Team Associated CR12 Truck Build

[Nikko85 3774]

I thought I’d make a new thread on here to look at the CR12 chassis in a little more detail as I go about building mine.

The CR12 chassis has been around for a while with a few iterations, the first one being the Thunder Tiger Kaiser in 2016 followed by the CR12 Hilux. The chassis was later released as the Team Associated CR12 Tioga and Ford F150. There is also a Funtek version, details are sketchy, but seems identical. Thunder Tiger also released the chassis on the PUBG branded 4x4 Pick Up and Military Vehicle . It seems these were quite quickly discontinued, and can be had for the budget price, much cheaper than the Team Associated branded ones still on sale. From what I can see these were almost identical to the CR12 chassis but had open diffs.

This year Team Associated released the MT12 – a monster truck based on the same chassis with open diffs. Although the pinion size is slightly different the internal gearings look exactly the same. I wasn’t convinced with the release - IMHO the body looks pretty ugly and it’s quite expensive for what you get. I decided I could do one better than the MT12 for less money by getting the PUBG version and adding my own tires, wheels and body to make my own true 1/12 scale monster truck.

I opted for the PUBG 4x4 with a 240 mm wheelbase. I found one for £99 and jumped on it.

Opening up the box it looks ok. Not really Tamiya quality in a few parts, but overall it seems solid enough. Just running with stock everything it’s surprisingly quick and quite sparky. This was never advertised as a crawler – just a scale 4x4 for casual use.

Personally I feel the body looks t0o large and the wheels too small.

Some flashing issues and the shocks don’t feel very solid, but overall I can’t complain for the price, especially as it came with a Flysky GT2E and hobbywing 1040 ESC. Not bad for under a £100 delivered.

Nice all metal links, good geometry, metal rails and it feels solid enough.

There is slight rubbing on the wheels against the hexes – the good news is that original hexes are 7 mm, with lots more thread to spare – so I could move to 10 or even 12 mm before I run out of thread for the nut. With these wheels it’s looking much better!

The body posts sit in a little mount that allows them to be raised and lowered. For what I need I’m going to need much longer posts, so out these came, and I inserted 5.5 mm Tamiya body mount extenders. I need to to slightly drill out the mounts to allow for the 5.5 mm posts, but only a tiny bit.

Now for the body. I picked up a Chevy C10 made for a Stampede that feels about 1/12 scale. The wheelbase of 239 mm matches the Cr12 well, with the chassis being slightly longer, but in a scale monster truck kind of way.

I've not drilled the body, so it's too high at the moment, but hopefully you get the idea! I'm not quite sure what colours to go for, I'll keep it very simple, so probably just one colour and sponsor stickers. There may be some body rub, so I think I may limit the front shocks a little, as I just don't need crawler articulation! 

That’s it for today. Obviously I need to drill the body, I want to install the 10 mm wheel hexes and get a better battery. The trucks seem to have a weakness in the step gear and spur gears, and as I might want a more powerful 390 motor I bought the upgraded metal spur and step gear from GPM. I just hate driving something where I am really worried about going too hard all the time.

In the end should have a nice garden sized 4x4 which will fit nicely in the fleet!

To be continued...

 

 

 

 

 

[Mad Ax 10166]

Ooh, I'm liking this!  I didn't realise the PUBG stuff was the same as the CR12.  I've been considering one of these as a cheap scale chassis for a solid axle Lunchbox build, I think with some work it should be about right - it's that or a CMX.

I'll watch this thread to see how you get on, will be interesting to know how it runs with the 390 later too  

[Nikko85 3774]

13 hours ago, Mad Ax said:

Ooh, I'm liking this!  I didn't realise the PUBG stuff was the same as the CR12.  I've been considering one of these as a cheap scale chassis for a solid axle Lunchbox build, I think with some work it should be about right - it's that or a CMX.

I'll watch this thread to see how you get on, will be interesting to know how it runs with the 390 later too  

Thanks, yes they are all the same chassis! The Funtek seems to have the shortest wheelbase at 215 mm but I am sure you could make your own links.

390 does sound the job, many people are putting brushless in but I don't think it needs that, a fast 380 or 390 would be fine, I am surprised at how fast it seems already. 

Here's where I am at

I painted white as I needed something to match the yellow wheels I had. I will put a few sponsors sticker on and finish the windows.

Then all I really have to do is add the new gears and perhaps a faster motor.

Here is a picture with my quick drive for scale.

It seems about right for me, something around 1/12 to 1/13 or so, which pretty much matches my collection. I could certainly see this under a lunchbox!

[Mad Ax 10166]

Great stuff, the scale looks good too!

[Nikko85 3774]

14 hours ago, Mad Ax said:

Great stuff, the scale looks good too!

Thanks - yeah it's about right on my scale collection - the Jeeps are on the larger side of my 1/12 scale - but against the Land Rover or Pumpkin it works really well.

A few mods from me - even with the collars down full the springs weren't quite stiff enough, so I pulled them off the shocks and gently stretched them beyond the elastic limit. This seems to make them longer, which in turn seems to make them stiffer as they have more pre-load. I'm not sure if they will loose this after a while, but seems to work ok. I will look at new collars, as these seem really thin/cheap. In fact I may just get new shocks completely. Darn, this is a rabbit hole.

I can also try my QD springs as these are always quite soft compared to other ones.

I'm now working on the stickers - I decided to cover the windows in black, rather than use the masks as I wasn't planning an interior!

 

[87lc2 2837]

Truck looks fantastic, but be careful putting any more power to it.  Pretty sure these still have plastic ring gears in the axles and they are worthless with a big tire on there.  I used CR12 axles on a build a few years back and they ended up in the trash, only good for 1.55 tires if you take it easy.  

[Busdriver 6285]

I love the way that you have picked a scale and work backwards to achieve it. You’ve had some really good results . I have a future plan for my 1/16Slash when I realised the wheelbase is almost spot on for a pumpkin body.!!! 

[Nikko85 3774]

5 hours ago, 87lc2 said:

Truck looks fantastic, but be careful putting any more power to it.  Pretty sure these still have plastic ring gears in the axles and they are worthless with a big tire on there.  I used CR12 axles on a build a few years back and they ended up in the trash, only good for 1.55 tires if you take it easy.  

**** that's annoying. It looks like GPM made stainless steel upgrade but that's no longer available.

MT12 has similar diff and same size tires as mine, so I wonder how they will hold up.

My hope is that the MT12 either has, a) upgraded diff ring gears so I can get an upgrade or b) they all break so someone has to release un upgrade!

 

 

[87lc2 2837]

10 minutes ago, Nikko85 said:

**** that's annoying. It looks like GPM made stainless steel upgrade but that's no longer available.

MT12 has similar diff and same size tires as mine, so I wonder how they will hold up.

My hope is that the MT12 either has, a) upgraded diff ring gears so I can get an upgrade or b) they all break so someone has to release un upgrade!

 

 

I assumed the MT12 had the same stuff the original had, but hopefully I'm wrong.  Mine were destroyed using 1.9 tires curing crawling and it didn't take long...I hope you have better luck or at least find a suitable upgrade.  

[Nikko85 3774]

On 6/22/2023 at 9:00 PM, 87lc2 said:

I assumed the MT12 had the same stuff the original had, but hopefully I'm wrong.  Mine were destroyed using 1.9 tires curing crawling and it didn't take long...I hope you have better luck or at least find a suitable upgrade.  

Thanks, that's good to know...I think I may have found something

I googled 39T bevel gear and got the Funtex STX

Now these have metal ring gears on the diff, but otherwise the diff looks really really similar to the CR12. Compare the diff here..

with this

https://www.makeitbuildit.co.uk/team-associated-mt12-diff-set-open-as41114-116245

There are too many similarities for it to be a coincidence - same coloured o rings, same design, same number of teeth. When I google the images for the CR12 bevel gear vs the Funtek STX I get the same image - so it looks like they share components. 

 

 

 

 

[87lc2 2837]

If the diff is the same then that should work just fine.  Wish I came across those before I took that truck apart a few years back.  

[Nikko85 3774]

11 hours ago, 87lc2 said:

If the diff is the same then that should work just fine.  Wish I came across those before I took that truck apart a few years back.  

I will probably just have to buy one and see - for £11 its worth a quick punt. Looking at the videos on a laptop they do look even more similar. Otherwise it's £11 wasted, but oh well.

What's interesting is that lots of people complain with Tamiya that you have to buy bearings and pinion, but when this is all done I'll have spent £40 just to get gears I can have some confidence in. All my other Tamiyas run stock gears with zero issues or reported issues, including some 30 year old quick drives running brushless combos! 

Still, other than the gears they seem really solid with lots of very cheap spares - so if this works I should have the confidence to run with a fast 390 - getting a wheelie would be cool! 

[Nikko85 3774]

13 hours ago, Busdriver said:

I love the way that you have picked a scale and work backwards to achieve it. You’ve had some really good results . I have a future plan for my 1/16Slash when I realised the wheelbase is almost spot on for a pumpkin body.!!! 

thanks - it certainly makes it a little more creative. It is in some ways annoying as there are lots of trucks I'd like to get but just wouldn't work, so it does limit choices but that just means you can think outside the box more.

A Pumpkin on a slash sounds fantastic (as does the slash mini on the CW01 - for a modern monster truck look). 

[Dakratfink 1020]

On 6/22/2023 at 2:13 PM, Busdriver said:

I love the way that you have picked a scale and work backwards to achieve it. You’ve had some really good results . I have a future plan for my 1/16Slash when I realised the wheelbase is almost spot on for a pumpkin body.!!! 

Hmmmm I have a 1/16 Revo and Pumpkin Bodies are plentiful on fleabay.

 

[Nikko85 3774]

A little bit of livery makes a big difference. Wanted something that worked with the white paint and yellow wheels I had already.

Thoughts on the hood blower?

[87lc2 2837]

Nice!  I like the blower, I'd leave it.  The white with yellow wheels looks good.  Have you run her yet? 

[Nikko85 3774]

6 hours ago, 87lc2 said:

Nice!  I like the blower, I'd leave it.  The white with yellow wheels looks good.  Have you run her yet? 

Yeah, the blower is now bolted on. It's from a Tandy/Radioshack 4x4 so nice to have some old school connection. 

Many thanks - the yellow wheels I already had (from a GF01) and I wanted to not spent more money than needed. I went for white as I think it looks good with yellow wheels.

I've not run it yet, I've got to the second side of the livery and then I'm done, so I'll take it for a rip this afternoon. I've got the spur and step gear and diff ring gear arriving in the post soon. When they have arrived I can upgrade the motor. To be honest with the stock motor it's pretty sparky, but it's very easy to think that in a living room, on the BMX track it might really feel slow. I do love this chassis design - it's so much lighter than my same scaled GF01, 

My main issue with motor upgrades is right now I'm running 2400 MaH Li-Ion on LiPO mode - not a problem for the stock 380, but I know if I get a too hot motor the ESC will start to cut out due to voltage drop - so I want something that's more powerful than stock, but not too much! A mild 390 or Sports Tuned 380 might do it.

Despite the large tires it's not geared super high.

 

 

[Mad Ax 10166]

On 6/24/2023 at 5:38 PM, Dakratfink said:

Hmmmm I have a 1/16 Revo and Pumpkin Bodies are plentiful on fleabay.

 

I've got a 1/16 Revo and a lexan Pumpkin body, and this little swap has been on my list for years - the wheelbase is perfect, just need to cut the arches for the tyres to fit (I think mounting the body higher like a monster truck will look odd, as the chassis is so low and flat).

[Badcrumble 4418]

Very smart. I like the the yellow strip that keys in to the wheels

[Nikko85 3774]

12 minutes ago, Badcrumble said:

Very smart. I like the the yellow strip that keys in to the wheels

Thanks - with just the body it works red, white and blue for a USA-1 style look, but with the yellow wheels I wanted some yellow on the body to link it all up.

I'm about to take it out, so we'll see how we get on!

Andrew

[OldSchoolRC1 1074]

Excellent looking build - the stance is spot on! 

[Nikko85 3774]

So it took it to the park, I've got to be honest, it worked really well! The handling was great, it jumped and landed nicely and flowed through the BMX track. Some nice rooster trails and donuts, but not too much sliding despite the super loose surface.

 

Landing was spot on.

It's not a rocket, so I think I'll get a slightly more powerful 390 motor - to keep motor temps down too. Towards the end it started to flag, so I hope that's just the battery running out and not anything seriously wrong. I've ordered new metal gears just in case anyhow, as I hate worrying when driving.

I'll be honest it was one of the most fun driving experience I've had for a while. This is my first solid axle 4 link monster truck, and I totally get them now (even if this one is a pretty cheap one). 

[87lc2 2837]

That thing looks like fun!  Great place to run too.  Nice work on that truck.  

[Dakratfink 1020]

5 hours ago, Mad Ax said:

I've got a 1/16 Revo and a lexan Pumpkin body, and this little swap has been on my list for years - the wheelbase is perfect, just need to cut the arches for the tyres to fit (I think mounting the body higher like a monster truck will look odd, as the chassis is so low and flat).

Does Team Blue Groove make a repop of the old Parma Lexan body ? Anybody know ? 

[Mad Ax 10166]

That looks fabulous!  It's got a sort of MTX-1 vibe going on, great stuff