Since winter is coming, anyone into indoor mini crawlers?

[Sandracer_NL]

Although temps still are exceptionally high for the time of the year I don't expect to be doing any outdoor RCing in Dec/Jan/Feb. Ever since I came across mini crawler on YT I'm considering this more and more. Just for fun, don't need super expensive one, it's just for playing around, but needs to be more than a toystore version.
If a good deal (BlackFriday?) appears I cant'promise I won't by one; and potentially this as it's supposed to be pretty good:
FTX Ouback mini 3.0 or the RGT Adventurer V2 as it's called in Asia. Or the SCX24 Jeep seems pretty good as well, but that is about 50% more expensive.

So anyone into these indoor mini crawlers to play around (on the desk ) and what are the thoughts; durability, spare part availability?

 

[JvG]

Yep, they are loads of fun and a lot of upgrades are available.

 

[Mustangman66$]

Yea I have 2 for that reason this year. I have scx24 deadbolt for my boy and scx24 c10 for me their a lot of fun

 

[SrC]

I like Axial's. I use my 1/10 scale indoors and outdoors in the cold months. The are slow enough for house use. I have considered the minis. They are inexpensive. I like the Axial 1/24's if I was going smaller. But I feel Mini Crawlers in general are restricted to indoor use. I would stick with my 1/10 Crawlers. (Deabolt2 and Honcho2) They run great in the rough , mud, water and snow. Yes they are roughly double the price of mini versions. But you pay for what you get. All the Axial stuff is well designed. Parts are generally available. And upgrade support for them beats out the competition IMHO.
Minis are a great option with a limited budget. There may be indoor venues for Crawlers at some LHS's in the winter months. Many LHS set them up for the winter season.

 

[Rainger40]

Love our sxc24’s. Great little trucks with tons of aftermarket and home brew mods. We make anything in to obstacles, imagination is the only limitation.

 

[Doom!]

I have the 1/24 deadbolt, it's a fun little crawler. Been thinking about getting another. I have also been entertaining the idea of getting a model car kit and using the body and parts to add detail. These are small and don't ever really have any hard impacts indoors, so I'm thinking customization could be fun.

 

[Fyxxterzc]

I picked up the blue c10 and have been tinkering on it. If you have any spare Axial shock bushings (for those who bought the big bore ebay shocks) you can cut a bushing in half and use it as a spring preload/perch. If not they are super cheap and rubber so they'll absorb better than a metal spacer imho. Also put some lucas red and tacky in the shocks. I drilled out the light buckets and put in some headlight led's. Also been thinking of what mods I want next. Hoping to get the mil stone spacers, but have a set of wheels and tires from an hbx devastator mini on the way and don't know how wide it's going to be with just those. If they turn out super wide I may just try to add weights some other way, maybe get the hot racing brass knuckles that are out there. Looking to put a savox servo in it and have been researching motors. There are a good bit of people who put the ecx barrage motor in, but I also found mabuchi motors on ebay. There are about 4 motors they make that could be replacements, two the stock size (030) and two the 050 barrage size (https://product.mabuchi-motor.com/detail.html?id=50). The ones I bought were the MABUCHI FK-050SH-1955 (barrage size), bought 4 motors for 10 bucks shipped off ebay. Theres a few different ways you can put those in with either drilling or plates out there that bolt them up. I'm just studying now to see what size capacitors they put on the barrage motor (needed to get to see what capacitor is on it) because the ones I ordered don't have them and I have some spare capacitors from when I put them on a holmes hobby brushed can (to match stock capacitors that were on my v2 senton motor before it went brushless). I'd like to get more wheel speed out of it, really wish someone custom wound the 050 cans to maybe get slightly faster wheel speeds and still have some decent torque for crawling but a motor that small probably wouldn't be worth the price of a custom wind. Speaking of 1/24 model kit bodies for them, I was joking with the idea of getting the tamiya lunchbox mini body and trying to make it fit but that might raise the cg way too high. I think though with the tamiya lunchbox mini body and the devestator wheels it'd look like a little kyosho mad van and I really dig how that thing looks.

 

[3d-rc.myshopify.com]

Never done the mini crawler but I do have a gen 8 axe Edition but I have yet to even use yet if I did her say want to pick up one of these mini crawler which one is the best that's out right now

 

[SARRT8]

I picked up a scx24 Deadbolt and having a ton of fun with it. Like others have said tons of free and store bought mods for these little guys and they are pretty inexpensive. I was big into crawling a few years back but the scene here died off and sold all mine. Got bit by the bug again just went micro. Will most likely pick up the Jeep next. Working on a indoor course now also crawls well outside.

 

[3d-rc.myshopify.com]

I kinda want to build a course now lol

 

[Doom!]

Coming along nicely! I wish I had a basement! According to the wife unit, the living room, is not the place for a rock crawling course. I can'r really complain, she spoils the heck out of me, and lets me buy my toys within reason.

 

[Pat_ranch]

Full potato.

 

[Fyxxterzc]

Anyone know the voltage the stock esc puts to the motor?

 

[jeepnut]

I will probably get the Jeep Scx24 at some point. Just not sure when. Looks like a great inexpensive way to see if I enjoy crawling.

 

[Pat_ranch]

I will probably get the Jeep Scx24 at some point. Just not sure when. Looks like a great inexpensive way to see if I enjoy crawling.

The jeep is pretty scale, but too top heavy. You'll end up adding weight, then needing more motor and a better servo. If you wanna stay cheap, get the truck and add a few little things to start (brass knuckles, diff covers, change your shock mounts- maybe go full droop, do the battery/esc location swap, fab some links, etc). You can make the truck a pretty sweet climber without costing too much (maybe an extra $50 or so with the brass parts mentioned above). Here's mine after the cheap/easy mods. I think I had already picked up some extra wheels and cr18 tires for it in this pic, too ($20)

It definitely performed better than stock! Careful, though, parts are cheap, but they add up fast!

 

[Sandracer_NL]

Looks like fun guys!
I think I bought myself two mini crawlers yesterday (the misses wanted one too to challenge me to see who can crawl best)

 

[Pat_ranch]

More stuff showed up today- another outrunner, another brass diff cover, and some sexy new wheels ?. Now I gotta dig through my fried servos and come up with a couple suitable pinions for this one and the holmes. After I go look for elk tomorrow...

 

[SARRT8]

Sprayed some dull coat on the body.

 

[Sandracer_NL]

Yeah, just arrived?

Unpacked? now for some obstacle course building

 

[WoodiE]

@SARRT8 what is the black material you're using to build your crawling course?