What to do first with your brand new crawler?

[StomperCrawler]

Here are some of my ideas. What would you add?

Seat the brushes by running the motor forward only in a cup of water on 1.5v for 5 minutes, thus improving power, smoothness, and longevity.

Marine grease the diffs. Lube the tranny.

Find and mark the spur gear's high points (they're never perfectly round) and set the gear mesh based on them for maximum efficiency.

Check the slipper clutch is working.

Set the servo endpoints to keep from burning it up.

Check screws and bolts for tightness.

Locktite the pinion and driveshaft grub screws.

Add foam or plastic diy washers under the body at the body posts to stop the rattle.

 

[crawlhog]

drive it until something breaks then upgrade to stronger parts

 

[Szczerba]

drive it until something breaks then upgrade to stronger parts

This.

 

[Inspector86]

drive it until something breaks then upgrade to stronger parts

What he said!

 

[allanon1965]

no need to break in a motor in water anymore, on a crawler....it hastens wear and shortens life...

 

[ussprinceton2004]

drive it until something breaks then upgrade to stronger parts

I agree

 

[Yonzariq]

Take a picture for it if I have one. 8)

This!
So you can still have some pretty and unscratched photos of your new rig :lmao:

If bought RTR, pull out the stock Tx/Rx and replace with my own.
I mostly pull them apart to check if everything is greased enough.
Diffs, transmission, shocks, in my experience most vehicles come with not enough or no grease at all.

Then drive it until something breaks to upgrade or replace, depends on the part that breaks

 

[magic_yeti]

unbox it - make pictures - put it back in the box and store it on the shelf :lmao:

 

[jester_s1]

I've been into airplanes for a long time, taking an interest in surface vehicles now too. I'm amazed at how often that one is true- buy it just to buy it then only fly/drive it once a year. There's a guy in my RC plane club who probably has 30 planes that he is scared to fly. He says he doesn't trust himself with them and doesn't want to take a chance on crashing them.