Out of the box Checklist

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Magnus_CA

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Hi Folks,

I just wanted to compile a checklist of things to inspect on your Arrma Outcast before letting loose with the throttle for those that may be new to the hobby like myself. I'm not including any information about hop-ups or upgrades or overcoming any of this truck's few design flaws. This post is all about performing your own QC on your truck, in its stock form, with a minimum assortment of tools.

Prerequisite Materials: (1) Arrma Outcast, the manual, a ruler (optional), charged LiPos, and the supplied tools.

(Captain Obvious: Review the manual and confirm all parts were included.)

Critical Out-of-the-Box Checks

If there's a high potential for damage to persons or property if an out-of-the-box condition were ignored or if there is a known issue that affects a high percentage of owners you'll find it here. There is no YMMV content here...you don't want to ignore these items!
  1. Check for protruding screws in the battery tray - Remove the body and feel around the bottom of your battery tray towards the front of the truck for screws that are not flush with the plastic. Arrma is apparently installing 8mm screws where they should be installing 5mm. Fixes mentioned here include taping over them, backing them out, grinding them down, or replacing them with shorter screws. Thanks to @NITROMAN2000 for alerting the forum about this issue.
  2. Confirm you have no leaky diffs or shocks - If you find goo in the box it probably came from one or the other. If you listen close you can actually hear the lubricant churning in your front, rear, and center diffs by rotating the tires. If you find a leak there's plenty of info on the web on how to fill them and fluid recommendations.
  3. Confirm all screws are tight - Basically, go around and make sure everything is tight. You don't want parts falling off because you have a loose screw. Don't forget the tires!
  4. Install your batteries and check your ESC settings - See the table on page 28 of the manual for factory defaults. Some are reporting the Motor Rotation setting is Reverse out of the box. Yikes! (Note: One long beep equals five short beeps.)
  5. Perform the procedure on page 27 for Throttle Setup. The throttle and brake on mine was dead the first time I powered on my Outcast until I configured this (the car even took off on its own once). I suspect the factory resets the transmitter to factory default prior to shipping or they skip configuring the transmitter all together.
  6. Set your steering trim ('ST. TRIM') on your transmitter. I removed the body and flipped the truck over with the front end facing me and powered on the transmitter and then the truck. I looked down at screws at each end of the steering rack (AKA bellcrank) and adjusted the steering trim until the screws were the same distance from the edge of the chassis. I'll paste a photo to better explain this later but if you flip your truck over and rotate the steering trim you'll see why I used those screws as my point of reference.
  7. Perform the 'End Point Adjustment' (EPA) procedure on page 24 of the manual - SET YOUR DUAL RATE TRIM (ST. D/R) ON YOUR TRANSMITTER TO MAX AND THE THROTTLE TRIM TO ZERO BEFORE DOING THIS! Part 1 of the procedure will map the extreme CW and CCW positions on your steering wheel to the extreme left and right positions of your front tires. I also like doing this adjustment with the body off and the truck on its back. You can then use the dual rate trim to adjust the steering sensitivity on the fly from the transmitter as needed. Part 2 of the procedure sets your throttle end points. If anyone knows how to set your throttle end point correctly please reply. How to properly adjust your throttle end points and why you need to do it is still a mystery to me.
  8. Time to scare the cat with an indoor run! - Listen for any strange noises as you operate the truck and consult the forum if you're not sure if it's normal. It's also a great time to fine tune your steering trim.
Optional Out-of-the-Box Checks

None of these items have a high incident rate out of the box but it wouldn't hurt to check them anyway:
  1. Check pinion/spur gear mesh - The paper method is by far the most popular. Tons of detail on doing this on youtube, arrmaforum.com, and elsewhere. Google is your friend.
  2. Check the glue line between the hubs and tires - Pick a tire and give it a squeeze across the tread. Check for a gap between the tire and the inside rim of the hub on both sides the tire. Rotate and continue checking around the entire circumference of the tire. Check the remaining 3 tires in the same fashion. You may find it helpful to place something under the chassis to elevate all 4 tires for this step.
  3. Check your spring pre-load and ride height with the batteries and body installed. The factory springs are soft and short and if you have stuck with this guide to this point I'll bet you'll be inclined to upgrade your springs like most of us. In the meanwhile the best you can do is confirm the spring collars are threaded down far enough to compress the factory springs and that the ride height is level, front to back. This is where a having a ruler or caliper comes in handy. Make sure you apply some weight to the truck and cycle the suspension a few times prior to taking measurements.
  4. Check your Toe and Camber. The turnbuckles in the rear affect rear wheel camber and the turnbuckles in front affect front wheel toe. You can use a ruler to compare the length of the turnbuckles on the left and right sides but equal length is unlikely to yield equal toe and camber on opposite wheels. You can use string or buy special gauges but I just eyed mine.
If anyone encounters any other out-of the-box issues please reply below and I'll be happy to update this guide.
 
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Hi Folks,

I just wanted to compile a quick checklist of things to inspect on your Outcast before letting loose with the throttle for those that may be new to the hobby like myself. I'm not including any information about hop-ups or upgrades or overcoming any of this truck's few design flaws. This post is all about performing your own QC on your truck, in its stock form, with a minimum assortment of tools.

Prerequisite Materials: (1) Arrma Outcast, the manual, a ruler (optional), charged lipos, and the supplied tools.

(Captain Obvious: Review the manual and confirm all parts were included.)
  1. Check your ESC settings - See the table on page 28 of the manual for factory defaults.
  2. Check pinion/spur gear mesh - The paper method is by far the most popular. Tons of detail on doing this on youtube, arrmaforum.com, and elsewhere. Google is your friend.
  3. Confirm you have no leaky diffs or shocks - If you find goo in the box it probably came from one or the other.
  4. Confirm all screws are tight - Basically, go around and make sure everything is tight. You don't want parts falling off because you have a loose screw. Don't forget the tires!
  5. Check the glue line between the hubs and tires - Pick a tire and give it a squeeze across the tread. Check for a gap between the tire and the inside rim of the hub on both sides. Rotate the tire 20-30 degrees and continue checking the glue line as you squeeze and rotate. Check the remaining 3 tires in the same fashion. You may find it helpful to place something under the chassis to elevate all 4 tires for this step.
  6. Check front wheel travel - Connect your batteries and power on the transmitter and your Outcast. With the front tires elevated, rotate the transmitter wheel in each direction as far as it will go. Confirm the wheels travel freely in both directions as you rotate the transmitter wheel.
  7. Check your spring pre-load and ride height - With the body AND batteries installed and your truck flat on the table confirm the spring collars are low enough to keep the springs compressed with at least a few threads of pre-load. Settle the suspension with your hands a few times and check again. Next, check the side-to-side ride height. The chassis (ignore the body) should be even with the surface below it when viewed from the front side of the truck. This is where having a ruler or caliper comes in handy. Adjust the front collars up or down as necessary but be careful your adjustments don't take the springs out of a compressed state. Settle the suspension and check the side-to-side height again from the front. Now check the side-to-side height from the rear, making adjustments to the rear spring collars as necessary. The final and most critical step is checking the front-to-back ride height. The chassis should be about even with the surface below it when viewed/measured from the side. If it's front-side high I recommend adjusting the front spring collars downward until the front-to-back ride height is even. You'll want to advance the same number of threads on both front shocks so you don't corrupt the side-to-side balance set earlier. Same approach is valid for a rear-side high truck but you'll naturally want to make the same downward correction to each of the rear spring collars. Apply some weight to the truck to settle the suspension again for a final check of the side-to-side and front-to-back ride height.
  8. Time to scare the cat with an indoor run! - Listen for any strange noises as you operate the truck and consult the forum if you're not sure if it's normal. It's also a great time to check for proper wheel balance.
There is likely more out of the box checks and adjustments to make but this is all that comes to mind off the bat. If any other owners would like to add their input just respond and I'll be happy to supplement this guide.


one more...fellow forum member found a screw in the batt tray that is too long...be sure to check so that you don't wear holes in your batts...

I will find the chat link...

https://arrmaforum.com/threads/outcast-battery-box-design-issue-please-read.2440/
 
Thanks! I added it to the top of the list since this problem seems to be more common than it should be and there's a good potential for damage.

You could also add under 5. ....Don't forget the tire! - Most members have had issues with removing them due to over tightening at the factory. It would be worth removing them and cleaning up any burred plastic and/or dremelling the hole out as part of their initial checks. Save some aggravation when the time comes to change tires out or remove for maintenance on the truck.
 
HAD A TOUGH TIME removing those wheels wow. I would also add something I did not see... Ive always heard that Arrma doesn't fill up the diffs and throws some grease in there. I would suggest filling up the diffs in this thing. Ive seen some posts where the diffs are empty... Im going to check my center one - question - if I see a little grease in there - do I wash it out with water? and then fill it up? or is it ok to just fill it?
Keeping this truck to 4S - huge Goliath tires on there.....
 

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You could also add under 5. ....Don't forget the tire! - Most members have had issues with removing them due to over tightening at the factory. It would be worth removing them and cleaning up any burred plastic and/or dremelling the hole out as part of their initial checks. Save some aggravation when the time comes to change tires out or remove for maintenance on the truck.

I'm on the fence with this one...not that it shouldn't be done, but whether it fits within the scope I'm trying to stay within here. You could call this a manufacturing defect but it's not really something you'd regret not doing in advance of bashing with it.

HAD A TOUGH TIME removing those wheels wow. I would also add something I did not see... Ive always heard that Arrma doesn't fill up the diffs and throws some grease in there. I would suggest filling up the diffs in this thing. Ive seen some posts where the diffs are empty... Im going to check my center one - question - if I see a little grease in there - do I wash it out with water? and then fill it up? or is it ok to just fill it?
Keeping this truck to 4S - huge Goliath tires on there.....

I believe it's been confirmed Arrma uses silicone fluid, rather than grease. I am certain that you don't want to use water (alone) to clean out the old stuff. I'd go with WD-40. You can try a degreaser or detergent and some water but I'd still follow up with WD-40 and wipe everything down after.

If you can't see evidence of the front, rear, or center diffs leaking out of the box and parts are getting damaged due to empty diffs before your 1st scheduled maintenance then checking your diff fluids should be in here. Is this what people are finding?
 
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My truck had some time of fluid all over it out of the box, tracked down to center diff leaking. Good thing I was shimming planetary gears anyways and changing out the silicon. 500k center 30k front 20k rear
 
Have anyone noticed that the steering trim needs adjustment OOTB?

The steering servo will push/pull further than the wheels can turn. Like pushing against a brick wall, can probably cause unneccessary wear on the servo gear and/or servo mount.

My car also went backwards when you pull the trigger. Had to hit Reverse on the transmitter's throttle switch.
 
Have anyone noticed that the steering trim needs adjustment OOTB?

The steering servo will push/pull further than the wheels can turn. Like pushing against a brick wall, can probably cause unneccessary wear on the servo gear and/or servo mount

Steering trim corrects the cars ability to travel straight with the steering wheel in neutral. The Dual Rate trim adjusts how far the wheels travel, left to right. However, the best approach is to set the dual rate trim to max and then perform the End Point Adjustment procedure on page 24 of the manual. The Dual-Rate trim can then be used to dial down the steering sensitivity on the fly from the remote. I made note of this distinction in the OP.
 
Steering trim corrects the cars ability to travel straight with the steering wheel in neutral. The Dual Rate trim adjusts how far the wheels travel, left to right. However, the best approach is to set the dual rate trim to max and then perform the End Point Adjustment procedure on page 24 of the manual. The Dual-Rate trim can then be used to dial down the steering sensitivity on the fly from the remote. I made note of this distinction in the OP.

Righto- makes sense. Will get onto it.

Thanks
 
Thanks for taking the time to post these suggestions. These are all things I will check when my Outcast arrives later this next week.
 
Thanks guys. I just got a outcast and have done the screws. Control settings next
 
I got my Outcast this week and I'm glad I read this post! There was a screw in the battery compartment that was too long and was working on rubbing a hole in my battery! I cut off the extra 1/8" and made small pads for the bottom since the compartment is adjustable. Should be good to go now. Also broke a back shock push rod ball connection on my second go out. Looking to upgrade the springs.
Aside from that I'm enjoying the heck out of this beast!
 
Looks like you had a good bash session.

Did you break the wing/mount already or just take it off?
No I didn't take it off. Haven't broke the wing mount yet. Just broke another rear suspension rod end ball mount. I need to see what can be done to fix this issue. Upgrade?
 
Looks like you had a good bash session.

Did you break the wing/mount already or just take it off?
Yes i broke it off after about half hour of really heavy mud slinging. Bad landing on a big jump going backwards. Screws gave way. May fix but not sure. Cracked the body shell at the back by the wheelie bar which isn't good. Mind you i did give it some.
 
I got my Outcast this week and I'm glad I read this post! There was a screw in the battery compartment that was too long and was working on rubbing a hole in my battery! I cut off the extra 1/8" and made small pads for the bottom since the compartment is adjustable. Should be good to go now. Also broke a back shock push rod ball connection on my second go out. Looking to upgrade the springs.
Aside from that I'm enjoying the heck out of this beast!

There is a way to beef up your eyelets on the outcast. I've posted about it in other threads but don' remember seeing your avatar on those threads so if you wanna know what I did to mine to stop the eyelet breakage we all experience with this rig. I havnt broke one sense this mod.
 
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