Try siping your tyres before you chuck them.

just for reference i'm not running any additional weight in my rears...
do the cross pins in your shafts have a notch for the grubscrew,this is a weakpiont in some uni's.

Not chucking Adam, JUst didnt know if was worth pursuing more from the flat irons or just starting with something better straight up as i get available cash.

No Notch Bushy. Think in some ways may help in my situation as they worked loose. Today or this arvo they worked ok. Re positioned shocks and worked better while running. Had a few glitching issues but pretty sure is elliminated now. Tried a few climbs from memory i saw some of the sportsmans do there in last tcp comp last year. Did some and not others. Going to head back there (ropes crossing) again tomorrow arvo , will get there between 4.15pm and 4.30 pm depending on traffic after work if anyone is intrested.

Hey guys thanks to all those along the way so far that have offered advice and encouragment and help with parts. I was quite happy for a first comp outing how it went. I didnt expect to much but was pleasently susprised at what it was capable of doing for a first time rig, and one that i had built myself from observations of all your rigs and not to a plan as such.

A big Thanks to Bushy for the help and loan of his chissels as he was running his new tyres. They made a huge difference for traction and height over the flat irons.

Thanks also to all the suggestions at the comp on ways to improve it further. I have made 3 new skids tonight in slightly differnt designs to play around with the link geometry over comming days and looking at moving the gearbox / motor further foward to move my rear links inwards and shorten the front up a bit also. This will also help move the weight forward more i think also.
As i mentioned on the Comp thread on Clarkys advice i have turffed the Venom 60t motor and swapped in a Novak 55t which i didnt get time to swap in before the comp. Seems to go alot better and has a bit more punch i was lacking. Will post pics as i get to them.

Few pics of new boots i had on back order from Go Hard, and rough skid plate desighn's im experimenting with. Also of narrowing the chassis. The final plates i make for the skid will need to be better as ive had trouble drilling straight through the lexan im making my skids from. I have a old drill press but actually had a slightly better result drilling free hand with the plate in a vice. Not ideal but gives me an oppurtunity to experiment with some desighn's.

Startin to look good now!!

btw, I drill everything freehand.

Lookin good Benny boy, check out these Sedona's go, everyone is using them may need some in 1.9's so i fit in

Hey Judd from the little testing i have done on rocks around home, they rock. The retaining wall at the front of my house that Bushy climbed up last weekend after dropping us back to my place , I made it up. You also seen the internal stairs in my house. I have been using them also as a climbing test. Admitally the new narrower chassis and the revised suspension could have played a part but with carful driving i can now get up 3 stairs lol. Hope this translates to better ability on the rocks also.

Hey Clarky if you reading this also i took your advice and attacked a bread board and made a new skid. Is alot easier to work with than the lexan i have been using.

Next mod on the agenda i can see that i will benifit from is having a go at a droop suspension setup. May not happen straight away but i can see i think it will benifit from it. It currently has 80mm of belly clearance which seems high to me. So a partial droop setup will lower it back down a bit but i think it will benifits its ability to get traction in climbs etc.

Also got some bits and pieces of Jonsey this week, (thanks mate for looking after me ) Have added a set of bent links to the rear of my truck alos as they just happend to be the perfect length.

Hope the missus didnt mind the shortened bread board.

Just an update. I had a crawl today with Maurice at Rope's Crossing for a couple of hours. Is the first test with my new droop suspension setup and new boots and narrowed chassis all combined. I am quite happy with the way it went. I spent last night adding a Hitec servo (thanks Jonsey, was worth every penny ) and playing around with my suspension setup and can now climb my climbing board at an angle of 60 degrees. Thankyou to Clarky who got me going in the right direction with the setup of my link geometry and where to make a start with my droop setup.

I dont believe im anywhere finished with my truck as none of us are, however today has given me i feel a good platform in which to drive for a while and see how things go and then work at seeing what i change next. I managed to climb some lines that Maurice took and vice versa etc. I had a few failures of link ends etc but was good as to see where improvments can be made by adding lock tite now i feel things are starting to get in good place. Im loving the Sedona's. I think that adding and removing weights in the rims can make a differance and playing around with the foams further could make a differance also. Maurice apart from having a different rig and setup etc, was running less weight in his sedona's and had better side hilling than i did.

Hey guys havent updated this in a while. Took advice of some of the guys to leave well enough alone for a while and just get my driving right before modding any further.

After last comp at Mount Riverview and gate 7 of i think the 2nd course and not having enough wheel speed to get over the obstacle i changed my pinion from 20T to a 23T pinion. It only marginally made a differance to wheel speed but until i can get a 45T or 35T motor for my sportsman or get 3cell in i thought get me by.

I was away this weekend at Ulladulla and got an hours crawling in at Dolphin Point. Will post a few pics up shortly. Initially it went well but the slight gain in wheel speed seems to have dropped my torque or i have another underlying issue. As my front tyres hit a rock square on and blipping the throttle would have in the past allowed my fronts to climb the obstacle, on this occasion it didnt seem to have the torque to move the tyres enough to get up the rock.

It may have been the battery but didnt have a spare on me at the time to check. I tried this on a few differnt rocks and the sittuation repeated itself. When i chose the right line it went quite well and was good for a bit of practice. All until i took a wrong line and took a big tumble down the rocks and pulled a link out of a link end.

Go back to the smaller pinion or get a 45t motor, imo brushed crawler motor's don't really respond to well to high tooth count pinions. Changing to 3s lipo is the best option but will require a new ESC as you know the Rooster Crawler won't handle 11.1v

Hey Greg thanks for the tip. If i can get a 45T before next comp i will go back to the smaller pinion. At next comp i will have most of the components to go 3s except possibly a battery. That is at next comp i will have the items but they wont be installed.

I bought new battery's again, so as long there's nothing wrong with them i have my old new battery you can borrow.

Wheel speed can hide issues with tyres and foam setups. I always break things when I use wheel speed. Slow reactions I guess, so I just stay with 2s.

Hey Guys just a brief update in here. As of last post for the July comp i reverted back to the 20T pinion for the comp. Was quite happy with the way it went. Still need more practice driving lines in general however. At the comp i finnally picked up of Linc via Mike the Sidewinder and Bec Linc had been holding for me, thanks to both Linc for being paitient with funds and Mike for getting me the goods when Linc couldnt make the comp.

The monday after the Comp my new motor for my scaler arived and this allowed me to take teh 45 turn integy motor from my scaler for my sportsman rig and a new motor for my scaler. The week after the comp i added the new motor and wired up the bec and sidewinder via the mathod BMT posted for wiring the bec so the servo is running dirrectly of the bec. Thanks also to BMT for posting the wiring details up on his post as was easy to follow and made the job a whole lot easier, plus a few hints from Linc.

Have breieffly tested the new setup around the house and at Bushys rock pile. Has slightly more wheel speed but it now allows me to run a 3s battery when i get some.

So far am happy with my skinny rims .75 inch with my sedonas with standard sedona foams. May add novas if i get motivated but is performing quite well with the standard foams currently.


Still lots to learn and need practice with my driving as mentioned above.

Hey guys just a small update. Although not as advanced as other rigs in Sportsman im still enjoying driving it. For last comp in Aug i ordered some Mystery 3 cell bats to see what differance they made. Unfortunatly they didnt arive in time. They turned up today. Ive tried them out with the new electronics as mentioned in last update. They give me alot more wheel speed as u guys who already use them would know. As my rig has a few limitations im hoping this will aid me in those instances where i need that little bit extra punch to get the belly over an obstacle i cant straddle. Will give them shot at sept comp.

For next comp also i may try and run my nova foams also. The only other way i would like to improve ideally would be the steering. I have got the most i know how to get out of the cr01 steering/axels. Besides going an axial front end.

The nova's make a big difference shame you cant get more steering, is it just the design, whats stopping it?

Hey mate sorry i been slack responding. Its baisically the design. There is one additional mod Mike did to his CR01 that he did which i need to ask him about he did which i think involved drilling out the cup that the driveshaft in the steering knuckle sits in. Before i attempt it i want to.better understand what it acheives. Ive already got the maximum throw i can get and have filed down the steering knuckle arms and on he axel where they touch. Also running the ultra skinny wheels allows better steering angles.