Slick2500s Ecx Ruckus 1/18 4wd.

[slick2500]

Picked up this unused brushless upgraded bind and drive 1/18 Ruckus the other day.
A bit smaller than my WL Toys 144001 MT.

Glad I tore this open to check and see what route he took for the motor pinion, looks like he drilled the stock pinion crooked then mashed it onto the motor shaft............... Good thing I was planning on sticking a Hot Racing 48p spur and Robinson Racing pinion on it.

 

[1.21 Gigawatts]

Yikes! It is a good thing that you checked it first.

 

[slick2500]

Yikes! It is a good thing that you checked it first.

Something told me that I should check it, as the stock pinion is press fit on a motor with a 2mm shaft and the motor he put in has a 1/8th shaft. I was hoping that he would have used a Hot Racing pinion. I stuck an Lc Racing 0.5 mod on it for the time being.

 

[StephenSchandelmayer]

Oh my he was very determined to get that on

 

[slick2500]

Oh my he was very determined to get that on

Fo sho.

 

[slick2500]

Not sure if I want to keep the electronics it came with in here, as 3900kv is a little lower than I would like, idk if I trust the no name esc and I only have 1 Flysky transmitter that is already in use and it doesn't have multi model memory.

To do list.

• Fill diffs with oil.
• Find aluminum shocks.
• Hot Racing spur.
• Hot Racing driveshafts.
• Metal geared servo.
• Make adjustable turnbuckles.
• Try and find a way to change out all the Philips hardware for hex, screws are M2, M2.5 and M3.
• Figure out a cost effective way to beef up the diffs.
• Clear body.

 

[1.21 Gigawatts]

You might be able to source electronics, turnbuckles, and screws from LC Racing. They are cheap and about the same size. The truggy 2850 4500kV motor is a beast in small scale vehicles, but I'd probably give the 2845 that is currently in there a try first. Same with the ESC. It will probably be fine, but if it quits working drop a Hobbywing 10bl60 sensored into it. The sensored version is a smaller footprint and cheaper than the non-sensored one. The 35A esc is honestly enough, but the 60A isn't much more $.

 

[slick2500]

You might be able to source electronics, turnbuckles, and screws from LC Racing. They are cheap and about the same size. The truggy 2850 4500kV motor is a beast in small scale vehicles, but I'd probably give the 2845 that is currently in there a try first. Same with the ESC. It will probably be fine, but if it quits working drop a Hobbywing 10bl60 sensored into it. The sensored version is a smaller footprint and cheaper than the non-sensored one. The 35A esc is honestly enough, but the 60A isn't much more $.

I have a bunch of Lc Racing stuff, Tenshock motors, hobbywing 10BL60 sensored, Hobbywing Justock and a sensored motor that I might try.
I've not had the greatest luck with the no name escs they always randomly die, no magic smoke just stop working out of the blue.

 

[Rainger40]

Pinion installation tool

 

[slick2500]

You might be able to source electronics, turnbuckles, and screws from LC Racing. They are cheap and about the same size. The truggy 2850 4500kV motor is a beast in small scale vehicles, but I'd probably give the 2845 that is currently in there a try first. Same with the ESC. It will probably be fine, but if it quits working drop a Hobbywing 10bl60 sensored into it. The sensored version is a smaller footprint and cheaper than the non-sensored one. The 35A esc is honestly enough, but the 60A isn't much more $.

Oh and the LC Racing screws are a few M2, mostly M2.6 and the shocks use M3. The tricky screw is one of the top plate screws that goes through the motor mount and into the chassis, it is M2x28 or somewhere in there, I have only been able to find them in hex from China.

 

[slick2500]

I just couldn't trust the cheapo eBay esc so I had to make some changes.
Hobbywing 10BL60SD esc
Tenshock 2938 4850kv motor.
And started replacing the Phillips screws with hex.

As a side note I hate when rc cars use proprietary screws, seems to be a normal thing with Ecx. The screws for the bell crank are not replaceable with anything aftermarket as they are specially designed to work with the bell crank. They serve 2 functions, they secure the bell crank and they double as the bell crank posts......

 

[slick2500]

T-bone front and rear bumpers installed.

 

[slick2500]

Out with the stock plastic diffs in with the Vaterra metal diffs.

 

[slick2500]

Prototype of driveshafts.

 

[SrC]

Was it luck that you found this.
Or were you looking?
Nice project.

 

[slick2500]

Was it luck that you found this.
Or were you looking?
Nice project.

I was looking for one. The stock diffs had to go, last one I had I must have stripped out like 6 diffs.

 

[slick2500]

Prototype driveshafts didn't work, I am going to get some epoxy and try that before I start on something different.

 

[Companda311]

Been following your posts (and others) across the forums Slick, looking forward to what you end up doing with this guy. Can't believe it's been 6-7 years and people are still trying to figure out how to beef up the drive train. I picked up 2 for christmas to get me (back into) and my son into RC cars. I've been testing mine out and having a blast.

His is still unopened. Should I just return it and get a different model? For me part of the fun is rebuilding what you break, but idk if he'll have the patience for me to cobble his back together all the time. He's only 5 though, I imagine he'll be running it on 50/75% for awhile which hopefully won't trash the diffs so fast. My thought was get these 2 cheap ones, and if he likes it we can step up to a more reliable/expensive truck.

 

[slick2500]

So far my Frankenshafts are holding up to the abuse.

Installed some turnbuckles from some WL Toys 1/18 car, had to do a little trimming of the front caster blocks to get the rod end to clear and I had to slightly mod the rear hubs to get the rod ends to even fit.

Finding a clear body and tires that fit that aren't crappy like the stock tires has not been an easy task.