In the last week, the Vanquish Product’s VS4-10 crawler kit arrived, as well as part of the electronics. After a quick purchase of some grease, and a fresh (as in unbent) needle nose pliers it was time to begin the process.
As with most kits, the work is divided into subsets, labeled A thru I, and parts bag A and B are the front/rear axles.
As I bought the “Ultra” kit, it came with the portals, axles with offsets to give greater ground clearance.
Today, I built the front and rear axles, and apart from a couple of minor misreads of the documentation, they went together flawlessly.
Comments on the kit:
- Lots of bags. I think the A1 and A2 bags had 3 or 4 smaller bags of parts.
- The steel parts are shipped with some assembly lube. I cleaned it off with brake cleaner.
- The differentials are precision cut spiral gears, and once assembled are super smooth in operation.
- I of course built the front axle with the knuckles backwards. So I got really good at redoing it.
Next up is the main chassis, bag C. Alas, that will be where I stop until the motor/ESC arrive. Alas, it seems that pretty much all RC parts are in short supply, and the Hobbywing system I selected will be here in early May. Perhaps I will have it ready in time for my birthday.
However, I jumped the shark and mounted the tires on the rims, and built the shocks.
The tires were challenging. Being a crawler, they are held on with beadlocks, not with glue, and since the wheels are plastic, the bolt holes were not threaded. It took me time to realize that it was advisable to pre-thread the holes than to try to do it while balancing the beadlock rings with the beads. Tricky, and trying to start threads while mounting the tires was killer.
The shocks were a bit more straightforward. However, my clumsiness meant I dropped one of the washers that goes under the piston. And that led to a hunt for it on the floor of my garage. However, the instructions were clear, and I filled them up with 90 weight silicone based shock oil (from TL Racing). The trickiest part was threading the bottom to the shaft. Using a piece of leather and pliers to hold the shaft while threading the end worked, I think I will be investing in a pair of shock pliers.
I am still awaiting the electronics package. I have ordered a variety of cans of Tamiya PS paint for the body, and some other parts to complete the build. Perhaps this weekend, I can get started on prepping the body for painting.
