davidfite1978

Never had a ground pounder before. My son is getting one for his birthday from his grandparents. We want to make it a Grave Digger build. Can anyone suggest what body to get (clear one and get decals, or maybe there's a walmart truck that we can use the body off of?)? Also I want to put clodbuster tires on it - what all do I need for that? (adapters? etc...?)

Don't want to get too deep into upgrades. Just want to be able to give him the truck, body, wheels/tires so he can make it look like Digger on day 1. Then we'll figure out mods from there.

Overdriven

iTrader: (18)

davidfite1978

Thanks. I found the adapters on crawford. I think I got all the parts and pieces lined out. He really wanted the smt10 digger but they are hard to find for a decent price so probably going to settle on the ground pounder. There's not many options out there for a good solid axle mt that's RTR. I have an old wheely king, thought about trying to find an unopened one of those but decided to get him something new that's still in production. It'll be good enough for a while until he decides what direction he wants to go.

CRASH

iTrader: (26)

You might want to look at the new Cen Racing Solid Axle Monster Trucks...

smirkracing

iTrader: (19)

You might look at buying a Trx-4 sport and bolting on the link kit (I am sure any aftermarket links would work) and some MT tires (maybe 2.2 vs the really huge clod tires).

Then you have great parts and aftermarket support. Given the issues with the SMT10 I think the Trx-4 will become the new platform of choice for solid axle MT builders (particularly since it comes in sport and kit forms).

It just needs a small addition to the chassis (RCBros made this piece for the axial scx10) to mount the lower links and it is pretty close to ready. Depending on your tools at home you could potentially fab up the piece you need or just find an smt10 chassis and use everything else from the trx-4.

Cody01

iTrader: (40)

Ya, but why use portals for an MT and also the scale platforms have narrow axles.

kevinatfms

iTrader: (10)

Ground Pounder will be fine. The axle housings are the weak link but on the stock motor and esc you wont have a problem. I ran one for almost 4 years of constant abuse without fault on the stock motor/esc. Its when you go nuts with the brushless combos is when things start to break quite easily. The stock Ground Pounder is quite a bit quicker than the SMT10 in stock form. I think it would be fine for a younger person.

Grab the CP-E wheel adapters or buy the Jconcepts Tribute wheels(they come with different center inserts for offsets so no need for adapters). Find a 2.6" clodbuster style tire you like(my personal preference is the Jconcepts Firestorm or JCT tires).

From there i would look at the Jconcepts "Grandma" body and find a R/C painter who can paint the body up like Grave Digger(ask Darkside Designs?). Painted body is going to cost the most, expect $130 or so for the pro paint job.

From there mount it all up and have fun. I would suggest getting stronger servos for the truck though. The stock servos are a bit weak and cannot turn 2.6" clodbuster tires very well. Upgrade them both to something with more torque.

johnnydmd

Check Ebay for 1/10 digger bodies, there's still some around. Not sure why, but Monster Jam bodies are really hard to come by, my best guess is licensing costs. You could always get one of these and make a form and start vacuum forming your own if you want a clear one to paint yourself...

toneman00

word has it that- the smt-10 might be re-released