I got my Mountaineer brand new for Christmas of 1993. I was 13 years old and had saved nearly $300 for it. Little did I know that my mother took the money out of my savings and used it (and a bit of hers thanks mom!) and when I opened the present at my grandpas house in Lancaster, CA, I remember screaming and going absolutely nuts!

I was pretty young back then, but had lots of RC experience from Bevin (blane525), who first introduced the hobby to me while I was in the single digits. I owned an original Associated RC10 buggy at the time, with the steel chassis and pre-stealth transmission. Bevin has owned a Bruiser and a Hilux for many years then, and that is how I fell in love with the Mountaineer.

I remember jamming all over the place with the mountaineer, jumping it off of the sidewalk and trying to baja it off road in 2nd or 3rd gear. I also remember doing a lot of Crawling with it and learning how traction and articulation work.

This mountaineer has been on many trails, Rubicon, Dusy, and has even been up to Panamint City to name a few. Also, the body is painted with GENUINE 1980 TOYOTA RED PAINT! Marlin had touch-up paint for his truck, which of course I modeled the Mountaineer after

Shortly after I began playing with it I managed to break a rear propeller shaft. The yokes were made out of brass and did not last long at all. Being a little kid who rarely had money or visits to our local Communists Hobby Store, the Mountaineer found itself retired and a nice place in my closet on the top shelf for all dust particles to collect and throw wild dust parties.

Fast forward to 2005. I bought a 1/18th scale Nylint (more info and pics here) and modified the snot out of it. But you know, in the end, no matter what we did to it, it was still a cheap Chinese toy

After becoming very sick and tired of the Nylints, Bevin had suggested rebuilding our Hilux/Mountaineer. That was two years ago. I thought "come awn man, this thing is a vintage trophy not a Rock Crawler". Then Dean turned me on to the Stick when it was first being developed. I thought that was the best way to go, so I acquired some Clod axles and began making a home-brew Stick Crawler.

I got it built to the point of a rolling chassis with steering, but never mounted any electronics and of course never finished the project. It has just been sitting on a shelf, along side the Nylint.

I got bummed with the Stick Project because I began seeing realistic Crawlers. I knew that from our experience with the Nylint, that independent axle power TOTALLY SUCKS in my opinion, and I decided that if I were to get serious and really build a Rock Crawler, then it must have a centrally located transfercase with drivelines.

Then I saw this video last week:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/mvHQxl23SrE" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">http://www.youtube.com/v/mvHQxl23SrE</a>
http://youtube.com/watch?v=mvHQxl23SrE

And I just thought "What the hell are we doing with stupid clod axles" I called up Bevin, he came over shortly there after, and we both drooled and began planning our Mountaineer Crawlers  8)

Here is where my Mountaineer has spent most of its 14-year life, on a shelf with rotted tires. I even have the original box in very good condition.

That has got to be the sickest RC I've seen!  Never knew they made those.

Day 2:

Next is to lock up the front end in reverse. The bummer with the Mountaineer is that Tamiya was trying to cut back on manufacturing costs, so they removed the amazing manual locking hubs of the Bruiser and Hilux with Auto locking hubs that feature one-way locking sprag bearings. So the Mountaineer only has 4WD in 1st gear forward. It only has 2WD reverse. So when you get stuck in 4WD, naturally you need to back up, but you can't back out of the stuck in 2WD! Stupid!

So I tore the hubs apart, which was a first for me. I remember that these came assembled and prelubed from Tamiya. They are made out of soft aluminum, so I just decided to lay the pins down to jam the drive hub against the driven hub. It passes rolling tests.

once i can afford a rc crawler, im going to get one someday. its so crazy how realistic they make them. that video is cool.

Here the transmission is mounted atop the factory Mountaineer Crossmember.

At first I was thinking I would build a Tube Crossmember like my Front Range Off Road unit, since I want to resemble my 1:1 truck, but then decided the factory crossmember would work just fine.

When I start thinking about what I want to do and what I could be doing, I get wwaayy overwhelmed! Same thing happened to my 1:1 truck when I first got it. I have to keep the mind set that I am going to get this thing fully functional as simple and basic as possible. That is the only way to open the door for future modifications.

Getting the Transmission mounted wasn't that bad really. TURBO had the idea to mount the trans sideways as to align the drivelines in a more stock-like fashion. On the 1:1 truck, the drivelines are in-line with their mating pinion shafts, so I wanted to do the same with my Mountaineer.

I know that this sideways mounting arrangement will put more stress on the joints and will reduce the efficiency of the drivetrain, but this is a Rock Crawler, not a racer so I am not really worried about it.

It actually is turning out better than originally anticipated, and it allows for a "Top Secret" modification that is already in the works and will be revealed shortly.

Damn those RC have come along way.  I used to run RC 10s back in the the late 80's and had a clod buster.  Its been way to long since I have played with one.  Yours is looking great! 

Here is the list of electronics I am using, that I had previously acquired last summer for my stick project:

Speed Controller:	Tekin Rebel 2
Radio/Receiver:	Traxxas 3-channel
Batteries:	5000 mAh C-cells
Servo:	Hitec HS-645MG
Motor:	an old 25-turn stock

More to come...

are you actually using tat 3rd channel for something, or was that just a spare controller?

man now i have to go get my truck out from storage to start tinkering with it

Drew

Deffinetly drives as slow as you do!

but not much flex

Have patience young Skywalker. And remember, I am going for realism, not extreme flex here

I'm just busting yer chops. I don't care about RC crawlers at all... Mark gave me a heads up to what he said so I had to bust chops.
I'm sure I'll see no more of this.

Dont forget mini pivot blocks

Dude, I'm way ahead of ya buddy I am trying to put most of the weight near the front axle, so the rear springs will have little help for their articulation.

I plan on inboarding the springs and running pivot blocks.
It is true that I do not have inboarded springs on my rear 1:1 truck, but I would love to use them if I could make a simple anti-sway system since it is my daily driver. So I just figured it would be ok to put it on my Mountaineer

Don't forget to have an RC mammoth behind you to weld it up when it all fails

sweet RC   I want one but they are to expensive! I have a old crappy nikko but i like it because the body is realistic it looks like my 83 pickup