RC4WD Marlin Crawler - Guided Tour and First Drive

A lightly modified RC4WD Marlin Crawler. It features sliders, transmission cover, shackle reverse kit and trans mount from A and M Garage (aandmgarage.com/). Narrow hubs fitted to each wheel along with thinner hexes to tuck wheels in @5mm per side.
Leaf springs have Chino mod (tapered bottom to top and towards ends) with small O rings inserted either side of leaves to increase articulation.
Paint colour is VW Brilliant Orange, stripes are Vallejo Air paint, the whole lot is covered with Halfords satin enamel paint for protection. Full interior kit from RC4WD. Stock electronics bar steering servo which has been swapped for a PowerHD waterproof 20kg version.
A quick walk around showing some features to start with some out of focus close ups for which I apologise - it was a quick single take shot and I didn't check before heading out to christen the rig.
Not a huge fan of the ESC fitted, I don't think it provides enough oomph for the servo, the slow speed pull away isn't great and the drag brake is too weak - I think a Hobbywing 1080 will be fitted shortly.
Chino Mod: www.scale4x4rc.org/forums/show...
Music:
Fluidscape by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (creativecommons.org/licenses/...

[@offroad1911]

That orange just makes that truck. I just ordered myself a Marlin and my plan is to spray it with a silver then candy apple green over that to make the scratches look a little more realistic.

[@tedstinytrucks1380]

Thanks Tony, appreciate that 👍 Candy apple green sounds like a great colour to me - I think you're going to enjoy your truck when it arrives 😁

[@jbrc1322]

Nice job with your tf2. It looks great and performs well. I highly recommend the motor clock mod as well as the modified rear shackle mount from bowhouse rc. Anti-wrap bar from a&m garage is nice too, especially if you put more power in it and take it on the rocks. Cheers!

[@tedstinytrucks1380]

Cheers Jonathan 🙂 Good call on the upgrades, the anti-wrap bar is already on the list, but I hadn't considered the motor clock and Bowhouse rear shackle mount 👍 More research and mods required!

[@themildoff-roadist8661]

Excited to see it complete mate. It looks fantastic!

[@tedstinytrucks1380]

Thanks buddy, appreciate it 😁

[@EBthere]

Nice! Great video in every way!

[@tedstinytrucks1380]

Thanks!

[@andyrichey1192]

Great set up !! Love to repaint my Marvin. Great footage on the run, appreciate you sharing , i'll be watching for more. This is the beauty of the hobby it is my passion I love it. Hope to see more running videos.

[@tedstinytrucks1380]

Thanks Andy, glad you enjoyed it! Waiting for the weather to improve so I can take it out again - it just seems to rain every weekend at the moment 😟

[@RS2_73]

Found this while researching - brilliant video. Definitely makes me want one even more!

[@tedstinytrucks1380]

Thanks Neil 👍 They are great rigs, you won't be disappointed 🙂

[@RS2_73]

It’s a shame it’s only available as an expensive RTR because I don’t care much for the stock electronics and I’m sure all the essential upgrades amount to a lot. Probably getting on for £1k by the time you’re done. Mmm... do I/don’t I? 😂

[@RS2_73]

Bought one 👍🏻

[@tedstinytrucks1380]

@@RS2_73 Good man 👍 Lots of fun ahead 🙂

[@RS2_73]

TedsTinyTrucks Time to start building a list of mods 👍🏻

[@rccrawlersmid-wales645]

Nicely done and great info! Cheers! 👍😀

[@tedstinytrucks1380]

Thanks dude!

[@nhansme]

Great looking crawler 👍👍👍

[@tedstinytrucks1380]

Thank you 😃

[@SeanPendlebury]

Looks to be running quite firm Ted. Looks epic though. Nice to finally see it running! Sterling job on the bodywork.

[@tedstinytrucks1380]

Cheers buddy - think the general consensus is that the springs will take a good few hours to bed in, more driving required! Was well pleased looking at it in the sun yesterday, nice to see it with mud on the tyres rather than dust in the workshop 😁

[@rcmindset2876]

Love this truck. I’ve seen a lot of these but this one looks the part.

[@tedstinytrucks1380]

Thanks man, appreciated👍

[@fixedgear.fl.4225]

Beautiful truck nice video

[@tedstinytrucks1380]

Thanks very much, glad you enjoyed it 😃

[@syahmihobby8963]

One more question.. how to adjust the steering endpoint? My steering endpoint are to limited left and right

[@tedstinytrucks1380]

Thats all you can do bud, just set the max limit on either side so the tyre either doesn't hit the arch or the leaf spring. It does cut down your steering throw if you want to avoid the rubbing 😔 The other thing to check is the front wheels / tyres are parallel - mine toed out slightly (wider at the front than the rear) so I corrected that by putting few washers between the ball end and the steering linkage to bring them back in. That helps to stop it dragging the outside tyre on tighter turns which increases your turning radius.

[@Mike-hi3sc]

Nice truck. Just ordered a marlin crawler day after Christmas How'd you get the lights yellow instead of white?

[@tedstinytrucks1380]

Thanks Mike. I used the Tamiya Clear Yellow paint X-24 and just painted a couple of coats over the LED. Enjoy your truck and thanks for watching 🙂

[@Mike-hi3sc]

@@tedstinytrucks1380 thanks for the reply. Happy new year

[@tedstinytrucks1380]

@@Mike-hi3sc No worries Mike, same to you too 🙂

[@FPdesignfab]

I want a tan one and have been unsure about the molded red, uggh. I Don’t want red scratches to show thru. Looks like your orange paint covered it well tho & the classic stripes look good!

[@tedstinytrucks1380]

Thanks 😊 I gave mine a good coat of primer before the orange so most scratches show up grey...I will touch them up with brown paint so the truck starts to look a bit more tired as time goes on.

[@FPdesignfab]

Is it easy to swap out the yellow headlights on Marlin for white ones? I think white would add realism.

[@tedstinytrucks1380]

As supplied, the front LEDs are a bright white so they look like modern Xenon headlamps. I put a couple of coats of Tamiya X-24 to try and get them a bit warmer in tone but they've come out quite yellow. What they really need is a warm white LED, but I haven't investigated if there are resistors etc in line with the wiring. On the face of it swapping them out is not difficult, but I like my yellow 🙂 Thanks for watching and commenting 👍

[@FPdesignfab]

Ahh that makes sense. Yeah the real ones are more tungsten like 3600k versus bright white like 5500k.

[@syahmihobby8963]

Did u change the shock? Look lowered that original stock

[@tedstinytrucks1380]

Hi - I didn't change the shocks, all as originally supplied. I did take a leaf out of each leal spring just to soften things up - I think that helps its sit a little lower too.

[@syahmihobby8963]

@@tedstinytrucks1380 oh ok.. tq sir.. 👍👍👍

[@tedstinytrucks1380]

@@syahmihobby8963 No problem, thanks for watching 👍

[@syahmihobby8963]

@@tedstinytrucks1380 forgot to subscribe ur.. will subscribes now hehe

[@tedstinytrucks1380]

@@syahmihobby8963 👊

[@JoseHernandez-yv3nt]

Did you paint the wheels?

[@tedstinytrucks1380]

Hey Jose - No, I just bought black beadlock rings to replace the red ones.

[@JoseHernandez-yv3nt]

@@tedstinytrucks1380 thanks for answering, by far the best Marlin I have ever seen.

[@tedstinytrucks1380]

@@JoseHernandez-yv3nt No worries Jose - appreciate your kind comment buddy 👊