CRT .5 has arrived...

[BP-Revo]

This thing is awesome! I just finished putting the shocks together. Took me quite a while as I was interrupted quite a bit and used a wrong spacer (which made me have to take the shock 1/2 way apart - but I didn't have to re-bleed, which was a huge relief). However, I got every air bubble out and they are smooth as silk.

I also did a few adjustments beforehand like securing the swaybars better. There are setscrews which hold them to the diff cases, and the set screws were backed out a little, so I tightened them up until the sway bar had minimal play. I think I will also hunt for a stiffer set, since they barely seem to affect the suspension (if you push one side all the way up, the other side doesn't even move until the last 5mm of travel or so). I have to find out stock diameter first, then I will probably go up .2mm in front (I'd like to just .15mm, but I don't think they have increments so small), and .1mm in the rear. OFNA also included a spare set of rear turnbuckles with a note stating that these were incase the installed ones had crack (apparently they had an issue with this?).

The truck looks great though. I saw one at RCX and looked at it for a good 20 minutes to try to visualize the conversion. OFNA then proceded to run one on the track. It was 1 CRT .5 and a few (I think 3) X1-CR 1/8 Scale Buggies. And the best part was - the CRT .5 was as fast and sometimes faster! They also did a few durability tests by launching it off a huge kicker jump. It got a good 25ft of air at the least and they pulled a few backflips and even a front flips. Despite the hard chassis-slapping landings, it seemed to take the punishment fine.

After a few preliminary measurements, it looks like I should be able to fit a Lehner 1530 without interfering with the stock mechanical brakes.

There were also two sets of wheels included. The set that was mounted on the truck used a 12mm hex hub and were a little narrower, making the tire more rounded when mounted (probably gave better steering than flatter tires). The second set were a little wider and used a pin straight into the wheel like a 1/10 scale buggy or stadium truck. I will most likely use the narrow set for the offroad tires and the wider set for my Dirt Hawgs, which will be my basher/street tires. Ironically, even though they are called "Dirt Hawgs," of all the buggy tires, they have the most tread that contacts flat ground at a given point and generally look very much like a treaded street tire.

I am going to place an order for some stuff to get basic mockup started. This will include metal (sheet and angle) and some other stuff for the truck itself, like servo's, etc. I'm also going to shoot Mike an E-Mail and have him order me up a 1530. I just have to figure out how many turns I want. I will probably order up a higher turn one so I can use a larger pinion and space the motor out so I have more clearance for the disk brakes.

I also have to figure out whether to use 3S or 4S lipo. 3S will make it quite easy as I won't need a BEC of any sort, but 4S is just too tempting, and the 4S version of the pack I'm getting is only like 20 bucks more, while each cell is an average of ~$40 (3S is $125 and the 2S is $80, but the 4S is just $144). PS. These are flightpowers too. :D

Lastly, I checked the option parts list and they included a few eyebrow raising parts in the list like "lightweight spur gear." I wonder if this is a plastic one we've all been hoping for? Possibly even a 7075 aluminum one. Even an aluminum one would be far better than the current hardened steel one as a hardened steel pinion wouldn't wear at all against it, and the spur would also wear slower as its not being "worked" as hard as the pinion.

Unfortunately, not pictures, and Mom took the camera on vacation (camera is ALWAYS gone when I need it most... :007: ).

I can't wait to see it run.

PS. This will be my slow-going build thread. However, once its done I'll probably post a new one with a full write up, but thats pretty far off.