My New Bright Jeep is in the mail so I'm looking for some quick little mods I should be doing out of the box. I'm new to the RC hobby, so a couple dumb questions are in order I think too.

Was looking at the suggestion to cut the springs to get better flex. I assume what I'd do is cut a couple coils out, and then stretch the spring so it has the same lift, but becomes softer.

What size is the battery pack? Is it an 8 cell flat pack? I want to buy one with a little more juice so that I can start playing with it right away.

Anything else nice and easy I can do right out of the box. I'm pretty savvy with plastics and scratch building stuff for models (used to make my own models out of 2 part epoxies) so that shouldn't be an issue.

Thanks in advance for all the help guys.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: HSOK,

The battery pack is a 8cell. Get the 9.6v Ni-MH and quick charger. You wont be sorry. As for early mods....the springs should be cut at least 3 coils. You can stretch the spring back out to avoid bouncing. Take the upper spring cup off. As well as inboard the shocks about 1" each side. Very easy stuff that helps. CUT YOUR TIRES. Best crawling mod by far. Search the forum there's alot abou *** here. With those mods you will be hitting your body. You will need to cut fenders or dovetail like i did. Or if your a believer of not cutting you body up. Search anything from Flapding....he's got some ingenious things to gain sick flex with no body chop.

I just picked up a second NiCd battery (1000mah) and will probably just run with 2-3 of those.

I'll probably spend more time actually modding than I will driving.

As far as suspension I'm probably going to do 3 link, 1 spring mod (the one that gave the guy 90*) and just soften up the front suspension, plus triangulate the shocks like you said.

Starting to get excited, I haven't played with RC stuff in over 10 years. If I get back into it I'm probably going to build some gas powered stuff. Some guys at work are into it and can help me out.

Yea you are right about the modding part. I do enjoy crawling with it, but modding it and actually seeing improvements is what i like.

Thanks, Darksyde for the props! HSOK and others- check out the "Flapding Shock Special" and "Un Limiting Strap" posts for info about REALLY long travel suspension mods. The shocks are pretty easy to fab and make a massive improvement.

I can attest to that. I've made the Flapding shocks, and my wife's bugging me to make some for her rockcrawler as well. I still haven't made the Flapding special anti-rear axle roll-under or whatever, but with just limiting straps of zip-ties, I still have some amazing flex with mostly stock components, and a body lift with no cutting of the body. Thanks for all the great ideas, Flapding!!!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ford77id,

Thanks ford77id. It was cool to see someone go after the building of these shocks, and as you found it's really no big deal! I would also again like to plug the tire cutting. Also note that even the "Flapding Shocks" are of limited impact unless the springs are trimmed to soften them up. Here is my latest "cliffhanger". Very similar to a previous post but this time the rig is hanging by the inside edge of the top tire. Also note that the rear suspension isn't maxed out yet. This is a great example of how flex is cool, but not everything. It is a combination of relatively simple mods that will provide outstanding performance. I haven't had to cut the fenders or even do a body lift. It would have slipped off this ledge for sure without the tire and spring trimming though.

Got the thing this afternoon before work, which kind of sucked because I had a pretty long shift and wanted to get home and play with it.

I cut the small nobs off the tires, but left the inside tread of the tires the same. Accidentally cut to deep and made some holes in them too, oh well, doesn't affect performance in any way.

Cut the springs a bit, and removed the top spring cups, but haven't triangulated them yet. Definately want to long arm the suspension to give it some stability, and to prevent the binding which is starting to happen. Don't need a crazy amount of flex...for now.

Gonna get some painting done soon too. I want to go completely black with red cage, and maybe some red on the suspension components.

The neighbours must think I'm a little wierd to be messing around with my RC outside at 3am.

Body work is prepped and has the first coat of paint. Using some Krylon Fusion. It worked really well when I repainted my Xbox, and I have some left over so it didn't cost anything.

Will post pics as soon as the body is back on.

Anyone have any tips for painting the undercarraige (or whatever you want to call it).