About a week ago I decided to get a crawler so my son and I could enjoy the outdoors in a new way. My RC10 is just too fast for him, and with acres of woods and park lands right our our back door it seems like a great RC option.
There are so many options in crawlers and it can be difficult to decide what to do. I started with a $200 budget using my own electronics. However I soon realized that spending more was worth it and that 2WD buggy electronics are not suited for crawlers.
My purchase decision went back and forth from the Redcat 7, 7 Pro, 8, TRX-4, back to a Redcat, then finally landed on the TRX-4.
Then it was another round of decision making: RTR? Kit? New? Used?
I knew I wanted to build my own. So the Sport kit or the Chassis Kit? I initially figured I would get the Chassis kit and sell the radio, Rx, ESC, Servo, Diffs, and two speed gearbox. I didn't need that. I could get a Sport kit for about $150 less if I did that. But...those extra features would work for me. I would like do some crawling, but also like to do faster backyard bashing type driving. The locking diffs would make it more versatile.
Without a set budget, the Chassis Kit seemed to offer the most value and potential. So I landed on that and so it begins!
Oh, you can see it took all of 2 days for the upgrades to begin. The ESC noise, weak BEC, and so-so low speed control made the HW 1080 an easy upgrade. The servo is another upgrade and I rolled the dice on the DS218(?) 20Kg.
While I waited for the kit and build that, I also need to decide on a paint scheme. My son likes orange and red trucks these days. Its also a bit of a joke how all my outdoor gear, MTB, and other random stuff follows an orange and gray color scheme. So it seems fitting to do that for this.
I considered a few bodies. I don't really have a favorite truck or brand. I did like the Jeep Rubicon, but like most (all?) non-Traxxas bodies you have to make compromises, buy more parts to get the longer wheelbase, trim the chassis/fenders, or a combination of those. So I opted for the Sport body which I actually like.
My approach to paint designs is to keep it fairly basic so I can use tape and rattle cans. What I do is download photos from the internet, then use an image program like Photoshop or Pixelmator (Mac) to adjust the colors. Using basic selections and adjustment layers give you a natural looking way to "paint" your design mock-up.
I hope to start the build tonight and when it gets close to done I'll see what help my 3yo son can offer...yeah, that will be interesting.
There are so many options in crawlers and it can be difficult to decide what to do. I started with a $200 budget using my own electronics. However I soon realized that spending more was worth it and that 2WD buggy electronics are not suited for crawlers.
My purchase decision went back and forth from the Redcat 7, 7 Pro, 8, TRX-4, back to a Redcat, then finally landed on the TRX-4.
Then it was another round of decision making: RTR? Kit? New? Used?
I knew I wanted to build my own. So the Sport kit or the Chassis Kit? I initially figured I would get the Chassis kit and sell the radio, Rx, ESC, Servo, Diffs, and two speed gearbox. I didn't need that. I could get a Sport kit for about $150 less if I did that. But...those extra features would work for me. I would like do some crawling, but also like to do faster backyard bashing type driving. The locking diffs would make it more versatile.
Without a set budget, the Chassis Kit seemed to offer the most value and potential. So I landed on that and so it begins!
Oh, you can see it took all of 2 days for the upgrades to begin. The ESC noise, weak BEC, and so-so low speed control made the HW 1080 an easy upgrade. The servo is another upgrade and I rolled the dice on the DS218(?) 20Kg.
While I waited for the kit and build that, I also need to decide on a paint scheme. My son likes orange and red trucks these days. Its also a bit of a joke how all my outdoor gear, MTB, and other random stuff follows an orange and gray color scheme. So it seems fitting to do that for this.
I considered a few bodies. I don't really have a favorite truck or brand. I did like the Jeep Rubicon, but like most (all?) non-Traxxas bodies you have to make compromises, buy more parts to get the longer wheelbase, trim the chassis/fenders, or a combination of those. So I opted for the Sport body which I actually like.
My approach to paint designs is to keep it fairly basic so I can use tape and rattle cans. What I do is download photos from the internet, then use an image program like Photoshop or Pixelmator (Mac) to adjust the colors. Using basic selections and adjustment layers give you a natural looking way to "paint" your design mock-up.
I hope to start the build tonight and when it gets close to done I'll see what help my 3yo son can offer...yeah, that will be interesting.
