My 'new-to-me' TLT Crawler

nick c · Dec 28, 2007

I finally jumped into the game last week, when Scott (VGMontheRocks) posted his old 2.2 TLT based Crawler for sale. The price was right for a starter rig so I jumped on it.

The ad Scott posted listed it as:
TLT Crawler
TLT Axles w/ bearings and locked with JB weld.
Pede Tranny Generation 1 w/ Integy 55T motor.
XRC Chassis with Delrin bent links (used once)
Hitec HS-645MG servo
Masher 2k on Pede Wheels
Scott and I worked it so he threw in a Rooster ESC to go with it as well.

I played with it twice, and lost the bolt that held the front upper links to the axle, ending my play day.

So I decided to take it all apart and replace the hardware with locking hardware. While I was at it, I used some aluminum to make a simple deck to give me mounting points for the electronics and the battery packs.

I just finished it up last night, and now am having electronic issues (I think its the batteries), so I haven't had time to play with it again.

Here's a picture from Scott's ad:

Working on building the deck surface:

Mandatory poser shot showing the new deck:

And finally a poser shot with the body:

this whole RC Crawlin' game is a slippery slope and I'm trying to keep on the low $$$ budget but its hard to resist droppping a bunch of money and building some cool crazy 2.2 comp rig. :beer:

VMGontheRocks · Dec 28, 2007

Looking good. I like the mounting plate! So are you still having binding issues with the shocks?

nick c · Dec 28, 2007

I moved the shock mounts further towards the end of the chassis and that took care of the binding. The spring retainers on the top were rubbing and catching on the chassis before, now they sit below the rail so its ok.

The upper link mounts on the servo plates aren't quite straight though so it flexes better to one side then the other. Ill cut some new plates and redrill them and it should be fine.

VMGontheRocks · Dec 28, 2007

Cool. Glad it is working out for you. Yeah money wise it only gets worse.

nick c · Dec 28, 2007

haha funny you mention that. i fried the novak esc that u had on it. so i upgraded to a novak rooster crawler model. the main gear and the motor gear are worn, guess they were to tight but thats a cheap fix.

VMGontheRocks · Dec 29, 2007

NAC25 said:
haha funny you mention that. i fried the novak esc that u had on it. so i upgraded to a novak rooster crawler model. the main gear and the motor gear are worn, guess they were to tight but thats a cheap fix.

Damn that sucks you fried that thing. Weird. Guess I never drove it hard enough.

Double J · Dec 31, 2007

nice.
remember to keep your weight as low as possible. maybe lay the tranny on it's side to lower the weight of the motor. It's ok for it to stick outside the chassis some, most comp rigs do.

nick c · Jan 3, 2008

VMGontheRocks said:
Damn that sucks you fried that thing. Weird. Guess I never drove it hard enough.

Yeah, either that or I was a little careless with water. I thought I kept it pretty dry but some of the crap I was playing was moist so between that and having the motor too tight I think that caused the ESC to give up the ghost.

I ran it pretty good over the holiday down in Grants Pass, OR a friend has a rock quarry that was closed for new years so he let me go play around for the day. I let my 10 year old cousin do most of the driving but I was pretty impressed, with a fresh battery and the new ESC how well it did.

Ill post pictures tonight or tomorrow.