1/16 knuckles (axile carriers)

[multidookey]

Hey everyone i was just wondering what you guys think would be a good upgrade for my mini revo knuckles. I have read good things about the rpm knuckles and ones like hot racing or gpm and i just wanted to know what you think is better for removing slop and still being cappable of smooth movement. All opiniOns are thanked

[jhsmith87]

i have integy even though the company is not know for quality.. i love them... but rpms are about like stock, the piviot ball will come out. hr or gpm is the way to got i would recomend either the integy, only because of my success with them, and if not hr for sure

[CMD-J]

Good call, i wanted to write a bit about my recent knuckle experiences anyway..

First, i never run the stock knuckles. I started with the RPM plastic knuckles at the rear and HR alloy at the front.
I got on pair of RPM for free and then added the HR before i even had a motor. That was last year.
I thought the front will take more stress, suspension up/down + steering, while the rear only take the suspension movement. So i put the HR alloy on the fronts and the RPM plastic in the back when i got my first motor.

HR alloy: With a proper hextool a now brainer to install and setup at first.
RPM plastic: Quite a bit finicky for my taste. The retainer caps are hold by two tinytiny screws each. These screws are weak and easy to strip. Managed to damage one and destroy another during the first install. Tricky to setup, but when you get it rite, the RPMs are great, very little play with still enough movement to not bind.

Well on the third run i had the first one of the famous pillow ball pop-outs on the RPMs. I could pop it back in with some axle grease, but not fun. That was after six packs 2S Lipo onroad. And this developped a habit. On subsequent runs i had more and more pop outs. Didnt took long to find out that the big bearing hole/carrier, facing the inward side, ovaled out badly. In the end you could see a gap with light coming throught between the bearing and the knuckle.

I got a pair of the GPM alloy silver as replacents for the RPM after that. Install was soso for me. The threads for the collars were not cut that proper, so i tend to strip the delrin collars on one knuckle while screwing them in. But once setup these neednothing to no attention, they simply work in my case. After about a year in use they look totally beaten up, dented and sandblased from my dirt running. But still going strong.

In contrast the HR alloys on the front needed some adjustments every other run on the lower collars, they are metall with a delrin washer facing the pillow ball and tend to come a bit loose every now and then. But overall i was ok with them for nearly one year. And i really liked the look.

I think it was last week, that one lower front pivot ball on the HR alloys started to pop out. Try to pop a pivot ball back into an alloy knuckle in the field...
Managed to repair the worn out alloy knuckle at home somehow with a few hits with a hammer. Then the next run i noticed suspension binding on the other front knuckle. After further inspection I found both HR alloy front knuckles are too worn out on the lower pivotball holes and have too deep kinks to safely hold and operate the ball at sharp turn/jumps. So i ordered GPM replacements for them too.
And after a couple of runs I can say I love the GPM way more then the HR in the front. You can set them tighter without steering binding, which allows more precise handling.

I think i just realized that the HR knuckles have some inherent design flaw, which make them weaker then other alloy designs for setup and durability: The opening facing the pivot ball is all round on the HR, whereas most other knuckles (including the stockers) have a more square pillow shaped opening. That may give better support and minimizes stess and wear.

I run high offset wheels, so that might put more stress on the knuckles then normal stance or light offset wheels?

Long story short, from my experience after one year, if you want a reliable, lasting knuckle go GPM. Or GH or Integy which seem to have a similar design as GPM.

So much text, I'll give you some pix to cheer you up a bit.

Fresh GPMs


Worn out HRs



Used GPMs, doing their duty on dirt

[50togo]

nice write up cmd ,i run gh carriers and am quite happy with them and i put them through some abuse!

[Little Smokey]

nice write up cmd

I'll second that

[dwmoss]

My worn out HR's look the same as your picture!!

Great write up..

[wldcntryboy1]

ok, so whats the part number for the hr carriers and where to buy please?

[multidookey]

He said get gpm those are erv021 the hr are the ones he said didnt work and now im going to get the gpm thanks.!

[CMD-J]

Thanks for the nice replies!

Yeah, part no of the recommended GPM knuckles are ERV021. They are available in silver, black, blue, red. The optional alloy collars are part ERV021/AC and replacment delrin collars are ERV021DC
Comparable Integy knuckles are part no T3414 (silver, red or blue, green, maybe more colors?)
GH (Golden Horizons) is GHH0518(1-4), last number denotes the color fancy orange, red, blue or silver.

The Hot-Racing knuckle is part no VXS2101.

The knuckles are usually sold in pairs, so you need two sets for allaround.

[50togo]

You might need axle shims hpi z695 or tamiya 53586

[robl45]

my local hobby store has GH hubs for 15 bucks a pair, are they decent? Everyone seems to recommend HR, but they are more expensive.

[Vaas]

that seems like a good price, towerhobbies have 'em for $19.79 a pair.

[robl45]

14 a pair in silver. Are hr that much better?

[Jimmie Neutron]

In my observations, all of the following makes a decent knuckle... with many reported happy users.
HR, GH, and GPM

HR gets a bad rap because the threads are not always perfect for the pillow ball adjuster.
To be honest, I don't think any of them have perfect threads in this area... but because HR has aluminum pillow ball adjusters this flaw becomes more evident. If you have a way to chase the threads to make sure they are perfect, HR makes a quality knuckle.