Mini Pave's new 1/16 digger family addition

[pavmentsurfer]

My daughter did this the other day:



That was enough confirmation for me that at a year and 8 months old, she should have her own RC... she touched my rally, so shes ready for her own. Only a guy could think that way and my wife DOES think im crazy.

But which RC was right for her. Its winter so I want her to be able to play with it in the house for a while. So it had to be small. At first I was thinking 1/16 slash or rally... but they physically take up a bit more space than the revo/summit and look much bigger at a glance. So I hit the web and found a Mini Revo for $180 and the Mini digger for $140. I understand the digger is only 2X4, but it comes with the backpack and i like the bigger tires. Theyll do less damage when they run into the walls.

So I bought the digger. Cost me $155 taxes and shipping included. That was yesterday.

The idea is that ill take the radio and motor out and let her play with it like a toy car for a while until she gets used to it. Then ill do every mod I can think of to make it slow (flip trans, training mode, gear down) and let her run the steering or something while I control the throttle. (im considering trying a dual RX setup for this. Not sure yet). Then when she starts to "get it"... and when she can actually hold the controller, ill let her loose. Hopefully by next summer she'll be driving on her own.

To help with all this Im going to install a spare TQi I have here. Its lighter and smaller than the AM radio and the lack of antenna is a bonus. I think the digger body will scare her so I bought one of the hummer bodies from the toyz that im going to paint up in her favourite colors. I also bought summit bumpers... theyll look better with the body than the green digger bumpers will. Im also on the hunt for an XL5 with LVD to upgrade from the XL2.5. I have one remaining 2S SPC lipo I could use in this thing and ive done XL5 conversions on the 1/16 vehicles before. It fits excellent. The final piece of the puzzle will be picking up an Electrifly S-600 motor for it. Then ill sell off the digger body, bumpers, ESC and motor. Whew... busy 2 days.

Finally, I couldnt help myself. I bought all the parts to convert to 4X4. Cost me exactly $40 shipping included for the parts. Not bad overall. It basically means the 4X4 digger cost the same as the 4X4 brushed revo would have.

Anyway, ill post up pics when it arrives. I think Cali will be pretty stoked about it.

[revoman78]

you should make some foam bumpers for it as to be nice to your walls

[pavmentsurfer]

Thats a really good idea. Maybe even just use a rally foam bumper and mount sticking out the front. Hmmmm.... this is a good plan.

[revoman78]

ya i bet that would work

[Jimmie Neutron]

You are giving me ideas... you are EVIL!!

I have been kicking around the idea of a 4x4 Pede... brushed and slowed way down; the dual controller idea might make the project possible!

[robl45]

IMHO she is too young. My son is 3 years 8 months and he can drive his brushless mini summit around but he hits quite a lot of things and thinks its hysterical. Not to mention that even for him, the transmitter is too small for his fingers. He has to use his other hand to put it in reverse.

[westoakmech]

That is awsome. My daughter is 2 1/2. I have 1/24 scale 4x4 that I geared down for her. She does pretty good most of the time. It has an am radio and we keep the antenna down. When she gets distracted and walks off from it, it just goes in circles until she gets back in range. Get them involved early, and by the time she is five it will be second nature to her run it. Congrats and enjoy.

[pavmentsurfer]

Im not saying she's old enough, im saying I WILL find a way to get her an RC... hehe. She can ride her electric ATV and the last time I was out driving my rally I let her steer. She seemed to get the idea behind turning the wheel and the car turning. Even if I drive it and let her hold another controller... she'll have fun and I get to say she has a digger.

[robl45]

Im not saying she's old enough, im saying I WILL find a way to get her an RC... hehe. She can ride her electric ATV and the last time I was out driving my rally I let her steer. She seemed to get the idea behind turning the wheel and the car turning. Even if I drive it and let her hold another controller... she'll have fun and I get to say she has a digger.

Well I did it differently, i waited till my son was just barely old enough so I could get him a brushless mini summit and pass it through wife. Now me and him have a truck to play with. I could have easily gotten him a brushed version and saved some money but I wanted to play with it too. Not that he lets me play with it much He just points to my brushless LST2 and says I have my own truck.

[pavmentsurfer]

Nice to hear youve got your young lad into it. I dont have the problem of needing any more trucks to play with. The fleet is more than big enough but non of them are really appropriate for a beginner. Which is why I figured a 1/16 would be perfect. If she was going to be fixing it herself, id go with a stampede. But because she's only driving, the more complex drivetrain and tighter spaces inside the 1/16 chassis arent an issue. Besides, for $160 shipped... how can you go wrong. AND she gets a cool grave digger back pack. She'll probably be scared of the picture on it, but at least ill have a place to keep her truck... out of dads easy reach.

[pavmentsurfer]

Finally, all 3 diggers I bought have shipped. Should have them early next week. I'm thinking i MAY keep one for myself. But my credit card will probably convince me otherwise.

[revoman78]

can not wiat to see three diggers

[Daddykins]

You should keep one for yourself, just so you'll be able to have the same scale as ur lil one
I wouldn't be surprise when she wants something bigger in scale like daddy has

The GD backpack is nice. But it's kinda tight getting the mini in there.

[pavmentsurfer]

After watching some reviews on this vehicle im not sure im going to keep the backpack. It will be too big for my daughter to wear, I think the pictures on it will scare here and if the vehicle doesnt fit well in it, theres really no point in keeping it. My wife is pregnant right now and im hoping for a boy... maybe traxxas will come out with a more girly 2X4, like a Dora Monster truck or something... cali will want that backpack for sure. Hehe.

[mike-susieq1]

Lol that's funny Dora backpack. That is a good idea for traxxas to do as they can read here people are getting their daughters into rc now not only boys. That is a nice pics you posted Pave. I think my kids would do that if I had kids.

[pavmentsurfer]

You bet they would mike... cause youd make sure there was always an RC around for them to play with right? Hehe. Thats what the digger is for. Get her used to RC's as early as possible.
I really think even just some pink color schemes would be a good idea... maybe a special edition "RC for the cure" slash or something. It just seems like no one is catering to females and we should be encouraging that.

[pavmentsurfer]

3 Mini Diggers just arrived at my location. Should be able to get them unboxed and some pics taken at lunch.

[robl45]

just get a truck body for it and paint it pink and put medusa stickers on it and you have a girls truck. or make a monster mutt but i don't think you would find a body for that in the right scale.

[bajaboy501]

Lucky, good that youre getting your daughter into it. Family affairs.

[pavmentsurfer]

Heres pics of the trucks. Im not going to give it to her until I get the new body on it. I dont want to wreck the digger body. Rather sell it while its still worth good money.


With all the stuff removed and the 2.4 RX installed


All 3...

[revoman78]

looks good

[Wolfslash16]

Nice. Why is there 2 backpacks though?

[revoman78]

well he bought three cars so the other two are still in the back packs

[robl45]

what did you need 3 for?

[Stephan81]

At $150 a pop taxes in + free shipping. How could you pass up a deal like that

[pavmentsurfer]

well he bought three cars so the other two are still in the back packs

We're in backpacks, they're all apart now.

And yes, they were too good a deal to pass up. I wish I'd bought 2 more TBH.

[pavmentsurfer]

Got some parts in the mail today. The commando body is awesome. Still needs paint but I couldnt help getting some shots of it the way it is.

I dont have the 1/16 canyon tires yet and the only 12mm hex wheels I had were my worn out rally tires/wheels. I think they look sweet. I have a set of HPI trepadors that I could mount on these rims and they would probably look even better. But, I have the canyons coming and think ill just use those. Also installed the summit front and rear bumpers. Need some lights for it, but I think it looks great with the body.





Apparently the trucks a winner with the wing nut. She even wants to try and fix it...




Tonight ill try and get all the 4X4 parts and the S-600 motor installed. Still waiting on the XL5 ESC to come in. Then it will be RTR.

[revoman78]

the rally tires look cool^^^^ testing the suspension are we^^^

[Redsawacs]

Here is monkey doin' his thing....he makes a daddy proud!






I got the green RPM knuckles on tonight...I just need to powder coat the springs, get some wheels and tires (think I'll ditch the canyons red rims for now) and find the dang body mount adapters!

in case you're wondering, no i did not pose him in the pictures...this is what he does - LOL!

[pavmentsurfer]

Haha... thats awesome red. Cali was playing with her summit tonight and was trying to "work" on it somehow. She kept flipping it over and pulling on parts and turning stuff. It was great. She makes engine noises complete with shifting sounds when she drives it. I think she'll be ready for the radio pretty soon. Probably with dad running the throttle and her turning the wheel but theres just something about kids with RC's that makes me smile. Thanks for the pics.

Speaking of pics, finished up the paint tonight. Its a copper red with ALOT of lame flake and flat black bumpers. Simple, girly... need to dye the pushrods and toe links. The green looks out of place. Ill probably do the rockers and the chassis at the same time but im not really in a big rush at the moment. I think this Exotek body is great. I love how it looks.





On a similar note, I really am wondering why no company makes a child size RC transmitter. Think about all the little hands out there holding big RC TXs. A TON of RCs, especially traxxas RTR's, are bought for little kids. I would think a small sized TX would be a great seller as an aftermarket upgrade. I know id buy one for sure. Maybe even something with a "trainer" feature like an Rc aircraft. That would be perfect

[dwmoss]

Looks great!

Like the mini controller thought, although we should probably be glad we don't have to use the old 3 foot bbq skewer antennas anymore.

[pavmentsurfer]

Got the tranny gears flipped and the S-600 soldered and mounted last night. I just couldnt help myself so I threw one of the stock XL2.5's in it and took it for a spin. Put it in training mode and Its still way too fast. But I think I can use the radio to limit the throttle a bit. Runs great though. Handles awesome for a little truck like this.

One thing I noticed:
I have 15 and 16t pinions I wanted to try. BUT... with the stock spur the motor cant physically be moved far enough over to mesh the gears before it hits the RX box cover. I got a 17t to mesh but JUST barely (enough that its useable but im not totally comfortable with it). An 18 would be fine but then it would be faster. I dont know exactly what the stock spur is. Forgot to check, but the parts explosion says its a 55. If its not, im going to order it and hopefully ill be able to at least run the 17t with good mesh. Plus, the larger spur will lower the ratio even more. But, if it is a 55... im kinda stuck. Just thought that was interesting.

[Jimmie Neutron]

I did the same to my MERV... 55 spur, 16 pinion (I think), flipped transmission. Still wasn't slow enough for inside use so I tried limiting throttle with the controller and I could never get it to work without glitchyness. So she pushes it around and I bought her a $10 NewBright Mustang.

[CHKMATE ELUDER]

Looking good pave, great to see her having fun with it, I have been having a blast with my kids with these new R/C's we got, good times!

[pavmentsurfer]

Checked this afternoon, spur IS a 55t... so from what I can tell, 17/55 is as low as I can go. Ive got the XL5 to go in it now, arrived today. Im hoping the TQi has some EPA's or DR's I can adjust to slow things down. I know on my summit I can with my MT4 radio. But ive never tried with the TQi. Ill let you guys know how it goes. Only parts remaining now are the summit tires and the diff pinion gear and bearings to make it 4X4. It will still be waterproof too... so if I need to take her outside to run it, I can still do that.

[pavmentsurfer]

Got some time afterwork to get the XL5 installed. I shortened the battery and motor leads and installed 3.5mm bullet connectors on the motor leads. Much cleaner looking and easier to work with.
To fit the XL5 on the chassis I made a plate that fits under the mounting tabs for the stock ESC, then added a double layer so the XL5 sits above the tabs. You can still slide the ESC in and out to remove the motor just like the stock one.






I let the wing nut steer the truck for a bit this evening. She gets that turning the wheel makes the truck wheels turn. But she doesnt understand what that means when your driving. She likes to hold the TX and wiggle the wheels though. When I drive it, if I bump into something she runs over, points to the trucks "boo boo", kisses it better and gives the truck a hug. Pretty cute.

[pavmentsurfer]

Finally got my tires in the mail and got the Axial light kit I ordered. Heres Cali's mini summit final version. Only thing left to do at some point in the future is dye the pushrods and camberlinks black. But thats for another time.