RC Rock Crawler

[TheHighlander]

Does anyone have one?

I ended up in a youtube rabbit hole the other night and it ended up being about 2 hours in bed of watching RC Rock Crawling and trail running.

I'm now very interested.

The majority were Traxxas TRX4 which are big money but I stumbled across the RGT 136100V3 and it looks and performs very well for £130 to the UK.

So planning ordering one tonight just for a bit of fun.

[Mercury00]

I've had a Tamiya CR-01 and a micro HBX Ibex for on the sofa. I enjoy the little crawlers because you can use pretty much anything to build a course indoors, and because they're slow and often have rear-wheel steering, you don't need much space for them.

[TheHighlander]

Mercury00 said:

I've had a Tamiya CR-01 and a micro HBX Ibex for on the sofa. I enjoy the little crawlers because you can use pretty much anything to build a course indoors, and because they're slow and often have rear-wheel steering, you don't need much space for them.

I do like the minis, I do have an MN99 but it's a proper cheap one with no oil filled shocks and its very stiff.

[Davie]

Watching with interest as these are of interest to me too. I bought my 4yr old an FTX Tracer last year and it's great but even wound down, it's a bit too much for indoors / the garden so have been mulling over a cheap but not crap rock crawler that he (or... I!) can build little courses with indoors or around the garden but there's a myriad of options out there and I'm lost too. One stipulation for him is he'd like a Land Rover Defender.

[take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey]

We have one - think it's an ftx.

For crawlers you don't need to spend much because they don't need expensive rc gear, motors, and batteries.

I'd buy cheap and spend some money upgrading the tyres - they make a huuuge difference. I'd also upgrade the servos to metal geared... At least the front if you get a 4WS version.

Also motor on axle crawlers are better - the keep the CoG lower.

[MBBlat]

Got a few

TRX-4 top shelf, Axial Wraith with aluminium body, brushless motor and a few other upgrades next shelf down.


Muddy Axial SCX-10.

I’ve not got a lot of rocks near me, so more used for mud plugging than rock crawling.

[Jader1973]

What you need to do is buy a ready to run (RTR) Axial.

Then find out that you can get scale hard bodies of a variety of different things and buy one of those. Defender 90 in my case (actually, I have 2…)

Then shorten the wheelbase of the Axial chassis to work with the body.

Then decide that actually the Axial wheel / tyre combo is too big so buy a full set that works with the new body.

Then start looking at all the different accessory odds and ends available for the body, and in general. Get a couple of new front bumpers, a rear bumper, roof rack, window grilles etc etc.

Then realise it needs a suspension upgrade because of the weight of all the stuff you’ve added.

Then, while browsing bits find that there are new, longer wheelbase hard bodied available (Land Cruiser, D110, Range Rover, Discovery) and start wondering if you need one of those, and a suitable chassis…

Then realise it is years since you bought the original Axial and that fitting the D90 body still isn’t actually finished despite having spent a few hundred $ on it all.


Stay away from sites like RC4WD and Asiatees…

[wolfracesonic]

I use to mess around with them a few years ago, used to attend a few competitions. The dedicated crawler scene, as opposed to scalers seems to have died a bit of a death. Here’s a few pics of my heavily modded Losi comp crawler, quite capable but being a ‘shafty’ couldn’t really go toe to toe with the motor on axle machines like the Bergs and Axial xr10s.



The advantage of locking worm gears…

[take-good-care-of-the-forest-dewey]

Those are the tryes I fitted - amazing things. The traction they find is unreal.

[TheHighlander]

I didn’t expect as many replies on this.

Aye it seems the type of hobby you can get very very carried away with like everything.

I’ve ordered that RGT 136100v3 from AliExpress.

See how I get on with it 😀

[anonymous-user]

I'm interested in this too. I've just done up my 1/1 scale Land Rover and now don't want to subject it to the sort of off road conditions like deep muddy water that led to its deterioration. Plus its a lot easier to rescue it if you get bogged down and you can go off roading in the garden.

[Johnnybee]

A couple of friends have crawlers and I've also fallen down the youtube bottomless pit. I'm trying to be sensible with how much I spend and at the moment the Carisma Coyote 2.1 is my favourite

https://www.applianceelectronics.co.uk/viewproduct...

[V10 SPM]

RC crawling is great fun! I have 1:10, 1:18 and 1:24 scale products.

Here is one of my favourite rock crawlers in 1:18 scale:


BlackSeaRC

[100SRV]

The Axial Bomber is a good compromise between rock crawler and trail runner, the Capra looks like a pretty serious crawler. Not so many areas in the UK to use such big buggies so perhaps a 1:24 scale buggy would be a good idea for garden use?

[Davie]

TheHighlander said:

I didn’t expect as many replies on this.

Aye it seems the type of hobby you can get very very carried away with like everything.

I’ve ordered that RGT 136100v3 from AliExpress.

See how I get on with it ??

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts once it arrives - the reviews / YouTube stuff (there goes many hours!) seem positive so I'm also sat here deliberating one or something similar. I suspect my little boy would like digging up the garden to drive one round plus at lower speeds, he may get to grip with controlling it... unlike his FTX Tracer which usually screams off in to a kerb / the local cat / the next county.

FTX Kanyon is £159.00 RTR just now... that's proving tempting, unless I'm missing something? Aside for the size of the thing plus what seems to be pretty limited turning ability thanks to the locked diffs might make it a bit ungainly for a fairly small area?

Edited by Davie on Sunday 9th January 23:43

[TheHighlander]

Davie said:

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts once it arrives - the reviews / YouTube stuff (there goes many hours!) seem positive so I'm also sat here deliberating one or something similar. I suspect my little boy would like digging up the garden to drive one round plus at lower speeds, he may get to grip with controlling it... unlike his FTX Tracer which usually screams off in to a kerb / the local cat / the next county.

FTX Kanyon is £159.00 RTR just now... that's proving tempting, unless I'm missing something? Aside for the size of the thing plus what seems to be pretty limited turning ability thanks to the locked diffs might make it a bit ungainly for a fairly small area?

Edited by Davie on Sunday 9th January 23:43

No problem.

I was looking at the FTX Kanyon as well.

[Hard-Drive]

I've got a TRX4 Defender with some upgrades and an FTX Outback 2. On the Outback, even though the Defender-esque factory body is very good, It's been re-shelled with a Killerbody D90 hard body and looks pretty decent from a scale perspective, although I must "finish" it at some point by putting in the interior details. It did need the wheelbase extending with PC build motherboard stand things on all the suspension rods but it's an easy job.

I'm not "serious" by any stretch of the imagination, but the Outback is remarkably capable for a cheaper end crawler. The TRX4 is amazing, however as soon as you start loading it up with "scale tat" on the roof and body, it rolls much more easily. I've got rid of the spare wheel on mine (weighs a ton) and the aftermarket metal roof rack needs to go too. However it does have a lot of aftermarket brass on the axles etc. I've just had to rebuild mine, replacing all 40+ ball races in the thing, stripping all the diffs/axles/portals/gearboxes, and re-packing with marine grease. It is a remarkably complex thing, there's a huge amount of clever engineering in the TRX4.

The FTX Canyon really is a big old beast, and I've rarely seen them at any crawler meets I've been to. I would definitely go for the Outback 2 given the choice.







[/quote]

Edited by Hard-Drive on Monday 10th January 18:01

Edited by Hard-Drive on Monday 10th January 18:03

[Stiggolas]

I'm up to 9 crawlers at the moment. My 2 go-to rigs are both TRX4s both bought second hand for less than £300 each. I have 4 Carismas, an Axial Capra and Axial based LCG special on a GSpeed carbon chassis. The TRX4s are brilliant once you get rid of the defender bodies as that makes them too top heavy. The Carismas are bomb proof, I just can't kill them. I was a team driver for the UK importers for a couple of years so maybe a bit biased there.

The FTX Kanyon is huge by comparison and suffers badly from chassis flex. 2 lengths of ally extrusion usually sorts things though.

Oh and tyres are everything. Even the cheapest crawlers can keep up with decent rubber.

[Davie]

The likes of the TRX4 and those of a similar cost look great but for a 4yr old to knock about the garden and the house, the sort of ~£500 outlay is just too much. I was thinking £150 max but even then, given his FTX Tracer was under £50 and has been incredible... even £150 seems a bit spendy. Though equally, there's a point where you don't want utter garbage but I'm really not sure what constitutes "garbage" as far as little crawlers go. I don't have any desire to upgrade it either, I'd just want plug and play.

What's the thoughts on 1/24th scale as a starter... something like the RGT 136240

https://www.amazon.co.uk/136240-Control-Crawler-Of...

Or is it better to double the budget with something like the FTX Outback 2 instead.

My stipulation being, it has to be a Defender!

Edited by Davie on Thursday 13th January 20:32

[TheHighlander]

The RGT 136100v3 is arriving tomorrow.

Turns out another lad I know has one along with a TRX4 and he is well impressed with it, he said the standard tyres were junk but apart from that it's really good.