Toyota Rock Crawler Or 3 Speed F350?

[lohr500]

See, his powers grow weak.

No sign of the parcel today my mystic friend!!!

Parcelfarce website says parcel arrived in Heathrow on Friday, but no update since.

Could this be a sign that big customs bill is on the way, or just that tracking stops once parcel arrives in UK? Someone please tell me the latter.

Anyway, back to the original post and a quick update.

Unable to decide on Rock Crawler or F350, and having ordered the CR-01, I am now flush from the proceeds of my vintage Blazing Blazer sale so have ordered a 4 channel radio set & the MFC-02 from dragonstorehk on ebay. All I need now is the F350 itself. Anyone spotted a bargain in the UK for the F350?

Thanks,

[blakeatron]

Powers are weak my friend, been stressed at the moment - did pass my bike theory today though

I have found tracking ends at uk when shipping from HK, sure it will be fine....

Try fusion for the highlift (discount maybe?), or the trades section on here from the front page - normally one floating around. Make sure you get a bearing kit for it.

[lohr500]

Hi blakeatron,

That was a quick reply!

Well done on the bike theory test.

No such thing when I took my bike test and if you had a sidecar you could miss the part one test which involved riding round a load of cones, and you weren't limited to a 125cc jobby.

I bought a Russian Cossack 600cc affair with sidecar, based on the ww2 german BMW and passed my test on it.

Nearly killed myself the day after I passed when I unbolted the sidecar and suffered a rear wheel blow out on a sharp bend.

Wallace & Grommit eat your heart out.

Refitted the side car after that!!

Went to work on it one day & the float stuck in the left hand carb. Pi***d petrol into my shoe which then dissolved the sole & lining as the day went on. MD questioned what the funny smell was & I asked him to put out his fag.

Sold it to a chap who was planning on taking his wife & two kids to watch the TT races in it. Rather him than me.

Anyway I digress.

Already ordered a bearing kit for it from this chap. Bearings arrived today. No idea what they are like quality wise but they do rotate .

Visit My Website

Glad to hear about the tracking issue & I will check out Fusion and the trades section.

If all goes well with Stella I will probably order from them again as their prices seem keen. They didn't have a 4 channel radio though, hence the order with dragon.

No doubt I will be asking for numerous tips once the builds begin.

Cheers

[terry.sc]

No sign of the parcel today my mystic friend!!!

Parcelfarce website says parcel arrived in Heathrow on Friday, but no update since.

Could this be a sign that big customs bill is on the way, or just that tracking stops once parcel arrives in UK? Someone please tell me the latter.

In theory you can still track the parcel, but recently anything I've had sent from HK recently either gets to heatrow or the International Hub, nothing happens for a day or two then the postman appears with it. Shortly afterwards the full tracking details appear on Parcelforces website

[igbandy]

Best advice I can give on both builds, is to read the instructions well. As daft as that may sound, there are some parts of both builds that are not always as straightforward as they look.

I had a spot of bother with my CR-01`s link mounts, as the front and rear are mounted in different holes, and if you look at the wrong drawing its all too easy to get it wrong. It took me 3 attempts!.

I hope no one minds me posting a pick of my CR-01, Hopefully there will be some more soon from Clumber.

[blakeatron]

Ive bought bearing kits from Alan - he is a member on here too (same name i think?)

Booked an intensive course today - sat and sun full training then test on monday = sweet! Only problem he is full for 3 weeks

[lohr500]

Well good luck for 3 weeks time.

Best deal I have found for the F350 is RC Champ at 193 all in.

Any experience with RC Champ? Do their shipments get through customs without a bill?

No sign of the crawler yet, but it has moved on the parcelfarce website to "National Hub" "Sorted in Hub" so a step closer.

[backtomyroots]

Well good luck for 3 weeks time.

Best deal I have found for the F350 is RC Champ at 193 all in.

Any experience with RC Champ? Do their shipments get through customs without a bill?

No sign of the crawler yet, but it has moved on the parcelfarce website to "National Hub" "Sorted in Hub" so a step closer.

RC- Champ ? They are great ! I've bought tons of things form them including the following:

*2 x High LIft Kits

*1 x Scania Full Option Kit

*2 x TXT-1

*1 x CR01

*1 x Pajero Re-re

*2 x Hotshot re-re's

*2 x Hilux

and much more. Shipments always arrived in a timely fashion from Japan to Canada but I had to pay duty but not much because they marked the value down for me .

[bfst24]

modelsport.co.uk do it for 230 posted

midland model centre do it for 230 plus 7.95 delivery.

i contacted midland model centre through their ebay account and offered them 210 posted which they accepted.turned up on my door 2 days later.

i also bought one from a ebay member for 200 new in box.

[lohr500]

That's a great deal from MC.

I placed my order with RC Champ at 193 before reading your post!

If I don't get hit by customs then it is a bit cheaper, but for17 extra I would have given the business to the guys in the UK and saved the worry.

[lohr500]

Well the CR-01 Crawler arrived today from Stella. Been in the UK since last Friday so another stunning performance from Parcelfarce!

Started the build tonight & got to the end of Section A.

Will continue over the weekend and hoping that the paint will arrive from "On Tracks" tomorrow.

Can't wait to test it. Soon as its finished I'll post some photos.

[lohr500]

Now finished the build on the F350 and had a first test drive round the garden.

Still got to sticker it up & add some detail.

It takes me back to the Blazing Blazer of the 80's, but somehow it isn't as toughly built.

I like the engineering and the MFC unit.

I like the looks & detail in the body.

Shame they didn't do more metal parts, like the axle casings and steering components.

Having sold my wife & kids into slavery to buy both the CR-01 & F350, I have to say I do prefer the Rock Crawler.

The F350 is technically very interesting but for playing off road and if looks count, the CR-01 gets my vote.

[007al]

Having sold my wife & kids into slavery to buy both the CR-01 & F350, I have to say I do prefer the Rock Crawler.

Well worth it then!

[RKCRWLR]

...

Having sold my wife & kids into slavery to buy both the CR-01 & F350, I have to say I do prefer the Rock Crawler.

The F350 is technically very interesting but for playing off road and if looks count, the CR-01 gets my vote.

Interesting. I was following your progress as I purchased a CR-01 at about the same time as you.

I recently bought a Dualhunter for my son and got hooked building it up so I picked up the Land Cruiser. As these things go, I was impatient and did a little searching and researching and within a day or two had bought another crawler, the Axial AX10.

Now the CR-01 is my scale model! I am very happy with it. 4-wheel steering and lights make it fun to drive.

I tried the CR-01 with a dedicated crawler ESC, the Novak Rooster, but it wasn't very pleasant to drive as the brakes were very sharp and the motor is too fast for the ESC. It actually flipped once when braking on the grass. The Futaba MC230CR ESC which is in now is perfect as it has a bit of coast and has a smooth and gentle brake. The crawler Rooster ESC is perfect in the AX10 crawler with a matched Novak 55T motor.

[lohr500]

How do you find the Dualhunter?

I ordered one this week from Fusion but it hasn't arrived yet. ( I know, I can't help myself )

I fancied something with a bit more speed that I could knock about but would still handle off road surfaces.

After reading several posts where folks were saying how good they were, I went ahead & bit the bullet.

Have ordered a set of standard sized oil shocks & ball bearing kit from HK as well.

Decided not to bother with shock towers & bigger shocks to start with.

Did you put ball bearings in yours?

If so, is it a simple job to split open the pre-assembled gearboxes to replace the bushes in their as well?

The more I use the CR-01, the better I think it is. We just had the roof replaced on our house & there was a big pile of rubble & stone. I sent the CR-01 over it & it was really good fun picking a way through. I should have taken some photos.

In stock form, the F350 is a real nice model, but too much of a compromise. I might try locking the front diff to see if it helps a bit more on the rough stuff.

Don't want to trick it up though as it's nice to keep it standard.

[blakeatron]

Mystic Blake sees lots of new shelves in your future, and a very empty wallet.....

Agreed though the highlift is a shocking standard runner, i love the cr for what it is (never a crawler!)- but i would of chosen a tlt for extreme bashing!

[lohr500]

Perhaps Novice should have asked Master prior to making purchase of Dualhunter.

Can see what you mean about the CR-01 not being a "real" crawler though when I look at some crawler pictures with axles at 90 deg to each other.

But at least the LC looks like it could be for real, and it is fun to play with.

[RKCRWLR]

A real crawler doesn't need 90 of twist. That can cause problems itself.

Anyway, the Dualhunter is fun. It is quite fast and it can jump over ramps and do drift turns and basically beat up the garden. The diffs make for good running on the grass, but bad off-roading as it gets hung up quite quickly and the wheels just spin.

I bought a full set (24) metal bearings (#1150) from Timetunnelmodels and swapped all the plastic bearings in the two gearboxes for metal ones.

[lohr500]

Were the gearbox strip downs an easy job to replace the bearings in them?

Did you need all 24 bearings? The set I ordered only has 20!!!

bearings

Thanks

[RKCRWLR]

There are 24 bearings supplied with the kit, 20 plastic and 4 metal. None of the supplied bearings have moving parts and just bear the load. The metal ones are not great - solid rings - and you can replace them with better pre-greased friction reducing bearings.

16 are used between the two gearboxes and there are two bearings on each wheel.

If you have only 20 replacement bearings and not 24, you could keep a plastic bearing paired up with a new metal one on each wheel - I don't think that it would affect performance too much. I think replacing all the gearbox bearings is a good idea including dumping the supplied metal ones.