melvin1313
Newbie
Hi everybody! So first off I am soooo glad there's a newbie section because I am as noob as they come. RC crawling has never really been a hobby of mine, I have actually always been into jeeps (1:1 scale) and crawling from the drivers seat. And let me apologize, writing technical documentation is part of my job so my posts are always really long. So here's how I got here, my son (11) was given an old monogram tornado from one of my colleagues, it actually seems to work, I can charge the battery, turn on the power and the wheels spin like crazy, which since it's 35 years old is freaking amazing, but I can't control it so I think it's either a transmitter or receiver issue. I am sure if I took the time to dive into it I could figure something out. But I digress because I am not here to talk about the tornado at all. After the discovery of, and soon disappointment with, the Tornado my son pulled out a cheap old new bright Grave Digger he has had for years, he has been obsessed with Monster trucks since age 3. And within a few days he broke it because it wasn't really built for jumping or other actual monster truck activities.
So with internet access and waaaaay too much free time since we are on Armageddon lock down, my son found an Axial Grave Digger, but at age 11 and with his recent track record I am not shelling out $300 USD. SO back to the internet, he finds a bunch of YouTube videos of a guy with an awesome James Bondish accent and an even more awesome lambo in his garage that combines the cheap Walmart RC Grave Digger with parts from crawlers on Banggood and makes a pretty sweet little 1:24 4 wheel steer buggy. I already have a broken cheap Grave Digger but it is 1:15. So doing research on Banggood today, I found the WPL C14 in 1:16 and was thinking I could do something similar, but having been in the RC hobby for, oh, about 6 hours now, I am not sure if all my brilliant ideas are actually just nonsense, so I am looking for sage advice from the community of experts.
So what I was thinking is using the C14 kit to get a frame, axles, suspension, etc, using the existing body and roll cage from broken Grave Digger and mounting it on the C14 chasis, ala lambo guy, use some extra parts and upgrades and voila, build an RC that actually behaves like a monster truck, bringing Grave Digger back from the dead (no shortage of irony here). I thought I could just buy parts and pieces individually but it seems more economical to actually buy the kit and that way even if the Monster Truck is a failure I can still build the Yota. But if I find I am straying too far from the kit that may change.
So building a Monster Truck is really a lot different than a crawler, believe me I know, but I couldn't find a forum for hack job monster truck RCs. I know my son will want it to go fast and handle jumps. Exactly the opposite of rock crawling, right? Oh yeah, and let's not forget 4 wheel steering. With this in mind I was thinking maybe a 2845 brushless motor might be best and a metal Transfer gear box (transfer case, transmission, these terms seem to be interchangeable in the RC world) for strength but I have not found any confirmation that the metal cases I am looking at will work with the 2845.
So question number one: Can anyone recommend a low cost 2845, metal gearbox combo and ESC?
For the four wheel steer I will just use a second front axle and servo in the rear. I am not sure if the turn radius on these guys is tight enough to sit in one spot and do donuts like the real monster trucks do (and James Bond guy did) but we are going to cross our fingers. I am not entirely sure what to look for in a controller, I have seen people have used controllers that allow them to have different steering setups so they do front only and rear only then tie the front and rear together to go same direction (crab-like) or opposite directions (donuts).
So question number two: what kind of controller will allow for the different steering options without killing my budget? And not too complex for an 11 year old.
I know that was a lot of information to digest, but hey I warned you at the beginning. For now I am going to just leave it with those two questions with the promise of many more to follow until we have a finished product or my wife tell kills the project at the drawing board.
I look forward to your responses, thank you in advance!!!
So with internet access and waaaaay too much free time since we are on Armageddon lock down, my son found an Axial Grave Digger, but at age 11 and with his recent track record I am not shelling out $300 USD. SO back to the internet, he finds a bunch of YouTube videos of a guy with an awesome James Bondish accent and an even more awesome lambo in his garage that combines the cheap Walmart RC Grave Digger with parts from crawlers on Banggood and makes a pretty sweet little 1:24 4 wheel steer buggy. I already have a broken cheap Grave Digger but it is 1:15. So doing research on Banggood today, I found the WPL C14 in 1:16 and was thinking I could do something similar, but having been in the RC hobby for, oh, about 6 hours now, I am not sure if all my brilliant ideas are actually just nonsense, so I am looking for sage advice from the community of experts.
So what I was thinking is using the C14 kit to get a frame, axles, suspension, etc, using the existing body and roll cage from broken Grave Digger and mounting it on the C14 chasis, ala lambo guy, use some extra parts and upgrades and voila, build an RC that actually behaves like a monster truck, bringing Grave Digger back from the dead (no shortage of irony here). I thought I could just buy parts and pieces individually but it seems more economical to actually buy the kit and that way even if the Monster Truck is a failure I can still build the Yota. But if I find I am straying too far from the kit that may change.
So building a Monster Truck is really a lot different than a crawler, believe me I know, but I couldn't find a forum for hack job monster truck RCs. I know my son will want it to go fast and handle jumps. Exactly the opposite of rock crawling, right? Oh yeah, and let's not forget 4 wheel steering. With this in mind I was thinking maybe a 2845 brushless motor might be best and a metal Transfer gear box (transfer case, transmission, these terms seem to be interchangeable in the RC world) for strength but I have not found any confirmation that the metal cases I am looking at will work with the 2845.
So question number one: Can anyone recommend a low cost 2845, metal gearbox combo and ESC?
For the four wheel steer I will just use a second front axle and servo in the rear. I am not sure if the turn radius on these guys is tight enough to sit in one spot and do donuts like the real monster trucks do (and James Bond guy did) but we are going to cross our fingers. I am not entirely sure what to look for in a controller, I have seen people have used controllers that allow them to have different steering setups so they do front only and rear only then tie the front and rear together to go same direction (crab-like) or opposite directions (donuts).
So question number two: what kind of controller will allow for the different steering options without killing my budget? And not too complex for an 11 year old.
I know that was a lot of information to digest, but hey I warned you at the beginning. For now I am going to just leave it with those two questions with the promise of many more to follow until we have a finished product or my wife tell kills the project at the drawing board.
I look forward to your responses, thank you in advance!!!
