Big Daddy goes F350 truggy. We'll call her...

[Big Daddy]

We shall dub her the "eFFed 350".

This is my first attempt at doing any real tube work. I learned quite a bit and the next time it should be much easier... should be. I have to thank MTHead and Bmuzz1 for a lot of encouragement and advice along the way to get me to a roller.

We'll will start with a few pics of how the Honcho ended its career.



It had all stock electronics, sleeved all-thread links, Junfac driveshafts, overdrive front axle with beef tubes, steel sliders with the electronics in project boxes, Dingo front Bumper, tilt body, Motoworx 8 spokes with Pit bulls. Probably forgetting some mods but you get the idea. Was a pretty solid truck.

Here are few chassis pics of where she is now. It is the typical 3/16" brake line with some 1/8" rod in a few spots.
This one is before I brazed it all and hadn't put braces on the stinger yet either.


This is pretty much how it sits right now except the battery box and grill are painted semi gloss black and the fenders have been trimmed up a little. This won't be the body color either.


One of the things that was central to this build was I wanted to be able to change batteries with out taking off the body. That is why I have the big styrene box, it looks much better black though. The weight balance probably won't be ideal with the battery back there but I'll deal with it somehow. I plan on having 2 LEDs in the headlight buckets and 2 more somewhere else. I have a small panel in the rear of the cage for the tail lights but it's a tight squeeze with the spare in there. We'll have to see how that shakes out.

The list of upgrades to this point are; Axial High clearance knuckles, STRC alum C-Hubs, Hobbico CS-150 servo.

Future plans are; Hand Bros CMS, servo winch, new motor (eventually ESC), DX3C. I also plan on building styrene wheel wells and maybe interior. Maybe build a styrene fuel cell also.

I'll add some more detailed pics in the near future but I am trying to get this going and also getting ready for a camping trip this weekend. So time is at a premium, and I am hoping to have some sort of running rig to bring with me.

[Modbug]

I like truggies, F-350's and your tube work = win.

Cool truck.

[sweli]

X2, that tube work looks great!
I like that paint color on the too.

[richierm]

that looks great! i love that stinger!!!

[Big Daddy]

Thanks guys. I'll get some better pic uploaded. I know I have some, I just hadn't uploaded them to flickr yet. I need to work on some thing for taking better pics to. I'm sure I have enough junk in my garage to make something.

[Big Daddy]

Well I cobbled her together enough to take it camping with me over the weekend and got a pack run through it.




As you can see by the pics I have lots of work to do... Mount battery box, mount LEDs, clean up and paint, build inner fenders, put in glass and some sort of interior.

I was fairly happy with the outing for a first run. I have some issues to work on though. There is some odd noise in the trans/motor when going in reverse that wasn't there before, I guess a quick teardown will help figure that one out. I found out that I need a BEC with the new servo, I was having some brown-outs in the steering. The major thing I was worried about was weight distribution but it seemed to climb pretty well. I'll have to go on some terrain that I have been on before to get a good comparison though.

[elsewhere]

nice!

[ScaleReady]

That looks really cool How about a picture of it from the front(straight on)?

[Big Daddy]

Originally Posted by ScaleReady

That looks really cool How about a picture of it from the front(straight on)?

Thanks! I just looked through my pics and I don't have any straight on the front. I'll try to get one taken in the next day or two.

[Big Daddy]

Waiting for some parts to arrive...
Picked up a BEC from RPP,
and a new motor from the classifieds.
I decided to do some tear down to find that noise. The trans had a tiny smear of grease in it and the rear axle had about a tablespoon. I cleaned both and lubed with marine grease, but I'm not sure if either was causing the noise I was having, we'll see.

[Big Daddy]

Okay, so I haven't had a lot of time to invest lately but I have a few small updates.

First is a HH 35T motor


Second is a Hand Brothers CMS kit.


I also got my BEC programmed and ready to go in, and I have some paint on the cab now. Not sure if it will be the 'final' paint or not though so we'll hold off on that reveal.

[Chack100]

your bar work looks pretty good to me and how do you like the HH motor?

[Big Daddy]

I haven't even tried it. I hooked up a battery and made sure everything was working. I'm hoping to get a test run around the back yard in the next few days, I still have to decide on where the electronics are going to be mounted.

[Big Daddy]

Well, I was able to give it a go around the back yard last night. All the electronics were just sitting on the sliders and a battery (at storage charge) was wrapped over the cage, but enough to test steering and motor. I can say the BEC made a huge difference on the steering, the Hobbico servo is pretty snappy now. That Holmes motor has some serious punch too. I know it's just the Sport so I can just imagine what a handturn would be like. I'm using 87/16 gearing right now but I may experiment with 13-15 range and see if I still get enough wheel speed to make me happy but I am already happy with how much more low end this has than the other motor.

I have to do some thinking about my lighting. I had a little plate mounted behind the front bumper that I had planned to mount the small Axial light buckets on but with the CMS there isn't room. So I am thinking of either using some flush mounts and plate the spot under the stinger or just mount all 4 front lights in the healight buckets on the body. The cage work won't get painted until I figure out what is going to work on there.

[Big Daddy]

Originally Posted by ScaleReady

That looks really cool How about a picture of it from the front(straight on)?

Finally got around to taking a few more pics after my test drive.




One side shot for good measure


After the LEDs get figured out I decide no more chassis work needs done I'll pull it apart and paint the chassis and add some inner fenders. I have the tamiya interior with the drive bust but I'm not sure if I'm going to use that or something else.

[MTHead]

Looking good Big Daddy, I really like the tube work on the nose, clean and simple with a sense of flare..

Nice job

[TLZ]

Looks awesome, but I don't think the doors would open all the way if it were a real car. Dukes of hazard style exit/entering I guess haha.

[rcscaler]

nice truggy...I like that front bumper

[waggaclint]

Very cool, great job on the tube work

[Big Daddy]

Thanks fellas.

Originally I had no stinger and it was a little too open and I figured I'd just break the grill. The stinger ended up a little bigger than I had pictured in my head but I'm still happy with it.