That's one hell of a name!
Anyway, I recently picked up an Element kit to build while I was on my annual Columbus Day Weekend camping trip with my wife's entire extended family. Every year my wife's whole family camps in cabins at a state park outside of Oneonta NY. It's a great time to play with RCs, but this year I decided to bring a kit and build it while I was there.
Overall the kit itself went together pretty well, though I did run into a few situations that left me scratching my head for a while. The manual was Ok except that it wasn't clear in some spots, and absolutely none of their part numbers in the manual matched the parts trees. I also managed to thoroughly confuse myself when building the transmission, and ended up doing it 3 times before I got all the right gears in the right places. :roll: I was initially unaware that the trans could be mounted forward or backward, and some information about why I'd want it one way vs the other would have been helpful, but I digress.
For electronics, I decided to go with a HW 1080 ESC, the new Holmes Crawlmaster Sport 550 15t, and one of the DS3218 Pro servos that I bought a while back on Aliexpress. Receiver is a HK version of the Radiolink receivers that I paired to my RC3S, although I'll probably move it over to my RC4G so I can run it with my Gen8, which is also on my RC3S.
The kit was built 100% stock except that I used the "hard" Associated shock mounts and a set of Beef Shanks knuckles for some more up front weight. The trans was built with the 12% overdrive.
Tires are Hyrax Predators mounted to Chanquish wheels with Lil Nova 4.5" Comp Cut foams, soft in front and medium in the rear.
Anyway, there's enough info out there about the build, so that's not what this thread is about. I had intended to finish the vehicle and use it, but I ran into a couple body fitment issues that I really want to address before I use it. That's what this thread will be about.
I went with the Proline Jeep Wrangler Unlimited body. My wife has a 2015 Wrangler Unlimited, so this body was loosely based on that, although I decided to take some cosmetic liberties when painting it up. This was the body after I finished painting it:
For bumpers, I went with a couple cheap Ebay bumpers. For the front, I went with the Aluminum shorty bumper. I figured this would work well with the Jeep body:
For the rear bumper, I went with a full width bumper:
I started out with the bumpers installed as far in as possible. Even in this arrangement, it seemed like they stuck out pretty far, especially that front bumper. Setting the body in place confirmed that the bumpers did indeed stick out too far, especially the front. With the body properly positioned so the wheel well openings align with the tires, the front bumper hangs a mile too far out.
One other issue that I encountered with the body is that it's too narrow to work properly with the Enduro rock sliders & receiver box.
These issues will need to be sorted before I position the body permanently. Right now it's sitting on top of the body posts, which are all the way up. The body will come down to a more appropriate position and get trimmed accordingly as the other issues are taken care of.
Lastly, these Hyrax tires look way too big with this body. I wanted the larger tires to help with clearance and approach angles, but even with the body sitting way up high, they look too big and are going to end up rubbing the body everywhere when it articulates.
My next step is to address the bumpers, the rock sliders, and the receiver box. Since I don't run my RCs in water, I'll probably just eliminate the receiver box. To get the sliders to fit better, I'm planning to trim the floor boards back so that I can tuck the rock sliders in more. Because the body seems to taper out as it goes back, the floor boards will get trimmed at an angle to follow the body taper.
For the bumpers, they're going to be a bit more involved. Since they're already as far back as they can be mounted, that means my mounting scheme will need to change. The front bumper has 4 holes in the top of it which I assume are intended to mount a winch, but I can use those holes to mount the bumper directly to the chassis once I make or print a new mount to replace the stock bumper mount. For the rear, I may be OK with it where it is, or I may decide to pull it in also. At the rear, I think the easiest solution will be to relocate the bumper mount farther back between the rails, but I've still got to figure that out.
Overall, I'm very anxious to drive this truck.
Anyway, I recently picked up an Element kit to build while I was on my annual Columbus Day Weekend camping trip with my wife's entire extended family. Every year my wife's whole family camps in cabins at a state park outside of Oneonta NY. It's a great time to play with RCs, but this year I decided to bring a kit and build it while I was there.
Overall the kit itself went together pretty well, though I did run into a few situations that left me scratching my head for a while. The manual was Ok except that it wasn't clear in some spots, and absolutely none of their part numbers in the manual matched the parts trees. I also managed to thoroughly confuse myself when building the transmission, and ended up doing it 3 times before I got all the right gears in the right places. :roll: I was initially unaware that the trans could be mounted forward or backward, and some information about why I'd want it one way vs the other would have been helpful, but I digress.
For electronics, I decided to go with a HW 1080 ESC, the new Holmes Crawlmaster Sport 550 15t, and one of the DS3218 Pro servos that I bought a while back on Aliexpress. Receiver is a HK version of the Radiolink receivers that I paired to my RC3S, although I'll probably move it over to my RC4G so I can run it with my Gen8, which is also on my RC3S.
The kit was built 100% stock except that I used the "hard" Associated shock mounts and a set of Beef Shanks knuckles for some more up front weight. The trans was built with the 12% overdrive.
Tires are Hyrax Predators mounted to Chanquish wheels with Lil Nova 4.5" Comp Cut foams, soft in front and medium in the rear.
Anyway, there's enough info out there about the build, so that's not what this thread is about. I had intended to finish the vehicle and use it, but I ran into a couple body fitment issues that I really want to address before I use it. That's what this thread will be about.
I went with the Proline Jeep Wrangler Unlimited body. My wife has a 2015 Wrangler Unlimited, so this body was loosely based on that, although I decided to take some cosmetic liberties when painting it up. This was the body after I finished painting it:
For bumpers, I went with a couple cheap Ebay bumpers. For the front, I went with the Aluminum shorty bumper. I figured this would work well with the Jeep body:
For the rear bumper, I went with a full width bumper:
I started out with the bumpers installed as far in as possible. Even in this arrangement, it seemed like they stuck out pretty far, especially that front bumper. Setting the body in place confirmed that the bumpers did indeed stick out too far, especially the front. With the body properly positioned so the wheel well openings align with the tires, the front bumper hangs a mile too far out.
One other issue that I encountered with the body is that it's too narrow to work properly with the Enduro rock sliders & receiver box.
These issues will need to be sorted before I position the body permanently. Right now it's sitting on top of the body posts, which are all the way up. The body will come down to a more appropriate position and get trimmed accordingly as the other issues are taken care of.
Lastly, these Hyrax tires look way too big with this body. I wanted the larger tires to help with clearance and approach angles, but even with the body sitting way up high, they look too big and are going to end up rubbing the body everywhere when it articulates.
My next step is to address the bumpers, the rock sliders, and the receiver box. Since I don't run my RCs in water, I'll probably just eliminate the receiver box. To get the sliders to fit better, I'm planning to trim the floor boards back so that I can tuck the rock sliders in more. Because the body seems to taper out as it goes back, the floor boards will get trimmed at an angle to follow the body taper.
For the bumpers, they're going to be a bit more involved. Since they're already as far back as they can be mounted, that means my mounting scheme will need to change. The front bumper has 4 holes in the top of it which I assume are intended to mount a winch, but I can use those holes to mount the bumper directly to the chassis once I make or print a new mount to replace the stock bumper mount. For the rear, I may be OK with it where it is, or I may decide to pull it in also. At the rear, I think the easiest solution will be to relocate the bumper mount farther back between the rails, but I've still got to figure that out.
Overall, I'm very anxious to drive this truck.
Last edited:
