joshjosh
Fast, Faster, Boom…
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Hello fellow RCholics! I started this journey after the Black Friday sale, in which I had every intention of getting a Kraton EXB. After picking up the FT I really loved the way it drove, though it was constantly rolling over in my back yard when turning. The winter months came, and I decided to tear it apart to have a look! A few things I noticed that I wanted to immediately fix were the EXB diffs with LSD and the corresponding gears, the hubs, and the shock towers. During the tear down I stripped quite a few screws, which meant I ended up replacing more parts than intended lol, but the end result works really well! I’ve also picked up the Milwaukee screwdriver bit set, and I stopped stripping screws.
Parts;
M2C - rear brace (the front brace didn’t fit), front and rear captured hinge pin set (FR hinge pin holder required grinding to fit with the beefed up ScorchedRC diff carriers), and 4mm top plate.
BasherQueen - Center brace
ScorchedRC - Diff carriers, input cups, titanium shock towers, M4 shock stand offs, Ackerman plate with bearing kit, front-rear-center titanium drive shafts, titanium pillow balls, titanium shock pins
GPM - 7075 servo arm
PPS - motor mount
Arrma - EXB LSD - all 3, EXB front upper hinge pin, sway bar balls, Kraton wheel axles, and EXB input gear and diff gears.
Lunsford - titanium turnbuckles.
ST Racing - steering post upper mount brace
Hot Racing - locking servo saver tube, and steering bell crank.
1up racing - titanium screws scattered throughout, and servo mount screws.
J&T - wheel nuts.
Treal Hobby - triple bearing front and rear Kraton hubs.
GA - 6s Advanced battery - 6800mah.
Random GR2 titanium screws and washers for the body cover. Added washers to reduce the shearing of the plastic panels. With the screws swapped and washers added it shaved ~1 oz off the top.
Replaced the rear outer hub pins with GR5 titanium 45mm bolts.
The M2C shock caps for emulsion style shocks were purchased, but after thoroughly researching the emulsion technology I found it’s really only good for jumping. It doesn’t like constant movement from off-road bumps, it creates heat and isn’t as reactive. I have not installed those yet, as I haven’t gotten a ramp yet to justify.
The Treal hubs are excellent, though they do add a good amount to the unsprung weight. They only weigh a few grams less than the HR Kraton hubs without bearings, but the triple stainless bearing add up. Im really happy with the 7075 construction of them though. I’m looking to replace those triple bearings with ceramic to reduce that weight some. After swapping those out I notice I can hit the turns faster without it rolling over now that it’s wider. I had some issues with the driveshaft popping out initially. I adjusted the shims to all of them in the rear, and corrected the camber to -3, which fixed the issue.
I removed the rear hand brake, and still found the rear to be much heavier than the front. I added about 4oz total to the front in weights to balance.
I had initially purchased mostly Vitavon parts, but every part I tried had fitment issues except their EXB diffs. At that point I had lost faith in their gear, and didn’t use any of it. They did return shipping for some of it, but not all. In the end, the return shipping price of the Vitavon items off of eBay wasn’t significantly less than my initial purchase price. Whatever they didn’t pay for return shipping is just sitting in a tote as wasted money.
The car drives great! I still have a Castle motor and ESC I had intended to build a Kraton with, but at this point I have an extended length Kraton that is pretty built. It’s plenty fast for now, especially after putting in the high voltage GA battery. General other items I used are a toe and camber gauge, and a SkyRC corner weight scale. I have it setup for 50/50 FR and RL. Last piece is to find an aluminum front brace that fits, and get a ramp for some jumps! Thanks for reading!
Parts;
M2C - rear brace (the front brace didn’t fit), front and rear captured hinge pin set (FR hinge pin holder required grinding to fit with the beefed up ScorchedRC diff carriers), and 4mm top plate.
BasherQueen - Center brace
ScorchedRC - Diff carriers, input cups, titanium shock towers, M4 shock stand offs, Ackerman plate with bearing kit, front-rear-center titanium drive shafts, titanium pillow balls, titanium shock pins
GPM - 7075 servo arm
PPS - motor mount
Arrma - EXB LSD - all 3, EXB front upper hinge pin, sway bar balls, Kraton wheel axles, and EXB input gear and diff gears.
Lunsford - titanium turnbuckles.
ST Racing - steering post upper mount brace
Hot Racing - locking servo saver tube, and steering bell crank.
1up racing - titanium screws scattered throughout, and servo mount screws.
J&T - wheel nuts.
Treal Hobby - triple bearing front and rear Kraton hubs.
GA - 6s Advanced battery - 6800mah.
Random GR2 titanium screws and washers for the body cover. Added washers to reduce the shearing of the plastic panels. With the screws swapped and washers added it shaved ~1 oz off the top.
Replaced the rear outer hub pins with GR5 titanium 45mm bolts.
The M2C shock caps for emulsion style shocks were purchased, but after thoroughly researching the emulsion technology I found it’s really only good for jumping. It doesn’t like constant movement from off-road bumps, it creates heat and isn’t as reactive. I have not installed those yet, as I haven’t gotten a ramp yet to justify.
The Treal hubs are excellent, though they do add a good amount to the unsprung weight. They only weigh a few grams less than the HR Kraton hubs without bearings, but the triple stainless bearing add up. Im really happy with the 7075 construction of them though. I’m looking to replace those triple bearings with ceramic to reduce that weight some. After swapping those out I notice I can hit the turns faster without it rolling over now that it’s wider. I had some issues with the driveshaft popping out initially. I adjusted the shims to all of them in the rear, and corrected the camber to -3, which fixed the issue.
I removed the rear hand brake, and still found the rear to be much heavier than the front. I added about 4oz total to the front in weights to balance.
I had initially purchased mostly Vitavon parts, but every part I tried had fitment issues except their EXB diffs. At that point I had lost faith in their gear, and didn’t use any of it. They did return shipping for some of it, but not all. In the end, the return shipping price of the Vitavon items off of eBay wasn’t significantly less than my initial purchase price. Whatever they didn’t pay for return shipping is just sitting in a tote as wasted money.
The car drives great! I still have a Castle motor and ESC I had intended to build a Kraton with, but at this point I have an extended length Kraton that is pretty built. It’s plenty fast for now, especially after putting in the high voltage GA battery. General other items I used are a toe and camber gauge, and a SkyRC corner weight scale. I have it setup for 50/50 FR and RL. Last piece is to find an aluminum front brace that fits, and get a ramp for some jumps! Thanks for reading!
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). Nice rig!
Just curious, what kinda vitavon parts do you have just sitting in that tote? Anything you'd be interested in selling?
