HobbyPlus RC 1/18 CR-18 Crawler Ready-To-Run

[spoo76]

I've also read that the CR24 can only handle about 6V and if running a 2S lipo you should install capacitors to bring voltage down...wonder if the CR18 is the same.

Whoever told you that gave you false information because both come with a 2S lipo, Even the slightly similar ECX barrage and RGT adventurer can handle 2s lipo, they just don't have a low voltage cut off

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[spoo76]

Also for what it's worth, if someone was to limit voltage you'd probably want to limit voltage with a voltage regulator instead of a capacitor

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[BugleBoy10]

I've also read that the CR24 can only handle about 6V and if running a 2S lipo you should install capacitors to bring voltage down...wonder if the CR18 is the same.

The CR-18 says it comes with a 2S lipo stock, so there should be no concern there.

 

[Toyotarc]

Soo is it worth picking up one of these? I hear some of you guys saying the quality isn't anything special but a more true to scale 1/18 is like perfect to add to the collection. Can you only pick them up from Asia tees? Cheapest there is 200$CAD shipped.

 

[spoo76]

Soo is it worth picking up one of these? I hear some of you guys saying the quality isn't anything special but a more true to scale 1/18 is like perfect to add to the collection. Can you only pick them up from Asia tees? Cheapest there is 200$CAD shipped.

AsiaTees, banggood under a different name,and I think I've seen them on eBay once in a while. If you check the HobbyPlus Facebook page they list other sellers. The quality is fine. The links and drive shafts are a stronger fiber reinforced plastic and the driveshafts have metal universals. the mirrors and rock sliders are a weaker plastic, but honestly that's not a big deal. For $114 i think they are worth the $

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[Toyotarc]

Yeah asiatees has the best deal right now it looks like, once I sell another micro ill pick this one up! That landcruiser body is tempting me a lot.

 

[MAGNUMB]

Soo is it worth picking up one of these? I hear some of you guys saying the quality isn't anything special but a more true to scale 1/18 is like perfect to add to the collection. Can you only pick them up from Asia tees? Cheapest there is 200$CAD shipped.

Quality is not great and not even close to the Panda Tetra X1, but the Land cruiser body is nicely scaled and tire compound is better than the Panda. The CR18 needs a far bit of shimming in the axles and transmission to get it to run smooth and the electronics are not great, but better than the Cr24 as it has a 3 wire servo and smoother throttle input.

If I were to do it over I'd just grab the Tetra and the Land Cruiser body and CR18 wheels off Asia Tees. It's going to be hard to beat the Tetra even at the $159 price point as it has a lot too offer.

 

[spoo76]

While the quality isn't "great" in the sense it doesn't feel exceptional or premium, I wouldn't say there is anything about it that would be a problem. As far as shimming to get it to run smoothly. It does have about the same slop as the 1/24 CR-24, ECX Barrage/RGT Adventurer/FTX Outback 1.0, however both of mine seem to run as smoothly as the mentioned 1/24s I have. For $114 in a trueish to scale 1/18 I can live with that.

One thing I will say about the Panda Hobby, it feels very solid and has some nice extra bling and scale looking features, but so far it doesn't get over rocks and obstacles as well as the CR-18 with a similar amount of weight in the wheels as the Panda. I find it strange that the Panda has so much scale detail in other areas, and yet performance is hurt because they have these screws that stick out of the bottom of the skid plate and on the bottom front of the diff that get hung up on EVERY damn rock and tree root. It's disappointing that such a nice truck seems better suited for trail rides on dirt, but gets stuck on rocks and trees roots. They should have used counter sunk holes on the skid with flat screws and for the axle had the screws thread from the drive shaft side instead of the front.

Even though the Panda is still new to me, I do enjoy them both and like the fact we're finally seeing so many different micro/minis at different price points, with different features, that all have somewhat similar specs and standard sizes for some wheel and motor upgrades. I don't think there's ever been this many options for micro/minis manufactured at the same time

As far as the 1.0"ish wheels and 7mm hex category you can still get the

Redcat Sumo/HBX Devastator/FTX Ibex which at this point have been around the longest.

ECX Temper/WPL
Which is very cheap and only really useful for parts, but for the price it's a useful cheap option for parts for custom builds

RC4WD Mini Gelande

ECX Barrage/RGT Adventurer/FTX Outback 1.0

HobbyPlus CR-24/ FTX Outback 2.0

Axial SCX24

HobbyPlus CR-18

And most recently the Panda Hobby Tetra X1

That's 8 different options when previously we had 2 or 3 to choose from at most. What a time!

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[Toyotarc]

Yeah there's so many options now it's hard to decide. The gelande definitely looks quality from all the metal components but the price is driving me away. Or I jump on this cr18 and pickup some mods for it right away.

That panda looks very good besides the brick wall basically at the front diff and non counter sunk screws would be annoying at the skid.

 

[spoo76]

Yeah there's so many options now it's hard to decide. The gelande definitely looks quality from all the metal components but the price is driving me away. Or I jump on this cr18 and pickup some mods for it right away.

That panda looks very good besides the brick wall basically at the front diff and non counter sunk screws would be annoying at the skid.

The skid shouldn't be too hard to fix, the diff I might be able to drill through the back of the screw holes, but I'm not sure how well the axles will hold together and I'm not looking to experiment just yet. Maybe if spare axle housings become available inexpensively. The RC4WD Mini Gelande is the most expensive, but has the most detail and the most metal, unfortunately the axles are made with cheap metal and can easily break for some people. Also out of the box IMO it's easily the worst performing with a very stiff suspension. I've read people claim it crawls great stock but I don't see how that's even possible when the stock suspension doesn't even compress.
If you're looking at the 1/24 I would say the CR-24/FTX 2.0 on the inexpensive side or the slightly more expensive SCX24 that performs better. Realistically both have pros and minor cons.

For the 1/18 I would say the CR-18 or the Tetra X1, again both have a price difference and pros and slight cons. the Panda definitely has lots of value for the money however you can't ignore what the CR-18 accomplishes for the $ especially with the wheel tire combo and easily the nicest lexan bodies for Micro/minis

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[MAGNUMB]

The skid shouldn't be too hard to fix, the diff I might be able to drill through the back of the screw holes, but I'm not sure how well the axles will hold together and I'm not looking to experiment just yet. Maybe if spare axle housings become available inexpensively. The RC4WD Mini Gelande is the most expensive, but has the most detail and the most metal, unfortunately the axles are made with cheap metal and can easily break for some people. Also out of the box IMO it's easily the worst performing with a very stiff suspension. I've read people claim it crawls great stock but I don't see how that's even possible when the stock suspension doesn't even compress.
If you're looking at the 1/24 I would say the CR-24/FTX 2.0 on the inexpensive side or the slightly more expensive SCX24 that performs better. Realistically both have pros and minor cons.

For the 1/18 I would say the CR-18 or the Tetra X1, again both have a price difference and pros and slight cons. the Panda definitely has lots of value for the money however you can't ignore what the CR-18 accomplishes for the $ especially with the wheel tire combo and easily the nicest lexan bodies for Micro/minis

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Didn't even notice those screws and haven't put in enough hours with both rigs to figure that out. I'm going try and countersink those screws and the tires on the CR18 are much better even though that are not weighted like the Tetra. I'm thinking with the land cruiser body and taller tires(hopefully to offset the axle screw issue) and a bit of shock tuning the Tetra will be real decent. The Tetra also weighs a considerable amount more and adds to scale effect when crawling which i like.

I'm also thinking about moving the electronics out of the CR18 into the CR24 and then moving the Tetra electronics into the CR18. Also using 64t barrage spur and 9t and 10t pinion on both the CR models

This will allow me to buy the Castle sidewinder micro 2 ESC, Kyosho Syncro radio system, Hitec HS-65HB servo and PN Racing 130 size 70 or 90t BB motor with 9t pinion for the Tetra. I'm thinking will be a decent setup for the heavier Tetra and give it more torque. Any objections or suggestions?

 

[Toyotarc]

What else on the cr-18 is junk besides the electronics? To me it seems like a good platform since it has better tires than the panda and if your trashing the stock electronics it's the cheaper one out of the two.

 

[spoo76]

What else on the cr-18 is junk besides the electronics? To me it seems like a good platform since it has better tires than the panda and if your trashing the stock electronics it's the cheaper one out of the two.

Damn it. I typed a whole long as reply earlier today and now I don't see it...
Shortish version. Electronics aren't junk compared to most RTR micros, but of course don't compare to premium micro ESCs like castle. The mirrors and rock sliders I mentioned were fragile, but they are cosmetic only, very cheap to replace, and understandable tiny to be in scale. The links feel very durable and are fiber reinforced plastic. The driveshafts are also fiber reinforced plastic with metal universals. These are the strongest plastic micro shafts available. The tires are nice and soft and grip well. The axles are widened versions of the CR-24 with the same center section and IMO look great. Probably the best looking plastic micro axle, as well as the nicest lexan bodies available for micro/mini. The transmission is the same as the CR-24 which can be geared down with a typical 0.3 mod pinion and swapping the 54t spur with the 64t spur from the Barrage/RGT. For the $114 these currently sell for they have lots of potential and are the least expensive 1/18

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[nollie]

Recently picked up two of the CR 18s and they are loads of fun. I need a couple spare batteries, but it's impossible to locate the 2S battery that came with the vehicle to purchase separately. So I figured I'd just pick up a molex to jst adapter and use a jst lipo since it's also near impossible to locate a 2S lipo that uses the molex 2 pin connector required for this vehicle. However, I'm posting here since an earlier post had mentioned that these cars use reverse polarity. I don't have the tools to measure the polarity, but it appears that they might have fixed the polarity issue from the CR 24 and that it's no longer reversed in the CR 18. Comparing the molex connection in the photo of the CR 24, the red and white wiring has been switched in the CR 18 where the red wire now sits on the opposite side of the molex connector compared to the the CR 24. So I'm wondering if this means that the CR 18 can just take a regular lipo without changing the polarity? Has anyone been able to actually confirm the polarity issue?

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[rcflyrj]

Recently picked up two of the CR 18s and they are loads of fun. I need a couple spare batteries, but it's impossible to locate the 2S battery that came with the vehicle to purchase separately. So I figured I'd just pick up a molex to jst adapter and use a jst lipo since it's also near impossible to locate a 2S lipo that uses the molex 2 pin connector required for this vehicle. However, I'm posting here since an earlier post had mentioned that these cars use reverse polarity. I don't have the tools to measure the polarity, but it appears that they might have fixed the polarity issue from the CR 24 and that it's no longer reversed in the CR 18. Comparing the molex connection in the photo of the CR 24, the red and white wiring has been switched in the CR 18 where the red wire now sits on the opposite side of the molex connector compared to the the CR 24. So I'm wondering if this means that the CR 18 can just take a regular lipo without changing the polarity? Has anyone been able to actually confirm the polarity issue?

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Just got one myself yesterday. Checked battery polarity and it is indeed normal - red wire is positive. Changed plug on the vehicle to my standard red JST and am using all my 'old' 2s450's and 500's. Probably change the battery plug today to get the slightly longer run time from the OEM 600.

John

I agree it's a neat little truck. Probably not quite up to the Panda Tetra, but that's a pretty high bar, and price!

 

[nollie]

Thanks so much for the reply, John! That's great news since I don't have to mess with switching out the polarity. Don't have a Tetra to compare but I may need to pick one of those up in the near future since folks seem to be really enjoying those trucks as well. Cheers!

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[nollie]

So alas my love for this little vehicle was short lived since both of my vehicles stopped running. When the first one died, the steering worked so I plugged the ESC to the motor of my second vehicle, which worked. So it was definitely the motor. And last night my second vehicle met the same fate. And FYI, the first one that died was driven hard so I assumed I may have just overworked the little motor. The second, however, was definitely not driven hard. I probably got around a total of 2 hours of driving for each vehicle before they both went kaput. I read somewhere that reseting the throttle trims when a vehicle stops moving but the steering works might be a fix - but I have no idea how to do that as the instruction booklet doesn't mention how to reset the trims. I previously emailed Hobby Plus inquiring about where I can purchase spare batteries, but they never responded so I see it pointless asking about the motor or throttle trims. It was great while it was running, but I can hardly recommend a vehicle that dies after no more than a handful of runs. And I had also invested in spare batteries via a molex to jst adapter for both vehicles. I had already ordered a replacement motor online but fear it will meet the same fate and die after a few runs. Has anyone tried putting a different motor or electronics on this vehicle?

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[MAGNUMB]

These little motors do get very hot and think they really need a heatsink or fan if you want to run them non-stop.

I think using the Barrage 64t spur and getting a heatsink would put less strain on the motor and might make it last longer. PN Racing makes a 70t motor i might try in this rig as the quality is much better.

 

[nollie]

So I figured I definitely need to post an update for my two RC-18s where I burned out the motors. I've since replaced the motors and these little suckers are running great! And I think I figured out the reason why I burned out the motors in the first place - both of them were running on a spare 3rd party lipo that I had picked up online when the motors burned out. The lipos I bought were actually advertised as replacement batteries for a drone receiver with a very low 2C output. I bought the battery based on the size since it fit inside this vehicle perfectly. So it appears the motor and this new lipo didn't play well together and caused the motor burnout. I replaced the motors last week and have been running the vehicles daily with the stock battery with no problems. The trucks are very capable, but also very light so they can take some serious abuse - I'll jump em off 4 feet dirt cliffs and they'll just flip over and keep trecking. And I love the size of these trucks since you can run them both indoors and out. Cheers!

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[beetyii]

Got one from China (74€) that's half the price here in germany (159€) but the lack of power ist frustrating. They are nice to look at but no low power so far.

The four link suspension in the front is a no go, too. I know they did a three link for the version 2 but all in all it is very disappointing. I hope that there will come some

custom mods for a stronger motor or better reduction...


Rolf