Rivas concepts

We have started a scale rock crawling club here in las vegas. Always looking for new people to crawl with. We have a fb page if you want ot follow us, we post pics, dates, and times of events. http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Las...45787525527522. Also we have some cool video of rock crawling around our area, so if you like to see suspension work and tires get punished check it out. http://youtu.be/NlcmLDqqTkothere are several videos on this channel. So if your in the area or have an interest please contact us.

Smiff 24

Looks great, wish I could be there.
Id bring my trusty ole modded cliff climber

diabolic-mind

that looks sooooo fun, i really wish there was a bigger scene in my area for crawlers. i have a feeling that it might be picking up in popularity though. was at the local hobby shop the other day geting some parts. they have a indoor carpet track and i noticed that they made it a little bit smaller. in th back corner there was a area that was tarped off as if it was under construction. i couldnt help myself and peeked inside the tarp. to my shock and aw there was a rock crawling course under construction! it covered an area maybe 20 feet by 10 feet, but had alot of vertical climbs that wrapped up and over itself. once they get it finished im hoping to meet some local crawlers in the shop and possibly get something started like you have

Rivas concepts

You know I am from colorado so its huge out there. When I got tovegas there was a club here that parted ways for whatever reason so I just started my own. Ran craigs list adds put up in the forums that I was looking for people and more and more started coming out. People buy these because they are fun but it loses some of it appeal when you have nobody to go out with. I noticed scale trucks for sale on craigslist all the time so I started there and met a few guys who decided not to sell because now they had people to crawl with. Have you checked out rccrawler that has tons of crawlers and lts of clubs listed in all different areas?

diabolic-mind

ill have to look into that, gonna put an ad on craigslist too. i have seen some crawler in my area for sale, maybe they would keep them if they had some crawlin buddies to drive with. even driving mine alone i have fun. but have a group of trucks og out together would be cool. i got my brother a cheap carson FD xcrawlee to use and we had some fun together. but in the process of trying to follow my crawler king he stripped 2 of the 4 axle cups and they dont sell replacements for it. i repaired them with some metal ones i had sitting around but then it broke the axles lol. nothing as good as hobby grade! but driving mine around alone i almost always have people stop and watch, had a few guys the other day stop with there tractor in amazement that i was climbing over cinder blocks with it. the one guy was interested in geting one until i told him the price tag on one. i think the price is one thing that sets people back, but its a good and certainly fun investment

Rivas concepts

Yea I would drive mine at the park and people would always stop and ask. I always tell them if the y join a rc site and it has a classifieds section they can always shop for a deal. Its not the cheapest thing but its a blast and so much cheaper than building a 1:1. I have found lots of scale stuff for sale in the NY area. Just put your add in the toys n games section saying please do not flag and tell people your looking for people to rock crawl with. You will be suprised. lol

diabolic-mind

yeah i put one up in the activities section on craigslist. hoping to find some rc buddies. its funny cause the most common question people ask me about the truck is, "how fast is it". they seem a bit stunned when i floor it and show them top speed and how slow it is, but i think there even more stunned when it climbs across obstacles that most other rc vehicles would stop dead on. i have two brothers with the xcrawlee toy grade crawler, but trying to get them together to crawl is like trying to boil a pot of water with a bic lighter lol. i just discovered that there is another hobby shop near me and that they do alot of outdoor activities, hoping to find some fellow crawlers to get together with. i would love to get 2 or 3 trucks together and do some videos like yours.

on a side note, i have the HPI crawler king, is this a good starting platform for making a sale crawler, or are scale crawlers more specifically made? im thinking i want to build up a ol school ford bronco with the full cap on the back. any input would be great

Rivas concepts

Really when you build scale its all about look. Some forums and clubs have rules as far as building platforms, some will say it has to have a frame or chassis or tubing for a truggy. I have friends that use ax10 wich is the comp chassis and even the venom creeper for scale trucks. The group I have we try to stay 1.5 or 1.9 wheels but there are 2.2 classes. You just want everything to look in proportion, wheels tires and lift. Hpi crawler king I have seen in scale form and it does take a little bit more work but is by all means doable.

This truck is a venom creeper, just put the body on low and did away with 2.2 tires and wheels and went 1.9. The bodies paint and little details is what makes them look so real. So you can see you can really use any platform.

diabolic-mind

its funny that you mentioned putting the bodies on lower, last night i was looking at my truck (stock land rover defender body) and was thinking i wanted to set it lower. the way it is right now it sits at the max height and it just doesnt look right to me. i gotta re mount my electronics lower so that the body can sit lower. thinking of getting to work on that tonight. i had them out the other day and dropped the body as low as it would go. the tires did rub the body a little bit but it looked so much better being lowered. in your videos i noticed a rope tied to the front that strecthes to the back, what is the purpose of that?

Rivas concepts

You wil actually see that a lot. Its a tow strap. So in a scale comp you option for self recovery meaning you can manage to drive it out back to its wheels. Or you have the option of a winch like 3racing or bulldog or even a servo winch, if you dont have one your guide or spotter can use the tow strap to help you. There is always option of another truck or LAST resort is hand of god and you simply grab your truck and place it right side up or out of bad situation yuo have found yourself in lol. Rules vary so you can make your own. lol its just fun. I will post a link to video footage of our comp tomorrow.

As far as body it does look scale when body sits right. Even my k-5 blazer rubs on body a tiny bit but its also on 1.9 boggers which are pretty big tires. But its suppose to replicate a huge lifted blazer somebody would build to take on the rocks. lol

diabolic-mind

yeah most cases i avoid going over and grabbing the truck, if i can drive it out or there is any chance i can drive it out ill sit there for 5 minutes working it out. my brother on the other hand is the opposite, the first sign on it getting stuck and he goes and moves it. whenever he does i tell him he is cheating lol.

if i went to a smaller size wheel would it be safe to say it would give me more torque? also would removing th weights from th wheels help with torque or does the wheel weight not really make a big difference? i know its a great help for steep inclines but most of the time i drive it on trails that arent very steep.

Rivas concepts

I hav noticed a smaller wheel gives me more torque but I lost wheel speed. I am a huge fan of wheel weights, it keeps the traction on the ground. More weight in the front than rear.
Here is short video of a bonus gate on our comp series.http://youtu.be/HMdNMPwa2o0

diabolic-mind

great video, i like that little wiggle the wheel trick you did at the begining to get the truck to shift down onto the ledge, im going to have to give that a try. i to am using wheel weights, i have 150 grams in each of my front tires right now, plus i also shifted the battery forward about 2 inches. with those two things alone i took it out for a run on some spots where i was having trouble before and it crawled right through no problems. im thinking of disconnecting all the cells in my battery pack and re aranging it so that instead of it being a long stick cell pack, having them all in a brick, or cube arangement. doing this i can have more of the batteries weight in the front. i had thought about mounting the battery right on the front axle but dont like the look of it, plus with my steering servo mounted on the front axle there wouldnt be much room

Rivas concepts

Thats it, just play with the weight a little and you will see the changes in your rig.!

diabolic-mind

the biggest things i noticed were moving the battery forward which greatly improved the climbing, and mounting the steering servo on the axle, which allows me to actually turn the dang thing. i was shocked with the difference between stock and the custom servo mount.

Rivas concepts

The frame mounted servo is way more scale but you lose some turning radius that way. I have a high torque servo so it even flexes the frame when I turn.

diabolic-mind

yeah if there was a way of keeping the servo mounted in the stock location and have the same turning radius i have with it on the axle then i would have left it there. the main thing i dislike about the servo being on the axle is that i lost a little bit of articulation in the front because it hits the battery box.

Rivas concepts

Doing an expedition scale outing on dec 18th at 11 30 am. at sunrise mtn for anyone who wants to join in.

diabolic-mind

after seeing your videos im tempted to get a plane ticket to nevada lol

diabolic-mind

here my latest video

http://youtu.be/H2nD75u6pKw

Rivas concepts

I checked  out your video and left a comment. That looks pretty capable u could run with us for sure..!

diabolic-mind

yeah it feels alot more capable now than it did before. i wish there was a way to identify what the old motor in it was, but there arent any marking on it. but i have a feling that the motor i got it with wasnt a stock crawler motor. ive been tinkering with it a little more lately. i re configured the layout of my battery cells so that it can sit even farther forward and a little bit lower. seems to have made a dramatic impact on its roll stability. i also discovered that the guy i got it from had added nearly an inch of fuel line tubing to the inside on each shock to lower the trucks ride height. im trying to decide if i should leave it as is or remove it for a little more ground clearance.

Rivas concepts

http://youtu.be/6E8x6CGNgDs

diabolic-mind

great video man, i love the section at 4:20. your lucky to have such a great place to crawl. id love to have access to that.

completely off subject but i spotted this video and have to share it, i find it rather hilarious!

http://youtu.be/mDjOd_LRYJA

diabolic-mind

did something strange today. most of my time in the rc hobby reducing weight was always a factor for better performance. however with crawling it seems the opposite is true. after a discussion with a friend of mine last night i discovered that i could actually use ALOT more weight in my truck. so today on top of what i already had for added weight to my truck i gather as many pennies as i could find and did the following. added 12 pennies total in stacks of 6 to the front and read axles, 6 on the left 6 on the right, added 12 to each front wheel 24 total on the front wheels, and 6 to each rear wheel, 12 total.

he tells methat he runs about 1 pound of weights in each wheel on his crawler, so i figured adding more weight might help with my truck wanting to roll over so often. another idea im pondering is what if i were to add BB's to ech wheel and let them roll freely inside each wheel. would this be a advantage or disadvantage? i myself dont have foams in my wheels because i wanted them much softer, and i think it would be an advantage in that with the BB's rolling freely inside the tire the weight would always be at the lowest point possible. any input would be great