I'm sure this will end up being a running thread, I tinker a lot with my mountain bikes and am constantly changing components, I'm sure the same will happen here.
This is my first kit build since building a HPI RS4 Rally years ago, an RC10B2 before that. Dating myself here.
Current status is most of the chassis/drivetrain is together, I'm just waiting to finish the body, which I unfortunately botched rather badly during painting. I wasn't good at that before, definitely still not.
Motor/ESC: Mamba X + 1406-2280kV (Slate?)
Gearing: Stock, for now
Tires: Proline Hyrax G8
Foam: Proline XL Dual Stage
Wheels: SSD Challenger (Grey)
Steering Servo: Savox 1230SG
Radio: Flysky GT5
Shock fluid: Losi 40wt
Currently on 2S, I'll probably buy a 3S battery very soon. Still on Traxxas batteries and chargers, undecided if I want to ditch it.
Issues/Mistakes:
Other thoughts:
Likely changes:
Overall, really impressed with the quality of the components and the way everything went together. It's amazing to me how much this hobby has progressed since the last build I did, which was a belt driven 4wd rally car. Seeing it all was really cool compared to my TRX4, which came RTR.
I've driven the truck around my house with a small course I built inside with crap laying around (my riding time has been reduced to 0 due to the plague, so I've been building these in the house with my kid). It seems really well balanced out and scrambles up stuff real easily. I didn't do much until I get a full body on, but it seems like I'm gonna get along well with it, once I get everything together.
I was curious if any of you noticed the toe-in issue I had on the passenger side or notice the slight amount of play on the drive shaft exit of the transmission. Any thoughts?
This is my first kit build since building a HPI RS4 Rally years ago, an RC10B2 before that. Dating myself here.
Current status is most of the chassis/drivetrain is together, I'm just waiting to finish the body, which I unfortunately botched rather badly during painting. I wasn't good at that before, definitely still not.
Motor/ESC: Mamba X + 1406-2280kV (Slate?)
Gearing: Stock, for now
Tires: Proline Hyrax G8
Foam: Proline XL Dual Stage
Wheels: SSD Challenger (Grey)
Steering Servo: Savox 1230SG
Radio: Flysky GT5
Shock fluid: Losi 40wt
Currently on 2S, I'll probably buy a 3S battery very soon. Still on Traxxas batteries and chargers, undecided if I want to ditch it.
Issues/Mistakes:
- The instructions mention having threadlocker, not when to use it. I should've used my intuition and known to use it on all metal-metal connections, but I didn't and ended up rebuilding both axles to do so after the fact. My fault, but worth noting. I think the instructions could make it clearer when to do this, I should've known better, though
- The instructions don't mention greasing all of the transmission gears, once I found the Harley Designs YT, he mentions doing it. I did it anyway, but figured it was worth noting that they only recommend greasing some in the instructions, when you should probably do all metal-metal gears (not the spur/pinion)
- As discussed in another thread, I noticed my spur gear wobbled a fair bit. I fought with it for a while, but finally set the mesh and unbolted the spur, moved it to new mounting bolts, and it trued out fine.
- Mine had a fair bit of toe in especially on the pax side. I was able to straighten it out with the rods, but most of the other builds I see don't appear to have this issue and are running the rods bottomed out. Not sure what the issue was with mine or if I did something wrong, but I was able to get them straight.
- I screwed up painting the body. The DuraTrax Pearl White is not white, it's more like spray on glitter with a slight amount of white tint. It's also very easy to overspray, which I did after doing a great job on the rest of the body (I was going to do the roof/scoop in white). Sadly, it pooled and looked awful. I stripped a lot of it out and re-painted with leftover red that I had, but it's not a pretty sight for a truck of this cost, so that's getting fixed sooner rather than later.
- I read all the issues here with the shocks leaking. I disassembled the dampers and greased them with Slick Honey (I do a lot of mountain bike suspension work, so I had it on hand) before filling and 'bleeding' them. We'll see if that works or not. Like others, the lower seal head was loose.
- I also greased the outer races of the bearings before pressing them in. In the past, mixing alloy and stainless has been problematic for me in weather exposed areas, as the stainless corrodes with the alloy and makes it difficult to remove them if they aren't isolated. I put a light coat around them to make sure they are easy to remove
Other thoughts:
- I'm not a huge fan of the lexan wheel wells. I guess they are cheap, easy to replace, and flex/don't get hung up, but it seems kindof cheap on a kit of this build level.
- The stock wheels look nice, but I'm not a fan of plastic wheels, and I played around with the tires a little bit. They weren't as bad as I expected. I'm not running them, but I may experiment with them more later when I find some better dedicated crawling spots (I'm new to this and still trying to locate spots around here)
- Everything fit together really nicely. I wish there was more room for electronics, it's a bit tight on the trays, but I like how clean it feels compared to my TRX4. All the drivetrain pieces fit together really well aside from the one issue I mentioned previously. Everything spins super smooth.
- The bumpers are far better than those that came on my TRX4, they seem much more functional. I kindof wish they were metal, but they work, look nice, and seem to approach well. The sliders really capture the body well, also, which is nice. I doubt I'll change these.
- The 1 to 1 sizing of the bolts/rods/etc in the manual is really nice, made it easy to avoid using the wrong bolt or, especially, gears in the transmission.
- The instructions weren't as hand holding as I recall previous builds I did were, but they were simple and to the point. No one wants to read an essay while they are building, but I think going into more detail on some steps would be nice.
- The shaft that exits the transmission towards the rear of the vehicle has a small amount of play, I noticed the bearing and shaft pulls/in and out a very small amount. I couldn't find anything I did wrong in the instructions, so I'm assuming that's normal.
Likely changes:
- Once I decide if I'm going to stick with Traxxas batteries or not since I have one and a charger, I'll get a 3S battery of some sort. Currently I'm using their connectors. I'd love recommendations/thoughts.
- Replace the Savox servo - This servo is loud and very annoying. I bought two, one for the VS4-10 and one for my TRX4, I wish I had gotten something better that didn't whine so loudly. It seems like a lot of the highly recommended servos like the ProModeler and Reef are out of stock currently.
- Dig unit - I think this seems like fun to play with, so I'll probably pick one up sometime soon.
- Stainless bolts - I silvered a few bolts installing/removing them several times. They aren't stripped or rounded, but the bolts that go into the plastic material that are likely to be removed a lot (mainly the transmission), I'll probably put stronger bolts on.
- I'll probably experiment with different damper fluids.
- Plan for the body is to try and replace the outer shell only. I'm painting the bed metallic black, interior black, and seats brown. If I can replace the shell, then I'll do a white roof and scoop with maroon-ish everywhere else.
Overall, really impressed with the quality of the components and the way everything went together. It's amazing to me how much this hobby has progressed since the last build I did, which was a belt driven 4wd rally car. Seeing it all was really cool compared to my TRX4, which came RTR.
I've driven the truck around my house with a small course I built inside with crap laying around (my riding time has been reduced to 0 due to the plague, so I've been building these in the house with my kid). It seems really well balanced out and scrambles up stuff real easily. I didn't do much until I get a full body on, but it seems like I'm gonna get along well with it, once I get everything together.
I was curious if any of you noticed the toe-in issue I had on the passenger side or notice the slight amount of play on the drive shaft exit of the transmission. Any thoughts?
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