monkeyracer
I wanna be Dave
There have been a few of these crawlers popping up in build threads here on this forum. I figured I would do a little different and post an extensive review (please note extensive) with some free/cheap/easy mods to get this thing to be closer to competition ready.
So, to start off, I got mine through NitroRCX.com for $159 (an ARTR version without a radio is $139) and since they ship from California, I got it very quick, about 3 or 4 days. I've always had good luck with the Nitro Models family of web stores (hobbypartz, xheli, nitrorcx, etc) so I've come to expect that from them.
I was going to take some pics of the unboxing, but really, there's nothing exciting about that. There are a ton of detailed pictures of the vehicle on NitroRCX's website, so I won't repeat those pics.
The vehicle comes fully assembled and ready to run, including:
2.4ghz Radio
3000mah 6 cell 7.2v NiMh battery and charger (battery has bullet plugs installed)
User manual
Decal Sheet
Shock pre-load clips
Extra servo horn
I am a little surprised that it didn't come with a wheel wrench. They can be found cheap and some people have 17mm sockets they can use if they need to (more about this in the wheels/tires section.)
First thing I did was get the battery on the charger and start flipping through the user manual.
Battery/Charger
The battery and charger are the basic 'plug-it-in-the-wall-and-wait-overnight' type of NiMh chargers. The connectors are the 4mm bullet connectors you find on a lot of batteries that come from overseas. I ran these connectors for the first run to see if I would notice a difference. They seemed fine, but are bulky and difficult to disconnect, so I ended up changing to deans plugs.
User Manual
I was initially impressed with the user manual. It's actually a step by step build manual. Other previous Exceed RTR's that I've seen usually have a general 'manual' with only exploded views that make it a little difficult to see what is what. I appreciate that it actually shows how to put it together and in what order.
The diagrams are very clear and there's hardly any engrish (only thing that stuck out was 'disks fixing tire' for the beadlock rings) and there's a parts list (with diagrams) and option parts list as well.
There was also a seperate sheet for the radio and the esc, written in plain english, as well as some extra decals in case you wanted to use them.
While I was waiting for the battery to finish charger, I decided to take a look over the vehicle and make a few notes.
Initial Impression, Overall design:
Body
I actually like the body for this, it is sitting pretty low on the chassis, especially compared to other Exceed crawlers I've seen, and doesn't really need any trimming to clear the tires or shocks, etc.
It looks to be very similar to the Pro-line Crowd Pleazer bodies.
I do actually like the paint scheme on the body though. (I even had a fellow crawler ask me who painted it for me.)
One gripe is that the body mounts on the side, but that is pretty minor, and more of my personal preference.
Tires/Foams
I was initially impressed with the compound of the tires; they seemed sticky enough, probably similar to Pro-Line's M2 compound and the tread pattern is crawler specific. A lot of these type of crawlers use knock-off treads, but I can't see any similarities with a major brand. To me that seems like they are actually doing their own engineering and designing. The tires are about 6.25" tall, and are short compared to most super class crawlers.
I am very disappointed in the foams though. They are a flat foam curved around the rim, with a glue seam, and they are too stiff and too short. The glue seam isn't bad necessarily, but the glue they used is a little stiff compared to a normal 3M spray glue. With the foam being too short, the tire has room for slop, and I definitely recommend getting different foams for the tires.
Wheels
The wheels are true beadlock with anodized aluminum rings, 2.8" diameter x 2.8" wide with 17mm hexes. This makes them to small to be used in any USRCCA sanctioned comp where the minimum is 3.2" diameter. If your local competitions do not mind, you may be able to just use these wheels. They do seem to hold a bead very well, but being plastic, I am afraid the screw threads will strip similar to most plastic beadlocks. If this happens, an easy fix is to get 2-56 hardware which is slightly larger than the M2 screws that it comes with.
Suspension/Linkage
The suspension includes plastic bodied oil filled shocks, aluminum 3 link design linkage, with the shocks mounted to the lower links. The shocks seem smooth, and the spring rate seems appropriate for the size of vehicle. The links and rod ends seem small though, using M3 set screws and 7mm aluminum links. I will upgrade those when I get to that stage of the review.
One thing I don't like is that the location where the shocks mount to the links causes a little bit of slop, and the motor-side shock does interfere with where the wire connects to the motor. There's a simple fix for the interference below, but the 'slop' is inherant in mounting the shock to the links. Also, the top of the shocks mount on the inside of the chassis, in what I think is an awkward position.
The lower links are not triangulated, probably to more easily clear the motor, but do allow a little bit of axle swing, and thus instability. The upper links are a 3-link 'Y' design with a little more slop on the axle side of the linkage. When I change out the links, I will change the upper links to a 4-link set up to reduce the slop in this area.
To be fair, most RTRs come with a link set-up like this.
Chassis
The chassis is a pretty basic TVP design with a little room for adjustment, made from more anodized aluminum. The battery is designed to be mounted on the skid plate, nice and low, which is something I didn't expect from a crawler this inexpensive, with the electronics mounted on a mid-plate (which is just another skid plate mounted above the battery.)
I've seen a few of the other guys chop the chassis for their builds, but I would like to see a longer chassis to get the shocks to mount on the axle rather than the links. This can be done by either making your own chassis or buying one from the vendors on this forum. I plan to make a 'bodiless' style chassis for this in the near future.
Axles
These are motor-on-axle design, made from plastic, in a 3 piece design. I'm not sure of the plastic compound, but they do seem to be a much better plastic that what you would expect at this price. More testing will show whether they can stand up to competition abuse. They are 3 piece design meaning there's a center gear box and a left and a right tube, with the c-hubs built in to the tubes. This is a little strange, since if the c breaks, you have to replace the entire tube (which is only a few bucks.)
The knuckles are also plastic and seem to be based on the AX10 knuckle, and other users have confirmed that AX10 knuckles will swap directly on with no modifications. This means you can find inexpensive knuckles or "zero ackerman" or "high clearance" knuckles for this crawler.
I will go into more detail about the internals a little later in the review, but from what I have seen the gears are all hardened steel, and seem to hold up to some good abuse.
Electronics
I will go into more detail on the electronics after I post info on the first run.
The motors are a closed end-bell 70T 540 type, powered by a dual motor crawler ESC which is capable of up to 7 cell Nickel batteries. You can run 2S LiPo on this ESC, but you will need some sort of low voltage cut-off to prevent over-draining the battery. There is no programmability or dig function with this ESC, but that is expected with an RTR esc.
The included servo is around 200 oz-in and is mounted to a plate on the axle very similar to the way the AX10 does it. (The servo plate looks very similar) although the servo is a little higher than I would prefer, and definitely under-powered for a vehicle this size, especially if you want to install bigger tires. The servo linkage is similar to the suspension linkage, and seems to hold up just fine.
The crawler does include a rear plate, and the rear axle has knuckles installed to make it easy to convert to rear steer. All you need is the "Truck Conversion Kit" in your favorite color, a y-harness, and a second servo. (If you want to switch between 4WS, Crab walk and Front only steer, you will need at least a 3 ch radio with that functionality.)
Radio System
More and more RTR vehicles are including 2.4GHz radio systems, and this is no exception. The radio seems to be based on the Fly Sky FS-GT2 "platform" with the receiver resembling the RC4WD XR4 receivers. I suspect that the radio is compatible with most of the Version B Fly Sky receivers, as well as the RC4WD receivers as well. I have not confirmed this though, it is just a suspicion. The receiver comes already bound to the radio.
It is only a 2 ch transmitter, but strangely has a 4 ch receiver. The transmitter is comfortable and lightweight, using only 4 AA batteries. There are trim knobs for the throttle and steering center point as well as dual rate knobs and reverse switches. The transmitter also has a charging port on the back of it, but does not include a charger.
The wheel has good travel and spring, but does bounce a little if you let go at full lock (most inexpensive radios do this though) and the throttle trigger feels nice with good travel as well. I actually really like this design, and think it is one of the more comfortable controllers I have ever used.
Miscellaneous
The vehicle comes with a bumper which can get in the way if you approach a rock head on, but is very easy to remove. I assume they installed it with the intention of protecting the servo linkage, which it does, but is in the way the rest of the time.
The vehicle does use all hex hardware, which is definitely appreciated, and makes it easier to prevent stripping screw heads. Also, it has become expected, but does use bearings throughout.
Parts can be found through hobbypartz or nitrorcx, and again, since they are coming from California, you shouldn't have to wait too long for them. Honestly, most of the replacement parts for any of my major brand vehicles I need are not in stock at my LHS and they usually have to order them anyway. From what I have seen with previous Exceed vehicles, they are usually really good about keeping these parts in stock.
Overall Impression
I am pretty impressed with the bang-for-the-buck aspect of this vehicle. It seems that a lot of features you would expect from more expensive vehicles are included, and that Exceed is finally getting a little more serious about their products. It's not perfect, and not competition ready out of the box, but for a beginner or someone looking to get into supers, this is one inexpensive option that seems to be a good base with good potential.
Next steps:
I will post my findings after the first run with the vehicle exactly as it comes out of the box.
After that, I will show a few simple mods you can do for free or very cheap and more info about what those mods will do for the vehicle.
Finally, I will show what it takes for this to be competition ready, and what 'more advanced' mods I will do to it.
If you have any questions about this vehicle or any of the mods I have done to it, please feel free to post them on this thread. Thanks for looking, I will post more information on this crawler soon!
So, to start off, I got mine through NitroRCX.com for $159 (an ARTR version without a radio is $139) and since they ship from California, I got it very quick, about 3 or 4 days. I've always had good luck with the Nitro Models family of web stores (hobbypartz, xheli, nitrorcx, etc) so I've come to expect that from them.
I was going to take some pics of the unboxing, but really, there's nothing exciting about that. There are a ton of detailed pictures of the vehicle on NitroRCX's website, so I won't repeat those pics.
The vehicle comes fully assembled and ready to run, including:
2.4ghz Radio
3000mah 6 cell 7.2v NiMh battery and charger (battery has bullet plugs installed)
User manual
Decal Sheet
Shock pre-load clips
Extra servo horn
I am a little surprised that it didn't come with a wheel wrench. They can be found cheap and some people have 17mm sockets they can use if they need to (more about this in the wheels/tires section.)
First thing I did was get the battery on the charger and start flipping through the user manual.
Battery/Charger
The battery and charger are the basic 'plug-it-in-the-wall-and-wait-overnight' type of NiMh chargers. The connectors are the 4mm bullet connectors you find on a lot of batteries that come from overseas. I ran these connectors for the first run to see if I would notice a difference. They seemed fine, but are bulky and difficult to disconnect, so I ended up changing to deans plugs.
User Manual
I was initially impressed with the user manual. It's actually a step by step build manual. Other previous Exceed RTR's that I've seen usually have a general 'manual' with only exploded views that make it a little difficult to see what is what. I appreciate that it actually shows how to put it together and in what order.
The diagrams are very clear and there's hardly any engrish (only thing that stuck out was 'disks fixing tire' for the beadlock rings) and there's a parts list (with diagrams) and option parts list as well.
There was also a seperate sheet for the radio and the esc, written in plain english, as well as some extra decals in case you wanted to use them.
While I was waiting for the battery to finish charger, I decided to take a look over the vehicle and make a few notes.
Initial Impression, Overall design:
Body
I actually like the body for this, it is sitting pretty low on the chassis, especially compared to other Exceed crawlers I've seen, and doesn't really need any trimming to clear the tires or shocks, etc.
It looks to be very similar to the Pro-line Crowd Pleazer bodies.
I do actually like the paint scheme on the body though. (I even had a fellow crawler ask me who painted it for me.)
One gripe is that the body mounts on the side, but that is pretty minor, and more of my personal preference.
Tires/Foams
I was initially impressed with the compound of the tires; they seemed sticky enough, probably similar to Pro-Line's M2 compound and the tread pattern is crawler specific. A lot of these type of crawlers use knock-off treads, but I can't see any similarities with a major brand. To me that seems like they are actually doing their own engineering and designing. The tires are about 6.25" tall, and are short compared to most super class crawlers.
I am very disappointed in the foams though. They are a flat foam curved around the rim, with a glue seam, and they are too stiff and too short. The glue seam isn't bad necessarily, but the glue they used is a little stiff compared to a normal 3M spray glue. With the foam being too short, the tire has room for slop, and I definitely recommend getting different foams for the tires.
Wheels
The wheels are true beadlock with anodized aluminum rings, 2.8" diameter x 2.8" wide with 17mm hexes. This makes them to small to be used in any USRCCA sanctioned comp where the minimum is 3.2" diameter. If your local competitions do not mind, you may be able to just use these wheels. They do seem to hold a bead very well, but being plastic, I am afraid the screw threads will strip similar to most plastic beadlocks. If this happens, an easy fix is to get 2-56 hardware which is slightly larger than the M2 screws that it comes with.
Suspension/Linkage
The suspension includes plastic bodied oil filled shocks, aluminum 3 link design linkage, with the shocks mounted to the lower links. The shocks seem smooth, and the spring rate seems appropriate for the size of vehicle. The links and rod ends seem small though, using M3 set screws and 7mm aluminum links. I will upgrade those when I get to that stage of the review.
One thing I don't like is that the location where the shocks mount to the links causes a little bit of slop, and the motor-side shock does interfere with where the wire connects to the motor. There's a simple fix for the interference below, but the 'slop' is inherant in mounting the shock to the links. Also, the top of the shocks mount on the inside of the chassis, in what I think is an awkward position.
The lower links are not triangulated, probably to more easily clear the motor, but do allow a little bit of axle swing, and thus instability. The upper links are a 3-link 'Y' design with a little more slop on the axle side of the linkage. When I change out the links, I will change the upper links to a 4-link set up to reduce the slop in this area.
To be fair, most RTRs come with a link set-up like this.
Chassis
The chassis is a pretty basic TVP design with a little room for adjustment, made from more anodized aluminum. The battery is designed to be mounted on the skid plate, nice and low, which is something I didn't expect from a crawler this inexpensive, with the electronics mounted on a mid-plate (which is just another skid plate mounted above the battery.)
I've seen a few of the other guys chop the chassis for their builds, but I would like to see a longer chassis to get the shocks to mount on the axle rather than the links. This can be done by either making your own chassis or buying one from the vendors on this forum. I plan to make a 'bodiless' style chassis for this in the near future.
Axles
These are motor-on-axle design, made from plastic, in a 3 piece design. I'm not sure of the plastic compound, but they do seem to be a much better plastic that what you would expect at this price. More testing will show whether they can stand up to competition abuse. They are 3 piece design meaning there's a center gear box and a left and a right tube, with the c-hubs built in to the tubes. This is a little strange, since if the c breaks, you have to replace the entire tube (which is only a few bucks.)
The knuckles are also plastic and seem to be based on the AX10 knuckle, and other users have confirmed that AX10 knuckles will swap directly on with no modifications. This means you can find inexpensive knuckles or "zero ackerman" or "high clearance" knuckles for this crawler.
I will go into more detail about the internals a little later in the review, but from what I have seen the gears are all hardened steel, and seem to hold up to some good abuse.
Electronics
I will go into more detail on the electronics after I post info on the first run.
The motors are a closed end-bell 70T 540 type, powered by a dual motor crawler ESC which is capable of up to 7 cell Nickel batteries. You can run 2S LiPo on this ESC, but you will need some sort of low voltage cut-off to prevent over-draining the battery. There is no programmability or dig function with this ESC, but that is expected with an RTR esc.
The included servo is around 200 oz-in and is mounted to a plate on the axle very similar to the way the AX10 does it. (The servo plate looks very similar) although the servo is a little higher than I would prefer, and definitely under-powered for a vehicle this size, especially if you want to install bigger tires. The servo linkage is similar to the suspension linkage, and seems to hold up just fine.
The crawler does include a rear plate, and the rear axle has knuckles installed to make it easy to convert to rear steer. All you need is the "Truck Conversion Kit" in your favorite color, a y-harness, and a second servo. (If you want to switch between 4WS, Crab walk and Front only steer, you will need at least a 3 ch radio with that functionality.)
Radio System
More and more RTR vehicles are including 2.4GHz radio systems, and this is no exception. The radio seems to be based on the Fly Sky FS-GT2 "platform" with the receiver resembling the RC4WD XR4 receivers. I suspect that the radio is compatible with most of the Version B Fly Sky receivers, as well as the RC4WD receivers as well. I have not confirmed this though, it is just a suspicion. The receiver comes already bound to the radio.
It is only a 2 ch transmitter, but strangely has a 4 ch receiver. The transmitter is comfortable and lightweight, using only 4 AA batteries. There are trim knobs for the throttle and steering center point as well as dual rate knobs and reverse switches. The transmitter also has a charging port on the back of it, but does not include a charger.
The wheel has good travel and spring, but does bounce a little if you let go at full lock (most inexpensive radios do this though) and the throttle trigger feels nice with good travel as well. I actually really like this design, and think it is one of the more comfortable controllers I have ever used.
Miscellaneous
The vehicle comes with a bumper which can get in the way if you approach a rock head on, but is very easy to remove. I assume they installed it with the intention of protecting the servo linkage, which it does, but is in the way the rest of the time.
The vehicle does use all hex hardware, which is definitely appreciated, and makes it easier to prevent stripping screw heads. Also, it has become expected, but does use bearings throughout.
Parts can be found through hobbypartz or nitrorcx, and again, since they are coming from California, you shouldn't have to wait too long for them. Honestly, most of the replacement parts for any of my major brand vehicles I need are not in stock at my LHS and they usually have to order them anyway. From what I have seen with previous Exceed vehicles, they are usually really good about keeping these parts in stock.
Overall Impression
I am pretty impressed with the bang-for-the-buck aspect of this vehicle. It seems that a lot of features you would expect from more expensive vehicles are included, and that Exceed is finally getting a little more serious about their products. It's not perfect, and not competition ready out of the box, but for a beginner or someone looking to get into supers, this is one inexpensive option that seems to be a good base with good potential.
Next steps:
I will post my findings after the first run with the vehicle exactly as it comes out of the box.
After that, I will show a few simple mods you can do for free or very cheap and more info about what those mods will do for the vehicle.
Finally, I will show what it takes for this to be competition ready, and what 'more advanced' mods I will do to it.
If you have any questions about this vehicle or any of the mods I have done to it, please feel free to post them on this thread. Thanks for looking, I will post more information on this crawler soon!
