Turning a CR01 into a monster truck

[Badcrumble 4201]

I have to say that I'm relatively new to monster trucks so I'm not as attuned to the scale as you @87lc2 or @Saito2 but one of the things I have enjoyed about this hobby is learning about new stuff.

As it is based on a CR-01, I don't think my truck will ever be a 'scale' build but it will be a fun one and fingers crossed the MTX wheels / tyres will be in proportion for a 'shorter' wheelbase truck.

I've ordered what are hopefully all the parts I need to get the chassis up and running (it is unable to steer at the moment).

I've decided on a body, colour scheme and stickers but my wallet will need a rest before I take the plunge - in any case, the weather isn't up to painting so that will be in the Spring. I'm hoping to get the body next month and then keep it aside - there aren't many in the UK at the moment!

[davidwj95 152]

34 minutes ago, Badcrumble said:

I have to say that I'm relatively new to monster trucks so I'm not as attuned to the scale as you @87lc2 or @Saito2 but one of the things I have enjoyed about this hobby is learning about new stuff.

As it is based on a CR-01, I don't think my truck will ever be a 'scale' build but it will be a fun one and fingers crossed the MTX wheels / tyres will be in proportion for a 'shorter' wheelbase truck.

I've ordered what are hopefully all the parts I need to get the chassis up and running (it is unable to steer at the moment).

I've decided on a body, colour scheme and stickers but my wallet will need a rest before I take the plunge - in any case, the weather isn't up to painting so that will be in the Spring. I'm hoping to get the body next month and then keep it aside - there aren't many in the UK at the moment!

Have you got any mods to the chassis planned?  I've not actually done anything more to mine since I started this topic.  I looked into wheels and tyres but never bought them.   I'll be interested to see how the MST wheels and tyres look. From the photos it looks like they have a lot more offset than the original cro1 wheels.  Seeing all of this activity is making me want to revisit mine. 

[Badcrumble 4201]

2 minutes ago, davidwj95 said:

Have you got any mods to the chassis planned?  I've not actually done anything more to mine since I started this topic.  I looked into wheels and tyres but never bought them.   I'll be interested to see how the MST wheels and tyres look. From the photos it looks like they have a lot more offset than the original cro1 wheels.  Seeing all of this activity is making me want to revisit mine. 

I plan to ditch the cantilever shocks - I have a set of 90mm RC4WD King dampers I can swap over so for a touch of scaleness. 

I'm going to leave the transmission stock until something breaks and then upgrade / change as necessary. I'm debating whether to fit the hop-up driveshafts - I have them in stock - or leave the plastic ones as first point of failure as I'm planning to put a brushless motor in on 2S LiPo. I've ordered a 17T pinion, the lowest I can get in MOD 0.6 with a 5mm shaft that I have found so far. I hope I'm taking the pinion in the right direction ,it is the first time I will have ever deviated from stock. Although I have just remembered that I have a 10T 550 brushed motor though I'll need a different pinion...

First things first, it needs some steering servoes or it is going nowhere! I have the electrics but not the mounting hardware so that has been ordered along with some lower bumpers as my second hand kit was missing them.

Oh, and I'm blaming you for kicking this off in the first place . You go for it, get some wheels and tyres!

[davidwj95 152]

8 minutes ago, Badcrumble said:

I plan to ditch the cantilever shocks - I have a set of 90mm RC4WD King dampers I can swap over so for a touch of scaleness. 

I'm going to leave the transmission stock until something breaks and then upgrade / change as necessary. I'm debating whether to fit the hop-up driveshafts - I have them in stock - or leave the plastic ones as first point of failure as I'm planning to put a brushless motor in on 2S LiPo. I've ordered a 17T pinion, the lowest I can get in MOD 0.6 with a 5mm shaft that I have found so far. I hope I'm taking the pinion in the right direction ,it is the first time I will have ever deviated from stock. Although I have just remembered that I have a 10T 550 brushed motor though I'll need a different pinion...

First things first, it needs some steering servoes or it is going nowhere! I have the electrics but not the mounting hardware so that has been ordered along with some lower bumpers as my second hand kit was missing them.

Oh, and I'm blaming you for kicking this off in the first place . You go for it, get some wheels and tyres!

I'm looking forward to seeing how it all goes together, it sounds like you're doing similar to what I'd like to do to mine.  I'll wait until after Christmas then look at ordering some MST wheels.  I'm also in the UK, it's a shame MST aren't common over here.  I have an mst cfx crawler and it's really impressive and very scale, hence why I don't really use the CR01 much for crawling now.

[87lc2 2659]

2 hours ago, Badcrumble said:

I plan to ditch the cantilever shocks - I have a set of 90mm RC4WD King dampers I can swap over so for a touch of scaleness. 

I'm going to leave the transmission stock until something breaks and then upgrade / change as necessary. I'm debating whether to fit the hop-up driveshafts - I have them in stock - or leave the plastic ones as first point of failure as I'm planning to put a brushless motor in on 2S LiPo. I've ordered a 17T pinion, the lowest I can get in MOD 0.6 with a 5mm shaft that I have found so far. I hope I'm taking the pinion in the right direction ,it is the first time I will have ever deviated from stock. Although I have just remembered that I have a 10T 550 brushed motor though I'll need a different pinion...

First things first, it needs some steering servoes or it is going nowhere! I have the electrics but not the mounting hardware so that has been ordered along with some lower bumpers as my second hand kit was missing them.

Oh, and I'm blaming you for kicking this off in the first place . You go for it, get some wheels and tyres!

Transmission is solid in the CR01 as far as I know.  I have a lot of trail miles on my truck with the big tires and the only thing that's given even a hint of trouble are the driveshafts.  Haven't broken any on the trail and been left stranded, but I have twisted a couple and luckily noticed in time to replace for the next outing.  If you're going to run brushless and use it is a fast, jumping monster truck then I'd say the shafts would be the weak point.  However, upgrading the weak point will create another one...I'd probably rather replace drvieshafts than axle or transmission parts.  

I also think it was discussed earlier in the thread, but the planetary gear transmission in this truck is geared very low (numerically high).  If you want some speed I'd go with a 3500-3800kv 500 sized brushless setup on 3S.  On 2S it will be slow no matter what pinion you use.  

[87lc2 2659]

Meant to ask, what body are you going with?

[Badcrumble 4201]

2 hours ago, 87lc2 said:

Meant to ask, what body are you going with?

My preference would be the 1984 Ford though the wheelbase is under the stock CR-01 of 288mm at 273mm.

https://www.jconcepts.net/shop/1984-ford-f250-1075-wheelbase

The '79 Ford, however, has the 279mm (11 inch) which is a bit closer, the same as your Blazer body?

https://www.jconcepts.net/shop/1979-ford-f250-monster-truck-body

I did find a scaler body with a 285mm wheelbase but I think it might be too wide.

[87lc2 2659]

Yea, the '79 Ford is right on at 11", the ProLine Blazer on mine I believe is 11.2" (5mm difference).  I'll probably change to a pickup body at some point (not crazy about the Blazer), so interested to see what you do.  

I do have pretty much every JConcepts body in some form, I could throw the 79 & 84 on my truck so you can see what they look like. I'll try to do that tonight so you can get an idea of which would work for you.  I also have the 82 GMC K10 which would look great on the CR01 I believe.  I much prefer the Chevy bodies to Ford in most cases.  Only reason I have so many Ford bodies is because of my unhealthy obsession with a certain big blue truck...If it weren't for that all of my RCs would have Chevy/GMC bodies. 

[Badcrumble 4201]

That would be brilliant if you would @87lc2, it would certainly take some of apprehension out of ordering a body - and demonstrate on this thread how the CR-01 could look!

I have a tendency to drift towards the Blue Oval (in 1:1 more than 1:10 scale) but I'm not a diehard fan, I have a Proline Silverado body that will one day get a chassis to match (and a paint job to match my son's Hot Wheels).  My original plan for the CR-01 was for a Chevy body but it would mean a slightly more complex paint job than the plain black I had planned for the Ford!

 

[87lc2 2659]

No problem.  I have some work to do in the garage tonight so I'll be out there anyway, I'll get some pictures of whatever I have lying around that's close.  

[87lc2 2659]

OK, got some photos.  The unpainted shells are a bit hard to see, but hope this is somewhat helpful.  I'm definitely going to switch to a pickup body after doing this, don't like the Blazer at all.  Probably go with the 79 Ford, looks great in my opinion.  If I had to choose between the 79 & 84 I'd definitley go 79.  The 84 body is pretty small for some reason, no idea what they were thinking when making that one...The 89 & 93 Fords look good as well.  I'd probably go without the racerback on the CR01, can always put a roll bar on them.   

In order they are:

JConcepts 1979 Ford 

Pro Line 1972 Chevy C10 

JConcepts 1982 GMC K10 

JConcepts 1984 Ford 

JConcepts 1993 Ford 

JConcepts 1989 Ford

 

[Badcrumble 4201]

Thanks so much for doing that @87lc2, that's brilliant. A real shame that '84 Ford is just too small. I'm definitely leaning towards the earlier shells, I think they would work with the slightly smaller MXT-1 tyres. I see a '79 Ford in my future...

Oddly enough, in my recent Googling , I came across a truck with one of the later Ford bodies (1:1, not RC) running a set of Ranger-pattern tyres. Not something for this chassis though!

 

[davidwj95 152]

Does anyone have any experience of the HPI Mud Thrasher tyre?  It seems to be the easiest chevron lug pattern tyre to source in the UK.  

I'd be putting them on either the standard CR01 rims or JC concepts Midwest. 

[Frog Jumper 3656]

25 minutes ago, davidwj95 said:

Does anyone have any experience of the HPI Mud Thrasher tyre?  It seems to be the easiest chevron lug pattern tyre to source in the UK.  

I'd be putting them on either the standard CR01 rims or JC concepts Midwest. 

I have some HPI muddies on my Blackfoot. They fit the standard 2.2 wheel. 

[Badcrumble 4201]

28 minutes ago, davidwj95 said:

Does anyone have any experience of the HPI Mud Thrasher tyre?  It seems to be the easiest chevron lug pattern tyre to source in the UK.  

I'd be putting them on either the standard CR01 rims or JC concepts Midwest. 

I don't have experience of them, they are on my list on page 2. They are a bit narrower than the Rangers but wider than the Renegade Jrs, both of which are listed as fitting the Midwest wheels.

A taller tyre than the MST tyres I have ordered but slightly narrower. Like you, I considered them as a cheaper UK-based chevron lug option. I had looked at putting them on the HPI Classic King wheels but, of course, I wanted white wheels that aren't available.

[davidwj95 152]

49 minutes ago, Badcrumble said:

I don't have experience of them, they are on my list on page 2. They are a bit narrower than the Rangers but wider than the Renegade Jrs, both of which are listed as fitting the Midwest wheels.

A taller tyre than the MST tyres I have ordered but slightly narrower. Like you, I considered them as a cheaper UK-based chevron lug option. I had looked at putting them on the HPI Classic King wheels but, of course, I wanted white wheels that aren't available.

Thanks, I might try them.  I definitely agree about white wheels.  I've sprayed my cr01 wheels white, they look so much better. 

I put classic King wheels on my wild dagger/mudblaster 2.  They are nice wheels but I also had to change to hpi hexes and longer axle shafts. Also, as you said, there is no white option.  

[87lc2 2659]

The HPI tires are a nice 2.2 monster tire.  As @Frog Jumper said, they fit the Blackfoot perfectly.  Would probably look great on the CR01 as well.  

[87lc2 2659]

3 hours ago, Badcrumble said:

Thanks so much for doing that @87lc2, that's brilliant. A real shame that '84 Ford is just too small. I'm definitely leaning towards the earlier shells, I think they would work with the slightly smaller MXT-1 tyres. I see a '79 Ford in my future...

Oddly enough, in my recent Googling , I came across a truck with one of the later Ford bodies (1:1, not RC) running a set of Ranger-pattern tyres. Not something for this chassis though!

 

No problem, glad it was helpful.  I think the 79 would look great with MST tires.  The Ranger lug pattern is awesome, they just made them too large in my opinion.  They would definitley work ont he CR01, but you'd have to have the body mounted pretty high or wheelwells cut out prett large.   The nice thing about the JCOncepts 79 Ford is that is has oversized wheel wells wince it was made to replicate the Bigfoot 1 style body.  If it had stock wheel well openings (like the 84 Ford) it might not look so good.  It's almost like it was made for a monster CR01.

[Willy iine 18804]

Hey @87lc2, I started working on the wheels this morning.   On mine I think I'm going to do a silver ring.. but the matte black with silver nuts (rivets) look you have, I like as well.. hummmm..  will decide after lunch.  

TS38 Gunmetal..  silver ring or matte black.. (?) ... hummm..

[87lc2 2659]

Wheel color looks great.  With that color definitely black beadlock rings with aluminum hardware detail.  I like to get as much contrast as I can.  Although leaving them as is with black hardware detailing would look as well....I also agonize over color decisions at times   

[Willy iine 18804]

2 hours ago, 87lc2 said:

Wheel color looks great.  With that color definitely black beadlock rings with aluminum hardware detail.  I like to get as much contrast as I can.  Although leaving them as is with black hardware detailing would look as well....I also agonize over color decisions at times   

Thanks!  I also thought the matte black bead-lock is a great choice.  

I need to white balance the other pictures I took, but for now..

[87lc2 2659]

Looks killer, nice job!

[Willy iine 18804]

1 hour ago, 87lc2 said:

Looks killer, nice job!

Thanks again.  I don't mean to cross post, but here are 2 of the pictures (out of several) I posted in the photo's-only thread in the General section.

 

 

I love this car now.  So grateful as I wasn't sure what to do with the car the last 6-7 years of ownership.. 

 

 

[87lc2 2659]

Yea, I was the same way with mine until I monsterized it.  It's such a cool truck I wouldn't want to get rid of it, but I rarely grabbed it when going out on the trails with so many more capable vehicle options.  I rarely sell anything anyway, but it was nice to give it a new purpose.  Yours is too clean, time to go get some mud on it...haha.  

[Badcrumble 4201]

Some comparison shots between the Tamiya Monster pin spike and the MST MTX-1 tyres.

I have fitted them to the CR-01 but the photos weren’t of the greatest quality

Will try again when I get a combination of free time and daylight - might be a few days away!