Ah very good, thanks for taking the time to outline your experiences there. Much appreciated.

You're close to an interesting point that I think many overlook, actually: broadly speaking, crawling is all about traction. And there's a tension between pressing the tires into the rock for grip (ie. with more weight) and with overcoming gravity and ascending over the rocks (ie. keeping the rig lightweight). The solution to such a paradox is one of compromise, from the cheaper home fixes to the professional crawling rigs: get the car and ideally the wheels as light as possible, but then pack a significant amount of static weight on the outer corners of the front axles. This combination seems to be the most generally useful across a range of obstacles. However, there are many less optimal solutions that still offer some advantages over a stock rig. The most common one is to add heavier wheels. You will get the benefit of improving the center of gravity and you get more 'press' onto the tires, improving traction. However, higher rotational mass comes at a cost of more wear on the drive line, less immediate punch when you want it, more heat in the motor and shorter runtime. But it's effective enough to still be worthwhile, including for me on some of my comp rigs (the Scale-1 / C1 rigs in particular). Coming back to this video here, the GK is simply heavier overall, so you get that extra 'press' on the tires, improving traction. This works out, as long as the higher center of gravity doesn't cost you if the angles get too steep. For this set of obstacles, it worked out OK. On others, the GK would likely have lagged behind, particularly if there were more side-hill obstacles, for example. It's a game of compromise and budget. Many possibilities! Keeps things interesting :)

Ah! I did notice the colour difference in the shocks but hadn't looked closer. Maybe they are better? The performance feels the same between them both, but little differences may be hard to tell. Thanks for the feedback, looking forward to doing more!

@@RCTNT I wouldn't know, but they do advertise the RTR ones as a lesser item than the kit ones... Interesting that you didn't notice any differences

@@YoShImUrA53 there's probably a lot I don't notice. Always more to learn!

I agree a low powered rig is no fun! I do think getting a low center of gravity is important. More weight helps with traction, but it otherwise detracts from performance. Getting traction remains the goal and it's a simple concept but hard to implement well! I love how many options we have in the pursuit of traction these days, that is for sure!

Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks, I thought it would dominate too, honestly! I get value from these, too!

Thanks Andy, it's in interesting machine and I'm looking forward to optimising it! Cheers

Oh great! That's a fun and rewarding thing to do. Enjoy the process!

I'll be the first to stick my hand up for that, I'm sorry for the inconsistency in my videos. It's difficult to film, talk and, y'know, drive competently! I'm getting better though! Thanks for the constructive criticism and feedback 👍

Oh nice Brian, thanks and welcome. Appreciate the comment :)

Hey, that's great! I'm so glad you're happy with it. Element are making great vehicles these days :)

Thanks John

Oh I see! Didn't realise that. Thanks for the info about the upgraded bits, I'll look into that. Good to know. Also, welcome! Great to have you along! Cheers

Thanks! Yep, they sure did. They're still really good machines, so I'm nit-picking here, really! Cheers

Oh cool! Glad you're enjoying yours so much, David. Thanks for the run down on what you've done. One remaining change I'm going to make to mine to take it even further is to lengthen its wheelbase a bit with longer (bent) links. That will lower the chassis and thus lower the cog, which I found sightly lacking on comp day. I have so many new videos coming up. There are several new cars that you likely know little about that would take your spare tires there just perfectly. I'll do my best to get these videos out soon but there's almost a small hobby shop's worth of sweet new gear to show everyone here. I can't wait!

@RC-TNT I'm looking forward to your upcoming content....and potential addition for my "new shoes." Forgot to mention I put very light springs on the stock capra shocks which makes it sit nice and flat. Maybe not the best solution for a lower Cog.....but I couldn't be happier with the results.

Nice one. Tuning a crawler is deceptively heavy on detail isn't it!

Fair enough. I think there's some benefit there, but then the lower you can get the weight, the better. At or below axle height will beat chassis weight every time - but no weight anywhere makes things challenging in any case! Cheers

@@RCTNT yes, agree…the lower the weight the better, but for cheap experiments I’ve played with adding lead sticky weights here and there…works wonders depending on what your climbing or maneuvering on!

Oh, look at that! Belated thanks, Scott! The mobile YT Studio app didn't alert me of the Super Thanks; only just found that now as I scrolled through to check I hadn't missed anyone's comments. Legend, very much appreciated, thank you!!

I am happy to support quality content that I enjoy. I don’t expect any special mention or thanks so no worries. Hopefully others will show their support and encourage you to keep making videos!

@@scottjlambert I enabled it recently when YT announced it and thought, why not? But I think they need to give us a way to track it beyond hunting it down through 4 layers of analytics! But yes, point taken and again, my thanks for your support, Scott. I'm mainly glad you're enjoying my stuff. I'm working hard on improving and appreciate the gesture! Cheers

Fair points, all. The motor is the big one to change on the Ecto, above all else. But that was also partly the point of the video. You're not wrong! I may disagree with you on one point - the planted feel was there for the GK even off the throttle, like on that descent at the start of the course just out of gate 1, or going through gates 3 and 5. Just wiggling steering on the drop was more confident on the GK, even with no throttle. It bears further investigation though, yes. I'll come back to the Ecto with more soon - a motor swap near the top of the list! Cheers

Thanks. There's little difference in weight between the two motors. I don't think most would worry about the balance issue, as long as suspension was tuned to get the rig to handle predictably. The differing motor speed is the bigger deal. That 14 turn 550 is perfect for the Ecto but not for crawling. I'll look into this as we seek improve it in future videos. Cheers

Ah! There are 4 comp rigs here. The yellow C2 / Performance Scale one can be found a few times through my Truck vs Truck playlist: Truck Vs Truck: kzfaq.info/sun/PLP6qQhzesLdrc3HYilqYxYElb7uBkjEcq There are also three other comp rigs, one of which has video: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hNF9o5h3rJOwnIU.html The other two are a Pro/MOA RC4WD Bully II and a 2.2 Sportsman class (both visible in my 6 month video, What's In My Garage?). No videos on them, but I probably should get around to doing that!

Interesting! You're probably right about the extra weight there, but then I don't know if I like the sway bar on this as a crawler at all. I'll experiment and we'll see where we get!

@@RCTNThave a play around with it. I tried my gatekeeper rtr with out sway bar , shocks were way to soft in the stock positions, lots of flex but terrible torque twist when climbing.

@@areadierc2803 thanks, I will. I've been thinking of removing the bar and putting in stiffer springs and some upper links. Dunno yet, haven't sat down with it at the work bench. Looking forward to tinkering though!

Look at that long list of emoticons, lol I feel for you with the carpal tunnel, had a decade of that then another of slow recovery. The idea of a slider isn't bad, honestly. Makes sense. The kit was fun to build and it went together quickly. Do you have a small electric screwdriver? Might help. In any case, thanks for watching on, Alan. Hope your hands/arms improve a bit. Chronic pain or injuries are no fun.

Oh, interesting! No, I haven't yet, just the BOM. I'll have to add this to my list, thank you!

Go the new Ecto or a Gatekeeper. Gives you a bit of variety given your Ascender. But any 3 of them are great rigs. Sorry I'm a bit late, let me know what you got and what you think!

@@RCTNT thanks for your reply. unfortunately they were all out of element stock. Found a good deal on a Capra kit! Might end up going for that now. Can’t make up my mind, so many choices🤦‍♂️

@@tankt.v.9218 There's no hurry. I find I never regret waiting if the thing I want isn't available now. Better to get it right - you only get one chance to spend that money! That being said, the Capra is pretty neat. I've got a Capra vs Gatekeeper video here - search my channel, you'll find it. Might help if you're considering those two!

I'm expecting a significant improvement, but weight also hides other issues. My aim will be to get it as good as I can and then add some weight. It'll be a cracking good rig after that, I think!

The value is hard to deny!

@@RCTNT I meant it's a (gate)keeper, that ecto 🤣 you missed it

@@polishguywithhardtospellna8227 oh dude, a dad joke! It totally wooshed over my head, that's awesome! I love it, lol

Heavy old thing with a big nose, eh?

@@RCTNT i put a regular proline ranger on mine and it is beautiful on side crawls

@@Larry-qh2kp oh nice, I bet it is! Great rigs aren't they

There is a LOT of reinforcing cross bars that aren’t needed at all. Remove those, the plastic radiator, and fuel cell and you can easily get the cage down to under 10oz! The roofline is also lower than the Ecto body. With a little work, it works great.