MH's Xmod EVO H2

[METALHEAD]

hahahaha...that subject line sounds like a government code from some corny spy movie....

Okay, so I picked up an EVO H2 on Wednesday, played hookie from the office and put it together. I went balls deep at the Shack and turned into a kid in a candy store. I got the H2 starter kit, the motor/gear upgrades, the bearing kit, the 4x4 upgrade, the offroad kit, the headlight/tail light kit, and some more batteries. For shits, I ran it for a few minutes as a stocker, 2wd. I was pretty impressed - not as impressed as I was with the Overland - but I was happy.

A few thoughts, thus far: Without the bearings installed...most heinous and uncool. The bearings do bring it up to an acceptable level though. Lift kit...uhhhh...way cool looking and pretty functional. Except for the toe-in at extension and toe-out at compression, it's a nice hop-up. The radio IS, in fact, a joke. Me no likey. The light kit is just pure cheesey eye candy, but for $7, it's cool. It's easy enough to plug in or leave it unplugged. As far as the 4WD kit goes....well....that's another story....

The bottom line is that I bought this thing to be a baby, indoor crawler. While putting it together I decided to lock the diffs. I figured since there's no such thing as a crawler with open diffs, I may as well just do it, since I was in there anyway. Has anyone else done this? I never drove it in 4wd, with or without the lift kit with the open differentials. The problem is that my steering went to hell. Is this a result of the 4WD, the lift kit, or is it because I locked the diffs? Obviously with locked diffs, especially up front, the inside tire is gonna "grind" on a tight steer, so there will be some compromise given the ultra light weight of this thing. The servo doesn't get the full range of steering done though. Any suggestions that will give me a stronger turn or am I just expecting too much outta this little bastard?

Finally, I guess I'm just not seeing a crawler here...at least not without some serious customizing and modding, which is fine. It's pretty sweet, especially considering I'm into it for not much more than a bone-stock Overland. I agree with Payaso when he said it's tough, but not as smooth as an OL. It'll work for the time being, but it doesn't seem to have the low-end grunt or the finesse needed to be a scaled down crawler. I'd like to get lower gearing than the kit gives me, but I'm not sure how. GAAAAWWWD....this could be a can of worms....

So, I'm open to any thoughts, suggestions, or ideas. Hell, if you just wanna tell me I'm full of shit....that's fine too. It's all good, I'm game.

[crazydave]

You are gonna lose a lot of high speed steering when you lock the diffs, especially if you're running on a high grip surface like carpet. But I also had great steering at first, then when I installed the lift kit, and faster motor at the same time, I lost some steering. I thought it was the big tires, then one day I realized, duh, just slow down to turn. That worked for me.

[METALHEAD]

I see what you're saying about slowing down to steer, crazydave. Most of my running is VERY low speed though. Actually it's just inching along. I'll look into the resistor mod and the steering control arm mod in the future. After some running, I decided that the tires hanging up on the body is something I cannot have. I'd get the suspension all strung out, really working the articulation, then the back tires would bind up in the H2 body. Even with the rear bumper removed, they'd either lock up completely or steal so much power from body scrub that it would render it incapacitated. This is a stock shot, before the offroad kit:



So, my solution: new body time. I thought about cutting on the H2 body, but decided I'd leave it stock. Instead, I bought an International Scout 1/25 scale model and went to work. Here's the body and inner body, straight outta the box:



Next, I went to whackin'...on the body... . I started out by mounting the inner body to the frame of the XMod. I spent about an hour timming it so it would fit. My thought was to then mount the outer shell to the trimmed inner body. BAD idea. I broke the front shock mount by screwing a wire "hanger" to it. The plastic on the XMod is so brittle I snapped it into three pieces. Here's the first attempt with the shell sitting on the inner body, just as a mock up:



After fixing the broken front shock mount, I changed the body mounting completely. I'm just using the stock front body mount and an aluminum mount in the back. The aluminum piece is mounted to the frame with larger screws and a small piece of fuel tubing between the screw head and the mount. This gives it some resistance so in a hard knock or rollover, the impact won't be transfered right to the XMod frame and screws which would, no doubt, break something. That said, here's the new body on the XMod, ready to roll:



Here's another "action" shot. As you can see in the pic, there isn't any more body rub on the tires, even at full articulation.



Regarding the body, I decided to leave it the flat grey color. It looks like a rig in primer, which is cool. I also decided to leave the hood off. I stuck the model's engine (all hacked up, so it would fit) in the engine compartment and it looks decent. I'll get some better pics when I have a minute, but you can kinda see it in the first completed pic. I also think the fender flares give it a nice touch. I like the "used" look, cause I'm gonna use it. I was gonna paint it, but if I really get the urge, I'll do a nice, shelf queen, static body. All and all, I'm happy with it.

[crazydave]

Dude, I dig that Scout. Personally I'd love to see it all painted up with the windows and grill in, but its your car, so whatevers clever.

Oh yeah, and since I'm running flat out, when I slow down to turn its shifting weight to the front, which causes the rear end to pitch a little. I see where you're coming from, and yup, crawlers do need a lot of extra steering.

[lovedoctor]

I'm not happy with my H2

I bought the lift kit and AWD kit at the same time that I bought the H2. I had no intention of runnig it without a higher stance and AWD. Before even trying it on 2WD, I put both mods into the H2.

I liked it at first, but would rather compromise some speed for more torque. I didn't buy a sports car--I bought a 4X4 (or at least I thought I did).

And what's up with Porsche making an SUV?!?! That's like Lazy-Boy making a wheel chair. But I digress.

The point is that sometimes the wheels lock up--especially when switching from forward to reverse--and nothing will get the truck going again until I pick up the car, although sometimes "wiggling" the turning wheels back and forth as I try to go in reverse helps get the H2 out of it's depression.

I notice a humming sound as I'm trying to get the car going from this annoying stand-still, though not always--is that improperly meshed gears trying to rip each other apart? do I need to do something special to make sure the gears are meshed before I close the crank cases? someone said something in this thread about "locking the differentials"--I didn't know it could be done. Nothing in the instructions says anything about that.

Bottom line--is it something I did wrong or are these little cars just the most annnoying pieces of $heet by nature?

Would love some help here.

Thanks guys

Love doc

[lovedoctor]

I decided to try recharging the batteries just in case that is an issue.

Though, I've used the standard xmods before and this isn't what happened when the batteries got low.

BTW, do the EVOs have shorter battery life? Does the AWD upgrade drain the batteries that much more? The batteries are new--maybe they need breaking in? I think Crazydave knows something about this if I'm not mistaken.

Hope to hear back soon, guys,

Lovedoc

[ynad]

I liked it at first, but would rather compromise some speed for more torque. I didn't buy a sports car--I bought a 4X4 (or at least I thought I did).

yeah, i agree. i got other ones to go fast, that's why i modded mine.
http://bitpimps.lixlink.com/pages/phpFo ... php?t=7449
this mod helps a lot. now it IS a 4X4. look into it, if you'll find some gears it's good thing to have.
as the diff goes: knock the pin inside diff in tighter, might help. also there is tut around here somewhere to fix diff for good.
i locked my diff by sticking some small stuff/wires into gears.
AWD takes more juice to run, therefore run times would decrease.
what kind of batts are you using?

Bottom line--is it something I did wrong or are these little cars just the most annnoying pieces of $heet by nature?

they are at times.
but for base model they are ok. with GPM hop-ups things should improve

[lovedoctor]

Thanks, man.

I'll look into the 4X4 mod.

I just tried recharging the batts and that seems to have helped. I'm using the 8-hour charger for the energizer NiMH batts.

I'd get the GPM upgrades, but

1. don't want this thing to turn into another money pit
2. I can't stand, with a capital STAND, buying stuff online.

Thanks for the help,

Lovedoc