Crawler newbie questions...

[Philderbeast]

I want to buikd a custom crawler. My idea is to out-crawl Ralph, lol, I wish. I have a few questions to help me along in my venture.
1. Is it better to be heavy, or light, or somewhere between?
2. What is the best size to build, 1/10, or 1/8?
3. What are the best tires to get?
4. Best engine turns?
5. Are there and better axles to use than wheely king?
6. Better to be wide or narrow?
7. Where do I get links for suspention articulation?
I want to start this project soon, but it will take a while to complete as I will not be useing my primary RC funds for it. I will purchase or make a little at a time.

[master_of_desaster]

1. i would make the front slightly heavier (via wheel weights and battery mounting)
2. most popular is 2.2 (1/10) and even the 1.9 (1/12 or 1/16) scale rigs are popular. personably 1/10th is better and has more options.
3.shoot depends on terrain. for rocks and other comp type surfaces would be the losi rock claws, rock lizards(race compound) or proline's moab tires. but for general crawling and trail riding either the rock lizards (regular compound) from axial or the m3 compound masher 2000's from proline.
4. 45t and up. its really also dependent on gearing which is prefered at 96t spur/15t or lower pinion.
5.there are a ton of axles made for rockcrawling. the axial ax-10 axles are good as well and can be bought already locked. tlt axles are the old-school axles but work extremly well. pti has axles as well. rc4wd has the Dino 40 axles and bruiser axles that are more scale axles but work fine.
6.narrow
7.homemade, any crawling site

[Philderbeast]

Thanx, I was going to build a e-maxx chassis out of my 3/16ths sheet of aluminum, but I decided I want a custom crawler. So, I will be making my vertical chassis plates out of that. I may end up using it on other parts of the crawler also, but I do not know until I start the build. This crawler will be for general use, and not competition use. I just want to build a big, heavy crawling monster that eats up the rocks and trails in it's way.

[master_of_desaster]

so more of a trail truck huh? that catagory is really on an uprise nowadays. if your going trail truck i would go with 90t spur and 18t pinion

[Philderbeast]

Well, to be exact, it would be more crater, washout, creek beds, very rocky and steep camping site washouts, things of that nature. Cattle trails, ruts, you know, fun stuff that the wheely king cannot do without alot of mods. My maxx can no longer do it either without gearing it even further down than what I am already equipped for. Those new revolver engines have wicked torque, and with 14 tooth pinions and a 72 tooth spur, it still pulls wheelies when at 1/4 to 1/3 throttle. Massive torque.

[master_of_desaster]

oh ok. so yeah that would be considered a trail truck. trail trucks are basically crawlers with higher gearing. suggested gears are 90t spur and 18t pinoin. that way youll have wheel speed for mud

[master_of_desaster]

and as for stuff a wheely king needs to make it considerably better are lockers(thats a given) tires, and gears. i would also take out the spacers on the shocks for better gc and articulation.

[OldSchoolRC]

I want to buikd a custom crawler. My idea is to out-crawl Ralph, lol, I wish. I have a few questions to help me along in my venture.
1. Is it better to be heavy, or light, or somewhere between?
2. What is the best size to build, 1/10, or 1/8?
3. What are the best tires to get?
4. Best engine turns?
5. Are there and better axles to use than wheely king?
6. Better to be wide or narrow?
7. Where do I get links for suspention articulation?
I want to start this project soon, but it will take a while to complete as I will not be useing my primary RC funds for it. I will purchase or make a little at a time.

my 2 cents...

1. i like weight. As long as it is in the right spots - low and towards the front it helps tremendously with climbing ability.
2. personal preference - i like 1/10 simply cause everything is cheaper and there are a lot of scale options.
3. loaded question... :) everone has their favorites, and depends what size truck you are looking to build.
4. higher winds = more torque. 45 and up lathe motors work perfect and are not too pricey - plus can be used with nearly any speed controller.
5. again, depends on the scale. WK or axial axles work great for a dedicated crawler, but are a little out of scale for a trail truck project as they are fairly wide. Something like a TLT or hi-lift would be better in that case.
6. going wide gives you more lateral stability, but staying narrow has benefits too - you'll be less like to bottom out the axles.
7. i use all different kinds, but mostly traxxas links for the revo. I've also used MGT steering links, t-maxx turnbuckles, or made my own out of 1/4 inch aluminum rod. I do like turnbuckes as they are more adjustable for fine tuning.

the best part of building a crawler is you can go wild - there's no set rulebook and there's still a lot of creativity going on. Check out some of the forum builds, and some of the crawling sites and find something you really like, and take that basic idea and run with it - it's much more gratifying in the end to run something you build up from scratch!! have fun and post some pics when you get to it!

[Philderbeast]

I think I will go 1/10 scale, and use wk or axial axles. I like a little wider look than the high lift has. I am not going to be looking for a "scale" look so much as ability. I want performance performance performance. I want to climb anything...(within reason)...that gits in front of it. Would it be a better idea to build frame rails, or twin vertical plates??? Frame rails will be much more difficult and time consuming for me to build...also pricey, cause I would want a tig welder, or even perhaps a gas mig to help me along. a break would not be a bad idea either. I think for the amature I am, a tvp would be the way to go. But if the frame rails are better, I would have to make those.
Now, I need to figure up some power ideas, tranny, engine, esc, ect. I am thinking more and more on this project lately, so I may have to start it soon.

[OldSchoolRC]

TVP would work, mine used TLT chassis side plates in a similar fashion and worked pretty good. most important thing is to keep the weight low - motor as low in the chassis as possible, and mount the battery on the front axle. the WK axles are a great starting spot. HPI will be releasing a crawler kit that might be a good spot for you to start with as well - the best part is it reconfigures the links around the axles and moves the battery forward - a properly set up WK can be an excellent crawling machine. (and a very cost effective way to get started.)

Chassis rails would be for more of a scaler. most of the hardcore cralwers are now using tube frame type chassis which is very cool, but they have to be welded or brazed.

[master_of_desaster]

i would use a tvp style chassis with a r2 transmission mounted as low as possible. cg is everything for performance. the real 2.2 comp trucks are able to be put on the sides of the tires and not roll over. its insane. cg and weight distribution are [I]the[I] keys to a great performing truck.

[JeLeAk]

i would recommend you not become a bench racer and go only on numbers, like well this chassis is .367" longer, but this one is .76" lower... you obviously are not a competition crawler and dont need to worry about what the "pros" are doing


so basically what i am saying is K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) a lot of great chassis's are built from trial and error start from a base model(tlt, axial, txt, clod) it dosent really matter what one, in the end your going to have a capable crawler no matter what you choose

[master_of_desaster]

yeeah.......