Two years of RC park building and event running

Here is a collection of photo's gathered up into one album of my involvement in building the Blackfoot RC park in Calgary and then running many events over the past two years for AsiaTees, RC4WD and GCM. Check out the gallery HERE. Enjoy. :)

RC4WD Gelande 2 1:18 scale truck

Picked up the other mini that RC4WD came out with recently. Got a great deal on it. Sad that my friend took a hit on the wallet but it was his choice to sell and I was all over buying it. Naturally the first thing I did was dirty it up and add some of myself to the truck. Already in the drivers seat from the original owner was Han Solo and in the passenger seat was Rose Tico of Star Wars. I figured I would leave them in there. I might lower them into the seats a bit though. They are sitting a bit high. For now, all is well. Anyways, I printed off a Han Solo Alberta licence plate and put it on of course. Stay tuned for videos and pictures soon (its still feet deep in white up here sadly).

RC4WD 1:18 Ford Bronco BlackJack

Got the truck and worked on it through last night. Stickered up, interior modified, roll cage put in, driver and spare tire added. Here are the pics and a video I made up this morning to show it in action on the new mini crawler course I recently built. I clearly need to work on my throttle control and add some texture to those foam rocks as they are currently too slippery. That aside, this little truck rocks! Thanks RC4WD.

1:18 scale rc course

I have one of the new RC4WD Blackjack 1:18 scale rc's on the way so figured I would get on it and make a small crawler course for it. I think in fact that I might just make a whole bunch of these and then look for some indoor space somewhere to setup a mini crawler course for folks to use. Wouldn't that be cool? Anyone have a garage and 5 or 6 six tables to put these one? We can get our first indoor mini rc crawler course under way! Anyways, using materials found at work and some dollar store crafting stuff... $35 and 2 hrs work later I have this. Hope you like it. I will show some pic's later when the truck gets here.

W.E. ROCK RC 2018

Coming this summer... W.E. ROCK RC (World Extreme Rock Crawling Remote Control)

Mimicking the actual W.E. ROCK events, this series of events will do the same as much as we can within the confines of the scale RC truck world.

To understand what W.E. ROCK is, visit this link.

There will be three classes:
Unlimited
Pro-Modified
Sportsman

Unlimited:
This is your "moon buggy" type of crawler. They are 100% tube frame and extremely articulated. These do not exist on the rc market yet but some folks have built them. The Axial Wraith falls into this category however. Samples below:

Here is a custom RC someone made which fits this class.

Pro-Modified:
The Pro-Modified category will most likely be the most popular category. These are ladder framed trucks that are modified heavily. A roll cage is mandatory (inside or outside design) and they must have a full or partial (half) ladder frame chassis. These are trucks that would not be street legal due to the body modifications on them.

Sportsman:
The sportsman class is for everything else like your typical trail truck. These do not have to have a roll cage and should be as close to street legal as possible.

Tires:

Tires for this event will be 1.9 max. (4.75" max diameter). If you run 1.5 or smaller, you will get a 10 second time bonus. 

There will be no competition crawler tires allowed (pin design). Tires need to reflect what is on the market for road and trail usage. There can be no modifications to tires. No cutting or siping, etc. 

See examples below:

Tires that are allowed should resemble these:

MOA:
There will be NO motor on axle. Servo on axle is allowed. 5 second time bonus if your servo is chassis mounted. This is to compensate for the elevated center of gravity on the truck. The servo directly on the axle is an unfair weight advantage down low and it is not scale which we ideally aim for during these events.

Competition crawlers are not allowed. They resemble this:

There must be an attempt made at having an interior and driver. Drivers must be human and as scale to the truck as you can accomplish. If you cannot, then full blacked out windows must exist. If you have a driver and interior, you get a 5 second time bonus which again accounts for the COG issue. An interior and driver adds weight up high to the truck. 

Wheelbase:

Minimum wheelbase is based off of the Tamiya Jeep YJ CC-01 and that is 252 mm (9.9")

Maximum wheelbase is based off of the Ascender and that is 353 mm (13.9")

Maximum width is based off of the Wraith which is 280 mm (11.02")

These measurements help to set up which trucks can and cannot enter unless modified. 

Gates:

Gates will be set at approximately 12.5" apart so VERY tight for wraiths to run on stock Wraith axles. Touching a gate on either side is a 5 second time penalty and the gate is now "dead", please drive on to the next gate. 

Rear Steer:

Rear steer is allowed. There is a 15 second time penalty added when you do. This is a one time penalty and you can use rear steer the remainder of the run without further penalty. 

Dig:

Dig is not allowed and you will face an immediate DQ if you use it. 

Rollovers:

If you rollover and land on your side or turtle (on roof) then your run is over. You cannot throttle out as your truck is rolling to attempt to land it or spin it onto its wheels. A rollover must be allowed to play itself out until the vehicle stops. If it lands on its wheels, you can continue but you get a 10 second time penalty. 

Winches and tow ropes:

They are not allowed. Axle winches are allowed however (used to raise and lower axle height).

Electronics:

No visible batteries and minimal wiring visible to the human eye. You can run whatever setup you think will help your truck perform the best. Any breakdowns while on your run result in a DNF (did not finish) for that run. There will be at minimum two runs in the day. Ideally three if time allows. 

Helper aids:

You cannot use tow ropes, winches or sand ladders. But... just like in the real competitions... you can use available rocks to help your truck get up the hurdle. There will be painted rocks available at the events and handed to you to carry on your person while on your run. You can at any time pull them out and use them. 

Here are pictures of extreme rock crawling trucks in action: