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FTX Mauler Rock Crawler Owners Thread


johninderby

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33 minutes ago, johninderby said:

Just went for a crawl over the rockery. Tried it with the Outback before which was hopeless and couldn't get over the rocks at all. But the Mauler WOW. Effortlessly crawled over the rocks. Made it look easy.  :thumbsup:

 

I'll post a  vid shortly.

      John

You aren't doing me any favours in keeping my cash you know........looking forward to the video.  Finger over the button. 

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More thoughts on the Mauler.

 

Servo works far better than expected given that it's only 9kg but it is a very slow servo. Will replace the servo with a better one as I have a waterproof 17kg one in the spares box.

 

Driveshafts are of the reinforced plastic type so will be keeping an eye on them for durability. 

 

Motor is OK. Definately not underpowered. 

 

ESC is not bad. Adjusting the dual rate on the TX lets you achieve good low speed control. It is a combined ESC / RX but a seperate RX is available if you wanted to run another ESC and keep the TX. 

 

Was going to fit a Losi brushless crawler motor and a Novak ESC but now not sure . Might just fit a Quicrun 1060 or 1080 and keep the stock motor. :017: Or maybe not. :P

 

Thought this would be a good entry level crawler but however it's a lot better than just entry level. :D

The servo and possibly the driveshafts are the only improvements needed to make this a great crawler.

 

       John

Edited by johninderby
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It does look like a LWB Scout with a not so ugly body (body looks like it has a cage inside?).  

 

Some thoughts (from owning a Scout for a long time, and lots of mods!)

 

The longer chassis plate has got the upper links inboard which is good.

They removed most of the stupid bumper mounts from the axle.  Yay!

If they don't rub on the chassis you could try swapping the upper links and shocks on the axles for better link triangulation.  

Looks like there are position so you can move the front upper links back a bit and improve steering by rolling the axle back a it.  Might cause hangups on that lump at back of axle.

Would be interesting to see if it also has the Scout diffs.  They had a habit of rounding out if you bound a wheel up.

The driveshafts hold up pretty well.  If I remember you can pop some threaded rod down the splined section to help stop them twisting up.

The axles will be "almost" compatible with all the AX10 / SCX10 upgrades.

 

Looks like fun!  If only I had space for another RC.

 

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It's way better quality wise than a Scout. Everything is just more solidly built. Must weigh twice as much as a Scout chassis. Axles look like revised Scout mouldings. Will be taking one apart later and seeing if they are different inside.

 

Lots of adjustability in the chassis. Few mounting locations for the upper shock mounts and the chassis links. Can also move the centre section up or down. 

 

Had and seriously modded a Scout which I enjoyed but this is so much better. 

 

        John

 

IMG_1562.jpg

Edited by johninderby
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They are definitely stock scout axles. Exactly the same in dimension as the ones on my scout. All the running gear is scout. The only difference is the chassis and link lengths. I have bad experiences with combined esc/Rx so this is a stumbling point with me. I am going to wait for a while to see how the axles hold up to what I assume is a 27t ish motor. I am going to guess the internals of the diff are the same. Does look good though. Wondering if I could mount the shell to a ladder chassis somehow but keep more wheel travel for crawling. Hmmm

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Further thoughts on the Mauler after playing with it a bit more.

 

Think of it as an Improved Scout that crawls great right out of the box but unlike the Scout doesn't need a lot of mods. Has great development potential and in particular a great adjustable chassis that is way better than an SCX10 chassis. Great tyres as well that don't need replacing.

 

So you could buy one and keep it stock and enjoy crawling with it as is but rather than then buying A more expensive crawler you could upgrade it a bit at a time rather than having to lay out a big wad of cash all at once. It's that potential that is the strong point of the Mauler. Fit Axial axles, upgrade the spur gear and pinion to Traxxas ones, fit metal driveshafts and upgrade the shocks. Then of course there's motor and ESC options. 

 

Hmmmm just happen to have a set of Axial axles and all the other bits. Perhaps I should do the full set of upgrades just to show the potential. :017:

 

         John

 

 

Edited by johninderby
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hi john,can u answer this please..

in the pic u put it is massive compared to the ftx outback.so just checked the specs-mauler 350mm/outback 250mm/ftx spyder 310mm-350mm.

does this mauler come within regs of a crawler comp or g6 etc.

only asking cos i dont know,and i am sure u will!

regards-ed1

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