Hi people
So i decide to get me a crawler and i wanted to start cheap, and i wanted the thing modular. Maybe i will go for ali stuff later i get hooked on to it.
I get it out of the box and it crawls very nicely indeed, but i am a tinkerer... a wrench monkey so here is the evolution of my car...
Stage 1
Stock
Evolution of my RS10 XT Crawler
I forgot to photograph the thing so i am using a stock photo.
I heard the drive train and the servos are not the most durable. So i went easy on them.
Stage 2
Metal gears for the front drive train. Sorry i don't have photos of this but the logic was that i changed the front plastic gears to hardened metal before they went crunch. This way i have a spare set when the rear drive-train gears die.
Stage 3
Bent rear links.
Evolution of my RS10 XT Crawler
Evolution of my RS10 XT Crawler
Scratched my head a bit for this. I did not want to grab them in a vise and yank with pliers. That would leave a kink on them. So i made me a tool. Basically a stupidly simple arrangement of 3 3/4 inch pipes welded / bolted together. Got a chance to brush up my welding skills as well. The thing did not work as i thought so i used a C clamp to put accurate pressure. The result was pleasing.
Evolution of my RS10 XT Crawler
This increased the ground clearance by a LOT! Can now go over things it used to high-center on.
Evolution of my RS10 XT Crawler
Stage 4
Bent front links and Lowered Body
Evolution of my RS10 XT Crawler
Evolution of my RS10 XT Crawler
The lowered body makes it look much better. Some benefits for the CG too. Had to trim quite a bit of bodywork to make it fit and not interfere withe the wheels at full articulation. Had to chop a bit from the body posts to get it to fit properly.
Stage 5
Front servo
Evolution of my RS10 XT Crawler
Dropped in at THS last evening and picked up the MG 10.2 kg servo. Its way better than stock 6kg Lansu servo. I got only one because i may do a rear steering lock-out also i now have a spare stock servo if the rear one dies. This servo has a larger throw so i get more steering angle... Great! but the front suspension mount hits the tyre... not so great. So i go back to scratching my head...
Options tried:
1. Relocating the suspension mount: Makes the front of the car stand on stilts... no good for CG.
2. Relocate the suspension from both ends: Makes the front go too low... no good for ground clearance.
3. Droop setup at the front: Makes it a floppy piece of s#it.
4. Reversed front links + relocate the suspension: Works!
Evolution of my RS10 XT Crawler
This makes the front softer than the rear and it seems to work a bit better this way... win win!
Evolution of my RS10 XT Crawler
Perfect clearance for everything.
Stage 6
Power connectors
Evolution of my RS10 XT Crawler
Go those, cables and the heat shrink from THS. Don't know what type they are called and i forgot to ask. Felt better than Deans for some reason but it might just be my feeling. Soldered them all last night. Much better than the stock flimsy things.
That is it for now.
Future upgrades...
Will definitely be doing a wheel weight mod. I don't want to pour too much money into this, i have my RD350 cafe racer (and my wife too) for that. So it will be a homemade mod for that.
Had a tense moment last night; The rear steering servo started glitching and steering on its own when i throttled up. Front was fine. Connected the old servo at the front and that started glitching again. Did some digging on the net and learn that maybe my battery was going flat. Today morning i charge it and its all fine now. Thought for a moment i would have to go for a new receiver.
Will try to keep you folks updated
cheers
Abhishek