Enduro24 Sendero Build-Up

[Vitamin_J]

This little crawler really surprised me with how good it is. I am having tons of fun with it. Stock it's good but not great so I have done a few mods and will do a few more. End goal will be to have something I can use in 1/24 crawl comps.

I also have an SCX24 and obviously there needs to be comparisons made but I will do that later in the thread I want to talk about the Sendero!

I crawled with it quite a bit stock and really liked it a lot. The only bad behaviors I noticed was the front end lifting on steep climbs and the side-hill ability wasn't as good as I expected. It only has 1S power so it doesn't have the wheel speed of some of the other crawlers, but surprisingly it has really good torque and smooth torque delivery. The stock steering servo is also really strong, I have no need to upgrade it even with stickier tires. The suspension is really, really good. It has soft springs with friction dampers so it doesn't bounce around, it flexes like the real thing.

I made this little review video when it was completely out of the box stock:

https://youtu.be/JtbwlWR3kjQ


This truck is very light and I can tell the design philosophy behind this truck was to keep it simple and as light as possible so I will be building on those strengths as I modify it.

The first thing I did was make a new 3D printed battery and electronics tray. The stock tray sits needlessly high above the chassis and puts the battery towards the extreme rear of the vehicle. I moved the battery forward and lowered it against the chassis rails and then moved the ESC/RX to the rear. Note, I oriented the ESC/RX with the wires towards the front because that was the heavy side.

Stock tray 5g:

New tray 4g "thumbsup"

Installed:

I realized after I installed it that I could have lowered it a few more mm and still had full clearance to the axle so I will do that next

The tray is on Thingiverse for anyone to download and 3D print your own. I'm guessing it will also fit the RGT: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4739192

 

[Vitamin_J]

First things first I changed the tires to RC4WD Rock Crusher tires. Honestly, the stock Sendero tires are probably just as soft and sticky as these, but without foams they roll over and smash up too easily and I wanted to add some weight to the front wheels. The new tires are the same diameter as the stock tires. This truck has really good torque in part because the tires have a very small diameter so I wanted to maintain the same diameter. The RC4WD tires obviously come with foams, while the stock tires don't.

Before installing the tires I wrapped 5g of solder around each of the front wheels and held it in place with aluminized tape. I also added some brass hexes to the front axle. I chose to use the brass hexes instead of just more solder because they are closer to the axle which means less angular momentum than the same weight in the wheel. On a truck like this, all that rotational inertia will start to add up. Ideally, I'd get some brass knuckles, but those aren't available for this truck. I also thought about wrapping the whole front axle with solder to avoid adding rotational momentum altogether but so far I am still happy with the pep of the motor.

The weight of the truck is now 240g. I did not weigh it beforehand but my guess is I added about 15g of weight to the front end.

The side-hill ability of the truck is definitely improved. Also the stock steering servo is really strong and it's still working great I see no need to change it yet.

Unfortunately, my dog at my controller steering wheel! That was no good as I need to crawl! I whipped up a quick 3D printed replacement. You can download it on Thingiverse if you want to print your own: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4739187

 

[Vitamin_J]

I'm probably going to get shit for this, but I think stock-for-stock, the Enduro24 is better than the SCX24. Of course the SCX24 has the gearing advantage, but the Enduro24 has a much better chassis set up out of the box. The Enduro24 can side-hill better and climb steeper angles. The SCX24 is really bouncy on its stock suspension and bounces all over the place on the rocks whereas the Enduro24 is planted and flexible. Also the steering servo is really good on the Enduro24, even with lots of wheeling and upgraded tires I see no need to upgrade. Naturally, the SCX24 will ultimately be better because it has so many more mods available that will boost its performance, but out-of-the-box, the Enduro24 is better IMO.

I have ordered one of the famous German AS12 tested by donaldsneffe in this thread: http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/micro-scale-rigs/623190-best-escs-your-micro-trucks.html

My plan is to install the ESC and see what this truck does on 2S with that ESC.

 

[moerdogg]

Awesome! My son got one and loves it. The tires are super sticky, way better than stock on my JLU

 

[fortysixandtwo]

Good info and comparison. I've been curious about these. I see they've got a 4runner 1/24 coming soon. Might have to swoop one.

 

[SurlyBurly]

Did you ever do that ESC swap? I got one of these for Fathers day and am trying to learn what mods have been successful.

 

[skurge]

Did you ever do that ESC swap? I got one of these for Fathers day and am trying to learn what mods have been successful.

I've tried a few things on mine. tried the 2S esc out of the atlas, its the same thats in a lot of the cheaper crawlers. very noisy as usual, and the low speed throttle control is not great.

currently i have a stock scx24 esc/rx in there and while it works better. i think the gearing on the truck is the problem. the low speed throttle isn't as good as a stock scx still. i may swap some scx24 axles on there next and see how that goes

 

[2471:24]

Nice vid. It’s hard to tell, but it actually looked to crawl much better than the scx24 stock. The scx is nice when modded but horrible stock. My c10 crawled much better without the light bar(couldn’t remember the right word, sorry) installed on the bed. This enduro24 doesn’t look so top heavy.

Regarding mods, watch 2FM RC’s video “Element Enduro 24 Crawler Mod! Bigger Tires?” on youtube. I absolutely love the guy, he’s so sympathetic and always gives good advice. I actually thought about buying this crawler first, but then went for the axial because it has so much aftermarket stuff.

But it’s nice to read about other crawlers as well. Keep us updated.