Team Losi Night Crawler

[slednecks1124]

I just picked up a team losi night crawler & am just getting into the whole crawling scene. What would you guys suggest as the first upgrade?

The one thing that bugs me is the steering servo doesnt seem to have enough power so I think that would be a good upgrade to start with. School me :corn:

 

[slednecks1124]

I want to atleast keep the appearance of the body decent so tomorrow I will be taking my body to work to spray it with a light blue transparant silicone. It is a pretty durable material & can be removed later on so I figured I would give it a try and see how good it really protects the body.

Will try to post pictures tomorrow

 

[ChevyGuy]

Night crawler was my first crawler, loved it, but i turned it into a scaler to match my real blazer. Is this your first?

Yeah that steering servo sucks alot, 81 OZ's of tourqe and just letting the truck sit on flat surface i couldnt really turn. So i bought a Hitech 645 for $30 and worked great. I wasnt into the crawler comps cause everyone has nice expencive rigs. After you get the servo, buy some wheel weights for the wheels and just wrap em once. on the 2 fornt wheels. Other than that I didnt do anything to the night crawler, kept it simple.

Hope to see some pics :awesomework: Have fun.

 

[cisco]

I just picked up a team losi night crawler & am just getting into the whole crawling scene. What would you guys suggest as the first upgrade?

The one thing that bugs me is the steering servo doesnt seem to have enough power so I think that would be a good upgrade to start with. School me :corn:

Theres some things you can do without spending money. Move batterys and electronics to lover the CG. Like chev guy said adding lead to the wheels will improve stability and traction. There is alot of mods discussed for this model at RC crawler.com

 

[slednecks1124]

I used to be into rc cars alot when I was younger but got out of it for a long time, this is my first crawler.

I picked this up from a guy on craigslist for $300 (hes a local wheeler too), he bought it for his son and only had it about two weeks before his son decided he wanted an airplane. It was like brand new only had one scratch on the belly & came with an onyx 200 charger & venom 3600 battery. Not the best quality batty & charger but its a start.

Shoul i remove the foam from the tires to make them a little softer so they can flex?

 

[cisco]

Night crawler was my first crawler, loved it, but i turned it into a scaler to match my real blazer. Is this your first?

Yeah that steering servo sucks alot, 81 OZ's of tourqe and just letting the truck sit on flat surface i couldnt really turn. So i bought a Hitech 645 for $30 and worked great. I wasnt into the crawler comps cause everyone has nice expencive rigs. After you get the servo, buy some wheel weights for the wheels and just wrap em once. on the 2 fornt wheels. Other than that I didnt do anything to the night crawler, kept it simple.

Hope to see some pics :awesomework: Have fun.

I'ts too bad you were turned off by the comp thing. IMO if your a newb it doesn't matter if you have a top end rig, the seasoned drivers will still wip your pants off. Starting out I see the comp thing as competing against your self until you get some skills. The first few comps with my LCC, I sucked bad but have been slowly improving with the same rig.

 

[cisco]

I used to be into rc cars alot when I was younger but got out of it for a long time, this is my first crawler.

I picked this up from a guy on craigslist for $300 (hes a local wheeler too), he bought it for his son and only had it about two weeks before his son decided he wanted an airplane. It was like brand new only had one scratch on the belly & came with an onyx 200 charger & venom 3600 battery. Not the best quality batty & charger but its a start.

Shoul i remove the foam from the tires to make them a little softer so they can flex?

You can cut the foam narrower to try to soften it up but it needs to be in there. Also make sure the wheels are vented. When you squeeze them, air should come out easily.

 

[slednecks1124]

ive always been wondering about taking this to the dunes, Not sure if its possible to change the gearing enough & possibly get a new motor to be able to rip around at the sand dunes???

 

[Eric]

ive always been wondering about taking this to the dunes, Not sure if its possible to change the gearing enough & possibly get a new motor to be able to rip around at the sand dunes???

I dont think the axles will survive the heat generated.

 

[slednecks1124]

Even with the shims taken out?

 

[Eric]

Even with the shims taken out?

They are a worm gear axle. Not a high speed axle. They will get hot and also wear out very quickly. Remember there is just some grease in there and thats it.

I do know the tranny will give out before the axles from what I have seen. I have seen one with a very high output brushless set up. He has blown all the gears in the tranny then went to metal tranny gears. Lasted a few mins before something went boom in the axle. The rears might have survived but it was not sounding very good.

 

[ChevyGuy]

I'ts too bad you were turned off by the comp thing. IMO if your a newb it doesn't matter if you have a top end rig, the seasoned drivers will still wip your pants off. Starting out I see the comp thing as competing against your self until you get some skills. The first few comps with my LCC, I sucked bad but have been slowly improving with the same rig.

I went to a scaler comp, found it more fun and I wanted somthin to build. I shoulda tried a comp tho with the LNC. Ive been thinkin about gettin a crawler tho, buildin a trailer for my scaler or the enw scalr im buildin, and tow the crawler

Sledneck, id keep it slow and keep it for crawling. And take foams out, do what cisco said and cut em, when I took my foams out, looked stupid and looked like flat tired. Also, I trimmed the body, Just where the "doors" are, it rubbed rocks all the time, looks a lil better to

 

[cisco]

ive always been wondering about taking this to the dunes, Not sure if its possible to change the gearing enough & possibly get a new motor to be able to rip around at the sand dunes???

For that you need a slash with paddle tires. :masturbanana[1]:

 

[slednecks1124]

They are a worm gear axle. Not a high speed axle. They will get hot and also wear out very quickly. Remember there is just some grease in there and thats it.

I do know the tranny will give out before the axles from what I have seen. I have seen one with a very high output brushless set up. He has blown all the gears in the tranny then went to metal tranny gears. Lasted a few mins before something went boom in the axle. The rears might have survived but it was not sounding very good.

Thanks for the advice. I have read alot about the problem with the worm gears but just was hoping that I may be able to get more than one use out of it & I didnt know how tough the axles were. Ohwell it will give me a reason to buy a stadium truck or something like the slash:redneck:

 

[slednecks1124]

Anyways, I think I might tear the tires off in a little bit to cut the foams.

I didnt have time today to spray the body with silicone so I will try on Monday.

 

[cisco]

The worm drive axles are great, they just need more maintainence than others. There pretty sweet if you keep them well greased. I have a hole drilled in mine so I can squirt grease in without dissassembly. They work great on a shafty rig becuase of the low driveline torque required to turn them thereby minimizing torque twist.

 

[slednecks1124]

The worm drive axles are great, they just need more maintainence than others. There pretty sweet if you keep them well greased. I have a hole drilled in mine so I can squirt grease in without dissassembly. They work great on a shafty rig becuase of the low driveline torque required to turn them thereby minimizing torque twist.

Where did you drill your hole? got any pics?

I cut down the foam in the tires tonight, man my fingers hurt from loosening all those tiny cap screws that hold the bead locks on.ohhh and I cut the fawk out of my middle finger with the knife I was using to cut the foam, good thing my wife is in nursin school cause she bandaged it all up here are a few pics.

 

[ChevyGuy]

right on, wish I still had the LNC with all that flex.

This is the best picture I could find of my LNC when I trimed the sides of the body, looks so much better in my opinion

 

[cisco]

More than you ever wanted to know is in this section. You can read for a week.

http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=181