Johnny's Big Little Guy builds a Barrage

[JohnnyAnguish]

Back out on the trails...


ECX Barrage by johnny anguish, on Flickr


ECX Barrage by johnny anguish, on Flickr


ECX Barrage by johnny anguish, on Flickr


ECX Barrage by johnny anguish, on Flickr


ECX Barrage by johnny anguish, on Flickr

 

[JohnnyAnguish]

We had some snow last week that made for a lot of fun with the Barrage. There was enough of the wet, sticky snow to pretty much halt the rig if it tried to do anything other than full throttle in a straight line. At first this frustrated my big little guy, but then he figured out if he kept driving and walking over the same path it would make a road.

So that's what he did.

For hours.

It was wonderful. He spent about 3 hours working on his roads the first day. After that, he was probably out there for an hour every afternoon, often late enough to put his new light bar to good use.

He was happy.

I was happy.

It doesn't get much better than that.


ECX Barrage by johnny anguish, on Flickr


ECX Barrage by johnny anguish, on Flickr


ECX Barrage by johnny anguish, on Flickr

 

[JohnnyAnguish]

Big Little Guy went over his grandparents' house for a sleep over and decided to bring the Barrage. That's my boy! He had big plans for making snow roads all over their yard, but things got cut short. I got a message from him saying the front axle wouldn't turn. Then I got a message saying it turns now, but the wheels just spin and spin. Uh oh. How come these things only happen when I'm not around?


ECX Barrage Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr

Well, that certainly doesn't look right. Both front axles were toast. I picked up some replacement axles and a few new bearings for good measure. Pretty soon we had the rig back up and running, good as new. Big Little Guy even reminded me that we should probably take the time to re-grease the axles. Seriously, I was stupid proud.

While we were tinkering, we also added a couple of Axial D rings I had kicking around to the back bumper. Lastly, we gave the tiny truck a horsepower boost with some Gear Head decals. Green on one side. Yellow on the other. Sweet.

ECX Barrage Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr

ECX Barrage Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr


ECX Barrage Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr


ECX Barrage Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr


ECX Barrage Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr

 

[JohnnyAnguish]

After getting the front axle squared away, there was still one other area that needed to be addressed. Many twelve-year-olds never met a mud puddle they didn't like. Mine is no exception. I got tired of squeezing dirty water out of the Barrage's shoes. Plus, something with a little more of an open tread wouldn't be a bad idea for a boy who loves to drive in the snow.

With that in mind, Big Little Guy and I headed out to R/C Excitement to pic up some new wheels and tires. I already had some Crawler Innovations Deuces Wild foams for 4.19 tires, so I was hoping we'd find something in that size (it also is a decent looking size on the Barrage, being slightly smaller than the Falken tires that came with it). We were not disappointed. He fell in love with the Pro Line KM3s (of course he did). He picked out the Axial beadlocks as an economical and light weight wheel. OK, little man.

Yes, I think this will do nicely...


ECX Barrage Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr


ECX Barrage Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr


ECX Barrage Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr

 

[JonW]

Love this thread, fantastic stuff.

 

[JohnnyAnguish]

...and back out on the trail with the new shoes. We're digging them so far. They seem to handle snow, mud and rocks well.


ECX Barrage by johnny anguish, on Flickr

 

[JohnnyAnguish]

At some point this thing stripped a locker and we were 3 wheel drivin', so we did some upgradin'...


ECX Barrage Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr


ECX Barrage Build by johnny anguish, on Flickr

 

[braytonia]

Always wanted a Barrage! How does it do compared to bigger trucks?

 

[JohnnyAnguish]

Back when the Barrage was popular we bought up the world supply until there were none to be found. Like killing off the dodo. Good (and surprising) news that somebody did a production run.

They certainly seem more robust than the plastic units!

Always wanted a Barrage! How does it do compared to bigger trucks?

They're fun little rigs. It was a great first kit for Big Little Guy to build. They're relatively durable under normal use, but borderline abuse will definitely break stuff (thus the desire a to build something a little more rugged). Big Little Guy has stripped transmission gears, busted CVDs and stripped a plastic locker. The new lockers seem like they'll hold up, but I suspect the other issues may pop up again sometime.

We do have a lot of fun with this truck, though. I'm really glad we have one. The size is fun and it's got a charm that's hard to describe (it may just be the pride that Big Little Guy built it). The MST CFX I built has proven to be more durable so far, but I try not to let it take the abuse the Barrage gets.

Here's the little blueberry on the backyard course we're building...


ECX Barrage by johnny anguish, on Flickr


ECX Barrage by johnny anguish, on Flickr

 

[Griffin]

Looks like a great little rig. Love the new tires on it. I was eyeballing one of those the other day at my LHS for my son who will be 5 by the time Christmas rolls around. He loves driving my SCX10 as well as my other basher rigs, but when I ask him what kind of rc he wants, crawler or go fast, he says go fast. I've just got to decide what I want to get him. With a "go fast" rig, I know he'll break stuff faster. This might be the rig I get him.