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davidwj95

Turning a CR01 into a monster truck

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1 hour ago, Willy iine said:

It is.. I had a hard time liking it in stock form and turned into a shelf queen unintentionally.  I really like the wheels/tires you're running.  Which ones are those?  I looked around but could not find them.   TIA!

They are the stock tires from the Axial SMT10.  I think they fit the truck well and it performs pretty good with them.  Not the softest tire in the world so definitely not for crawling, but will do great on trails, mud, and climbs hills well too.  

Usually a few sets on Ebay that were taken from RTR vehicles - https://www.ebay.com/itm/143634005701?hash=item217140fec5:g:LEUAAOSwDpte6ffX

 

 

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3 minutes ago, 87lc2 said:

They are the stock tires from the Axial SMT10.  I think they fit the truck well and it performs pretty good with them.  Not the softest tire in the world so definitely not for crawling, but will do great on trails, mud, and climbs hills well too.  

Usually a few sets on Ebay that were taken from RTR vehicles - https://www.ebay.com/itm/143634005701?hash=item217140fec5:g:LEUAAOSwDpte6ffX

 

 

Dang, I saw those wheels and tires numerous times and did not realize they were the same ones on your truck.   You did a great job painting them as they look night and day magnificently better!  Thanks.  :D

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11 minutes ago, Willy iine said:

Dang, I saw those wheels and tires numerous times and did not realize they were the same ones on your truck.   You did a great job painting them as they look night and day magnificently better!  Thanks.  :D

Thanks!  Yea, they look much better with some paint & detailing.  

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Thanks @87lc2 and @OldSchoolRC1, that has put me on the right road.

A shame that shell is discontinued, it is really nice. Especially with those lovely matching wheels.

Of course, now @Willy iine is on the case, you'll see another monsterised CR-01 a lot quicker than I'll get mine together!

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@Badcrumble :lol: Nono, I’d be happy if my CR01 just looked good enough that I would want to take it out for a drive.  

The wheels/tires are ordered so hopefully soon! 

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15 minutes ago, Willy iine said:

@Badcrumble :lol: Nono, I’d be happy if my CR01 just looked good enough that I would want to take it out for a drive.  

The wheels/tires are ordered so hopefully soon! 

You're ahead of me - my CR-01 is yet to be dispatched and I've not ordered the wheels, tyres or body yet.

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I just finished this one yesterday.. Picked it up off a friend, I was going to leave it stock (ish) but couldn't help myself. Replacing the chassis rails lops 80g off the top - really helps it when out on the trail. It should be quite capable. Having said that, I have 2 others that are crawlers and as much fun as it is, I'm debating "monsterizing" it. I have clod tires, SMT, and a bunch of other 2.2's collecting dust.  Hmmm... I think I need at least one good trail run with this one and we'll take it from there. 

20211108-220526-SM.jpg
20211108-220511-SM.jpg
 

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Popped on some Dual Hunter wheels and tyres, just for fun.

EDIT: not the best photo I have ever taken!

4F8A852F-26D8-41E2-8D96-21CFFE60C413.jpg

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On 11/9/2021 at 8:35 AM, OldSchoolRC1 said:

I just finished this one yesterday.. Picked it up off a friend, I was going to leave it stock (ish) but couldn't help myself. Replacing the chassis rails lops 80g off the top - really helps it when out on the trail. It should be quite capable. Having said that, I have 2 others that are crawlers and as much fun as it is, I'm debating "monsterizing" it. I have clod tires, SMT, and a bunch of other 2.2's collecting dust.  Hmmm... I think I need at least one good trail run with this one and we'll take it from there. 

20211108-220526-SM.jpg
20211108-220511-SM.jpg
 

That looks like a great trail truck, I'd leave it as is.  No point in monsterizing one that is built to be capable on the trail.  Better off just adding monster tires to a stock truck since it really won't be a capable crawler with monster tires anyway.  

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On 11/8/2021 at 11:05 PM, 87lc2 said:

Thanks!  Yea, they look much better with some paint & detailing.  

Oh man, I’m loving this already!!  

Going to make a shaft adapter for it so the wheels seat on the axle better when wheel nut is torqued.  

IMG_Nov122021at111531AM.jpg.8fb99436b34a7de408d50ad044471ab2.jpg

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Plenty of clearance.

IMG_Nov122021at112431AM.jpg.af184c176a73bd56f1c678d3408dec41.jpg

Looks like I’m going to be cutting out the windows and placing Billy in there soon. B)

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Thanks again, @87lc2  

This is just a test fit as I will be painting the wheels and installing Billy, but looks like this so far.   I’m liking this A LOT! :D

IMG_Nov122021at10857PM.jpg.49b5df49276a0c014661d0bdd72358e5.jpg

IMG_Nov122021at10844PM.jpg.eabece4e3415011fb110f24145eda4e5.jpg

 

IMG_Nov122021at10909PM.jpg

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@Willy iine That looks fantastic! The stance on that thing is just mean. 

All this talk has convinced me, I think I need to monsterize one of mine again.... I want to play too! 

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So my last photo showed the CR-01 with the Dual Hunter and standard Tamiya Monster Pin Spike tyre.

The tyres just look a bit ...underwhelming.

The Axial BKTs that @Willy iine and @87lc2 have look great to me but I can't get them in the UK and they are listed a discontinued on Amain.

So what are my options? I've tried looking at JConcepts but just get confused between Renegades and Rangers, Tributes and Midwest. 

So perhaps it is time to look at some dimensions - 

  • Tamiya Monster Pin Spikes -  5.1" x 2.4"  (130mm x 60mm)
  • Axial BKT 5.5" x 3" (cribbed from a sales post somewhere so I don't know if those dimensions are accurate)
  • Renegade Jr - 5.5" x 2.5"
  • Rangers - 5.57" x 2.95"
  • Renegades - 5.6" x 4"
  • MST MXT-1 -  5.1 x 3 (130 x 78mm, taken from the MST website)
  • HPI Mud Thrasher -  5.3" x 2.8" (135 x 73)

On balance, I think I am looking at a set of Rangers on Midwest rims to get a tyre closes in size to the BKTs. Not the same tread pattern, mind.

Any guidance, suggestions, example photos are welcome!

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The Renegade & Rangers 2.2 go on the Midwest wheels, the Tributes are for 2.6" Clod sized tires which in my opinion would be too large for a CR01.  I think the 2.2 monster tires look best. 

I like the look of the MST tires, I think they'd look great on the CR01.  I have some pictures of the Rangers on a truck I built a while back, I'll post some later. 

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Thanks @87lc2, I thought the 2.6 wheels might be a bit too much for the CR-01 axles too.

I found some photos of your 'Mountain Monster' truck here on TC. I really like the 'classic' look of your truck and had been thinking about a similar style body for my CR-01.

The only thing holding me back from the MSTs is that they are the same diameter as the Tamiya tyres, though the width is the same as the BKTs and similar to the Rangers.

They are a lot cheaper than the JConcepts wheel / tyre combination and I'd be importing either from the USA via Amain.

I know this isn't a direct comparison as the chassis are different but this gives an idea of the MST vs JConcepts tyres

Comparison.jpg

 

I think I'm edging towards the MSTs.

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For some reason I was just not a fan of the Rangers, I think the MST would be perfect.  I know I sound like a broken record, but I think they would fit perfectly :)   The Renegades are nice for racing, but not a good looking tread in my opinion and I feel like a CR01 monster should have full lug tread.  I do know the MST wheels have almost no offset so definitely take that into consideration.  Wonder if you can just get the MST tires and put them on JConcepts wheels?  I like the Midwest wheels since they come with multiple offset adapters for getting the stance perfect. 

As much as I love and appreciate what JConcepts does for the monster truck portion of the hobby, I really with they would pay much more attention to scaling.  Their tires and bodies are always just a bit off and it drives me crazy.  They look right on their own, but they're either too big or too small when put to use on a vehicle.  The Rangers are entirely too big for that tread pattern, they should have been 4.5" tall at the most.  Their Clod tire sizes are off as well, but I wont get into that now...Bodies for monster trucks are too narrow, just another 1/2" would do wonders for most of them.  The 79 Ford I used for the 2.2 Mountain Monster and 2.2 Bigfoot is a nice body, but too narrow for Clod tire truck use, really bothers me.   Sorry for the rant.

I've actually built two iterations of the Mountain Monster on an SCX frame, one with Rangers and one with Traxxas Stampede wheels, both below.  The last truck is a Bigfoot SCX10 with Pro Line Destroyer 2.2 tires.  These are awesome, but unfortunately discontinued and impossible to find.  

 

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IMG_1170.JPG

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7 hours ago, Badcrumble said:

They are a lot cheaper than the JConcepts wheel / tyre combination and I'd be importing either from the USA via Amain.

DMS Racing are a JConcept stockist and only in Watford.  They have Renegade Jrs and Midwest 2.2 wheels in stock right now.

dms-racing.com

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Thanks for the photos @87lc2, it has really helped my thought process alongside a conversation with @jonboy1 who had also directed me to DMS @Mad Ax. I had a voucher for Amain which made it attractive over DMS on this occasion.

I had tried earlier in the day to work out costings for an order from Amain and something must have gone wrong as the postage costs went haywire. I went back and had another go and this time it was far more palatable so.....I have a set of MST rims and tyres on their way!

Now I need to sort a body. DMS have a few JConcepts options. 

Thanks again for your help everyone.

 

 

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5 hours ago, 87lc2 said:

As much as I love and appreciate what JConcepts does for the monster truck portion of the hobby, I really with they would pay much more attention to scaling.  Their tires and bodies are always just a bit off and it drives me crazy.  They look right on their own, but they're either too big or too small when put to use on a vehicle.  The Rangers are entirely too big for that tread pattern, they should have been 4.5" tall at the most.  Their Clod tire sizes are off as well, but I wont get into that now...Bodies for monster trucks are too narrow, just another 1/2" would do wonders for most of them.  The 79 Ford I used for the 2.2 Mountain Monster and 2.2 Bigfoot is a nice body, but too narrow for Clod tire truck use, really bothers me.   Sorry for the rant.

Couldn't agree more.

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3 hours ago, Badcrumble said:

Thanks for the photos @87lc2, it has really helped my thought process alongside a conversation with @jonboy1 who had also directed me to DMS @Mad Ax. I had a voucher for Amain which made it attractive over DMS on this occasion.

I had tried earlier in the day to work out costings for an order from Amain and something must have gone wrong as the postage costs went haywire. I went back and had another go and this time it was far more palatable so.....I have a set of MST rims and tyres on their way!

Now I need to sort a body. DMS have a few JConcepts options. 

Thanks again for your help everyone.

 

 

Glad it helped.  Can't wait to see the MST tires on there, I think they're going to look great and very scale!   For a body, JConcepts stuff should fit the CR01 well.  The 79 Ford would look good, or even the 70 C10/K10.  THey have a nice 84 Ford as well.  All of these you can add the Traxxas Bigfoot accessory kit to (bumpers & roll bar) like my trucks above.  

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30 minutes ago, Saito2 said:

Couldn't agree more.

Thank You!  I thought I was the only one.  As I said, very thankful for what they do otherwise we'd have nothing, but just a bit more attention to scale and they would be perfect.  Case in point, just fnished my Jugg 2 rebuild as a Bigfoot 4 tribute and you'd think with the 89 Ford body & Golden Years tires it would be spot on, but it's just not...Tires are too big and body is too narrow, looks a bit goofy to me.  Just posted in my Showroom - https://www.tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?cid=138145&id=49562

 

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No, you're not alone. I hate to be too critical as Jason seems really passionate about monster trucks and we're lucky to have some of the things they produce available to us...but the scale is iffy at times. Even on their website, the '89 Ford body to tire size ratio is just a bit off, just like you said, narrow body with too big tires. I was checking out you Bigfoot 4 in the showrooms earlier. Have no fear, it is another masterpiece!

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19 minutes ago, Saito2 said:

No, you're not alone. I hate to be too critical as Jason seems really passionate about monster trucks and we're lucky to have some of the things they produce available to us...but the scale is iffy at times. Even on their website, the '89 Ford body to tire size ratio is just a bit off, just like you said, narrow body with too big tires. I was checking out you Bigfoot 4 in the showrooms earlier. Have no fear, it is another masterpiece!

Thanks!  Yea, the Jugg came out OK and it handles really well, pretty excited to run it.  The fact that I'm not crazy about the body is a bonus, won't cry if I roll it over :)   

I really did think I was the only one that could see what I was seeing.  Even at some recent events I was trying to explain to a few guys and they just had blank stares.  Guess not everyone sees things the same way.  Then again, we've been doing this a while.  I'm sure if I was not into RC monsters and saw anything with big tires and a Bigfoot body I'd think it was the coolest thing ever.  Guess it's all relative. 

Anyway, back to the regularly scheduled thread.  Can't wait to see your CR01 with the MTX tires @Badcrumble, have a feeling it's going to look perfect.  

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