Joined the Raminator Owner's CLub as of Yesterday.

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Bandit2013

Well-Known Member
Messages
254
Location
North Carolina
Primal RC Raminator V3. Figured I would get into this game sooner or later.

20220723_073238.jpg

I can appreciate all of the comments from others that claim pictures do not do it any justice as it is difficult to gauge the actual size of this truck. Since I do not have a dedicated workshop, I have been using the dining room table for assembly. I have it well protected and the pads I am using (several layers) are fuel /oil resistant (material is an air damper gasket which is very tough stuff).

Considering I can fit two Bajas and one Vekta KV5TT on the table at the same time, there was not much room for the tools with just the Raminator by itself. Just for size comparison I have a front and rear Baja wheel on the table.
20220722_223237.jpg

I soon realized I had the tires on backwards after taking the photos. I corrected that this morning. Soon to get its first start and short run. Everything else checks out.

20220722_223259.jpg

20220722_223316.jpg

Not sure how this will run. I will give the stock engine a chance. Not looking for high speed or anything like that with this rig. I have other 1/5 scales for the speed fix.

Possible changes:
  • Change in steering servos to AGF 100kg.
  • Upgrade to a 2s-Lipo battery. Not sure what brand. 7000mAh up to 8000mAh.
  • Upgrade to a better radio. All I need is a receiver so I can add it to my main radio system.
  • Add more shocks. Waiting on seeing how this will perform as is.
  • Better body mounts. May wait until I break something first.
I have also been looking into the pocket-bike sites to see if there are better carbs and choke setups. It is the choke that may be of concern as I have seen many videos revealing the choke plate can move and close off the intake when running the vehicle. Thought about drilling a small hole in the lever and add a spring to keep it in the open position.

So far, I am impressed with the design of this vehicle. It is more impressive in person than in photos. Not as heavy as I thought it would be. Sure, it is a beast at 80lbs but seems easier to manage with the body off than the Vekta KV5TT which weighs considerably less. That opinion may change when I get it down the steps into the garage. Big tank, need to get more fuel. Will add stickers to the body before I run with it installed.
 
Welcome to the club!!! They are a blast. I use mine for more "scale" type running so the stock engine has suited me well.
I did upgrade to a Lipo and run a 6500mah pack which lasts me through 2 full tanks. About and hour and a half to 2 hours depending on my driving and that is with using the four wheel steering, so 2 extra servos above stock.
As for suspension, I run two sets of shocks on each corner, one with springs and one as a dampener. However the V3 set up has the ability to run this:

https://www.primalrc.com/product-prrot019s


This is EXACTLY what we needed, but is only available for the V3. This will act more like a "real" monster truck giving you on the fly tuning. You can make it super soft and plush or stiff using the screw/puck adjustment in the reservoir. Really wish Primal had these for us V2 folks as I would 100% be getting them.

Ditch the choke for sure. No need for it on this engine and more issues then success with it from most people. Mine was removed on day one.

Peep my build thread for other general info..most of the info will transfer over to the V3 as well.

Congrats on the purchase/build and let us know your thoughts once she is running!
 
I knew this was going to be trouble. It would not fit through the dining room doors or any door in the home with the monster wheels on it. At least I had that set of Rovan wheels to swap with the huge tires. Made it easy to roll thought the house as I did not feel like carrying it.
20220723_132027.jpg

I managed to get this thing down the steps and out into the garage. I may have thought it was lighter than it is, but once you get the axles mounted it lives up to its weight. Looks a bit odd with the tiny wheels on it. The frame of the PRC Ram still towers over the Vekta KV5TT. I was able to run the engine after checking everything out. I believe there is odd with the brake servo as it appears to get a glitch when the engine is running. I did check the throttle servo to see if there was any activity with that since it shares a common signal line through a Y cable connection. Nope. Brakes do work, the servo does not glitch when there is brake or throttle applied, only when the servo is at its center point. It will jitter to full brake periodically. It could also be the kill switch as it also pulls on the brakes if signal loss occurs. Yeah, I did run it with the tiny wheels for a short period. Everything works out ok, except for the glitchy servo. Bummer. Will have to look at its rating and see if a 78K will work there.

20220723_133141.jpg

In a different perspective from smallest to largest. Wanted to keep the look simple so I only used a few stickers off the sheet.

20220723_140337.jpg

Another view from largest to smallest. You can't even see the Vekta KV5tt. Went for a clean look. Not sure if I will use the other stickers. May do so later.

20220723_140358.jpg

Truck runs much better on the monster tires. Did not notice the brake glitch. Did not take very long to drain the battery. Total run time so far was 20 minutes, and the battery was drained. At first thought one of the steering servos got disconnected because it was extremely slow, then the engine shut off in the middle of the street. Had to drag it back to the garage to check it out. Once I got there, all seemed OK. Started it up again and out to the yard. It ran for another 2 minutes lost steering control and it shut down.

Overall, the truck is great. I still cannot believe how big it is.
The steering and brake servos are a bit on the low budget side of things as is the radio. May as well just sell the truck with a tether cord, steel stake and a hammer. Need to look at my budget and see what I can get on order.
 
I was able to get the battery to charge. Had to leave it charge overnight. For some reason, the Hitec charger does not like the supplied Ni-MH battery as it reports with connection error. This is not the first time I encountered the battery issue. Will see how things work out now that the battery has some charge on it (assumed).

Any recommendations on LiPo battery brands?
 
I was able to get the battery to charge. Had to leave it charge overnight. For some reason, the Hitec charger does not like the supplied Ni-MH battery as it reports with connection error. This is not the first time I encountered the battery issue. Will see how things work out now that the battery has some charge on it (assumed).

Any recommendations on LiPo battery brands?

I've ran the zeee rc batteries off Amazon with great luck.
 
I was able to run the truck for about 15 minutes yesterday before the battery when dead. I did confirm that the brake servo was affected with the engine running. I swapped it with a steering servo I pulled off of the Vekta KV5TT. No more glitch. Based on observations, other than the obvious, it is the steering servos that are pulling too much current. They overheat and become sluggish. That is just doing a simple turn. At least I did not fry any wires. Let the servos cool down and it behaves like it has a fully charged battery is installed. I would not doubt there is a miss-match in the servo arm position on both steering servos. The Vekta servo was used only to verify there are no other issues. It remained stable and did not jitter. The stock servo's erratic behavior was if the kill switch was trying to push the brakes as it is one of its functions when there is an issue. Engine was not shutting down but that may take a few more milliseconds than the pulse causing the glitch. Still curious why the Vekta servo got super-hot when not using the brakes much. It could be proximity to the exhaust pipe. May need to wrap it in some areas. Battery voltage remained at 7.4V most of the time but when the steering servos got hot it dropped to 4.6V or lower.

I may borrow one of the oscilloscopes to monitor battery current. I can unplug servos and measure current draw to compare to the data sheets if they are available. Not sure if I need to replace the throttle and reverse servo at this time. Those did not get hot as there is not much load on them. Private label product makes one wonder what brand it is. Considering the characteristics of the servo wires, it appears that Vekta, Rovan, and Primal share the same servo manufacturer. Not complaining. I sort of expected to have to make some changes.
 
Primal is notorious for not aligning the servos...so they end up fighting each other thus burning up. One of the "must check" items when building the rig. Also ensure that the end points are set and the servos are not being driven past their mechanical limits. I have been blessed thus far to still be on my stock steering servos front and rear with no issues.
John is correct, MANY people have had to just ditch them and get better servos to prevent issues. But if funds are tight in the moment, at least check that they are mechanically set up properly and end points are set..this may fix the issue and get you several more runs before having to drop the coin.
 
when I got my mega I had two bad servos out of the box, primal did replace them but they should be better quality considering the cost of the truck
I think the truck should have come with a better engine too the stock one isn’t that great
That HP GP 46 should have been the stock engine imo
The radio however isn’t bad and is way better then the spektrum stuff that comes with the Losi and Arrma cars
Enjoy your Ram it’s a really cool truck :)
 
I was not planning on upgrading this rig due to its price point. However, I did not buy this to be a shelf queen.
The last thing that happened, spark plug failed. Could not restart the engine the day after. Checked spark, none. Battery voltage was 7.6V. I even unplugged all the servos except for the throttle and reverse to unload the battery from the suspect up front. No change.

Ordered some NGK replacements. Hope to get the engine running again so I can at least get one more heat cycle on the engine and burn off the remaining fuel in the tank. I did not fill the tank with much fuel to start with. Yeah, fuel is in the line, loosened up the gas cap, will not fire. Will see when I get new plugs. The engine was running super rich to start with. I did search through all of the documents and no mention on stock high needle setting.

May consider removing the choke, I have some thick washers to make up the difference. They are actually spacers but have the same thickness as the choke plate. Assuming I can get this rig started, what should I expect without the choke in reference to starting the engine?

Parts on order:
  • AGFRC A280BHLW (100KG) x 2 for steering
  • AGFRC A80BHMW V2 (40KG) x 2 for throttle and reverse - Detroit Performance RC
  • Secondary set of Raminator shocks (Blue)
  • Negative pressure kit (Blue)
  • Zeee 2S 6200mAh Lipo Battery 7.4V, 60C (Figured I would start there and get larger capacity later if needed).
  • NGK CR7HSA
I already have the A280BHMW 78KG on hand.

At least I did not fry the harness like some of you have done. I kept a watch on wire temps as I have reviewed most of the build logs. After going through the Blue Waffle build, I was aware of the servo issues and wire harness burnout. Thanks John.

Thank you Rick for all of the great help. Your build log on this vehicle gave me the itch to get one of these.


You guys are great. I will do a better update once I get this rig squared away and running. Even though I have some issues with it out of the box, it was far more rewarding than the Vekta KV5TT. I did get resolve on that rig, it was just a matter of figuring it out.

However, if things go south, I will look for some lemon stickers instead of using the ram stickers.
 
Hi everyone this is Owen from Primal RC, I am a recent hire to work on designing new vehicles and upgrade parts.
I appreciate the link to my shock video!

The electronics is something we are currently working on to find a fix for. We stand by our trucks 100% and want everyone to enjoy them.
if you have problems email us and we will help you as much as we can.
We have lots of other upgrades in development as well, and I would love to hear what ideas you all have for things to improve on our trucks.

Thanks guys :)
Owen
 
Hey Owen welcome to the forum
I have an awesome upgrade idea for you guys
Take the reverse mechanism out of the transmission and incorporate a servo activated two speed similar to what the original traxxas e maxx had
It would be sweet to be able to shift gears on the go
If I can think of anything else I will let you know
Thanks Rick
 
Hi Owen, Thanks for joining.
I can say I am impressed with the overall design of the Raminator. The Mechanical design is Awesome. That is the primary reason I had to have one.
I do have some minor issues, mostly with the servos.

Out of the box experience:
  • Steering only works briefly: Not exactly sure what the issue is. I have not been able to run the truck more than 15 minutes total. When making a turn, it will get stuck and not respond. I have checked the servos by feel to find them extremely hot. I have not noticed any thermal change in the servo wires for the steering.
  • Brake servo: very glitchy when the engine is running. Constantly pulses to brake position when servo should be at its midpoint (no throttle or brake applied). I did not see this behavior on the throttle servo, so I assumed it was the brake servo. It did work with throttle or brake signal but it still pulsed erratically when the engine was running. I have cut the zip ties and reposition the servo wire, checked the connection. No change in the erratic behavior. I did swap it with a Kraken servo as a temporary measure to see if the glitch was servo or wiring harness related. That alternate servo did not have this glitchy behavior.
  • Battery: Another area of concern. Had to charge if overnight in order for the charger light to change from red to green. It will last at least 10 minutes with the truck on blocks and not using the steering servos. I was able to get at least two heat cycles on the engine. Attempting to run the vehicle will result in engine shut down due to low battery voltage or other issues with too much current draw.
  • Throttle and reverse servos work just fine. No issues with them.
I am not saying I am dissatisfied with the product. The minor issues are easy to work around with replacement parts at my expense.
 
Hi Owen, Thanks for joining.
I can say I am impressed with the overall design of the Raminator. The Mechanical design is Awesome. That is the primary reason I had to have one.
I do have some minor issues, mostly with the servos.

Out of the box experience:
  • Steering only works briefly: Not exactly sure what the issue is. I have not been able to run the truck more than 15 minutes total. When making a turn, it will get stuck and not respond. I have checked the servos by feel to find them extremely hot. I have not noticed any thermal change in the servo wires for the steering.
  • Brake servo: very glitchy when the engine is running. Constantly pulses to brake position when servo should be at its midpoint (no throttle or brake applied). I did not see this behavior on the throttle servo, so I assumed it was the brake servo. It did work with throttle or brake signal but it still pulsed erratically when the engine was running. I have cut the zip ties and reposition the servo wire, checked the connection. No change in the erratic behavior. I did swap it with a Kraken servo as a temporary measure to see if the glitch was servo or wiring harness related. That alternate servo did not have this glitchy behavior.
  • Battery: Another area of concern. Had to charge if overnight in order for the charger light to change from red to green. It will last at least 10 minutes with the truck on blocks and not using the steering servos. I was able to get at least two heat cycles on the engine. Attempting to run the vehicle will result in engine shut down due to low battery voltage or other issues with too much current draw.
  • Throttle and reverse servos work just fine. No issues with them.
I am not saying I am dissatisfied with the product. The minor issues are easy to work around with replacement parts at my expense.

Thank you for sharing your experience. If I had to guess based on what you are saying, I think some of your issues could be solved by upgrading to a Lipo battery. To make shipping easier, especially international shipping due to customs, we don't sell the truck with a Lipo installed. The stock NiMH battery we think can no longer handle the power of the new 100kg servos. Again this is all speculation, I will be testing this out next week.

If you want to upgrade, any decent size 2s Lipo would work well. The receiver can take 8.4v just fine.

Also for your brake servo, if it only happens when the engine is running, it is likely related to the spark plug/coil. Check the ground wires too. Just like a real car, the truck can sometimes have ground issues which mess with the receiver and would then lead to a glitchy servo. I have seen servos that twitch and things, but if it only happens when the engine is running, it would mean the servo is probably fine. You can also try the upgrade that eliminates the throttle servo and uses the large brake servo for throttle and brake, this would mean less wiring and hopefully more reliability.

You may ask why we don't fix these things out of the box, that is what I am working on :) As you can imagine as well, it is hard to produce a product that meets everyone's expectations and use case. Some people don't mind tinkering or installing upgrades, while others expect a RTR truck that can be thrown in the ocean and still run. Maybe we can get to that level some day haha.
 
Owen,
Interesting upgrade you mentioned on the throttle/brake concept. However, I prefer the redundancy of a separate throttle and brake servo. The Triton kill switch is also an intermediary control of the brake servo since the CH2 signal is split in the battery box. Having the brakes come on and engine kill at the same time radio signal is lost is a nice feature. My thoughts on the glitch leaned more in the direction you mentioned on the ground of the engine/chassis but there were no other related symptoms observed. Swapping in a known servo of the same size resolved the glitch issues. I would be more than willing to send you the servos to your attention. I can make the arrangements through customer service. I will be a returning customer as I do have interests in the Gravedigger version.

One more issue I had with the truck, I discovered that the fuel lines were not connected properly. The transparent yellow fuel line was the one that hat the fuel filter connected to it. The black fuel line was cut short and was above the fuel level. I had purchased new spark plugs in belief the original was fouled up due to running on the rich side. I did test for spark and had none. New plug installed, had spark but no engine. Fresh charge on battery. Swapped the fuel lines on the carb and all was good. I was able to complete a 3rd heat cycle on the engine.
 
Got all the parts I ordered just before the weekend. I am surprised everything arrived so soon. Shocks on the right I installed the negative pressure kit. Have to complete the other two. Also found that if you reverse the spring spacer the shocks will not get stuck since it will not drop below the end of the shock body.

20220729_214117.jpg

20220729_214210.jpg
20220729_214252.jpg

Plan on upgrading the steering arms. These will be a direct fit and will not require drilling and tapping the axle housing. Dual shock kit and some extra parts (cable stops and extra brake pads).

The negative pressure kit works great. I was planning on running a dual shock setup. Wanted to use the blue shocks in the stock location and reposition the silver stockers in the outer position. Not sure if the negative pressure adjusters will fit if I want to keep the sway bars. I could use them on the outer position and keep the stockers where they are. I will work it out when I can get the truck on the bench. Could always go to plan B and just use these and keep the silver ones as spares.

I was going to remove the AGF 78K servo from the Vekta and use that as the brake servo. Nah. I did not want to tear down that truck so I opted to get another 78KG servo (A80BHMW) from Detroit Performance RC. They also had the 40KG servos for throttle and reverse. (3 servos on the bottom). The two top servos are 100KG (A80BHLW) I could only find through Amazon.

20220729_213519.jpg

And for the power source I got some Zeees. It was a twin pack deal so I have a backup if I need it.

20220729_235616.jpg

I was able to get the Raminator fired up after replacing the spark plug and swapping the fuel lines on the carb. Now that the fuel tank is empty, I can bring the truck into the house and replace some parts. Hoping to get at least a decent run in by Sunday. Thus far, the first on ground run was not rewarding due to some minor issues. Now I am stoked to get this thing going.
 
I decided to upgrade the shocks starting at the rear. Wanted to confirm if the negative pressure cylinder would have clearance with the sway bar as I was hoping to run the blue shocks in the original position and move the silver one's to the alternate. No clearance. I would assume if this setup is used on the limited edition Gravedigger, there must be a different sway bar for that. Since there was no clearance with the sway bar, thought about just running the blue shocks. 20220730_084524.jpg

I could have just gone with silver shocks. Needed some color to offset the silver.

As it seems, if I want to use the sway bars, I cannot have the negative pressure kit installed on both shocks if running dual sets of dampers. I would assume I could have repositioned the cross bar to the next position down and install the shock post above it. It would work but would have had to drill out the hole to fit the shock mount as it was just a tad bit too small. I can do that later if it makes any sense to do it. However, using the hole below the cross member will place some spring load on the shock. Also was not certain if there would be clearance with the body.

20220730_085115.jpg

It would not be too difficult to remove the springs off of the shock on the rear. I will run it with them installed.
As for the front end, replacing the servos was perfect timing. The lower bolt cannot be installed in the same orientation.

Thanks for the heads up on that fact RickDizzle. Loved your build log on your Raminator as it was very helpful in completing my project.

Steering Servos. Two AGFRC A260BHLW 100KG servos. The only two places I could find them were AFG website and Amazon. I did not have to apply any heat to remove the servo horn/arm assembly from the stock servos. I was expecting a clamp screw on the steel servo horn but that part is a solid round steel puck. The aluminum arm sets into a pocket on the steel horn and is adjustable once you burn off the glue that holds the parts together. Once you see the assembly smoking with 1600°F air applied, the two parts can be separated with a twist. I used a pair of plyers to hold the steel horn and a crescent wrench to apply leverage on the arm. Did not take any pictures of that process.

While the parts cooled down, it was a good time to install the extra set of shocks to the front end. Took the picture before I started with the steering servo removal. To get the shock mounts installed, I found it easier to remove the cross member so there would be more room for the tools. I only removed the socket screws and slid the cross member out of the way. I should have done that when I installed the shocks in the rear as there is plenty of tension on the plates and when you pull it out, you need to flex the plate on one side to get it back in (Crescent wrench worked for the leverage). I also had to remove the brake lever off the servo to gain more clearance to mount the shock studs on the one side. Note the orange servo, that was the take-off from the Vekta KV5TT.
20220730_085331.jpg
Installed the front shocks and steering servos. It was also a good time to replace the steering link mount levers. I did look at placing the longer control arms on the lower side of the link mount. The top seemed to be better when the steering is at its maximum position the rod will be parallel to the axle assembly. When on the bottom it forms an angle when the assembly is at its endpoint. The AGF 100KG servos just fit with plenty of clearance for the upper 4 link suspension arms. As it seems, the 78KG and 110KG servos have the same dimensions.

20220731_063732.jpg

Brake servo: AGF280BHMW. You can find them at Detroit Performance RC or Taylor RC UK. The also carry the smaller servos for the throttle and the reverse. Sure, there are other servos you can use. I am more familiar with the AGF servos. I did consider not replacing the throttle servo but that would have provided an issue. I could not get the programmer to work with the 78KG since it had a different firmware installed (assumed). However, the 40KG throttle servo did work with the programming tool so I was able to set it to be inverted. Otherwise, I would have to go back to the original or Kraken servo. Hard to drive a vehicle when the brakes go full on with increase in throttle. No smokey tire burnouts with that. If you end up with this and do not want to change the throttle servo, there are some servo-signal reverse modules out there. I would not use that on the brake servo due to its ampacity. Better to use that on the throttle servo, then reverse the throttle function using the transmitter and confirm the failsafe feature functions properly. I had originally thought it was the Triton kill switch doing the full brake function, I was wrong. It is the setup on the transmitter that configures the function in the receiver to perform that task. The stock radio setup is not all that bad. It was easy to configure everything and what I used to setup the steering servos and such.

20220731_063807.jpg
20220731_063931.jpg
20220731_063818.jpg
What I like about the AGF servos I am using is that they have all aluminum housings. No plastic mounting ears or covers. May as well replace the reverse servo while I am at it. No need to remove the cable, just remove the screws that hold the servo mounts (may need some heat on the screws) and it can be moved out to replace it. I did the same thing with the throttle servo. It may be easier to leave the servo screws on the loose side to get the servo assemble back into position. This process was much easier than anticipated.

20220731_063749.jpg

During the setup process, I am still using the stock battery and receiver. I will eventually replace the receiver when I get done with the servos. Will have to address the wires and harness before I run this truck. So far things are working out. No reason why I could not run this with the stock battery at this point. Will have to see what happens when I do. I have charged up one of the Li-po packs for the fun part. Hopefully when it is all said and done, I will have more than 5 minutes of run time. In stock form, I was only able to get a few feet away before the steering servos overheated and shut down if making any turns. The longest run I got in stock form was about 30 ft then it died in the center of the street. I will have it all done and running before noon today. Still have to break in the engine.
 
I did not get to the receiver yet. Decided to see if there were any performance improvements with the new servos. Got it all set up and everything passed all of the pre-run checks. Started up the engine with the wheels off the ground. No issues, walked away from it at least 20 ft, no problems. Turned off transmitter, engine shut off and brakes came on. Ready for the road test? I thought it was, but it wasn't. Lost radio signal and the engine shut down. At this point I should have taken it back into the garage. Nope. reset the kill switch and started it up again. Those servos were tossing the front end around like they were light weight pillows. Yeah, running the Li-po battery. Still going slow at this point. I also figured out if the Triton kill switch gets too high of a throttle signal it automatically will shut down. :poop: Corrected that issue with end point adjustment, so I thought. :unsure: Engine stopped again. Bummer, this truck has some grounding gremlins 👽or EMI issues. Reset the kill switch again, fired back up. At this point was time to bring it in and wait for another day (when I can get my hands on an oscilloscope from work as I did not bring one home on Friday.) While I was moving the truck to the garage under power but slow, lost all functions, no brakes, no throttle, no steering and could not shut down remotely.

When I approached the truck with my finger pushing the brakes on (it was under the trigger pushing it forward), the Triton had a green light. At the moment I was reaching for the toggle switch on the front to shut down the engine, the Raminator went full tilt and slammed into the VW Jetta.o_O WTF? First time I had a run-away with a kill switch. :unsure::poop: No damage to the car or Raminator, it was a tire-on-tire collision. The distance between the two vehicles was only 5 ft before it went nuts. Steering servo saver was also extremely loose. I may not have tightened the nut all the way.

Not sure who manufactures the Triton Kill switch. I believe this is probably the root of all evils with this truck. Ferrite bead is not in the correct location as it should be at the other end near the ignition kill switch. That was one of my concerns from day one.

Ordered a few parts from Killer-RC to fix this issue. KilerBee, ignition coil extension kit, and a set of ferrite beads that I can place in areas of concern. I will also run the ignition wire outside of the wire mesh. May have to bring out the copper foil tape (have plenty for shielding guitars and basses left over). I will also check out McMaster Carr for some shielding materials/wire looms, etc.

So at least I got a few minutes and a different experience with the new servos and battery. Just have to exterminate the gremlins and all should be good.
 
Back
Top
AdBlock Detected

We get it, advertisements are annoying!

Sure, ad-blocking software does a great job at blocking ads, but it also blocks useful features of our website. For the best site experience please disable your AdBlocker.

I've Disabled AdBlock    No Thanks