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Jato The Ad Venture

JatoTheRipper

JatoTheRipper

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Sep 25, 2008
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I've loved the divorced setup of the HPI Venture ever since it was first shown what now seems like 5 years ago. I know it's not that long ago, but it has been quite a while. I'm also a sucker for FJ Cruisers, but I prefer the blue flavor which, unfortunately, HPI doesn't offer. When the Venture was announced the price was somewhere around $350 and you could use coupons. Now, they are $400 and you can't use coupons. That's crazy pricing IMO so I gave up on owning a Venture until an eBay coupon or some other deal.

Well I stumbled upon a deal in the Classifieds section on this site. I resisted signing into PayPal and the next morning when I checked the ad I expected the truck to have been sold, but instead I was greeted with an even lower price. I snagged it right up at $250 shipped. It's complete minus the stock servo and it was never ran outside. The chassis literally doesn't have a scratch on it - not even the skid plate. The body is, IMO, the worst possible color, but such is life. Bodies are easily replaced. I was astounded by the super light weight of the body though. So I am going to run it for sure.

Here's how the truck arrived in a slightly disassembled state.








This little divorced setup right here is the only reason I've wanted a Venture.

 
One nice surprise was that the truck came with upgraded SSD links. "thumbsup"

The stock upper link reminded me of the Ascender links the way two sizes are stacked to get a longer length.




Let's get some electronics in this thing and get her running!

Severely overkill Savox 2290 because I had it sitting at home new in the box and the old faithful HobbyWing WP 1080 ESC. The truck came with the stock ESC, but stock shit stanks! :ror: In all reality the stock ESC looks like some iteration of the HobbyWing 1060 or something similar.

 
Look at you! Good snag. I'll add one of these eventually but too many gooder things popped up on the market during the (yawn) wait to make it a viable purchase unless picked up like you did.
 
Apparently the truck comes with a servo saver. Give me a break. That's newb stuff. Obviously, that's not going to fly so, luckily, I had a new Vanquish aluminum servo horn with the same spline count as the Savox servo in my box of tricks.




The motor, transmission, servo mount, and receiver box / ESC tray all mount to the motor plate. This creates a removable, cassette-type structure which is cool in theory, but in reality it's an obnoxious design. I say that because you can't install or remove a servo without removing this tray. I hate when simple tasks are made more difficult by over engineering. On most scalers you can change a servo out on the trail if needed. I wouldn't do that on this truck. Was this thing designed by Germans?

I powered up the servo, centered it and installed the servo horn as centered as possible. A move that I regret later. More to come on that.




This assembly is held onto the chassis by four screws, but there are two different lengths. And the rears use nuts instead of threading into the plastic like on the front. Why oh why? It's unforgivable to use screws of different lengths when it's not required. Oh and those nuts are PITA to get back in place if they fall out. One of my nuts fell out. Good thing I didn't sit on it... :shock:




The motor plate assembly was assembled into the main assembly. Got that? Good!




Now let me hookup the drag link to the servo horn. I guess the wrong direction and now I have to remove the servo horn and move it over a spline. Sounds simple, right? Nope!

You almost can't get to the Phillips head screw with a screwdriver which is why I installed the servo horn early in the first place. Typically I leave that until last. I managed to get the screw out, but then I realized the Vanquish servo horn has an absolute death grip on the servo splines. DO NOT buy a Vanquish horn if you want to remove it. It's so tight that the two clamping screws are almost a joke or a big "FU" from Vanquish.

I had to remove the shocks and panhard bar in order to get able to get my hands and tools into the servo horn in order to remove it. I'm not kidding - this servo horn is too tight.

In the photo you can also see that the four servo mounting screws are hidden by the front crossmember. This is what prevents you from removing the servo without removing the motor plate assembly.

All back together now...

 
Here's a different view of the electronics tray.




The receiver box is tiny. The stock receiver, which is waterproof (a very nice touch), only fits in the box on its side. I didn't have a gasket with this receiver box. It doesn't look like it's designed with one because the groove in the box is to accept the flange on the lid. I'd give this box a sunny-day-in-a-hot-desert-only waterproof rating.




Another cool feature of this truck is that it has BTA (Behind The Axle for us old school RCC guys) steering. HPI used a metal plate on the knuckle. It's a big and simplistic plate, but it looks sturdy.




I was also surprised to find that the 12mm hexes didn't have set screws despite the provisions for them. Although now I just thought about it and I didn't check to see if there is a similar hole opposite of this one...

 
JatoTheRipper said:
I hate when simple tasks are made more difficult by over engineering. Was this thing designed by Germans?
Click to expand...

Spoken like an engineer who needs to come work here! We have none who think like that.

One of my nuts fell out. Good thing I didn't sit on it... :shock:
Click to expand...

Sorry for that...?

It doesn't sound like an awful lot of fun. Why make things intentionally difficult to access/work on that typically require frequent access/working on??
 
mikemcE said:
I just picked up that servo horn also for my VS4 rig, mine slid on like it was hot grease on a skillet


Hang up and Drive
Click to expand...

Which servo are you using?

I had to ****ing pry the horn off with a screwdriver and it took work. Savox could be partially responsible, but HPI's sero saver with the metal insert slid onto the servo without any issues. That's why I don't think Savox is to blame in this case.


2mtech said:
Spoken like an engineer who needs to come work here! We have none who think like that.

Sorry for that...?

It doesn't sound like an awful lot of fun. Why make things intentionally difficult to access/work on that typically require frequent access/working on??
Click to expand...

All engineers do dumb shit. Often because we are bound by cost or a time crunch, sometimes because we're lazy, and sometimes because we make mistakes. I know that last one is a shocker! :lmao:
 
JatoTheRipper said:
Which servo are you:
Click to expand...


My go to ProModeler 420
81946d6ee1174e6e43ac60f77cb3bbd9.jpg




Hang up and Drive
 
I was able to change the servo by taking the front bumper cross member off. Try that next time and see if you think it is easier. You will end up dropping the track bar and mount but I think it might be easier than what you did.

I bought mine new and the hexes did come with grub screws in them. I also am still running the stock servo arm with the servo saver and have had zero issues with it.

Nice pickup as far as price goes!
 
JDM74 said:
I was able to change the servo by taking the front bumper cross member off. Try that next time and see if you think it is easier. You will end up dropping the track bar and mount but I think it might be easier than what you did.

I bought mine new and the hexes did come with grub screws in them. I also am still running the stock servo arm with the servo saver and have had zero issues with it.

Nice pickup as far as price goes!
Click to expand...

Ah good point. I hadn't even considered that and I'm not sure why. Thanks for the tip! "thumbsup"

I'm sure the servo saver is OK. I was just being a smart ass.

The truck came missing hardware so I'm not shocked if the grubs are missing. But I'll double check tonight.
 
so you're the one who beat me to this deal... i did the same thing as you lol!

i ended up buying 3 complete transfer cases on ebay because i also have a bunch of the hpi gru's. all my rigs run divorced setups.

cant wait to see what you have in store for this thing.
 
goobs said:
so you're the one who beat me to this deal... i did the same thing as you lol!

i ended up buying 3 complete transfer cases on ebay because i also have a bunch of the hpi gru's. all my rigs run divorced setups.

cant wait to see what you have in store for this thing.
Click to expand...

I figured there were other people looking. I still can't believe I was the first to snatch this one up, but I'm very happy I did! "thumbsup"
 
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