Axial - Project 2.0

[Webbage]

After consulting this forum (well, Charlie at least, he seems to be the don ) and a couple of others, I've been overwhelmingly swayed to buy an Axial AX-10. I didn't originally want to as everyone and his dog has one but you get the impression there's a very good reason *why* once you look into it

Soooo... I'm putting in an order with CKRC tomorrow for an AX-10 kit, an Integy 55T motor, a Castle Sidewinder ESC and a Castle-Link USB lead for the PC. That's all I can afford for starters.

I'll keep you updated when the stuff arrives. It'll probably take awhile to cross the pond from the USA.

I plan on narrowing the chassis, installing alu top mounts/servo plate, bent links, changing the Cs and Knuckles for all alu jobs (saves snapping the buggers off when I get wedged) and installing a high-torque servo. It'll all be run off a 3s 11.1V LiPo pack. Currently I'll be using the ProLine FlatIron tyres I already have (as they are on Axial Rims) and probably eventually stump up for some Losi Rock Claws to go with them.

This is a comp rig and my aim is to make it as capable as possible.

 

[slowngreen]

cool beans yo, hope u like it.

 

[CharliesTheMan]

You can buy the towerpro servos on your side of the pond. The MG 946R and MG995 are not the best digital servos on the market, but they're nearly twice as strong as the HiTec 645 MG, at 210 oz/in I belive. The cost around $12 shipped, and I have one that I've done some serious testing on to try and break it and I haven't been able to. You did an excellent job with your order. When you order the aluminum axle parts, RCP has the best there are. There's are specially designed different from the rest and allow the axle to have a much better turning radius. I'm glad to hear you got the axial. I know a lot of people have them, but what you will realize is that the suspension and setup is so different in crawers unlike other types of RC's, is that if you give 100 people the axial kit, they will build it 100 different ways. Once you get your kit built, there are a lot of great mods that you can build that wont cost you anything. Let me know before you buy your skid, I have a guy that makes them unlike any other skid on the market, and he has a batch coming out next week. The skid eliminates the toqrque twist that some people have a lot of problems with.

 

[Webbage]

Oh I'll be hitting you up for all sorts of tips once I get it, don't you worry

 

[CharliesTheMan]

Man your about to experience a whole new world, so you better be ready, welcome to the dark side!

 

[alpinehyperlite]

Hell yea, roped in another one.

 

[CharliesTheMan]

Nothing like some good old peer pressure, he's about to have the first day of the rest of his life with this new crawler.

 

[Webbage]

You can cram your peer pressure

I did the math and worked out it'd be more cost effective to base it off an AX-10, I was holding out for ever not to but in the end common sense prevailed

Are there any essentials I need to change (other than those listed above) that I've overlooked?

 

[CharliesTheMan]

getting your battery lowered and installing the CKRC stage 2 kit (it's like $30 and comes with the bent links) is the first thing that I would do. Next, mount your electronics down low, I have mine on my upper links but there are tons of ways to do it. That will have you off to a really good start. After moving the battery down low, and extending the upper links (which is what the stage 2 does), I would put a set of driveshafts on. I think that's one of the first mods you need to do, or else all that power from 3S LiPo is going to have you frustrated out on the rocks.

 

[slowngreen]

so when are u supposed to get it? i know i couldnt wait to get mine, checked the tracking number every 5 minutes ha ha.

 

[Radron]

It looks like you've about got it covered,except for the best part & that's what the AX10 will give you...FUN, FUN, FUN!!! Glad you've seen the light side! LOL!!

 

[CharliesTheMan]

I was thinking of something today that I forgot to mention. After you get it built and get the battery down low and the stage 2 mods done, I HIGHLY reccomend that drive it like it is a good bit before you do anything. It's a completely different animal from the wheely king, and if you drive it and get used to it in its stock form, you will know how changes are affecting the rig. Since you'll be familiar with how it handled before you got crazy with it, you will see how the changes affect the handling, and since you will instantly see the difference, you will be learning how to fine tune your ride and how the change the handling to get it to do what you want it to do, all while you're building it up. If you make too many changes before you get a lot of trigger time, you wont have that understandiung of how each part affects the rest of the rig, and wont know where to start adjusting when you want to fine tune it. I have one crawler that's pretty much in stock form, and it is strictly for testing parts. That gives me a constant in the situation, and I can see which parts provide me with the changes I was hoping for.

 

[Webbage]

The sucker finally got here. It's taken almost 2 weeks and cost me a fortune in customs, but I have it now

I also located some lightly used Rock Claws and a XC-1 body NIB for it from the UK forums, meaning I'm not gonna have to use that fuggly stock body shell or those ropey Rock Lizard tyres

Looking forward to getting started but I've got to sort my room out, and my work bench first, as I had to tear it apart so we could fix a wiring fault under the floor. I've got a shedload of crap to move back so I'm not likely to start it for a few evenings :\

When you order the aluminum axle parts, RCP has the best there are. There's are specially designed different from the rest and allow the axle to have a much better turning radius.

A question. Someone told me the dog bones pop out if you use the high clearance RCP knuckles, and that CVD axles are required to keep drive. I read somewhere else MIP's CVD drives are junk and break easily. Do you have any recommendations regarding this problem?

 

[Mattyfats420]

the problem I've had with MIP CVDs is that the grub would come loose causing the pin to fall out and have it come disconnected.

i dont know if anyone has a solution to this problem. if they do, let me know!

this problem was with my revo at high RPMs i dont know if you will get the same kind of RPMs with a crawler. you might be alright

 

[Webbage]

A ton of people had the MIP CVD axles bend pins and fall apart on them. A couple even had them break the tubes also. I have discovered however that Axial do their own CVD axles which are a bit tougher

 

[CharliesTheMan]

If you get the CVD's, you only need two of them if you do a lock out in the rear and straight axle conversion, which is a really nice upgrade. Kurt and I went in on halves with the MIP set since we each only needed two. With the crawlers, if they are set up right, the MIP's are holding up nicely. Mattyfats, we don't seem to have the problem nearly as frequently in the crawler world as you're talking about, mainly because of the RPM's that we're turning (at least I think that's part of the reason). If I were you, I would upgrade to the MIP driveshafts before I worry about the CVD's. The stock axles are quite strong, and I think the driveshaft upgrade is needed MUCH more than the CVD upgrade. I reccomend going with the heavy duty lockers and heavy duty ring and pinion if you can afford it to start with, and once you get all your other stuff done then you can get the MIP CVD's for the front axle, but I think there's a lot more upgrades to worry about before the axle CVD's.

If you plan to run dig, MIP now has a shortened driveshaft out thats available through thunder tech racing, or you can buy the set, that will work with the DNA (formerly VF) digs. I'm going to be running a DNA dig until I get something better, just because I think it's the best option. The customer service from the designer has been REALLY poor though, and he has intentionally lied to his customers and vendors, which pisses me off beyond words. BUT, there isn't anything else out that is a workable option for me, and I absolutely REFUSE to run anything from Stage 3 Racing.

Britt, I'm running a giveaway for a beautiful set of STRC rear axle lockouts and straight axle conversion.

 

[JJcrawler]

how does a skid plate eliminate torque twist??

 

[CharliesTheMan]

Anytime you completely change the suspension geometry you directly affect the handling of the crawler.

 

[Webbage]

Oh man what a day. I finally got it built up, but ye lords and little fishes, it didn't make life easy. Although the whole kit is easy to put together and goes together real well, Axial dropped the ball in a couple of places IMHO.

They left putting the lock-out arms on the back axle until you have the whole thing built up with the chassis. That meant I had to hold the entire thing up in the air to clamp the ball joints in the vice

Also they left fitting the motor to the tranny until last. It's very hard to keep a washer on a screw when you have to align it vertically looking downwards. Then when you drop it it sticks to the motor. Would have been MUCH easier if they'd told you to fit that when you had the tranny on the bench!

Oh then I got in a faff with the pins for the wheel hexes. They provide 4 for hte body mounts and 4 for the axels and I got the body mount ones on the axle and couldn't work out why the hexes didn't fit. DOH!

Then it came to the electronics. Joy. I had to solder a Deans onto the ESC, which was nerve-wracking as hell, then one onto the stick pack (clipped off the Tamiya one) which just hurt a lot (burned fingers ahoy!) because the wires were real short and I couldn't hold them straight with pliers. It was only after doing both these I realised I'd soldered the male Deans on the Battery and the Female on the ESC. Whoops. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to make a male-male splice if I want to use a pre-plug-fitted battery pack (from what I've seen, batteries are usually female), which I can use later to take off power when I install the BEC.

So I got everything wired up eventually, and fired up the radio set and the ESC. I calibrated it according to the Drivers Ed, but it was screwed up to hell. I couldn't work out what was wrong. I decided to snoop on it using the Castle Link, but that had a lot of excess baggage of it's own...
Because I have a Mac (thankfully it's an Intel powered one), I had to do a full install of Windows inside a virtual Machine. That took, well as long as installing Windows (i.e. forever). I then had to install the Castle Link software twice because I screwed it up the first time. Then I couldn't get it to talk to the link cable, until I rebooted Windows. Finally that worked and I discovered the ESC comes set for a Brushless motor. That explained that... Once I got it working I fell in love with it though, it's soooo tunable and having it all on screen on the computer rocks, especially for fooling wit hthe throttle curves

Anyway, I've hastily Zip-tied the ESC and receiver to the chassis, and strapped a stick pack on one side just so I could have a goof around and boy an I impressed by the climbing power. I gotta work on getting the electronics set in the right place now though. I particularly have a problem with where to put a 6-cell stick pack (I've gotta use it until I can order the Charger, BEC and Battery).

I'm on holiday now until Thursday. Have a good week y'all!

 

[CharliesTheMan]

Hey man, get a female on that battery as soon as possible. If you leave a male connection on it, the exposed metal from the connector will touch other metal stuff if you aren't really careful, which will cause it to arc out and could ruin the battery, or maybe cause more problems than that. I had a battery kaboom, and I would advise being REALLY careful. The things like the motor mounting to the tranny are things that you will learn and be able to improve on when you take it apart next time.

A lot of people temporarily mount the stick pack on the front upper links with it sticking out over the axle and servo some. For the electronics, I use heavy duty velcro so that I can move stuff around on the truck, swap stuf between crawlers, etc... I always use the same side of the velcro on the truck, that way you wont have an issue with having something with the wrong side of the velcro to match up (talking about the male/female side of the velcro)