Crawler Innovations "Top Shelf" Ultra 4

[Nova's Ark]

Casey received Top Shelf and wasted no time:





Casey tig welded these new titanium rear links for Top Shelf:




..Uploaded from the lab @ the C.I. Compound...

[Almighty Malach]

Rear links. I used a top hat knuckle bushing inside the rod end to keep the lower link from binding on the shock.









Coming together. The rear section kept hanging up on everything and some of the joints were broken so the decision was made to cut it off and start over. There will be a small bar that sticks out protecting the sway bar tube along with a bunch of bracing all over the back end to keep everything square and straight.

I am going over to The Crawl Space in a few minutes to start working on the additional light bars, radiator and fuel cell mounts. Couple more days worth of work and it will be headed back to CI in time for KOH.

[Nova's Ark]

Top Shelf is already in the mail and headed back to East Texas. Here are some other random build pics of the new chassis being built.






Just before Casey shipped it;


Old pictures of Top Shelf;










..Uploaded from the lab @ the C.I. Compound...

[Almighty Malach]

Can't wait to see it next week all back together and shiny.

[Nova's Ark]

and it is two years later...

Wow, a lot of life has happened in that time. Let's rewind back to January 2016 and Casey was tight for time in regards to finishing the rebuild of "Top Shelf" before King of Hammers in February. In order to give him the needed time for completion, it was agreed upon to pick up the chassis from him at King Of the Hammers. Of course Casey came through and Top Shelf looked amazing. I didn't want to drive Top Shelf until it had a proper photo shoot. Upon returning to Texas, life, family, business, and my personal health needed attention, and this build was never given the attention it deserved. It's 2018 now and it's time revisit the unfinished projects and bring recognition to those responsible. Casey did a great job on this chassis design and build. Top Shelf has always been one of the best performing rigs in the CI stable. On to the pictures..

[Nova's Ark]

Top Shelf was sent back to Casey to have repairs as well as mods done. One was to add a MORE equipped VP light bars to the front:


Another mod was boat sides:


Countersinking of the boat sides and new hardware:




Tekin Racing Pro4 HD 3500KV Motor

[Nova's Ark]

More pics with panels off:
MORE VP Light Bar


Y Town Carbon Fiber motor plate, RRP Steel 60T spur gear assembly, CI Transmission Outputs, Vanquish Products case, MIP drive shafts

[Nova's Ark]

Vanquish Products 1.9 Bead Lock Wheels
Pitbull Tires 1.9 Rock Beast Tires
Crawler Innovations Foams;
4.50 Lil Nova Comp Cut Inner w/ medium outer, part no. CWR-2025 in the front;
Deuce's Wild Single Stage 1.9 Rock Beast Foam, part no. CWR-3001 in the rear

[justinart24]

Sick build, love the trailing arms.

[Nova's Ark]

More pics of the goodness that is Top Shelf:

[Nova's Ark]

More Top Shelf goodness;

[Nova's Ark]

Specs:
Front Axle:
VP SCX aluminum axle in Silver
VP 8* aluminum Knuckles and C's
Axial HD Standard gear set
VP VVD'S
VP locker
Casey made servo mount
VP diff cover
VP Titanium Steering Linkage
VP 8* knuckle weights
Bottom of the housing has been shaved for clearance

Rear Axle:
VP SXC aluminum axle in silver
VP Truss
Axial HD Under drive gears
VP locker
Bottom of the housing has been shaved for clearance

Transmission:
VP SCX aluminum case
Axial HD Steel gear set
Super Shafty Top Shaft
RRP 60T Steel Spur assembly
CI 5mm Extended & Lightened Steel Outputs
Carbon Fiber Y Town motor plate
MIP Steel drive shafts

Shocks:
Traxxas Big Bores; P/N 2660 front; 2661 rear;
JeepinDoug delrin Spring cups
RPM Dual Stage Pistons
Tuned Springs

Electronics:
Tekin Pro4 HD 3500KV
Castle Creation One Cell MMP ESC
Castle Creation BEC's x2 (one for light bars and one for car)
Hitec 7950TG Servo
MORE VP Light Bars
Futaba TX & RX
4S 2200mah Lipo

[distinctive pd]

Totally rad!

[Almighty Malach]

Never gets old seeing pics of this rig I'm glad it went to someone that would keep it together and enjoy it like it was meant to be used.

[Teng]

Amazing in scale detail. One of the top model for those who interested on building scale truck.

[Nova's Ark]

Originally Posted by distinctive pd

Totally rad!

Originally Posted by Teng

Amazing in scale detail. One of the top model for those who interested on building scale truck.

Thank you

Originally Posted by Almighty Malach

Never gets old seeing pics of this rig I'm glad it went to someone that would keep it together and enjoy it like it was meant to be used.

Thank you for building it.

And speaking of enjoying it, the way it was designed to be...





Top Shelf has definitely been enjoyed and it looks like it may be time for retirement of this build.

[Nova's Ark]

Top Shelf is the next vehicle in the build break down series. Find out who built Top Shelf, what build it replicated, what vendors were involved and a little more.

The original build thread on the RCCrawler Forum:
Crawler Innovations "Top Shelf" Ultra 4

Build thread to the 1:1 on Pirate 4x4:
Trent Fab 2012 Ultra4 "TopShelf" Build - Pirate4x4.Com : 4x4 and Off-Road Forum

[Almighty Malach]

So much fun watching the video and remembering all the good times I had building that car.

[XSRCdesign]

Whose Casey? Never heard of her?

[Nova's Ark]

East Texas has received some beautiful weather. Taking full advantage, Top Shelf and the 8x8 were taken out to be driven and pictured;



New magnetic bed skin on the 8x8: