WLToys 144010/124017 Final Edition Upgrades: The Budget Upgrades I Personally Use

Of all the WLToys cars, the 144010 and 124017 are my favourite and embody all of the incremental improvements over the hugely popular original 144001 they have made over the years. You can see my review for the 144010 here which is essentially the same as the 124017. At this price point they have their downsides but they are fast, efficient, handle well and have a wealth of options for modification. They do run well out of the box but I thought I'd share the budget mods I personally use to help you with your own decisions around upgrades.

As a start point I have chosen to use my WLToys 144010 as reviewed here. It is already very quick but I wanted to make this a better general purpose car that can be adapted to any situation.

Do the free and cheap stuff first

Before you spend money on it though, I highly recommend considering these free (or next to free) mods to get it setup up correctly as a good start point.

Camber. This is the amount the front or rear wheels are closer together at the top (negative camber) or further apart (positive camber). Although the 144010 and all of the related variants have adjustable tie rods from the factory, they are poorly adjusted. By tweaking the length of the upper tie rods front and rear will allow you to adjust the camber so the tyres have better contact with the ground they are trying to grip. There is always a tradeoff between ideal camber between straight line running and cornering but typically 1-3 degrees negative camber front and rear is a good starting point.

Steering Toe. The steering toe is the amount the front (or rear) wheels point inwards or outwards. Steering tie rods on my WLToys cars have always been poorly adjusted and so you can get a good improvement by bringing to a more neutral toe in/out. Being a 4wd means you can use a little toe out on the front (since the front drive moves the wheels forward from the slop in the steering train) but targeting zero is usually easiest. The rear has negative toe in by default which helps with steering turn in however you can reduce this to zero to help you get a little extra speed for straight line runs as per this guide.

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Shock Oil. The purpose of the oil in the shock absorbers is to prove dampening which controls the movement of the wheel up and down. The purpose of the spring by comparison is to return the shock absorber to it's default position. WL Toys in general seem to have sorted out shock oil levels now so you can of course leave this if you like the dampening however this is a good option to tune the car to your liking. 30-40wt is a good starting point but you can go heavier to about 60 if bottoming out is an issue either with jumps or a low ride height.

Droop screws. Droop screws provide a contact point between suspension arm and chassis to variably limit suspension arm travel. Using M3 grub screws in the preset arm holes will allow you to limit the maximum extension of suspension arms front and rear thereby lowering the overall ride height. This is obviously useful for an low ride height for on-road but it is also useful for offroad in limited amounts since it will stop suspension from overextending thereby reducing stress on CVD driveshafts and reduce the risk of losing dog-bone driveshafts. More on this here

Droop screw installed on the right but not on the left here

Mods for my 144010 final version

Next lets look at the budget mods that have made the biggest difference for me in the way this car performs.

GEMRC Antiroll bars. The suspension in this car is actually really good from the factory, especially if the oil is filled correctly. At speed and on surfaces with decent grip you can get a reasonable amount of body roll though and cornering can become less predictable. In that past I've recommended LC Racing anti-roll bars but the GEM RC store on aliexpress has recently come out with a more cost effective version that is just as easy to install and work just as well. See below for the full install instructions. If you want to see more details of the mechanics of anti roll bars then check out this more fleshed out article here

GEMRC Roll bars are similar to the LC Racing ones but have metal parts. Soft, medium and hard options are here (I chose medium)

For the front you will need to remove this plastic piece held on by 2 screws

Here is the piece removed. You can see the moulded slot where the bar goes.

Front bar installed and stock plastic piece replace with the metal piece from the kit

Add the grub screw, I'd recommend using blue loctite

Place the linkage over the bar and slot in the appropriate place in the a-arm

Use the included M2.5 screw to fix the linkage to the a-arm here

If the anti-roll bar fouls on the springs like this, you will need to feed more of the bar into the linkage before tightening the grub screw

On the left you can see the bar poking out the end of the linkage, it no longer fouls on the spring

A closer look at the correctly set up linkage

Remove the equivalent piece on the rear

Add the bar like you did on the front and replace with the metal piece from the pack

Complete the linkages like you did on the front although you may not need to feed them through as far before you tighten the grub screw

17t no-drill pinion and adjustable mount. The 19t pinion / 4300kv motor combo used in the 144010 and 124017 V2 is clearly a large improvement over the original 124017 and Eachine EAT14 although it still does compromise acceleration and battery life for a high top speed more than I'd like. A car this size that goes 75km/h is not to be sneezed at but if you want to corner, jump, crash or do anything else at this speed, you are going to place stress on the power train and on the durability. This is why for my final edition I have chosen to gear this down to a 17t pinion, which coincidentally is my favourite motor/gear combo right back to my very first brushless modified 144001 guide here. This will give a top speed of around 68km/h but more importantly will improve acceleration, battery life and heat control/long term durability. 

Installing a 17t pinion used to involve drilling and slotting a 144001 motor mount and carefully drilling out a 17t pinion that was only available in a 2.3mm shaft size. What makes this viable now is that GEM RC have also released an adjustable motor mount and 3.2mm bore sized 17t pinion gear as a very inexpensive kit. I bought 2 kits immediately and have since installed it and it works just as I'd hoped. Check out my install notes below.

Here is the stock setup. You'll need to remove the 4 rear screws that hold down the upper deck.

Bend the upper deck up a little and remove the spur gear shroud as you see here.

Now it should look like this with the stock 19t gear (or 27t if you have the EAT14 or 124017 V1). Either are fine as a start point.

Remove the screws the hold the motor mount to the chassis (you may need to heat first) and the twist the mount around the drive shaft bearing as above

You should be able to bring the motor and mount out now

Unplug the motor and pop on your work area

You'll need a little butane torch or similar to heat the grub screw to remove it and get the pinion off in one piece

Even with the grub screw cleanly out, you may need to persuade the pinion off...

Do the same with the motor mount screws...

Screws out, you can see the superglue they use rather than threadlock which has become weak with the heat

New mount and M2.5 countersunk screws. Note, 17t and 19t included in my kit. We want the 17t

17t pinion fits straight on the 3.2mm 2845 motor shaft - no more drilling! Do the motor mount screw up loosely.

Test fit in approximately the right space and do the lower motor screw and grub screw up tightly.

Install the screws that hold the motor mount to the chassis and do them up tight.

You'll need to remove the heatsink which is glued on with thermal paste and then rotate a little and remount so it doesn't foul

Set your gear mesh and make the upper motor screw nice and tight. Now reinstall the shroud and top plate and don't forget to plug your motor back in

Hardened Differential Gears. Although I've personally never had an issue with the durability with stock diffs on this car I know others have either had an issue or at least have been sufficiently concerned. I've tried many time in the past to buy upgrade gears for these cars but have at best received stock replacement and at worst received smaller, finer gears that are actually for a completely different WLToys model (on several occasions). The good news is that GEM RC stock the correct gears for these cars in a well cast hardened metal and like other parts from them, they are cheap. Unfortunately I do not have pictures of these as I was in too much of a rush to install however the same rules apply - use a blow torch to heat up screws that attach to a metal part. Also, don't forget to add thick grease or a 20,000wt + diff fluid to your diffs while you are in there.

These diff gears are well made and will make a good replacement which I will do when the stock ones wear out. Always replace a full set of gears to get the right wear pattern

Since this is a general purpose basher for me I plan to leave this as is... close to stock. However, here are some other customizations to consider, depending on the upgrade path you want to go down.

​Better Offroad Tyres. Stock wheels and tyres are actually pretty good on the 144010 and 124017, a big improvement over the 144001 and 124019 so I'll be leaving as is but it is always easy to recommend the Remo P6973 wheels and tyre set as a strong option in the correct size that will grip well in any condition. If you are strictly looking at offroad, the 1822 set is a good option as well. Long time QuadifyRC friend Geoffrey Chan reckons there is not much that can touch these on a snow track either!

Here is my article on long term favourite wheels for bashing, the Remo P6973. Full review here

Another wheel that works well on looser offroad conditions, the 1822. Full review here

Metal parts where it counts. Being a buggy design with little to no protection on wheels mean that front suspension arms and knuckles are at risk of damage in crashes. Of all parts I personally tend to break these the most. I recommend these cheap aluminium knuckles and these hardened LC racing arms as a good durability upgrade without braking the bank. Here is the article I wrote specifically on this: ​FIXING THE WEAKEST PART OF THE WL TOYS 144001 124016 124017 124018 124018 - NEW METAL HUBS

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A better charger. So far I've focussed a lot on upgrading the car but if you are still using the USB charger your car came with and you think you have more that a passing interest in the hobby, I strongly recommend getting a better charger before anything else. ISDT make the best chargers that are great value with superior features and the entry level 608AC model is very hard to beat. Check out why I strongly recommend upgrading from a USB charger: A BETTER CHARGER FOR YOUR RC CAR BATTERIES

A more responsive ESC. The one real remaining weakpoint of this car is the ESC. To be clear it has proven highly durable , even on 3s but the delay is really unpleasant. After having lived with it for months I now believe WL Toys have asked their ESC supplier to include a very conservative firmware that minimises current draw. Great for eliminating early ESC death but not for response time. Unfortunately I don't have a like for like replacement recommendation at the moment - the Hobbywing 16BL30 is a perfect size but just a little small. The 10BL120 offers great functionality but is a little more expensive and requires some soldering so this is my default pick at the moment. I have a feeling that WLToys may have asked Surpass Hobby (their ESC provider) to improve the response on this ESC which is what I believe I am seeing on newer iterations like on the 104072 hoonitruck although I need to do some more testing to confirm. If this is true and if this ESC can be reliably purchased, then this may be the easiest drop in cheap and convenient replacement.

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So many other customisation options

Well that about rounds out my core other options but don't forget, this versatile chassis makes for heaps of other options - turning it into a monster truck, a speed run weapon, a budget on road basher and much more. If you need more inspiration you can check out previous car of the month builds here or if you want to go super premium. check out Geoffrey Chan's beautiful Project WLC Racing 124018 build series that starts here.

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