Anyone else into RC rock crawling?

freedom_in_4low said:
Got it out in some rocks around the house today for a shakedown run and set a baseline for the return on expected mods.

1. Definitely need the tires to be more flexy, so I'll be removing the foams.

2. The departure angle with this pickup body is atrocious. Don't think I'll be able to make the bed look anywhere decent by chopping so I'm shopping for a body, preferably hard. I started thinking I was gonna trim it because the tires run pretty hard when flexed out but with the departure angle I just need to start with something better.

3. Control is decent going forward, but reverse seems really touchy. I don't know if there's an adjustment to be made in the ESC or if I need to gear down just to make reverse more usable. It has portals which I didn't even know until I laid hands on the box, so I would think I'd be in a good spot gearing wise. Maybe I just need to practice and build some more dexterity in the reverse trigger direction. Does brushless help with that sort of thing or is that just longer battery life?

4. Gonna try the side battery mount instead of the rear. It's really light in the front which makes it want to cartwheel backward really easily on steeper climbs.


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Nice 😃 !

Those have a lot of potential.

Those tires are sticky but the foams are probably not ideal. Those tires are glued on so getting the foam out is going to be a pain. Get some beadlocks, new tires, and foams 🙃. Then you can play with the foam easily and put weights inside. No foam in something that size probably wont work. You can tune foams to your liking by trimming them if you cant find one ya like.

Just cut up the body 😃

Making reverse better could be as easy as just recalibrating the ESC. Not familiar that setup, but the procedure is usually really simple. Id leave it brushed.

Go here and and read read read 😃 http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/ My user name there is FRIZZLEFRY.
 
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CMBD said:
Nice 😃 !

Those have a lot of potential.

Those tires are sticky but the foams are probably not ideal. Those tires are glued on so getting the foam out is going to be a pain. Get some beadlocks, new tires, and foams 🙃. Then you can play with the foam easily and put weights inside. No foam in something that size probably wont work. You can tune foams to your liking by trimming them if you cant find one ya like.

Just cut up the body 😃

Making reverse better could be as easy as just recalibrating the ESC. Not familiar that setup, but the procedure is usually really simple. Id leave it brushed.

Go here and and read read read 😃 http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/ My user name there is FRIZZLEFRY.
Click to expand...

thanks for the link! There's a lot of info out there but like with Jeeps, it's not always easy to draw conclusions from it, lol.

I got some beadlocks coming and I settled on brass portal knuckles and portal covers because I could get ~270 additional grams on the front axle that way without the rotating inertia. Also have a red XJ body from Injora on the way. My idea of moving the battery up to the side mount isn't gonna work because my 5Ah battery is too long to fit in that spot.

I also got some BFG Krawlers on the way and the reviews say the foam they come with is pretty good. That's where it turns into a Jeep shock situation, because for every guy that ponys up for the fancy 2 stage foams and says the foams the tires come with are just to keep the tires shape for shipping, there's another that seems happy with whatever came with his tires or at most just trims it a bit. Then there's a guy that runs another set of 4.2" tires inside his 4.7" tires. 🤷‍♂️ So I guess I have some experimenting to do and I'll be mounting and dismounting those beadlock rings a few times.
 
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Somebody didn't cycle their suspension!

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The rear bumper had plenty of space but I pulled it in as far as I could to get better departure. It has one more notch to go but I'll have to trim it. I think my beadlocks are gonna have less backspacing than these though so I'm gonna wait for all the trimming until I know how much to take in front.

PXL_20230826_144337539.jpg


It's like having another rig to tinker with but everything is faster and less expensive.
 
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freedom_in_4low said:
Somebody didn't cycle their suspension!

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The rear bumper had plenty of space but I pulled it in as far as I could to get better departure. It has one more notch to go but I'll have to trim it. I think my beadlocks are gonna have less backspacing than these though so I'm gonna wait for all the trimming until I know how much to take in front.

View attachment 452930

It's like having another rig to tinker with but everything is faster and less expensive.
Click to expand...

Check out the injora carbon fiber lcg chassis for the scx10.3

I have one on my trx4 and it’s a damn mountain goat climbs anything. Are you on Facebook? Join some RC crawling groups and you’ll be overloaded with tips and tricks
 
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It's fun seeing results from mods in such a short time frame.

I stacked these rocks several months ago to control erosion as well as widen the passage between the concrete patio and the dropoff. I've attempted to climb it in every iteration, and only today was I finally able to make it the whole way unaided.

Screenshot_20230901-200830.png



It wouldn't do it stock, and it wouldn't do it with the wheels and tires, but finally the extra 250g of brass on the front axle made the difference.

PXL_20230830_020135524.jpg


Amazon Chinese beadlocks that look like and probably are identical to an Injora model, with Axial BFG Krawler KX 4.7" tires and the foams they came with. They're very noticeably softer and wrap the rocks much better than the falkens it came with.

PXL_20230830_020148698.jpg


There's still room for improvement in the weight distribution though so I ordered a smaller battery that I can put lower and farther forward. It also has the hops pretty bad. Haven't gotten deep enough to process what I can do to lower the antisquat 🤣.

I've been assembling this hard body CJ but it looks so good I'm having second thoughts about mounting it. I flop and cartwheel down that wall so much it would have been destroyed by now, but the lexan truck body just takes it.

PXL_20230827_220513760.jpg
 
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freedom_in_4low said:
It's fun seeing results from mods in such a short time frame.

I stacked these rocks several months ago to control erosion as well as widen the passage between the concrete patio and the dropoff. I've attempted to climb it in every iteration, and only today was I finally able to make it the whole way unaided.

View attachment 454497


It wouldn't do it stock, and it wouldn't do it with the wheels and tires, but finally the extra 250g of brass on the front axle made the difference.

View attachment 454499

Amazon Chinese beadlocks that look like and probably are identical to an Injora model, with Axial BFG Krawler KX 4.7" tires and the foams they came with. They're very noticeably softer and wrap the rocks much better than the falkens it came with.

View attachment 454498

There's still room for improvement in the weight distribution though so I ordered a smaller battery that I can put lower and farther forward. It also has the hops pretty bad. Haven't gotten deep enough to process what I can do to lower the antisquat 🤣.

I've been assembling this hard body CJ but it looks so good I'm having second thoughts about mounting it. I flop and cartwheel down that wall so much it would have been destroyed by now, but the lexan truck body just takes it.

View attachment 454501
Click to expand...

In that first picture it almost looks like your foams are too hard. I had mine looking like that swapped in some soft foams and made all the difference
 
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LJtheunicorn said:
In that first picture it almost looks like your foams are too hard. I had mine looking like that swapped in some soft foams and made all the difference
Click to expand...

Could be. I have no frame of reference, so all I know is I've gone in the right direction. Might try some 2 stage foams next. Gonna have to get a powered driver though, those beadlocks take forever with an Allen key. 🤣
 
freedom_in_4low said:
Could be. I have no frame of reference, so all I know is I've gone in the right direction. Might try some 2 stage foams next. Gonna have to get a powered driver though, those beadlocks take forever with an Allen key. 🤣
Click to expand...

Yea I did it one time manually the. Bought the dewalt oscillating screw driver. I love it and use it all the time for all sorts of things around the house
 
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LJtheunicorn said:
In that first picture it almost looks like your foams are too hard. I had mine looking like that swapped in some soft foams and made all the difference
Click to expand...

I forgot I hadn't vented my tires yet on that run. Trying to take one step at a time so I can see individual results.

They're wrapping the rocks better...though they're kinda floppy around the bead. I think 2 stage foams are in order.

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Note how the front tire is rolling under the wheel here (it looked worse in real life)

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Still getting better with every mod though. With the tires vented it's making these climbs consistently and easily. Bone stock it wouldn't make it up at all.
 
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freedom_in_4low said:
I forgot I hadn't vented my tires yet on that run. Trying to take one step at a time so I can see individual results.

They're wrapping the rocks better...though they're kinda floppy around the bead. I think 2 stage foams are in order.

View attachment 458777

Note how the front tire is rolling under the wheel here (it looked worse in real life)

View attachment 458778

Still getting better with every mod though. With the tires vented it's making these climbs consistently and easily. Bone stock it wouldn't make it up at all.
Click to expand...

Are you still running the stock esc and motor? Have you seen the hobbywing fusion line? Motor and esc are all in one. I put the fusion se 1800 in my lcg build and it’s awesome. Easy to program and only 70 bucks for a brushless setup with programability
 
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LJtheunicorn said:
Are you still running the stock esc and motor? Have you seen the hobbywing fusion line? Motor and esc are all in one. I put the fusion se 1800 in my lcg build and it’s awesome. Easy to program and only 70 bucks for a brushless setup with programability
Click to expand...

yeah, all stock electronics. I came across the fusion line in a YT video yesterday, that's interesting for sure. I had thought about getting a more programmable ESC but hadn't really looked much at brushless beyond the price. $70 is a lot easier to swallow than a brushless setup from Spektrum, and having the esc integrated makes a lot more sense to me, since the brushless motors used in my industry ALWAYS have the ESC integral to the motor.
 
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