This is the second part of my free and budget upgrade walkthrough for the WL Toys 144001. The first part can be found here. These are also completely relevant for the 124019 and 124018 as well The first series of upgrades I made to the WL toys 144001 was to improve longevity and handling by getting the shock absorber fluid level right, the diffs lubed properly and camber and toe in set correctly. This articles expands on that by further improving the handling through minor tweaks the are either free or cost very little. It is really important you get the handling right to make the car more predictable, especially if you plan on power upgrades further down the line. The upgrades I'll detail in this article are:
1. Decreasing the rear toe in The WL toys 144001 comes set with a LOT of rear toe in (which is the amount the rear wheels point in towards the car when looking from above). Rear toe in does help with cornering stability by decreasing useful steering when powering on in the corner but comes at the cost of straight line speed, especially in high grip situations. In simple terms rear toe in does help make the car feel more stable through corners however I feel the 144001 has much too much and this is easily remedied for free as below: After completing this mod we've gone from a LOT of rear toe in to just a little which is ideal and a really good improvement for most drivers. Sorry I cannot quantify but see below for the pictures of before and after. This change takes 5 minutes to do, costs nothing and is easy to reverse if you really want to 2 Setting the droop on the suspension arms. Firstly the term "droop" refers to the amount of angle the suspension lower arms sag down (droop) when there is no weight on the wheels like when you are holding the car up off the ground. The reason you want to reduce the droop over stock is because when fully extended the suspension arms droop down past their working limit meaning drive shaft and steering components can foul and rub and can become damaged. Reducing this droop is simple and cheap - all you need is 4 x m3 grubs screws. You can buy a grub screw pack like this one but I'd actually recommend the WL toys specific kit here: This has only 5 grub screws but the other screws will obviously be a lot more useful as spares.
So that was pretty easy. I'd suggest that once you first set your droop you should need to adjust again - it has no impact on suspension performance or ride height, it simply stops your drive shafts and steering getting damaged when your wheels are turning with no weight on them (e.g. jumping or being held off the ground). Adjust the droop so that arms are not quite extended to the maximum but no more. Please note the metal arms do not have these holes in them - if you want to set droop you will need to use the stock arms. 3. Improve the dampening in the rear shocks The dampening in the rear shocks in this car is too light. This is because they are modelled after the LC racing EMB-1 which has a smaller 2838 motor making it much lighter in the rear than the brushed 550-equipped 144001. As a result the 144001 needs more bound and rebound (dampening) to stop it from bottoming out over jumps and obstacles. This can easily be done but you will need to by a heavier shock oil - I recommend 60wt oil as below. See pictures and captions for full walkthough
60 Wt oil feels about right, my guess is the stock oil was somewhere in the 30-40 range. Now when you drop the car the front and rear shocks compress about the same amount which is the goal and can be seen in the video below. This will make for a lot more consistent performance over jumps and bumps in general and will go some way to making up for the heavy weight of the massive 550 motor towards the rear of the car. It's worth noting that the suspension would also likely benefit from some stiffer springs in the rear for the same reason but for not I'm ok with the stock springs being would right down. Final words Well that's it for round 2 of upgrades to the WL Toys 144001 where I have aimed to improve handling at a minimum of cost, I congratulate you for getting this far and I hope you've enjoyed it. Again, if you haven't already seen my first upgrade guide, please make sure you check it out here and make these changes before you even start running this car. For my next article I'll start spending money and recommending which parts from the ever-increasing catalogue of parts for the 144001 I'd recommend, for what purpose and why. Later in down the track I'll start looking a the big overhaul - ESCs, receivers, servos and brushless power. Thanks for reading, if you found this article useful please feel free to like or share, the facebook links below directly link/like this article. Links are affiliated and help me buy the bits I need to produce this type of content. If you are looking for cars, quads or parts check out my coupons and discounts page which I keep updated with only the parts and quads I like at a proper discount
Useful parts and upgrades - click image to Banggood product pageThanks for checking out my article and please let me know on my facebook page or in the 144001 group if it worked out for you. I've created a reference page below for all of the 144001 articles I've published here: 144001 UPGRADES - EVERY ONE OF MY GUIDES HERE.
38 Comments
Nico8D
19/6/2020 10:27:21 pm
You say : "Please note the metal arms do not have these holes in them " This is a false statement as the front ones have a hole in them to adjust the droop just like the original ones. What I have seen is that the rear metal ones don't have the hole in them.
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Quadify RC
19/6/2020 10:57:52 pm
False statement? Not from where I'm sitting. I have both sitting on my bench at present and neither have holes. Must be a few variants around. Are yours tapped?
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RC-fanboy
15/1/2021 08:47:38 am
Yeah, would be nice to know. Also would like to know the partnumber/brand if available.
Sydney
15/8/2020 10:06:15 am
The dog bones keep coming dislodged in my 144001. Have you had that problem? If so, any solid fixes?
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Quadify RC
19/8/2020 08:55:44 am
Hi Sydney. If you are having issues with the dog bones I'd recommend getting some CVDs for the rear as well: https://bit.ly/3fqjrgu
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Mistermax80
19/8/2020 07:13:21 am
thanks very good article!
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Quadify RC
19/8/2020 08:56:40 am
Thanks Max, yes the diffs definitely need the grease to prolong life and improve grip
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Trihet
29/8/2020 03:46:27 am
Hey, thanks for the article
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Quadify RC
29/8/2020 08:09:24 pm
Hey no problem. Very difficult for me to tell without seeing it. Assuming that nothing is broken the first place I'd look is to make sure they are filled to the correct level
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Trihet
29/8/2020 08:14:47 pm
Thanks. Appreciate really you need to see it.
Quadify RC
29/8/2020 09:40:54 pm
Hmm sounds like you are going exactly how I would. 60WT oil should be a bid improvement so if you're not happy with that you'd really need to look at some stiffer springs - the LC racing EMB has springs available in varying stiffness - that's where I'd look if you want harder.
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ian williams
21/9/2022 11:30:50 am
I found stiffer spring on ebay
Trihet
29/8/2020 09:42:56 pm
Thanks
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John
20/9/2020 06:51:04 am
If you recommend 60wt for the rear, what do you recommend for the front? My shocks came underfilled.
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QuadifyRC
20/9/2020 11:11:56 pm
I just used stock but if you need to up up then probably 30-40wt with the stock motor doe to rear weight bias
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Shawn Cartwright
6/1/2021 03:42:44 pm
Have you run your rear toe-in changes at an off-road RC track? Curious as to your perceived handling changes from the stock configuration.
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QuadifyRC
6/1/2021 04:28:28 pm
Haven't been to a track for about 25 years I'm afraid? It's mostly bashing with the kids these days. If you are looking at running on a track, you may actually get some benefit from the rear toe in setting.
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Pierre
8/1/2021 11:50:13 pm
Hi,
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QuadifyRC
11/1/2021 09:09:15 am
Hi Pierre
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Pierre
11/1/2021 10:09:51 am
Hi,
QuadifyRC
11/1/2021 10:22:58 am
Ahh I've not seen any replacements for the outdrives yet I am afraid. The stock diffs are cheap and easier to replace as a unit I find.
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Paul
27/1/2021 09:37:35 am
Hey awesome guide. Great job! Quick question though I bought the 2838 brushless combo and while testing everything before installation I plugged the esc into battery it immediately started sizzling and smoking...any idea why? Thanks
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QuadifyRC
28/1/2021 11:46:35 pm
That doesn't sound good. As you've probably figured out, it shouldn't be doing that. Check fright that the battery polarity was correct (red to red, black to black) but it sounds like a claim I'm afraid.
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batracio
13/2/2021 12:12:36 pm
Once you´ve run this little beauty on 3S you´ll not want to run on 2S again. There is an enormous difference and there is no real need -in my humble opinion- to make any other modificaction nor upgrade apart from greaseing diffs etc.
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QuadifyRC
15/2/2021 11:30:04 pm
You must have one of the lucky ESCs, it seems to be a bit hit and miss. Enjoy it!
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Jason
15/2/2021 08:18:49 pm
The reae shocks on my son's car bottom out & don't rebound much at all (unless you manually lift the wieght of the car)... I'm assuming the seals have probably blown and all oil leaked... Does this seem likely?
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QuadifyRC
15/2/2021 11:32:12 pm
Hey Jason
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Isaac
31/3/2021 09:44:08 am
Hi Quadify, I've been following your site for a while now, great work! I always eagerly look forward to new posts!
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QuadifyRC
31/3/2021 12:57:09 pm
Hi Isaac
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Isaac
7/4/2021 08:01:35 am
Sorry for the late reply, I didn't see the notification in my inbox. When I asked on Reddit, I did say that my car was the Wltoys 144001, but I don't think the people who responded knew how free flowing the 144001 shock is. I knew from one of your pictures that it is a 4 hole piston, but I don't know much about shock designs.
QuadifyRC
7/4/2021 11:16:19 am
Hi Isaac
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Patric
6/4/2021 09:37:30 am
Hi! Honestly thankˋs for these perfect article’s. New to the hobby and got into the 124018. unfortunately I directly will go for brushless due to battery lifetime compared to an hbx my son runs. Anyway. Can you give me a hint where to get siutable rear springs or whole suspensions that aren’t filling that weak. The damping itself may be adjusted by thicker oil, but even now the spring doesn’t move back suspensions properly. https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_Aa3Cu4 Doesn‘t tell the length so I‘m not sure about them being ca 45mm. Have you an idea?
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QuadifyRC
6/4/2021 09:57:00 am
My pleasure Patric!
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Patric
7/4/2021 09:29:00 am
Front max open collars, rear max down, so maximum pre tension. From my DH bike setup I technically don‘t like pre tensioned springs. It technically is only reducing height of the object but doesn‘t give more power to a spring. I ordered two types of rear EMD-DT springs (medium + hard) and 400 600 800 oil, so we will see. Hope they fit.
QuadifyRC
7/4/2021 11:18:53 am
If you are maxed out rear then you are going to need new springs for sure. I don't like pre-loaded springs either for reasons you already know about. EMB-DT springs should be good
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Dicky
1/12/2021 03:22:15 pm
Hi Guys,
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Isaac
1/12/2021 04:02:15 pm
Hi Dicky, it's not Quadify, but me, Isaac. You won't be able to use the RX with the stock 144001 radio, but you should be able to use it with another bindable radio of your liking (of course, make sure they are cross-compatible first).
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QuadifyRC
10/12/2021 11:16:34 am
Sounds like you are running a fixed wing or quad radio! Unfortunately these cars run electronics that are somewhat unique so you'd need a new ESC and a 3 wire receiver too. To be honest the stock radio is fine and you'll get used to the trigger/wheel style quickly. If you do go down this path though it makes sense to go brushless while you are at it.
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