Extreme Newbie question

[freedomflyer]

I'll pass that onto him!

 

[freedomflyer]

Unbelievably busy summer and fall. Hate that. Know what's coming next and not real thrilled. Supposed to be 7 degrees next Friday. Right now I'm in the Black Hills in South Dakota. A bit of a recharge trip for my wife and I. Opportunity to come down and use my wife's cousins 2nd home. Zero cost to us other than fuel and of course missed time off from work. Ok........it's costing us a lot of money!
We just needed a break. Great Opportunity for my wife to see her mom and to have some down time. Was able to take our crawlers along and get a bit of time out today. Drove at Sylvan Lake about 23 miles south west of Mount Rushmore. Pretty cool area, wished we could've spent more time there, but was driving the mom in law around. Was a beautiful day and my wife got her first taste of some actual crawling. Could not believe how intrigued my mother in law was with the crawlers. She thought they were pretty realistic, especially the Defender. Black Hills are a pretty cool area. Down here for 3 more days hope to get out again, the big rocks are fun for her.

 

[Doom!]

Awesome, glad you guys got some time to relax, looks like a beautiful area.

 

[Jamr]

The power of RC. Even for the in-laws!
Awesome shots!

 

[freedomflyer]

It was great, although surely not enough time. Should have known better when we go to see her family. Our time away usually means nothing, I get it, sort of, but it would be nice to have had at least 2 out of the 5 days away to ourselves. Driving the trucks was more of a tease drive than anything. I surely saw some great areas to drive for next time. I know the objective is for the 2 of us to drive, but she can spend the time with her mom and sister and I'll spend the day crawling. The rocks in the Black Hills are perfect for it. I got a pretty big chuckle out of her mom (84) giggling at my Defender, she kept saying she expected it to stop and some little guy to get out of it. She could not get over the realism of how it drove especially over the rougher terrain. Winter is coming and have a feeling it's going to be another Doozey. More cold weather driving I'm afraid.

 

[k10trx4]

Have the Trx4 Defender and was suggested to me to do a couple of upgrades.
1, change out the steering servo and 2, drop in a brushless motor.
I was looking at the Traxxas 2255 waterproof metal geared servo but was told that was overkill. That the Feetech 35kg servo would be sufficient.
It was then suggested that if I was going to put in a brushless motor that I put in the Hobbywing quicrun fusion. I read that it has very strong BEC, not sure what BEC is. Is this something that is going to cause issues for the stock radio system and/or this other Feetech servo that I would put in? And if I add a light system is that going to add issues? I just don't know enough about this stuff yet. Any information and advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. FF

Don't forget if you have the 2 speed and unlocks diffs they can only handle 6 volts so if you get a 7.4 volt steering servo u still can only run at 6 volts unless you get a separate external bec.

 

[freedomflyer]

Well, I was finally able to get out with my friends tonight, had been quite a stretch between South Dakota and tonight. Was a great time, snow was very challenging, especially mixed in on the rock course. My Defender performed extremely well with added brass inner front portal housings and brass portal drive castor blocks. Also added steel welded side sliders. Snow had crust but when you broke through it was like sugar, no traction. Was out for 4 hours in 24°, didn't even realize it. Still can't get over how long these batteries last.

 

[Doom!]

Looks like a good time to me!

 

[Tunedfrog]

Looks like a ton of fun.

 

[WickedFog]

Unbelievably busy summer and fall. Hate that. Know what's coming next and not real thrilled. Supposed to be 7 degrees next Friday. Right now I'm in the Black Hills in South Dakota. A bit of a recharge trip for my wife and I. Opportunity to come down and use my wife's cousins 2nd home. Zero cost to us other than fuel and of course missed time off from work. Ok........it's costing us a lot of money!
We just needed a break. Great Opportunity for my wife to see her mom and to have some down time. Was able to take our crawlers along and get a bit of time out today. Drove at Sylvan Lake about 23 miles south west of Mount Rushmore. Pretty cool area, wished we could've spent more time there, but was driving the mom in law around. Was a beautiful day and my wife got her first taste of some actual crawling. Could not believe how intrigued my mother in law was with the crawlers. She thought they were pretty realistic, especially the Defender. Black Hills are a pretty cool area. Down here for 3 more days hope to get out again, the big rocks are fun for her.

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You have way more than your fair share of rocks. Bring me some! Looks like a great bunch of big kids having fun. So jealous.

 

[Willy0942]

It was recommended for you to go brushless, but... what are you actually doing with your Defender? For just bashing around, light crawling, and trail running I have found the stock motor/esc to be plenty in 3S. If you want more "slow control" then the fusion would be great.

Brushless is cool and all but even the hobbywing 1080 is a great option to pair with the stock motor and it is $43

https://www.amainhobbies.com/hobbyw...brushed-crawling-esc-23s-hwa30120202/p1466194

1080 is definitely best bang for the buck then you can get holmes hobbies 550 sport motor 13 turn, good thing to start with and a cheap 25g or 35g amazon servo. I have this setup in two of my rigs and love it. If no budget the sky is the limit. Look up the things on YouTube with it. People spend some serious money on these rigs.

 

[freedomflyer]

Close to getting my new winch up and going. Had to get a different bumper, bought an Injora metal adjustable bumper I bought the warn 8274 so figured I'd better get something substantial enough. Bumper finally showed up so started the installation process to get the adjustment right. Ran into issues right away with winch fit between bumper and grill. The winch is a pretty tall and about ¼" too wide, I had to adjust the horizontal grill bars for height and also to make room for access to the winch freespool button. I also had to add spacers and modify the bumper mount. Mounted it to make sure everything fits before final installation and running wires.

 

[Doom!]

Looks great!

 

[freedomflyer]

Well, I think I'm finally done investing in my Defender. Not sure what else I want to do to it, maybe a few more lightweight asthetics but have added as much weight as I think I should. Winch is up and going, I added a retractable bungee cord to help pull anyone behind me. It fully retracts into the body. Ordered a brass kit for low weight, total of 1.87 lbs. Took a while to install and removed other brass pieces I previously installed so it was all the same company. Everything fit fine but I had to modify the interior of both of the differential covers to in order for the shifting of the lockers to work. Wasn't that hard, just frustrating that the tolerances were so tight and that I had to even mess with it. With all weights installed, it weighs in at 12.87 lbs. with a 5000 mah battery. Looking forward to getting back out to my buddy's to see how it does. I know it will help because of the the high profile.

 

[Xraycer]

Well, I think I'm finally done investing in my Defender. Not sure what else I want to do to it, maybe a few more lightweight asthetics but have added as much weight as I think I should. Winch is up and going, I added a retractable bungee cord to help pull anyone behind me. It fully retracts into the body. Ordered a brass kit for low weight, total of 1.87 lbs. Took a while to install and removed other brass pieces I previously installed so it was all the same company. Everything fit fine but I had to modify the interior of both of the differential covers to in order for the shifting of the lockers to work. Wasn't that hard, just frustrating that the tolerances were so tight and that I had to even mess with it. With all weights installed, it weighs in at 12.87 lbs. with a 5000 mah battery. Looking forward to getting back out to my buddy's to see how it does. I know it will help because of the the high profile.

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Looking for more challenges: how about clear windows and windshields?

 

[freedomflyer]

Hmmm, not sure I want to go there yet.