Yea, that’s part of the reason why I never really had much interest in them. Now that there’s one with portals and a whole lot of aftermarket parts, I might be able to make it perform well enough to be more fun than frustrating. We shall see.

@@drz_rc I am curious! The advantage of the smaller models is that they are easier to take with you. Hiking, vacation..

Yea, I can see the appeal that has for most folks. It’s gonna take a good bit more than that to convert me though, however, it is progressing pretty quickly already. After new wheels/tires, some brass, and a little suspension tweaking it is worlds better than it was. Still waiting on one more brass piece and new electronics though, should be here within the next week or so. They had a much longer shipping time than the rest. I’m kinda excited to see how it does with everything installed, it might actually be pretty decent so far as capability/performance goes.

No problem. The vast majority of any background music I put in any of my videos is just gonna be instrumentals.

Thanks

Thanks, much appreciated. Definitely an awesome body to play around with. I hate having to chop up bodies any more than absolutely necessary, but sometimes it just can’t be avoided. Still very pleased with this body and the aluminum fender flares, everything is holding up great!

Thanks man. Yea, I beat the ever-living snot out of the Ecto over the past week or so. It finally caught up with me though, I gotta get a new steering link sorted out, that one hit completely trashed both rod ends. All in all, I’d say it came out pretty good though, coulda/should’ve probably been much worse.

Thanks, much appreciated! It was a fun afternoon for sure.

Pretty well nailed that one! Kinda what I was expecting as well, but I had to find out for sure.

@@drz_rc another buddy of mine runs those comp pins on a negative g build so I kinda cheated 😆 anyway I enjoyed it brother 👍 😀

@letsgetitrc I think the pins do better on my caged Capra than they do on this rig, they also did very well on the Rock Hawk I built this past winter/spring. I’m sticking with the Ruptures on here though for sure! Thanks man.

Thanks man, much appreciated! Yea, they definitely surprised me as well, definitely performed far better than expected. I just got my first draft of the frame rails laid out, hopefully I can get them cut out and start getting the chassis put together this weekend.

@@drz_rc awesome bro!

Thanks, much appreciated!

Thanks

No clue how nothing broke, that was definitely the worst crash the Ecto has ever had!

Thanks. Happy to oblige!

It’s just an Element Ecto. The only thing chassis wise that isn’t factory is the homemade shock towers.

Thanks

Heck yea. Some tires will definitely surprise ya in scenarios that they were never meant for! These definitely did better than I had expected.

@drz_rc yes i agree those look like rhey would do poorly but it seemed to be as good if not better than some knock offs lol

@Crawlingrc3903 yea, they for sure exceeded expectations. Can’t wait to see them rip on the truck they are meant for though!

At the time of this video, the Ecto is running a Castle Copperhead10 with a 2280kv motor. It’s also got an Axial 3 gear trans in it currently. I took the StealthX out for another truck a while back. So I have no doubt it sounds a lot different.

Thanks. It’s definitely different. These tires probably won’t get run again until I get the pulling truck built, I just couldn’t resist trying them out on a trail truck first.

It’s definitely full of challenging lines.

Thanks. That was a rough one for sure.

Didn’t stand a chance with all the mud and moss. It was fun though!

I’m heading down to the quarry now. About an hour or so away.

@@drz_rc sounds good on my way in 10

Thanks, much appreciated! Hopefully there’ll be many more to come, and hopefully they keep getting better as well.

Thanks

Thanks, much appreciated man! Definitely put a lot of time into this rig.

@@drz_rcand it shows. Love that body and the dullies. Is that wrecker arm the one I see on Ali express? I’ve not seen an other one.

@NEO-RC nope, I put this boom together using some old metal Bomber links and winch spool. I saw that one you’re talking about pop up on Amazon a few weeks or so after I got done with this project. That would’ve made things easier, but I probably still would’ve made my own… I always gotta try to be different from the rest in some way or another. I’d hate to know how many hours I’ve got in just making the bed start to finish. It was a headache the whole time, so if I’ve ever gotta take it apart… I’m just going to build another. Unfortunately I didn’t make it very serviceable, so it was a serious pain to get everything bolted down and hooked up. There’s definitely a few things I would do differently, had I known then what I know now. Regardless, I think it turned out decent for my first time building a dually bed, especially for using aluminum and steel.

@@drz_rc every time I’ve built something (not RC) I find a better way in the process, that’s just the development cycle. Did you say the body is aluminum and steel? You did a damn good job. I’m just now starting my first ground up RC crawler build and running into challenges but it’ll get done.

@NEO-RC the bed is aluminum diamond plate and sheet steel. The cab is a lexan FJ45 from eBay. Definitely made mistakes along the way, but I’ve learned a lot. It’s definitely easier for me to build an lcg “performance” based crawler than it is to build a scale rig from scratch. The “scale” thing looks cool, but it’s not really my cup of tea at the end of the day. I’m just getting started on my next big project… pulling truck/dirt drag. It should be quite the ripper!

Thanks

Thanks. It’s was a peaceful walk through the nature preserve

Thanks, much appreciated! I’ve put a lot of time and effort into this one.

Agreed. This one has really been growing on me since I painted it and swapped out the straight axles for portals. It’s been performing better than expected, both of these rigs have! Very pleased with these two so far.

@@drz_rc I’m on the hunt for a Early Bronco I’m missed one local just the other day

Thanks

Sometimes bugs happen…

@@drz_rclol I’m just playin, nice video though

Thanks. No shame in my game… I bet I inhaled about half a dozen gnats that day.

Yea, they are everywhere out there in The Pit! Just glad it wasn’t a big one, it might’ve tried to shred my tires or something lol

Thanks

Thanks, much appreciated. I’ve quickly outgrown my course, my rigs are walking all over everything these days. A year ago, some of these spots seemed impossible with what I was running at the time. I definitely need to start building new/more difficult lines.

It’s a beast

Thank you. It’s always interesting to hear who makes it through these longer videos, they obviously aren’t for everyone. Much appreciated! It ended up being an awesome week, per usual. Axialfest hasn’t disappointed thus far.

Thanks. It was a great week!

Absolutely. Thank you, much appreciated!

Thanks. Probably the least interesting video from Axialfest, but I appreciate it!

Thanks, much appreciated! I definitely enjoy driving the 4ws rigs. it’s still a bit of a challenge to drive them while recording, but I do what I can.

Thanks, much appreciated!

Thanks. It’s not easy driving a 4ws rig and recording at the same time, but I do what I can.

@drz_rc no its not its hard enough to do it with just front steering

@Crawlingrc3903 I’ve had to get comfortable with one handed driving in order to record videos, so it’s become second nature, but having to hold the camera and work the independent rear steer tends to lead to some not so great angles and shots. I’ve thought about setting up a second camera and showing how ridiculous I look while I’m recording these type of runs, especially with a 4ws rig.

Thanks. Yea, I’ve got a cut to length metal shaft around here somewhere, I just forgot to put it in the wrecker before I left for Badlands. I definitely think that a new set of decent tires is gonna put this thing right where it needs to be. I’ll probably look into shocks at some point as well, these aren’t heavy enough to handle the weight that it needs to, especially when towing.

Thanks

It keeps surprising me how capable it is, especially for how heavy it is and how it’s setup. I never expected it to do half as well as it does. Thinking about getting new tires and shocks for it here at some point. That’d probably take it to a whole new level, could turn out to be quite the animal down the road.

@@drz_rc yeah, you were climbing stuff that I did not think those tires would hook up on. It helps when you have six tires doing the work.

@MysticRiverRC right! I’ve tried these tires on several rigs over the years, but never had any luck with them crawling. Since I never expected this wrecker to be very capable, I threw them on it just because I know they are killer trail and mud tires, which is where I figured this rig would get 99% of its use. The trip to Axialfest definitely has me looking at this truck in a different light now. It’s got some potential to be a “crawler recovery rig”, not just a trail recovery rig. We shall see what happens though, I’ve got a list of other things I need to redo and/or upgrade on this rig before I start getting too picky and end up turning it into something other than a functional wrecker.

Heck yea, thanks. That Bronco is a whole new animal now compared to what it was in this particular video. I’m really digging how it’s turning out. Apparently the staff at Axial are as well, because it was featured in one of their posts from Axialfest the other day for some of their favorite rigs during the concourse event.

Thanks. Not too shabby, especially for it being day 4 of the event. I definitely put some hard miles on that Bronco last week!

Thanks, much appreciated! I’m digging this thing, especially after giving it a complete overhaul.

Thanks, much appreciated.