I love my clods, are they as good as a newer moderns independent suspension trucks, no but these are just so much more fun to drive, they look fairly similar to their real world counterparts. clods are great if you come in with the right mindset, if you come in to clods with the mindset that they are going to be just like independent suspension trucks and run 6900kv motors in each axle your going to find your self disappointed in breakage and durability problems. However if you come into clods with the mindset of just having a little replicaish fun with mild brushless motors such as 4600's you'll find it much more enjoyable, realistic looking monster truck fun.

Im a huge monster jam fan, I had always had a love for rc cars and real monster trucks and I found no better outlet for my two loves then in clods. I even found that i had a inner competitiveness that I never knew I had. In 3 years Ive built two brand new race clods and bought two others and currently campagin all 4 in the michigan monsters of rc series that MIRATHLHED(the one who posted pics earlier in the thread) owns and runs.

most my trucks run
Savox servos
Castle sidewinder/ sv2 esc's
brushed motors or tekin brushless motors
ZRP Behind the axle servo mount.
Kimbrough servo saver
Spektrum radio gear
Spektrum glitch buster, them savox servos are power hungry
Integy axle tubes
tamyia stock gears
teflon seal ball bearings
txt-1 wheels
Imex puller or baja clod sized tires
rc4wd wheel wideners(now discontinued though)
Associated shocks with associated shock oil
Promatch and SMC lipos, you need a high C battery for clods 2s2p as well, I run 50-60c 5000mah-6500mah

When I can post pictures Ill try to do individual truck spec's
Sorry for the long post just trying to help you guys who are interested.

Well said! Question for you since you clearly have experience with racing these. How much alum is necessary in the axle area? Do the inner support braces (CPE, Thundertech) do a decent job strengthening the stock plastic?

I run aluminum axle tubes so i can just forget about it and not worry about breaking them in the middle of a racing round, and having to miss a race because its broken.
Stock tubes with nothing is a no no, When I got my first clod I took it and ran it outside no big jumps or anything crazy and it broke 2 of the axle tubes, both of which could have broken in shipping but I doubt it.
People who run the stiffeners seem to have good luck with them, most dont break any in a day, even a season of our racing. However with this said most of these guys run a quick change style axle tube setup, I because ive never specifically ran this type of setup have no idea how it works or how long it takes to change a stock axle tube with a quick change setup.

I have a mix of aluminium axle tubes, though my favorite is the normal integy one, has holes drilled for axle stay(the support brace from the gear case to the outer edge of the axle tube, though not necessary for a strictly race truck using jumps like the illinois and michigan series run). One of my trucks run some slick hotracing tubes but I'm not real sure which set he got as hot racing has like 5 different sets of tubes.

If your on a budget the cheaper option form what I remember is the axle stiffeners with stock tubes, though this could have changed since I last looked into it. I also remember reading that in total the integy aluminium axle tubes ad 1 or 2 pounds total weight(all 4 tubes combined), I myself have never weighed a set or pair because weight has never been all that important to me. Me personally I'm willing to give up two maybe 3 pounds for durability over the long run of the truck. The only issue ive run into with aluminium tubes is that you may split the whole diff case as nothing else is there to give way, however Ive only done this twice and it occurred with me doing some stupid stuff and at near full speed into solid objects like ramps.

Ive been racing clods for nearly 15 years. The EsP chassis back in the day, now to TTR and CPE chassis. Stadium racing or side by side. The one thing about the clod is, plastic is cheap, and its easy to replace. All of mine have stock plastic parts for axles, and all I do is race them, I dont like to bash around with them, because, when race day shows up, something bad will happen.. Dont want to be doing alot of repairs at the race track.

I agree with Jimmy, 90 to 95% of racers run all plastic pieces, I get about 2 maybe 3 days a month to really work on my trucks, So I cant really keep up with staying ahead of plastic part breakage, its easier for me to use the aluminum and forget about it. Repairs at the race track suck since your always in a rush to get the truck ready for the next round of racing

i also run 100% plastic stock parts on my terminator.
the alloy bits are $$$ and heavy. so far i haven't broken anything other then an alloy shock cap.

i am slowly getting my clod back to running condition. i got my fast eddy bearings in the mail today now just waiting on my new servo savers.

i found a brand new venom fireball 17d motor that i forgot about. my question is, if i buy the same motor just newer version will i be fine or are the newer versions different?

will the LRP 8337 AI work with the clods dual motors?

Well, it says no motor limit. Should be fine. Just make sure it gets some air and watch the temps.

so basically any esc that says no motor limit will work??

Yup. Sine you are running 2 motors in parallel, the turns get divided by 2.

17/2= 8.5. Any ESC that can support an 8T motor or lower will work. An ESC with no turns limit should be able to handle that no sweat. As with anything, just keep an eye on the temps to be sure.

Just be sure to change the timing on the front motor (if it can be)...not sure if they come advanced or not, but since 1 is running backwards, if it does have timing, it needs to be reversed to match what the other is running. Otherwise it will be slower and run hotter.

Thus ends Clod 101.

i just remembered i have a lrp 7.1 esc. it doesnt have a motor limit or reverse. i am going to use it since i dont want to spend money on old technology.

i thought i had some left over ceramic grease but i must have thrown it out. i read a lot of you guys run the tamiya grease so thats what im gonna use. i called local hobby bench and hobbytown usa and neither of them carry tamiya parts

edit: looked up the original Clodbuster manual and it shows it came with ceramic grease. i looked up Tamiya ceramic grease on ebay and found some so thats what im going to order right now. cant wait!!!

this is how it looked when i pulled it from storage

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z...psc6d62a9e.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z...pscdb882ec.jpg

years and years of dust on it
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps81d763c3.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps7173be01.jpg

Almost done with my clod rebuild! Can't wait to finish and see it run under it's own power after 10+ years of sitting collecting dust. Also picked up some Big Joe tires and wheels for it. Now to figure out how I'm going to mount them.

I just got the super clodbuster and was wondering if all I need to get to run a lipo is one of those Novak lipo cutoff things. I'm not looking for speed just longer run times thx guys

all this was done last week. finally have a chance to post these pics

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps2fa79e81.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z...psdbaede0f.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z...psab75baaf.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps38e7cd5c.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z...psf337e20f.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z...psb29104d2.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z...psf42b9ee2.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z...psbe51c5b5.jpg

brand new big joes i will put on once i sell some stuff and order the adaptors
http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z...psc330cd7e.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z...ps5b4f2c58.jpg