Jethro's Ibex build (Harley's Plans Scaled for 1.9's)

[Jethrobodean]

Given my likelihood of screwing it up, I'm just aiming for a recognizable shape for the first run.

[Szczerba]

Chassis and rig are coming along nicely. I like the over all look of the chassis and 1.9's.

[Jethrobodean]

Aluminum firewall will hold electronics:




Well, the hood was a learning experience, but I got it done.

[Jethrobodean]

Some mild action shots from the afternoons celebratory woodpile crawl

[Harley]

Clean little rig!!

[Jethrobodean]

Finally got everything to do some shock tuning & clipped some stone yard edging in high gear at good speed.

I guess this would be a good time to get better at driving.




Shocks worked good though.

Off to research some axle replacement options. Would like something a little more scale, plus I'm already gathering parts for another build. The daughter's starting to figure out the whole steering / throttle thing, so it's only time.

[GREEDY GENIUS]

Nice work man.

[Jethrobodean]

Ordered some Crawler Innovations Dueces Wild foams for it. So far very happy with them. MUCH stiffer, but still offer decent flex. Most of my complaints in handling / flopping have been the foams allowing the tire to fold completely over, both at speed & crawling.

In searching, I never found a good side by side, so for reference:

About 5# of weight, side by side Dueces wild foams compared to stock Axial:



Just some more side by side:

[Jethrobodean]

I'm officially on the search for a single Twin Hammers spare tire. Can't quite squeeze one of the treps into the rear chassis without major rework, but looks like the stock TH tire will fit nicely, & is close enough for the look.

If anyone has any leads, give me a shout (still too newbie to see classifieds, & really don't want or need a full set, which is all I'm finding elsewhere)

[Jethrobodean]

Fixed the C hub with some stock axial stuff. Looking into upgrade options & decided this was alot cheaper, quicker & easier to replace for the time being than a housing if I upgraded the C's. Rockjocks are calling my name, but budgets going to kill that little pipe dream.

I did get some scale goodness installed today.




Promptly took it for a test spin. Foams were VERY nice at speed. Slightly less traction crawling, but the pro's far outweighed the cons. Curious how a custom cut on these would do, but not willing to pull the beadlocks back apart just yet to test.

Front steering servo & ESC are both acting up on me. I'm about burned out on fighting cheap electronics, & finally have a setup I'm willing to drop some coin in, so doing some research on what will work best for me.

[Richterat83]

For low coin, check the solar d772.running 3 without issue (with cc becs)

And you using the stock hardware or machine screws? From reading it seems swapping to machine screws on the c-s and hubs they end back out causing breakage

[Jethrobodean]

They were already machine screws, but breakage was total driver error. New pieces "feel" less brittle, I think this thing's just getting enough age on the plastic that it's time to replace some things. A new motor will probably find limitations of alot of parts.

[Jethrobodean]

OK, looking for opinions. For this rig, with the very low 2 speed 1st gear, & the somewhat high 2nd, I'm not exactly sure how to handle the motor. I'm almost positive I want to stay brushed, as the likelihood of this thing taking a swim at some point is pretty high.

Thinking a BR-XL waterproofed with an 11 or 13 turn Crawlmaster. The low range & smaller tires make torque requirements pretty low, but wheelspeed requirements higher, & hoping the 5 slot / BR-XL combo will keep things calm at lower RPM. I've seen a few youtube vids of wraiths with the 13t CM, & the power "hit" seemed strong, but I wonder if I may run into issues in high range. Just curious if things may get hot if I decide to pound it on a track at some point.

Any opinions? I'm in well over my head here. I'm sure anything from Holmes is going to be an upgrade over the bargain bin stuff currently in it, just looking to do this once, & do it right.

Any advise appreciated

[Jethrobodean]

This picture has had me fixated from the start of this little build, but I didn't have a spare at the time, & was already in over my head so I held off.



Now that I've had some time to think on it & gather some parts, I decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, a trep didn;t quite fit without distorting the edges enough to look funny, but some google fu told me the twin hammers tire was just a tad shorter. Still a little squeezed in on the edges, but fit good enough to look decent & still be considered a fullsize spare. A slight tweak of the C piller & shock bracing at original build would've made a trep fit just fine, I just wasn't real willing to cut that much back apart.

My take on it:



Stock TH spare mount:




Had a good email conversation with the guys at HH & got me some much needed upgrades in the motor / ESC department coming Hopefully they'll get some more of their servos in soon too.

[Harley]

Nice work man. You thought any about making the trek to KC to compete with us this summer?

[Jethrobodean]

It will depend on the fullsize wheeling schedule. Looking at my calendar I think I might be overdoing it this year. My parents warned me hard of the dangers of drug & alcohol addiction, but no one ever warned me about offroading. And I don't know that I'd use the term "competing" I've come to terms with the fact that I really can't drive this thing, but it sure is fun to try.

I would be very interested in coming down for an event though. A G6 event peaks my interest quite a bit too. I rarely take the chance to wheel realistically, & would be a cool change of the usual. Is there an official schedule up anywhere?

[Harley]

Originally Posted by Jethrobodean

It will depend on the fullsize wheeling schedule. Looking at my calendar I think I might be overdoing it this year. My parents warned me hard of the dangers of drug & alcohol addiction, but no one ever warned me about offroading. And I don't know that I'd use the term "competing" I've come to terms with the fact that I really can't drive this thing, but it sure is fun to try.

I would be very interested in coming down for an event though. A G6 event peaks my interest quite a bit too. I rarely take the chance to wheel realistically, & would be a cool change of the usual. Is there an official schedule up anywhere?

Our schedule this year is pretty much all scale. "Competing" is a rough term for the events this year here also. There is a schedule posted in the Missouri section.

[Jethrobodean]

From the first tests, I've been continually irritated by the belly height. While it is very on par with the 1:1 scaling, it's just too low for the rough rocks (& lets face it, if you're running a straight axle U4 rig, it better perform in the rocks ). I told myself I'd just deal with it, as the geometry was working good, but it was bugging me too much, & it was needing tore down for paint on the new rear section any way, so....








New lower skid is removable (kind of missed being able to drop motor/trans out bottom). Will get black side panels to keep same look, but bottom is UHMW & almost a full inch taller. This of course messes with the location of almost everything else. Battery will no longer fit, as spur gear is in it's way, so I'm faced with basically relocating everything, & finding a different battery that will work in there somewhere. My original hope of a full interior is out the window, maybe a half kit one of these days.

While I had the welder fired up, I plug welded every body tab hole back closed & redrilled & tapped them all. One assembly / teardown is all it took to be tired of accessing the backside nuts for me. Maybe I'll save a few ounces too.

[Harley]

Originally Posted by Jethrobodean

From the first tests, I've been continually irritated by the belly height. While it is very on par with the 1:1 scaling, it's just too low for the rough rocks (& lets face it, if you're running a straight axle U4 rig, it better perform in the rocks ). I told myself I'd just deal with it, as the geometry was working good, but it was bugging me too much, & it was needing tore down for paint on the new rear section any way, so....

The belly height of the 1:1 Ibex always bugged me visually as well. That is kind of why I didn't have the belly drawn in the templates. I also like the more tucked up stance and I think your's looks much better with the tuck done now.

[Jethrobodean]

Visually I was OK with it, but the combination of being that low, the long front links, & my kydex skid material before was just hanging up everywhere. A tummy tuck & some slick plastic will hopefully take care of it.


Looks like a 3s battery will fit much better. I wonder how much the AX10 axles are going to hate that.