Negative G LCG crawler build

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Jimbobjr

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Back in April I posted about Negative G kits and know one replied so I guess they are not well known here. The kits have everything you need to convert a donor vehicle (kits available: Trx4, scx10iii, and Capra) into an LCG crawler. You use the axles, links, shocks and electrics, they provide everything else.
https://negativegrc.com/

Rails, motor plate, front bumper mount are carbon fiber. Most everything else is 3d printed. There’s also a stub shaft to connect to the transfer case, front right link as well as quality hardware, bearings and gears. You also need to mount the body which they designed their supports to take traxxas mounts and cut them to length.

I’m still waiting on the postman for a few things so it might be a few days before there’s any progress but will post along the way and make some running footage against my other crawlers.

So far I just weighted my wheels with low melt and put the primary and transfer case together.

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Now that I see the kit comes with root beer suckers, I'm interested.

I'm fairly new to crawling and I still have a lot to learn before I'd get into a competition type crawler. I'm curious though as to why a kit that requires so much to complete costs what it does. Its close to the same price I paid for my capra kit.

I am interested to watch your build progress. Looks like fun.
 
Now that I see the kit comes with root beer suckers, I'm interested.

I'm fairly new to crawling and I still have a lot to learn before I'd get into a competition type crawler. I'm curious though as to why a kit that requires so much to complete costs what it does. Its close to the same price I paid for my capra kit.

I am interested to watch your build progress. Looks like fun.
Yes, these things are expensive for what they are. If you ever get tired of running the Capra the way it it is these an alternative to buying something else. This guy and others are extremely small companies that make small batches of their kits. You can piece one together from several sources but it will be more. Best not to add up what you have in it...These kits make it a little easier to get your parts. Others, you buy the rails and spacers from one guy, the transmission somewhere else, then links you hope will work, servo mount over at the other site, watch countless build videos on YouTube...

Not familiar with them either. Will be interesting to see once its done. What are you using for a donor kit?
I’m going with my trx4 which is my loaner driver for friends to run, the Gen8 will take that spot. The trx4 is not the tightest steering or most clearances axles but they are easy to come by and parts are cheap. I’m told the scxiii kit can except the Vanquish Phoenix axles but they almost cost as much as a whole trx4 sport kit. The Capra axles are hard to find as well. There’s the cheap cast aluminum versions from China for all the models but I have not had great luck with any of them. The castings are far weaker than the plastic and parts non existent.
 
Gonna watch how this pans out. So good so far. The dum dum is a plus. I used to be a sucker for those. 🤣
 
It’s been a while so I thought I give an update. I haven’t had any time to run rc cars lately. I was involved in a motorcycle accident a couple weeks ago and have been dealing with trying to find parts for my bike and get back on the road. Thankfully I was fine, (helmet, full gear...) an 83 year old lady did her very best to kill me by making a left into me. I was able to avoid her grill but still end up in a collision and on pavement. She was at fault and her insurance paid me for my bike. Only problem is it’s an old bike so I had to look around for bars, and a set of forks...did the work myself and pocketed a few bucks for the labor.

Enough about that...the neg g is looking pretty good. It went together perfect with no hassle. My electrics were the hassle. I had a Micro x2 but is not responding to throttle. Back and forth with castle and the long and short, is it back at castle for warranty (3week lead time...). In the meantime I thought I’d try the Holmes hobbies crawlmaster mini esc. It’s in kit form and you solder the wires on. Pretty small soldering for me but got ‘er done. Servo is a 9imod 60kg direct powered servo and the motor a surpass 3532 1850kv out drive crawler motor. Those used to be around 35$ now close to 50 so it might be the last one of those I go with. That seems to behave great with the hh mini esc, quiet as a mouse...Still need to figure out a body work out the bugs.

The hh crawlmaster needs a solid mount imo. The whole thing is just hanging there in a lot of builds I’ve seen. For that use a piece of kydex, put 2 holes in it at each end for zip ties, tape the kydex to the slider and tie down the esc. This way if you desire to remove your esc you won’t destroy it pulling it of servo tape.

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They are out of supplies. I'm waiting to get one. Did you have to wait or was it an easy/fast transaction.
 
They are out of supplies. I'm waiting to get one. Did you have to wait or was it an easy/fast transaction.

I ordered mine when they were in stock and he got it to me in a couple days. You could email him and ask what kind of time frame you could expect. The company is really just one person, his name is Jess and seems like a solid guy. He’s been out for a couple weeks so my guess is he’ll have more kits pretty soon. Pretty sure this is a little side hustle for him. If you do Facebook I think he might have a page and put info on it more so than his webpage. Idk because I’m not on fb I’m just repeating what someone told me.

I’m very pleased with this so far. Everything is mounted extremely low. The motor is the same height as the axle, the battery just behind it. The offset of the trx4 front axle allows the motor to on the opposite side and scooted forward. They really designed this kit well. I will make a bench video in a day or so and some runnng footage when I get a body mounted.
 
Put a half assed video together going over what you get for your money. Not sure if I can get the body done this week and have it out but just playing with it in the garage makes me think it will do very well.
 
Pretty much have this all finished. Need to fool with my set up a little and I have overdrive gears to put in the rear axle. Body is a proline c10 crawler body, it’s my favorite all time rc body in all its forms. The crawler body is ok for the trx4 sport but you need to do something with the sliders because they stick out and look wrong. In this rig you need to chop it up pretty good. The bed makes a nice tucked fender well and the front is chubby but not too bad, length wise it’s other the bumpers maybe 1/8 inch. You need to relieve everything and to really slam it needs a lot more than what I did. I think it looks better than my other LCG bodies. I don’t follow any sort of rules and frankly don’t know to care about the sorca rule book, I don’t know another soul in this hobby...My only rule is it has to look cool to me and resemble something you could drive, not a remote control insect...

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I agree, the only person you need to please is yourself when building a new rig. I like the way the bed looks with the opened rear quarter panel. :thumbs-up:
 
I agree, the only person you need to please is yourself when building a new rig. I like the way the bed looks with the opened rear quarter panel. :thumbs-up:
With this rig the electrics are so low a body with an interior could even be used. I do have a copy of the sorca rules around somewhere but never bothered to make a class two rig because there’s just no one around to even go crawling with let alone have a competition. There’s really no interest in anything rc or at least very little. Once in a blue moon I run into someone with a crawler but it’s usually when I’m on my mt. bike...The other day my neighbors son was following me with his drone, that was pretty cool...

Sadly the best hobby shop around called the Hoddy Hut closed a few years ago and the 1/8th scale track associated with it also closed when the owner could no longer take care of it. Races became less and less frequent and not well attended. I think the lack of hobby shops where you can see and touch the vehicles has a lot to do with the demise of the hobby in my local. Cheap internet prices let to their demise so I guess it’s a loss all the way around.

Other places have several hobby shops and seem to be thriving. I’ve seen lots of cool shops mentioned here and the Arrma forum. I don’t know how the Philadelphia area does not have one well stocked hobby shop, not even a HobbyTown, nothing, there’s a lot of people with money around here too...
 
Ran this today and it didnt disappoint. Only thing I need to do is trim the body more. Climbs like the ecto but breaks over like an lcg rig. Even being a little wet today it still scaled a climb that I can't do with any of my rigs and did it on the 2nd try. Next week I'll try to get a running and comparison video made.

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Ran this today and it didnt disappoint. Only thing I need to do is trim the body more. Climbs like the ecto but breaks over like an lcg rig. Even being a little wet today it still scaled a climb that I can't do with any of my rigs and did it on the 2nd try. Next week I'll try to get a running and comparison video made.

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Good to hear that it's up to the challenge, if it makes you grin, you did something right. :)
 
I have about 5 hours on this crawler and I think it’s my best performer to date. Climbing it and the Ecto are about a tie with the same wheels. Side hilling it’s the best I have. Breaking over it’s a beast and seems to have more clearance than you think is possible by looking at it. I might mess around a little with the suspension but it does pretty well how it is. Also have some overdrive gears to put in but wanted to really get used to this without and see what difference pos or neg it makes.

I had this thing take some very serious spills and did have the skid get a tiny crack in the battery tray area. It’s really a no stress area so I’m not sure what happen, could be just the cold weather? So I get a little package in the mail yesterday and it’s a skid from Jess of negative g. He said he saw my bench build video on my extremely low (no) budget YouTube channel and noticed the crack. I did not see it at all but now rewatching it I see it. Now that’s pretty cool of him. Other thing I notice is after every 2 packs or so some of the screws need to be gone over. Especially the servo mount and bumpers. I really jam this thing up in the rocks and the servo is very strong so maybe that’s why. It’s not a big deal and takes like 1 minute with a 2mm hex driver. Will they eventually just pull thru?, maybe but the parts from NG are not expensive. Some parts he also offers aluminum upgrades.

I do wish I could just buy the gear box and transfer case but he does not offer them yet. I would make a set of chassis rails and make my trx6 have their skid and transmission. With the trx4 axles the motor can be mounted way upfront, just behind the axle and the little transfer case is extremely low and small. Battery is way up front and low. The other two NG kits are similar but I think the trx4 axles allow for the motor to be lower. I only have pictures and a few YouTube videos to go by though as I can’t compare them side to side. Eric’s RC Garage has all 3 and does a nice comparison video and points this out.
 
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