![]() In stock form, the handling was very twitchy. (really, most of the mods I made to this vehicle were preventative in nature.) I also swapped in a set of RPM A-arms, front and rear no idea if they're really better than the stock A-arms, but enough people complained about the stock A-arms that I decided to do it anyway. The new servo needed a new servo horn, and Hot Racing provided yet another part I needed. I replaced the servo with a Hitec HS-5085MG, which wasn't quite a perfect fit, but the bash-guard around the servo horn is made of soft plastic, so when I tightened-down the mounting screws, the bottom of the bash-guard just conformed to the shape of the little reinforcing bits that stick up off the front surface of the servo's mounting tabs. When I turned the stock servo back and forth, I could hear one of the gears rubbing against the inside of the case, and I knew that wouldn't last very long. Having nailed-down the drivetrain and shocks, I set about improving the durability of the suspension and steering. I think they have a nice combination of sleek and strong appearance. Eventually I stumbled on a version of DE Racing's Trinidad wheels which were purpose-made for the MERV, so I went with those. I spent about 5 minutes selecting the tires (Pro-Line Trenchers) and about a week selecting the wheels, because I didn't want the Desperado or Titus wheels most people use, but other options were really hard to find. Somewhere around the same time, I got sick of the stock tires. The shocks were rebuilt with Hot Racing aluminum bodies, which have screw-on lower caps so I could really cinch-down the O-rings to prevent leaks, Traxxas stanchions coated with TiN to reduce wear (the stock stanchions were already showing some polishing by the time I got around to rebuilding the shocks), blue-stripe springs and 2000wt oil in the front, and pink-stripe springs and 3000wt oil in the rear. The shocks were a problem, as everyone knows, so I rebuilt those too as soon as I decided on suitable parts. TheToyz was selling reinforcing beams that bolt to the upper shock mounts, so I decided to install a couple of those as an insurance policy. I also read horror stories about the chassis breaking where the differential cases attach, and as complex as this vehicle is, I didn't want to have to take absolutely everything apart so I could replace the chassis. ![]() It was $50 I would've rather not spent, but oh well, at least it works well. A quick trip to my local hobby shop netted a Dynamite brushed ESC originally intended for the 1/10 ECX Ruckus, and conveniently the color of the heatsink matched other parts on the vehicle. There was one snag when installing my Spektrum radio, though it absolutely refused to communicate with the Traxxas brushed ESC. The Team Orion brushed motor makes such a cool sound, I love it. ![]() The stock copper brushes in the motor were replaced with LRP silver brushes, soldered directly to the tabs on the endbell for maximum efficiency. Oh, and I installed bearings in the rocker-arms for the shocks and the center pivot of the steering assembly before the vehicle ever moved under its own power, because it was such a simple mod there was no reason to postpone it.īecause I wasn't looking for a vehicle that can do backflips all day long (for that I have a HPI Savage XS), I also replaced the transmission output gear with a center diff filled with 100,000wt oil, and I installed a 540 brushed mod motor with 12x2 windings. ![]() Most of the horror stories I read centered around the drivetrain, so straightaway I replaced almost all the drivetrain parts - out came all of the stock gears and driveshafts, and in went Hot Racing hardened-steel transmission gears, Hot Racing hardened-steel diffs, and Traxxas axle and center-driveshaft CVDs. A year and a half later, and after lots of evenings spent reading, I finally felt ready to take on the challenge of building a MERV that wouldn't suck. However, after reading horror story after horror story about the MERV, I decided to get something else - a Losi Mini Desert Truck - instead. There's something about the "monster-truggy" layout that looks perfectly optimized for hard corners at high speeds, while still having enough suspension clearance to avoid smashing to bits when it runs over a crack in the pavement. In retrospect, years before when I was just reading RC magazines but wasn't rich enough to buy anything, the full-size E-Revo looked cool to me back then too. ![]() When I first got into RC and I was researching my first vehicle purchase, the Mini E-Revo was one of the vehicles that appealed most to me. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |