Crawlin' Lobster
Quarry Creeper
So I just joined rcc after almost a year of lurking and learning. Recently picked up an Exceed mad torque on cl for cheap but didn't like how it was 1/8 scale so I decided to shrink it down and make it 1/10. I have friends with scx10s, ax10s and similar crawlers and we've built a pretty big course to play on. Some guys in the northwest might know of Olyz Endless Trails, I plan on doin a thread about that later on but I wanna just focus on one at a time.
Ok now onto the build progress.
When I got the truck it was stock except for it had a badly cut up proline Cherokee body one it
It also came with 3 3000 mah 6 cell nimh batteries, a small toolkit, 3 spare servos, extra servo extenders and y adapters, and a few extra random screws and spacers.
Also had just a basic wall charger. I went to a buddies and used his charger so wouldn't have to wait to long to test it out.
Here's some first run pics of it's articulation.
First impression was that the tires and wheelbase looked ridiculous with the body.
Next day wood pile test.
And checked how it would fit through the trails
Enough playing time to mod!
First things to go were the wheels, hub extenders and c knuckles. A couple friends had some spare stock ax10 knuckles so on they went with some 2.2 Baja claws.
Let my friend put my stock 2.8s on his Frankenstein pangolin!
Do u guys think it's too much?
Comparison with a honcho on 1.9 tsl boggers
Switched the bottom links to the inside skid plate mounting holes and the uppers the the farthest inside hole to shorten the wheelbase as much as I could and tested the flex.
Next to the honcho again and my maisto tech rock crawler with aws and batt mod on 1.9 ripsaws.
Those maisto's are cool ass little $20 toys to tinker with!
So play a couple days with the new set up. It sat at about 16" wheelbase. And the tires grabbed the body and folded it over in the back at full flex.
Then I found out the hard way it's probably good to go through and inspect all the internal parts on something bought on cl cuz I ended up breaking a gear in my front trans do to a rusty bearing seizing.
After gettin the axle pulled apart and inspecting the damage, I did a little research and found out was the small 3rd gear that is weakest part of these gear sets that had broke. The longer side of the shaft was the side that seized and the force of the big gear turning snapped the shaft at the dogbone.
I saw that many ppl will modify a berg gear in that gears place as part of super axle setups but I want this truck to be a low budget crawler that will out do my friends expensive rigs. I ordered a replacement and 3 spares, just incase lol, from nitrorcx for less than $20 shipped. And had them in less than a week. I wonder why these MT's ans nitrorcx get such a bad rap about their parts support and availability
In the few days that I was waiting for the gear I decided to really get this thing down to 1/10 scale
What I had to start with
Time to make some new bottom links. I decided to use a cutting board after looking through a lot of threads and I wanted to try something more unique than alum tube and all-thread. Rough design going for more center clearance.
And after more shaping
In the last pic the rear links are on the left and fronts on the right. I drilled 1/8" holes at both ends each link then slowly enlarged them til the stock ball ends fit in with little play. Also drilled 3 holes about 1/4" apart from each other just above the bends on the links as different mount positions for the shocks until I can get longer ones that will mount on the axle.
Put the fronts on to see how it would sit.
I had to play with the the upper y link chassis mount placement. Ended up removing the big spacer on the axle end to shorten the link.
Now with all 4 on
Didn't like how the axles were clocked so I played with the shock and upper link mounting positions til I was happy with it.
Check out the ground clearance
Time for a test run
Ok now onto the build progress.
When I got the truck it was stock except for it had a badly cut up proline Cherokee body one it
It also came with 3 3000 mah 6 cell nimh batteries, a small toolkit, 3 spare servos, extra servo extenders and y adapters, and a few extra random screws and spacers.
Also had just a basic wall charger. I went to a buddies and used his charger so wouldn't have to wait to long to test it out.
Here's some first run pics of it's articulation.
First impression was that the tires and wheelbase looked ridiculous with the body.
Next day wood pile test.
And checked how it would fit through the trails
Enough playing time to mod!
First things to go were the wheels, hub extenders and c knuckles. A couple friends had some spare stock ax10 knuckles so on they went with some 2.2 Baja claws.
Let my friend put my stock 2.8s on his Frankenstein pangolin!
Do u guys think it's too much?
Comparison with a honcho on 1.9 tsl boggers
Switched the bottom links to the inside skid plate mounting holes and the uppers the the farthest inside hole to shorten the wheelbase as much as I could and tested the flex.
Next to the honcho again and my maisto tech rock crawler with aws and batt mod on 1.9 ripsaws.
Those maisto's are cool ass little $20 toys to tinker with!
So play a couple days with the new set up. It sat at about 16" wheelbase. And the tires grabbed the body and folded it over in the back at full flex.
Then I found out the hard way it's probably good to go through and inspect all the internal parts on something bought on cl cuz I ended up breaking a gear in my front trans do to a rusty bearing seizing.
After gettin the axle pulled apart and inspecting the damage, I did a little research and found out was the small 3rd gear that is weakest part of these gear sets that had broke. The longer side of the shaft was the side that seized and the force of the big gear turning snapped the shaft at the dogbone.
I saw that many ppl will modify a berg gear in that gears place as part of super axle setups but I want this truck to be a low budget crawler that will out do my friends expensive rigs. I ordered a replacement and 3 spares, just incase lol, from nitrorcx for less than $20 shipped. And had them in less than a week. I wonder why these MT's ans nitrorcx get such a bad rap about their parts support and availability
In the few days that I was waiting for the gear I decided to really get this thing down to 1/10 scale
What I had to start with
Time to make some new bottom links. I decided to use a cutting board after looking through a lot of threads and I wanted to try something more unique than alum tube and all-thread. Rough design going for more center clearance.
And after more shaping
In the last pic the rear links are on the left and fronts on the right. I drilled 1/8" holes at both ends each link then slowly enlarged them til the stock ball ends fit in with little play. Also drilled 3 holes about 1/4" apart from each other just above the bends on the links as different mount positions for the shocks until I can get longer ones that will mount on the axle.
Put the fronts on to see how it would sit.
I had to play with the the upper y link chassis mount placement. Ended up removing the big spacer on the axle end to shorten the link.
Now with all 4 on
Didn't like how the axles were clocked so I played with the shock and upper link mounting positions til I was happy with it.
Check out the ground clearance
Time for a test run
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the cherokee is looking good
