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FTX Outlaw Owners


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7 hours ago, Alba23 said:

Hi again- We have not used the Outlaw for ages due to sons reckless driving and us never using all the battery power before an injury to the outlaw.

We have fixed up a S/H damaged DR8 and it seems very sturdy, the Outlaw may. E too slow for him now🥴

Can the Outlaw be turned into a crawler?

we have done most of the anti twist hacks, and changed the oil in the shocks. Also “blue metal” upgraded most of it. 
If so what can we do to it?

 

Spent to much on it to sit in the garage and don’t want to sell it.

Yes it can, put a low kv sensored brushless system in it, and or do a transmission swap.
You can check out my Outlaw Crawler thread for the info.
 

 

5 hours ago, Shergar said:

Pop in 35 turn crawler motor in and see how you like it?

Not ideal as it will just melt, the gearing for the truck is to high for crawling on any brushed motor, i used cordless drill motors and they still melted.

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1 hour ago, Redback said:

Yes it can, put a low kv sensored brushless system in it, and or do a transmission swap.
You can check out my Outlaw Crawler thread for the info.
 

 

Not ideal as it will just melt, the gearing for the truck is to high for crawling on any brushed motor, i used cordless drill motors and they still melted.

Ace,  Thats exactly what I need.

 

I will read the thread properly tomorrow.

 

we have a few of the things done already, spare wheel has been off for ages, carnage sway bars, metal chassis. Put a 25kg servo in but it has a buzzing noise, not bothered tocheck what’s wrong. Just changed the servo in a Arrma senton so could use that in the outlaw I think.

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Hey all!

 

I just purchased an FTX Outlaw Brushless for my 6yo daughters birthday after originally purchasing a Traxxas Rustler 4x4 VXL and figuring it is probably way too much for her. However, as I'm new to hobby RC cars in general I was wondering how the Outlaw will hold up as it's main use will be on the field, hills and woodland as she loves doing trails and other things with the cars she has now (only from toy shops). Seem to see many mixed reviews about durability, is there a different option I should've looked at instead of the Outlaw?

 

I was gonna send the Rustler back, but I'm now contemplating keeping it myself so we can both go out and have some fun. 😂😂

Edited by Baggelz
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On 27/06/2022 at 20:50, Baggelz said:

Hey all!

 

I just purchased an FTX Outlaw Brushless for my 6yo daughters birthday after originally purchasing a Traxxas Rustler 4x4 VXL and figuring it is probably way too much for her. However, as I'm new to hobby RC cars in general I was wondering how the Outlaw will hold up as it's main use will be on the field, hills and woodland as she loves doing trails and other things with the cars she has now (only from toy shops). Seem to see many mixed reviews about durability, is there a different option I should've looked at instead of the Outlaw?

 

I was gonna send the Rustler back, but I'm now contemplating keeping it myself so we can both go out and have some fun. 😂😂

Will hold up well doing trailing but break quickly when jumping or doing any form of speed. My lad runs an outlaw and its been pretty solid, if you read back through the thread theres lots of good points and tips to improve it.

Lower rear arms and the chassis are weak points as snap easy on light roll overs, metal those and the sway bar arms.

 

 

IMAG1958.jpg

 

Lads outlaw on the bench after the beach bash at ROSSA we broke some stuff.


As usual it ate a front set of bearings, like 3 sets a year it seems.

IMAG1961.jpg

 

Also was a bit naughty and put 3s into it, knowing something would break the weak point was my drive shaft, no matter plenty of spares and was about end of its life from the looks of the cv joint.

IMAG1960.jpg

 

The gmade transmission is holding up amazing, looks like there is no wear on the main gear 3 years on 4600kv gotta hand it to this transmission its a tank!

IMAG1959.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

Had my first outing with it tonight, on the beach.  Was good fun!

Went through the 3250ma lipo in no time though. 

I definitely still want a Nitro, but at least with this i can have fun in forests without having to tell disgruntled dog walkers to foxtrot oscar

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On 15/07/2022 at 20:27, Huzaberg said:

Had my first outing with it tonight, on the beach.  Was good fun!

Went through the 3250ma lipo in no time though. 

I definitely still want a Nitro, but at least with this i can have fun in forests without having to tell disgruntled dog walkers to foxtrot oscar

Ha ha well the smell of the petrol stuff will keep them well foxtrot oscar  lol 

I had my 1st major crash/damage today cracked the front suspension arms as in the last few months iv not been bashing as fast but more steady (bat last longer ) an less damage well misjudged a jump off some steps (8) an hit the hand rail on way down  bent the shock piston arm and cracked the suspension are only at the front  still works  so .. 

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Had a blast tonight doing a wee hill climb I normally would do on the dirt bike, was getting roosted by the outlaw lol.

Hill climbs is really what I love, and if you're well placed I reckon you can keep damage to a minimum.

 

From what I've seen the Outlaw seems to fit halfway between basher and crawler.  I don't think its really designed for either but is suited for exactly what I'm interested in.  

With a few modifications... and maybe a sensored motor?

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It's been great so far, on the steep grassy beach dunes(the sand gets everywhere lol), forest hill climbs, and open hill muddy hill climbs, it handles climbs pretty well with proper throttle control.

Sensored system would be nice though...

Broken two spurs and the rear drive shaft so far.

Have on order the hardened spur, the alu motor mount, the metal drive shaft, the carnage front sway bar, and some threaded rod to brace the rear shocks

Also gonna try some m3x8mm countersunk screws to move the battery box to perpendicular over the centre transmission.  

All my tools are for motorbikes so I had to get creative with hex drill bits into socket adapters!

Edited by Huzaberg
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  • 2 weeks later...

Wee update...

 

Have fixed a few more things, a few little upgrades, mods, and tweaks.

One annoying thing though is the rear drive shaft...

The original snapped so I replaced it with the hardened one, which I read has a problem with pins coming loose.

Before installing I reinstalled all the grub screws very tight with threadlock, but sure enough a couple runs later the pin came out.

I reinstalled it with a spare pin from the original drive shaft, re-threadlocked the grubs, and again tonight its come out again -_-

I think I read somewhere you can use some heat shrink, does this do the trick?  What size would I need?

 

Other than that its been a lot of fun, will be nice when I can eliminate all the little things going wrong. 

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  • 1 month later...

After much ado. I've left the Outlaw fold now.  Sold both of them.  so it's time I bid you chaps a farewell.  I've not left RC, just needed to shrink my collection a bit.  My 2015 Monster Beetle might be next.   Good luck chaps and happy Outlaw-ing for the future.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...

My brushless Outlaw is unable to go at walking speed.

 

When I start pulling the throttle trigger, nothing happens for the first millimeters of travel, and then it zooms at about 1/4 throttle. Pulling further makes it go up to 100% throttle.

 

Is that common? It's inconvenient when walking it.

 

I tried programming the "neutral range" parameter on the ESC to the lowest, which is 2%, but it doesn't do much.

 

Also I put the throttle trim to 0 and calibrated the endpoints. Adjusting the trim just makes the trigger more responsive, but it's always going from nothing to about 1/4 power without control in between.

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59 minutes ago, Italian plumber said:

My brushless Outlaw is unable to go at walking speed.

 

When I start pulling the throttle trigger, nothing happens for the first millimeters of travel, and then it zooms at about 1/4 throttle. Pulling further makes it go up to 100% throttle.

 

Is that common? It's inconvenient when walking it.

 

I tried programming the "neutral range" parameter on the ESC to the lowest, which is 2%, but it doesn't do much.

 

Also I put the throttle trim to 0 and calibrated the endpoints. Adjusting the trim just makes the trigger more responsive, but it's always going from nothing to about 1/4 power without control in between.


They will not go walking pace on brushless, they are geared to high, the only solution is swap the esc and motor for a sensored one, or go brushed and then wait for the motor to melt.
You can try lowing the punch and timing with the esc programmer, but it still wont be great.

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On 28/12/2022 at 18:03, Redback said:


They will not go walking pace on brushless, they are geared to high, the only solution is swap the esc and motor for a sensored one, or go brushed and then wait for the motor to melt.
You can try lowing the punch and timing with the esc programmer, but it still wont be great.

Punch and timing already set to low with the programmer. It still gives a "kick" when starting, likely eating away spur, pinion and diffs a bit every time.

 

About using a sensored brushless, I thought of it but there is another scenario where I think it won't work.

When cornering and releasing the throttle, there is a point from which torque from the motor disappears, instead of tapering down to zero, and this causes a sudden weight shift that topples it on its roof.

A sensored motor helps the ESC sense the rotation when the motor is starting, but it shouldn't make a difference when the motor is already rotating.

 

I'm starting to think the Photon 2.1w ESC is hardwired to have that dead zone around neutral.

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@RedbackI

 

sensorless is out of reach at the moment for me. If I swapped the photon ESC with a Hobbywing 10BL60 do you think it would be better at handling low RPM? I don't want a crawler but at least being able to extract some more power at low RPM.

 

I also forgot to mention that I'm running it on smaller wheels, about 2/3 of the original wheels diameter.

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The hobbywing have a stronger startup but less ramp, so it will still go 0 to hero thus sensored system or transmission swaps the only way to get them to "crawl", without a sensor cable brushless motors dont know what direction they are going at low rpm and dont have the guts to move the truck thus, i swapped the transmission in our outlaw.
You can put in a big  full 550 can low kv brushless, that will handle the lower rpm better.
But your spending the same amount to resolve an issue that it wont cure.
If you have a spare esc to swap out, do it the photons arnt great maybe you will have better luck with the hobbywing, i got sick of turning it off on on every time it stalled in long grass.

  

8 hours ago, Italian plumber said:

When cornering and releasing the throttle, there is a point from which torque from the motor disappears, instead of tapering down to zero, and this causes a sudden weight shift that topples it on its roof.

A sensored motor helps the ESC sense the rotation when the motor is starting, but it shouldn't make a difference when the motor is already rotating.


imo cornering is nothing to do with the motor, all outlaws roll over, you need to upgrade to a front swaybar and stiffen the front springs, also move the battery tray forward and lower to move the CG from being near the moon.

Have you also tried, resetting the end points on the esc?, check the throttle is at 100% and expo to before resetting it

Edited by Redback
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