N.A.'s 1.9 Hilux High-lift

[Nova's Ark]

I have been wanting a 1.9 scale hilux for sometime now. It seemed my timing kept being off. When I had the money, I couldn't find one and vise versa. Finally everything came together and I was able to trade 5150 Krawlers my 2.2 pimp cane clod "The Grunt" for his 1.9 hilux he ran at the MSD scale nats this year.

I use to own a '81 Toyota hilux that was white with red primer to cover the surface rust. It had 31' BFG's on it with wagon wheels and it was a pretty cool truck. At that time in my life though, it was a truck I didn't need and was forced to sell it. It's pretty ironic that this model closely resembles it with the difference being it's opposite paint scheme of faded red paint with white spots showing through.

So I am basically going to be modeling this truck after it and how I would have built it had I kept it. These pictures show how I received the truck from Dennis. I am definitely going to be modifying it, but I wanted to post pictures of what I am starting with. So often I trade or build a rig and never post starting pictures. Since this is a rig that I plan to keep, I wanted to.

Here is a detailed list of how it arrived;

- Hilux Body (It was painted with krylon fusion fire red and then wet sanded to a faded red/orange haze with some white coming though to make it look as though it has been repainted. It is also was bedlined with krylon fusion textured shimmer.)
- High-lift chassis
- RC4WD R2 trans
- High-lift axles (front axle has MSD ultimate TLT axle C's, rear has MSD TLT rear lock outs, they are both locked and have full bushings)
- High-lift springs in front (have been modded chino style)
- MSD proto type delrin leafs in rear
- custom steering
- Dale Earnhardt SS modified interior w/ working dash light and driver
- basic LED light kit installed to body
- MSD 1.9 aluminum bead locks
- Trail doctors super soft tires
- 1.9 ACE doughnuts foams

On to the pictures:

[whoodie]

I was thinking of building a 1.9 yota, very nice Nova, I'm envious

[SMUDGEBUG]

I like it, you have just sold me on the trial Dr's for my hilux the standard wheels are just too small.
Nice and clean underneath as well. The paint job looks awesom as well.

Nice work

[Nova's Ark]

Originally Posted by whoodie

I was thinking of building a 1.9 yota, very nice Nova, I'm envious

No need to be envious . I am sure with your skill you could build a very nice 1.9 yota.

Originally Posted by SMUDGEBUG

I like it, you have just sold me on the trial Dr's for my hilux the standard wheels are just too small.
Nice and clean underneath as well. The paint job looks awesome as well.
Nice work

The tires work very well and are very soft. I can't take credit for the paint work though since I received it in a trade already painted. Thanks for the compliment though.

[2fknqwk]

Now your goin to make me build a yoda thanks time to dig deep in the pockets

[pantablo]

nice scale touch with the front drivers side parking light out, lol...

[Nova's Ark]

Originally Posted by countryboy4life

Looks good man!!

Thank you sir

Originally Posted by 2fknqwk

Now your goin to make me build a yoda thanks time to dig deep in the pockets

I am sure your good for it. Just make sure you get that nice 6x6 done first

Originally Posted by pantablo

nice scale touch with the front drivers side parking light out, lol...

LOL. I have a LED to replace and fix it, but it does go with the whole beater theme. I think I will l just leave it burned out. That is one thing about the nice wheels I don't like, they are just to nice. It reminds me of all the scrappers and donks you see in the hood. The rims are worth more than the car they are on.

[pantablo]

yeah, don't fix it. in fact you should crack the lens, lol...

also consider painting the wheels white then weathering them with some rust, even if they are fancy bling wheels, lol...

[Lankenstein]

Good looking rig there Eddie

We need to get together sometime and do some scale runs!

[2fknqwk]

oh man you had to say it now everyone knows about the 6X6 that im building thanks lol still lookin for a scaler if you know a link on one lmk

[Nova's Ark]

I had a few questions PM'd me about the R2 and the interior. I hope these pictures help.

The R2 fits easily in between the High Lift frame rails. Two holes were drilled through one side of the frame rail to attach it using the factory holes from RC4WD.


This is a standard R2 with the long out put shaft. The drive line angles may not be great, but they work fine. These are stock high lift drive shafts.


Here you can see the electronics mounted and the R2 standing up between the frame rails and in between the bucket seats.

[Nova's Ark]

Speaking of electronics here is what I installed:

- CC Side Winder ESC
- AR6000 Spektrum Receiver for my DX6
- Silver Can motor (soon to replaced with a 1000KV Crawl Master)
- KO Propo 2174 steering servo
- Thunder Power 3S lipo 1320 Mah

I need to add a CC BEC because the Side Winder gets hot and shuts down after 35 minutes or so of crawling. I think it is because it has to cut down the voltage for the RX and Servo. So I haven't played with this in a while.





The wiring shown is for the dash light. It's a single white LED from a mag lite. I need to wire up a battery for it, but the on/off switch activates it.


Here is the only body mod I have done. You gotta have the window rolled down if you have no A/C in Texas.


One other mod I did was drill air holes in the bead locks. I don't play much in the water, especially since I use Lipos. So I am not worried about the water in the ACE doughnuts. Plus the rest of the electronics are not water proofed.

[Nova's Ark]

Originally Posted by DemonSpawn

Good looking rig there Eddie

We need to get together sometime and do some scale runs!

Thank you and yes we need to get together

Originally Posted by 2fknqwk

oh man you had to say it now everyone knows about the 6X6 that im building thanks lol still lookin for a scaler if you know a link on one lmk

Sorry man.

Now you just have that much more incentive to get it done. Get busy, cause it sounds great.

[Nova's Ark]

I've been spending a lot of time lately tuning my son's 2.2 comp crawler and building myself a 2.2 comp crawler. So much so that I am just burned out and decided to play with my scaler this weekend. This has been a fun truck, but it really needed some work. I completely rebuilt the truck this weekend. I fixed a number of problems that have been bothering me, but was too busy and lazy to address.

- I swapped out the Kyosho Silver can motor for a Holmes Hobbies 1000KV crawl master brushless out runner. I have been running the silver can since I acquired the truck and it would run so hot it would almost glow with the 3S lipo. It would run about 20 minutes and then shut down the ESC. I installed a 13 tooth pinion on the crawlmaster in place of the 14 tooth pinion that was on the silver can. It doesn't have great wheel speed, but it crawls excellent and I have no cogging from the crawlmaster.



- I swapped out the long R2 transmission output shaft for a short shaft that is drilled for Maxx shafts. I also cleaned and greased the R2. I replaced the High Lift metal drive shafts with Traxxas Maxx shafts.






- I installed a CC BEC to help keep the ESC cool, reprogrammed the ESC and cleaned up the wiring some.




- I had a bunch of used lead weight sitting around not being used. I glued them together and screwed them to the frame.

[Nova's Ark]

The body has sat crooked since I acquired this truck. It also sat to high off the frame, had too much gap between the tire and fender, and also between the body and frame. It has never flexed well and the suspension never articulated smoothly.

A lot of this truck was custom made, and it was made in a hurry to get it ready for the Montana Scale Nats. That said, the rear body mounts were cut uneven. They were 1/8 inch off in height of each other. I went ahead and cut them even, while also cutting them down in height. It lowered the body quite bit and leveled it out.

Another problem was the shocks. It has TLT shocks installed. They are too long for the application and would bottom out long before the leaf springs would. To give the shocks the needed space to allow the suspension to work, I re-drilled all the High Lift shock mounts and moved them higher.

The photo shows you the cut down body posts, and the re-drilled holes on the shock mounts:



I have never been a fan of the aluminum parts on the axles. The shiny aluminum stands out so much. In order to use the Maxx shafts, I needed to swap out the High Lift pinions for drilled TLT pinions. The High Lift pinion shaft is hardened while the TLT pinion is not. Since I had to disassemble the axles anyways, I decided to go ahead build the axles the way I wanted.

I removed the rear axle from the truck, shaved the bottom of the housing for clearnace, and then put the rear axle housing and rear lock outs into my bead blast cabinet. By bead blasting them, it removes all the shine and smooth texture from the plastic and the aluminum. The end result looks much more scale and in the case of the lock outs, it give the paint something to adhere to. I painted the rear lock outs flat black. I installed full bearings into the axles, shimmed the ring and new pinion, counter sunk some of the mounting hardware, shaved the diff cover and installed them, etc.



In the front I decided it was best to replace the housing entirely. The MSD Ultimate Axle C's are nice, but the fit was not the greatest since they are designed for a TLT housing. The shiny aluminum was an eye sore to me as well. I have never broken a High Lift axle housing in a scaler, so I know it will be strong enough. This axle received the same treatment as the rear, i.e. shaved the bottom of the housing for clearance, bead blasted the housing, installed full bearings, counter sunk hardware, etc, etc.



When I disassembled the axles from the leafs, they had blocks between them and the springs. I removed them and mounted the axles directly to the springs. This brought the axles closer to the frame and body. It closed the gap between tire and fender. It also freed up the suspension. In the front I had to redo the steering.

I angled the front leaf eyelets more then they had been. I also removed the stock eyelet bolt. Instead, I installed very small fuel tubing and used a 3mm counter sunk bolt and lock nut. Those combinations freed up the suspension in big way. This truck will now crawl lines it never did before. It also flexes like it should.





I am much happier with this crawler now. With the mechanics in much better condition, I can now start to focus on scale items and other improvements.

[whoodie]

I like the new wheels much better

[eron]

Yeah, the CAC wheels look so much better

[701 Technique]

very nice yota build

I have a hilux that I'm workin on as well, how are those stock high-lift drive shafts working with that R2 tranny

Im gonna be runnin the same setup, but with a trailfinder chassis

[dezfan]

Looks like a fun little rig, I recently started acquiring parts to build another scaler.

Never been big Yota fan, but all these Yota builds have the wheels turning.

[Nova's Ark]

Originally Posted by whoodie

I like the new wheels much better

I figured you would say that Mr. CAC whore .

Originally Posted by eron

Yeah, the CAC wheels look so much better

I am glad you and Whoodie like them.

The CAC quality and design is very nice, but I bought these wheels and tires from Echodawg and they are honestly not my favorite style. I think I would prefer some black delrin Eritex INC 1.9 bead locks to go with the beater theme of the truck. The CAC and MSD wheels have too much bling.