Customized Summit Project

[CustomSummit]

Hi everyone, over the course of the past few months I have been looking to get back into the hobby of electric RC, used to have an old Kyosho Optima Mid SE and Team Losi LXT as a kid, and am amazed at how far the hobby has come.

Anyways to get to it, I picked up a 1/10 Summit RTR a few weeks ago, really fun truck so far but I also enjoy painting and customizing them to make it unique. I have been looking into some aftermarket parts, specifically the aluminum upgrades as they would add some stregth too theoretically, but am unsure of which brand to go with, I have read on here about good and bad about Hot Racing and Team Integy, GPM Racing, GH Racing, and mostly good about RPM but they do not seem to have as much selection in the aluminum department.

Does anyone have experience with these summit parts first hand to know the fit, finish and quality? I was looking at the following parts to get over the next little while:

-Silver aluminum arm complete set
-Silver aluminum shock upgrade set
-Silver aluminum shock ends
-Silver aluminum rocker arms front and rear
-Silver aluminum skid plate front and rear
-Silver aluminum shock mount front and rear
-Silver aluminum servo mounts
-Silver aluminum steering assembly
-Silver aluminum wheelie bar
-Silver aluminum front and rear knuckle arms
-Steel spur gear
-Silver shock springs (any idea where to get these)

Should look real nice with all silver aluminum parts, dyed black chassis, aluminum wheels painted gunmetal, and a metallic gunmetal hot rod body (hoping I can find a 70's stingray body), planning to put some fainted black skulls on the hood that will be somewhat visible through the gunmetal paint.

Planned performance upgrades will be the Monster Mamba and some lipos, toy with the gearing a bit. Does anyone know of an easy way to swap out the ESC? I would like to keep my EVX2 to play in the mud and water and swap it with the mamba monster when I want some high speed driving without too much trouble, would velcro hold?

Thanks!

[ArmyofDarkness]

Velcro won't be all that great for holding the esc in place- the case of the MMM tends to pop open fairly easily so the top half tries to escape and leaves the bottom half behind, you are better off using the proper hold-down mount for it; only 2 screws to undo and the esc can be removed.

[87 GN]

I think the truck will become very heavy, with all the alum.
Steel spur gear Pass on a steel spur it will wear the pinion faster than plastic.
Silver shock springs (any idea where to get these) Get the spring rate you want & paint or powder coat the silver.

[CustomSummit]

thanks for the responses, so don't you want a heavy truck for crawling? I figured the added weight might help?

Basically I am looking into running 2 setups on my summit, a insane looking custom rock crawler/trail truck with stock motor/esc, and the aluminum parts which will stay like this for the majority of the time, and once in a while convert it into a racer, take the aluminum out, lower it with some of the erevo parts and arms, and install the monster system when I want to get speed out of it. I don't really want to buy 2 trucks because of space, and well I enjoy taking my stuff apart too so it would be fun for me to convert it back and forth depending on my needs, is there a better way to go about it, or is the aluminum stuff in general frowned upon?

[pavmentsurfer]

Aluminum bends... generally speaking, any part that DOESNT get stressed in a crash can be aluminum. But anything that gets hit hard in a crash and could benefit from a bit of flexibility is better in plastic. RPM makes excellent parts for the ERBE and those parts can be use on the summit for the most part.

Things like shock mounts, bulkheads, shock parts etc... they don't need to flex so aluminum is fine. However, the stock parts are more than strong enough so any upgrades you do would be strictly for looks. Which I can understand. Just be sure you know why your doing it and try not to have any misconceptions about aluminum being "better" for most items.

[ArmyofDarkness]

Weight is certainly useful on a crawler, but only in the right places; look at a real solid-axle crawler and you'll see the guys putting weights in the wheels and on the knuckles, not high-up on the chassis as this only ends up raising the centre of gravity > more roll overs.

Generally speaking, the best use of alloy parts is down the center of the truck, keeping the corners plastic with either stock or RPM parts. A custom truck is a custom truck at the end of the day so changing parts to aftermarket options is certainly the way to go, but just adding alloy where it really isn't needed will only add weight, especially if you want it to handle well along with looking cool- need to factor that into the equation when choosing what parts to change and decide if they really need changing or not..

[CustomSummit]

makes sense, so perhaps if I wanted to try out some of the aluminum stuff, it would be best to start off with the arms for more weight on the bottom for crawling performance? Or would I run into issues bending these? I definetly do not want to spend money on upgrades to go backwards in performance, I guess my knowledge is slightly outdated as a couple decades ago it seemed the high strength, lightweight parts were aluminum, how things change!

[ArmyofDarkness]

makes sense, so perhaps if I wanted to try out some of the aluminum stuff, it would be best to start off with the arms for more weight on the bottom for crawling performance?

No. Metal a-arms invariably end up getting bent pretty quickly as they are the most exposed parts on the truck- you only have to clip a curb or hidden rock to bend the arms back on one side- that's why flexible RPM a-arms are a much better choice.

Or would I run into issues bending these? I definetly do not want to spend money on upgrades to go backwards in performance, I guess my knowledge is slightly outdated as a couple decades ago it seemed the high strength, lightweight parts were aluminum, how things change!

Trucks these days go much faster and have vastly more power and weight onboard- mangled a-arms and bent bodyposts are a common issue on trucks with alloy parts in the wrong places- just needless bling. Strengthen the spine of the truck and worry about how well the suspension actually handles before chucking bits of metal here & there to make it look nice, you'll soon work out what actually needs upgrading as those are the parts that will actually give you issues with normal use, rather than in bad crashes only...

[c.greer]

So then what RPM parts besides bumpers do RPM make for the summit? I can't find anything that might be useful besides those bumpers. I would like to go RPM for some stuff, but I can't find anything

[ArmyofDarkness]

The Summit is just an erevo with hiking boots; it uses many of the same parts, including the a-arms and knuckles- the a-arms should fit fine ( but not the true-track rear arms ) but spend a little reading around to get some upgrade ideas, and look in the summit faq at the top of the page.

[c.greer]

Awesome thanks man!

[CustomSummit]

Has there been any discussion on the plugs to hook up the ESC to the motor? These look like a Tamiya style plug, I was wondering if some deans or traxxas connectors might make a more efficient plug design that the stock ones, anyone have input, or direct me to a thread where its discussed? I searched but could not find anything.

[blitz summit]

So as you can see, i have don't almost all the same stuff as you. I did the aluminum and the black chassis. I finished my trucks upgrades last x-mas so i have had almost a entire year to get my on thoughts and now i can tell you come pros and cons. as the other guys said, it will add wieght and mine added alot. Mine is done in almost all integy and some golden horizion hobbies.

-Silver aluminum arm complete set- i think these are a good upgrade, they add weight done low
-Silver aluminum shock upgrade set- if you do go with shock upgrades, make sure the shock shafts are really strong, the ones in my integy rears brock on me 4 times, my rears are now back to stock but the front work great still, no breaks
-Silver aluminum shock ends best to just go with the traxxas shock upgrades for any shock upgrades
-Silver aluminum rocker arms front and rear i went with integy and they are awesome, no bending
-Silver aluminum skid plate front and rear i have a revo and my summit with skids, they do great work and weight down low again
-Silver aluminum shock mount front and rear i got a piggy back set that came with some, totally up to you
-Silver aluminum servo mounts good to have, haven't really noticed a differece
-Silver aluminum steering assembly i find these to be very, very strong, just make sure you don't get the threats crossed, very hard
-Silver aluminum wheelie bar don't have one so up to you
-Silver aluminum front and rear knuckle arms great investment, i havent had any issues
-Steel spur gear wouldn't know
-Silver shock springs (any idea where to get these) my revo shock i just scuffed down and painted with some paint that can flex it it looks alright

so there is my 2 cents, i will say again that it really does at weight but if you can keep the upgrades down low, it will be great, i hope this help, feel free to pm me for any more questions

[CustomSummit]

thats a really nice looking machine, good job on that! Thanks for the reply, it helps out alot, I appreciate it, looks like I have alot more research ahead of me!

[Porkman]

[IMG][IMG]IMAG0422.jpg[/IMG][/IMG]Looks like my Summit has a brother from another mother!! I think i am going to get off the porch.

[c.greer]

@ blitz..... what kind of rims and tires are those? and how do you like them compared to the stock ones?

[blitz summit]

well there was 2 different sets of tires there. both sets of wheels are on the same rims witch are the axial 40 series 8 spoke rims. The tires in all my photos are the MOABS by proline also 40 series. I first got those so thats why they are on my truck in all the photos, then i got the other ones just before x-mas last year witch are the rc4wd rok lox and those are also on the axial rims. I ran the rok lox for about 6 months and then went to the moabs and as much as i like the look of the rok lox, the moabs out perform on the summit, it might very from vehicle to vehicle. I like the moabs much much more then the stock tires, but then again thats just my 2cents lol

[c.greer]

Okay thanks!! The moabs are proline right? I'll be getting new tires and rims soon, just wanted to see what you thought of them. And the moabs are on the proline 8 spoke or the axial?

[Porkman]

[IMG]IMAG0422.jpg[/IMG]
My new creation..

[ksb51rl]

[IMG]IMAG0422.jpg[/IMG]
My new creation..

Picture Posting Tutorial

Also, you have a PM. You should read it before you post any photos.

[Porkman]

Yaahhh!!! I did it!

[Restlessrustler]

i would love the al skids but they are gonna skid....if you cam make your own ti...would be better.....i do......but still run the plastics...cheaper

[CustomSummit]

I have everything apart, ready to start the dye process and get this thing going. I was wondering though, can you take the servos/esc apart and dye the plastic cases to a black in the same dye? My goal is to have everything black, or silver aluminum, I want to rewire all battery and ESC cables to remove the red and replace it with a same gauge grey if possible, and shrink wrap all the smaller wiring in black so the entire chassis will be black and silver aluminum with black/grey wiring. I think it should look nice once done, but would be a shame if those blue servos and ESC were sticking out like a sore thumb.

[jamann]

Clean the outside Prime and spray paint them


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[CustomSummit]

I will give that a try, thanks for the heads up.

[87 GN]

Could dye them, can always go darker, just not lighter..

[LaTuFu]

I have everything apart, ready to start the dye process and get this thing going. I was wondering though, can you take the servos/esc apart and dye the plastic cases to a black in the same dye? My goal is to have everything black, or silver aluminum, I want to rewire all battery and ESC cables to remove the red and replace it with a same gauge grey if possible, and shrink wrap all the smaller wiring in black so the entire chassis will be black and silver aluminum with black/grey wiring. I think it should look nice once done, but would be a shame if those blue servos and ESC were sticking out like a sore thumb.

It would be a lot easier, and less trouble long term, if you kept the wiring color coded. You never know when you're going to need to remember which wire is the "red" wire in a pinch down the road. Wrap the servo wires and motor wires in black braided nylon mesh and heat shrink to cover them up and color coordinate with your scheme.

If the dye job doesn't hold up on the servo cases, you can try black Krylon Fusion plastic paint. It would probably work well for a small job like that.

For more pics, check out UberBricky42's build thread in the ERBE forum:

http://traxxas.com/forums/showthread...-EREVO-Ver-3.0

[LaTuFu]

Hot Racing makes a black motor plate and motor mount, if you want to go that direction, too:





Source: tectic's bulldog revo thread
http://traxxas.com/forums/showthread...hlight=bulldog

[CustomSummit]

It would be a lot easier, and less trouble long term, if you kept the wiring color coded. You never know when you're going to need to remember which wire is the "red" wire in a pinch down the road. Wrap the servo wires and motor wires in black braided nylon mesh and heat shrink to cover them up and color coordinate with your scheme.

If the dye job doesn't hold up on the servo cases, you can try black Krylon Fusion plastic paint. It would probably work well for a small job like that.

For more pics, check out UberBricky42's build thread in the ERBE forum:

Thanks for the link, I might try the dye process since I am doing it anyways with the chassis first, if it does not work I will get some of the pain you mentioned and do it that route.

I hear you about the wiring, it could get confusing, but I am simply going to be changing the red to grey, so grey will become my new positive and the black will remain negative and I will not change those, so as long as I stick to this I figure I will be good, until I sell it someday that is...

[CustomSummit]

For the aluminum parts, is there any other aftermarket companies making silver aluminum parts for the summit other than GH hobby, team integy and hot racing? I understand they all have their good and bad as for quality and durability, or is one clearly better than the other? I dont mean to start any kind of flame war, but I have read so much good and bad about all of them, I am thinking they are all about the same at this point and to go on design/looks?

[noir 522]

Make your own silver parts!! Just buy any aluminum part you wish (color does not matter). Use oven cleaner to strip the color off and then use metal polish to protect and shine the now-silver aluminum part. I purchased a set of aluminum revo arms for a STEEP discount, based on the fact they were Puke-Blue in color. I just spent $3 on oven cleaner and $4 on polish, stripped the color and polished them pretty silver.

[CustomSummit]

Make your own silver parts!! Just buy any aluminum part you wish (color does not matter). Use oven cleaner to strip the color off and then use metal polish to protect and shine the now-silver aluminum part. I purchased a set of aluminum revo arms for a STEEP discount, based on the fact they were Puke-Blue in color. I just spent $3 on oven cleaner and $4 on polish, stripped the color and polished them pretty silver.

Thanks for the tip, I will give that a try, I didnt know you could do that.

[noir 522]

before you do it search around (you tube) for the steps. Oven cleaner is some powerful stuff, you have to be avoid skin contact, wash it off the metal thoroughly and then polish the part WELL with the polish to keep it from tarnishing.

[CustomSummit]

before you do it search around (you tube) for the steps. Oven cleaner is some powerful stuff, you have to be avoid skin contact, wash it off the metal thoroughly and then polish the part WELL with the polish to keep it from tarnishing.

I have access to immitation rhodium plating setup, what I am really curious to try is take the color off, polish it up and then electroplate it in immitation rhodium which does not tarnish and takes some good abuse as well make it somewhat different. I appreciate the tip, it really increases my options to create something unique rather than bolt on, so thanks again.

[satyrisci]

thanks for the responses, so don't you want a heavy truck for crawling? I figured the added weight might help?

Basically I am looking into running 2 setups on my summit, a insane looking custom rock crawler/trail truck with stock motor/esc, and the aluminum parts which will stay like this for the majority of the time, and once in a while convert it into a racer, take the aluminum out, lower it with some of the erevo parts and arms, and install the monster system when I want to get speed out of it. I don't really want to buy 2 trucks because of space, and well I enjoy taking my stuff apart too so it would be fun for me to convert it back and forth depending on my needs, is there a better way to go about it, or is the aluminum stuff in general frowned upon?

For this application, Rubber would be better than aluminum. Flexibility is better than rigidity while cartwheeling, definitely.

[AbSoLooT1]

Far as ur wiring. I put white, and red electrical tape where needed and shrink wrapped the rest. Hide the wires, yet could still see whats what.

[CustomSummit]

going to bump this as after a move and a new baby I am back at it, better to bump this than start a bunch of new topics I figure.

Over the summer I had alot of trouble with bearings wearing out, I do put it through alot of mud/water so I would assume this is the cause, and being as thats what I enjoy using the truck for I was looking into better alternatives, so with that being said has anyone had experience with the Boca Bearing kit for the summit? Pricey at $250 for the kit for the full ceramic bearings, but if it keeps me from having to replace bearings all the time I figure its worth the investment in the long run, anyone running them at all to see how they work before shelling out the cash?

[jamann]

I just went with a few key bearings inner and outer wheel bearings(I run in the wet quite a bit) and inner and outer pinion bearings those were the ones I had issues with.not anymore


Sent using lipo power

[CustomSummit]

I just went with a few key bearings inner and outer wheel bearings(I run in the wet quite a bit) and inner and outer pinion bearings those were the ones I had issues with.not anymore


Sent using lipo power

Great to hear, I will have to give them a try then., was that the green ceramics or the yellow ceramics you had? I was looking at the yellows for the extra $70 as they are marketed to be maintenance free.