Extreme Newbie question

[WickedFog]

We actually had a good servo in the Deadbolt. Not great, but it worked. The one that came in the C10 though, it wouldn't steer a feather in a light breeze.

 

[freedomflyer]

Yeah the servo that was in my C10 was extremely weak, fine on flat floor but would not steer under any pressure with these new wheels and tires.

 

[Doom!]

Most of my stock servos were ok, until I started adding weight, then they underperformed.

 

[freedomflyer]

That's why I ended up getting that Holmes Hobbies direct power brushless SHV650 metal geared servo for my Defender, didn't want to mess around with that as I upgrade.

 

[freedomflyer]

Picked up my fusion motor today, need to find the time for install. Life is busy.

 

[Xraycer]

Picked up my fusion motor today, need to find the time for install. Life is busy.

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Solid choice! Love mine in my Redcat Scout!

 

[freedomflyer]

Well, went to a friend's last night and was able to get the last of my goodies installed in the Defender. The previous even was spent installing the Traxxas light kit. Pretty sure if I had that as a do over would do something different. Bought the #8090 light kit, not impressed. "IF" I wanted to have turn signals, which I don't, why would the make that function work when you turn the wheels? I know that I turned my signals on every time I'm out in the mountains Driving around on a two track road and forest service roads in the middle of nowhere. Break lights would be o k as would be reverse lights. But in order to do that with this kit I have to purchase an additional light block For a cool forty five dollars. Another. Instructions were poor to say the least. Had to have my buddy that helped me with the motor and steering servo help me out. I had everything in the right location, but he took one look at it and called a buddy who has done a lot of light kit work. You made a bunch of suggestions to try to figure it out when we did. Ends up. There are 5 wires that don't even get used with this particular light black. Together and out of the way. Ended up with headlights front marker lights tail lights and a light bar with low and high settings. I may get a wild hair someday and go for the Brake lights and backup lightstill not hooked on the blinker thing. Servo and motor installation where do I watch more straightforward and I just did what he said to do. Ended up having to rotate treceiver box due to the fact that the steèring servo lead was too short. Yes could have added an extension Just wanted a cleaner installation. Cut the fusion motor install as well as the homes hobbies direct power servo. Finally figured everything out and excess wires rerouted. I can hardly believe what a difference the motor abd servo made. Totally different truck. Shout out to my buddy Patrick for his willingness to help and stay up late. After everything was in we of course had to go give it a try. He has a crawler portion in his backyard which is mostly covered by snow with a few rocks sticking out here and there. We finished about 11:30 and when I decided to go. I had no idea what time it was and got into the car and it was Twelve fifty a m. Made for a mighty short night to have a long day today. I'm excited to get out and use this thing now. Also got headlight grills installed, Finally starting to look the way that I had imagined. Only a couple more things, one would be Bead lock wheels. And maybe a winch, we'll see.

 

[F.R.S. Ninja_007]

I don’t own a crawler but from the research I’ve done don’t put a brushless motor in a crawler, especially one with diff locks.

 

[Xraycer]

I don’t own a crawler but from the research I’ve done don’t put a brushless motor in a crawler, especially one with diff locks.

Brushless motors are fantastic for crawlers.

 

[freedomflyer]

That's interesting, I've got a friend that has been running the brushless Fusion Motors in about 1/2 dozen of his crawlers for a couple of years, all with diff locks and said he wouldn't run anything else. I guess I'll see how it works out for me.

 

[Doom!]

Well, went to a friend's last night and was able to get the last of my goodies installed in the Defender. The previous even was spent installing the Traxxas light kit. Pretty sure if I had that as a do over would do something different. Bought the #8090 light kit, not impressed. "IF" I wanted to have turn signals, which I don't, why would the make that function work when you turn the wheels? I know that I turned my signals on every time I'm out in the mountains Driving around on a two track road and forest service roads in the middle of nowhere. Break lights would be o k as would be reverse lights. But in order to do that with this kit I have to purchase an additional light block For a cool forty five dollars. Another. Instructions were poor to say the least. Had to have my buddy that helped me with the motor and steering servo help me out. I had everything in the right location, but he took one look at it and called a buddy who has done a lot of light kit work. You made a bunch of suggestions to try to figure it out when we did. Ends up. There are 5 wires that don't even get used with this particular light black. Together and out of the way. Ended up with headlights front marker lights tail lights and a light bar with low and high settings. I may get a wild hair someday and go for the Brake lights and backup lightstill not hooked on the blinker thing. Servo and motor installation where do I watch more straightforward and I just did what he said to do. Ended up having to rotate treceiver box due to the fact that the steèring servo lead was too short. Yes could have added an extension Just wanted a cleaner installation. Cut the fusion motor install as well as the homes hobbies direct power servo. Finally figured everything out and excess wires rerouted. I can hardly believe what a difference the motor abd servo made. Totally different truck. Shout out to my buddy Patrick for his willingness to help and stay up late. After everything was in we of course had to go give it a try. He has a crawler portion in his backyard which is mostly covered by snow with a few rocks sticking out here and there. We finished about 11:30 and when I decided to go. I had no idea what time it was and got into the car and it was Twelve fifty a m. Made for a mighty short night to have a long day today. I'm excited to get out and use this thing now. Also got headlight grills installed, Finally starting to look the way that I had imagined. Only a couple more things, one would be Bead lock wheels. And maybe a winch, we'll see.

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Looks great!

I'm with you on the turn signals though, don't know what genius thought that was a good idea.

 

[WickedFog]

Looks great!

I'm with you on the turn signals though, don't know what genius thought that was a good idea.

Same here. If a kit has lights, fine. They should be on, or off. No blinking.

 

[FJC_GUY]

I don’t own a crawler but from the research I’ve done don’t put a brushless motor in a crawler, especially one with diff locks.

A correct brushless setup is great in a crawler, it just needs to be a setup that isn't going to cog on you.

Well, went to a friend's last night and was able to get the last of my goodies installed in the Defender. The previous even was spent installing the Traxxas light kit. Pretty sure if I had that as a do over would do something different. Bought the #8090 light kit, not impressed. "IF" I wanted to have turn signals, which I don't, why would the make that function work when you turn the wheels? I know that I turned my signals on every time I'm out in the mountains Driving around on a two track road and forest service roads in the middle of nowhere. Break lights would be o k as would be reverse lights. But in order to do that with this kit I have to purchase an additional light block For a cool forty five dollars. Another. Instructions were poor to say the least. Had to have my buddy that helped me with the motor and steering servo help me out. I had everything in the right location, but he took one look at it and called a buddy who has done a lot of light kit work. You made a bunch of suggestions to try to figure it out when we did. Ends up. There are 5 wires that don't even get used with this particular light black. Together and out of the way. Ended up with headlights front marker lights tail lights and a light bar with low and high settings. I may get a wild hair someday and go for the Brake lights and backup lightstill not hooked on the blinker thing. Servo and motor installation where do I watch more straightforward and I just did what he said to do. Ended up having to rotate treceiver box due to the fact that the steèring servo lead was too short. Yes could have added an extension Just wanted a cleaner installation. Cut the fusion motor install as well as the homes hobbies direct power servo. Finally figured everything out and excess wires rerouted. I can hardly believe what a difference the motor abd servo made. Totally different truck. Shout out to my buddy Patrick for his willingness to help and stay up late. After everything was in we of course had to go give it a try. He has a crawler portion in his backyard which is mostly covered by snow with a few rocks sticking out here and there. We finished about 11:30 and when I decided to go. I had no idea what time it was and got into the car and it was Twelve fifty a m. Made for a mighty short night to have a long day today. I'm excited to get out and use this thing now. Also got headlight grills installed, Finally starting to look the way that I had imagined. Only a couple more things, one would be Bead lock wheels. And maybe a winch, we'll see.

I was unimpressed with the Traxxas light kit so I went with a unit from mytrickrc. Manual and specs here

It has 2 inputs that can be used for throttle and steering so it can do turn signals which is a drift car thing from what I can tell, or the steering input can be used on a channel that is switched and turn the unit on and off remotely. It is also configurable for different types of rigs including emergency vehicles, boats, and aircraft.

I use hazard mode so after it sits for 30 seconds without any input it shuts off the lights and flashes the marker lights. As soon as it sees a signal again it goes back to normal operation. I've submerged it multiple times and it has given me zero problems. I paired it with lights from them as well.

EDIT: glad I just replied to this post. I had originally set it up so the lights stayed on but if I triggered the other channel the hazard lights would flash and everything else would stay lit. I just realized that was because I had it set up on the setting that has turn signals but when using the on off channel on the remote in that mode it runs the marker lights dim, then flashes them at full brightness when triggered. I was extremely frustrated because I couldn't figure out how I had made it work before.

 

[freedomflyer]

Finally finished up my little spiral 1/24th scale crawler obstacle, made it a lot more challenging, especially going down. Fun.
Hmmmmmm......guess not. Thought spring was here, woke up to 12 inches of wet heavy snow here in Belgrade, Bozeman 10 miles away got 2ft, still snowing, supposed to go through midnight tomorrow night.

 

[freedomflyer]

Those small rocks added a lot of weight.

 

[freedomflyer]

Had a great evening tonight. Went over to my buddies place that helped me with the direct power motor and servo installation in my Defender. What a blast! Snow crawling is absolutely amazing. The conditions change constantly, especially from warm melting to below freezing. I am still blown away by this crawler. Even though it is probably not the best performing one out of the TRX 4 lineup, it still does amazingly well. I realize the higher profile body is a hindrance but it just looks cool then add lights and that takes it to the next level. Patricks Dodge Power Wagon is an absolute beast. Can not believe what that thing is able to climb. The pictures do not give any justice to how steep that snow was and as to how well the tires were gripping. Pretty amazing all around crawler.
As we were crawling my buddy from Bismarck N.D. called and asked if he could come out. My wife is gone so he's loading up his crawlers and heading out. About a 10 hr drive. Should be a good time. Will snap some more pics of our sessions. The snow really makes it challenging.

This was after he made it to the top.

 

[Doom!]

Looks like you had a heck of a lot of fun!

 

[freedomflyer]

Had another fun day today, a friend of mine came out to Bozeman from Bismarck N.D. yesterday, we went out last night for a couple hours was pretty great time. My buddy, I'm learning, doesn't have quite the patience it takes for snow crawling. When the temps are warmer the conditions are pretty soft snow that is a lot like mush. Our crawlers, at least mine, when it's mushy, will sink in an inch or so then just drop almost to the axle on the front end then clime back up for a foot or so before dropping in again creating a lot of holes for the rear-end to work its way through. He wants to just power his way through that making trenches so deep makes it pretty much impossible for anyone following. He likes the basher trucks as well so I think he gets bored with the crawling process and wants to see snow or mud flying. Finally ended up putting him at the back so the rest of us could get through. I think he had fun but needs to relax and take the crawling process for what it is. With some snow melting it finally exposed some of the rocks in his backyard course so that was a good challenge to go from snow to the steep rock with wet snow filled treads. Here's a few more pics, am loving the Fusion motor and Holmes hobbies servo.

Was finally able to get my older brother out, he was on an errand and said he would stop by for a few minutes. My friend Patrick was so kind and set him with the orange TRX Sport to drive. He ended up driving with us for over an hour. He had a great time.

My buddy's blazer.

Could've gotten out of this but.........

Too much throttle.

 

[Doom!]

Glad you guys had a good time!

 

[Tunedfrog]

Looks like a great time.