Finally some legal offroading in Central New Jersey!

Gamma Ray

Gamma Ray

Banned






It's an Enduro Trailrunner. A radio controlled crawler. It's not a fully licensed 5th gen 4Runner, but they got pretty close. There are some third party aftermarket parts that attempt to give this body a more authentic look. It's my first RC vehicle like this. My previous one, a Kyosho Mini Z, was good but would require a lot of shopping visits to build a track for it. With the Trailrunner, the world is my track! It gives me an excuse to get off my butt, too.

I waited for the ready to run set with the charger and battery to come into stock. It came with a "shorty" LiPo battery. I don't know how long it lasts, but I haven't drained it yet. I'll probably charge it again tomorrow night and take the truck out over the weekend.

I've got more photos and even some videos here. I'll be adding more as time goes on, but here are some from around my yard. I put together some offroading videos right here in my back yard. I wasn't the most elegant in handling the truck in those videos because I was trying to use the controller one handed, but I got the job done.

Enduro Trailrunner | Flickr
 
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RichinRidgewood said:
It’s good you got the sunroof option.
Click to expand...

LOL! Yeah, I'll never again have anything but a solid roof on my daily driver (bad experience with my old Jeep Liberty), but I don't mind it on my little 4Runner. I'm undecided if I'm going to keep it, though. I plan on painting my little one red like my big one, but I wonder if I could paint the whole roof solid without having an indentation.
 
I did some more off roading this week. I took my little Trailrunner out last Sunday night after installing a new bumper and lights. It was fun to do some off roading at night.




The light does bleed backwards into the body of the truck, so I'm going to have to seal that off one day.

I didn't do much Monday through Friday, but I went big this morning in Milltown at the Mill Pond Park. There's a walking trail there, and there are some nice off road opportunities off the trail.








I also took a couple videos today. One of them has a climb up an incline. You can see all of my pics and videos here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/69205803@N04/albums/72157715126277931

This was pretty fun! It got me off my butt, and I got to go off roading not far from home. I think I'm going to hit up parks for some off roading more often. My Trailrunner is getting me some exercise!
 
I went to Keystone Park in East Brunswick, NJ this morning. I don't think it's a very popular place. I must have passed by it a couple hundred times when I was a teenager going to MC Comics and never realized it was there. I didn't see anyone else there at all.

It was a far less interesting off road challenge than Mill Pond Park, but there was no pavement whatsoever. There's a little dirt road that's unfortunately gated off to vehicles that makes up most of the park. It goes towards a power substation or a water thing or something. I don't know. Towards the end of the road is a huge field. Someone must come over this way to cut the grass, but I can't imagine who. There's not really much to this place. It was still a nice walk, though. I went through the entire length of the place twice.

Even though it wasn't a big off road challenge, my little Trailrunner never got dirtier. I took it to the back yard, took the body off, and hosed it off. I then tried to hose some of the chassis without hitting the electronics and the motor too much. It's outside drying now.






 
I went to Raritan Bay Waterfront Park with my Trailrunner this afternoon. I mostly did the south end of the park (that I think is technically beyond the park) by the sports fields. It was easier to socially distance that way, and there was a lot of beach and other rough terrain to enjoy. I tried a little bit of rocky stuff at the end of my run today.






 
JA50N, I'll have to check that out some more. Thanks!

thennen, the tires don't work that way. They have some kind of foam inside. I don't know about how well it would take water, but I'd imagine not well. That's why I kept it in the dry sand. It's electrically powered.
 
Gamma Ray said:
JA50N, I'll have to check that out some more. Thanks!

thennen, the tires don't work that way. They have some kind of foam inside. I don't know about how well it would take water, but I'd imagine not well. That's why I kept it in the dry sand. It's electrically powered.
Click to expand...

You think they mod the 1:1 off roaders, wait until you explore that sight. Some of my collection, these are all RC:

Untitled by JASON MCKIMMEY, on Flickr

Untitled by JASON MCKIMMEY, on Flickr

SJJJ2626 by JASON MCKIMMEY, on Flickr

Untitled by JASON MCKIMMEY, on Flickr

Untitled by JASON MCKIMMEY, on Flickr
 
I finally took my Trailrunner out again today. This time the main attraction was the park that NJ Devils Way takes you to in South River, NJ. It's right by the river. The big obvious part is the lake, but to the north, to the east behind the baseball field, and around the lake there are trails that go into the woods and to the river. I only had to use the Hand of God a couple times.



The above is one of the only times I used the Hand of God. Maybe bigger tires would have gotten me up there.





Here's a video of my truck going down steps in the woods: https://www.flickr.com/photos/69205803@N04/50276683162/in/album-72157715126277931/

There are some other photos in a couple other parks I went to, but this was the best park. I'm going to go back because there are trails that I didn't even explore this time.
 
I went back to the park at NJ Devils Way in South River today. I went further into the woods than I did last time. It was a lot of fun with the challenging off roading, and I got to get off my butt and do a little hiking. I didn't take many photos since I just wanted to enjoy myself and enjoy the challenge today, but I did take a few. The first one was a kind of hidden lake. It was too mucky to get the truck back up the hill, so I had to get down there and grab it. The second was just some graffiti that I liked. And the third shows how dirty my Trailrunner got today!



 
I went to a 4X4 gathering at Pep Boys in East Brunswick today, and then I went back to the park at NJ Devils Way today. I did more crazy off roading with my little Trailrunner than I ever did before. I didn't take pics earlier in my outing, but I did after I started trying going to new places and off the paths that I've been on before. I even crossed the gap between paths with the ditch that has old broken railroad tracks in and over it. Getting my truck down into the ditch wasn't so bad, but then I had to get down and in it! I scurried myself under one of the tracks suspended in the air. It was nuts! Unfortunately, I couldn't get my Trailrunner all the way up the other side. I had to pick it up and skip a couple feet before I could put it down again. I ran into an older gentleman with a cane out there on one of the paths who was amused by my Trailrunner. He took a bunch of pics and videos of my truck doing stuff. I caught up with him shortly before I left, and I nearly gave him a heart attack when I drove the truck up alongside him. He loved it, though. Good times!



 
I went back to Mill Pond Park today. I went far off the main walking trail this time. It was a lot of fun, and I've got to go back and explore this one area some more. There are multiple elevations to it, and I spent much of my time down as far as I could go. I've got to try the middle elevation next time. Lots of leaves were on the ground since we're deep into fall. There were lots of thorns in the area, so that took some maneuvering on my part to avoid. I only had to pick up my truck a couple times to pass things it couldn't get through, and it only flipped once. I could have avoided the flipping, but oh well. I think I'm losing my steering servo. It began being unresponsive or sticking to the right at the very end of my time out today. I'll have to give it a look later. Maybe I'll have to buy a new one.



 
So, the steering servo was the problem with my Enduro Trailrunner in my last post. I bought a new servo last Monday and installed it the same day. I haven't taken it out for a serious adventure yet, but it is working well so far. I tested it inside and did a little bit of testing in my yard.

But I gave the Trailrunner a rest today because I went down to Toms River and got myself a Kyosho Mini Z 4X4 Toyota 4Runner! It's based on the first gen!







These pics were from Kennedy Park in Sayreville. I tested the new 4Runner at home a little bit, and then I took it out. While it is possible to have fun with it outside, it's harder to have fun with it outside than the larger Enduro Trailrunner It's a lot smaller, the ground clearance is low enough that regular grass is a problem, and it's pretty slow. While the Enduro Trailrunner isn't fast, it does get up to at least a brisk walking pace. Perhaps even a jogging pace. The Mini Z 4X4 is a slow walk. It's also not the greatest on looser surfaces. You can see in the last pic that the back wheels just dug into the dirt. It's also rather top and front heavy. Getting to the top of that concrete blob was a challenge, and coming down resulted in a roll. I've heard of people modifying these Mini Z 4X4s with a single cell lipo battery and a lipo saver to help reduce some of the weight from the four AAA batteries that would normally be in the front of the chassis. I think I'm going to be looking into that myself. The shocks are very bouncy, too. I've heard of people using marine grease to make them less bouncy.

Anyway, I think I'm going to retire the Mini Z 4X4 4Runner from outdoor duty, at least for now, and keep it for indoor use. It'll be good for the winter, that's for sure. I might go back to Kennedy Park with my Enduro Trailrunner soon. It's not going to be such a challenge as going into the woods in other places I've been to, but I think it'll still be fun. I'm looking forward to trying to tackle that huge dirt hill again with my larger truck.
 
I went back to Kennedy Park with my Enduro Trailrunner this morning. It was awesome except for a couple times that the truck picked up fishing wire people left lying around on the ground. One time it just slowed down my truck, but the other was really bad. It wrapped around the axle, and when it was wrapped as much as it could get wrapped, a loop at the end of the fishing wire caught into the treads of one of my tires. While I was driving it, the loop caused the truck to torque the tire partially off the wheel. It tore it at the point where the tire meets the wheel on the inside, and the outside has been pulled out somewhat. I'm going to have to research how to mount tires on RC wheels. I'm afraid that I'm going to have to replace the one tire sooner or later. I may just run it until it falls off. That's what I did today, and it didn't completely fall off yet, so at least that's something.

Even though it was pretty fun and I got to drive the truck through a little bit of water, I may avoid the northeast corner of the park from now on since I think that's where I'm getting the fishing wire, but there are still other parts of the park that are pretty cool. I was able to get all the way up to the top of the mound of dirt with the Trailrunner today. It wasn't easy, but I was able to get up the hill with good positioning and a little bit of gunning it while sawing left and right. The truck was higher than I am tall when it got to the top, so that was fun to photograph. I was also able to bring it down safely on the other end of the hill. No flipping. Earlier, I found this narrow walking trail that led to what I call rock paradise. I may come back to this spot with my little Mini Z 4X4 4Runner. It looks like fun for the little truck. It was fun for my Trailrunner, too. I took it up to the railroad tracks then went down to the nearby apartment complex where I saw a stray cat.






 
I went back to Kennedy Park again today with both of my 4X4s. I took my Enduro Trailrunner to the big hill. I had installed some brass weights on the wheels last week, and it was my first time using the truck since installing them. On ascent, the truck's waaaaaaaaay better. I barely had to saw back and forth to get up the hill today. I could even use minimal throttle, and the truck had grip for days. It was actually really good. On descent in the spot from last time, it wasn't as good. The truck didn't want to grip on the surface like it did when it was lighter, so it would slide down before coming to a stop in a spot where I'd rather it didn't stop. The more I did it, the more it would slide. It had been wet, so things were more muddy than last time, but I still think the extra weight didn't help it on the way down. Maybe I should have gotten the other type of weights. I think they were aluminum. I also tried descending in a couple alternative spots which I got photos of this time. There wasn't much to see after those pics because the truck just tumbled down from both spots. The whole face of the hill is super steep except for the spot where I ascended it, but it was still fun to try to conquer it on the way down. I took it to rock paradise, too. I was selective about where I drove it in order to avoid fishing wire. I think next time I go out with my Trailrunner, I'm going to return to the woods. I have the most fun there.








I took my Mini Z 4Runner to rock paradise, too. Unfortunately, it wasn't very much paradise for my Mini Z. The truck had a lot of trouble on those rocks. I guess they're just too big for the truck. I'll probably just keep it as an indoor truck from here on out. The Trailrunner is a whole lot more fun outside. Anyway, it was also my first time trying some of the new mods I made to my Mini Z. I got brass weights for the rear axle, and the wheels are new wheels that have brass weights premounted inside the tires by Kyosho. I'm still getting a feel for the new equipment. It seems it helps in some ways and hinders in others, but the other ways may be mitigated by careful throttle control. I'll use it a lot more in the winter. Oh, I also installed the light kit. You can see the headlights lit up in the shade in one of the pics.




 
Gamma Ray said:
I went back to Kennedy Park again today with both of my 4X4s. I took my Enduro Trailrunner to the big hill. I had installed some brass weights on the wheels last week, and it was my first time using the truck since installing them. On ascent, the truck's waaaaaaaaay better. I barely had to saw back and forth to get up the hill today. I could even use minimal throttle, and the truck had grip for days. It was actually really good. On descent in the spot from last time, it wasn't as good. The truck didn't want to grip on the surface like it did when it was lighter, so it would slide down before coming to a stop in a spot where I'd rather it didn't stop. The more I did it, the more it would slide. It had been wet, so things were more muddy than last time, but I still think the extra weight didn't help it on the way down. Maybe I should have gotten the other type of weights. I think they were aluminum. I also tried descending in a couple alternative spots which I got photos of this time. There wasn't much to see after those pics because the truck just tumbled down from both spots. The whole face of the hill is super steep except for the spot where I ascended it, but it was still fun to try to conquer it on the way down. I took it to rock paradise, too. I was selective about where I drove it in order to avoid fishing wire. I think next time I go out with my Trailrunner, I'm going to return to the woods. I have the most fun there.








I took my Mini Z 4Runner to rock paradise, too. Unfortunately, it wasn't very much paradise for my Mini Z. The truck had a lot of trouble on those rocks. I guess they're just too big for the truck. I'll probably just keep it as an indoor truck from here on out. The Trailrunner is a whole lot more fun outside. Anyway, it was also my first time trying some of the new mods I made to my Mini Z. I got brass weights for the rear axle, and the wheels are new wheels that have brass weights premounted inside the tires by Kyosho. I'm still getting a feel for the new equipment. It seems it helps in some ways and hinders in others, but the other ways may be mitigated by careful throttle control. I'll use it a lot more in the winter. Oh, I also installed the light kit. You can see the headlights lit up in the shade in one of the pics.




Click to expand...


You are going to have to step up your game Gama...


https://youtu.be/IRI7l-x21b8
 
I took a drive down to Old Bridge Waterfront Park today. I had heard of a rock setup on a Facebook group, but I couldn't find it. The only rocks I did find were uphill. I took it as an opportunity to have a nice beach drive, though. I also lost a couple push washers for the right front fender flare. I think I have some extras. Thank goodness I didn't lose the fender flare itself.




 
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