Easy-Pull Body Clips - Although I would love to take the credit for this "palm to the forehead"/"why didn't I think of that" idea, the credit belongs to Misbehavin-RC.com. Unless you have the fingers of a hobbit and dexterity of a surgeon, you will grow very VERY tired of pulling the body clips on and off. The genius at Misbehavin-RC.com came up with a great solution that I am personally thankful for. See it here
Easy-Pull Battery - Based on the above, I secured the battery leads with a zip tie and an Easy-Pull Body Clip. This allows me to change batteries a lot easier. The leads are always pointed where they need to be and this also adds some durability and prevents accidentally pulling the leads off the battery.
Battery Strap - Another great idea from Misbehavin-RC.com, but I think my implementation is a little cleaner, do to the fact that I used a fancy Velco wire tie which are designed for pretty much this exact purpose and take a little more abuse than regular Velcro. Additionally, instead of drilling holes for mounting, I used the battery hold down posts and body clips to secure the battery strap. The Misbehavin-RC article. This does require cutting/modifying the front battery/receiver holder. The back of the battery toes into the rear as usual, but simply requires a quick tug on the industrial Velcro to release the battery. Very secure, survived LOTs of crashes. This is sooo much easier than un-clipping that hole receiver mess up front every time you need to change the battery.
Railing Tie Downs - I wanted to clean up all the wires running the length of the chassis so they didn't get in the way or damaged. I have seen a lot of people drill holes in the chassis and secure all the wires with small zip ties, but I am not a big fan of cutting holes. Although the Stampede chassis is way over-designed and could loose some weight, I tend to favor a less invasive route. What I used to accomplish the same task was to use the hard stock wire plugs used in the
stock version to hold the wires in place, but I put a wire tie around it. The problem with this stock method is that your loose about 1"-2" of wire reach buy pushing the wire to the bottom of the rail. With the wire tie solution, all wire are centered nicely on top of the rail and are all line of sight without shortening the reach of the wire..
Floppy Antenna Fix - After flipping your Stampede a couple of times you will start to notice that the extra 2-4" of antenna wire flopping around and hanging out of the antenna rod is taking quite a beating. Sooner or later if you don't secure it will get ground off and you will have to replace your antenna. One easy fix is to spiral it down the rod and use a piece of electrical heat shrink to secure it. Due to my mission of durability, I heat shrinked the last 8 inches of my antenna.
Multi-Compartment Box - Nothing more irritating than looking for a part you swear you have, but can't find. You probably now have between three to ten zip lock bags full of parts. Organize all your crap and buy a couple of clear multi-compartment storage boxes with the separators you can move around to divide up the box. They run about $2-$5 in various sizes, and you can probably get your mom, girlfriend, boyfriend, or spouse to buy them for you under the assumption you will be more organized and neat.
RC Moleskin Notebook - Of course any old notebook will work but the Moleskin (the same one used by Hemingway) makes you look pretty professional when you show up at the hobby shop or the track and need to reference or note something. I use mine as a journal to plan ideas, plan upgrades, pricing and price shopping, keeping track of part numbers, sketches, specs, which battery gives me the best run time and punch, and as a general historical reference of all sorts of stuff. The Moleskin even features a super durable hard cover, a pocket in the back to keep your receipts from getting lost, and a elastic band to hold the journal closed. This is the multi-compartment box idea for the mental side of the hobby.
Twisting the Wire - This is a lot easier than it looks for ESC and receiver wires. Twisting the wires reduces some electrical interference and can have performance benefits. Use this when your want to allow a little flexibility and give should you need the extra w
ire. It also cleans up everything and make floppy wires look neat. Start twisting the wire as you would around a pencil and it just works.
ESC Switch - Once you go to another ESC chances are it will be supplied with a dinky little switch such as the tiny Novac switch positioned next to my Novac Rooster in the picture to the right. The problem is that although really light, they are freaking impossible to turn on and off. So I removed it and soldered in one of these Radio Shack mini-toggle switches which is easy to switch on or off when reaching under the body. Remember to mount the switch so that off position is to the back so that hard forward hit don't turn off the ESC.
Easy Off Gear Cover - OK screwing and un-screwing the gear cover, on - off -on - off, over and over, this has been to say the least an in-convenience. So what to do, you could run without a cover, but the RPM gear cover is worth the money over stock for the simple reason it keeps junk out of your gears better than anything else. So what we need was an easy method for securing this vital piece of protection to the Stampede. A palm to the forehead moment of revelation as I was ever so easily and quickly removing my Battery Strap - I could use this for the gear cover.
This is an easy mod. Get some of the same Velcro brand industrial wire ties bolt one to the reverse side of where the top bolt screws in with a little washer to prevent it from ripping out (best if you make the hole with a red hot paper clip.) Then drill a small hole, the size of the lower gear cover screw, in line with but about 1/4" from the edge of the bottom of the transmission case. Mount the second strap as you did the first by screwing it in from the top with a washer to prevent ripping. The gear cover will dovetail in between the lower bolt and the gear housing, snap in place and Velcro in place. You will now be able to change gear in about 1/10th the time. I have been using this for over a year and it still works great.
Dubro Body Clip Retainers - (REQUIRED ITEM)
Almost 4 years and 50 lbs of lost body clips later I discover this little must have item that will now forever keep my body clips from loss. In less than two weeks this has already paid for itself on the Ultra-Pede and the matching Clip Retainers on the Ultra-Rusty. Drill a hole between each set out mounting holes on your RC's body and attach the rubber nub to the body. Don't like black, no worries they also come in a rainbow of colors.
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