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-   -   Finally some legal offroading in Central New Jersey! (https://www.toyota-4runner.org/off-topic/288304-finally-some-legal-offroading-central-new-jersey.html)

Gamma Ray 07-16-2020 09:27 PM

Finally some legal offroading in Central New Jersey!
 
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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

RichinRidgewood 07-17-2020 07:07 AM

It’s good you got the sunroof option.

Gamma Ray 07-17-2020 05:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RichinRidgewood (Post 3519480)
It’s good you got the sunroof option.

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.

Gamma Ray 07-25-2020 02:24 PM

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.

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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.

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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/692058...57715126277931

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!

Gamma Ray 08-01-2020 02:01 PM

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.

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Gamma Ray 08-09-2020 03:22 PM

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.

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JA50N 08-09-2020 05:03 PM

Let me show you the rabbit hole...

rccrawler.com

thennen 08-09-2020 05:24 PM

Do you air down for rock and sand? And what is the water fording depth?

Gamma Ray 08-09-2020 07:42 PM

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.

JA50N 08-11-2020 07:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gamma Ray (Post 3529819)
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.

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

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...4491eba9_b.jpgUntitled by JASON MCKIMMEY, on Flickr

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Gamma Ray 08-27-2020 08:00 PM

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.

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

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Here's a video of my truck going down steps in the woods: https://www.flickr.com/photos/692058...7715126277931/

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.

Gamma Ray 09-06-2020 04:08 PM

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!

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Gamma Ray 10-10-2020 05:49 PM

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!

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Gamma Ray 10-17-2020 01:27 PM

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.

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Gamma Ray 10-24-2020 05:47 PM

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!

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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.


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