r8derhed5150
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 151
- Location
- Oakland, Ca
Recently back into the hobby and this is me and my son's(5yo) second truck. First one is a Losi Micro SCTe (brushless). I enjoy hitting 30mph with a tiny 6inch long car. Him not so much. So this is his favorite of the two. I'll have to say I'm equally in love with the two. I got several hours into a body mod from cheap push toy. Custom paint and lights. Came out pretty sweet. Anyway...
Today was our first run in its natural habitat. Found a sweet rock pile on an old abandoned Naval base in Alameda. Yeah, the one where Jaime and Adam break everything. The pile had a section easy enough for the boy, and tough enough for someone who has an okay understanding of the physics.
Not having used any other comparable product, I can only go by how much we enjoyed this thing. First battery ran so long, I wish I had timed it. I swear we each had about 20 minute sessions on the same charge. We were both satisfied with the time we had and still excited for the battery to finish charging again. Very happy with my purchase and I'm glad the price was cheap enough for us to try out something totally new. It cost an arm and a leg to live where I do but it's cool. I don't have any room for either one, hence the initial purchase of a 1/24 scale. At 1/18, it's still smaller than my leg so things will be okay.
So a couple of things I found out with this truck. 1st is the tires. I feel that they could be a little softer. They bite okay if you are graceful, but to avoid dropping a good chunk of change on new tires, I tried cutting the foam insert into a 10 point gear shape. This is my first attempt to soften. If I think it needs more, I'll cut a couple mm off of every other tip and see how that goes.
Next, this thing doesn't say it anywhere in or on the box but it's ready for four wheel steer. Both axels are identical so the rear is just waiting for a servo to be mounted. It's only locked out with a turnbuckle to the axel. Of course you will need to upgrade your electrics for the next channel as there is only one servo lead from the rcvr/ecs. Anyone know if you can run two servos from the same tap?
So as I stare at this nice little rear end, I notice the wheels are not square to the chassis. The static turnbickle used to anchor the back steering is about a mm too long (fully retracted). I even noticed this in a couple of YouTube videos but no one mentioned it. Someone had it on a tile floor and you can see the rear track off line when rolling. And no, it wasn't because of steering trim. So I separated one of the ball joints from the turnbuckle and use a small file to shave off about a mm from the hole end and reassembled. Definitely looks square now.
I'm a noob to crawling but this thing was quite impressive on the pile I was playing on. So last, another issue I found is (and I'm not sure term for this is) on a steep climb or where you ask for a lot of torque, the front axel tends to twist up into the air or float, loosing that corner for no reason. The wheels are pretty light. Maybe need some weights or something. Only had one battery on the rocks so far so I'll see if gets annoying.
After all, this is a hobby. Even though it's an RTR, you can still strip it down and replace every part and modify it. Not sure how it hold holds up over time so I can't say yet if I would recommend it to a non-tinkering consumer.
I'm back from the old school. Built several of the popular Tamiya 10s from the 80's. Blackfoot, Boomerang, Grasshopper, Clod buster, etc.. Saw the first Kyoshos come around and that's about where I left off. The stuff they got today? Wow. Programmable ecx, telemetry, GPS, and FPV? WTH??? For a guy who works on industrial machinery, 3 phase multi-hp motors, variable frequency drives, and PLC's for a living, I can't wait to get my hands on this rc pr0n again. I'm holding this truck responsible for really bringing the interest back for me. Looking forward to a full build and beyond.
The price is right. If you are thinking about it, get it. You won't be disappointed if you haven't been spoiled with a super nice one already. Perfect if you are looking for a starter or an El Nino entertainer like I was. My 5 yo. loves to be crawled on. No problem over his torso while laying on the floor. Only $129. Come on you know you want one.
Disclaimer: Not affiliated with anything around here. Just a happy owner letting you know how much fun were (I'm) having with it.
Today was our first run in its natural habitat. Found a sweet rock pile on an old abandoned Naval base in Alameda. Yeah, the one where Jaime and Adam break everything. The pile had a section easy enough for the boy, and tough enough for someone who has an okay understanding of the physics.
Not having used any other comparable product, I can only go by how much we enjoyed this thing. First battery ran so long, I wish I had timed it. I swear we each had about 20 minute sessions on the same charge. We were both satisfied with the time we had and still excited for the battery to finish charging again. Very happy with my purchase and I'm glad the price was cheap enough for us to try out something totally new. It cost an arm and a leg to live where I do but it's cool. I don't have any room for either one, hence the initial purchase of a 1/24 scale. At 1/18, it's still smaller than my leg so things will be okay.
So a couple of things I found out with this truck. 1st is the tires. I feel that they could be a little softer. They bite okay if you are graceful, but to avoid dropping a good chunk of change on new tires, I tried cutting the foam insert into a 10 point gear shape. This is my first attempt to soften. If I think it needs more, I'll cut a couple mm off of every other tip and see how that goes.
Next, this thing doesn't say it anywhere in or on the box but it's ready for four wheel steer. Both axels are identical so the rear is just waiting for a servo to be mounted. It's only locked out with a turnbuckle to the axel. Of course you will need to upgrade your electrics for the next channel as there is only one servo lead from the rcvr/ecs. Anyone know if you can run two servos from the same tap?
So as I stare at this nice little rear end, I notice the wheels are not square to the chassis. The static turnbickle used to anchor the back steering is about a mm too long (fully retracted). I even noticed this in a couple of YouTube videos but no one mentioned it. Someone had it on a tile floor and you can see the rear track off line when rolling. And no, it wasn't because of steering trim. So I separated one of the ball joints from the turnbuckle and use a small file to shave off about a mm from the hole end and reassembled. Definitely looks square now.
I'm a noob to crawling but this thing was quite impressive on the pile I was playing on. So last, another issue I found is (and I'm not sure term for this is) on a steep climb or where you ask for a lot of torque, the front axel tends to twist up into the air or float, loosing that corner for no reason. The wheels are pretty light. Maybe need some weights or something. Only had one battery on the rocks so far so I'll see if gets annoying.
After all, this is a hobby. Even though it's an RTR, you can still strip it down and replace every part and modify it. Not sure how it hold holds up over time so I can't say yet if I would recommend it to a non-tinkering consumer.
I'm back from the old school. Built several of the popular Tamiya 10s from the 80's. Blackfoot, Boomerang, Grasshopper, Clod buster, etc.. Saw the first Kyoshos come around and that's about where I left off. The stuff they got today? Wow. Programmable ecx, telemetry, GPS, and FPV? WTH??? For a guy who works on industrial machinery, 3 phase multi-hp motors, variable frequency drives, and PLC's for a living, I can't wait to get my hands on this rc pr0n again. I'm holding this truck responsible for really bringing the interest back for me. Looking forward to a full build and beyond.
The price is right. If you are thinking about it, get it. You won't be disappointed if you haven't been spoiled with a super nice one already. Perfect if you are looking for a starter or an El Nino entertainer like I was. My 5 yo. loves to be crawled on. No problem over his torso while laying on the floor. Only $129. Come on you know you want one.
Disclaimer: Not affiliated with anything around here. Just a happy owner letting you know how much fun were (I'm) having with it.
Last edited:
