McRC Project 4WS part 1

It's Summer time in Vegas.  And for me that means really hot days.  A little too hot to be going out with my R/C's during the Sun up hours.  So I have decided to freshen up my little rock crawler.  I have a new body on it, painted up with my own desert paint scheme.  The body is actually for another Losi Micro truck, the 1/36 Micro Desert Truck.  It actually fits on pretty good.  Better than trying to get a Micro-T body to fit.

Now how can I upgrade this little truck?  There really isn't much room to do anything on this micro monster.  After doing some looking around, I figured out how to setup the truck with 4WS.  I know some people look down on 4WS, but I'm an R/C basher and I enjoy this feature.  Unfortunately I only have 1 other truck with 4WS.

Making this have 4WS is a bit of a challenge, especially with the size.  The stock truck has a 2-in-1 ESC/Receiver unit.  That means there are no extra servo ports to add other functions and features.  So the first step is finding a new receiver and ESC that are small enough to fit.  Since I don't want the extra cost of a new radio (at least not for this project), I looked to Spektrum RC for the receiver.  I already have the DX6i radio.   Looking through their inventory, I was able to find a small receiver that should do the trick: AR6115e 6-Channel DSMX Microlite Receiver: End Pin.  It is actually listed as a Park Flyer model.  A check on the specs found that it should be small enough, it uses standard server connectors, and has an input voltage range of 3.5-9.6v.  The stock truck battery is 4.8v.  Perfect.

The ESC is next up.  So I started with Losi.  I knew they have a 1/36 brushless setup: 1/35-Scale Xcelorin sensorless combo.  A quick specs check, and the BEC output is 5V.  Definitely in the range of the Spektrum micro receiver.  I went with the lower KV rated motor combo.  My understanding is that the lower the KV rating of similar sized motors, the more torque you have.  While the higher the KV rating, the more speed you get.

With the receiver, ESC, and new motor (extra bonus), it was time to look into the actual steering of the rear wheels.  First on the list is getting the parts to make the rear wheels have the ability to turn.  After looking through the exploded parts diagram for the truck, I only needed a few extra parts: hardware set, front spindle and carrier, steering links, and servo mounts.  A lot better than having to buy all the parts for a new front axle.

To actually get the wheels turning, I would need a servo.  I already upgraded the front steering servo to one with more torque for the size.  I guess I could use that stock servo for the rear, but why have a truck with one good servo and one mediocre servo.  So I picked up another Hitec RCD HS-65MG servo.  Hitec RCD has been know for some good servos with high torque and decent life span.

After looking through all that was needed, I found that a better battery would probably be a good idea.  Losi also makes micro-sized LiPo batteries: LiPo Charger & Battery: Micro-T/B/DT.  This little power pack should provide enough power for the brushless motor and 2 servos.  After all this is a slow moving crawler.

With most of the parts received, the next phase of the project can begin.  I'm still waiting for some servo mounts to arrive.  I actually got upgraded mounts.

(Yes, I know the radio is way bigger than the truck)

Looking at the picture of parts reminds me of a movie scene from xXx.  The scene were Xander Cage asks his support guy to stuff a bunch of weapons into his GTO.  This ain't a GTO and I don't have weapons, but it sure feels like I'm stuffing a lot of extras into a little package.

Let the fun being!