Hiya everyone. Woodie was kind to invite me here so I'll share build details on my current rig, the MT410. I was very active on the URC forums (RIP) where I had multiple build threads, unfortunately they were also posted on photobucket and I angrily closed my account with them before I discovered there was a way around their new free image hosting limitation so I lost all of my past images too. So I'll start over with the MT410 here!
I was into RCs as a kid way back in the late 80s. Had a Kyosho Maxxum, a front wheel drive off road bugging. very rare! of course I wished I had kept it now! Last rig recently as a Tamiya Lunchbox, but I let her go shortly after building it because I didn't want a shelf queen but I also knew if I had kept it I'd have destroyed it quickly.
I actually got out of RC a couple years ago before my new daughter was born she was born because I knew I'd have very little time to RC, but the release of the MT410 convinced me to give it one more try. I picked up the MT410 way back in November 2016. The crazy thing is that it's still like new, I have had very little time to RC, but I still try to sneak in some wrenching time when I can and enjoy working on the thing as much as driving it. Hoping now that the kid is 2 she'll be able to go with me to the park and let this thing rip.
Proline Trencher 3.8 (40 Series) All Terrain Tires Mounted Tech 5 - Pro116013
Castle Monster X ESC
Castle 6.5mm battery and ESC Connectors
SMC 6700mah 4s
Protek 130T servo (0.080sec, 355oz @ 7.4v)
Castle 1717 1650kv Black can motor,
Tekin T8 G2 2000KV truggy motor ... AND (see below)
Futaba 3PL radio
Proline Ford Raptor body (1st gen)
DE Racing XD Rear Skid Plate
Tekno 5262 Cnc Split Center Diff Mount
Tekno 6015 Aluminum Shock Cartridge Cap Set x2
Tekno 6003B Alloy Shock Caps Non-Vented x2 (Not installed yet)
Tekno 5211 Aluminum Motor Mount Insert (the old style with 3mm and 4mm mount holes)
M2C 6905 Tekno MT410 Aluminum Solid Center Brace (just installed yesterday)
The #1 reason I bought this rig is because it's the only rig of this type (1/8 competition truggy class) I know of that has the suspension travel to bottom out a 7" tire. I've had a couple of other truggies and most of them are engineered to use standard 1/8 truggy size wheels/tires, which is understandable, as they are primarily for competition where you're bound to the kind of tire/wheel you run. For some reason Tekno designed these things to have far more suspension travel than a normal 1/8 competition rig. I wanted something that I could run huge tires and just drive up over curbs if I need to, yet be a 1/8 comp style vehicle. I had a monster truck in the past and while it was great, it was very heavy and used a lot of weird parts and aftermarket support was almost zero.
Things no longer: I used to have a set of belted Sweep Terrain tires. They were cool because they had ZERO ballooning, but the tread was hard and they had laughable lack of traction on anything other than the road. For a street run they were really good but the second I hit grass I could barely get through it, the tires would just spin. So I decided to sell them off to fund other goodies.
Let's cut to the chase. The little Tekin T8 Gen2 2000kv Truggy motor was never designed to push these HUGE heavy 7inch wheels/tires. They are like triple the weight of a 1/8 Truggy wheel/tire. This motor gets warm very quickly. So it's time to upgrade.
Tekin T8 g2 2000kv Truggy motor vs Castle 1717 pull from a Traxxas XO-1.
Luckily the Tekno factory motor mount can support this beast. I've done this same upgrade on an old RC8Te (with an aftermarket motor mount needed), and AE Rival (had to modify the factory mount and add additional motor support) and the Rival weighed a lot more and still this motor never got over around 135 degrees on 4s and did around 45mph. Needless to say this is my favorite motor! Never worry about temps again. There are quite a few people who upgrade to the longer can motors like the TP series, those are also great from what I've read. I just wanted to stick with Castle and not have to relocate my ESC (but did have to flip it on its side to fit.)
Two cons to changing to this motor:
1. The Castle isn't sensored, which is really nice for going SLOW and crawl over stuff, otherwise, no real-world difference for a basher.
2. The motor can size being larger means I can't move it close enough to the center to run smaller than around a 21T pinion (I have a 22T), that means 55mph speeds even on 4s, which is a little faster than I need. Shooting for 50. The motor doesn't get hot (you can rest your hand on it!) but the ESC gets warm real quick.
To "fix" the space/gearing problem I just recently grabbed the m2c center brace.
Reasoning behind this, I hoped it was a little more 'slim' and would give me a millimeter or two of extra space to move the motor in closer so that I could fit a smaller pinion. After installing it I know I can go down one tooth to a 21T but I think that will be it, so I'll order one up to try to reduce the temps on the MonsterX. I'm not sure if the factory braces were the same space limitation, I forgot to check it before I took it out (I've got a 22T.) Another possibility is just removing the front center brace completely. Tekno is the only 1/8 brand I've seen that has those center braces, I'm not really sure why they are there, I guess there must be more chassis flex there due to the "lightened" areas where they cut away. I'm thinking alloy top plates would stiffen it up enough so that we wouldn't even need those center braces. If i remove it then i could easily fit around a 19T pinion, which is what I was running with the Tekin 2000kv motor.
Mounted to the old style (non-lightened) mount insert - the new "lightened" insert only has 3mm holes and this motor only has 4mm holes, the old mount insert has both.
Future goodies are the Tang alloy plates and possibly the alloy rear chassis brace, not sure on that one yet.
I was into RCs as a kid way back in the late 80s. Had a Kyosho Maxxum, a front wheel drive off road bugging. very rare! of course I wished I had kept it now! Last rig recently as a Tamiya Lunchbox, but I let her go shortly after building it because I didn't want a shelf queen but I also knew if I had kept it I'd have destroyed it quickly.
I actually got out of RC a couple years ago before my new daughter was born she was born because I knew I'd have very little time to RC, but the release of the MT410 convinced me to give it one more try. I picked up the MT410 way back in November 2016. The crazy thing is that it's still like new, I have had very little time to RC, but I still try to sneak in some wrenching time when I can and enjoy working on the thing as much as driving it. Hoping now that the kid is 2 she'll be able to go with me to the park and let this thing rip.
Proline Trencher 3.8 (40 Series) All Terrain Tires Mounted Tech 5 - Pro116013
Castle Monster X ESC
Castle 6.5mm battery and ESC Connectors
SMC 6700mah 4s
Protek 130T servo (0.080sec, 355oz @ 7.4v)
Castle 1717 1650kv Black can motor,
Tekin T8 G2 2000KV truggy motor ... AND (see below)
Futaba 3PL radio
Proline Ford Raptor body (1st gen)
DE Racing XD Rear Skid Plate
Tekno 5262 Cnc Split Center Diff Mount
Tekno 6015 Aluminum Shock Cartridge Cap Set x2
Tekno 6003B Alloy Shock Caps Non-Vented x2 (Not installed yet)
Tekno 5211 Aluminum Motor Mount Insert (the old style with 3mm and 4mm mount holes)
M2C 6905 Tekno MT410 Aluminum Solid Center Brace (just installed yesterday)
The #1 reason I bought this rig is because it's the only rig of this type (1/8 competition truggy class) I know of that has the suspension travel to bottom out a 7" tire. I've had a couple of other truggies and most of them are engineered to use standard 1/8 truggy size wheels/tires, which is understandable, as they are primarily for competition where you're bound to the kind of tire/wheel you run. For some reason Tekno designed these things to have far more suspension travel than a normal 1/8 competition rig. I wanted something that I could run huge tires and just drive up over curbs if I need to, yet be a 1/8 comp style vehicle. I had a monster truck in the past and while it was great, it was very heavy and used a lot of weird parts and aftermarket support was almost zero.
Things no longer: I used to have a set of belted Sweep Terrain tires. They were cool because they had ZERO ballooning, but the tread was hard and they had laughable lack of traction on anything other than the road. For a street run they were really good but the second I hit grass I could barely get through it, the tires would just spin. So I decided to sell them off to fund other goodies.
Let's cut to the chase. The little Tekin T8 Gen2 2000kv Truggy motor was never designed to push these HUGE heavy 7inch wheels/tires. They are like triple the weight of a 1/8 Truggy wheel/tire. This motor gets warm very quickly. So it's time to upgrade.
Tekin T8 g2 2000kv Truggy motor vs Castle 1717 pull from a Traxxas XO-1.
Luckily the Tekno factory motor mount can support this beast. I've done this same upgrade on an old RC8Te (with an aftermarket motor mount needed), and AE Rival (had to modify the factory mount and add additional motor support) and the Rival weighed a lot more and still this motor never got over around 135 degrees on 4s and did around 45mph. Needless to say this is my favorite motor! Never worry about temps again. There are quite a few people who upgrade to the longer can motors like the TP series, those are also great from what I've read. I just wanted to stick with Castle and not have to relocate my ESC (but did have to flip it on its side to fit.)
Two cons to changing to this motor:
1. The Castle isn't sensored, which is really nice for going SLOW and crawl over stuff, otherwise, no real-world difference for a basher.
2. The motor can size being larger means I can't move it close enough to the center to run smaller than around a 21T pinion (I have a 22T), that means 55mph speeds even on 4s, which is a little faster than I need. Shooting for 50. The motor doesn't get hot (you can rest your hand on it!) but the ESC gets warm real quick.
To "fix" the space/gearing problem I just recently grabbed the m2c center brace.
Reasoning behind this, I hoped it was a little more 'slim' and would give me a millimeter or two of extra space to move the motor in closer so that I could fit a smaller pinion. After installing it I know I can go down one tooth to a 21T but I think that will be it, so I'll order one up to try to reduce the temps on the MonsterX. I'm not sure if the factory braces were the same space limitation, I forgot to check it before I took it out (I've got a 22T.) Another possibility is just removing the front center brace completely. Tekno is the only 1/8 brand I've seen that has those center braces, I'm not really sure why they are there, I guess there must be more chassis flex there due to the "lightened" areas where they cut away. I'm thinking alloy top plates would stiffen it up enough so that we wouldn't even need those center braces. If i remove it then i could easily fit around a 19T pinion, which is what I was running with the Tekin 2000kv motor.
Mounted to the old style (non-lightened) mount insert - the new "lightened" insert only has 3mm holes and this motor only has 4mm holes, the old mount insert has both.
Future goodies are the Tang alloy plates and possibly the alloy rear chassis brace, not sure on that one yet.