Out of the box Checklist

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Do you have a part number buddy. Cheers for your help

Yes I have booth part numbers for you.the eyelets thicker the cups r diffeent then the outcast cups and the spacers eliminate the soft pillow ball that gives out then the next time you catch air the eyelet snap. Get two of the 4 thick traxxas shims out the set you will press one on each side of the eyelet it' an exact fit. I ordered 2 sets of each so I could do the rear. I'e bashed in 10° weather and jumped snow banks to concrete and havnt had to replace 1 in months. Hope this helps any other questions just send me a message and I can walk u through how to dok the mod pretty self explanatory but if you need help I'm a message away I'm the 1 that figured this mod out. I shared it with a few people but it' a good mod. So I think everyone should kno you dnt have to deal with broken eyelets. I' working on all aluminium eyelet design for rich.
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My beefed up GPM shocks. Tuned them up by drilling extra holes in the damping washer.
 

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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.

Very nice checks/tips list. I've had a couple of these problem with my V3, loose screws and throttle/transmitter/esc was not setup properly. Also had some a bunch of excess light oil by the motor and motormount, strange. Wiped it off, haven't seen a drop since.

I think this should be updated to the Optional Checks especially on the V3's !?
"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"
V3 Outkast/Kraton Front Springs AR330507 are 85mm 6.2lb/in and Rear AR330508 are 95mm 5.0lb/in
compared to what people used to upgrade to Tekno RC Front TKR6093 80mm 6.11lb/in and Rear TKR6083 90mm 4.80 lb/in.
With those numbers the stock springs should be longer and stiffer than the Tekno RC !?
 
No problem hopefully it helps I kno it did for me. I catch some pretty big ait and havnt lost 1 sense the upgrade.

Can you elaborate, you need the balls from the Traxxas set too, or can you use the stock ones? Do you have more pics or a step by step guide, I'm completely lost ;-(
You need two Traxxas sets for 4 shocks?
 
Can you elaborate, you need the balls from the Traxxas set too, or can you use the stock ones? Do you have more pics or a step by step guide, I'm completely lost ;-(
You need two Traxxas sets for 4 shocks?

Does seem like a nice upgrade but just shims/washers in there, don't you need something pivoting in the rod end !?

I saw this video from TpParts RcXtreme and been using the RPM rod ends and Traxxas hollow steel balls ever since.

 
I'm new here- ordered a Notorious that was delayed. It arrived earlier than expected so I had to wait while I bought a new charger and adaptors.

Unpacked the truck and started to install the TBR front bumper and wheelie bar. I noticed a noise when I moved the truck- tracked it down to the left rear wheel. The other 3 wheels rotate quiet and smooth- the left rear makes a grinding crunchy noise feeling.

Not cool for what these cost, but I'm not going to spend more time and money to box it up and mail it somewhere for warranty. I'm going to take it apart and figure it out.

I'll try to take a video with my phone.
 
I'm new here- ordered a Notorious that was delayed. It arrived earlier than expected so I had to wait while I bought a new charger and adaptors.

Unpacked the truck and started to install the TBR front bumper and wheelie bar. I noticed a noise when I moved the truck- tracked it down to the left rear wheel. The other 3 wheels rotate quiet and smooth- the left rear makes a grinding crunchy noise feeling.

Not cool for what these cost, but I'm not going to spend more time and money to box it up and mail it somewhere for warranty. I'm going to take it apart and figure it out.

I'll try to take a video with my phone.

You don't have to necessarily send it in for warranty. I've got some parts coming after a quick email conversation with support and sending them pics of the problem.
 
Nevermind. Got it- just a bit of plastic rubbing. Removed and good to go! :)

Even though it is cold outside and a storm coming- I am excited to take it out soon for it's first run.
 
Nevermind. Got it- just a bit of plastic rubbing. Removed and good to go! :)

Even though it is cold outside and a storm coming- I am excited to take it out soon for it's first run.
Glad it turned out to be nothing. Make sure that first run doesn't involve any hard hits. The aluminum stuff will be ok, but the plastics don't like it much. Took out a wing mount on my first run, probably because it was too cold.
 
Hopefully nothing will break. I don’t plan on crashing. ?

I put on a tbr wheelie bar, left the stock one on as well.

Flipped over the actual wing mount side plates to get them out of the way but still use their rigidity.

Tbr front bumper, rear mud flaps and an aluminum servo mount.

Here it is. Never to be this clean again.

One last question- how smooth should the motor gearing be when I turn it by hand or push the car? Feels quite notch and noisy to me, but might be normal?

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Hopefully nothing will break. I don’t plan on crashing. ?

I put on a tbr wheelie bar, left the stock one on as well.

Flipped over the actual wing mount side plates to get them out of the way but still use their rigidity.

Tbr front bumper, rear mud flaps and an aluminum servo mount.

Here it is. Never to be this clean again.

One last question- how smooth should the motor gearing be when I turn it by hand or push the car? Feels quite notch and noisy to me, but might be normal?

View attachment 27584
Looks great, and I like the idea of the second wheelie bar. I can appreciate the idea of flipping those side plates, but if you look at my pic of the broken mount, not sure if it's going to help.
 

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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.....
would those be some CEN tires on yours?
 
View attachment 16033

Yes I have booth part numbers for you.the eyelets thicker the cups r diffeent then the outcast cups and the spacers eliminate the soft pillow ball that gives out then the next time you catch air the eyelet snap. Get two of the 4 thick traxxas shims out the set you will press one on each side of the eyelet it' an exact fit. I ordered 2 sets of each so I could do the rear. I'e bashed in 10° weather and jumped snow banks to concrete and havnt had to replace 1 in months. Hope this helps any other questions just send me a message and I can walk u through how to dok the mod pretty self explanatory but if you need help I'm a message away I'm the 1 that figured this mod out. I shared it with a few people but it' a good mod. So I think everyone should kno you dnt have to deal with broken eyelets. I' working on all aluminium eyelet design for rich.View attachment 16033
does this work better than the mod for using the Tekno ends?? I came on tonight to look for those part numbers and was reading this thread
 
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/
[/QUOTETHANK YOU!!Much appreciated...found some screws that were sticking up...i ran a big 6s pack 2 times and it had an issue with a cell,they warrantied it and i left with another brand new battery..ran that once went to charge it and the same thing “balance delta v”..i figured they gave me another bum battery and but i just took a look and theres a screw dent...curious now if the screw is the culprit not the battery,when they see the sent they may not warranty it...atleast i know now,so it wont be a problem from here on out
 
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?
Make sure to set your droop screws so the shock arms aren't taking weight of the wheels when jumping . You should have to compress the shock to fit it on
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?
Make sure to set your droop screws so the shock arms aren't taking weight of the wheels when jumping . You should have to compress the shock to fit it on
 
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