mauler FTX Mauler upgrades

[Jclifford28]

Hello, 

I've just bought a new FTX Mauler as my 1st crawler. I've read online and watched various videos YouTube, and from what I can see is this is a great crawler straight out the box. 

Just looking to find out what upgrades are a must for the near future. Ideally to improve the car and increase the reliability. 

I'm fairly new to RC cars so I don't fully understand all the technical terms and what the purpose is of all the parts. So if I can have as much info as possible and links to upgrade parts would be fantastic.

 Thank you

[Lone-wolf]

First up i would fit a decent 550 size 28t motor, this will give it better crawling and reduce some stress of the driveline then your gonna want a better esc and a new radio as the stock set up is a combined esc/RX, after that 2s lipo for loooong run time, thats most of it

[Jclifford28]

4 hours ago, Jack Reacher said:

First up i would fit a decent 550 size 28t motor, this will give it better crawling and reduce some stress of the driveline then your gonna want a better esc and a new radio as the stock set up is a combined esc/RX, after that 2s lipo for loooong run time, thats most of it

Nice one,

Can you suggest which ones are decent please? Possibly with links? 

Thank you

[Lone-wolf]

This brand of 550 motor seems pretty good you will have to look to see if they have a 28-35T version  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/550-Brush-Motor-50T-For-Traction-Hobby-Cragsman-C-Founder-C/323745252445?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649       look for a hobbywing 1060 or better a 1080 esc

[Jclifford28]

4 minutes ago, Jack Reacher said:

This brand of 550 motor seems pretty good you will have to look to see if they have a 28-35T version  https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/550-Brush-Motor-50T-For-Traction-Hobby-Cragsman-C-Founder-C/323745252445?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649       look for a hobbywing 1060 or better a 1080 esc

Will do thanks, 

What's the difference in the 28t to the 35t. I know it's the amount of turns the motor does...but is it better to be higher or lower? 

[Lone-wolf]

crawling is all about low speed with good torque higher the turns lower wheel speed and more torque the lower the turns higher wheel speed

[Jclifford28]

5 minutes ago, Jack Reacher said:

crawling is all about low speed with good torque higher the turns lower wheel speed and more torque the lower the turns higher wheel speed

Ah ok, that makes sense. So what does the mauler have as standard? I know it has a RC540 brushed but it doesn't say how many turns. I've seen some with 45t/55t...would they be no good? 

Sorry for so many questions...

 

[Lone-wolf]

check the spec, think its a 20T so you could look for  28T 540, sorry i originally thought it was a 550

[Jclifford28]

I managed to find out the stock motors are 20T.

Would any of these be a good upgrade?

https://www.modelsport.co.uk/axial-e-motor-35t-brushed/rc-car-products/397100

 

https://www.modelsport.co.uk/index.php?product_id=366354

 

Also would this be a good replacement for the receiver? 

https://www.modelsport.co.uk/etronix-esr-1-sport-2-4ghz-waterproof-receiver/rc-car-products/385126

 

I did read somewhere that the steering servos are slow on these...would this be a good upgrade? 

https://www.modelsport.co.uk/index.php?product_id=433048

Thanks

Edited April 15, 2020 by Jclifford28
Added more to it

[Lone-wolf]

The motor and the servo you linked should be decent upgrades, but not the Receiver because if you upgrade the ESC, you will need a new receiver and transmitter, best i can say is do the servo and motor first, see how you get on with these upgrades, then maybe do radio and esc at a later date, you can pick up a nice Flysky radio with receiver for under £25 and the esc is around £18 ish for a hobbywing 1040

[Jclifford28]

Cheers buddy. Thank you for your help. 

[Jclifford28]

Which of the 2 motors that I linked to would be best? 

[Lone-wolf]

This will be the better of the 2, it should be a direct fit into the mauler, watch out when you swap, the tiny grub screw that holds the pinion gear may be a b*&^%$D to get out, a decent hex driver will be the way, not a cheapo poundland allen key  https://www.modelsport.co.uk/axial-e-motor-35t-brushed/rc-car-products/397100

[Jclifford28]

Will do buddy. Thanks 

[Cameronsqueak]

Hi all been playing around when my son's ftx mauler 

Got a technical issue 

In the rear diff 

One of the rear wheels is spinning and not getting tourqe ....basically what I've got is a 3 wheel drive 

Its not locking into position,  it's spreading the diff a tiny bit as it locks in but it slips 

Can anyone help trouble shoot this .

TIA

[Shergar]

The rectangular hole in this is probally round now and the drive shaft is spinning inside it.

 

https://www.modelsport.co.uk/product/ftx-mauler-front-and-rear-solid-axle-hub-422586

[wombat]

What @Shergar says. If you put hsp94180 into ebay and look for the metal diff unit for around £6.00 you can fit and forget. got one in the front of mine and another one waiting to go in the rear

[Cameronsqueak]

On 04/08/2022 at 02:16, Shergar said:

The rectangular hole in this is probally round now and the drive shaft is spinning inside it.

 

https://www.modelsport.co.uk/product/ftx-mauler-front-and-rear-solid-axle-hub-422586

Yep exactly,  

Q: is this new part metal or plastic ? Can't find it in description not keen on plastic as is will just do it again ....

2nd problem there out of stock 

3rd problem trying to get it fixed asap as he is on holiday here in oz and you can't get these parts in oz .

Parts store here in oz came up with a good idea to drill into the plastic and add two screws to pin it or drill rite trough it and pin it but my screws were unable to tame the sheer tourqe its laying down 

And the shaft is not long enough to pin rite through 

 

Looks like I'll have to order parts when there available......

 

Unless anyone knows where I can find a whole new diff set up (ALL METAL) that is compatible 

[wombat]

See my last reply to you 😁😁

[timorous]

The HSP94180 metal diffs worked fine for me until the steering hubs broke so I went ahead and got an all metal front and rear axle from Ali but the diffs in it are rather slack so I again upgraded to Axial AR44 metal diffs + pinion which is actually pretty solid and the truck has been working fine for a good while now.

 

I was going to ask in the owners thread but since this is actually alive I hope it is okay to ask here. I have made several upgrades as parts broke over the time I have had it and my son now wants it to go faster. I have purchased a cheap 3900KV motor + esc combo and installed it which has done the trick and just about doubled the speed but 8-10mph is still pretty sluggish for what he wants to do with it.

 

Looking at the gearing charts and advice many suggest starting with a rollout of 1 and working from there based on temp but the gearing required to do that is a 1:17 ratio and it calcs to around 30MPH which is faster than I want for my son. I was thinking more around the 20MPH using a 72t spur and a 30t pinion (48d) since that calcs to 22mph on a 2s with an FDR of 1:24 and a rollout of 0.72. The other reason to use that combo is the centre to centre of the spur and pinion stays about the same as current (less than 1mm further away and there is 2/3 mm of adjustment available in the motor bracket) so I don't have to worry about getting a good mesh between the two since that won't be changing by any significant amount.

 

So my questions are is that kind of FDR and rollout number okay for a 4x4 kind of offroad but more on road truck that might go up a hill / over tree roots now and again but is not used for any challenging or extended crawling? If so what 72t spur gears are compatible with it because there does seem to be quite a bit of variety compared to pinions which are find your bore size and go.