Gmade R1

[Percymon 2184]

Appreciate this is going to be limited feedback, as i think Twinset and backtomyroots are the only owners of these, but would like some personal feedback of what these rock crawlers/racers are really like. I know chris350z is also pondering a purchase as well as myself, so hopefully this will answer several queries.

I want one for general bashing and dirt/grass 'racing' rather than rock crawling, as an alternative to the mutlitude of Tamiya buggies out there. I'm planning to put a 23T Tamiya motor or similar in for a bit of pace, and would uprate the shock oil and fit axle wideners to assist in handling. I know it won't make it into something that'll handle as well as a 4WD buggy, but i don't want another buggy, or any form of stadium racer / SCT.

Given my recent experience of the Gmade Spider chassis kit for the Clod (very high quality , well engineered components) i'd like to know how the R1 chassis would fare as a 'racer'. I know Gmade claim its a racer or crawler, and there is a wide recommended range of motors and pinions, but most of the info i've seen is related to rock crawling.

What's your opinion guys ?

Thanks

[chris350z 0]

I have been looking at some videos on youtube and some of them look quite pacey. I want one for crawling or an scx10.

[Percymon 2184]

I find it quite hard to judge the actual speed, due to the dimensions and shape of the R1 - its quite unlike most other RC models in shape ! I love it but i've seen plenty of comments about it being fugly.

[ozace 20]

I love my R1. You cannot compare them to any other form of rc vehicle, they are just too different.

I have put a 3000kv motor in mine to give it that racer speed you see in the video's. It tops out about the same as a silver can tamiya truck speed wise , cetainly no speed demon but lots of fun.

The quality is outstanding and a fun build BUT they are not bashers in the traditional sense, the diffs are locked so turning is not "sharp" and the chassis with the 4 link has that crawler leg **** on acceleration and braking.

I am not a slo mo crawler fan so this was a great compromise for me. It is almost unstoppable and a hoot to play with.

[Percymon 2184]

Many thanks, just what i wanted to hear !

Just need to decide what colour scheme i go for before ordering either the blue 19mm axles wideners or the 13mm red wideners

[Percymon 2184]

Have put my order in this afternoon, complete with 13mm wheel wideners, servo mounts and shock tower braces.

Now to decide on the engine room, a Tamiya lightly tuned motor has a very interesting 568g/cm of torque that looks quite juicy and should avoid some of the reported cogging issues with EZRun brushless systems.

[backtomyroots 432]

Just found this thread, mine is still in the box waiting to be built so I can't offer much info for you.

I know some of the fellas on this forum have them built fo rmore than just crawling and they have a section just for the G1, let us know !

http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=203

[ozace 20]

Have put my order in this afternoon, complete with 13mm wheel wideners, servo mounts and shock tower braces.

Now to decide on the engine room, a Tamiya lightly tuned motor has a very interesting 568g/cm of torque that looks quite juicy and should avoid some of the reported cogging issues with EZRun brushless systems.

I didnt like the wheel wideners (tried both sizes), they introduced some "wobble" as speed. I just rechecked mine and i actually have a 4000kv motor in it. I tried several motors and found sensorless ones just didnt "do it".

As there is no slipper everything is very direct in the drive train and it needs to be smooth.

The one place i needed axle wideners was for the 1/8th buggy wheels and tires i ran for a while, the offset just wouldnt fit without some extra width but they were with the 17mm adaptors

[Percymon 2184]

My wallet won't run to a sensored brushless system just now so think i'll slap a slightly warm brushed motor in for now and see what i get, maybe trying a slightly bigger pinion such as a 16tooth.

Not good news on the wheel wideners ! - given the quality of the Spider i just finished, i wouldn't expect wheel wobble !

[ozace 20]

The wobble is only evident at speed, i dont think rock crawlers are designed to go as quick as i run mine, its not a quality issue, the stuff is top shelf.

[TWINSET 1793]

For those that didn't see the news post, GMade's now on the list of manufacturers; http://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=61440

[Percymon 2184]

Finished the build yesterday - wrestled for 2 hours with the screws n bolts for the side panels , thankfully the top panels went on in a couple of minutes

So all ready for its first outing now, a few pics of the finished article before i trash it

..and duelling with its big brother (Gmade Spider conversion for Clodbuster)..

Hop-up parts are..

13mm axles wideners

Shock tower braces

Answer RC servo arm (bit of bling to match the shock bodies !)

As this isn't going to be a crawler, I used some Fastrax 50wt silicon shock oil rather than the supplied thin Gmade stuff - the shocks have a firm abut progressive action so should be reasonable good for handling at speed. And so far there's no signs of any leakage from the shocks, that other R1 owners seem to suffer.

Current power train is a Hobbyking 45A ESC powering a Hobbyking 3980kV brushless motor with 16tooth pinion via a 2S lipo pack. I'd have preferred a 12 tooth pinion, but the motor shaft is 5mm, and a 16 was all i had in the toolbox at the time.

I cut my own body panels from styrene card, using the original lexan panels as a template. These have been covered in white carbon fibre look fim, just to have something a bit different. I have seom black CF film too, so i'll probably make up another set. Not sure what to do with the lexan panels yet, need to think of a colour or theme.

[ozace 20]

nice work

[kaiser 8]

that thing looks ace percy. i love it.

must resist.....

[Percymon 2184]

Thanks guys. Took it out for it's maiden run tonight. I didn't have chance to programme the esc so it's all set at default for now.

What an absolute hoot! I love this speeder, full throttle starts are a little tricky, wheelies are easy but backflips aren't too far off if a bit heavy on the throttle. Thankfully I was on the grass at the local park. Handling was great, I could slalom at medium speeds and the body stayed pretty level, maybe too level. I had a few roll overs so I'm going to try some slightly lighter shock oil, I have some 35 so that will be an easy trial. Managed a few jumps off some grass banking too. Flat out it's about the same speed as a tamiya 4wd buggy like a rising storm fitted with a sport tuned motor

No cogging, was able to go slow through some long grassy banking , maybe not at rock crawling speeds but slow none the less.

Might have to try some clodbuster wheels on it to see what wider tires do for the handling.

A few poser pictures from earlier....