The Building of Trail Finder 2 - Zax13's TF2

Guess what came knocking at my door the other day. A Package....


Lets open it up.... Nice packaging by the way....

The RC4WD Trailfinder 2.........

Lets see whats inside the box...

I must admit the packaging of this kit is well thought off. Very well laid out and protected...

Here are the bags and bags of screws/fasteners to built this marvelous kit.... I was surprise that this is the first time that a kit came with bags which are properly labeled....
I must praise RC4WD for doing this. Doesn't really need a rocket scientist or a champion builder to identify individual parts.... Way to go RC4WD!!!


Before starting to built the kit there are some items that I got.
1. Marine Grease


2. Antiwear Grease


3. 2 x servo (prefered waterproof)


4. Speed Controller


5. Motor.....(Just need 1)


6. Receiver....(Not the one im using for this rig)


7. And not forgetting....... Threadlocker.....

One of the best thing about this kit is that it have 2 speed transmissions. The transmission comes pre-assembled so what we need to do is to tear it a part to check if its greased on the inside and threadlock every screws when installing. I have done quite a number of kits mostly from tamiya and everything have to be built from the ground up unlike this one where some items come pre-assembled. My preference is to assemble myself so as to know how everything works and put together.... Anyways thats one guys opinion....


All screws are not threadlock just as I expected...


Inside luckily there is grease... So no point greasing some more...


There you go the finish product...


Next... Is the hammer transfer case which also comes pre-assembled.
Goes the same for the screws... No thread locker what so ever...


But luckily there is grease in there yet I think I will put in some more anti wear grease since I have opened it up.

I did not bother to put in marine grease in there as I don't think it is necessary...

Put everything together and done...


Next will be the axles front & rear.


Got to work opening up the rear axle to check if there is grease.... Yup, plenty.
Majority of the axle screws are M2 size so don't force to tighten any of them risking breaking the head.


But none on shaft side... But its ok, since we are gonna stuff some marine grease in there.


What it look like after stuffing marine grease in there. I did not stuff any in the deferential gear as I don't think it is necessary.


Before securing the cover i put a coat of marine grease to the mating surface as to create some sort of a seal from water seeping in.


Don't forget to put thread locker before installing any screws.


I proceed to work on the front axle and completed both fwd & rear axle.

Now Lets start to assemble the frame/chassis


The instruction booklet is very clear and there is no trouble assembling everything.


Here you go the completely assembled. Im getting excited already from looking the assembled frame. The built quality of individual parts is good and they fit quite nicely.


The radio/battery tray should be able to fit a standard size lipo battery and still have room to install any size esc.


Assembled the wheel and find that for scale trailing is really ok but practically for serious trailing find its a bit to small.


Comparison between the 1.55" mud thrashers beside a 1.9" interco irok side by side.


Lets see how the 1.9" tires look on the TF2..... NICE!


Too bad if wanna fit this set with the TF2, I need to bump up a lot of things to prevent the wheel from rubbing when trailing


So I continue putting the receiver box, gear & transmission case.


Electronics is the next thing installed starting with the steering servo. Change the the servo arms to a metal one to reduce flexing.


Mounting the gear change servo and the motor as well.


Soldering all the wires required for the electronics.


BTW for this build im using a 35T novak motor.


Receiver box accomodates a receiver and FEETECH Direct Power Supply Connector with BEC #FE-DPC-1. Im using a fitech servo but due to its high power requirement of 7.4v-8.4v I need to connect through this device to send a direct voltage to the steering servo while maintaining a voltage of 5v to the receiver.


Looks neat after the box is closed up.


The esc is just mounted using double sided tape but might need a stronger alternative if im gonna submerge this fella underwater. Notice that the esc have coated with plasti dip... Might need another coat though.


Everything connected and with a few adjustments everything looks very sound I must say... Looking very nice this built.


A package came just in time while I was doing this built... Junfac shafts....


Did some measurements before fixing the shaft but find that the shaft on the transfer case is too long and require to be trim in order for the set screw to be fitted nicely. So I took out my trustee power tool and start grinding away...


Both the fwd and aft output shaft have to be grinded... Finally all done and the shaft is align with the case output hole. Yah, another thing is don't forget to stuff marine grease between the 2 sliding half of each shafts.

Painting the body is the next thing Im gonna do but I have not set my mind on what colour I should paint. So I went down to stargek to have an idea on what colour would make the Mojave body nice. Then it caught my eye....


Before painting it is very important to give it a good bath with soap. This will get rid of the lubricant layer when its being molded.



Next drying it out prior to painting. Make sure to give it a good few hours before proceeding to apply primer.


Primer or paint is very toxic. Always do painting in a well ventilated room or in a spray booth.



Starting to take shape with first coat of paint.


After leaving the paint to steam off for 1hr. Applied the second coat.
Paste the toyota decal on the back of the pickup.



While waiting for the paint on the body to steam off I went ahead to paint the other items.




After a few layer of gloss coat makes the truck look like just came out from a factory....



All the items painted and ready to be assembled.



There is another booklet included when assembling the hard body cover. The instructions are clear and should be no problem for any level builder to follow the step by step diagrams.


I assembled all the parts except those required further detailing just to see how the truck turned out with this colour scheme.

Wow, fantastic! Looking very much forward to the filled-in "reserved" spots!

laneboysrc wrote:Wow, fantastic! Looking very much forward to the filled-in "reserved" spots!

Updates coming soon.... Stay tuned....

Bro, very meticulous job there. Any sneak peak of the paint scheme? Btw nice workshop.

Woo hoo!!

Looking forward to the updates!

Wow, the inside the gearbox looks sweeeeet
Someone ought to make a transparent cover to see it in action.

Wrigleys wrote:Bro, very meticulous job there. Any sneak peak of the paint scheme? Btw nice workshop.

Guess you have to wait for part 4 of the update to c what color i paint... Anyway just a humble workshop for my scale model addictions.... Hehehe!

Updated....

Nice updates!

I love your paint store! I know who to look for!

boolean21 wrote:Nice updates!

I love your paint store! I know who to look for!

TQ,

Love the orange!

After 2 weeks of building the trail finder 2.
The final outcome is reveal and this is how the truck look like stock with no modification except for the wheel nut and the fwd/rear junfac shaft. ENJOY!

Very nice!!

Looks like it is ready to be molested!
Nice!!

Like it so Much... ...Swee... ... ...

Wts

Let me bash it first.... kekeke!

Clean lines!!! I like... Btw are you using tamiya acrylic paint? Can show some that you used?

For this built I did not use any tamiya acrylic paint. All laquer paint.

Funniest off-road related sticker I have every seen

Excellent paint job, I wonder how it will mix with mud color

Ready for the mud !

So far for every Trail I have addon a couple of stuff bit by bit to enhance the scale look of my truck.... This time I added a bike trailer with bikes to make it more scale...  

  nice nice! Can bring 2 bike per trail some more. Haha!  

Nice bike trailer!!

Looks great! I assume the bikes are RC as well  

Very nice!!!

After Todays trail... my TF2 finally throw in the towel... Its rear axle bevel gear have knackered.


Thinking of getting this as replacement if only them RC4WD allows me to purchase from their website directly.... sigh...