DIscussion Thread: Huina C972M 1/14 Scale Wheel Loader - RTR

[James]

1/14 Scale C972M Die-Cast Wheel Loader by Huina - RTR - HUA1583-001

Product Availability: The estimated time of arrival (ETA) for this product is mid-February, 2020. Please click the "Notify Me When Back In Stock" button above to receive an email notification when the product is available for purchase.

Huina produces some of the most advanced electrically-articulated Hobby-Grade RC Construction vehicles. Weighing 10 pounds of die-cast metal, ABS, nylon, and other materials, Huina's Loader features realistic sound, lights, high-traction rubber tires, and 2.4ghz proportional radio control. Maneuver past obstacles with the Loader's unique pivoting hull design, driving its all-metal bucket through mountains of dirt, gravel, or other dry material. Steel worm-driven actuators lift up to 3.5lbs to material and dump the Loader's contents into partner machines such as Huina's Dump Truck. Enjoy the endless creativity Expand your RC job site with Huina's dump truck, loader, and other RC Construction vehicles.

Watch the Huina lineup video here:

Ready to Run (RTR) Convenience Zero assembly is required, simply add 4 AA batteries to the radio and charge the included main battery to begin digging!

Die-Cast Metal and Molded ABS Plastic Durable and fully painted, this C972M wheel loader arrives ready for work as the perfect partner to other 1/14 scale RC Construction vehicles such as the Huina C336D Excavator (sold separately).

Fully Operational! Drive, scoop, elevate, and dump material just like a real Wheel Loader. Maneuver around crowded job sites with the realistic pivoting hull movement, just like a full size Wheel Loader!

Easy to Drive A powerful drive motor and large rubber tires enables you to go anywhere on your RC Construction job site, indoors or outdoors!

Lights and Sounds Bright LED lights and built-in sound system enhance the realism of this powerful Wheel Loader. Toggle these functions On or Off directly from the 2.4ghz radio controller.

Proven Operate your RC Construction vehicle with confidence, backed by a full range of spare parts and service from Motion RC!

Features:

• Constructed from durable Die-Cast Metal and ABS Plastic
• Easy to drive with the included 2.4GHz transmitter
• Fully functional - Drive, scoop, dump and elevate with ease
• LED lights and sound for that added scale realism
• Drive with confidence thanks to Motion RC's commitment to spare parts and service

Includes:

• Huina C972M Die-Cast 1/14 Scale Wheel Loader - RTR
• 2.4GHz radio transmitter
• 2S 7.4V 1500mAh Li-ion battery with T-connector
• USB charger
• Complete instruction manual

Requires:

• 4x AA batteries for 2.4GHz radio transmitter

[Nebraska Trevor]

I have had mine for about a year, and I can tell you it is a real beast in the snow. It is fun to sit inside in the warmth of the living room and dig some snow with it!.. It isn't as heavy as the excavator but it still has some serious weight to it and can pick up several lbs with ease. It takes a few minutes to get the hang of driving something that articulates in the middle but you pick it up pretty quickly. The tires are made from a really nice soft rubber that is grippy, and they have just a bit of float to them. When you pick up something with the scoop that weighs several pounds the front tires actually squish and balloon just a little bit like the real thing. It is quite sturdy and I have no problem letting my kids play with it. Short of driving it off of the deck or something crazy I dont think you can hurt it. I sell a set of stickers for this that is an easy way to make it look so much more like the full sized model it is based on. It is a bit more work but I removed the cab and powder coated it with a nice matte white paint to make the cab really stand out like on the prototype. Spray paint would work just as well and it is a couple hours well spent as far as I am concerned. the arms and some of the body is diecast as is the cab. the back "hood" is plastic, and the whole back of it is filled with counterweight to allow it to pick up full scoops of just about anything with no problem at all. A very nice addition to the collection, now I just need to get the Cement mixer to go with it!

Here is a link to the stickers and some photos.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/163577096411

[Too Many Hobbies]

Cool! I bought a 1:14 posable PVC driver for $10...but can't figure out how to get him in the cab. The Cab does not easily remove, so I figure it's screwed in at the bottom?

Does there need to be a lot of dissasembly to get the driver in there?

[Nebraska Trevor]

Cool! I bought a 1:14 posable PVC driver for $10...but can't figure out how to get him in the cab. The Cab does not easily remove, so I figure it's screwed in at the bottom?

Does there need to be a lot of dissasembly to get the driver in there?

As I recall when I removed my cab to paint it white it took less than 30 minutes of work to get everything unscrewed so that I could fully remove the cab for powdercoat. The seat and windows slide right out once the cab is off so you should have no trouble at all getting your driver inside. Have fun!

[Too Many Hobbies]

Thanks! I bookmarked your sticker pages....might get the stickers. Still sorting out my purchases.

I'm also debating getting the Tamiya King Hauler kit. Kind of excited about a 3 speed semi you can shift from the tx.

Problem is either getting the Tamiya or the Huina dump truck AND the excavator for about the same price.

[Nebraska Trevor]

Thanks! I bookmarked your sticker pages....might get the stickers. Still sorting out my purchases.

I'm also debating getting the Tamiya King Hauler kit. Kind of excited about a 3 speed semi you can shift from the tx.

Problem is either getting the Tamiya or the Huina dump truck AND the excavator for about the same price.

Sounds good thanks for that. The stickers and white cab really add a ton to the realism. I know some people add cat stickers that they get elsewhere and I have been asked several times but so far I have resisted. All you need to do is look at some pictures of the 5 series Liebherr loaders to see that clearly that is what the designers were working off of when they made this thing. It is a very good copy of the loaders if you ask me.

[Too Many Hobbies]

For sure! What you did looks really good! Nice job!

[Too Many Hobbies]

I ran my Top Race (same thing I think) wheel loader today. I fit an Admiral 7.4v 1300 in it. Funny, I had an older 1300 Admiral that fit in the bay perfectly...just bought two new Admiral 1300's and they are just a bit too long. I had to dremel out the side of the lipo bay for them to fit. I get a full 1/2 hour of run time off one 1300 with 3.82v/cell remaining.

Still getting the hang of the bucket...I like it but a little frustrated at the lack of torque the wheels have. The bucket has gobs of torque..no problem there. But the vehicle itself stalls on the slightest incline.

So my question is...is there any 380 motor upgrade that would make it worth taking it apart and swapping? Maybe a lower kv 380 for more torque?

Would a 3s be too much for the board?

[Nebraska Trevor]

Interesting.... Mine will drive up anything.... And push snow into a pile, also I seriously doubt the board is set up to handle 3s, or if it did survive it would probably have a voltage regulator that dropped the voltage down negating the benefit of another cell. As I recall mine is 4wd. Are both ends of yours powered... I am pretty sure there are 2 motors. One front and one rear but it has been a year since I had it opened up. Maybe check that out?

[Too Many Hobbies]

According to this breakdown video: There are two 380 motors, but the rear one only runs the rear wheels in reverse, and the front motor only drives the front wheels forward. So at no time are all 4 wheels powered in the same direction. After running mine for an hour today, it's operation verifies that. Only the 2 front wheels pull it forward...it gets no push from the rear wheels.

Check it out.... scrub to 2:23. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sh6J23kY8YU

I agree ....I also doubt the board can handle 3s in stock form. The whole thing would have to be gutted and fitted with all new electronics...which is beyond my pay grade....lol

I wonder if there is a 380 motor that is just a stronger motor. I spotted a Reedy 380 Crawler motor that might be an improvement...

[Nebraska Trevor]

Wow, I did not realize that is how it worked 🧐

[Too Many Hobbies]

Youtube has the answers for everything....lol.

I didn't even know it had 2 drive motors after running it....was surprised to see it had a dedicated motor for each direction. Makes me wonder if I can re-wire somehow to get both motors to work together in one direction. The truck would be a beast!

[Nebraska Trevor]

Yep thinking the same thing.....may need a couple of diodes to avoid feeding reverse voltage back to the control board, but 4wd is a must. Surely somebody has done it!

[Too Many Hobbies]

I dunno...if anybody could have done it, it would be this guy...who is a master of mods...(to the point where he converted the Huinas to 3s and full hydraulic!)

Yet if you look at this video at 5:30-5:45, you can see only the front wheels spinning as he's trying to push dirt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld0gr5TDz0Q

I would love to see Huina make a decent front loader with TRACKS. Whether it be a bullodozer or a front loader, as long as it has tracks! That would be the perfect RC vehicle. They exist, but only either on crap toy form, or the $2,200 unit on RC4WD. So far Huina/Top Race are the only ones making that nice bridge between toy and high end hobby grade. They are providing a very nice middle ground. I am anxious to see what the new excavator is like. I really hope it has decent digging ability for it's scale.

[herrmill]

My son wants real bad after seeing these last summer. May need to pull that trigger soon...

[Bigdigger117]

Yep thinking the same thing.....may need a couple of diodes to avoid feeding reverse voltage back to the control board, but 4wd is a must. Surely somebody has done it!

do you guys think it would be possible to re-wire so the rear wheels drove forward and the front wheels handle reversing?
this wouldn’t be as good as 4x4 but I think it would be better as when driving forward the blade/bucket can lift the driving wheels off the ground or at least lift weight from them. However if the rear handled forward motion the bucket pressing on the ground would increase traction. Similarly with the bicker full the weight would be transferred to the front wheels increasing traction for reverse?

[LoProRC]

Hi all, From some videos I've seen, it looks to me like the latest version might have a little more forward torque with the rear wheels?? I hope I can get one of these when MotionRC gets them in stock. If the forward torque hasn't been improved, I might try some wiring mods myself. Hopefully I'll have the chance to get one and test it before the snow starts here in the northeast :).

[Baysim80]

Oh no!! I lost my steering, it froze in a right turn and at the same time I lost my bucket control. Looks like the fix is replacing the receiver (MFCB) and adding a resistor to the turn motor. The board is definitely fried. Ordered parts from Top Race $40 for both items. Through my research it seems like this is a pretty common problem. I’ve had mine for a year and it was fine till now. Hopefully they fixed this issue for the units MRC Will be carrying.
On a side note: when accessing the wheel retaining screws, you have to remove the hub cap. I tried several things but no success till using the screw method as shown in the pics. If you have a better trick to remove these please post it here.

[Baysim80]

Wheeled loader fix update:
No joy! The new board does not communicate with the controller. Top race sent a new controller to see if that would do the trick-it didn’t. I have since been in a long email string with CS trying to get this figured out and still waiting. I like that you can get parts and even upgrades for this loader but if the spare parts don’t work...the long downtime is ridiculous IMO. I really wanted to use my wheel loader so in the interim I replaced it. Still hopeful for a resolution since I did spend 40 bucks to fix it then I’ll have a small and large model wheel loader.

[Grosporina]

Question for other owners, how much backlash does your loader have in the bucket tilt mechanism? I got mine a few weeks ago and have only run it for around 2 hours (going stir crazy, I set up a dried split pea quarry in my living room) and I'd swear that the bucket is looser than originally.
There's a lot of backlash in the idler arm which is ok, I know there always was, but if I tilt the bucket back and forth by hand with the tiler jackscrew extended more than half way I can get 1/2" of movement in the bucket and when the arm is lifted and I tilt the bucket back it will "flop" back on to the idler arm. The play in the jackscrew is maybe 1/16" to 1/8", but flopping the bucket back and forth by hand I think I feel the jackscrew biting a little halfway through the travel, as if I something may be slipping or worn inside.
I've been watching reviews, unboxings, and disassemblies on youtube but I can't tell from any so far how much backlash is typical.