Aww shoot, here we go again... new crawler build starting soon.

[ABabyEater]

First parts have come in, with plenty more on the way. I'll be building a Vanquish Phoenix Portal kit, with some delightful electronics and a few mods to hopefully make the body stand out a little compared to the rest.

Starting with stock (or near stock) to see how the truck performs, I hope to use it to experiment with tuning shocks, and trying out different shock types. (I'm looking at you, Desert Lizzards)

From left to right:
Castle Copperhead 10, will pull the sensor harness and fan, but I need to find a good way to mount the power switch.

Holmes Hobbies Revolver 540 V2, 2200kv, we will see how the KV works. Maybe too slow, maybe too fast, who knows...

Holmes Hobbies SHV500V3 direct power servo. These things are supposed to be monsters. It'll be my first time playing with a direct power servo.

(Oh yeah, and I picked up one of those huge Arrma pit mats to wrench on)

 

[Doom!]

Going to be watching this one, Phoenix is my next purchase.

 

[ABabyEater]

Going to be watching this one, Phoenix is my next purchase.

Ugh oh, I better now forget to keep posting

 

[tntpoof]

I like the specs on that servo...600+ @ 14..pu another n have 4 ws.

 

[Greywolf74]

The servo has nice numbers but I dont like the thought of my servo performance fluctuating with the lipos charge level. I'm sure the build will be great though!

 

[ABabyEater]

I dont like the thought of my servo performance fluctuating with the lipos charge level.

I totally see where you are coming from, and I had considered that, too. In theory, the servo should still be more than capable enough at 10.5V (LVC for 3S), so it shouldn't matter too much. Hey, learning new things it a lot of the fun in trying new things, too, right?

 

[armykyle1]

Those motors look really cool. I think exo was testing one.

 

[ABabyEater]

Those motors look really cool. I think exo was testing one.

I know @Pat_ranch has a couple that seem to work incredibly well.

 

[Tunedfrog]

Very nice, be sure to post the link in your profile so you can grab a "Build Thread Contributor" banner from your profile page.

 

[ABabyEater]

The next parts have arrived!

I elected to go with micro servos for both transmission shift servos. They are significantly lighter, and don't need to be incredibly powerful to change overdrive rates and engage the dig.

The servos are combined with carbon fiber adapter plates from Bantam shop. They look awfully close to Reefs 99micro, MKS HV93, Savox SV-1232MG, etc. and the advertised specs are fairly decent, so once again, we will see how they do. If anyone can identify the exact model, please let me know, I would be very interested to find out what they really are.

 

[Greywolf74]

Those look like some really tall servos. Not familiar with that brand but they look nice

 

[WickedFog]

Those do look a lot like Reef's.

 

[ABabyEater]

Don't be fooled, the black caps are just anodized aluminum, not plastic. Plus over inoz of torque, and fully waterproof. Seems like a pretty solid couple of servos. Plus, they came with aluminum horns, too! (Although rumor has it to get the linkage geometry perfect, use the Vanquish servo horns)

 

[ABabyEater]

New part day! Mostly all body stuff today.

FJ front grill assembly from Shaka Hobbies. The Phoenix has one of those front ends that looks close enough to recognize, but is different enough to not get sued. It really bugged me, so I fixed it. This is supposed to bolt straight on to the body using the existing hardware, so as a plug and play upgrade it was a no-brainer!

Aaaaand light kits. Let's hope the MyTrickRC one is better than the last thing I purchased from them If it isn't, the Incision kit should be a good fallback. The real plan is to run the MyTrickRC kit and swap the headlights in from the Incision kit, since they are way higher quality buckets. Before you ask, since the Shaka grill is supposed to bolt straight in to the stock buckets, and both light kits are supposed to be straight replacements for the stock buckets, it SHOULD all line up cleanly.

Oh yeah, and a compact driver kit to keep at home indoors rather than at the usual wrenching and storage spot.

 

[Doom!]

Nice, I am debating the Toyota grill, I think it adds a little something but I'm still on the fence.

 

[ABabyEater]

Nice, I am debating the Toyota grill, I think it adds a little something but I'm still on the fence.

As soon as I get the actual kit from AMain (backorder with restock date of Dec 20th, now backorder with no restock date), I can get started and at least proof it up for you to check out. What got me is that Vanquish was clearly trying for the FJ look without being officially licensed

 

[Greywolf74]

Nice upgrades

 

[Doom!]

I've got one on preorder with A-main too.

 

[ABabyEater]

Just got home from the Holiday festivities, and did a little test fitting. It looks like the DG-1 controller may work for the Incision headlights (which are incredible, btw). I'll have to do some current and voltage output testing with a multimeter to make sure the controller won't burn out the headlight, or vice versa, but if they do, man it'll be awesome.

 

[ABabyEater]

More parts!

Servo horns! Vanquish 25T, two are 24mm, and one is 20mm. This is what Vanquish specifically recommends to use with the Phoenix kit for correct linkage alignment on the shift servos and steering servo. They aren't that expensive and Vanquish makes good stuff, so why not?

Oh yeah, and a new set of shocks. I know I will be experimenting with shocks and performance anyways, so I'll build these along with the stock kit, and after running the factory shocks for a bit slap these suckers on. I am curious about running semi-sprung (sprung with some droop), semi-droop (droop with some spring), and mixed (semi-droop in the front, semi-sprung in the back).


Now all that is left is the kit, and paint! (Although I will likely just pick up the paint locally)