New to crawlers question

[Greywolf74]

I'm seriously thinking of buying a crawler because my wife likes to go hiking and my fat butt could seriously use the exercise. I am much more likely to get that exercise if I'm hiking behind a crawler hehehe. So my heres my question.

I want a crawler that is not only extremely good at crawling isnt to hateful for newbie crawlers to learn on and has the ability to be hopped up and used in comps if I so choose. I of course am not made of money but quality is more of an issue to me than money so I guess if I have to shell out a boat load to get the crawler I want then I will but Id prefer not to spend a mint if I can help it at least not initially now if I have to put a mint into to turn it into a comp level rig thats fine but I want one that I can start with and not outgrow. Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

Also it seems like most of the really good crawlers I've seen on youtube are dual MOA setups with front and rear steering. This seems like a prime setup. Any suggestions on other types of setups especially if they are better than what I just described would be most appreciated too. I suppose I want something that either has 1.9 tires or one that I can put 1.9's on eventually since that seems to be the favorite of hard core crawlers rather than 2.2's Not sure I understand why this is a big difference so maybe someone could point that out as well?

One more thing. All my electrics kits are brushless so far but it seems like brushed motors are very very popular with crawlers. Is one better than the other? Id probably prefer to stick with brushless if possible but if brushed is really better than I'm willing to learn those as well. I guess I just need to know if one is better than the other and what i need to look for in a crawler motor whether its brushed or brushless.

Thanks in advance

 

[slowngreen]

Actually 1.9's are only used on the 1.9 class crawlers, which is basically only the losi mini. And on scalers.
2.2 is the tire size of 90% of the comp tires made which is the biggest comp class too (popular) and where you will find the best crawling tires by far too, Rovers, Sedona's, Boss Claws are the best there is.

Yes MOA will be the best performance. The only "kit" moa worth getting is the Axial XR10. Its minus tires and electronics. It does very well stock and is very easy to build for a noob.

During steering, no, not allowed in comps for one and it doesn't help anything really. DIG is the only way to go, trust me.

The xr10 has ALOT of steering throw stock though, so you could start off with out dig and not be bummed.

Tires, either pickup Rover (soft) 2.2's, Sedonas or Boss Claws. Boss claws have the best out of the package foams for another noob friendly helper. Plus they do VERY well on most terrian.

As far as electronics. Facts are that you MUST have a high torque servo. They strain the servo more than anything. 333oz ATLEAST. I run 486oz on 7.2v and can't imagine going back down below that, but 300+ works well.

Motors, awesome thing is, Integy brushed motors the most popular crawler motors ever, they are cheap and work awesome. 35 or 45t for the xr10.

Esc's....Two ways to do it. Either a single esc, wired for dual motors, sidewinder, mamba, and so on (smaller the better for weight savings) and for dig, a Punk RC dig unit or a RC4wd dig unit (which is way cheaper than the punk). You will need a 3 pos 3rd channel switch on your radio to run any dig though.

OR, run dual esc's, which is the best. I've ran all setups and dual esc is the best. For this, obviously, you need two esc's, but no dig unit, and a radio to run dual esc's. 4pk, 4pl, stick spektrums, or you can have a dx3r and gt3b hacked for pretty cheap to run duals with mixing. I run a hacked gt3b, works great, just as good as my 4pk but not near as nice of course.

 

[Greywolf74]

So for good crawlers I must have high dollar servos and a high dollar TX also from teh sounds of it.

From your post it sounds like any brushless escs will work with brushed motors?

How many cell lipos do crawlers typically use?

And sorry but what is a dig?

 

[slowngreen]

No it must be a esc that is made to run brushed, as the sidewinder and mambas are switchable they will work. They also have drag brake which is also real important on a crawler. Brushed is way better cuz on a crawler you can get real bad stall out of a brushless.

3 cell is what Id recomend. Gives you plenty of torque and plenty of wheel speed at the same time. I run 4s, and did on my xr10 but I blew out lots of bearings and some gears.

Dig is a control to stop the rear wheels from powering, letting the front do all the work, which makes a HUGE difference on so many things in crawling. If the front end can grab and pull without the back end pushing and trying to unweight the front, you can climb crazy steep stuff, make all sorts of lines because of it. Dig also lets you turn on a dime with the rear locked up. On a moa though, you have front and rear, yay....

GT3b is a cheap radio. What radio do you have now?

 

[Greywolf74]

A GT3B but it sounds like what I would want ideally for a crawler would be a 4 channel with the 3rd channel a 3 position switch. I dont really wanna get into trying to mod my GT3b with the adapter to flash new firmware into it.

 

[Greywolf74]

I've been reading about crawlers and two of the most mentioned are the XR10 and the LCC. One person said that there are certain situations he would would the XR10 and other situations where hed rather have the LCC. I understand that the LCC is not a MOA rig but why would an LCC be better than a MOA sometimes?

 

[slowngreen]

Nope never. XR10 will in stock form own the lcc or the ax10. It take LOTS of modding to make a shafty be in the same ball park as a MOA and then its still a big leap.

Could you be happy with a LCC or LNC? Yes. Can you be as competitive and kill insane lines that you could with a well setup MOA (xr10, bully, berg), not likely. But you can make one do pretty good, and they can use mechanical digs.

Unfortunately there are LOTS of guys who have wrong opinions when it comes to crawlers.

I dont like recomending other forums ever BUT if you have an extra $20, join RCcrawler.com and buy a star to view the classifieds. You can pickup nice setups all day long for good prices there.

 

[hamz9561]

I'm not really into comps, so a shafty is good enough fro me. I think my Losi Mini Rock crawler is set up exactly backwards to the advice given here. lol For a comp ready rig, I would listen very carefully to what SNG says.

 

[Greywolf74]

Thats cool thanks guys....I have no idea if I will ever comp or not but if it really get into it then I dont want to have to buy a whole new kit.

So it looks like I'm gonna start with an XR10, Dual Tekin FXR Pro 55T motors, Sadona Tires, and I guess I'll start out using the wheels that come with the kit for awhile anyway. Still have a couple questions about some of the other gear though.

I read that the GT3B can be modded and used with the 8CH Flysky RXs that you would use for a plane or heli....is that true? (I know the GT3B can be modded for more channels but I'm asking about using it in combination with the other FS RXs), and also I read that the 4PK has the ability to mix channels so I would be able to control both ESCs seperately. I'm assuming you can't do that with the GT3B so assuming I dont wanna go stick the 4PK would be better right? (I realize theres a huge cost difference to take into consideration)

Assuming that I said screw it and went stick I'm assuming I can use my 8CH Flysky that I already have for Heli's?

The one thing that still stumps me though is how you do the DIG. So you hook your front ESC up to CH2 and then you hook the other up to channel 3 so you can use the switch to turn the ESC on and off for the back? if thats true then how does the esc know when to go when its on since its not hooked up to channel 2? and if its hooked up to CH 3 then whats the third position on the switch for one position would be both on and the other would be rear off but what is the 3rd one? LOL I'm sure this is wrong but this is my limited understanding of it atm so any wiring/set up diagrams or even just a written explanation here would clear up most of my confusion.

Thanks

 

[slowngreen]

Dont know about the rx questions but yes the 4pk is ready to mix. So is the 4pl, which is way cheaper. But the gt3b is too with the hack and way way less money.

For mixing duals esc's, yes you run channel 2 and 3 on the rx. All it does is cut the signal to the esc to dig. The 3 postions are on, rear dig, and front dig. Yes it works on both esc's regardless of the fact that one is in ch 2. If you dont really care about mixing, then you can easily just do the single esc and a dig switch like the Punk or rc4wd switch.

The gt3b hack is the cheapest by far for you to do. Overkillrc.com is where you should shop if you dont wanna hack it yourself. $50 for the base hacked gt3b.

---------- Post added at 10:25 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:19 AM ----------

If you want a rtr setup or artr, I again suggest buying a start on rcc. I saw a rtr with dx3e, punk dig, all the goodies, xr10 for $500 shipped today on there. Theres always good deals if your patient.

 

[Greywolf74]

I already have a Flysky controller for helis, I'm just gonna use that. its 8CH and can mix. I orderd a couple extra recievers already. Thanks for explaining the dig 3 position switch I understand that now but this leads to a follow up question. when would you want to use a front dig or a rear dig? I mean how do you know when using just the front or just the rear is best?

 

[abadk9420]

You will use front only more than rear only as far as the dig goes, putting power to the front only can be used to make tighter turns, it can be used to help suck the rig down to lower your COG, front only is used a lot when going down steep stuff, it is like having your rear brakes locked up, front only also will help you get up over ledges by pulling the front tires into the top of the ledge, rear only can be used to help push the front tires tight into a rock face so that you can then go all in and get the front tires to grab and pull up a rock face, rear only can be used to slide the back tires down on a side hill to give you a better approach angle on a gate, I am sure SNG can think of a few other things, basically dig is a huge advantage in a lot of situations and makes lines possible that would not be possible with out it...

 

[Greywolf74]

Thanks for the pointers. sounds like its alot of trial and error.