Tommy's "Class Zero" Rover LR3

[Tommy R]

Hey y'all,

Geez, where to begin? So I've always been a competitive person. And when SORRCA was first created I decided to build a Class 1 rig. I originally picked up a Rastar Rover LR3, but decided it wouldn't be competitive enough so I shelf'd it. Down the road I decided to build my Class 1 Jeep LJ and it's turned into quite a capable truck! One day about a year and a half ago we all got together for a casual crawl day. Unfortunately for me, my LJ was acting up. The Tekin motor was sputtering badly. I was going to head home, but Ray offered to let me drive his D110 for the day so I took him up on the offer.

That rig is huge, heavy, has little suspension travel, the tires have no grip, and it was the most fun I've ever had RC crawling! I left that day thinking I need to build something new to replicate that experience. Here's the video Ray took from that day:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-A96mkeXs0

Time passed as I was working on 1:1 projects, but I think the time has finally come for me to get building.

I'm not sure how popular this has gotten elsewhere, but here in central Texas we've been gravitating to milder rigs.....maybe even stock in appearance. The tires are smaller, fenders are uncut, and the tires are nearly entirely covered by the fenders. Performance is, well, realistic! The intent is not to build the best performing rig thinly disguised as a scaler. Instead, it's to build a rig that performs very realistically and often sacrifices performance in the process....very similar to Ray's D110.

If you're familiar with the SORRCA classes (Class 1, 2, and 3), consider this a Class Zero.

Back in 2010 when I picked up this body, they were available on ebay for $45 ready to run. I wish I'd picked up more of them, but at the time we were all building rigs to maximize performance within the scale comp rules so this big, heavy body was less appealing. But it's perfect for a C0 rig!




Measuring out the wheelbase (11.5") it scales out to be just a tick over 1/10th scale. Perfect! However, putting axles under this thing it became clear that even narrow TLTs were too wide to get the "tucked tire" look I was after. What to do??

Old school mods to the rescue! Following an ancient thread provided by our RC ancestors, I decided to narrow some TLTs. I outlined the process in detail in another thread maybe 4 years ago. I can find the link if anyone is interested. Anyway, here's the final product. A completed front and rear narrow TLT compared to a stocker.


Cool! So the axles are done. Now I need a chassis! The Rastar LR3 has a deep interior so it'll be best to have a chassis that closely conforms to the body to get any respectable suspension up travel. So I heated/bent/sliced some 1/2" square tube into this.

[Tommy R]

So I decided to mock up the new, narrowed axles with some wheels/tires under the Rover. BAM!


I also built a truss for the rear axle. It'll be a semi-triangulated 4 link.


The front will be a 3 link with a track bar so I built some mounts for it, too.


Here's a rough mock up of what I hope to make the final ride height.

[Tommy R]

If you'll notice, the frame is pretty narrow and this is out of necessity. That's about as wide as I could make the chassis and still have any clearance for the shocks/tires. As it is, it'll be really tight! The other issue the narrow chassis presents in fitting a motor/trans. Since I'm not cutting up the interior the motor couldn't go on the skid plate. There's just no room. The motor will need to be under the hood. However, an Axial motor/trans combo or even the RC4WD R3 trans setup would have the motor interfering with the shock tower.

So now I'm looking into an RC4WD Disruptor transmission. It's a 16:1, which should work okay. It'll send power to a t-case with either a 1:1 or a .75:1 ratio (not sure yet). If anyone has thoughts on the reliability of the Disruptor transmission or has other suggestions, please feel free to chime in!

Tommy

[Alpha Male]

Looks promising. I may need to make a trip to Austin and drive on your rocks. We don't have any in Houston.

[hotwheels000]

Nice job Tommy, I always enjoy your builds and narrations.

I think you should link to the tlt axle mod, it would help others now and in the future if they are searching it out.

[Tommy R]

Originally Posted by Alpha Male

Looks promising. I may need to make a trip to Austin and drive on your rocks. We don't have any in Houston.

Do it! Would love to have more folks may the trip to crawl with us.

Originally Posted by hotwheels000

Nice job Tommy, I always enjoy your builds and narrations.

I think you should link to the tlt axle mod, it would help others now and in the future if they are searching it out.

Thanks, Devlin! Here's a link to the mod. My contributions are on page 2 near the end of the thread.
HOW TO: Narrow TLT & Bruiser Axles

[tokdl]

Looks great so far. Had one just like this I sold last year, maybe it was you lol!

[Tommy R]

Originally Posted by tokdl

Looks great so far. Had one just like this I sold last year, maybe it was you lol!

LOL! Don't think so, man. I picked this one up in 2010 or so. By the way, NOLA is my hometown.

[Hpi-guy]

That's really cool! Keep us posted on progress!

[imthatguy]

Nice one sir. I love a good class 0.

[tokdl]

Originally Posted by Tommy R

LOL! Don't think so, man. I picked this one up in 2010 or so. By the way, NOLA is my hometown.

Sweet! I had two of these bodies, bought one off of EBay and found the transmitter was the wrong frequency, emailed the vendor just to inform him to check his stock, didn't even want another, and he sent me another one no questions asked. They are an awesome shell to work with. I still have the less detailed, New Bright, Experience shell.

I scrapped the build after I found the axles to be too wide and I didn't have the funds to shorten them. I understand why your track is more narrow.

[STANG KILLA SS]

awesome Tommy, I know this project has been on the bench a few times, glad you made it official now. those tucked tires look sick. what are you planning for wheels? those almost look too moded/aggressive you think? not many choices out there though. tires look perfect.

get that disruptor ordered(before it gets disco'ed), it will more than handle C0 duties.

[Tommy R]

Originally Posted by Hpi-guy

That's really cool! Keep us posted on progress!

Originally Posted by imthatguy

Nice one sir. I love a good class 0.

Thanks, y'all! Much appreciated. Pretty excited about this one!

Originally Posted by tokdl

Sweet! I had two of these bodies, bought one off of EBay and found the transmitter was the wrong frequency, emailed the vendor just to inform him to check his stock, didn't even want another, and he sent me another one no questions asked. They are an awesome shell to work with. I still have the less detailed, New Bright, Experience shell.

I scrapped the build after I found the axles to be too wide and I didn't have the funds to shorten them. I understand why your track is more narrow.

Wow, that's great! I'm now really wishing I had another one. Really like it and I'm going to try to keep all of the hood/hatch/doors opening functions intact, too.

Originally Posted by STANG KILLA SS

awesome Tommy, I know this project has been on the bench a few times, glad you made it official now. those tucked tires look sick. what are you planning for wheels? those almost look too moded/aggressive you think? not many choices out there though. tires look perfect.

get that disruptor ordered(before it gets disco'ed), it will more than handle C0 duties.

Thanks, Cory! Yeah, I'm leaning to the Disruptor set up (for trans and t-case) for this rig. Glad to hear it should hold up! Going to place an order after I get back from the Christmas trip with the family.

I'm extreeeeeeme, baby!!

[Tommy R]

Oh, Cory, forgot to reply about the wheels. I'm really torn. Given the high dollar nature of this rig (especially one someone pony'd up to have it solid axled), the steelies just don't really suit it. I'd consider my RC4WD Voids (Walker Evans), but the screws are all galled up now and I'm not sure they're salvageable. Dean offered to get them reworked, but I haven't sent them to him yet.

But there's just not many 1.55 options out there, which is particularly frustrating. I'm open to suggestions, but I don't think I'll be paying more than $100 for the set....and I'd like a spare for this one, too.

[Tommy R]

Here's an old pic with the Voids under it.

[STANG KILLA SS]

while i wouldnt have thought a evans beadlock fit the class 0, oddly those look nice under there. might look even more stock with the ring stealthed out painted black.

[Tommy R]

Right! Well, the way I look at it, someone who could afford to have a solid axle swap done (front and rear!) on a Rover LR3, they likely could afford to have some pimpy Walker Evans wheels installed, too. LOL! But I may also look into some of the 1.55 wheels from Gearhead. My only concern is they're "glue on" only and I'd be concerned about removing the tires later on.

Speaking of...

I know soaking wheels/tires in Acetone will dissolve the CA glue and allow glued-on tires to be removed. But does it affect the finish on the aluminum wheels? I wouldn't think so, but don't want to experiment on my own.

[Kylar]

Awesome job so far! I also have one of these bodies, so i know how tough the interior is to work around. I still havent built mine yet because of this. Looks like you have the right idea!

[aztitan]

It doesn't effect the finish of aluminum I soaked a set of silver rc4ed wheels for 2 days and they are still golden,

[Bananaclip]

Very cool build tommy. I like that you build allot of your stuff....