JimK's Shiny Red Gladiator

[JimK]

Well I got the induction switch installed with little difficulty. The lower half mounts between the frame rails at the rear. Club 5 Racing suggests it will also add a bit off stiffness to the chassis.

A view from below.

The upper half of the switch mounts to the bottom of the truck bed and has a block with 5 spots to plug in lights. There is 3 open spots if one wanted to add rock lights or a light bar or whatever in the future.

Front view. The bumper lights are plugged into the receiver, not the induction switch block.

Rear view.

This was simple to install and seems to work well. I must say though as much as I appreciate the hidden body mounts this body is a real pain in the ass to put on and off!! :evil:

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[JimK]

I got a bunch of scale goodies added to the back of the truck today. RC4WD Hi-Lift jack and Maxtrax recovery boards, a shovel and fuel and water cans.
There's an ARB fridge back there and I tossed my hunting boots in too just in case the goin' gets muddy. The antlers and the ends of the tow strap will flop around when the truck is moving which I think adds a nice touch.

Still room in there to add a couple more things. I'm thinking maybe a pile a campfire wood and an axe or chainsaw. I bought an RC4WD Slicer chainsaw but I ended up putting that on my son in laws truck. Maybe I'll order another one...we'll see.

I fastened everything in place with coloured zip-ties. You can see them when you look close but the colours match close enough that they don't stand out too bad.

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[JimK]

Damn I like the looks of this truck!!! Can't wait to get it out on the trails.

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[B-MOW71]

The JT is looking great Jim!"thumbsup"

I like the looks of the Club5 induction light sensor! That would definitely make life easier putting the body on! And yeah, the hidden body clips can be a pain in the ass especially when the clips turn the wrong direction and won't slide off. BUT, they look a whole lot better than having clips on top of the body! I'm sure eventually I'll learn the trick of removing and installing the clips more easily!

Scale items look great! Love them little boots!

I hear ya! Can't wait for the temperature to warm up and the snow to melt so that I can get mine out on the trails too!

 

[JimK]

The JT is looking great Jim!"thumbsup"

I like the looks of the Club5 induction light sensor! That would definitely make life easier putting the body on! And yeah, the hidden body clips can be a pain in the ass especially when the clips turn the wrong direction and won't slide off. BUT, they look a whole lot better than having clips on top of the body! I'm sure eventually I'll learn the trick of removing and installing the clips more easily!

Scale items look great! Love them little boots!

I hear ya! Can't wait for the temperature to warm up and the snow to melt so that I can get mine out on the trails too!

Thanks for the kind words B_MOW. I'm sure the process of installing/removing the body will get easier with time and practice. I have a hard time getting the bottom edges of the body to line up and fit into the rock sliders correctly. It usually ends up half in and half out...lol

 

[B-MOW71]

Your welcome!"thumbsup"

I have the same problem with getting the body to fit down in the sliders on both sides at the same time. I've been thinking about cutting off the top edge of the sliders to make it easier to install the body.

I installed a set of metal sliders on my JLU that did not have the body retainer and it is a breeze to put the body on. I may go this route on my JT in the future.

 

[JimK]

We'll see how it goes but I may have to come up with a fix for my sliders too??

 

[twade984]

Nice touches on the bed, zip ties blend in well.

 

[JimK]

Nice touches on the bed, zip ties blend in well.

Thank you. Got a couple more things I want to toss in the back of the truck but I'm back to work now and very busy. Hopefully this weekend I can mess around with it some and take it out for a little rip too.

 

[JimK]

Spent a little time cutting some firewood today. Need to get it loaded into the back of the Gladiator.

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[JimK]

There we go.....

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[JimK]

Got the truck out for a little shake down run this afternoon on one of the local hiking/cycling trails.
Need to tweak the suspension a little and make some adjustments on my Tx but other than that it ran very well.
I might go up a tooth on the pinion too for a little more rolling speed?

Crossing a small footbridge over the frozen creek.

Not a poser shot. It climbed up the end of this log and drove the entire length...and then fell off...lol

Up on a small ridgeline.

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[JimK]

Did a little soldering tonight. New plug on a new lipo and put some leads on my new motor.

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[JimK]

Took the stock 35T Dynamite motor out. It's going to go in my SCX10 II kit build for now.

Dropped in a new Tekin 55T Heavy Duty Crawler motor with a 14 T pinion

I also switched the location of the two battery trays. I wanted the long one down low along the side of the chassis. The short tray was a direct fit but I needed to move the mounting bracket back a little to get the longer tray to fit where I wanted it.

There we go...that will do quite nicely.

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[JimK]

Well she's plated and street legal now...lol
I ordered these from RC Plate Shop and I'm pretty happy with them.

I also put a Viking roller fairlead on the winch and a Warn heavy duty hook to tackle those big recovery jobs.

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[JimK]

Got out for a little rip after work today with my son in law Jordan and my friend Tyler from work. The three of us also do a fair bit of mountain biking together and now we can drive our tiny trucks together too. Jordan is running his Barrage for the second time and Tyler is wheeling his new SCX10 II Cherokee. Weather was most excellent and we ran until the sun set on some of our local hiking/cycling trails.

I'm very happy with the new Tekin 55 turn motor I put in. It's quite smooth and has lots of low end torque. I might try going up one tooth on the pinion gear for just a bit more wheel speed. No issues with the new Lipo either and it easily made it through 2.5 hours of wheeling with juice to spare.

A little hill climb action. The Gladiator made it up slow and steady like a goat. The Hyrax tires and heavy front end really made a difference here.
The Barrage made it up too with a bit of slip sliding but wheel speed prevailed in the end.

Gladiator going under a log archway on the trail. Tyler's Cherokee in the background.

Going end to end on an old rotten log.

Cherokee tackling the rotten log.

The Barrage making it's way up the end of the log...no problem there.

It's hard to get the depth perception here but this log is about 50 feet long. We built up some log piles at each end and we were able to run it end to end.
The hump in the middle was about three feet or so off the ground.

Photo op on one of the downhill sections.

A group shot just before we started making our way back to our vehicles. The guys had a ton of fun, and I did as well.
We're hoping to go back to this spot soon and carve out a few more trails and set up some other obstacles with all the fallen trees and logs that are laying around.
It will be a great spot for tiny trucks with a little clearing of underbrush and that sort of thing.

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[JimK]

I found these nice black mountain scene vinyl decals online so I ordered them up. They were only a couple bucks and they sent along a free black bear decal as a thank you.

I mounted them on both sides of the truck for a little something to contrast the red and add a little unique touch.

I think they look good and add a nice "outdoorsy" look to my rig. "thumbsup"

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[B-MOW71]

It's been awhile since been in to check out your JT! Nice progress!"thumbsup"

Love the scale logs you've added to the bed! Nice looking legal scale license plate!

Nice outdoor pics! Looks like you guys had a great time! It's nice that the weather is finally breaking so we can get out run our tiny trucks!

I like them mountain vinyl decals. They look great and can't beat them for the money!

 

[JimK]

It's been awhile since been in to check out your JT! Nice progress!"thumbsup"

Love the scale logs you've added to the bed! Nice looking legal scale license plate!

Nice outdoor pics! Looks like you guys had a great time! It's nice that the weather is finally breaking so we can get out run our tiny trucks!

I like them mountain vinyl decals. They look great and can't beat them for the money!

Thanks for all the compliments. I'm very happy with how this rig turned out and with how well it performs on the local trails. It is definitely nice to see the milder weather rolling in and hopefully I'll be able to get this truck out more to enjoy the mild weather.

 

[celticsun33]

I had the same bumper on my 10 III JLU. It looks great but is terrible for climbing. It gets caught on everything on the approach. I cut the shackle rings off but I ended up just yanking it and printing one.