OldSchoolRC1

WB on the body is 267 IIRC, it should fit well on a CR01 chassis with a bit of fine tuning.. Better than the stock bodies where the WB is a bit on the short side anyway.

So after seeing how well the TL01 did on the trails and rocks, I was thinking of building up some other chassis that could take advantage of the portals, preferably one without a rear motor. I was keeping an eye out for an old Wild Dagger (and still am actually if anyone has one lurking about) and then this popped up. Cool body, center motor, 4WS and everything will bolt right up. No brainer. Come in a huge box...almost clod sized. Mine did come with a HW 1060 ESC, I hear some kits did not. The stars of the show. The body is cool, though it certainly is a bit odd. Interesting the wheel wells were already trimmed out. That's a first for me on a Tamiya kit. That huge chassis is a work of molding art - huge and complicated, but fits together perfectly. Thick and chunky gears. No worries about durability, I've had some Tamiya gears in runners for over 20+ years now. I didn't have any diff lockers handy, so I crammed the diffs with silicone earplugs. Still has some diff action, but it is super stiff. They are the splined output gears and I've found they are not nearly as strong as the D shaped ones. Going with a diff that gives a bit still works well on the trails and takes some of the driveline stresses off. Good enough for now, I'm sure I have some fully locked ones floating around here somewhere if needed. Lots of 5x11 bearings later, we're looking at this stack of gears. Who doesn't love a giant pile of gears? Not quite as impressive as the Dynahead, but still pretty cool. And a quick note about Tamiya - they just do things their own way, and don't give a flying jalapeno. I mean really, who creates a chassis like this for a 4x4 RC? And calls it a Squashvan? Gearbox closed up, everything fit together perfectly. I used a silver marker and did some detail work on the chassis. I think it looks pretty cool overall. My Dyna and WR01 are looking on at their their odd sibling. Went with a Reedy 5 pole and a 17t pinion to start. I'm sure I'll need some gear reduction somewhere eventually, I'll test drive it first once I figure out wheels and tires and see where it's at. I ran it at 3v. for a few minutes to bed in the gears and everything is nice and smooth as expected. Interesting they give you separate dogbones and axles for the front (left) ... I would guess these are the HD versions? Interestingly, there is another set of HD dogbones in the box for 4WS - but no HD axles. Once the chassis was together, the rest was simple TL01 stuff and I put it together in a few minutes. It's a very simple kit overall. I really like the bumpers, pretty sure one of those is going to end up on my Dynahead. The Comical series arms is nice, they add a little bit of width and a few extra shock mount holes. I tossed the stock friction shock garbage and installed some 70mm MST shocks from my CMX kit. Springs are a bit light, but they fit great. I threw on some 1.9 tires just to see how the stance was. ..and cut out the body and dropped it on there. Cool, but man, that chassis hangs down there. I figured it would but it seems really low. The shocks are way drooped though, I need to find some heavier springs and do some tweaking Plenty of suspension from the MST shocks, and far more than I was getting from my TL01. I'd really like to get another set of portals ilo pillaging previous builds, but there is nothing in stock here other than the housings. Kind of a shame, and still think Tamiya should have put them out separate as an option part since there's so many kits that they can mount up to. So I'll steal them from the TL01 for a bit - I think they'll make quite a difference in the stance and be better used here. I do need a few odds and ends like servos, but my budget needs to recover first...

Finally finished this one. Went back to the hot rod body and got everything buttoned up. Every now and again a build comes along that makes me question everything I know about crawling. This is one. To recap, I'm using a Tamiya mini motor/2S on a 3:1 reduction, comical series arms and dogbones for a but extra width, locked diffs and portals on all 4 corners, slightly longer Tamiya CVA's, pitbull tires, and SSD wheels with brass rings up front to balance out the rear motor. It's been built forever and changed bodies 3 times, but this is the first time out. The gearing worked out spot on for crawling and trail duty. The mini motors make RPM but not torque, so they have to be geared down a bit but they make nice smooth power once you find the gearing sweet spot. I only have a little over an inch of travel at each wheel so there's not a lot of flex. The CG is ridiculously low, and it turned out to be super predictable. It teetered a few times, but was always able to drive out of it no problem. Sitting at the bottom of the hard line on my test rock.. Where it proceeded to walk right up it. I was absolutely stunned...only 2 trucks this year have made it up this line, even some of my best trucks won't do it. I actually turned around and drove back down which I have never been able to do - I always get a nosedive off that top lip. The CG here is so low, this build just sticks to the rock. It looses grip way before it wants to flip, so it was super stable. Floored. Straight up, sidehill, no problem. Might lift a tire here and there, but the stability was unreal. "Flex shot"... lol. Such as it is. Springs are a bit on the hard side, it won't completely compress under it's own weight. Down on test rock #2 - down and up, drama free. The open body lets the tires grab pretty easily and I made some decent gaps. Creek crossing?? Well...stream crossing. Wasn't going any deeper, the non waterprrof receiver is just taped to the bottom of the chassis under the ESC. Was working my way up some pretty rough terrain and one of the ball links came loose. A quick field repair and I was back on it for about 30 seconds and LVC kicked off. Very successful first run, and shocked at how well this thing can elevator itself up and down some pretty serious terrain. Got a few changes in mind, but off to a promising start!

Looks great! Always love the lower stance with the barrel springs.

Congrats! Welcome to the Dyna club! Not sure I agree with that ... It can crawl as well as anything I own with the right setup.

Awesome find, this is one of those trucks I always wanted, but never pulled the trigger on. Such a cool platform! Looks to be in fantastic condition - congrats!

Bear in mind the wheels need to be moving for it to shift, it won't shift properly sitting still.

I mount the light unit to the body where possible, the only connector I have between the body and chassis is a power wire. If I have lights on the chassis too, I set everything up on the chassis with a Y connector and just use a single connector for the body lights. It can get hairy with a lot of lights, that's for sure. I've seen a lot of guys build a set of connectors into the body mounts, I've never done that myself.

Congrats on the purchase and welcome to the CR01 family! Kits tires are kinda meh. The Vice Crawlers are just terrible, the Cliff Crawlers are a bit better. Standard size Proline TSL's are a very worthy tire. The XL's are huge, but the original 5.5's are just right (shown on mine above) I'd stay in the 5-6" height otherwise they look out of proportion.

After watching some videos of the Gorgon, I'm pretty impressed. Looked kind of toy-like to my eyes, but the devil is in the details. It looks like it could take a serious beating.

The SCX10 III comes with either portal axles or AR45 solid axles depending on which one you get. Gotta say I'm very less than impressed with my III, my II will crawl circles around it. It seems like Axial tried to make a TRX4 - they should have stuck with simple and performance oriented imo - that's kind of their wheelhouse. The builders kit version might be better than my JLU kit as it has a simpler transmission. Looks nice though: I highly recommend an Enduro - builders kits are excellent, and the RTR's are pretty decent if you want to go that route. Simple, reasonably priced, and they work well. Body and wheel selections are endless, and lots of suspension options to play with as well - IFS, rear trailing arms, etc. A CR01 will do fine too.. Not a pro crawler, but for basic trail running, it'll do very well.

Associated Trophy Rat? Not a monster per-se, but I'm sure it rips around a backyard just fine. That's all I got. There really is not a lot of 2WD monsters anymore. You could easily build a "non Traxxas" 'pede entirely out of aftermarket parts...might be an interesting challenge sourcing all the bits you need.

Great looking build! Willys body looks right at home on there.

Fantastic! Love the scale details, and the wheels look great!

Finally got another Tamiya out.. Dyna time! Every time I run this rig, I'm blown away with how capable it is... it drives almost like a tank. It tends to nose up until the weight shifts over the center wheels and then it crashes back down. Full time 4WS is a must since it has dogbones, but it is pretty nimble. Takes a few minutes to get the hang of wheeling it, but once I'm in the zone it goes pretty much anywhere. Pretty planted, and plenty of nuts on 2S. I love this truck, it's one of my favorites to wheel. Absolutely climbs like a beast. I'm not sold on the Hyrax tires honestly, I think some PL TSL's would take this to the next level. Hmm... I could add a bit more weight since it's oddly on the light side, but I don't want to add any more really, it's just more wear and tear on the portals, and they are somewhat hard to find anymore. Walked all over my test rock. Didn't even break a sweat. I can't get through this line with any of my 1/10 trucks, but the Dyna is just low enough and has just enough grip to pull it off. Two for two! One of the coarse threaded shoulder screws backed out, pretty common with these screws...after inspection, several were working their way out. Been wheeling this for a while, even through a G6 so it's time for a go over to check everything out. I haven't walked a truck out of the woods all year, I was 3 for 4 today. Ouch! Honorable mention: CMX and a few others that have been out in the woods: Another TRX4 Sawback: EctoKeeper: CrawlerMaxx and MegloMaxx (About 1/5 scale)

Looks great - nice work!

Any amount of "V" helps, the further out you can get at the bottom, the better

Nicely done! I love all the various holes on the chassis, definitely lends itself to all kinds of wild stuff as far as mods go. If you can "V" the shocks a bit, it really helps. The chassis is so wide it's a bit tricky to get the lowers mounted out further than the uppers. At one time I used an L-bracket and made lower mounts using the 2 leftover holes next to the servo bridge on the axle. It seemed to work very well. Alas, the truck has long been sold and photobucket ate the pics.

Very nice! Love the pictures, looks like a fun place to drive! I usually do a trail run - between 2-4 miles every Sunday. 2-3 batteries in my backpack, a snack, drinks, and good hiking shoes. Radio is on a lanyard so I can rest my arms if need be. I do carry a plastic shopping bag in case it rains - I use it to cover my radio. It's like 1/10 scale overlanding! It's funny the things you don't know you need. Traxxas TRX4's come with "cruise control," something I thought was a gimmick. But I do use it quite a bit on the long flat stretches - it comes in quite handy when my arms and fingers are starting to stiffen up. I run into all kinds on the trails, with dogs I usually pull over and let them go by - I've had quite a few dogs go after my little truck with the bright lights making weird noises. The people on horses usually scoff as if you are intruding on them. Most hikers give me a "cool truck" if they even acknowledge me at all. Since covid, most people don't even say hello anymore. It's odd.

Very cool pics and write up - looks like a great time was had by all! Interesting your feedback on the BOM, I found mine to be super planted and very capable. Wondering how we could come to completely opposite conclusions. I installed my rear shocks in the V configuration, I can't imagine that made too much difference. The Big 6 looks like a beast!

That looks like a very fun place to run!

Pretty much sums up my last 30 years in RC!

Genius idea for the mirrors! And my 11 year old goes through shoes every 3 months. It gets very expensive!

That looks great! Excellent fab work sir.

Knocked another 3 off the list yesterday. Portalled CC01 SCX10/Vaterra/HPI/Tamiya Yota. I've got a little something from everyone on this truck. CC01 Mu. HPU front suspension, Vaterra rear axle, and a body saved from the trash pile.