Cuiken

Depending on tyre choice it looks like the Kyosho shell could work: http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/general-crawlers/612002-kyosho-rampage-pro-no-moa.html This was done with an SCX10 axle which, I think, is a bit narrower than the enduro axle width (SCX10 = 192mm with the enduro ~180mm). Just a possibe option for anyone inspired by this build but unable to source the ranger body and flares.....

Sorry to slightly hijack the build thread but I was looking around for alternative bodies for this type of build. Went through the various SC, honch and RC4wD options but they all have issues. Then it occured to me that the Kyosho Outlaw Rampage shell might work: https://www.1001hobbies.co.uk/spare-parts/311610-kyosho-k-olb051-clear-body-shell-outlaw-rampage-4548565333981.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjwh_eFBhDZARIsALHjIKeJ_8htnYf5dvQ4IHwuLON2uxUh_HDeKno4X7VJpHmyBtVqi15bLvgaAncfEALw_wcB ● Length 561mm (with body)● Width 262mm (with body)● Height 231mm (with body)● Wheelbase 335mm Appreciate it's not to everybody's taste but I quite like it. I'm guessing the longer wheelbase could probably be accomodated and you'd want to source a roll bar. Otherwise though. the only issue I can see is whether it's wide enough at ~262mm. @A J, what width has the Ford Ranger ended up with the new flares? Cheers.

Ohh yeah, it's pretty much the stock truck with IFS in some sequences and the stock solid axle in others. I think it also has a 12T brushed motor vs 16T stock. Mechanically, you could just buy the trailrunner, beef up the motor and you'd be there. Mainly it's down to the shell. It definitely appears to handle better in the IFS sections but that might just be selective editing of footage. Add the trailing arm kit and arb as per yours though and I think it would be even better (or at least look better 🙂 ). Either way, I like the idea of trucks that appear to be running fast when they're only doing 12mph. They work nicely in smaller locations and save a bit on breakages 🙂 BTW, which SSD trailing arms did you go for? Was it their Axial Bomber/yeti ones? Cheers.

Scale speed though should be fine though I reckon. I found a way to shoe horn a sway bar into my Sendero and it corners pretty well now (without spoiling the crawling too much). I run a HW AXE550 2700KV with a 14T pinion and I think it could handle a bit more top speed.. I reckon the IFS and trailing rear arms should improve things further again. Something about these 'mid speed' scale trucks really appeals. This sort of thing: https://www.facebook.com/458135747552228/videos/914359722312560

Definitely no test drive before paint? 😄 Just really curious how this thing is going to handle. Cheers.

Once again I set out to find a new RC. You know 'the one' that will definitely be the last I ever want to buy. As usual the shopping list included the Losi LMT and, this time, the Axial Ryft. Last time it was betwen the LMT and an HPI WR8 (I ended up buying a used Senton 3S). On this occasion I read all the owners threads, watched the youtube video, considered the local terrain I have availble for bashing and decided on the LMT. I then found all my procrastimating meant they were laregly out of stock and, instead, randomly clicked on a link for the Losi Baja Rey. Maybe I just have a thing for short cource/trophy trucks (I also have a hankering for the Kyosho Outlaw Rampage Pro) but I immediately decided to go for the Baja Rey. Possibly this is daft given I already have the Senton but, hey ho, it should be turning up tomorrow. Out of the box are there any mods needed? I'm thinking: 1. Have a new servo on standby (maybe just swap it straight in). 2. Shoogoo some of the body panels? I was thinkning just the front and rear wings.. 3. I'd rather not use the IC3 connector (I use XT60/90 on all my batteries). Is it a total pain to swap the connector inside the truck over to an XT60? 4. Maybe use thicker oil in the centre diff? 5. Learn to drive properly (I gather its a handful). Cheers.

Well, I went for option three instead. Bought a used Arrma Senton with a view to lowering it slightly and creating a new 'rally sct' segment. Mark my words, this time next year it will be huge..... Alternatively, I'll just send it off jumps as it is 🙂 Eirther way, new toy. Happy days.

Looks like a missed key fact, the WR8 is discontinued..... Seems a shame. It's a nice car without much competition.

Thanks, that’s pretty helpful. Maybe I’ll just leave it to fate. See which car is actually in stock when I’ve saved up enough cash. The LMT does look ridiculously good fun. Not sure if you can comment but I already have a 6S Kraton. Scale and terrain wise I guess they’d be similar. Realistically, is there room in a collection for both?

And therein lies the ridiculousness of my query, the two cars are so totally different it's probably daft to try to compare them. That said, I'm trying 🙂 I guess in terms of usability, the WR8 would be fine on the bit of street outside my house whereas I'd want a bit more space to use the LMT? Conversely, the LMT would work on grass while the WR8 needs a paved/pathed surface of some sort. I actually tried a mate's WR8 at the weekend. It was very compelling. Only ran 2S but the acceleration and control was incredible. He is on his second bodyshell but has shoogooed it this time and it's holding up pretty well. Otherwise, it's held up to a year of bashing with only one cheap breakage (full speed into a curb meant needing a new C hub). I've followed the LMT chat on this forum and there are a lot of new parts being discussed/fitted. The treal axles are half the price of the truck. Has anyone kept theirs stock and seen how well it holds up? Also, where are you running them?

Conversely, I love the look of the LMT and am not 100% keen on the look of the WR8. Agree on the breakages though. A friend has the WR8 and has utterly thrashed it with minimal issues. Parts are also cheap and readily available if/when things do go wrong. Only excpetion seems to be the fact that the body shell is hard to come by and so comedically expensive. Hopefully some shoogoo/tape reinforcement would help with that.....

So, two cars that really couldn't be much more different from one another. However, if I were to buy another car this summer it would be one of the two. My two current favourite cars are my Redcat Wendigo: and my recently completed Tamiya XV01: I've sort of converted my Wendigo into a mini monster truck with those tyres and some heavy duty sway bars and the Lancia is just a delight to drive out of the box (handling is increbible). So, next level on the Wendigo would be the LMT and similarly a more 'vicious' rally car would be the WR8. The LMT is more expensve out of the box by ~£100 which is probably okay for such a huge truck but it also seems to want quite a few upgraded parts to ensure durability (axles for starters). Meanwhile, the HP WR8 would want the shell reinforced but is pretty much good to go after that. Hard to say which would be most 'fun' with the usual online reviews raving about both. Anyway, there's clearly no right answer on this but curious what other people might go for.

Let me help you out there: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Plastic-Chicken-Glasses-Anti-pecking-Equipment/dp/B074DW2RNG

So two updates on this: 1. Reply from HW saying they are working on improved firmware: This will return to the topic of FOC, It is because the direct application of FOC to normal mode brings this characteristic. If want to have the same effect as the general non-Foc escs applied to the general racing(F/B/R running mode) cars, we do need to improve it and our software engineers are trying to do this. Once there is a new firmware, we will upload it to app. Thank you very much for your supporting. 2. Bought a Castle Mamba X Combo with the 3800kV motor on eBay. Got lucky and it oinly took 5 days from the US. Installed and tried it out tonight. Bear in mind first impressions are ith all settings at default (still waiting for the USB link thingy to program the ESC). So, on default settings: 1. Its very smooth across the mid and high power range. Far nicer to drive than the HW AXE R2 was in F/B/R mode when you are hooning about 2. After a 10 min blast about the motor and ESC were stone cold too 3. Wee bit more punch or maybe imediacy than the HW (on default settings). 4. Not quite as smooth at very low speeds 5. Not able to run quite as slowly as the HW so not quite as good for crawling (on my Wendigo gearing). In an actual crawler it would be fine. 6. In common with everfy other brushless setup aside form the HW, it's a bit noisy. The relative silence of the HW AXE is very nice. All told, it will suit my purposes better than the AXE R2 setup but I'll miss that super low speed control. Hope that is helpful for someone.

F/R is just that. Forward/Reverse. No brakes. In truck that can do 30mph, you need brakes. Or at least I do . Sure, you have drag brake but if you want it to be powerful enough to bring the truck up smartly, you have to run it so high that you cannot actually roll anywhere. It's a crawler ESC, I get that but it's specifically marketed as having the Forward/Brake/Reverse for general bashing. The Wendigo is a truck that can crawl or bash so I figured the AXE R2 looked ideal. Since the ESC is not defective, just badly marketed, the shop has no real responsibility. I've been chatting with HW customer support but they have sadly been next to useless. 'What happens if you set the drag brake and throttle control to the minimum setting on F/B/R out of interest? rather than disabling them completely.' - When you select F/B/R mode, the ESC automatically fully disables drag brake and throttle control. You cannot adjust them. You have what you have. I've asked HW to explain why the apparent drag brake effect is increased in this mode and they cannot explain it. I personally think the programming of the F/B/R mode is just not really refined.

I get what you're saying but there is no issue drag when in F/R mode and drag programmed to 50% (I've had a good play with the app). In fact, when in F/R mode with frag at 50% and Throttle control at 'low', it's perfect. Issue arises when you enable F/B/R mode. In this mode the drag brake and throttle control are disabled. This is confirmed in the programming app and via HW customer support. Despite having these features disabled, the truck will now deomstarte a lot more drag brake than when run in F/R mode with 50% drag brake. As quick test I checked both modes byt running the truck at full speed, releasing throttle and measuring distance rolled (yeah, I was bored). 1. F/R mode, drag brake 50%, Throttle control 'low' - 23m 2. F/B/R, drag brake and throttle control disabled - 12m So, seems pretty clear that there is far greater rolling resistance in F/B/R mode than in F/R mode. Appreciate th AXE system is really for crawling, it's great for crawling. It's also really quick full throttle. I just don't think the F/B/R mode is working correctly. Cheers.

I've built up a Redcat Wendig (fun truck) and installed a HW AXE550 R2 3300kv motor and ESC. Fore reasons listed in the post below, I'm not really happy with the combo: So, I bought pretty much the last XR8 combo in europe (now seemingly out of stock everywhere) to give a better 'basher' drive mode. Just spotted though that the XR8 is not waterproof. Now, I'm not planning on driving this thing through rivers but it willl need to handle wet terrain (snow right now) and a fair amount of mud. The Wendigo is just a glorified crawler with an open ladder schassis so, if you're not driving in bone dry conditions, everything on board will get wet/muddy (in Scotland we never get bone dry conditions). Question is then, how 'not-waterproof' is the XR8? Should I return it for a refund and try to get hold of Castle Mamba X instead or am I worrying too much? FYI, I really ant a sensored setup for this truck because I want to be able to trail with it and so need to avoid cogging. Any advice from XR8 users would be great. Thanks.

So the latest version of the Hobbywing AXE come with two modes of operation. It has standard Forward/Reverse with drag brake (like any other crawler ESC) but also a new Forward/Brake/Reverse mode for bashing like a 'normal' ESC. I bought the 3300KV R2 for my Redcat Wendigo with the intention to use it primarily in 'bashing' mode (since the Wendigo is not really a crawler). I've geared the truck down from standard as the 'book' top speed of 30mph is simply daft on a crawler chassis. Using an 11T pinion (vs stock 17T) I'm getting around n18mph top speed. All good. As a F/R ESC it works pretty well. Tons of power and punch, some level of low speed control even in a relatively high geared truck, handy blue tooth programming, no heat issues at all. Only oddity/annoyance is that, when in F/B/R mode, it still seems to have a ton of drag brake. The docs and control application all say that drag brake and throttle control are both disabled in this mode but releasing the throttle at speed still results in rapid deceleration. Curiously, putting the ESC into F/R mode and setting drag brake to minimum (50%) and Throttle control to 'Low'gives no dicernable drage brake and 'coasting' off throttle is much better. Only issue is that there's no brake funtion. In a 20mph, fairly heavy truck, you need a brake. Ultimately, without being able to select zero or minimal drag brake and also to be able to fully disable throttle control, the F/B/R 'bashing mode' does not really seem like a lot of use to me. Has anyone else experienced similar? Maybe I should just have gone for a HW XR8 but I liked the idea of being able to configure for crawling on occasion. Unfortunately to have this I think I've compromised the main useage of the truck. As I say, bit dissapointed in the usability of the ESC/Motor combo for non crawling. Curious what others think. Cheers

Thanks. I've a had a wee trawl through that stuff. Couple of useful vids but not much on the newer (though not that new) V2. Weird (ominous?) that there is so little chat about it. By the look of it, it's a versoin of the mad force/mad crusher truck with a slightly lower mounted body. I have to say the 'look' is stunning. I started out looking for a faster crawler with a slightly wider stance (since I can easily roll my Element Enduro when I get careless) so the Redcat Wendigo made a lot of sense. I guess the Fo XX differs further from the original idea in that: 1. Complex suspension means less articulation. It has been set up to manage a bit more speed. On the other hand, loads of people are adding stiffer ARBs front a rear to their Wendigos so mabey that is no bad thing. 2. Fo XX has front and rear diffs so not really a proper crawler at all. That said, there's plenty of videos of people nursing them up fairly tricky slopes. 3. It does seem to have a bit more stability than the Wendigo but retains the hyper active bounce that you get from a solid axle truck. 4. It's a Kyosho so: a. It has a bit of magic to it, chain drive, twin arms on the suspension, dual motor mount (!?). Kyosho were 'the' brand when I was a kid. I'm probably a bit overly attached to that. But, come on, look at it. Nothing else looks like this thing. b. I think the quality seems pretty high c. Parts are a nightmare. Despite their doing the smart thing and having a standardised set of componenets, try even finding a spur gear in stock outside of eBay.... d. The whole Kyosho scene looks like it is somewhat dying out. It's certainly not as active as other brands so you have to worry about future parts availibility.... Does someone want to try to talk me in/out of this idea? Cheers.

So, I got myself a bit excited by the idea of a Redcat Wendigo. Still really like the look of it. Basically, a fast rock crawler/racer on solid axles for that slightly hyperactive sort of vibe. Loads of reviews on 'the youtube' bit mixed to be fair but not enough to put me off. Anyway, looking around at possible other options I spotted the Kyosho Foxx VE which looks to have similar features (solid axles,, sloppy suspension) but maybe a bit more refined with a slightly wider ride and crazy stuff like a chain drive. I did the usual youtube trawl and found that there isn't much content out there aside from Kyosho's own marketing. I have to say, it looks pretty epic to me so was wondering if anyone has any direct experience? Kyosho were the dream car when I was a teenager but there seems to be much less chat about them these days (it's all Arrma and Traxxas). Ta.

Ta, yes, I have the SCT version. Really, I guess a sensored system like .AJ. would be best but since I have the max10 ESC I think I should use it. Few more observations from 'the internet' on the Wendigo: 1. Steering bar ends appear to have been overtightened on the RTR version causing them to strip out of the ball joint ends. - I guess not a problem on the Kit since I'll be installing them myself. 2. Too many examples of people losing drive shafts (prop shafts) because the pins weren't lock tighted in place - Again, shouldn't be an issue with the builder's kit. 3. Many examples of people stripping the hexes in the rear wheels and/or losing wheel nuts. Consensus is that ny-lock nuts are better but that, even with these, the daft power of the truck is enough to destroy the rear wheels. 4. The top speed of the RTR truck on 3S has been clocked at around 30mph (earlier I thought 45mph form a youtube video but turns out the guy was mistakenly using a GPS meauring kmph). 30mph seems pretty fast. So, either I run it on 2S or I find a low KV motor that let's me run on 3S (and so not have to buy new batteries). It seems pretty hard to find much below 3000kV. Can anyone recommend a low KV, 540 sized sensorless motor? Maybe 550 would fit. In that case I'd maybe go for a Hobbywing 3660. I guess gearing down might be a plan but I'm not sure how small a pinion I could run. The stock pinion is 17T, maybe a 13T or 12T would do. .AJ. I think you mentioned you're running 15T. Do you reckon there is adjustment available to run smaller? Good news is that it has a load of parts in common with the Redcat Gen 8 so should be repairable with UK available parts at least some of the time. Cheers.

Sounds like the max 10 will be fine then. Great. Last question. How's it been for durability? Getting parts in the UK is probably going to be tricky. Cheers,

Awesome, thanks. I have a decent servo and a max10 ESC so I'd only need the motor. That said, I'm only guessing the max10 would have enough grunt. What current rating ESC and KV motor did you go for?

That looks awesome. I might just have to bite the bullet. How do you rate it? Worth the money? I reckon it looks like a great sweet spot between a crawler and something insane like the Lasernut.

I've seen a couple of vids of the Redcat Wendigo and I'm pretty smitten. I really like my crawler and it's ladder chassis but think it would be great to have a bit more speed and a wider axles for stability. I think that pretty much sums up the Wendigo. Unfortunately there's no suppliers in Europe that I can find. Has anyone tried to build something similar themselves? In particular, where would I find wider axles?