dacaur

Try a 7.2v pack made for a 1/18 rc car. the problem with this truck isnt the voltage, its that AA's just cant supply the amps needed for crawling....

Pinkmisttt

^^^^  Where were you before I ordered everything.  LOL  jk  I found out the hard way about the ESC's.  I have to order the car ESC's tonight and a servo.  Oh well, gotta pay to play.  this is by far the cheapest thing i've ever worked on!  lol  Beats buying Guns, gun accessories or 4-wheeler parts.  Which by the way i'll be sticking to.  I would really love to get into RC crawling, but don't have the patience for it.  Parts are to small and I'm pretty good at tearing things up.  I'm like a bull in a china shop.  LOL

SeniorXJ

"Bulls in a china shop" has been de-bunked by "Mythbusters" as they added bull after bull & not a single fragile plate got broken!!!! LMAO!!!! ((its true tho))

SeniorXJ

-Can i just buy & run ONE of these ESC's u reccomended: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=14630& run the 150 motors i have or even keep the stock motors, run a regular hitec steering servo, keep my 9.6v battery, &not have to buy &hook up2 ESC's??? Also, am i right in saying that this ESC will completely replace the stock circut board & digital proportionately control the Maisto Crawler?????

SeniorXJ

-Also, check out what this guy did to his Maisto:
http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/showt...o+rock+crawler

-& this is where i got the "how to" on a great writeup on the 9.6v battery upgrade:
http://www.rcbashers.com/maisto-rock...pics-t840.html

Im gonnastart postin pics of my build in THIS thread if u guys would likeme to, since this thread now has ALOT of the info thats out there in one spot on modding the Maisto Crawler!!!??

dacaur

That ESC only works with brushless motors. THere are ESC's out there that work with brushed and brushless motors, but that one is brushless only. The stock motors are brushed, I dont know about the ones you have, if they have two wires coming out of them they are brushed, three wires means its brushless. You can run two brushed motors on one esc, but not two brushless... If you want to use the stock motors, you need an ESC that will run brushed motors. hobbyking doesn't sell any, here is one from towerhobbies http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXAMN7&P=0 one of those will run both of the stock motors.

Yes, the ESC and reciver (and steering servo) will completly replace the circuit board in the truck and will give you digital proportional control. You can keep the 9.6v battery. too.

The Jackalope

Just got mine. started some mods. What do you think?

Spiike

the body looks a little too far back?? i duno maybe just cause i'm tired and can't see straight

The Jackalope

The body is pretty far back. I decided to just line up the rear wheels with the wheel wells, otherwise I'd be cutting the hell outta the back-end, and losing the whole point of using this body. the look is growing on me.


I let my daughter pick the colour. Hey......at least its not pink! I might handpaint the flames back in one day.

I did the Battery upgrade with the 9.6volt, installed a tamiya connector. This gave it WAY more power, and speed too. I thought it was too much speed at first, but I realized how much more fun it was to drive. This thing is a monster!!! Sure proportional speed would be nice, but wheres the challenge in that?
This guy recklessly powers it's way through everything.

Had trouble keeping it rubber side down, so I wrapped coils of plumbing solder around the rims for weight. that helped plenty.

Spiike

I would line up the front wheels on the body first. I think it would give it a more genuine look from my perspective. I do know that you wouldn't have to cut the body if you did this. I cut my body up a little bit just to give it a little more articulation.

I know that in real life the body wouldn't be pushed back, just the backtires wouldn't match the rear wells. However it is up to you!

My rear tire doesn't match the wells on my jeep neither

dacaur

anyone else have a problem with the steering adjustment on the truck being too loose? I can center the wheels then drive and suddenly they are way off to one side and I look and the adjuster is all the way to one side or the other.....

Guess its a good excuse to put hobby elecs in it huh?

SeniorXJ

-Easy, put electrical tape over the adjuster & heated it up a bit to make it super sticky &hold the adjuster inplace!! This was the 1st thing i did when taking it out of the package cauz alot of RC toys trim adjusters will move whenin use!!

zman5000

i'm trying to make a torsion rig chassis for one of my maisto's, it's still in the fabbing phase as i can't get the twist just right yet

The Jackalope

Might just be me,   but I'm not getting a lot of battery life out of my 9.6v batteries that I grafted on to this thing.  Maybe about 10 minutes at most of real useable crawling power.

I'm guessing those little motors are getting pretty warm inside there,  and drawing more amps.

but it's still good times with a fresh bat pack though

dacaur

Yea I bet you would get more run time with a regualra 1/18 scale "real" rc battery pack.... giving the motors more volts means they are going to pull more amps at full throttle....

Spiike

I would definitally like to see more photos and modifications, this thing looks like a fabricators dreamworld to upgrade and stuff

zman5000

my stock maisto with the 2 cell lipo (for a mini-t) is a blast, it out crawls a losi micro and a stock losi mini. i did put three 1/4 oz stick on wheel weights in each front wheel. i put some wider wheels on the front also and it still turns good.

The Jackalope

how is the wheel speed with the 2cell lipo's? Is it still a crawling speed? or is it a monster like mine?

Spiike

2 cell lip is 7.2 volts, so in theory your 9.6v is stronger

SeniorXJ

I'll get some pics posted up of mine soon. The 9.6v RC battery upgrade made this worth the time to do more & it realy is a capable crawler!! Ive since put a jeep body on it, painted it, added some more flex, & am thinkin of puttin in a cheap ESC so that the speed can be controlled & proportional!!

dacaur

On a 2 cell lipo the speed will be about the same as stock, a little faster maybe, but the steering be much stronger and the power will be much better, probably at least as much as on the 9.6v pack, but it will be much easier on the motors. A 2 cell lipo, even a crappy one, can put out way more power than AA nicads.

The Jackalope

here it is with the stock body on again, playing in some crusty snow in the yard. Once again, this thing is completely stock except for a 9.6v 600mah battery. Loses a bit of torque at the end of the bat cycle.

Sorry bout the footage. I'm holding camera and controller, and not giving EITHER adequate attention. heh heh


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZiPRbZOO-I

Spiike

yeah i know what you mean, i noticed a huge difference between 1x 9.6v battery with 1000mah than 2x, then big difference between 2x and 3x 1000mah batteries. even with LED you have to wait till they all go down to 8.4v before the lights start dimming. i've never tried a lipo.

zman5000

as for wheel speed with the lipo it's much faster as the lipo has better discharge voltage compared to a nimh. just compare it to a stock traxxas slash and then put a lipo in it and it's much faster, and a lot more run time. if you're thinking about a lipo but putting it off due to the cost of a charger then go to hobbyking.com and get one of the turnigy chargers for like 18 bucks. i've had one for 2 years and they are faultless. i have the accucell 6. it also charges any other type of battery also.

claritywuff

anyone want to buy one? my control fried reverse in itself so i dont want the trucki modded it to use a different battery and it was great, but the control friend, it smells like burnt wires lol