The journal of a noob JLU build

[ShaneGreene1]

So last weekend I was with my wife hiking around what I now know is a popular Rc crawler destination.

10 years ago I was big into the nitro traxxas T-maxx and after a few years and a few thousand I sold off all my trucks and parts and my Rc hoody was down to minimal airplane flying.

My wife disappeared as I was captivated by all these crawlers running around the slick rock cliffs. I couldn’t believe how cool all the scale trucks and Jeep’s were. I caught up to my wife and she said that would be fun to mess around with on our walks[emoji15].

When we got home and she saw I was glue to my phone reading crawler forums she said last time I said a flag would be cool in the front yard I came home to an 18’ flag pole so forget I said anything on our walk [emoji23]. Too late!

My local hobby shop happened to have a display model 10.3 kit heavily discounted. I ended up getting an HW kv2700 esc combo sr515 dx5c rx/tx wp120t steer servo 400 oz. all recommended by the store.

Plans for tires and wheels Friday when shipment comes in to the shop. Have club 5 hinge kit spare tire mtn and a few other things mytrickrc light kit steel rock sliders on order. Wish I had a 3D printer. May have to get my brother in law to help me with printing some stuff.

Plan on bumpers and winch brass diff covers and we’ll see what other strength and performance items I decide on.


Tamiya champagne with black trim is color choice so far. Plan on using dig and keeping stock axles until Something or someone changes my mind.

1 item I could use some help sourcing is a whip flag for the rear bumper.

Suggestions and comments welcome. I will update as I am able to work on it.


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[JimK]

Greetings ShaneGreene1.

Sounds like this is going to be a pretty nice build you've got going on. I look forward to seeing your progress.

 

[Fricker08]

Great looking setup man, look forward to seeing how this turns out! Welcome to the family


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[B-MOW71]

Great start to your JLU build!

Following to see more![emoji3]


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[durok]

Great start!

Here's a flag mount I found on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076MRB9RS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[ShaneGreene1]

Great start!

Here's a flag mount I found on Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076MRB9RS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Saw that in b-mow71s jt build. Ordering it now. Just need to find someone to make a custom flag for it.

Thank you!


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[ShaneGreene1]

I spent a fair amount of time trying to get the motor in this thing. I started out trying to install the motor with the transmission and chassis all assembled but the leads from the hw 550 axe were too tight against the front chassis brace and it was a hair too long as well.

I pulled the trans out and got the motor mounted and thought maybe it would go in as one piec but fought the same problem for quite some time. I searched everywhere for info on whether this was a real issue or if I just wasn’t doing something right but couldn’t find anything. I finally gave up and pulled the chassis brace and trimmed it up front and actually after several more tries fitting it I cut the brace on the passenger side clear out. As far as I can tell it’s not needed with all the bracing and how everything is screwed together but maybe someone can tell me if I’m wrong and it will cause an issue or what you have done if you’ve run into this problem. I believe I will put a skid plate on the front to mitigate any possible protection I removed.

I also had to do some trimming to get the steering servo to fit.

Painting body and roll cage tonight and mocking up electrical. Should have wheels tomorrow


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[Fricker08]

If you check out the tips before you build sticky at the top of the page, I think it covers both issues. I had to trim for my steering servo on both 10.3’s I’ve built. But I’m pretty sure it was noted that a 550 wouldn’t fit without some trimming also.
Looking good, hope you enjoy it!


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[ShaneGreene1]

If you check out the tips before you build sticky at the top of the page, I think it covers both issues. I had to trim for my steering servo on both 10.3’s I’ve built. But I’m pretty sure it was noted that a 550 wouldn’t fit without some trimming also.
Looking good, hope you enjoy it!


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Lol. Maybe I should read that[emoji23]


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[ShaneGreene1]

I bought a metal roof rack that look to cool to pass up at the local shop and ordered a club5 racing spare tire mount simply because I like the looks of the rear mount spare not because I’m worried about flats out on the trail[emoji23] I also ordered some weight for the bottom end in diff covers portal covers knuckles steal bumpers winch and steel rock sliders. I’m concerned that the roof rack and spare tire will still be too too heavy.

That being said I’ve never been rock crawling so is this going to be too top heavy for the steep slow technical stuff I hope to be able to play on here in st George UT??

Wheels later today and praying this looks better after the overspray film is off. 1 more coat of bed liner to go [emoji51]

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[ShaneGreene1]

Pretty stoked about the paint. Turned out really nice for my first body. Maybe one more coat of champagne before backer but you have to look pretty hard to see the imperfections. Did the rust oleum bed liner on the outside for the black. Has a perfect texture. Got wheels as tires. Bronze ssd prospect and trencher predator grip tires. Everyone is out of hyrax[emoji2368]

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[ShaneGreene1]

Need more time to spend.

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[ShaneGreene1]

Today I got my club5 racing hinge kit installed. They look great and really add to the scale looks of the jeep but my word what a pain. Those tiny screws are no joke. I used a pick to start the holes otherwise I’d still be working on it.

Picked up and overdrive kit. Also received some decals I’ve been excited to get off eBay.

Picked up a BEC from the local hobby shop and they ordered me a link.

I’ve decided to run the winch via remote instead of wire kit and eliminate the dig so I can run the bec and a fan on my esc due to the heat we get here.

Mytrickrc light kit was supposed to be here today but hasn’t arrived.

Also received my light bar from club5 front bumper which is an injora, rear bumper is a month out. SMH.

Brass knuckles are here and Steel sliders from eBay.

Started to install my roof rack but it is way too narrow. Trying to find one I like. Really want one that surrounds the light bar or I just won’t use the light bar.

Tomorrow I hopefully install the light kit along with the newly painted interior and will post some pics of the progress. I really want to drive it but want to have most of the upgrades done first.


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[durok]

Looking good so far!

I like the way you divided up the silver bodywork and black bedliner - looks like a ready-for-rough country rig and not a mall crawler!

The Trenchers should be a good choice - I think they look more scale than the Hyrax..."thumbsup"

 

[JimK]

Your Jeep is coming along quite nicely. Paint looks excellent!! "thumbsup"

 

[ShaneGreene1]

Lights![emoji15]

 

[B-MOW71]

JLU build is coming along great!"thumbsup"

Body looks awesome! Love the color! The bed liner adds a nice scale touch to it!

Can't wait to see the lights hooked up! I've been wanting to pick them up for my JLU and JT.

 

[ShaneGreene1]

My lights are all installed... but I also bought a club5racing light induction sensor kit which isn’t exactly a plug and play with mytrickrc so I have contacted club5 to see if they have any experience with them working together before I try figuring it out myself so pics of the lights will follow shortly.

I moved on to my ssd brass diff covers and thought I would also do my hobby park brass knuckles ssd front portal over drive and halfway in realized my Samix portal covers are due to be delivered tomorrow so I can’t finish that yet



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[ShaneGreene1]

I really like the looks of these covers. May have to paint my knuckles black. I’ll see how they look with the samix portal covers first.


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[ShaneGreene1]

Don’t mix and match! I wanted all Samix portal covers weights knuckles and hexes but couldn’t find knuckles from samix anywhere.

Just spent 2 hrs shaving the knuckles to fit the samix covers then had to shave the backside of the knuckles to get the weighs to fit. Lucky brass is soft and easy to work with. I was just doing very little at a time but I had to shave quite a bit off the backside for the weights. Anyway here they are. They look great. Wish they had the rotors but this set didn’t have them. Not installing axles until tomorrow as I should have brass Samix hexes by then. I did install ssd od as well.

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