Wade, I am learning as I go...and like everything else I do, I have a habit of all or nothing as an attitude. For me, the tanks need to be as realistic as I can possibly get them in this scale.Elmod gives me just about everything I need to make it happen for the drive and sounds.
1- 3:1 are most standard in my builds because they are all fighters and they are all very heavy.My PIII is over 12 lbs. KV is over 16 lbs. However the KV is still on standard ratio as the 3:1 have not arrived yet. It still moves after 8 hits in battle. It does have 480 motors in it though.
2- Recoil is usually done via servo and elevation is either servo or a Stug elevation unit, which I like very much for it's ease of installation and solid performance.
3- Again, I like realism and durability on all builds, so I recommend Asiatams hulls for whatever they have available. They utilize torsion bar suspension amnd are much better than using the stock plastic hull. It reduces the risk of cracks at strewss points and makes the tank perform better over rough terrain.As we all know, if you make one thing better, it makes sense to improve other areas. I had built and sold a basi cally stock KV with elmod ECO and it was an amazing runner.I simply prefer more weight in my own tanks. Tamiya is a great option for a build as well.they have a great lower hull setup.
4- Never brother.Ask away!
5- I will add that some of the instructions are not as clear as they could be when it comes to using the configurator. Elmod is working on improving this though. For instance, they have an option to change the gearbox profile. What they do not tell you is by doing this it actually changes all configurations in the elmod unit and is basically a generic tune for a typwe of tank that would use these boxes. So, I never use this option. I tweak each parameter individually,, like acceleration in 1st and 2nd gear, top speed for forward and reverse, recoil speed in and out, etc...and then save the file on the board.this gives much more control over the entire range of the parameters. I highly recommend trying one of the newer boards if you have not used one before.I also recommend trying a higher voltage battery pack like maybe a 9.6v and see the beast come alive. Your older elmod would work mu ch better with one of these packs as well. If you wanted to use anything more, I think it would be a LiPo for space savings. other than that, I think elmod is the future of rc tanking.It gives much more control, versatility and realism than anything else that is available. And they are constantly improving and taking feedback from the customer to make things even better. Of course there are always those that will disagree, and that's fine, but for me it is Elmod all the way.