the way i'd beat the crap out of it is i'd make it go like 30mph, and well, i'd have fun with it :lol: going off the biggest jumps i could find and just bash the crud out of it overall :lol: and really you already have an excuse for a crawler, thats not a crawler :lol: :bigwink:

I'll gladly take donations to make it go 30 mph. :D

It's a crawler wanna be. :lol:

Bear with me, your about to read a novel. :D

Well it's been a while since I have gotten on here but I have been really busy with my (real) trail rig, took it wheeling last saturday. Got my daily driver almost buttoned up maintenance wise, and don't plan on doing anything else to the trail rig. I have been crewing for a friend of mine in the W.E. rock competitions (world extreme rockcrawling comps) Basically I run around for tools, parts, food and drink, and help fix the buggy when needed. I was also jewed into being photographer/videographer. I know a lot more about wheeling than I used to and have had an amazing time at the competitions. One name you may notice if your into the offroad racing scene is Shannon Campbell. He is at every event competing, and it's awesome to see the top dog of the off road world wheel his machines. That being said I have been playing around with this junker of an rc hummer a few times, and it no longer satisfies my rc wheeling "needs".

I have been keeping watch out for some kind of crawler on craigslist, have saved some money to fix up my daily driver and trail rig and may have some left over cash to spend on some kind of crawler. My goal is to find something under $200, that's just way too much to spend for a used rc. After being amongst the pro rockcrawling scene, I have plans for the future rc. I know the venom creeper has remote locking differential capability, so I want that over anything else. I want dig capability and rear steer as well. After research it seems like I would have to find a remote with channels out the wazoo to have all the capabilities I want. What I'm thinking:

I probably won't find a creeper for a decent price with remote locking diffs.
-thats out

The axial has a rear steer kit and I believe I can get a transmission with dig capability -toss up

With rear steer I would be able to crab walk on rocks/ With dig I would have an amazing turn radius. I'm curious to know if dig uses up a channel on the remote, if not, I could do both rear steer and dig. If it does use up a channel I'm undecided. I'm trying to figure out which one I want to spend my money on when I get something.

I will also explore the bent lower links, I may try and play with the stock ones first.

All in all it's looking like my best bet is to try and find an axial no?

Whatcha think??

those tires dont look so good with that body. lol get some deep-dish beaded rims.

I hear that the cheapest way to get into crawling is to get a HPI Wheely king and convert it to a crawler.
Heres the conversionhttp://www.hpiracing.com/products/en/87633/
Heres the truckhttp://www.hpiracing.com/kitinfo/10830/

It even has the battery!

At a little over $200 for the truck and another 80 for the crawler kit, it would be cheaper just to get an rtr axial scorpion. But unless I can find something used at a good price I'm not getting anything.

What you might want to try is the Duratrax Cliff Climber, a friend from another forum I convinced him into getting one and now he's hooked on crawling. Uses Clod-Like axles as there are no shafts just a motor on each axle and theres no differential but instead a solid spool. Off towerhobbies.com it is about $120 but then you still need 2 batteries and if you don't already have one, a nice charger. Heres the links to all the stuff. It also has 4WS(4 wheel steer)but after a while my friend locked it out. Also the tires are not beadlocks but they are 2.2 sized with a 12 mm hex.
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...=LXURC1**&P=ML
And then you would need 2 of these:
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXVTE6&P=ML
And here are some choices of good but "cheap" chargers(by cheap I mean in price, may seem like alot on some but they're all good chargers:
Probably the easiest ones of the onyx line to use, just plug and charge(would i recommend them no i'd recommend getting a better one):
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXWTD9&P=ML
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&P=SM&I=LXTCJ8
Next, a step up:
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXTCJ9&P=ML
An even bigger step up:
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXTCJ9&P=ML
This one below is the one I use, charges NiMH, NiCd, Li-Ion, LiPo, LiFe(A123) and has a 10 battery memory! Great charger for the price and the features
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXTCK1&P=ML
And lastly, this one will only do NiMH and NiCd as all the others besides the 230, this one although charges 2 battery packs at a time instead of just one:
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXTCK2&P=ML
Anyway I hope all this helps you because the RTR Scorpion is just too high of a price for what it really is out of the box, plus this one is not too big, not too small but its a great crawler out of the box

Just remember you get what you pay for. You skimp out you'll be working with junky stuff. ;)

Yupp.
Yupp.
Dig uses a channel. Digs are activated by a servo to lock the rear differential. You can either built this yourself or you can buy a dig unit (~$100). Not sure how much building your own will cost, never done it myself.

Axial's the way to go, but stay away from RTC and RTR. They're full of flexible plastic garbage. Buy a kit.

Crawling is probably one of the most expensive RC I have seen besides flying, just a forewarning. Nothing's cheap. New shoes will even cost you $50. :eyecraz:

Cheers,
Kyle.

Well Kyle, from what most people who got the CC said, its a great crawler for fun but not really for comp crawling. Now with some grippier tires and lowering of the CG it can crawl good, but I believe it crawls in the mini class

Well, one thing I like about the duratrax one is it's got rear steer from factory. I also really like that it has a motor for each axle. I just don't think it has that good of flexing capability. By the time I got batteries and a charger, I'd be at about $200 not including the shipping. If I were to buy one new, it would probably be this one though.

What I plan on doing is finding a used axial that someone is just getting rid of, to save some money and get a good one to start with. I just can't justify spending over $200 on an rc crawler when I have a real one sitting in my driveway I could be using, know what I mean?
As far as an rtr kit is concerned, I'm not real worried about breaking plastic links, (maybe the driveshaft since I hear they are the weak links) because I won't be bashing the thing around. The most it will see is a 2-3 foot drop off of a rockpile or something. I haven't managed to tear up this crappy hummer yet, except I think I have burnt up the motor a bit trying to crawl the thing, it's just not designed for that kind of stress.

I appreciate all the suggestions, it's always best to hear about things from people who deal with them the most.

new pics or anything?

Of the hummer? I can get some if you really want to see them. I have chopped the back and dovetailed it as well. Did a hack job but it looks okay I guess. I also added as many metal bb's I could in the front tires. Now the steering servo is definitely not strong enough to turn the wheels. :lol:

Well, I'm getting a losi mini crawler. Won it on ebay today. spent under my $200 budget, and If I had gone to the hobby shop like I had planned on, I would have spent about $300 on an rtc axial. But instead I built a shed and watched ebay. Can't wait till it gets here!

Sweet! I also have a MRC, it's very fun. I haven't spent really anything on it. All I have done are the cheap and free mods and it crawls alot better than stock. And you can make it have 4ws. All you do is buy all the stock steering parts. And install them on the rear. You will need a 3channel radio, but not reciever. The stock reciever is 3 channel, but the radio isn't for some reason(Sorry, I forgot which one is rx and tx). A good place to get a 4ws radio and reciever for under $100 is RC4WD. Join rccrawler.com It's the best crawling forum out there. It has so much info on there, and the guys on there are great. But yah, just have fun with it. Oh and the first things you're gonna want to upgrade is definately the front and rear diff. lockers, the center locker, and tires. The stock wheels aren't beadlocks, but there is a mod on rccrawler on how to make them beadlocks, and only costs like $5. If you need any help with your MRC, just let me know. I should be able to help.

Freakin sweet! Yeah I joined rccrawler and have been lurking around. funny you mentioned the 4ws, I have been trying to figure out how to do it and how much it would cost. I figure I will play around with the losi for a while and if I think it's too small I'll sell it and get an rtc AX-10. I'll just have to see. Awesome to know I've got a reference, if you have any cool or useful links to tips/upgrades/tricks, shoot them my way I'd love to see them. Thanks!

I relocated batteries to top and cut out the battery tray. Gained 1" of ground clearance!

Figured out what was wrong with it, just have to re-solder the 9V lead back on. (I forgot which was + and - and put it on backwards. :lol:)