Calling this Element Gatekeeper a "build" is like calling your new car a "build" because you've put a cell-phone charger in it...

[NorthernCrawlerado]

Why, yes!

Yes it was!

 

[NorthernCrawlerado]

So we got this weird, sudden, and deep snowstorm through here Wednesday that put 8” of wet slop on the deck in one night. I took the Gatekeeper out into the street and ran it around the block through and around the snow in tire tracks, climbing through and over the snow. It was great - no flipping over, no craziness. Solid improvement!

I could run the thing in competition now, were I so inclined.

 

[Daveovington]

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I bought an Element Gatekeeper in the Black Friday sales after studying the topic for perhaps two weeks. I was such a mega-noob idiot that I kept calling it an "Element Gateway," for some unknown reason.

Perhaps senility is setting in?

Anyway, I messed up the left front tire and had to take it off and remount it... Probably not too big of an effort, but I managed to strip out a screw on the beadlock somehow.

I notice the car is truly gifted...

At flipping on its roof.

A bunch of retailers offer heavyweight metal suspension and wheel parts, which I will be buying soon.

Last night I installed a Hobbywing Fusion Pro 2300 kv motor in it. I almost did it all correctly, except for inserting the servo and ESC plugs in backward. That somehow did not result in catastrophe, because Hobbywing sees guys like me coming from 200 miles away, and makes the whole system "idiot proof." I took it into the cold night air last night and was amazed at the low-speed control, the insane punch, the blazing top speed and the quietness of the rig.

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I own a gatekeeper also and it did definitely like to be on its roof at higher speed in turns lol. I took an unorthodox approach to this by adding almost a pound of modeling clay into each tire and that definitely helped keep it planted , a bit wobbly at high speed lmao but stayed upright alot better and when upgraded with Mickey Thompson Baja prox tires this rig will crawl up a wall. Seriously kept up with rigs that were way outta its league . So , for the money and a Lil redneck ingenuity, it's a great truck for crawling on the rocks. Oh amd I cut the drop down outta the front of the frame amd brought the bumper up amd back so the tires hit the rocks before the front end and that made it so much more capable of getting up on those rocks .