Loving the ClodBuster builds and all the shared tips in this thread—tons of inspiration here! For anyone working on tuning their setup or trying to get more consistent performance out of their rig, don’t underestimate the difference that dialed-in suspension geometry and proper ESC calibration can make. Also, sharing build logs and setup guides like many of you are doing is a huge help to the community. Keep the Clod love going!

Does anybody know of any gearsets available for the Clod that change the gear ratio for more speed? I've seen aftermarket countergears that under-drive it for more torque, but not the other way.

It depends, are you trying to do some shady stuff in a "retro" class that restricts pinion size? haha. With a 3D printer, all things are possible.

The intended use is vintage offroad racing, but in a class that does not restrict gearing. Not “retro” class monster truck racing.

I’ve considered 3D printing, as I’ve designed and printed gears in the past for other applications. Gears are always a pain though and require several rounds of design, printing, trial fitting, tweaking, etc. That’s why I was wondering why anybody already makes a gear set before I put in the effort.

You'd be better off running stock gears with some adjustable motor mounts for larger pinions imo. I've raced my clods on off-road tracks quite a bit through the years.I like a 6.5T sensored motor with a 14t pinion and stock internals, but if you have something like a clodzilla chassis that's probably going to be way too much motor. What motors are you planning to run?

I've seen adjustable motor mounts that allow up to 22t pinions with some dremeling of the gearcase for clearance. That should be more than enough gear.

I'm limited to brushed stock motors or 17.5 brushless. I've been using dual 17.5 for the past couple years so I'll continue with that route, and I'm flipping the rear axle so both motors are the normal forward rotation.

I ordered a set of Factory Works adjustable motor mounts, which are reproductions of the CRP adjustable mounts. I have a pair of 17t pinions so I'll throw those on and see how it goes. with 17T pinions I think the gearing will still be pretty conservative, but I'm sure much better than 13T.

Post up some pics of your truck! Here's one of mine:

Here’s mine at the Vintage Offroad Nationals last year, with home made links mounted to the stock plastic chassis and stock gearing. It was a tough track and I only won the race because the fast trucks all broke:


and current progress on a new chassis I designed. I ended up ordering the Factory Works adjustable motor mounts so it should be pretty quick with dual 17.5 motors:

Looks good. You could probably sell them.

Why you copy-paste from someone else’s post then re-word it in a second post? Seems pretty bot like.

Your original clod is very similar to the setup I was gifted as my very first RC car. Coincidentally my first truck had the flipped rear gearcase on the 4-linked stock chassis too! The new setup looks cool, nice classic 90s style 4-link clod that fits perfectly for vintage races.

My modern stuff is wild, but I think still legal chassis wise as the vintage rules don't really limit chassis configurations?

The only chassis limitation that I'm aware of is that it cannot have cantilever shocks. It's not specified on the rules page for some reason but I believe I've heard Erich Reichert (the organizer) mention that before.