Crawler

I would have to disagree, a Clod is a born crawler, and few mods are needed to get it going. TXT's and other shafties make you have to figure out driveshaft angles and how to minimize chassis twist (common problem with shafties, it was gosh awful with my TXT), and still have it crawl good. Also, a Clod can do something that a shaftie has yet to be able to counter: a stick chassis. Unparalelled center clearence and super low weight in a single package, both are readily availible with a Clod because of the independant gearboxes. The weight is already down low because of where the motors are, so you don't have to worry as much about the center of gravity.

Any more questions? Feel free to PM or post them up! :D

[coolhandcountry]

I planning on building the truck more for looks than rock crawling there dabid. I can understand what you are saying. The txt is so life like. The clod with the motor on rears are no as life like. If you know what I am saying. It is not something that I am going to rush as well. I figure some thing out. I thank you all for the input and sites.

Dude, I had a TXT, would have taken way too much work to get that thing going as a crawler, even to make it a basher would have taken quite a bit. When I say the chassis twist was gosh awful, I mean it: running 10 cells on my Super Chicken to make it kinda cool would make the chassis flop from side to side with every throttle input......looked terrible on top of giving bad performance. Plus, that truck had such a high cg and narrow track, it'd flip over just taking a turn too tight.

Whatever you plan to do, you'll most likely have to do some kind of basic mods. First off, go with a 15" MINIMUM wheelbase, preferably 16" for me, helps out so much when you're wheeling. Just ask about anything else, crawler tech isn't that hard, and most can be done in your garage too.

If you're making a big scale rig, I would go with a clod. If you're making a 2.2 crawler, go with a shafty.

I made my first crawler, Bergsteiger, about a year ago:

It was alright, but the rear links were too long causing the rear gearbox to get stuck on rocks.

Then, I made a TLT:



But, I cut corners, so consequently, it sucked.

Then, I made Bergsteiger Zweite, which used the same axles as the first one, but had some major mods (behind the axle steering, new chassis, cut tires):



It worked pretty good, but the motors were crap, so I sold it to get a MT2. I kinda regret it, but I know I'll get another crawler eventually.

[rkman]

If you want to build something "pretty" you may want to check these sites. A little pricy but nice looking!
www.inerbeecrew.com
http://www.nowinghobby.ye.ro/shop

[coolhandcountry]

What kind of controller does everyone run? I would assume a 4 channel for the rear steering.

[rkman]

My crawler "project".
[IMG][/IMG]

[rkman]

From what I can tell people are using 3 channel with the rear servo turning the rear wheels in opposite direction of the front in standard mode and this site has a mod for a 3 position toggle to lock out rear steering or switch the rears to turn in same direction as the fronts for "crabwalk". I can't tell you from experience because I haven't gotten to the point of actually having a running truck.
http://thecrawlerstore.com

[coolhandcountry]

I love the way crawlers look. I can't look. I drool to much. :D
You all are trying to get me into it. I want to too.

[rkman]

I got hooked just by cheking out some of the vid on the inerbeecrew site. I actually bought the crawler chassis before I ran across this site and have been buying BL parts for my trucks but am still working on getting my crawler up and running during the winter:)

rkman, hate to tell you this, but those front and rear bumpers are going to kill any kind of performance, they'll hit the rocks before your tires. If you're just building more of a pretty truck, it's okay, but I went as far as doing behind the axle steering on the front to get the best possible approach at any time. My servo mounts are rock solid too, they're tied into the axle braces and aren't going anywhere without having the axle ripped in two.

I personally run my MX-3 on my Clod, and use the 3rd channel to ghetto steer the rear. It's only a toggle switch, so the rear is either all left or all right, with no in between straight. Nice thing about having it independant from the front (even if it isn't the best way to do it), is that you can just swing the rear when taking on something, or crab walk (all 4 wheels pointed in one direction) to hit it from a different angle.

For a "controller" though, I run the tried and true Super Rooster with dual Integy 55x1 comm lathe motors wired in parallel.

[crazyjr]

If i built a crawler i would use a clod, because i could use two esc, that way i could set one up to run the front axle and one to run the rear axle kind of like the dual transfer case setups in real crawlers

[coolhandcountry]

That could be very doible. Get a four channel radio with daul stick. Left be the foard back left and right for the front and the right one be the same for rear. That way you would pull the front end around some. You run the dual transfer case in a 1;1 for lower gearing. You run the dana 300 with twin stick for the difference in ratios. If this helps you. You can also do the np 205 trans fer case.

[rkman]

I would like to have both:D Pretty and functional that is.
But I haven't had the chance to try it out yet.
I'll take your word for it since you have actual crawling experience.
There are some cool vids of the chasis on the inerbeecrew site that shows the chassis working pretty well on some crawling but who knows how many times they tried. I think if I get some large diameter tires it should help the bumpers clearance some.
Thanks for the input.

[Dafni]

In the worst case you could still modify the front bumper area, rkman. The chassis itself looks very nice! One of the more attractive designs I've ever seen. Don't know about its performance, but it looks awesome.

If I would build a crawler for actual rock crawling, I would also go for a clod design.
I have seen this torque-twisting on vids, and it's not a nice thing to see.

also, I liked Camels Bergsteiger2. (Still can't believe you sold it)