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The WL Toys 144002 is a fantastic handling 1/14 scale monster truck that I reviewed here in full. It is really let down by the powertrain though - although it has a large brushed motor, the gearing is way to tall with the big wheels and suffers with terrible acceleration, poor torque and poor battery life, none of which is a good match for a monster truck and offroad conditions. In this article I will present an easy to install brushless upgrade which is inexpensive and performs great with double the battery life  Let's get straight into it: Brushless motors are much more powerful than their brushed counterparts and so simply choosing one with the same dimensions as the stock motor is a poor choice. It will remain heavy and you still have not solved the issue of tall gearing since you are stuck with these same pinion gear on these large motors. Even with a low KV option this will still make for poor acceleration but will now add cogging into the equation similar to what we saw on the Eachine EAT14 (reviewed here)
Below are the components I've chosen for this setup, the whys and alternative options.
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It was an anticlimax to say the least when WL Toys finally launched their first factory brushless cars. Due to the cheap ESC but moreso the tall gearing they were plagued with issues of cogging - the stuttering of the motor as it struggles to move from pole to pole at low speeds and the loss of torque as a result. You can see this issue in my review of the Eachine EAT14 which has the same problem. WL Toys solved this problem with a hasty update to V2 with a shorter gearing and a higher kv motor. Here is the new 124017 V2 and 124016 V2 (it's hard to find the V1 any more) I've already written this article to show fixes based on parts available at the time but now I have a new fixed based on newly available parts from the V2 that should solve your problem for just $27 (or as cheap as $15 if you reuse your motor) . Read on and follow me as I "fix" my 124017  As per this article I have fixes for the cogging in the 124016, 124017 and Eachine EAT14 which have the shorter gearing that I prefer however they are not especially cheap fixes though remain my favourite in terms of performance. If you want to keep the improvement cheap and quick though there are 2 new options for you:
Installation guide
I've been review and modifying RC cars intensely for over 2 years and in that time I've written dozens, of guides, articles and reviews. I've created a summarised list of all the reviews I've done with what I consider to be the key factors that will help you decide which car suits you the best. Here is my master list QUADIFYRCMASTERCARGUIDE  If you are looking for a discount on this car, I will post any coupon codes or flash sales for it over here on my coupons and discounts page. Remember buying from any of these links supports my page without any cost to you and is appreciated especially since I don't ask for money via patreon and the like. If you want to get involved in this discussion, feel free to join the QuadifyRC Facebook Group Here or like my page below
One thing you'll notice about the pro version of the ZD Racing EX16 is that it has these beautiful small scale aluminium oil filled shocks, they look amazing. Sadly whoever assembles the ZD racing cars has led them down badly because the suspension is set up poorly from the factory. It can however easily be fixed and I'll show you just how to do that in this guide This is the third of a 3 part series of tuning guides for the ZD Racing EX16. The others can be found here:  I'll address 3 suspension fixes in this article: Filling the shocks with oil, suspension geometry and droop screws. Read on!
THE ZD RACING EX16 is an awesome looking little RC Car and has nice components especially if you look at the pro variant with discrete electronics. The most glaringly bad aspect of this car however is the driveline which binds terribly. Left as is it will put unnecessary strain on motor, esc, battery and will reduce acceleration, top speed and battery life as well as causing the car to run hot. The root cause took me a while to troubleshoot but I found it and have come up with a fix that means you don't have to pull the car apart. This is the second of a 3 part series of tuning guides for the ZD Racing EX16. The others can be found here:  What is the cause of the binding?
Like many ready to run RC cars, the ZD Racing EX16 has terrible throttle and steering sensitivity out of the box but. The good news it is very easy to fix as you'll find in my brief guide below. This is the first of a 3 part series of tuning guides for the ZD Racing EX16. The others can be found here:  Hobby grade RC cars have proportional steering and throttle meaning the amount you squeeze the trigger or turn the steering wheel is reflected by the RC with a proportional amount of motor speed or wheel turning. In theory that is. The ZD Racing EX16 is poorly setup from the factory which, to be fair is the same of most cars but it's really easy to fix with the dials on your transmitter.
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