New member to the family. WLToys 144001. So much fun for under $100. Added post with home made LED mod for night driving to last page.

[Freelander]

Yeah.

So sorry..anyone has trouble with drive train?

I read grease the diffs and so on. Any advice for going brushless? What spares should I have? Are the metal diffs worth it?

So sorry..anyone has trouble with drive train?

I read grease the diffs and so on. Any advice for going brushless? What spares should I have? Are the metal diffs worth it?

Is there an adjustable motor mount?

 

[slick2500]

So sorry..anyone has trouble with drive train?

I read grease the diffs and so on. Any advice for going brushless? What spares should I have? Are the metal diffs worth it?



Is there an adjustable motor mount?

Sorry forgot to hit save on my post from earlier.

I haven't had any drivetrain issues with mine.

The motor mount from the LC Racing will fit, but you cannot run a 550 sized motor with it most of the LC Racing guys run 28mm can motors. Not sure what guys are doing for spurs.

There are a few ways you can go about doing a brushless conversion. You can do like @Edough13 did and just cram a 3650 brushless motor onto the stock motor mount and run a 1/10 brushless esc or and this is what I would do, you can buy the LC adjustable motor mount, get a 2838 4500kv Tenshock motor and try to find a variety of sizes of 0.6 mod 1/8th bore pinions. This guy also has a brushless conversion how to https://www.quadifyrc.com/rccarrevi...L4GAPJNpRPZBBbjpXLyFuLKA8li9tujIzjdRyXGkoOm1I

For spares I would definitely have some hubs on hand, some spare screws, spare bearings and maybe some shock towers.

It already has metal diffs in it, but they are made out of some sort of Chinesium, the upgrade diffs are just made out of better Chinesium from my understanding.

 

[Edough13]

Lol @slick2500 crammed? It's the exact same size as the stock brushed motor. Definitely want to get the adjustable motor mount though to play with pinion sizes.

 

[Freelander]

What is the stock spur gear tooth size? I am guessing the 550 motor has a 3mm shaft. I have a few 3mm 48p pinions. What is the pitch on the spur gear? Guessing I can put hobby wing 3800kv in with same pinion but if I want a different one can some one point me at pinion gears and motor mounts?

 

[slick2500]

Lol @slick2500 crammed? It's the exact same size as the stock brushed motor. Definitely want to get the adjustable motor mount though to play with pinion sizes.

Sorry got that backwards was supposed to say crammed the 1/10 esc

What is the stock spur gear tooth size? I am guessing the 550 motor has a 3mm shaft. I have a few 3mm 48p pinions. What is the pitch on the spur gear? Guessing I can put hobby wing 3800kv in with same pinion but if I want a different one can some one point me at pinion gears and motor mounts?

I can't remember what the stock gearing is maybe 27/44. Yes the motor has a 1/8th" shaft. The gear pitch is 0.6 mod.

 

[Edough13]

Stock pinion is 27t believe it's like a .7 mod size it's definitely an odd size. Believe shaft is 3.175
@slick2500 lol ya that was a tight fit for sure, had to make longer body posts so the body would fit on?
Here is some info for options as well.
https://www.quadifyrc.com/rccarreviews/wl-toys-144001-brushless-2838-upgrade-easy-no-cut-option

 

[slick2500]

Stock pinion is 27t believe it's like a .7 mod size it's definitely an odd size. Believe shaft is 3.175
@slick2500 lol ya that was a tight fit for sure, had to make longer body posts so the body would fit on?
Here is some info for options as well.
https://www.quadifyrc.com/rccarreviews/wl-toys-144001-brushless-2838-upgrade-easy-no-cut-option

Oh yeah I think you are correct, its 0.7 mod not 0.6.

 

[Freelander]

Ok. So.....

Just got mine delivered and am realizing the road to brushless is long.

First thing I noticed is the two in one receiver/esc and second was the 5 wire servo.

So I have the ESC and motor I want, I have a spare transmitter and receiver but I had to order a tiny 17g servo that was PWM. I considered modding the stock servo with the circuit board of an unused arrma servo but it seems a bit finicky and difficult for my skill level.

Still waiting on a lot of poop. Most importantly a lipo alarm.

Just because we are bored I switched the connectors on the stock ESC and battery to work with our good charger.

I plan on carving down a busted talion wing to replace the flimsy ass stock wing. It might be super heavy but fiddlestick em if they can't take a joke.

Already sourcing drill bits and fasteners to attach my ESC and poop to the chassis proper. But want to see this thing run stock without fiddlesticking the battery.

They sent me a 1500 mah instead of the 2x 750 man I was expecting.

 

[slick2500]

Ok. So.....

Just got mine delivered and am realizing the road to brushless is long.

First thing I noticed is the two in one receiver/esc and second was the 5 wire servo.

So I have the ESC and motor I want, I have a spare transmitter and receiver but I had to order a tiny 17g servo that was PWM. I considered modding the stock servo with the circuit board of an unused arrma servo but it seems a bit finicky and difficult for my skill level.

Still waiting on a lot of poop. Most importantly a lipo alarm.

Just because we are bored I switched the connectors on the stock ESC and battery to work with our good charger.

I plan on carving down a busted talion wing to replace the flimsy ass stock wing. It might be super heavy but fiddlestick em if they can't take a joke.

Already sourcing drill bits and fasteners to attach my ESC and poop to the chassis proper. But want to see this thing run stock without fiddlesticking the battery.

They sent me a 1500 mah instead of the 2x 750 man I was expecting.

Use the LC Racing Truggy or DT wings.

The stock 1500mah battery isn't too bad, gets 10-15 minutes of run time.

 

[Freelander]

This thing seems like a super awesome platform and I kind of bought it as a roller but I thought I might be able to use something out of the electronics. No big deal. Just delayed gratification.

I am going to want to replace the wheels and tires real soon. I already ordered offset aluminum hexes for this thing. Can you recommend wheels and tires preferably a mounted and glued set?
So that was fun! Yup. It goes.

I set a timer because I have heard the LVC on the stock ESC is super low and the battery is like 25-30% of the value I perceive.

Don't want to fiddlestick it up before I get my poop together.

It's fun!

 

[slick2500]

This thing seems like a super awesome platform and I kind of bought it as a roller but I thought I might be able to use something out of the electronics. No big deal. Just delayed gratification.

I am going to want to replace the wheels and tires real soon. I already ordered offset aluminum hexes for this thing. Can you recommend wheels and tires preferably a mounted and glued set?
So that was fun! Yup. It goes.

I set a timer because I have heard the LVC on the stock ESC is super low and the battery is like 25-30% of the value I perceive.

Don't want to fiddlestick it up before I get my poop together.

It's fun!

These wheels and tires work awesome, you can find them for cheaper with different wheels, but most of the wheels these come pre mounted on are complete poop https://www.ebay.com/itm/Rowiz-4-x-...901396&hash=item2d1acfc87d:g:IXoAAOSwOQ9flQPX Short story long I have like 3 sets of those tires on different wheels and they all broke, I bought a set of those wheels and mounted a set of these on them and have not had any issues with those wheels what so ever. https://www.ebay.com/itm/4-PCS-Rubb...333298&hash=item366e8534ca:g:ywwAAOxyOlhSyVP- These tires might work okay too haven't tried them on the buggy yet to be honest.

 

[Freelander]

Filled my front diff with grease and it no longer has smooth action. I dunno if lining up those depressions in the pins is super important but something is definitely wrong.
Both wheels roll in the same direction fine but I can definitely feel some kind of clicking when they are turned opposite directions. I expected it to be tougher to do that than not filled but this kind of bad gear meshing feeling is sketching me out.

I don't think those pins are lined up proper.
Not looking forward to opening it up again I don't want grease everywhere.. fml

 

[Freelander]

Never mind!!

Got it sorted. Did the other diff and it had smooth action so there had to be something wrong with the front.

Knuckled down and tore it down again, made sure the pins on the planetary gears were seated properly and such. There was some mild cursing and lithium grease everywhere but we got her sorted.

I don't know if it's just confirmation bias but it really seems to perform so much better. Way more responsive to throttle input.

We took it for a little rip and it's fun af.
So far it is fulfilling exactly the role we hoped: spare car to tinker with.
So far it is fulfilling exactly the role we hoped: spare car to tinker with.
Jesus.

We got the first time.

 

[Freelander]

Glued those tires today. Went bashing while they cure.

https://imgur.com/a/VgeQ5Xw

Sorry for potato camera quality
It totally survived a few good jumps, a curb hit and a cartwheel.

This thing is fun. The ten minutes or so we can go full out on a 1500mah seems like a long time and it charges in like minutes. Plus we have things to tinker with every time.


Fun

Just waiting on a servo that fits and is PWM before we do a brushless conversion.

 

[Freelander]

Went and bashed the poop out of our little willy today.

We tried those wheels and they broke immediately.

Which sucked because of the wait for delivery, time gluing and so on.

Rim busted all around the hex.

Figured fiddlestick it. Put the stock wheels back on and went back out to bash.

Results: spring perch moved. No issue. Just move it back. It looked really bad though.

Front link came off the ball joint screw on front left.

No problem. Just re fit.

Rear link left side ball joint screw came out and rear left driveshaft bent.

Solved. Reattached ball joint screw with a healthy dose of loctite and bent drive shaft straight again.

Charged again and went out for some test and speed runs.

Works good.

This model is affording us tons of fun.


Bashing the poop out of our WL144001

https://imgur.com/a/8zjbQK5

Oh and we had a bent screw on the front right shock. Bent it back. Still going.

Ordered a set of screws for this thing. Like 20 bucks. All kinds of screws and a driver and metal wrench.

7/32" apparently the best fit for the wheel nuts.

Some pretty odd sizes for sure. Having a set of properly sized screws will be very nice.
Loads of fun.

 

[slick2500]

What wheels did you break?

Wheel nuts are M3.

 

[Freelander]

Soooo. . . Those wheels lasted like 2 minutes.

The rim broke all around the hex.

Bonus: no lost parts.

That wierd sized wheel nut, the hex and everything was still there with a chunk of rim.

Kind of upset. Spent time waiting and gluing and so on. But whatever, right? Put the stock wheels back on and went bashing.

We only paid 16 CAD for them though. I think there was some shipping also.

Um

My browser did something wierd and reposted my comment.
But yeah. Those are them. But $55 bucks??

I got mine for 16.99 plus shipping I think and they arrived in 3 or 4 days.

 

[slick2500]

Wow that is weird, those are seriously the first set of wheels I have had on my Kalahari that lasted more than a pack.

 

[Freelander]

No idea. They seemed nice.

poop happens.

 

[Freelander]

Pimp my WL144001. I call it 'el stupido'.

https://imgur.com/a/nf6a3m2

Finished that conversion. It goes fast.