Redcat Gen8 PACK build

[Hoss81]

I am still fairly new to the crawler scene, a buddy of mine purchased a TRX4 for me last october as a birthday gift, and that sort of threw me right into it.

I've made some modifications to my TRX4 and have found that it's slow enough that my 3 yr old son enjoys driving it. So much so, that I was finding I never got to drive it.

As a result I decided to buy a Redcat Gen8 PACK kit. I had wheels/tires/electronics sitting around that would work for the time being. So the only cost up front was the Gen8 kit (On sale for $149 on redcats website) and a body ($50-60 depending)

Here is what I went with
Radio: Trusty old Futaba 4PLS - This is nice because I can dial down the end points so my son can't go too fast
ESC: LRP SC1200 - Had this laying around from my old SC10 4x4, it still works but I hadn't used it in a few yrs
Motor: GoolRC 3000kv 540 size motor
Body: Pro-line Power Wagon in Black armor Tough Color black
wheels/tires - 1.9" Axial Maxxis Trepadors
Servo: The stock TRX4 servo that I had replaced on my TRX4

This is where we started. The truck worked pretty good, but lacked some down low torque and because of the design of the body combined with where the electronics were mounted, the body had to sit much higher on the truck than I had liked.

 

[Hoss81]

It didn't take me long to realize that I didn't like the way it turned out. I wanted the body lower, the tires were way too soft for the truck, and the 3000kv motor even with a 9T pinion just didn't have consistently smooth crawling ability.

So I made the following changes:
ESC - Hobbywing 1080 Brushed ESC
Motor - RC4WD 35T 540 brushed motor
Custom Rx and ESC mounting plate that gets the electronics off of the chassis fenders
Removal of the chassis fenders (or whatever they are called)
Lowering of the truck body
2.2" Duratrax Deepwoods

So the good news - As a crawler this setup works better in pretty much every capacity. I will need a stronger servo to turn these giant tires though.
The body had to ultimately be raised up a little further to clear the giant tires. I may go back down to big 1.9's in the future, but for now I like how these tires and this setup crawl.

The bad news - 35T may have been a bit on the slow side. I currently have a 17T pinion and it's still got loads of torque, but probably only does 6-7 mph.
May change this relatively soon to a 15-21 Turn. Haven't decided yet.

 

[Boomer75]

I picked up the PACK on sale about a month ago also. I spent about a month researching what I wanted to put in it and I am still gathering the electronics as stock is pretty spotty. Went with the Hobbywing 1080 esc and picked up the HH v3 servo which took forever to find in stock and have delivered. I hope to gather / order the remaining pieces this weekend and start the build soon. I can’t seem to get out of the planning phase. I also just got an FJ40 proline body for it and hope to decide on the color this weekend as well.