RC Crawling

Anyone else been afflicted by this obsession?

I know there's already a tamiya thread, but I'm far more interested in 'driving' than modeling and I don't have a tamiya.

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I've always thought this was extremely cool but never gotten around to it. Definitely keen for more RC crawling content in my life though.

I meant to reply to this a couple of days ago... I've been down the RC crawler rabbit hole a few times, but never pulled the trigger as I know I either wouldn't use one enough, or would end up ragging it like any RC buggy and try to do jumps with it somehow ..

That said, I'm about to move house to near a wood, and you can pick up second hand Axial SCXs (is that what the one in the photo is?) on eBay for reasonable money, so maybe...

I have a crawler (Carisma SCA-1E with Range Rover body), which I am yet to use in anger. It arguably needs a lower turn motor in there to give it a little more wheel speed.

Can share photos later...

Don't get me started... It's a slippery slope.
My advice is get a 2nd hand one, cause you will replace everything on it anyway for better parts or brass, lots of brass 😵‍💫

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No offense but always seemed like a netherworld of hobbies to me. I loved RC stuff when I was a kid, but was more into gliders, fast buggies and dabbled in planes.

this is mega!

I was always into nitro cars and trucks. But weirdly this slow rc stuff is hilariously fun. I never thought I'd spend 6 hours driving up a river bank, but here we are.

I'll try and write the list of mods it's had from when I first had it, without adding it up 😂

I quite fancy one of those Carismas, they look lovely.

All my RCs are Tamiyas. I have CC02 trail car which is not ideal for crawling, but I have modded it for an axle mounted servo to eliminate bump steer and upgraded a few parts to alloy to give greater strength. I've also put on beadlock rims and some softer crawling tyres.

So I'd be interested in seeing how it would do now.

That is lovely.

Glad it's not just me. I've got an FTX tracker, which has been a great 10th scale car. 2 speed, locking difs looks great.

I've added some brass and a lightbar (but have killed the lights unit so currently have none).

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Also have an FCX24 and my 4 year old has an absima 18th scale jeep.

4 year old also has a mongrel ftx kanyon with an outlaw body and wheels. It is terrible.

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Cheers. I really want to change the body for a pickup, cause the pajero is a bit too tall really.

This is everything I can remember.

Traxxas Trx4 Kit Version (Comes with 2 speed gearbox and remote locking differentials and you get the fun of building it from scratch)

Carisma SCA-1E XL Pajero Body Shell (very cut down to clear the wheels and approach angles)

Fastrax Aluminium Motor Mount

Traxxas 9t Pinion gear (to drop the speed down)

Traxxas Diff Spools (to permanently lock both diffs)

Hobbywing Quinrun Fusion 1800kv Motor (Turns so bloody slowly it's ridiculous, also has the esc built in, waterproof with a 7.4v BEC output.)

Custom led light bars (super bright, run off the receiver and modified to work with the remote switch that used to lock the diffs)

SRT W45 Waterproof steering servo (standard traxxas servo is about 9kg of torque, this is 45kg and can run at 8.4v)

Jumper cable to run servo direct from the battery.

Yeah Racing Low Centre Gravity Battery Plate.

Injora Deep Dish steel bead lock rims (these also have 60g of weights glued in the front wheels)

Injora Underdrive gears 10/35t (dropping the speed down even more, I may overdrive the front to help with climbing soon)

Injora Dual Stage Foams

And then Brassssss lots of brass.

Injora Front bumper with servo mount (moves weight forward and down lower)

Injora suspension chassis links.

Injora Outer and Inner portal housings.

Injora C knuckles.

Injora 12mm Hex extenders (wider track)

With all the brass, roughly it's added around 1kg over the front axle which really helps it climb steep ground without looping out.

Great photos above! Surely that's got to be one of the most satisfying bits, taking hilarious perspective photos?

I'm thinking of trying the fusion Se as I find my stock set up a tad jerky. Especially the reverse.

Did you gain any top speed?

I looked at the event page for Southern Scale Trail (that you posted on the Tamiya thread a while ago) and it looked great (and surprisingly close to me!).

It was so so good. I was there 3 hours and did less than half of the trails. There were two 100 gate courses in the woods alone.

I'm not sure, 2nd gear on it still has a fair bit of go in it. But then it's all geared down so hard to say.

Low end and reverse is ultra smooth though, it's definitely worth the upgrade. If I built another I'd go for the 2200kv though, bit more money but even slower and smoother on the throttle.

I'm probably going to buy my son a new car for Christmas. 10th scale so we can both go out. Ideally yellow... (he only likes yellow).

I'm really tempted by the aliexpress special trx4 bronco knock off

I'd quite like something that is decent enough that I can also lend to mates when little one isn't with me.

https://youtu.be/lthlR183jJc?si=CJc91ybA34kXnlF2

I think il keep the stock pinion as I like the trailing speed. Plus unlocked diffs makes doing donuts fun

I'm actually slightly tempted by that - assuming it could take TRX4 upgrades (which you'd probably end up getting stuck into at some point anyway, given the example list from @CollinsCycleWorks above)

This is the SCA-1E.

80turn Spektrum motor and the crawler-specific Hobbywing ESC which allows you to adjust the drag brake on the fly.

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That looks great!