Friday, August 7, 2009

Greetings programs!

This is a little blog about Radio Controlled Rock Crawling. I am an R/C hobbyist, and have just recently broken ground into R/C Rock Crawling. What is it? Just like the name says: Radio Controlled vehicles (namely trucks) crawling over rocks. Slower than a toddler, but faster than a snail. Most R/C classes are more about speed, and getting to the finish line as fast as possible (without crashing). Rock Crawling is more about control and planning (well, that's my take on it anyways), carefully choosing your path over the next boulder so you don't get stuck. In competition, you earn points for mistakes and no-no's (like using reverse), and the winner is the one with the least amount of points.

My recent venture into the crawler world led me to the purchase of a new Rock Crawler kit: the Venom Creeper.
Some assembly required, and all electronics not included. But that is the fun part for me: building the kit and installing the running gear. The build time took me a few nights to complete, but well worth the work (and allowed me to catch up on some TiVo recordings).

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Their crawler is available in 2 color trims, and I decided on green. Here it is ready to roll:
The paint job is my doing.
It is inspired from the Cactus Cooler soda cans.


For those that are interested, here is a list of the running gear I currently have installed:
  • Airtronics MX-3S transmitter and receiver
  • Novak/Traxxas EVX Electronic Speed Controller (modified for 1 battery pack)
  • Traxxas 2055 Servo for steering
  • Hi-Energy 3300mAh Ni-MH 7.2v 6-cell battery pack
  • Axial Racing 55T Crawler motor
Not the best for competition, but it gets the job done: crawling over rocks. So far, I have had 2 adventures in crawling. And I like it. Guess what that means? Yup. More Rock Crawling kits to pickup. Just don't tell the wife.

Some crawling at the in-laws up in Utah:

More crawling at the in-laws, but in Las Vegas:

Well, that's all for now. It's my weekend, and I hope to find some more rocks to crawl on.

3 comments:

  1. Cool! With the weather turning cooler you could rock crawl in Redrock.

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  2. you can crawl on my rocks anytime. On halloween you can put a big spider costume on it and scare the little kids!!! Welcome to the blog world!

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