RC Crawler for kids 2021?

[Tacoma747]

If anyone is interested in the chassis on the right, I'd sell it. After I made the other chassis both boys want one like it as it has a place for the lights on the roof AND it has a hood... Oh the desires of a 7 year old.

$12 shipped for the chassis (no hardware but your factory hardware will mostly work). I can also print high clearance links if you tell me what length you want. It currently has deadbolt rears, and C10 rears up front. Stock upper links (C10 rear uppers in front as a 4 link).

Best mods I can suggest are a better servo (12-13g servo). You can actually hot glue a bigger servo in the factory bracket if you don't want to spend the $10-12 on an aluminum bracket (lesson learned). The RC4WD steel beadlocks can be mounted 'deep dish' as seen on the truck on the left. This is actually wider than the other truck that has wheel spacers. I do feel the rc4wd wheels MAY bend, they wobble a little bit but I haven't verified if it is the wheel bent or not.

You WILL burn up the stock motor, go ahead and email horizon hobby and tell them yours is burnt up and have them send you one as a spare---but there are plenty of cheap ($5-12) upgrades.

Tires are a no brainer. Injora has some new ones that are supposedly on par with the RC4wd compound/height, but Injora's older tires suck supposedly.

I wish I had more of these things, some to keep 'scale' and some to make full crawlers like below, but it's hard enough to justify having 4 of them...

 

[Pless]

My boy was learning to drive the SCX6 today.

 

[Tacoma747]

My boy was learning to drive the SCX6 today.

I still need to see pics of that tube chassis crawler you got from me :-D

 

[Pless]

I still need to see pics of that tube chassis crawler you got from me :-D

I'll try to remember to grab some this evening.

 

[JSJJ388]

If anyone is interested in the chassis on the right, I'd sell it. After I made the other chassis both boys want one like it as it has a place for the lights on the roof AND it has a hood... Oh the desires of a 7 year old.

$12 shipped for the chassis (no hardware but your factory hardware will mostly work). I can also print high clearance links if you tell me what length you want. It currently has deadbolt rears, and C10 rears up front. Stock upper links (C10 rear uppers in front as a 4 link).

Best mods I can suggest are a better servo (12-13g servo). You can actually hot glue a bigger servo in the factory bracket if you don't want to spend the $10-12 on an aluminum bracket (lesson learned). The RC4WD steel beadlocks can be mounted 'deep dish' as seen on the truck on the left. This is actually wider than the other truck that has wheel spacers. I do feel the rc4wd wheels MAY bend, they wobble a little bit but I haven't verified if it is the wheel bent or not.

You WILL burn up the stock motor, go ahead and email horizon hobby and tell them yours is burnt up and have them send you one as a spare---but there are plenty of cheap ($5-12) upgrades.

Tires are a no brainer. Injora has some new ones that are supposedly on par with the RC4wd compound/height, but Injora's older tires suck supposedly.

I wish I had more of these things, some to keep 'scale' and some to make full crawlers like below, but it's hard enough to justify having 4 of them...

Id like that STL....

 

[jeepinmatt]

@Tacoma747 sell me that 2spd Bomber we talked about a few weeks ago. My "kids" "need" it.

 

[Tacoma747]

Id like that STL....

It's the Sandrunner chassis. The one with the roof lights is the E1 chassis. Both are free on thingiverse

 

[Tacoma747]

@Tacoma747 sell me that 2spd Bomber we talked about a few weeks ago. My "kids" "need" it.

Come get one. I traded off one of them for a 6x6 Unimog (that I am selling because I felt it was worth more than the bomber). FYI they are not 2 speed from the factory, you have to buy the two speed gear set ($55-100) but it drops right in, stock radio is already a 3 channel.

 

[jeepinmatt]

After debating a bunch of different things, I decided the most fun option for everyone would be to get 3 SCX24s instead of 1 big one that was more adult oriented. They came this evening, and were not giving them to the kids until we go to the beach in a couple weeks. But I had to play around with one and uh "be sure it worked".

Axial SCX24 First Test

youtube.com

Impressive.

 

[mikek]

good lookin' machine!!!

 

[Tacoma747]

@jeepinmatt the SCX24's are hard to beat. Bigger tires makes a huge difference. 3d printed chassis and all the other random stuff makes even more difference. The new tires from Injora are cheap, tall, and seem decently sticky. We don't do comps so it doesn't matter too much to me if they stick like glue or not. The stock tires SUCK though. I just printed some one-piece faux beadlock wheels for mine (the blue/black wheels), they are 1.2" in diameter which negates the need for a beadlock or glue. Best thing ever, assembling the beadlocks on these things suck.

If I would have bought the 3d printer sooner, I could have saved some money on wheels and various other things. Some stuff is just best to go ahead and buy the aluminum parts like the steering servo upgrade.

 

[jeepinmatt]

The boys got their toys on Tuesday. These things are a BLAST! I bet we put a hundred miles on them in the past couple days.

Also, the SCX24 Bombers have bigger tires and more ground clearance. The bigger tires on the Bombers make them faster too. The Krawlers on the C10 have better grip, and the lower stance makes it a bit more stable.

I also removed the front bumper on the C10 as it prevents you from climbing a lot of stuff. The lights are housed in the bumper, and I was fine with not having them (bound to increase battery life), but the headlight buckets on the body are precast for the LEDs from the bumper to snap in if you extend the wiring.

 

[LBarr2002]

The boys got their toys on Tuesday. These things are a BLAST! I bet we put a hundred miles on them in the past couple days. View attachment 374334View attachment 374340View attachment 374341View attachment 374342

Also, the SCX24 Bombers have bigger tires and more ground clearance. The bigger tires on the Bombers make them faster too. The Krawlers on the C10 have better grip, and the lower stance makes it a bit more stable.

View attachment 374335View attachment 374336View attachment 374337View attachment 374338View attachment 374339

I also removed the front bumper on the C10 as it prevents you from climbing a lot of stuff. The lights are housed in the bumper, and I was fine with not having them (bound to increase battery life), but the headlight buckets on the body are precast for the LEDs from the bumper to snap in if you extend the wiring.

The JLs come with the larger Nitto tires also. The Gladiator ones are slightly smaller I think, but have a longer wheelbase.

 

[orange150]

The weighted knuckles and axle weights for the rear make a big difference

 

[jeepinmatt]

Well, a bit of an update here. These SCX24s are a BLAST, when they are working. Put like a billion miles on em at the beach without issue. Got home last weekend, doing some couch crawling Sunday night, and my C10 slowly came to a stop. Hmm that's not good. Motor burned up. Since one of the 3 chargers had gone bad, I decided to return all of it to Amazon. In my digging, I also came across the fact that there was a new version out which had a different remote with the ability to turn the lights on and off, and better low speed control. The remote base is also wider, which is nice if you have a 3 year old who is not good at setting things down, haha. Plus, you can't beat that color...

I ordered on Sunday and it arrived on Tuesday about the time i got home from work. Kids were absolutely amazed that you could turn the lights on and off. Also, the jeep only has 1 hood pin instead of 2, so much easier and faster to use. My oldest said if his breaks he wanted the white version of the jeep. So we got outside to play with them, and not 30 seconds in, his red bomber stops working. Another friggin dead motor. Ok, fine. Looks like we're getting a white JLU after all.

Fast forward to Thursday, we now have the yellow jeep and the green bomber still working. Doing some couch crawling. Green bomber locks up. I go ahead and order the Gladiator truck so the little guy will have a working one come the weekend. Supposed to arrive Saturday, fine, better than nothing. Hopefully the new version 2 is better.

New white jeep comes Friday, it works, but is slow and jerky in reverse, so now I'm just waiting on it to die.

Today the Gladiator comes in around noon. We crawl around for about 15 minutes. Poof. Motor stops working. I swap around motors and ESCs just to confirm. It turns freely, but no rotation when given the juice. WTF.

I noticed the driveline the green bomber was flat out locked up, so I was hoping it was a gear issue in the t-case and I could swap motors. Pulled it apart, feels like a brush dragging on the motor. I could break it free and it would turn for 10-20 seconds then get hung up again.

Here's a few pics of the inner workings in case anyone cares.

Also pulled the t-case apart and motor out, but didn't take any pics.


Long story short, 4 out of 6 have had motor issues, and the white jeep sounds like it's on the brink, so that will be 5 of 6. 1 charger died so far out of 6, which doesn't bother me as much, especially since that's an easy thing to be redundant on. I can't attribute the failures to driving style. I probably drive them the hardest in the manner they are supposed to be driven, my oldest is very careful, and my youngest is a 3 year old so he stalls it and drops it and runs into things at full throttle. Hopefully I'll report back in a month and all will be going smoothly, but I have my doubts. I'll be calling Axial next week because I hate sending them back to Amazon just to go in the trash when a $10 part would fix it. Plus I'm happy to pay $15 to upgrade the motor, I'd just like the original one to last more than a week.

 

[LBarr2002]

Well, a bit of an update here. These SCX24s are a BLAST, when they are working. Put like a billion miles on em at the beach without issue. Got home last weekend, doing some couch crawling Sunday night, and my C10 slowly came to a stop. Hmm that's not good. Motor burned up. Since one of the 3 chargers had gone bad, I decided to return all of it to Amazon. In my digging, I also came across the fact that there was a new version out which had a different remote with the ability to turn the lights on and off, and better low speed control. The remote base is also wider, which is nice if you have a 3 year old who is not good at setting things down, haha. Plus, you can't beat that color...
View attachment 374948View attachment 374949View attachment 374950

I ordered on Sunday and it arrived on Tuesday about the time i got home from work. Kids were absolutely amazed that you could turn the lights on and off. Also, the jeep only has 1 hood pin instead of 2, so much easier and faster to use. My oldest said if his breaks he wanted the white version of the jeep. So we got outside to play with them, and not 30 seconds in, his red bomber stops working. Another friggin dead motor. Ok, fine. Looks like we're getting a white JLU after all.

Fast forward to Thursday, we now have the yellow jeep and the green bomber still working. Doing some couch crawling. Green bomber locks up. I go ahead and order the Gladiator truck so the little guy will have a working one come the weekend. Supposed to arrive Saturday, fine, better than nothing. Hopefully the new version 2 is better.

New white jeep comes Friday, it works, but is slow and jerky in reverse, so now I'm just waiting on it to die.

Today the Gladiator comes in around noon. We crawl around for about 15 minutes. Poof. Motor stops working. I swap around motors and ESCs just to confirm. It turns freely, but no rotation when given the juice. WTF.

I noticed the driveline the green bomber was flat out locked up, so I was hoping it was a gear issue in the t-case and I could swap motors. Pulled it apart, feels like a brush dragging on the motor. I could break it free and it would turn for 10-20 seconds then get hung up again.

Here's a few pics of the inner workings in case anyone cares.
View attachment 374953View attachment 374954View attachment 374955View attachment 374956View attachment 374957
Also pulled the t-case apart and motor out, but didn't take any pics.


Long story short, 4 out of 6 have had motor issues, and the white jeep sounds like it's on the brink, so that will be 5 of 6. 1 charger died so far out of 6, which doesn't bother me as much, especially since that's an easy thing to be redundant on. I can't attribute the failures to driving style. I probably drive them the hardest in the manner they are supposed to be driven, my oldest is very careful, and my youngest is a 3 year old so he stalls it and drops it and runs into things at full throttle. Hopefully I'll report back in a month and all will be going smoothly, but I have my doubts. I'll be calling Axial next week because I hate sending them back to Amazon just to go in the trash when a $10 part would fix it. Plus I'm happy to pay $15 to upgrade the motor, I'd just like the original one to last more than a week.

Anybody else having motor issues? The first one quit in "mine" last week. I ordered the Injora 050 motor and swapped it in, then the 3rd stock motor started dieing in the other one. Another 050 motor is on the way. I'm hoping the physically larger motor (brushes, etc) will last better. It was actually a little slower than the stock motor.

Axial mailed me a replacement for the first one and I ordered another at the same time because I could get it quicker from Amazon. Mine have died just like a dead battery. Swap in new battery thinking that was it and still doesn't work. Two of them have been able to be limped by spinning the driveshaft and they'll run again for a little while. Like a dead spot on the motor.

Go ahead and order the Injora 050 motor and motor plate. Both of ours have it now and haven't had an issue with them.

INJORA RC Motor II 050 66T Brushed Motor with Metal Mount for SCX24 Gladiator Bronco C10 JLU Deadbolt B17 Axial 1/24 Crawler Upgrade Parts https://a.co/d/4Ggxiow

 

[jeepinmatt]

Go ahead and order the Injora 050 motor and motor plate. Both of ours have it now and haven't had an issue with them.

INJORA RC Motor II 050 66T Brushed Motor with Metal Mount for SCX24 Gladiator Bronco C10 JLU Deadbolt B17 Axial 1/24 Crawler Upgrade Parts https://a.co/d/4Ggxiow

Looks like I missed about a third of the second page in this thread, haha. Yeah, I was already looking at the Injora 50T, but I don't like the idea of it being slower. This also looks like a good option, but by the time you buy the motor, plate, and gears, it's half the price of an SCX24. PN Racing SCX24 90 Turn Ball Bearing 130 Motor-SCX2490

Was the Injora a bolt on deal?

 

[LBarr2002]

Looks like I missed about a third of the second page in this thread, haha. Yeah, I was already looking at the Injora 50T, but I don't like the idea of it being slower. This also looks like a good option, but by the time you buy the motor, plate, and gears, it's half the price of an SCX24. PN Racing SCX24 90 Turn Ball Bearing 130 Motor-SCX2490

Was the Injora a bolt on deal?

You have to snip one of the 4 legs off the battery tray, but other than that yes. It's barely slower. If you didn't have another one to compare it to you probably wouldn't notice.

 

[jeepinmatt]

You have to snip one of the 4 legs off the battery tray, but other than that yes. It's barely slower. If you didn't have another one to compare it to you probably wouldn't notice.

I ended up ordering this 50t one because reviews said it is a little faster than stock and was only a couple bucks more:

INJORA 050 50T Pro High Torque Brushed Motor for Axial SCX24 AX24

INJORA 050 Pro High Torque Brushed Motor 50T for 1:24 RC Crawler Axial SCX24 AX24 Upgrade PartsNOTE: Requires INJORA Motor Mount and modification battery mount post to allow the use of this longer motor, or relocation of your battery depending on set up.Features: The INJORA Axial SCX24 050 PRO...

www.injora.com

 

[Tacoma747]

I ended up ordering this 50t one because reviews said it is a little faster than stock and was only a couple bucks more:

INJORA 050 50T Pro High Torque Brushed Motor for Axial SCX24 AX24

INJORA 050 Pro High Torque Brushed Motor 50T for 1:24 RC Crawler Axial SCX24 AX24 Upgrade PartsNOTE: Requires INJORA Motor Mount and modification battery mount post to allow the use of this longer motor, or relocation of your battery depending on set up.Features: The INJORA Axial SCX24 050 PRO...

www.injora.com

Go ahead and order motors for all of your trucks. If you can get stock motors as warranty replacements keep them as spares, but we haven't fried one of the Injora motors as of yet. If you buy direct from Injora's website the prices are cheaper, but the shipping takes about a month. Brass knuckles, diff covers are good upgrades for weight. The Emax steering servo/plate is basically a must have, the stock servos don't last, when the servo saver starts giving too much you can just glue it. The upgraded metal gear servos don't use a servo saver at all. The steering it 100x better with a good servo. The servo/aluminum mount is about $20. You can fit the servo in the stock mount but pretty much have to glue it in place as the screws won't fit.

 

[Tacoma747]

Couple I have spent way too much time on. These are 1/10 scale. I actually have the green one on eBay for sale. Built the bed from scratch out of aluminum. Basically I bought the green one to rob parts off it (electronics) and hope to sell it on eBay for a profit (after keeping the $$$$ electronics for mine). These are Axial UMG-10 6x6's (minus the Unimog body). Apparently they have a cult following, got one local from someone and sold it on eBay for a couple hundred dollar profit.

The black one would have cost $1500-2k to build, of course I bought it used for way less, have since done a lot of 3d printed stuff. By the time I sell the green one I should end up with essentially a few hundred bucks in the black one. Brushless, portals, 2 speed trans, etc etc.

BUT I still honestly like the SCX24's better.

 

[shawn]

What I'm reading is that the SCX24s are huge pieces of shit.... Unless you're willing to spend the purchase price over again to replace all the crappy parts. Sound about right?

 

[Tacoma747]

What I'm reading is that the SCX24s are huge pieces of shit.... Unless you're willing to spend the purchase price over again to replace all the crappy parts. Sound about right?

Motor for $12-13, servo for $20. Aside from those two things, everything else is decent in stock form, any other upgrades would just be up to the owner really. Stuff does break, but the motors are basically guaranteed to not last---Horizon Hobby will send at least a couple free replacements if you have issues though.

 

[shawn]

Motor for $12-13, servo for $20. Aside from those two things, everything else is decent in stock form, any other upgrades would just be up to the owner really. Stuff does break, but the motors are basically guaranteed to not last---Horizon Hobby will send at least a couple free replacements if you have issues though.

You should go read Matt's post

 

[Tacoma747]

You should go read Matt's post

What am I missing? He burned up stock motors? Like I said, a $12-13 motor upgrade fixes that issue. Two of my 4 are still running stock motors. It's a crapshoot with the stock motors.