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OSRC

In a never ending quest to build something trail worthy out of a random RC vehicle for no apparent reason, I came across this gem on FB. I've been thinking of another stab at an IS crawler since converting over the T-maxx. I was kinda thinking about a Slash 4x4 since there's a million hops up out there and with all the different chassis and suspension arms, I figure I could mix and match up something interesting. Never even thought of the old Telluride - it's a short, narrower Slash 4x4. Hmmm... Couple of issues to work out - weight balance, gearing, etc. but I've got some ideas....

So, an hour drive and a reasonable lightening of the wallet later and I had myself a Telly with some honkin' 2.8 wheels but mostly intact. ..came with a Slash chassis, diffs, and suspension. 2 wheelbases and 2 widths - options are good! Although when I got home, I realized it was actually another short WB chassis, but it did have Slash width suspension arms. Interesting.



This is not my first rodeo with the Telluride, I bought a roller and built it up with a clear body 8 years ago(!!), but I sold it before I ever put power to it. I do that a lot, I'm not sure why.


First thing I always do when buying something well used is strip it all the way down to the hardware and give it a bath. This one was a piece, owned by someone who really wasn't into RC per-se and used a few hardware bits here and there. Thankfully, between both chassis I have enough parts for a decent rebuild. All the gears got cleaned and re-greased, all the bearings cleaned and re-lubed...rebuilding used RC's is one of my favorite things to do.


Thankfully, the Telly came with diff lockers already installed and the gears looked new so it's all good there. Out back I used the spare front shock tower ilo the rear one so both front and rear used the same size shocks, about 90mm. Well, what do you know? I have a few of those laying around...so I used some Icons ilo the stockers sine I have a ton of springs for them. Built a while ago with some Traxxas x-rings IIRC, they are smooth and surprisingly leak free.


Up front, much of the same. The truck came with the aluminum steering bits, so I've got that going for me which is nice. Between the 2 trucks I fudged up all the turnbuckles though they are slightly different up front side to side - one is longer with shorter rod ends for some reason.


Fudged with the steering a bit and got a pretty good angle for an IS truck. I could probably go a bit further, but I'm worried about the joints up front. Should be good enough to get rolling, I'll wait and see how it does.


And finally, boom. The chassis is actually pretty cool to mess with, but the body is just hideous. That's what turned me off to the first one, even with custom paint. So I dug around and found this little Danchee Ridgerock body which is almost a perfect fit. Now it's a rock buggy! Kinda what I had in mind when I picked up the chassis, and it basically dropped right on. Wish all of my wacky ideas worked out so easily. The decals are ON there, not sure what they are, but not your normal vinyl decal. Not sure what I'm going to do there yet, though the colors of the body are spot on for me. I do have to use 2.2/3.0 wheels. Yuk. I thought I could get away with some high offset 2.2's but I can't get the steering angle with them. I'll trade a bit less scale wheel for more steering any day - I'm a pragmatic. Threw on some old SC wheels I had just to get it on 4 wheels but I've got another set coming.


I think the WB and width (280 and 280mm) work out pretty much spot on. Good to know I can wide track it if needed.


Wouldn't be any kind of crawler without a flex shot. It's got about 2" travel front and 2.5" rear with the 90mm shocks. Not bad at all.


And the HCG chassis has 2.5" of breakover clearance - again, not bad!


Thought it was a pretty worthy project so I ordered a few goodies for it this morning. More to come!