Kraton The dining room table build.

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GigaHurtz

Active Member
Messages
41
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94
Location
Queensland Australia
Arrma RC's
  1. Kraton 6s
  2. Typhon 3s
So my partner and I decided to get get my youngest son a Typhon 3S for his 5th birthday. I took him to a nicely mown area for his first go, on 50% of course with 3S 50c. I was like wow, wonder what it's going to be like on 100%. I soon enough asked for a turn and up went the wick. Yee ha, needless to say how impressed I was with the new generation of brushless rtr rc buggies. I looked at my son and said Dad has to have one too so I can race with ya. And so, as the story goes I purchased myself a Kraton V4. Then the research began.....
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I then I joined this forum, became a premium member and read threads about issues and modifications.I then started watching guys like Aussie RC Playground do unboxings and reviews and Rich Duperbash and RC81Dude on YouTube absolutely thrash the proverbial out of the Kraton and learned the term "Beef Cake" ?. So over the next couple of months I sold some of my skateboard deck collection to fund my Kraton "dining room table build".
Today was my first shakedown pass after the build, everything went well, was an absolute beast and seriously got the adrenaline going. Thought I'd share my build experience with you....
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First purchases were batteries, charger and connectors to suit the Kraton and the charger.
I went with two Team Corraly 3S 50C 5400 MAH hardcase lipos. I now have three of these as that's what my son's Typhon 3S runs on too.
To charge these I have a I'M RC Power IMO11 7A/80W Ac Dc with matching lipo charge bag for the Typhon and a Ultra Power UP6+ dual Ac Dc charger for the Kraton. I wanted to keep the IC5 connectors on the ESC so I soldered IC5 battery connectors on the Team Corrally 3S batteries. I also got some male XT60 connectors and some IC5 device connectors and some Core RC 12 AWG silicone wire to make two charge leads up for the UP6+. To round it out i got two Sky RC balance boards to make charging easier.
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When I found out the Australian distibutor for M2C Racing was just around the corner I was pretty stoked so In my first order I got the chassis, front and rear shock towers, rear shock tower brace, front and rear chassis braces, shock stand offs and delrin pivot balls to suit and droop screws. My second order was the M2C Racing Ackerman steering arm which was delivered to my door by Ed Morris of https://easternrc.com.au/ personally. Your service exceeds your reputation Ed, thank you very much.
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Very early in my "how to build a tough Kraton" research I found out that the stock radio(do i dare even mention it's name) the infamous Spektrum STX2 was not a real good pair up with the beastly Kraton 6S. Mine will end up in my Tamiya CR01 rock crawler and it's radio gear will be swapped into my son's Typhon and I'll have a spare.
I ended up settling on a Spektrum DX5 Rugged and matching SR515. When I opened the box to inspect I was stoked to have the latest model with the updated control panel. ?
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Mate - need pics of the finished rig. Looms like shes going to be a stonker :)
Hang in there, I'll get one up at the end. ?
 
Another item up for debate on its replacement was the steering servo and it's mount, I think I rectified this weakness nicely with a Savox SB 2290SG Monster Torque Black Edition servo and a Markhor carbon fibre servo mount. I teamed this up with Thunder Innovations 7075 servo arm and servo washers. A Power HD glitch buster is there just in case I need it as well.
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Righto, motor cooling time. This time a Yeah Racing heat sink in red and a pair of Rocket 30mm fans in black and silver was paid for and delivered. I could have got red fans to suit the sink but was thinking ahead as I may do the ol de-anodising trick sometime in the near future and figured this was a part that would be difficult to rid of it's red anodising. Colour coordination is important to me. ? I thought the fans would look trick with a Vigor aluminium fan heat sink protect mounted up so I got a pair.
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Thought I'd better buy some descent tools so went straight for the good stuff and got a set of MIP hex and nut drivers 1.5 2.0 2.5 hex and 5.5 and 7mm nut drivers to suit the fasteners on the Kraton.
MIP don't make a 5mm so I entrusted Team Associated and got a 5mmm Factory Team hex driver. A pair of shock pliers will be handy so a pair of VP Racing pliers got the nod.
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PayPal here we go again ?, time for some aftermarket bearings. A Plaig Bearings V2C Pro Racer kit was next to get delivered by Australia Post. The V2C kit is a mixed kit of steel and ceramic sealed bearings. Nicely packaged in different bags for steering arm bearings and wheel, differential and diff case bearings. Came with stickers too. ?
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Checking the diffs before a shakedown seemed to be the go so got the gear to do servicing on all three diffs. XTR Silicone oils in 1000 (for shock servicing), 30000(rear), 60000(front) and 500000(rear) CST along with XTR blue o-ring grease were bought for this job. TekJoe diff and diff case to chassis gasketsa packet of ARRMA diff o-rings and an ARRMA metal diff case (for the out in the open centre diff) also made it on the list. Mugen Seiki EO206 shims and Kyosho 96772 shims get the go ahead in this area from bashers in the know. A spare 6S HD diff case is also there if needed in the future.
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Had to get myself a work stand (Red anodized of course and a work mat next. The mat is actually sold as a mouse pad.
It's called the Hyper Beast, suits the Kraton nicely I reckon. ?
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A set of Kevlar Aramid battery straps from https://www.ampedrc.com.au/ will help keep the two 3S hardcase lipos strapped in for the ride.
Colour coded of course ?
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Last of the parts before I post up about the actual build is a Dusty Motors cover. This one was hard to find, stock here in Australia including the Kraton itself is limited due to the Covid FU 19. Found one on Gumtree classifieds to my amazement.?
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Righto, time for these pieces to be fitted up. I like a nice clean uncluttered work area, i like good lighting too, the light i use is an led desk light with adjustable light colour and intensity with a flexible post, has a usb port on it too for charging your phone ect which comes in handy. Up on the work stand she goes and wheels off.
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Learned from a couple of crew on Youtube that tracing around your new chassis and marking all fastener positions takes the guess work out later on in the build. I used a piece of styrofoam and pushed the screws right in, no chance of them falling out while i wrenched. The two screws not marked at the bottom of pic are from the front bumper.
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Rear assembly first up. It's going to cop some RPM arms and stone guards to suit, RPM skid plate, RPM wing mount, M2C shock tower, M2C tower brace, M2C stand offs with matching delrin pillow balls and M2C droop screws. The stock bearings in the rear hubs will be replaced with sealed units from Plaig Bearings.
https://plaig.com.au/product/arrmakraton-6s-truggy-bearing-kits-all-options/?v=6cc98ba2045f
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RPM arms and stone guards on. I had to file a small amountof of material off the inner arm pin mount so that it wouldnt bind on the diff case.
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Drilled out middle shock mount on the M2C shock mounts with the supplied drill bit to fit the M2C Racing shock standoffs.
Next up is fitting the tower to the diff case.
Popped the M2C delrin pillow balls in the shock caps and fitted them up to the towers.
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I assumed the RPM wing mounts would bolt right on but because they have extra meat where they attatch to the back of the shock tower along with the extra meat on tbe M2C towers the mounts needed a little trimming to fit nicely. I just sliced a little bit off each corner inside and outside so they didnt fowl on the shock tower with a hobby knife.
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After a slight modification to the RPM wing mounts i screwed them to the new M2C shock tower and put the bolt in that goes through the tower to tower brace mount. Some more tasty M2C Racing goodness in the form of two shiny tower braces were unleashed from they're plastic prison and offered up to they're new home.
Another little obstacle to get around appears after i thread the bolt through the mounting holes and try to lay the braces back against the shock tower.
The RPM wing mounts are in the way ! Time to get the Dremel out. Using a small cutting disk i cut out a small section of mount and tried again. My guesstimate was spot on and the braces laid back against the tower like they would have if using the stock wing mounts. I then used the supplied drill bit to drill holes in the tower to mount them up.
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Modified here, here, here and here. ??✌
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Mate Fwiw i'm enjoying this v much. It's mildly pornographic though :)
Grimbles stand by for more xxx rated hobby porn.
Way cool man! Can’t wait to see the finished product!
Thanks mate, stay tuned. ?
 
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Figured now would be a good time to whack the new sealed bearings in the rear hubs. Part of the complete Plaig Bearings V2C Pro Racer kit. I was dreading this part as ive read so many horror stories of people rounding out the hex of the screws that hold the retaining pin in place. I used a 17mm ring spanner and my 2.5mm MIP hex driver with plenty of inwards pressure and got them loose with no heat and no dramas. There is a tiny bit of play between the wheel hex and the bearing and in the near future will be shimmed.??
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