Wheely to Crawler King

[RavenLiquid]

So I just got a Wheely King and I want to slowly convert it to a crawler, one step at a time.

First step is reversing it, to get rid of the rear weight so it does not fall over for no reason.

But here is the thing, there are quite some posts on this on the forum, but HPI has revised it some what in the last revision (4x4 RTR grey body) so it's not quite a match anymore.

Also HPI has the Crawler King, and the (discontinued?) conversion kit. Unfortunatly they have no manual for the kit online (would be to easy I guess), but they do have both for the Wheely King and the Crawler King.

The differences seem quite small (save for the wheelbase and suspension stuff). It seems like the servo should just be flipped and as it seems to steer form the center, reach the other axle without issue.
The receiver is located in the receiverbox (new?) so that does not need relocating.
And (I read some discussion about this) to reverse the motor, they just swapped the wires (positive to negative). I guess they feel confident enough to do this.

Another popular issue seems to be the tranny, is this still relevant? And they have the reduction gearbox, would this help here at all?

Also, would it be worth investing in the complete conversion kit? It comes with the rockgrabbers and the reduction gearbox, which the regular conversion kit does not have.

 

[makya]

I wouldn't recommend using the steering linkage as a crawler king. It flexes way too much at every link and the pivot on the axle as well. using an axle mounted servo bracket from level3rc gives you much better steering.

I have a crawler king gear reduction unit, but I don't use it. I have a 35 turn in one of them, and a 55 turn in another, I prefer the 55 for crawling.

Love the rock grabbers, they work really well. Their are a lot of other tires out there though that work just as well.

 

[DADSanRCjunkie]

I use a 45t motor and 15/96 gearing. Have not tried the gear reduction unit but I like the gearing I'm using with the 45t. I want to try a 35t for more punch or maybe put the gear reduction unit on it with my 3900kv brushless setup. I run 2.2 rovers and have no complaints about traction. They don't look too scale though and I'm thinking about trying a set of proline short course truck interco swampers on protrac offset wheels. I'm sure I'll have less deformation and grip from the tires but this will give me a more scale appearance and a narrowed track width. I want to try and make my rig more scale looking and less cartoonish crawler. There are so many mods to find and do on these forums, I would steer clear of the expensive "kit" options and take a DIY approach. Have fun and experiment! Welcome to the sickness. "thumbsup"

 

[Gula]

I scored the crawler king conversion kit on ebay for $18 once. It did not address the steering linkage from what I recall though

 

[RavenLiquid]

I'm not that great when it comes to DIY stuff that requires drilling and other handicraft approaches so I'm afraid of breaking stuff.

Which was why I was leaning towards the kit.

Building an axle mounted servo mount seems doable though so maybe I'll try that.

I also found that although the body came with two holes (roof and back) for the antenna, neither will work if you reverse it. Tried mounting the antenna on the other end of the receiver box but it still wont fit.

Maybe I'll find another spot without punching another hole in the body.

 

[makya]

Level3-RC Store, Level3-RC|1:18 Mini-Rock Crawler|AX10|CC01|CR01|Crawler Accessories|F350 High-Lift -
rcmart carries the full selection of level3 parts. the bottom of the first page and the top of the second page are the parts for the wheely king. the servo mounts are good.

 

[RavenLiquid]

Nice site, they even ship to my country for a reasonable price (even though it takes ages with airmail). That's usually my biggest issue, that it costs twice as much to ship it that to buy it.

I'll be sure to check it out.

 

[makya]

Nice site, they even ship to my country for a reasonable price (even though it takes ages with airmail). That's usually my biggest issue, that it costs twice as much to ship it that to buy it.

I'll be sure to check it out.

they're on ebay also, but I remembered that a lot of european countries and australia order form asian countries often, so I thought that might help you more with your location.

I really like the Wheely king, and think it's underrated because HPI never came out with a scale chassis for it.