diabolic-mind

hey guys. i am fairly new to the rc rock crawler scene. i am currently working on a trade whih will get me a HPI crawler king. being that this is the first crawler i will have owned. i was wondering what informtion you guys could give me. things like what should i expect from this crawler, possible problems to looks for, tweaks and adjustments to do to it, and mods that i can do with our without needing extra parts. sorry for sounding like a rookie, but i guess i am exactly that with this area of rc's. all your help is appreciated, thanks

nitrosportsandrunner

the hpi is decent.

it does have a higher center of gravity than other crawlers due to the trans design.

the stock tires are OK, but there are lots of better tires out there.

if it has not already been done, then mod the steering servo to be over the axle. the stock setup has lots of play and is weak. there are mounting kits to put it over the axle so that the steering will be firmer and more direct.

doesnt hurt to upgrade the stock servo and front steering link as well.

you can also use a small hump pack or a lipo pack which you could mount over the front axle. this places battery weight lower in the truck.(for lipo you would need a LVC or LVA)

you can also pull the foams out of the tires and cut a star or gear pattern into them to make them softer and grip better.

other than those things, its upto personal preference. you can change the pinion gear, to get more torque with a smaller one or more wheel speed with a larger one.

you can change the shock oil, or springs to change the suspsension setting.

there are also mulitple link mounts that you can play with.

basically, the WK can go over alot right out of the box, but its also a decent truck that you can take to extreme levels if you want to invest time and money.

you could make it waterproof with a traxxas xl-5 ESC/2075 servo and waterproof Rx box. or use plastic dip to waterproof the stock electronics.

diabolic-mind

wow awesome info man. thanks. another quick question. i also have a chance at getting a 1:18 scale losi crawler. would the losi crawler be better than the hpi?

The Mad Modder

It depends on where you have to crawl. The losi mini rock crawler(mrc) is quite a bit smaller than the wheely/crawler king. If you're looking to crawl indoors or have a place with small obstacles outside, the mrc would be OK.

I have a regular wheely king fitted for crawling that I enjoy very much. It's surprising how well it crawls with just minimal modifications.

diabolic-mind

yeh i like the idea of the larger crawler. where i will be driving it its mostly larger stuff and rough terrain. so what are the minimum modifications your talking about? or is it stuff that nitrosport already suggested? i know i am going to want to do 4 wheel steering at some point. but i think the first thing i am doing is moving the location of the servo for better steering response. the stock steering setting from what ive read is the biggest complaint about it

diabolic-mind

well i got the truck, and i am feeling like a sucker right now. he gave me a ton of what appeared to be spare parts and whatnot. at first look all seemed to be ok. he had told me up front that his kids had taken the reiciver out of it and the motor so in good faith i took his word on it and made the trade. after spending the last 2 hours sorting through everything it appears that the parts he gave me are are for other vehicles entirely. the radio gear isnt for the truck its AE radio and reciever which im sure i can use in it. i am however missing the the battery and charger. the battery and charger i got with it wont fit onto it anyplace. sofar the broken and missing parts are

3 drive shafts
left rear hub carrier set
pinion gear
spur gear
radio
reciever
battery
charger

sofar that seems to be it. i got some misc stuff aswell. hopefully i can sell some of this and get enough money to buy replacement parts. im flat broke as it is so this looks like its going to be a project that sits on the shelf for a long time. so much for faith in humanity

SyCo_VeNoM

ouch that sucks
what did you trade for it?
take a pick of what they handed you so maybe we could ID what it is

BTW The HPI radio that comes with the RC is bleh so it not being included isn't a huge loss, same with the battery, and charger is junk that came with it.

diabolic-mind

its deffinately a hpi crawler king, im certain of that. i just went through the stuff with a online buddy of mine that does crawling alot and he helped me with some of my concerns. right now it would seem i need a charger, i got a venom 4200mah battery pack. it doesnt fit in the truck but he sas it can be mounted pretty much anyplace until i can get it up and running. it also turns out that im not entirely screwed on the radio gear. there was another radio it came with, an older looking venom 2.4ghz radio, and a little blue reiceiver that doesnt say anything on it, but it has a BIND button. he said he is pretty convinced that i can bind this radio with it so im good there too. so now i need the parts, the 3 axle shafts, and the hub carrier set, and a battery charger.

he also identified what is a old model team losi touring car that was in the mix. its a rolling chassis but i have enough scraps to build it to a point of running minus the battery. so for it im gonna put the AE radio and reciever, and a novak 410 esc in it with a reddy radon 30,000rpm motor per his suggestion. so with that built up im hoping to be able to sell it for atleast enough to cover the parts, and hopefully a decent battery and charger. who knows.

The Mad Modder

A regular wheely king would need the chassis flipped(so the battery holder is in front), locked diffs, stretched wheelbase, and either a higher turn motor or lowered gear ratio. You don't have to worry about those, though, as they are already built into the crawler king. One thing that would help both the regualr and crawler king is mounting the steering servo(s) on the axle(s).


That's good to hear.

SyCo_VeNoM

ahh good there was a 2nd RC so you pretty much need like $25-30 in parts, and a charger
should be able to sell the other one for more than enough to cover what you need

diabolic-mind

yeah, its not a total loss. i gotta dmit last night as i was going through it i was completely discouraged. but luckily i have a friend into crawling to lnd some input. i already got a few hits on the car, i listed it for 50 bucks or best offer. if 25 or 30 is all i need for the replacement parts and i get 50 for it, would 20 25 bucks get me a decent charger?

oh if you guys know a reliable fairly priced online store to get replacement parts and eventually hops ups for my crawler, a link would be GREATLY apprciated.

The Mad Modder

Much of the parts I buy now I get from [link=http://www.rcplanet.com/]rcplanet.com[/link]. They have decent prices and I like their $3 economy shipping.

diabolic-mind

much to my surprise the LHS has all the parts i need in stock. heading there now to pick them up and FINALLY get o drive my crawler! now if i can only figure out this darn 2.4ghz radio lol

diabolic-mind

ITS ALIVE!!!! it needs some minor adjustments here and there, but just took it out for a spin and it crawls. the steering radius is horrible though, i think it needs some major tweaking though. about how fast should it be? i know its a crawler and dont expect it to be fast, but it seems awfully slow right now. id say a bone stock xmod could dpank it in a race. would that be about right for the stock speed? right now it has a 93 tooth spur with a 18 tooth pinion and a 7.2volt battery pack if that helps

The Mad Modder

Yeah, a 2ws 4wd truck with lock diffs is going to have a wide radius. Adding a steering servo to the rear axle for 4ws would fix that.

I'm running a 55t integy lathe motor with 93t spur and 20t pinon. I think it does about 6mph. The low speed is noticeable driving across the yard, but it does have enough wheel speed to help out in some low traction situations. If you want some more speed, I'd bump the pinion up to at least a 20t or 21t. I tried a 18t in mine ,but it was too slow when I put the 55t motor in.

diabolic-mind

ahh! yeah i bought a 22 tooth pinion gear today. havent put it in yet. honestly i am not all about speed. i used to be int ofast cars but the damage caused from high speed wrecks was really costly. now days the crawler seems more suiting cause i can have just as much fun, and not need to pay out the butt for parts (HOPEFULLY). i noticed earlier that the steering turns alot more to the left than the right, so im gonna work on setting it so that it has an equal amount of turning in both directions. i think it is on the servo connection. with all the crap that has happened on this deal, i am extremely happy that i got to drive it today. i tell you it was an absolute joy taking it out for the first time and not getting stuck on anything i tried driving over. cant wait for spring to hit some rocks with it. im sure ill have a balst with it then too.

4ws is definately something i want to do. first off though i really need to relocate the servo. im noticing that there really is alot of play in the steering links, im sure its killing the turning. my one concern is, with the servo mounted on the axle, is it going to effect the articulation? and i set a servo in place there to get an idea of how it would work, and it would appear that i need to move the front left shock to mount it there. is moving the shock required for mounting the servo up front?

diabolic-mind

just discovered one big problem in the steering. in the front axel, not sure what its called, but its the part that rotates for the steering, its where the steering link comes into the front then transfers to the wheels. i noticed that when turning the wheels it had alot of flex. so what i did was drill into the axle a little bit and used a slightly longer screw. doing this means the screw can set into the axle as well. now there is ZERO flex at this part of the steering. there is still alot of wiggle in the steering, but im working to correct that all right now as well. im thinking the best bet is using metal pieces for the steering and eliminating the plastic steering links all together. ill post back after then next round of de-bugin

diabolic-mind

o just noticed today that the servo isnt stock its a savox servo. the serial number on it has "MG" in it which leads me to believe it is a metal gear servo. from what i can tell sofar mounting the servo over the axle will cause it to interfere with the articulation. id like to keep that if possible. today im working on beefing up the stock steering links to reduce the play in it. going well sofar. i was curious if they make a aluminum upgrade for the stock steering setup to give it better control with the stock setup. anyone sen or heard of such a thing?

also im noticing that even with a smaller pinion it doesnt seem to have alot of torque. beng that i have a limited buget what would be the best next step for getting more torque for slimbing? better motor, battery, esc, or simply gearing? right now i have a 93 tooth spur with i believe a 16 tooth pinion. would going to a larger spur and smaller pinion make a noticeable difference in the torque? the motor in it doesnt have a label on it and as far as i can tell it looks to be the stock motor with the label peeled off of it. so suggestions for all of those would be great.

also, the battery pack i am using is a 7.2volt 4200 mah venom power battery.