KOH Race/trail Jeep CJ

[rckjeep]

Ok so I checked the battery and it was dead but below voltage. It caused the ESC to go into Thermal cutoff mode which froze it. I reset the esc and went back to a 2S battery and drove it for almost an hour with no issue, thankfully. Its much slower but crawls way better. I'll keep the 3S packs for Mugsy till they stop working. One of them has been below voltage twice now, not sure how many times it can happen.

[rckjeep]

I picked up some Tamiya YJ headlight buckets for the XJ and the round lights that came with them fit almost perfect. So I drilled out the grilles faux lights and snapped these in place. I used a little Shoegoo to keep them in place. Then I used the lens from the Hi-Lift rollbar lights and they fit great. Now to find a home for some rock lights and a pair of tail lights.

[toy4crawlin]

Do you like the number 8?

I have white with Red outside trim. Two 5/8" tall. one 1 1/8 tall

[rckjeep]

I finally made a video so here's the link to it. Enjoy

click here

[rckjeep]

I made a trade for some 3Racing aluminum axle housings. The plan is to upgrade the axles with a few performance parts. First off is the housings which I've started to grind down to look better and offer more ground clearence. Then I bought some heavy steel lockers from RCP to replace the Iron Cross axial lockers that have got some play in them now. When I built the axles originally I upgraded one of the ring and pinions. I'd like to run some overdrive gears in the front. So those will be next on the purchase list. I'll post up the modded axle housing when I get one all done so I can have a comparison pic with an unmodded one.

[rckjeep]

So I got one of the housings de-ano'd, ground down, painted and partially assembled. Of course the gasket between the ring gear and the carrier ripped apart in disassembly. I'm guessing it's needed because the ring & pinion won't turn by hand at all. Off to my LHS to see if they have them. I'll see if they have the overdrive gears for the front too.

I also noticed that the stock ring gear screws are too long for the RCP lockers. Unless that .5mm gasket is all that needed but it seems that there's more than half a mm of play. Anyone have any experience with these lockers and the 3 racing housings?

[rckjeep]

Here's a pic of the housings. Top is just de-ano'd the bottom has bee ground and painted

[rckjeep]

Ok so I did something dumb. I went and bought the "overdrive" gears but actually got the 43/13 gears and installed them in the front. So now I'm running 3.30:1 up front and stock HD 2.92 in the rear. It does seem to climb better but I guess I'll swap them and see what happens.

[rckjeep]

I took some time this weekend and modded the rear housing, got it painted, assembled and installed in the Jeep. So I'm running the Stock gears up front and the 43/13 gears out back. It does seem slightly slower but haven' been able to truely test it. There's a climb I've wanted to do with a scaler for a long time and I"m hoping this mod will finally make it happen. I'll try to head over tomorrow and bring the video camera

[rckjeep]

well I've been driving this rig with the underdrive gears in the rear and I definitely noticed the top end isn't what it once was. I may try the over drive's up front and the stocks out back. What have others tried that seems to work good on 2s? It's plenty fast enough on 3s but with my hi torque servo the FXR gets into Thermal shut down within a few minutes of running. Not to mention it doesn't seem to crawl as well on 3s.

I ordered up another Wild Willy figure to add a co-pilot/navigator, along with a new winch rope all from Corey at RPP.

my DX3E was being carried by my little girl when she tripped and fell and broke the antenna. I looked for a replacement and was able to find a DX3 with RX for sale here for $65 and immediately bought it. It's perfect because now I've sent my DX3E back for repair and will give it to my son for xmas to replace his tq3. Now to see how much the repair is gonna cost me.

[mrhobby100]

You can't run a servo off the FXR with 3s. That's why it hits thermal shutoff. Get a castle BEC then throw the 3s back in and you will have plenty of torque and speed.

[rckjeep]

Ya that's what Tekin said as well. I'm good on 2s for now. Think I'll just up the tooth count of the pinion a tooth or 2. I have a Novak BEC I could install but on 2S everything works pretty well.

[rckjeep]

Been working on the buggy a little the last thru nights. Got the Powerstrokes rebuilt using associated O-rings, looks like they fit tighter than the stock ones. I hope they seal now. Next up was to install the OverDrive gears up front. I also stretched the WB a bit pushing the rear back a 1/4" and the front 1/8" giving me a 12 1/4" WB. I cut out some new panels, picked up a Chino63 Light bar but need to weld some tabs and trim the roof panel to fit around it, then I'll wire it up.

I'm looking for a set of the new Axial Walker Evans wheels to put in some Flat Iron's to complete the KOH race look. I'll then run some TSL's on the SCX beadlocks with MTHEAD rings for trails and maybe a G6 comp.

Anyone have any colors they'd like to see this in. I've got an idea for painting the new panels but am curious what others think would be cool. So post up what you think would be sweet.

[jpraccer]

Originally Posted by rckjeep

Ya you are right I may come up with something at work this week.

I was able to work on it all afternoon, thanks Wifey. The chassis is finally done. I fixed all the stuff that bothered me and I think it came out sweet. Next is media blasting and paint. It's got to be done by thursday for a 1:1 wheeling trip.

Here's the chassis final draft if you will





The new front end, I happen to like it much better than the first. though I do need to clearence the winch a bit to better center it. It won't be centered but needs to be closer to center.

Are you makimg your chassis out of aluminum

[rckjeep]

Originally Posted by jpraccer

Are you makimg your chassis out of aluminum

No it's an SCX chassis with Cromoly tubing and 22g sheet metal throughout.

[Robe]

Great rig! Dave u have pulled it off again!

[j-bird]

Oh that's looking sweet.. I'm digging the tube work an the stinger/ bumper is top notch great job Mann

[rckjeep]

Originally Posted by j-bird

Oh that's looking sweet.. I'm digging the tube work an the stinger/ bumper is top notch great job Mann

Thanks, I've fully disassembled the Jeep to attach some tabs for my MadDogRC light bar. While it was all apart I gave the chassis a coat of paint to hide all the abuse. I've also finally figured out a way to mount the rock lights. Here's the light bar all mounted up and ready for the Mini G6 sunday afternoon

[rckjeep]

I finally made the Yellow top Optima for this thing. It's about 3/4" wide, 1 1/8" long and a little over an inch tall. The tubes are 3/8" styrene. The questions is should I add battery cables?

here it is

[Robe]

yes add cables!