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a couple years ago my friend bought me a RTR 1/10 2WD ECX Ruckus. he was into RC, I was not, and I had badly broken my leg in a motorcycle accident and was looking at years of reconstructive surgeries and downtime. Quite frankly, I was depressed and borderline suicidal. It turned out to be a good way for me to exercise my 2 big dogs despite my limited mobility, I put an Arrma 12T brushed motor in it and a better battery and it went back in the box after about 2 years when I started to make serious strides in moving again.
Fast forward and my son just turned 3, we are cleaning out the attic and I see the box, it's been up here for years I need to take this down and get rid of it but figured maybe he'd like it. He had no idea how to drive it, but he thought it was *HILARIOUS* to chase it around and have him chase it. I would throw a ball and he and Ruckus would run to see who could get the ball first. He still talks to it like he thinks it's a dog and it comes to the park to "walk" the trails with us just like our 2 dogs. I have an extensive history with modifying and racing 1:1 cars and motorcycles (how my injury occurred), and when I realized it couldn't outrun the dogs, started modifying it. It is now a 3674, 10bl120, fully built rig on Prolines. His grandpa is a big slot car racer and custom painted/stickered a Paw Patrol body for him.
Build thread here:
https://www.ecxforum.com/threads/95pgttech-1-10-2wd-ecx-ruckus-build.3270/
83 posts and a couple hundred pics if you're bored
He started driving, and we quickly realized the limitations of a 2WD truck for what we do (grass). I was really leaning towards a Slash 4x4, but a good deal came up for a very rare 1/10 ECX Ruckus 4WD. The body is maybe his favorite part of all of this, so I did a few YouTube searches, saw it did pretty well back in the day head to head against a Slash, and bought it. Boy, did I not do enough research into the aftermarket for these things. Being that ECX got shut down a few years ago, and there were so few 1/10 4WDs produced in the first place, there is quite literally a handful of parts out there for this thing. We did some basic aluminum parts as we could find them (knuckles, hubs, etc) and basically just threw a good 2S in it and drove it, and LOVED it compared to the 2WD. One day, he got it stuck in high grass and just laid on the throttle and ended up sending a front CVD to the moon. Completely unavailable. No amazon, no eBay, no ECX forums, no FB groups, no alibaba, nothing. Shelf queen.
We tried a few CVDs from other 1/10 RC based on exploded diagrams and the little information available, but no dice. We also tried combining parts from each, no dice. Eventually I made the call to try and swap to Slash telescoping axles like we had done in the 2WD. What we ended up eventually doing was using Slash spider gears and planetaries inside the ECX differential and the ECX differential housing to get the Slash style diff output. Which then allowed us to use the Slash axle, but that required the slash knuckle, and caster block, and control arm, and and and and and...it ended up being a 3S 100c max 10 SCT 4000kv on Proline Badlands. The only remaining stock parts on it are the chassis, the diff housings, the slipper clutch, and the body posts. We started chasing speed, our best on grass was 42mph while shredding a ring and pinion, put a 4S in it for awhile, and just blew stuff up...an ESC, a motor, slipper clutch, and then differentials. More parts that are unobtanium, and back to shelf queen, and back to driving the reliable wheelie monster 2WD every day.
Build thread here:
https://www.ecxforum.com/threads/1-10-4wd-build.3326/
100 posts, pic intense
Which brings us to where we are at today. I have to get rid of the differentials in their entirety. Ring and pinions simply aren't available anymore, and the damage suggests it's a metallury issue. A few older threads show this has been a problem from the start for these on 3S. I also have to get rid of the slipper that we've been fighting every step of the way - we think we solved it by doing some machining and converting it to a triple disk, but if this one were ever to break a replacement simply doesn't exist.
After a few weeks of research (literally every commonly commercially available 1/10 and 1/8 parts diagram), and ordering *literally* ten different differential housings to see what could fit this chassis, we've decided on Traxxas stuff. Nothing was even remotely close to the bolt hole pattern of the chassis, so it really became what fits dimensionally the best and redrill it. I had to slightly modify the chassis and bolted slightly modified XO-1 front and rear bulkheads, to which standard Traxxas 4x4 housings mate. I have an Arrma 6S motor and center diff mount on hand that is the frontrunner for that job, I'm waiting for some parts to get in so I can locate the center diff in such a way I can use off-the-shelf length axles. The reason I'm moving the build thread focus over to this forum is I think I've "outgrown" the ECX forum both in terms of lack of activity and there is so little ECX to this thing anymore that the experience of those outside that brand would probably be more helpful.
Fast forward and my son just turned 3, we are cleaning out the attic and I see the box, it's been up here for years I need to take this down and get rid of it but figured maybe he'd like it. He had no idea how to drive it, but he thought it was *HILARIOUS* to chase it around and have him chase it. I would throw a ball and he and Ruckus would run to see who could get the ball first. He still talks to it like he thinks it's a dog and it comes to the park to "walk" the trails with us just like our 2 dogs. I have an extensive history with modifying and racing 1:1 cars and motorcycles (how my injury occurred), and when I realized it couldn't outrun the dogs, started modifying it. It is now a 3674, 10bl120, fully built rig on Prolines. His grandpa is a big slot car racer and custom painted/stickered a Paw Patrol body for him.
Build thread here:
https://www.ecxforum.com/threads/95pgttech-1-10-2wd-ecx-ruckus-build.3270/
83 posts and a couple hundred pics if you're bored
He started driving, and we quickly realized the limitations of a 2WD truck for what we do (grass). I was really leaning towards a Slash 4x4, but a good deal came up for a very rare 1/10 ECX Ruckus 4WD. The body is maybe his favorite part of all of this, so I did a few YouTube searches, saw it did pretty well back in the day head to head against a Slash, and bought it. Boy, did I not do enough research into the aftermarket for these things. Being that ECX got shut down a few years ago, and there were so few 1/10 4WDs produced in the first place, there is quite literally a handful of parts out there for this thing. We did some basic aluminum parts as we could find them (knuckles, hubs, etc) and basically just threw a good 2S in it and drove it, and LOVED it compared to the 2WD. One day, he got it stuck in high grass and just laid on the throttle and ended up sending a front CVD to the moon. Completely unavailable. No amazon, no eBay, no ECX forums, no FB groups, no alibaba, nothing. Shelf queen.
We tried a few CVDs from other 1/10 RC based on exploded diagrams and the little information available, but no dice. We also tried combining parts from each, no dice. Eventually I made the call to try and swap to Slash telescoping axles like we had done in the 2WD. What we ended up eventually doing was using Slash spider gears and planetaries inside the ECX differential and the ECX differential housing to get the Slash style diff output. Which then allowed us to use the Slash axle, but that required the slash knuckle, and caster block, and control arm, and and and and and...it ended up being a 3S 100c max 10 SCT 4000kv on Proline Badlands. The only remaining stock parts on it are the chassis, the diff housings, the slipper clutch, and the body posts. We started chasing speed, our best on grass was 42mph while shredding a ring and pinion, put a 4S in it for awhile, and just blew stuff up...an ESC, a motor, slipper clutch, and then differentials. More parts that are unobtanium, and back to shelf queen, and back to driving the reliable wheelie monster 2WD every day.
Build thread here:
https://www.ecxforum.com/threads/1-10-4wd-build.3326/
100 posts, pic intense
Which brings us to where we are at today. I have to get rid of the differentials in their entirety. Ring and pinions simply aren't available anymore, and the damage suggests it's a metallury issue. A few older threads show this has been a problem from the start for these on 3S. I also have to get rid of the slipper that we've been fighting every step of the way - we think we solved it by doing some machining and converting it to a triple disk, but if this one were ever to break a replacement simply doesn't exist.
After a few weeks of research (literally every commonly commercially available 1/10 and 1/8 parts diagram), and ordering *literally* ten different differential housings to see what could fit this chassis, we've decided on Traxxas stuff. Nothing was even remotely close to the bolt hole pattern of the chassis, so it really became what fits dimensionally the best and redrill it. I had to slightly modify the chassis and bolted slightly modified XO-1 front and rear bulkheads, to which standard Traxxas 4x4 housings mate. I have an Arrma 6S motor and center diff mount on hand that is the frontrunner for that job, I'm waiting for some parts to get in so I can locate the center diff in such a way I can use off-the-shelf length axles. The reason I'm moving the build thread focus over to this forum is I think I've "outgrown" the ECX forum both in terms of lack of activity and there is so little ECX to this thing anymore that the experience of those outside that brand would probably be more helpful.
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