meanmudder

My Feedback: (1)

I've got a 19 year old nephew that can't handle nitro so I'm trying to find out about an electric rock crawler,What kind of truck,chassis,rear ends etc. that are good for thisI've seen a lot of forums and sweet pictures of diff. rock crawlers just no info on what or how.Any info will be appreciated!!

Ahab

I dont have one of my own yet (winter project) but it seems that most people will tell you that soem sort of custom 4 link type suspension (gecko from rcguy.com for example) with tamiya Clod Buster axels/gearboxes will make the best RC Crawler.
They will also tell you that the Tamiya TXT-1 is also a pretty capable crawler out of the box (and then they will argue amongst themselves whilst they decide if the TXT or CLOD/CUSTOM is the better. The Clod usualy wins because its motors are both fitted to the axels giving very low CoG... but the TXT has the edge because it is all in the same box to start with and is a little more suited to a beginner.)
Then some guy with an e-maxx will show up claiming them to be the best crawler since <insert comicaly good crawling thing here> and then a bunch of guys will jump on him because the e-maxx has wishbone/independant suspention, rather than 4-Link and then they will start to argue that Articulation is God when crawling... then the e-maxx guy leaves to get pictures of his e-maxx getting 11" of suspension travel.......

If you survive all that and ask about electrics you will get a thousand and one suggestions for a good reciever/transmitter (Rx/Tx) combo, but nearly everyone will agree that the Novak SuperRooster is the only ESC to consider and that Integy 55turn Com-Late motors will probably be the way to go. The integy motors are designed for A seperate application all together but they produce huge amounts of torque (which is the be all and end all in crawling - apart from Sacred Articulation of course ) .

Which leads me to my final point... It seems to me that unless you really want to slowly clamber over technical trials type courses Rock crawlers are pretty specialised. And as these things generaly have a top speed of about 5 mph they arent very exciting with nothing to climb... so the first question is wether it is really suited for your nephew... crawlers are almost the polar opposite to most nitro trucks...

nktrnl

LOL! yeah what he said is just about right. Or if you just want to have fun with out going to extremes just buy a stock truck and let him run that as is. Even when my clod was 100% stock I would "try" to crawl over stuff. In an odd way it made it more fun and challenging. 1. You have to be carfull (gentle) on the throttle. 2. open diffs and not a verry good suspension set up make you think more on how to get over stuff. So yeah, personaly Id say get a box stock truck ( upgrade the ESC and maybe after market stock motors) and just have fun untill you/he decides to go all out on crawling. But when you build a "full" crawler then some times it gets hard to find stuff to crawl over (thats challenging).

Element

When my truck went through its crawler faze it wasnt that slow but crawled damn well.Now I have 14t in it and I unlocked the diffs now I want to turn it back into a crawler

mtrchamp

My Feedback: (4)

Are you sure he wants a crawler? or? Maybe he would like a Stadium truck, or a drifter, or something that's not nitro but still pretty cool. Crawlers are mostly meant for places with rocks to crawler over , if there aren't very many rocks, he's gonna get bored fast, unless you decide to turn it into a Prerunner lol, but hey, ask him some ?'s and let us know

fastfred

My Feedback: (4)

That Tamiya TLT might be a good bet, or even a stock Clodbuster, if he wants to go a bit faster, take a look at the RTR Losi truck. It's a good deal and comes with a good name-brand radio. Here's the link: http://www.teamlosi.com/kits/XXXTRTR.htm

Crawlers can get pretty pricey, and are built for one purpose.

Whatever you decide, your best bet is probably a RTR for someone new to the hobby..

Matt

Wookie

My Feedback: (5)

meanmudder,

First off how much are you looking to spend? That will make a big difference in what to recomend.

If you can spend a fair amount of money, I would suggest a Tamiya TXT-1. It's a great crawler out of the box and can be set up for speed if necessary.

Do you have a radio, servos, batteries etc. for this crawler? For a set up I would suggest the following:

TXT-1 - $350.00 (on the used market could be found for around $200.00)
(2) Kyosho Magnetic Meyhems ($20.00 each)
(1) Novak Super Rooster ($130.00) this will allow motors to be ran in series or parallel on one ESC. It also gives 3 amps of power to the servos.
(1 or 2) servos. Look for something with at least 150 oz/in of torque. Speed won't matter as much as torque on a truck like this.

I'm assuming you have radio gear, batteries, etc. to go with this so I won't give any recomendations.

A clod buster would work well also, but is not a good crawler or that great of a truck straight out of the box (can be one of the best with some work). You have to reverse one of the motors if you switch them out, which can be a pain if you don't know what you are doing.

Mostly check Ebay, this forums classified ads, or go to www.rccrawler.com or www.clodtalk.com and search their classified ads.