TOPIC:

This is the next project that will keep me out of trouble for a while. It started out life as a TL-01B Baja King. I think by everyones standards it was a pile of poo, and in my mind it was no different. I got the thing in a trade with my Blackfoot, and it has been sitting on the shelf for about a year.

One on my mates always tags along when we go trailing/crawling, but he has no vehicle. I saw someone do this mod on Youtube, and decided it would be a good idea, that way my mate has a car to play with.

Recently I picked up this cheap chinese RC pajero at a pawn shop, but what intrigued me was the working lights, wipers, doors, and tailgate. And the rest is clearly visible...













I already bought Tamiya Wild Dagger rims/tires for another project, so I used them for now.

Very nice body. Cool match with the chassis.

Yeeessss, love a bit of artistic license! Surprised you didn't go the CC01 chassis route though. Completely unrelated, but, have either of you wandered around Kamtec (UK) site yet? - they have 1/10 Bowler Wildcat shells (Y'know, those mental landrover based things). They also do heaps of repro vintage Tamiya & Kyosho shells cheap too (Amongst other desirable stuff)

The site comes along often on the Dutch forum. Some guys (with great skills) there doing mix and match. Very cool.

www.kamtec.co.uk/

Louisbaby wrote:

...

...

When you said "crawler", I wasn't expecting that!

I suppose the TL01 chassis gives it a much wider track & more ground clearance making it more effective ... but it doesn't look very scale

I probably value form over function too much though - which is why my one scaler is 2WD & is completely ineffective on anything other than short grass

I think I'd put it in the (Mini?) Monster Truck category...

Well, I was thinking of it not being very scale, But if I buy the TL-01 short wishbones for the onroad version of this chassis, then beef the suspension up, it will be more scale. Like this:

tamiyaclub.com/...5&id=15376

I've owned a CC-01 before Eddrick, and quite simply, it is the best platform for Scale Trailing/crawling. Mine was however severely modified, but it was the best, even out crawling a HPI crawler king, Tamiya Highlift, and my very own Venom crawler. So I've got maximum respect for that chassis. But like I said, this chassis was free to make use of, kind of like a spare parts crawler.

And JR, the TL-01 chassis doesn't "crawl" very well, due to the lack of motor/pinion adjustment. But a Gear reduction unit will work. I had one of these in my CC-01:




HPI gear reduction unit. I had it mated to a short can ACTO Sport tuned motor that ran at 25000RPM and even that made the Pajero slow. The GRU ran so hot from the speed at which it was turning, that after a days driving, 4 batteries, I had to open it and pump it full of grease again...

Yeah I've got a Mu at the mo (CC01) & took it for a crawly play in the garden in the summer & was very impressed with it. Like you say, the high lift isn't great for crawling, sure the 3-speed box gives it bags of torque, but unless you run it with hard suspension (All the spring leaves) it tends to try to wrap the rear springs around the axle! I do, however, have a fairly cool video of it pulling me around works office carpet on a rolly chair.... The gear reduction unit - I made one a few years back for a 3-speed hilux-bruiser conversion project. I made the casing to suit the guts from a battery drill planetary gearbox. Like you say, it got hot quite quickly

I've ordered these parts:




To replace the long arms:

That'll look a lot more scale.
Any room left to lower the body a bit? Maybe fiddle with the shock length...
Although I guess that will lessen it's crawler capabilities.