocks I would have never looked at twice became giant boulders.

I took out Betty first... just has an upgraded motor for better throttle control and some brass front knuckles. It's a fun little guy, just on the verge of being too small for outdoors. It's a bit toylike imo, my daughter called it "Betty Bee" since it kind of buzzed it's way along, and the pogo spring shocks let it bounce around all over. Having said that, it crawls very well. For sure a better pure crawler than the TRX4m. It yanked itself up some pretty impressive lines. We picked it up and carried it from spot to spot since it had no trail speed, but all in all it did well.

Which brings me to the TRX4m. This is the first time I really had it out other than some testing around the backyard and chassis the cats in the house. It has a Holmes 66t, bearings, low range gearing, cheap ebay brass kit, Treal wheels and some Injora tires. I blame JimK's defender build thread, I keep catching up on updates, and then went and splurged. I think I'm under $250 for the entire build, not bad! Anyway, once I got used to the size and speed, this thing was flat awesome. It behaves exactly like its big bother - it's like driving a 1/10 TRX4 defender stuck in first gear. It bobs and weaves and rolls as it climbs, but it gets there. It was much better all around that the SCX24, simply due to it's slightly larger size.

Normal washouts became giant ravines...

Clawed my way through here several times.

This rock provided 30+ minutes of crawler fun. Went up it pretty much in every direction.

This web of tree routes became an obstacle course

And then the best part of the weekend - my 11 year old FINALLY joined me for some wheeling. She has shown pretty much zero interest in RC, but for whatever reason this week she was all about it. She drove the betty and I drove the Defender. We would charge up both, and then disappear into the campsite for an hour. I figured out the lines, and she followed along. She did great! Absolutely the best part of wheeling all weekend.

I had so much fun, I've ordered a TRX Bronco and a few goodies (should be here today in fact) hoping to get both my daughters out there on the next camping trip. I'll build one with regular gears for running around the site, and one with the crawler gears for more technical runs. Also ordered a few scale goodies and lights for the Defender.

Axial SCX24
Subjective scores:
Crawlability - 7: crawled very well for very few mods. Tires are super grippy.
Trailability - 0: Carried it around from spot to spot. Kind of the nature of a mini.
Steering - 7: Stock servo was fine, steering was a non issue.
Sexy factor - 5: Can take or leave the Betty body...should have got a Gladiator. But it's ok.
Uniqueability - 2: Nothing special per-se, 2 points for it being a limited edition.

Avg: 4.2

TRX4M Defender
Subjective scores:
Crawlability - 7: Crawled very well, kept right up with the Betty, even with the heavy body.
Trailability - 2: Better than the SCX24, but the low range gearing kills it. This truck could use a 2 speed trans far more than the 1/10 version.
Steering - 8: Stock servo had plenty of power, I had no complaints at all about the steering.
Sexy factor - 6: It looks good, body is nicely detailed, and the wheels and tires looked (and worked) very well.
Uniqueability - 2: It's a Traxxas Defender in the woods, not exactly a bigfoot sighting. Hell, I have 3 myself.

Avg: 5.0