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

[ERJ-DF]

ERJ-DF yes the excavator is the star. You can get a quick change attachment for the excavator that plugs into the accessory port on the small arm and you can get a bigger bucket and a scarifier and that really adds to the fun. But I have found that the wheel loader is the workhorse of all my equipment. MRC has a 3500mah that fits well into the battery tray that adds loads of time and increased performance throughout the battery life. Good price too. I get well over an hour run times.

Hi. I appreciate this battery tip of yours more. Thank you for sharing.

[Baysim80]

ERJ-DF yes the excavator is the star. You can get a quick change attachment for the excavator that plugs into the accessory port on the small arm and you can get a bigger bucket and a scarifier and that really adds to the fun. But I have found that the wheel loader is the workhorse of all my equipment. MRC has a 3500mah that fits well into the battery tray that adds loads of time and increased performance throughout the battery life. Good price too. I get well over an hour run times.

[ERJ-DF]

ERJ-DF congrats on the wheel loader. Loads of fun! As far as increasing height on arms I have not seen or found any mods to increase height. I also use a ramp or a dugout for the dump truck to drive into to max load it. You can do a mod for the bucket tilt arm to increase the bottom end tilt which also keeps it from tilting back and spilling on the loader. That’s the only bucket arm mod that I’ve seen.

Grateful for the idea, I will research. I was surprised at how much it is possible to have fun with the loader. I see that the "star" of this game is going to be the excavator, but I found a glow in the loader.

[Baysim80]

ERJ-DF congrats on the wheel loader. Loads of fun! As far as increasing height on arms I have not seen or found any mods to increase height. I also use a ramp or a dugout for the dump truck to drive into to max load it. You can do a mod for the bucket tilt arm to increase the bottom end tilt which also keeps it from tilting back and spilling on the loader. That’s the only bucket arm mod that I’ve seen.

[ERJ-DF]

Does anyone know which ones and where can I buy the parts to increase the height of the arms? Alternatively, I am setting up a small ramp to be able to load the dumpers.

[ERJ-DF]

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!

I checked and in my (WL 14800) similar to Huina 1583 the two engines (front and rear) rotate in the same direction.

[ERJ-DF]

I bought the competition one, WL 14800. I read some discussion about them not being 4x4, however I checked and it's 4x4, when you drive the 4 wheels forward and when you drive the 4 wheels backwards. Here are some photos.

[Baysim80]

Finally!!! Top Race sent me another new control board and it paired fine with the radio and I am back in business. Good news too, it looks like a newly redesigned board. Hopefully MRC will get parts and it will be a quicker process in making any future repairs. However I think they are over a year delayed even releasing the Huina products. Well when they do come they are worth the wait. You’ll see.
By the way this loader is all wheel drive and for it’s size and price point is really hard to beat.

[Grosporina]

Ok thanks. That's reassuring, and yeah it's a double edged sword. I take advantage of the "floppiness" sometimes to tap down the load in the bucket.
Now I can get back to "work", those peas aren't going to move themselves.

[Baysim80]

Grosporina i know mine has a lot of that slop too. No matter the position it’s in. I really noticed it when grading my roads but it is worse when it gets toward the back tilt with a load. It gets frustrating when you get a full bucket and it gets to that tipping point and you lose so much of it when it flips back. I’ve learned and work the machine accordingly, as it’s not perfect and as tight a tolerance it’s still pretty fun. I generally keep my loads smaller but since I do most of my playtime outside, losing dirt is not that big a deal anymore. But split peas all over the floor! That could be a problem.

[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.

[Baysim80]

Wheeled loader fix update:
No joy! :cry: 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.

[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.

[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 :).

[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?

[herrmill]

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

[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.

[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]

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]

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