1st gen Durango IFS TRUE SCALE (you're going to want to see this)

[jonnywachter]

They were off an HPI rs4

[CM9000]

Bummer the shaft broke. kinda skinny though..

It would probably take some re-work of the hubs to do this, but id try and cut a Baja rey front shaft, sleeve it, and weld it back together. Maybe chuck it in the lathe and bring down the size for looks.

[jonnywachter]

Originally Posted by CM9000

Bummer the shaft broke. kinda skinny though..

It would probably take some re-work of the hubs to do this, but id try and cut a Baja rey front shaft, sleeve it, and weld it back together. Maybe chuck it in the lathe and bring down the size for looks.

If the shaft was any larger id have to move the shocks back, which would in turn make me have to redesign the top arms so that the suspension could compress. I don't think the shafts are too thin, I think these were just extremely weak steel. We'll see after the next round of parts I get. If the hardened Tamiya ones give me any grief ill have to go back and redesign in the direction you are saying.

[CM9000]

Thats a lot more work than I thought. I sure hope you dont have to go that route.

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[jonnywachter]

Got all the new part in, everything went together very well with the exception of the bottom arms, they where a little too tight on the subframe mounts and needed some filing to move freely, this was just because of the tolerance of the SLS printing, I need to open up the mounts a little more. Other than that the only thing that needs to be done is some drilling and tapping which is pretty common with SLS printed parts in order to get a nice round hole. It's hard to tell now that all the parts are black, but the shock towers and mounts are a lot thicker, which should hold up to even more abuse. I never actually broke any of these parts or had problems, but aesthetically they looked like they could be thicker without sacrificing any looks, so I figured id do so. Also, I made every critical screw that is either mounting an arm, spindle, or the steering components captured, with a locknut that way I don't have to worry about stripping the hole or the screw coming loose from movement. Overall very happy with how this came out, now I need to focus on the interior.

[svt923]

Looks awesome with the SLS printed parts.

What is the plan for a skidplate? I see there is a bunch of mounting points incorporated in the parts.

[jonnywachter]

Thanks! I'm planning on cutting the skid plate today out of some thin stainless steel.

[jonnywachter]

An update for anyone who is still following...

Got the skid plate mounted up over the weekend, also put some mirrors on the body.

[DukeMinnix]

man this thing is not disappointing. its begging for a raptor hardbody sir

[jonnywachter]

Originally Posted by DukeMinnix

man this thing is not disappointing. its begging for a raptor hardbody sir

Everyone has done a raptor 5 times over again. I'd say that's the most disappointing part of this industry. 90% of the builds I see are all the same. I want to be different.

[robbark34]

Originally Posted by jonnywachter

Everyone has done a raptor 5 times over again. I'd say that's the most disappointing part of this industry. 90% of the builds I see are all the same. I want to be different.

Dude that's awesome work!! I am little jealous of your skills!! An I agree it's nice to see something different as much as I like them Iim little bored of landrover jeep an Toyota hi lux!!

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[rkj__]

Originally Posted by jonnywachter

An update for anyone who is still following...

Got the skid plate mounted up over the weekend,

I'm definitely still following along.



I'd love it even more if you could do away with the button heads on the bottom skid plate. Those will get hung up a bit on some terrain.



Would it be possible to make the skid plate once piece, with a bend? I'd think the 4 fasteners on what is now the front skid plate would be enough to hold the formed plate in place. What do you think? Maybe the button heads are no big deal?

[jonnywachter]

Originally Posted by robbark34

Dude that's awesome work!! I am little jealous of your skills!! An I agree it's nice to see something different as much as I like them Iim little bored of landrover jeep an Toyota hi lux!!

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It really is, I understand there are limited bodies out there, but its not that hard to come up with something better.

Originally Posted by rkj__

I'm definitely still following along.



I'd love it even more if you could do away with the button heads on the bottom skid plate. Those will get hung up a bit on some terrain.



Would it be possible to make the skid plate once piece, with a bend? I'd think the 4 fasteners on what is now the front skid plate would be enough to hold the formed plate in place. What do you think? Maybe the button heads are no big deal?

I agree I don't have a countersink at the moment so I couldn't really do anything about the button heads, ill possibly go to a M2.5 screw instead of M3 to give it more of a scale look. I was also thinking of making it one piece, but I dont have any way of putting a nice sharp bend in the metal so I went with 2 pieces.

[Natedog]

Very nice and great to see your successful updates!!!

[jonnywachter]

Made some new gears for the transmission so this thing will actually get out of its own way, definitely a big improvement, I think I can still go higher in the pinion. Right now its got a 24t "spur" gear and a 22t pinion, I'm going to get a 24t pinion and maybe a 26t.

[SSD]

You can use some of rc4wd R4 transmission spare gears to speed up the SSD transmission. I designed both.

[jonnywachter]

Originally Posted by SSD

You can use some of rc4wd R4 transmission spare gears to speed up the SSD transmission. I designed both.

I could tell the cases were the same but didn't realize the final drives were different. I'll have to calculate what gear ratio I ended up with after my little mod and see how that compares to the r4 set. Thanks for the info Katan.

[jonnywachter]

Got an Axial sway bar mounted on the rear. I'm hoping this helps the front end flex more by not letting the rear axle flex as much. I was also playing with springs last night trying to get the rear end as stiff as possible and still maintaining the ride height I want. Things are looking promising! I'll be going to my first comp this weekend with the 801 RC group. I'm looking forward to it and getting some more testing on this setup.

[Shinchu]

this is looking flat out AMAZING.
i agree about making the skid one piece (less hardware required and less snag points) but seems you already have a handle on that.

swaybar setup looks nice but once you get on the rocks i doubt it will be needed? that said, i am REALLY looking forward to hearing how it does! maybe even some vid???

this is really great man, you should be very proud. and i agree no more raptors lol (and that's coming from an owner of a new F150!)

[valheru]

I've been running a rear sway bar setup on all my crawlers, 1/18 an up, from 4 to 15 lbs in weight, with no issues or loss of performance.

On the contrary, all of them benefited from the RSB with better side hilling, little to no torque twist during climbs and "high speed" (for a crawler) handling.



D