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davidwj95

Turning a CR01 into a monster truck

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Size is perfect for the CR01, but the offset is a bit extreme as I suspected.  I assume the tires are glued to the wheels?

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Unfortunately, the tyres are glued to the rims. They certainly don’t tuck in like the SMT10 wheels.

They might get trialled on my ‘Mini Monster’ project for giggles but they could be too large to run.

They will certainly get me started with the CR-01, even if they don’t stay on forever.

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Thanks @OldSchoolRC1, I'm going to review my body plans and pop on my Asterion body first to see how it looks. If it isn't the same as the Rock Socker, it is very similar.

If it works, maybe get the scaler body I had been looking at rather than the narrower JCConcepts body. 

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 If you feel like extending the wheelbase, the JConcepts 12.3" wheelbase crawler bodies are nice.  I have used the 82 Chevy/GMC, 70 Chevy C10, and 79 Ford and they're all good.  Nice and wide too, about 8".  I typically cut the wheelwells out and use them on full size monsters since I hate the narrow bodies that JConcepts categorizes as monster truck bodies...

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Thanks for the suggestions, a longer wheelbase version will be on the to-do list @87lc2, I need to up my fabrication game first.

We'll see how this one gets on. If it a success, then the Rock Socker in the loft might get a similar treatment (though I had a more crawlery Unimog in mind for that). Though the TXT-2 really ought to get built. Oh, and don't forget the SMT10 :ph34r:.

At this rate, I'll never finish my little trail truck!

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9 minutes ago, Badcrumble said:

Thanks for the suggestions, a longer wheelbase version will be on the to-do list @87lc2, I need to up my fabrication game first.

We'll see how this one gets on. If it a success, then the Rock Socker in the loft might get a similar treatment (though I had a more crawlery Unimog in mind for that). Though the TXT-2 really ought to get built. Oh, and don't forget the SMT10 :ph34r:.

At this rate, I'll never finish my little trail truck!

Welcome to my life, or just RC life in general :)  I usually have a million things going on at once and it kills me not having projects finished.  

I haven't done it, but extending the wheelbase on the CR01 should be rather simple, just new links and driveshafts.  If that's not something you want to bother with, there may be some wider bodies in 10-11" wheelbase that may fit.  Can't think of any right now, but if anything comes to mind I'll be sure to post.  Maybe the Proline 72 C10?  I think that may only be 7-7.5" though. 

Be sure to post up when you get to the TXT & SMT10, I love monsters.  Working on rebuilding a TXT-2 right now in fact, hope to have it done in a couple weeks (need to make a bunch of custom parts).  Also ordered 2 more SMT10 kits with the current sale, so that should keep me busy for a while...

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I can concur that it's petty easy to extend the wheelbase - just move the whole front and rear assemblies further out in the chassis rail holes towards the ends. I think I got new longer link arms and driveshafts (cheap off fleabay) but in hindsight I'm not too sure I actually needed the links as the inner mounting points on the side rails can also be moved out the same amount as the assemblies. I got mine to 313mm wheelbase doing this.

Love the look of yours with the MST wheels on it - looking forward to seeing where you go with this ;) 

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For those of you interested, I saw a couple of for sale ads on eBay today for the wheel/tires I got.  

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Here’s the CR-01 with MST wheels / tyres and my roughly trimmed Tamiya Asterion body. Body balanced on the chassis, not secured.

4E659FE2-325D-4D99-A9FA-874987231E0C.jpg
4AF5738C-BBFD-4AF4-A72E-5175AE19691A.jpg

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I like the look of that.  Move the body back slighty and cut out those wheelwells and looks like a monster-sized baja racer, pretty cool.  

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@davidwj95, sorry to hijack your topic. Let me know if I should open a new one.

Tamico has the Rock Socker on offer and I am thinking about converting one into a monster truck. And then I read this:

On 9/7/2021 at 10:28 PM, 87lc2 said:

As others have said, the one thing you'll want to change for sure to make it into a real monster is the transmission, it's geared very well for crawling, not so much for speed. 

Any of you already  tried to "fix" this while converting a CR-01 into a monster truck? Thanks in advance!

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5 hours ago, bavee said:

@davidwj95, sorry to hijack your topic. Let me know if I should open a new one.

Tamico has the Rock Socker on offer and I am thinking about converting one into a monster truck. And then I read this:

Any of you already  tried to "fix" this while converting a CR-01 into a monster truck? Thanks in advance!

I haven't messed with the transmission since I mostly use mine as a mud truck/crawler but I think I've seen it done on here at some point.  You could probably put an Axial 3-gear trans in it if you wanted to, I used them on quite a few monster truck builds.  Just put one in a TXT-2 and it works well. 

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6 hours ago, bavee said:

@davidwj95, sorry to hijack your topic. Let me know if I should open a new one.

Tamico has the Rock Socker on offer and I am thinking about converting one into a monster truck. And then I read this:

Any of you already  tried to "fix" this while converting a CR-01 into a monster truck? Thanks in advance!

Back on page one you'll see an example from @OldSchoolRC1 with an Element transmission.

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1 hour ago, 87lc2 said:

I haven't messed with the transmission since I mostly use mine as a mud truck/crawler but I think I've seen it done on here at some point.  You could probably put an Axial 3-gear trans in it if you wanted to, I used them on quite a few monster truck builds.  Just put one in a TXT-2 and it works well. 

Thanks, will look into the Axial 3-gear transmission!

4 minutes ago, Badcrumble said:

Back on page one you'll see an example from @OldSchoolRC1 with an Element transmission.

Missed that. Thanks for pointing it out to me!

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On 2/7/2022 at 9:26 AM, bavee said:

@davidwj95, sorry to hijack your topic. Let me know if I should open a new one.

Tamico has the Rock Socker on offer and I am thinking about converting one into a monster truck. And then I read this:

Any of you already  tried to "fix" this while converting a CR-01 into a monster truck? Thanks in advance!

No need to apologise, the more ideas we get on here the better.

I still haven't done much to mine yet as I've been occupied with other hobbies.  I don't want mine to be super fast, I'm thinking standard blackfoot speed, or slightly quicker.  I've been impressed with the cheap 3300kv brushless systems from bangood in some if my other cars.  I was wondering about fitting one of these along with the largest pinion that will fit.   The larger tyres will also help gear it up a bit.

 

 

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Axial 3 gear is a great drop in. Fits in there easily and gives a nice range of gearing options. I used one of the stock holes in the skid and drilled the other three.

I used the Element trans in my crawler oriented trucks for the front overdrive. 

 

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I’ve not given up yet

D51881E8-0FF4-42BD-A8DE-46BA55B62984.jpg
6E220B15-AD76-4ADD-8C16-4C601D886427.jpg
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Comments / guidance on damper placement is welcome. I couldn’t remove the existing lower balls - stuck with threadlock. A job for another day. Most of today has been spent fighting with tiny nuts in hard to reach places!

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I still haven't given up! I charged up a 3S battery threw in a 1080 ESC and got hooked up to my mutli channel radio gear for 4WS. It worked!

3S was more than enough! The ESc was on stock setting and apart from switching to 4WS, the tx was set up for when my son ran my / our crawler so full whack seemed to come on quite late. Lots of torque twist on launch.

I had fitted high torque servo savers at each end but they kept doing their job and ejecting every few minutes. My back garden is very bumpy!

I switched to the solid horn that came with the servoes. Fine on the rear but thanks to the longer links / driveshaft on the front, I have run into clearance issues with the steering link. I need a shorter horn...and suggestions?

DSC_2468.jpg

Aside from that, I think this truck has some real potential with a few tweaks to the ESC and TX settings. Somewhere I have some Axial hexes I can dig out and then I'll fit the SMT10 wheels. And it needs a body.

Oh, and we're off to see the Monster Jam in June when it comes to London!!!

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Thanks @87lc2, those are ordered! My son was asking me what body is going to go on it. I'd better get one ordered...

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3 hours ago, Badcrumble said:

Thanks @87lc2, those are ordered! My son was asking me what body is going to go on it. I'd better get one ordered...

No problem, glad I could help.  It's too bad they don't include those rather than the other ones with those servos.  I have a giant bin full of those things and I don't use them anymore.  They kept coming loose on me and I just got fed up with them.  Have been using the other ones for a few months now and they're great.  Just a little threadlock on the center screw and you're good to go.  

Interested to see how you solve the torque twist if you plan on doing something about it.  Even as a crawler the torque twist is very pronounced on the CR01 due to the soft suspension and planetary transmission.  I need to take mine out soon, it's been a while.  

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It's been over a year since I started this thread and I've finally ordered the first parts.  I have a set of JC Concepts Midwest wheels on order from dms. (thanks for the link Mad Ax)

The plan is to use these with HPI mud thrashers tyres and a blackfoot body.  I had concerns that the body might be a bit small but I found some photos online of a blackfoot extreme with mud thrashers and it looks good. 

I'll also convert to 4 wheel steering and possibly get rid of the cantilever suspension.   I'm not sure about the motor yet, but won't want it to go any faster than a standard blackfoot as this build will be more for show. 

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Looking forward to seeing your progress @davidwj95. What battery will you be using? If 3S I don't know that you need anything more than the silver can as mine fairly zipped around the back garden with the throttle pinned. But then none of my cars have anything faster than a Sport Tuned so maybe I'm not the best judge :D

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