Tips and Tricks Thread

[steele42]

do you have any more pics of your rails?? i took mine off because they hung up on everything and i took the rear cage off but the rear of the cab body would flop around i was trying to figure out something for a mount but in the mean time i wanted to crawl so i threw the rails back on until i went to a friends house and crawled in his garage and i got hung up on everything again so i took them off.. what i dont like about them is they look like a side step not an actual rock rail."thumbsup"

Granted these arene't as realistic as if you bought (or made) some made of metal, but pretty good for free and easy.

This is how they follow the body because I mounted them crooked.

When I'm not flexing they sit closer to the body than it looks here.

Testing the rock rails

Were you looking for pics of them mounted? Or more pics of how I cut them. Hope this is helpful.

 

[AX10wannabe]

thats what i was looking for thanks man!!!!"thumbsup" just wondering how they looked on the truck with the body on.. like i said last night i dont like how they are stock and they look more like a step bar then a rock slider. im running 2.2's and still get hung up lots with them on, eventually i will make some metal ones for my solid rod chassis. i got a pretty good idea of how you cut them, just left the inside rail and cut the rest off, squared off the ends."thumbsup"

 

[AX10wannabe]

well i did it.. i cut up the stock rock sliders like the pics above took a small file to me and smoothed it out a bit then some sandpaper to make it more round.. i'll get some pics when i mount them up."thumbsup":mrgreen:

 

[Manfjourde]

I didn't want to clutter the thread but I had to thank steele42 for the awesome tip on breaking the bead of the tires. I probably would have eventually put a breather hole in the wheel but because my truck shipped, the tires had ballooned and were way bouncy filled with air. Adding tiny hole ASAP solved that - thanks!

 

[Big Daddy]

I admit, I already stole the idea for the sliders and trimmed mine up this afternoon.

 

[steele42]

Came up with a new tip this weekend. Throw the stock axial radio away and buy you something better. Mines been giving me troubles for a long time now (loses throttle trim, truck jumps when I set radio down, goes forward at full reverse) I tried recalibrating it multiple times, which would sometimes make it better for a few minutes, but would go righ back to acting up. Replacing batteries also didn't help. Replaced esc, motor, battey type, and added a bec. My friend also had a bad time with his stock radio. Went out for a weekend trail run (little Moab for 7 hours) and was fed up with the radio, so went to the local hobby shop and picked me up a spektrum dx3e. I know there are better radios out there, but not for $99. I could not believe the difference! For one, it did what I told it to do. I could not believe the throttle control I gained from a good radio. Made the trip much more enjoyable. It also has a 3 position switch so I can now run my winch from the controller. It was super easy to install and calibrate to my esc (did it in the car on the way to the trails.) I wish I had replaced the radio first because I may have been happy with all my other electronics the way they were. I'm still glad I got all my other new stuff, but the radio should have been first.

 

[newtocrawling]

Cheap trick for a cheap lift kit. If you have an extra AX10 chassis laying chop it up drill evenly spaced holes in it and you can have your own lift kit. Helps out with the smaller scale shocks that are out there.
I cut this one about 2 1/2" down from where the shocks mounted to this AX10 chassis. Then bent it closer together using my shoeing anvil. but with a little bit of heat you can bend it on anything, after that just drill your holes and then your set.

 

[iamsuperbleeder]

Came up with a new tip this weekend. Throw the stock axial radio away and buy you something better. Mines been giving me troubles for a long time now (loses throttle trim, truck jumps when I set radio down, goes forward at full reverse) I tried recalibrating it multiple times, which would sometimes make it better for a few minutes, but would go righ back to acting up. Replacing batteries also didn't help. Replaced esc, motor, battey type, and added a bec. My friend also had a bad time with his stock radio. Went out for a weekend trail run (little Moab for 7 hours) and was fed up with the radio, so went to the local hobby shop and picked me up a spektrum dx3e. I know there are better radios out there, but not for $99. I could not believe the difference! For one, it did what I told it to do. I could not believe the throttle control I gained from a good radio. Made the trip much more enjoyable. It also has a 3 position switch so I can now run my winch from the controller. It was super easy to install and calibrate to my esc (did it in the car on the way to the trails.) I wish I had replaced the radio first because I may have been happy with all my other electronics the way they were. I'm still glad I got all my other new stuff, but the radio should have been first.

not really a trick, more just an upgrade :mrgreen:

I agree though. not that my AX-2 and AR-2 were giving me issues (I still have them as a spare and they work great), I just got a DX2s and receiver for my rig from the classifieds, and it's like driving a completely different truck now "thumbsup"

 

[AX10wannabe]

ya i bought a dx3e radio for my savage then decided to put the receiver in my crawler and use the same radio... much nicer than that stock crap. i walked up to a dried up creek about 200 yards up the road from my house and drove over about 3 rocks and the front driveshaft popped off so i threw a rock on the space where the spare tire sits and it crawled just fine on the trails.

 

[Armistice]

I watched a review and saw the first thing the guy hated was the rear body mount post pin orientation

I just drilled them sideways to make it easier to take them off "thumbsup"

Also, the screw for the servo horn/ steering linkage would hit the above crossmember, so I used a dremel to notch the crossmember if both tires were at full bump. Gained 1/8" more bump travel, but now bottoms out on the frame and drag link that goes across the axle... design flaw

 

[steele42]

I watched a review and saw the first thing the guy hated was the rear body mount post pin orientation

I just drilled them sideways to make it easier to take them off "thumbsup"

Also, the screw for the servo horn/ steering linkage would hit the above crossmember, so I used a dremel to notch the crossmember if both tires were at full bump. Gained 1/8" more bump travel, but now bottoms out on the frame and drag link that goes across the axle... design flaw

Thats genius! I just bent the heads of my pins so they were easier to grab. Still annoying, but way better than they were.

 

[steele42]

A good thing to do is to go out and find a good place to drive. You're wifes (or moms) flowerbeds are only fun to tare up for so long. If you happen to live in Southern Utah you're set, just go outside of your housing development and you've got endless wheeling ahead of you. If you are a 1:1 crawler, then you have probably heard of Moab UT. Awesome place for scale crawling in camp before you hit the 1:1 trails in the morning. In central Utah you have a place called "Little Moab" near Utah Lake.

It really is like a little Moab.

You're likely to see some 1:1 crawlers too that you can compare your scaler to.

Another thing is to go drive with some friends. It's always more fun when you can show off your rig and what it did to your buddys. Group scale trail runs are the best.

 

[rockeater]

Great idea for rear body pins. Im a do that tomorrow. I also really like the modified stock rock slider. I have the honcho and have the rc4wd metal ones and love them, tough too. I would suggest a dab of loc tite on the end of your axles after your lock nut if you are using the twist on hubs. Myself I hve had them come offf a cpl times but the lock tite helps.

Also running your led wires inside the rails of your chasis. If you use the bumpstops that most removed ya can use them to hold the wires in the rails by pressing them in. I cut mine in half to get more useage. i will post a pic tomorrow. It look's clean and best part keeps wires up and out the way of them nasty little sticks

 

[madkawi650]

Hinged body is AWESOME. Takes an hour or so to make the bracket, but so worth it... No more body clips..

Also I use Rod ends for LED holders.. Not the most "Scale", but its so easy.. Just use a regular rod end and a hot glue gun to glue the LED in the hole.. They can be attached to the frame at any hole using 3mm hardware.

Here are a few pics from my build. you can see the hinge and the LED's

 

[heinie_21]

this probably belongs in the paint and body section, but since it was on an scx10, i'll post it here haha.
so ive seen pics (and tried myself once on a drift body) of using sharpie on door lines and panel lines to make them look more real. but i tried lots of thicknesses of sharpie on scrap body pieces i had and they all looked to thick. its like going from too thin of body lines to too thick. which looks worse IMO. so here's the alternative i came up with (granted this will only work on EXTERIOR painted bodies)
take a razor blade to the small lines between doors and hood and what not. dont press too hard, but hard enough to penetrate a couple layers of paint. i think it looks pretty good!
also you can see here my first couple scratches that got through to the rust, then in the 2nd pic got through only to the metal.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/68263117@N05/6229571989/" title="IMAG0550 by heinie_21, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6094/6229571989_73e20a8cf3.jpg" width="299" height="500" alt="IMAG0550"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/68263117@N05/6229572191/" title="IMAG0551 by heinie_21, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6222/6229572191_cec12b2c29.jpg" width="299" height="500" alt="IMAG0551"></a>
you can really see the lines here on the hood. im very pleased with how it turned out.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/68263117@N05/6230089866/" title="IMAG0552 by heinie_21, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6160/6230089866_04af105a0e.jpg" width="500" height="299" alt="IMAG0552"></a>
my build thread

 

[iamsuperbleeder]

+1 on the body tilt by making hinges at the rear!

I made some with some wire hold-downs. I'm going to be replacing the nylon ones with metal ones as soon as I can locate some that are small enough. Granted this will only work on the Honcho since it works with the rear cage, but it's SO much easier to only have to deal with the rear body clips "thumbsup"

 

[iamsuperbleeder]

OH, here's another

Traxxas Stampede drive shafts "thumbsup" They're a DIRECT fit to the stock Axial plastic drive shafts. Granted they're still plastic, they seem to be stronger than the stock Axials (I've beat'n the CRAP out of mine and they're going strong). The best part is you can get them at almost any hobby shop, and the Pro Pack comes with 6 complete drive shafts for $10!





To add to that tip, if you go with these shafts and run longer shocks (100mm for instance, like I am running), you may find that there's not a lot of contact area in the slip part of the drive shaft in the rear if you're running a Honcho wheelbase. My solution was to install a Wraith transmission "thumbsup" It's a DIRECT bolt in; no modifications needed. But with that transmission, you get a few other things like a spur cover (if you don't already have one), drilled through outputs so you can run a screw all the way through and not have to worry about set screw backing out EVER AGAIN, but the big thing is that it comes designed to accept a dig option, so one output is longer than it is on the SCX-10 trans. When installed with the trans mount flipped around (as described earlier in this thread to help reduce torque twist), that 1/2" or so longer output made a HUGE difference where it was needed, and now my rear drive shaft is actually shorter than my front!

Plus I also installed it with the 80t spur and 20t motor the Wraith comes with, and it has PLENTY of wheel speed now "thumbsup"

 

[tlmxtcrawler]

man this tread sure does have some sick tricks and tips..glad my little one was first before the big dogs pulled out the guns"thumbsup"...thanks guys i will tryin some of your tricks also....lets keep im coming!!!

 

[kdrodworks316]

This is an excellent thread! My chick just got a honcho and I did the bumper raise and cut the rock rails last night, made a whole new truck out of it! Added a set of RC4WD boggers today, cant wait to see how it performs now

 

[rockeater]

+1 on the body tilt by making hinges at the rear!

I made some with some wire hold-downs. I'm going to be replacing the nylon ones with metal ones as soon as I can locate some that are small enough. Granted this will only work on the Honcho since it works with the rear cage, but it's SO much easier to only have to deal with the front body clips "thumbsup"

Home depot or lowes sell them in metal. I have used then for spall copper water line for water to a refigarator. They also come with little rubber sleevs for non slip. Im a pic some up so I can do this to my honcho.