Any hobby R/C GEEKS in here?

[duck9191]

Originally Posted by OneLeggedRider

Well I ordered all the upgrades I previously mentioned except the steering servo, because apparently the stock servo is more than adequate according to the fb groups.

3 channel radio and receiver
2 speed transmission with the big 370 motor and servo
20 amp ESC with hill braking for brushed motor
Add on inline adjustable hill brake (works when ESC is switched to brake mode)
Super soft crawler tires and rims that are taller and wider

And here's the kicker.. all that with shipping and tax came to $87!! Who says this has to be an expensive hobby.

people that fly lol. or 1/5 scale or larger electric cars. still have a Baja knock-off I want to convert.

[OneLeggedRider]

Originally Posted by duck9191

people that fly lol. or 1/5 scale or larger electric cars. still have a Baja knock-off I want to convert.

Now come on Duck, you know whatever the scale any one of those parts alone would cost more than $87 if they were "name brand". Just goes to show how badly companies like Losi, Axial, etc are raping us.

[culcune]

Originally Posted by OneLeggedRider

Wpl C24 4x4 Toyota crawler and sitting next to it is the all steel/aluminum version. I've got to swap over the body, electronics (ESC, reciever, and steering servo). After that I'll finish the body decals, turn signals and taillights, snorkel, door handles, wipers and mirrors, running boards and license plates. I also got 2 larger capacity Lipo batteries for it ��

I figured you would have one of these. Nice!!

[duck9191]

Originally Posted by OneLeggedRider

Now come on Duck, you know whatever the scale any one of those parts alone would cost more than $87 if they were "name brand". Just goes to show how badly companies like Losi, Axial, etc are raping us.

I'm talking about $3k 200cc 4 cylinders and $400 servos lol.

[Landsvw]

My friend and I, in high school (circa 1982) used to be into the RC planes. We wrecked so many times tho, pretty soon were out of planes and money. Radios and the like were pretty expensive back then. I may still have a .049 engine laying around from the string type flyers, but haven’t seen it in years. Was super fun tho, and the wrecks were always awesome from a teenage boy perspective.

[OneLeggedRider]

Here's the all metal version, and even though he's running the small stock tires that are too firm it's still going anywhere he points it.

[duck9191]

Originally Posted by Landsvw

My friend and I, in high school (circa 1982) used to be into the RC planes. We wrecked so many times tho, pretty soon were out of planes and money. Radios and the like were pretty expensive back then. I may still have a .049 engine laying around from the string type flyers, but haven’t seen it in years. Was super fun tho, and the wrecks were always awesome from a teenage boy perspective.

It's much cheaper to get into and stay in nowadays. Nitro is dying, which is fine by me. Spektrum and futaba radios are still expensive, but the used ones and all the new opentx radios are reasonable. that computer radio in the pic I posted above was only $129 and you can do anything with it. Brushless motors, lipo batteries, and the new foam they use in planes have brought the price down and made huge increases in performance and repairability.

[Wild Dog]

Originally Posted by OneLeggedRider

Here's the all metal version, and even though he's running the small stock tires that are too firm it's still going anywhere he points it.

I love so much early 80s Hilux.

Would you recomend buying one? I saw them in Banggood.com but i was a skeptical on the quality of the all metal one.

[OneLeggedRider]

Originally Posted by Wild Dog

I love so much early 80s Hilux.

Would you recomend buying one? I saw them in Banggood.com but i was a skeptical on the quality of the all metal one.

Well I haven't got everything together yet so I really don't know. Everything seems super beefy but you have to go over the whole thing because a lot of the screws and bolts are just finger tight.
But if you watch the videos the plastic version bounces around like a toy and doesn't go over obstacles near as well, whereas the metal version handles more like a real truck and is much more capable.

[OneLeggedRider]

Well I got all the conversion done Wednesday except mounting the body. It was a chore to say the least. You can tell the metal version is made by a different company and the only parts that interchange are the 2 frame rails and the wheels, and even then the frame rails are thicker on the metal version.

After the tedious task of checking all the fasteners (had to do some disassembly to get to all of them) I had to adjust the 4 link control arms on each end to clock the axles up to reduce driveshaft binding (it sits about a half inch taller than stock) I didn't clock the front axle much because that can cause trouble with handling and steering. It's also extremely difficult to get to the upper control arms on the front.

Steering servo was next. It's re-positioned underneath the tray rather than on top, and the servo horn they provide wouldn't fit my servo, but after rummaging around in my RC parts drawer I found a suitable metal replacement. The stock steering arm is curved upward at the end to meet the horn, the metal one is not. So after much cursing and moving the horn and trying different holes (I almost swapped the plastic arm over) I found an acceptable compromise.

On to the ESC and killswitch. They don't provide a mount for the switch OR the ESC, so I had to get handy with my drill to mount the switch. The ESC/receiver is just slapped in the electronics box ( I didn't have double sided tape) with enough of the wires stuffed in to keep it from moving.

Motor and transmission. The 260 motor and crawler gearbox supplied in the kit are both twice the size of the stock 160 motor and box, and configured opposite of stock, with the motor in front of the box rather than behind it. The first thing I notice is it's got heavy wires on it and the connector is female rather than male so I cut the wires and swapped the connectors. I then discover my trusty soldering gun I've been using for 20yrs has shat itself, so I found some tiny wire nuts and connected the heavy and very thin wires and plug everything in.

Initial testing. Steering works as it should and with a little trim adjustment it's pointed straight ahead. Then I discover the polarity on the motor is reversed so I swapped the wires. While I can now run the crawler it's immediately apparent that the 260 is too much motor for the stock ESC to handle, it's sluggish and the board is getting hot. I had my doubts as soon as I seen the extreme difference in wire gauge. And I discovered the driveshafts are still at too much of an angle to run smoothly. I remedied this by moving all the upper shock mounts 1" in towards the center of the frame, which dropped it a 1/4" putting the shafts at less of an angle, softened the suspension, and left some droop for better suspension flex.

The body. The battery tray is part of the bed and I'm gonna have to cut a significant portion of it out to clear the big crawler gearbox. After that I think the cab will mount up without any trouble.

Conclusion. While the seller and reviews claim it's a simple swap, it's not. It took a significant amount of time and work to get it functional. And the stock ESC isn't compatible, thank goodness I already have a better one on the way. I think a beginner would have thrown in the towel and left it to collect dust on a shelf. Would I recommend this upgrade? Hell yeah! When I was a kid I would've given my left nut for an all metal crawler that handles like a full size truck.

[OneLeggedRider]

Finally downloaded an image resizer, Jerry's probably hoping it works..

The shocks come mounted straight up and down which made the suspension way too stiff and had both driveshafts binding. Moving the top mounts 1" inboard fixed all of that. It dropped the height a quarter inch (it's still a 1/4" taller than the plastic version) which improved the drive shaft angles. It also softened the suspension and it will actually flex/twist now with a slight bit of droop.

The other thing I did was shorten the servo horn and bend the connecting tie rod. Before the horn was hitting the top of the axle when the suspension compressed. Now I'm working on mounting the bed, which requires a significant amount of cutting and trimming.

[OneLeggedRider]

Well I reduced them from 470kb to 190kb so they uploaded, but still come out godzilla sized! Any tips to fix this crap?

[OneLeggedRider]

Ok, this is 50kb. Let's see what happens.

Edit:. Apparently it's just this screwy site..

[Landsvw]

Oh, I dunno if this counts, but both my son and I have drones, medium size ones, and, fly them pretty often. A lot of fun. Less chance of crashing than a plane or helicopter. Cameras too, and, pretty well set up. Haven’t had dog fights yet lol.

[duck9191]

Frank, your phone should have a really basic photo editor in it. Resize the images dimensions to like 1000x800, then compress the size to under 197kb. The smaller picture will look better when compressed and fit the forum better.

Buddy picked up a cheap Chinese GPS quad. Supprised it actually flew really well. Video isn't the best but it's a $175 quad not $700. Of courses the instructions were terrible but YouTube was helpful.