Just bought my first RC in many years

[crazyjr]

A little update, had some breakages and wrecks. Amazingly hitting a tree and a house on the front suspension has done little more than bend an upper link (both were at about 45 MPH)

I did have some issues with the halfshafts when i tightened the slipper more than i should. For those who haven't found this out yet, the proper setting is two full turns out from bottomed out, once i found that (It's not in any manual) I've yet to break anything more in the driveline.

The motor is a different story, After about 15-20 runs the front motor bearing exploded, as in balls everywhere inside the motor. Thankfully the motor did not take out the esc. So i started looking for a way to fix it had planned to just get more motor bearing, but as i tried to remove the outer race I pulled the windings off a stator mount, so ended that.

So i looked on the arrma forums and a lot of people had similar issues and most went to the Surpass hobby motors, many just found a 3660 (36mmx60mm) 3200 kv (stock sizing) and just kept going. They seem to run better so I started looking for some. the only places i managed to find any were Ebay or Bangood, but on both they were shipping from china, roughly 30 days journey to get to me in the best of times, but with the traffic jam on cargo on the west coast, maybe longer. I started looking on Amazon for a suitable substitute. and i stumbled on a surpass 3665 (36mmx65mm) 2300 KV. Both motors (stock and the perspective one) had 5mm shafts, so looked to be a great fit and maybe more torque. I even dusted off brian G's old speed calculator and checked the potential speed. Stock this little monster is 50 MPH capable with a 3s lipo. I wanted it a little slower, BrianG's calc said new motor was doing 36MPH stock gear (15 tooth pinion) but with a 17 tooth it was 41 MPH which i thought more appropriate for this truck

I am so glad i did this, the truck is way more controllable it's more torquey, but it's more easily handled. I think the gearing and KV stock was too much, but looked good on paper. Now the truck is fun, I didn't need to get used to the power, I just needed to adjust it to work for me. Before it was like trying to control a 5 year old on red bull, now it's more like a Matured in it's prime horse. yes it's still strong, but it is easier to control