Two Trucks, Two Kids and Tons of Fun!
Words: Greg Vogel
Photos: Walter Sidas
When I was eight years old, my Dad and I trekked off to a hobby shop about an hour away from home to buy my first RC car, which instantly captivated me with this hobby and brought me some of the best experiences in my life. Many of those memorable times were with my Dad as we traveled to and from the local race track every weekend, which he eventually ran and became president of. We also traveled all over the Northeast together and although it was a lot of fun racing RC cars, it also gave me a lot of great quality time with him that I will always remember. Now here I am, twenty-nine years later and I’m the dad with twin three-and-a-half-year-old boys and I’m eagerly waiting taking them to the track for racing and that same father and son time. My boys actually started wheeling their own micro RC trucks at just two-and-a-half, and now it’s time for them to bump up into something a little bigger. When I worked in a hobby shop, I often recommended Traxxas vehicles for beginner machines and with their cool line of Monster Jam trucks, I saw fun, durable trucks in a cool trim that my boys could enjoy on many levels. But being an editor for the best magazine in RC, I couldn’t just have stock trucks. Check out the trucks that my two little buddies, Jake and Logan, will be driving around our back yard.
GRAVE DIGGER ACCESSORIES
3767G Shock caps, Aluminum (Green Anodized)
1951R Driveshafts rear steel CV
3350X Velineon VXL-3S brushless power
3636G Steering blocks, Rustler/Stampede
3652G Stub axle carriers, Rustler/Stampede
3340 Cooling fan, Velineon VXL-3s E
3632G Caster blocks, 30-degree, Green
3643 Turnbuckles
6520 Sensor, RPM (LONG)/ 3X4MM BCS
3644 Turnbuckles
6521 Sensor, Temperature and voltage
6541 Connector, Power tap with cable
6535 Mount, Temperature sensor (electric)
6538 Magnet holders, Spur gear/ MAG
6518 Receiver, TQi 2.4 GHz with TEL
6537 Wire retainer, Gear cover
1747G Nuts, 4MM fl anged nylon locking
2843 5800mAh 7.4V 2-CELL 25C LiPo
3678A Wheelie bar, Assembled (GREEN)
3645 Turnbuckles, Toe link, 61MM
SON-UVA DIGGER ACCESSORIES
1951R Driveshafts, Rear Steel CV
3767A Shock Caps, Aluminum (Blue-Anodized)
3350X Velineon VXL-3S Brushless power
3636A Steering blocks, Rustler/Stampede
3652A Stub axel carriers, Rustler/Stampede
3340 Cooling fan, Velineon VXL-3s E
3632A Caster blocks, 30-degree
3741A Turnbuckles, Aluminum
6520 Sensor, RPM (LONG)/ 3X4MM BCS
2336A Turnbuckles, Aluminum
6521 Sensor, Temperature and voltage
6541 Connector, Power tap with cable
6535 Mount, Temperature sensor (electric)
6538 Magnet holders, Spur gear/ MAG
6518 Receiver, TQi 2.4GHz with TEL
6537 Wire retainer, Gear cover
5186A Wheels, Aluminum (Blue-Anodized)
1747R Nuts, 4MM Flanged nylon locking
THE BUILD
For about as long as I can remember, I’ve been a Traxxas Stampede fan. I’ve built a number of crazy projects off of this platform, some built for speed, some built for jumping and even an over-sized Stampede. Each and every time, I’ve had a blast while squeezing every last bit of performance and fun I can get out of the truck. So when I had to pick a machine that my boys could enjoy and endure what they would put it through, the Stampede or in this case, Stampede-based Monster Jam trucks, were the perfect choice. Traxxas offers a number of Monster Jam Trucks so picking two was tricky. When getting toys for twins, you have to get similar items, to simply keep the peace. So I grabbed the Traxxas Grave Digger and Son-Uva-Digger trucks because they have a similar look to them and Grave Digger is outfitted in green and S-U-D is outfitted in blue, Jake and Logan’s favorite colors respectively. Traxxas offers a number of hop-ups for these trucks and even anodizes the aluminum goodies in a variety of colors including their favorites. These were going to be two very cool trucks for two cool little dudes.
LET PROJECT TWIN TRUCKS BEGIN
Needless to say, my boys beat up their first micro RC trucks pretty well, so I knew the Monster Jam trucks were about to endure a ton of abuse. There’s no doubt I would be tweaking the electronics to their training modes, which Traxxas gets serious props for working into their electronics programming.
From experience, the first item I knew needed upgrading was the shock caps. The plastic cap can pull right off the plastic shock body on the stock shocks, so I installed aluminum caps from Traxxas which are available in the two colors I needed, blue and green. These caps are a direct fit on the stock shocks but will most likely require a little extra oil and reseating the shock bladder when installing them, and it’s well worth the work for better durability. Next up to swap out were the steering knuckles and caster blocks up front. Traxxas offers both of these items in aluminum too, and in a variety of colors. These are a quick swap out of the stock parts with no extra fitting work and they greatly improve the durability over the stock items, especially if I ever do let the boys try the trucks at full power. While checking out the goody offerings from Traxxas, I also noticed their turnbuckle sets. They offer steel adjustable turnbuckles and bulky anodized aluminum knuckles for the trucks. Sticking with the stock fixed links would probably be best, but they would be stock, so I decided to gamble and go for the options. In the aluminum turnbuckles, green was not available, so the steel turnbuckles were installed and blue units were installed on the S-U-D and then the camber was set to negative one front and rear and toe at zero up.
On the opposite end of the truck, the rear hubs were exchanged for Traxxas aluminum hubs in the appropriate color; these won’t break if the truck takes a hard tumble. But before the hubs were completely installed, the stock plastic sliders were swapped out with Traxxas’ telescoping steel-spline driveshafts with dual CV joints. This near-bulletproof shaft set-up is just like the units used on the Traxxas X0-1, so they have to be able to take some hard use here too. The rear of the truck also received new shock caps and turnbuckles.
The transmission remained in stock form, however, a wheelie bar is now bolted to the rear of the truck instead of the stock mini rear bumper. When the boys are ready for the next power level in these trucks, the wheelie bar will certainly see lots of use. The S-U-D truck did receive a wheelie bar with optional ball bearing-supported aluminum wheelie wheels. It’s the little extra touches that count. This finished up the hop-up portion of the builds and next up was turning my attention to the electronics and all that Traxxas has to offer
ELECTRONICS
Traxxas includes a stock high-torque waterproof steering servo with both trucks, so there was no sense in switching them out since they do their job well and can deal with splashes in the mud and puddles. Since I wanted to keep maintenance low and potential performance high, the stock ESC and motor were removed and a Velenion system installed. The Velenion ESC can be tuned to a trainer mode so these trucks don’t fly through the plastic fence on each side of my yard. The ESC is also waterproof and my boys just love to get things muddy and dirty. The motor is also waterproof and should require less maintenance than the stock motor. While the Velenion 3500 motor was being installed, I installed a Traxxas voltage/temperature sensor and rpm sensor using their kits. Hey, Dad has to have his goodies too when he’s playing with their trucks. To use the telemetry sensors, I did have to swap out the base on the TQ radio with the docking base that accepts an iTouch to monitor the readings. Will it get used much? Not by the kids, but when they’re not playing with the trucks and I am, these tech gadgets are cool to use. Finally the 7-cell battery that came with the trucks was set aside as a spare, while a Traxxas 5000mAh Power Cell LiPo went in for long run times. Yeah, you try telling twin three-and-a-half-year-olds that they have to wait for a battery to cool down and charge.
FINISHING TOUCHES
My buddies are obsessed with lights on their toy trucks around the house and during the build of these projects, Traxxas released light kits for the Monster Jam trucks. These light kits come with everything needed to light up the headlights. Light mounts, LEDs and wiring harness are all included in the kit and it just takes a few short minutes and a body reamer to install. It was easy to do and the kids love the way the lights look.
OUT TO PLAY
At home, I have a small back yard, so when the trucks were finished, I opted to have the boys visit me at work to get a feel for their trucks on top of our huge parking structure at the office. Walter came out to capture the moments as the boys first pulled the triggers on their trucks.
Pull the triggers is exactly what happened and really all that did happen, in fact, with two hands. Look Dad, no hands on the steering wheels! The trucks headed in different directions, just like my kids. Where the trucks were going was straight towards the retaining walls, but I was able to grab the radios from their hands and stop the trucks. The twin builds were in training mode, so I doubt any major damage would have occurred, but why chance it even with all the hop-ups.
It was then time for a little refresher course to show the boys how to use this particular radio and they were off. Jake and Logan were driving their trucks in figure eights and circles and squiggly lines and zigzags. It was fun to watch and even more fun to watch the incredibly huge smiles on their face and take in all their laughter. They were having a blast and then I cranked up the fun factor even more when I took out two bike jumps for them to run over. They did just about everything but run over the jump. The trucks rolled off the sides, flipped over the back, rammed into the jumps, but hardly was there a successful landing. The two machines were now taking some big beatings. It was time to go to the back yard.
In my back yard, in the grass, the two trucks were just as much fun and jumping off of the ramps was much easier on the machines as they landed on the front bumpers and roof and on the wheelie bar. Jake and Logan really started to get the hang of driving these larger trucks and spent less time chasing them to flip them over and more time driving. It was clear that they were hooked and the trucks ran for what seemed like an hour in training mode. In the end, they didn’t want to stop. Look out RC world, this article may not be the last time you see these two guys wheeling an RC car.
WRAP UP
When the Twin Project trucks were built and ready to go, they were an instant hit with the boys simply sitting there in my workshop. They had just as much fun looking at the trucks as they did running them around in the back yard. These two trucks were built for solid performance and excellent durability and so far they are holding up to what three-year-olds do, durability test anything they get their hands on. All of their driving and fun is done under my supervision since these are not toys. In the end, we as a family are having a lot of fun driving RC trucks, with Traxxas to thank for offering a great line of vehicles that have certainly captivated my two future racers.
LINKS
Traxxas traxxas.com, 888-872-9927
