Kyosho Rock Force Rock Crawler Build

11-20-08 - Today I received a very exciting box in the mail today... the new and much touted Kyosho Rock Force Rock Crawler. I thought I would provide some initial impressions and because the Rock Force build can be a little tricky if you are not a direction reader, I thought a walk through the build would be helpful. Typical Kyosho black box of intrigue. Surprisingly the box is pretty empty. Kinda initially makes you think that something is missing in the box. The pile of parts pulled out from the box... still doesn't look like much. The infamous worm gears peering from the plastic bags. Plenty of stickers for the body that will make an easy paint, stick and drive a fast process. Not the highest quality tools, but nice they were included. Damn, worm gears rock. These are SERIOUSLY heavy duty. In fact all the parts on the Kyosho Rock Force look like they were pulled from 1/8th - 1/5th scale. For all the guys whining that they want a crawler build on 1/8th scale parts... this is it. More beef carried by massive bearings. This is where you need to start paying attention to directions. If I had one piece of advice for assembly it is RTFM (Read the Freaking Manual). You, like I did, will find yourself re-doing things if you jump ahead and think you can skip the instructions. Lower worn gear installed with super heavy 1/8th scale dog bone yokes. Everything on this thing is massive, from the pivot balls to the link mounts. Looks like someone stole these right off a 1/8th buggy... bearings and all. The kit includes VERY nice and huge wheel nuts. Just make sure you are paying attention on install, there are left and right specific hubs. Also pay attention to where all the screws go. The only error in the instructions I found omitted telling you to install the screws right under the diff. Make sure you screw in the short side's pivot ball before attaching the lower link mount, otherwise it's a bit tight fit to get the screw in. One thing I was a little concerned with was the open driveshaft where the dogbones enter. Traverse one river and the unsealed steel internals of the drive system are likely to be rusty in no time. I think at the very least a couple super large o-rings or foam pieces are needed to keep the crap out. The 1/8" steel steering links are plenty beefy, however in light of all the other huge massive heft of all the other parts, the steering links end up looking wimpy. Sure would have rather seen these as big beefy aluminum links. Front and rear Axles assembled. Wow... again enormous links that are huge compared to.... well any other link I have on any other RC. All the links are coded with ribs (none, 1, 2, 3) to let you know which is which and what goes where... nice touch. The instructions even tell you which directions the pivot ball should face. I doubt a ball will ever come loose as I have to use a set of channel lock pliers to get the pivot balls seated in the link ends. Here is the beginning of the "transmission" what little of it there is. Spur gear assembled to carrier. Introducing the worlds simplest transmission... all the gear reduction is in the worm gear folks. Chassis assembled - again follow the directions. I had a couple re-dues because I got ahead of myself. BEWARE the stamped edges of my chassis were razor sharp and had to be hit with a little fine sandpaper. Don't believe me? My bloody index finger has the final winning argument. Kyosho should make these shaft available separately NOW. I want these on every vehicle I own that I can make them fit on. A floating hex shaft married to the shaft ends all hidden under a floating aluminum tube. The grub screws are even... you guessed it, huge. Getting the chassis all linked up. A REAR aluminum skid plate. No cheap ass plastic shock pistons here. Solid machined brass pistons held on with a nut. The shock bodies are again huge, but I was a little disappointed with the fast they were plastic, but we can't have everything. They did come with o-ringed threaded shock adjustment rings that are secure and will hold position. The instructions say to use 150# oil... er I don't have my European weight conversion table handy. Here in the states go with 25-35 wt oil, anything thicker is toooooo sloooooooowwwwwww. DONE!! Ready for electrics and a body. I'll keep you updated on my progress. RANTS SO FAR I haven't so much as mounted a motor on the thing an I see some potential shortcomings. The Chassis is a little ghetto compared to everything else on the truck. My chassis has such sharp edges that it cut my finger just taking it out of the plastic. Hope it works well. Articulation is REALLY limited. You maybe, maybe have 40 degrees of articulation. Again haven't even dropped a motor in it, so it could work great. Hmmmm.... someone has probably posted this alrady... but the body isn't legal. Gotta be 5" wide and it's 4" and the body is also every so slightly and questionably at 12.5" in length. Guess you won't be competing with the stock body. A Pro-Line Rock Star would probably look good on this. No freaking shock oil included..... ARGH. I am thinking that $2 bottle of shock oil could have been included. Tires - No foams, short profile.... we'll see. The Dig sucks... and doesn't work without significant tweaking. I have since pretty much abandoned the Rock Force and worked on making something fun with a Re-purposed Super Class RCP Hustler chassis. So far so good.