Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

This one is sort of a birthday build and last hurrah for me as the darn pandemic is going to shrink my rc budget drastically for the near future, but I’ve been kicking around the idea on how to pull one of these off and had to go for it.

I don’t have any parts on hand but I do have things ordered now so the build is starting to take shape.

HH/TGH Sherpa Expert Chassis Kit (includes forward mount and t case)
Axial AR45P rear portal axle
SSD Diamond Front Axle and brass knucks brass chubs
90mm incision front shocks
80mm incision rear shocks
Incision drive shafts
Hardcore RC 12.5” wb links
Mamba micro x
HH snub nose v2 revolver 2040kv
HH v3 servo

That’s the basics of it. May end up changing the shocks at some point but want to see how it does with the different sizes and the rear portal. I’m going to run the reverse cut dead loc racing gears in the Ssd diamond front axle to fix the counter rotation of the portals but allow me to maintain a high pinion on both axles.

The axial portals have a reduction of 1.91 iirc so there’s a lot of room to make up for. I’m going to approach this 3 ways, first with the TGH wild OD portal gears (35%), AR44 diff 27/8 OD (10%) and then I’m hoping to find a way to get the OD on the t case to output to the rear by moving some shafts around (maybe mirrored skid?) for another 15%. I’m hoping this leaves me with somewhere around 30% OD up front.

Open to any thoughts and feedback. My plan B is to run a GC4.2 t case as I’ve already eyeballed that one and think I could get the OD to the back very easily there.

Thanks for reading along. Pic below from the TGH site

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

Sounds to be another great build! Can't wait to see it come together.

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

I've been looking at this chassis kit. Just can't seem to pull the trigger on any of the comp chassis yet. I'll be watching your build though!

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

Another cool looking build I will be following!

Nice list of parts!

Happy Birthday TB in case I missed it![emoji512][emoji322]


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Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

WOW..this build triggered my interest....will follow for sure !!:shock:

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

As mentioned, it really is a cool parts list. The single portal and well thought out gearing plan are intriguing. I couldn't comment beyond to say 30% sounds assertive and sets it up nicely for climbing and carving out those tighter lines. I had no idea Holmes was even .producing a chassis. He named it aptly I would say. Having spent several months of my youth hanging around the Nepalese Himalayas, its makes me smile thinking back on the things I have seen some of those men porter along the most remote single-track trails...mind blowing really.

Anyhow, very cool. If its the last one for bit, its a build certainly deserving of your pause. Thanks for putting it up!

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

Thanks everyone. The sentiments and interest are appreciated.

BMow my birthday is a few weeks away so you didn’t miss anything but thanks anyway!

Just got some great news from the team garage hack crew. Christopher Schumann went live and posted a video to the RC garage hacks group that showed how to flip the OD to the rear. It’s as easy as flipping plates and swapping outputs so I’m getting even more excited for this now.

Hopefully parts start showing up next week so I can share some progress.

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

Another awesome build...put me on toast, I'm jelly.

I like that the Sherpa rails have a lot of skid plate angle. Breakovers will be killer on this thing.

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

Following these shenanigans... love your builds bro. I’m stoked to see how this shakes out.

Lou

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

Happy early bday topher!!!!

Looks like the start of another one of your great builds.

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

Thanks fellas! Parts should start showing up today. If all goes well I’ll have a slider by the weekend.

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

So far, what are your thoughts between the I think 3 different comp chassis you've built? I'd like to build at least one.

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

After going through the parts that have started showing up I remembered that I had just ordered links last week, from hardcore RC so it will be a few weeks before this gets to a slider.

JRH says v3 servos are in route an should be available in 1-2 weeks so hopefully I can snag a couple of those and then figure out a body and I’ll be ready to rock by the time the links show up.

Anyway, I got to building and started with the rear axle. As mentioned earlier the rear axle has a 1.91 gear ratio that I’ll need to speed up to get a driveable ratio with the straight front axle. This means fitting as much overdrive as I can in the rear axle and using the t-case to close the gap. The rear axle is being built with OD diff gears and the TGH wild OD portal gears.

When I got to installing the OD portal gears I ran into fitment issues that I wasn’t expecting. I’m not sure if this is because it’s a rear axle, or possibly AR45P specific, but the rear portal box is slightly smaller than the front and causes clearance issues with the OD gears. (See pic)

I took a knife out and made some room to get them to spin. It thins out the material near the threads for the portal cover screws. The axle doesn’t spin as smoothly as I’d like with the portal gears in but it is functional and shouldn’t cause any issues, can still spin by hand. I forgot to snap an after pic but I will later if I tear into them again to try and free things up.

I haven’t really done anything with the Sherpa but stare at it longingly so not much to comment on there, but it sure looks like fun. My main question here is if I’ll want more shock mounting location options than what’s on these rails.

The tgh/ gspeed v3 and the game changer 4.2 have both been a blast to drive. I couldn’t easily say which performs better. As far as working on them, the gspeed is a little simpler as the GC4.2 uses the nylock nuts most places, but it’s nice that the gc4.2 kits come with everything you need, including upper driveshaft, servo mount, braces, and even links with the stage 3 kit.

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

Links have shipped from hardcore RC! Time to get back to this build.

If work settles down a tad I should have a slider next week.

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

Woot woot!!

Lou

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

Gonna be watching this one. Sound like a lot of fun!..

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

Getting back to it. Next step after building the rear axle was to reverse the overdrive in the T-Case.

This was really simple, just pop the covers off the tcase. Pop the bearings. Flip both covers around. Put the big gear and output on the passenger side going out to the front, center input stays the same, and then the little gear and output on the driver side going out to the rear. The front of the tcase is the direction that the angle points to, which offsets the angle of skid to maintain good driveline angles.

Going to try and knock out the chassis next.

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

Forgot about the front motor mount, let’s taco bout that for a little bit as I’ve added some shims to these to help get rid of some play in the spur shaft.

First pic. Just the normal motor mount. Here I’ll remove the cover that has TGH printed on it, 3 screws on back.

Second pic. I add a shim here on top of the top bearing, I didn’t take another pic with the shim on but it doesn’t need a lot. Make sure the shaft still spins free after buttoning it back up so you know you didn’t over shim.

3rd pic. I’ll also add a shim on the outside of that cover, this helps give some space between the slipper plate and the motor mount cover once the full slipper is assembled.

4th pic on the output of the spur I’ll add a plastic spacer and some shims to tighten up the driveshaft. At this point there is very little movement in the spur shaft and it spins nice, smooth, and straight.

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

And links.... from hardcore rc

Top to bottom should be...

Steering drag link
Pan hard
Front upper
Front lower x 2
Rear upper x 2
Rear lower x 2
Steering tie rod

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

Thanks for compiling that "thumbsup". Seems like the only place to find instructions and detailed veiws is in facebook videos, which i can see in the background :mrgreen:

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

Nice, more progress on this build!

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

True story. That’s the video where he goes over flipping the OD. Glad it was so easy.

Yessir. But I’ve hit a stopping point again. Doh.


And with that segue, here’s where I’m stopping. I’ve either A) forgot to order universal axle shafts or B) lost them when I moved but regardless I can’t build the front axle yet.

I also forgot to get sliders. I had some gc4 sliders which are similar in shape but the holes are different so I’ll have to wait for a new set. Parts ordered so should be back at it towards the end of next week.

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

More progress this week, getting close.

Sliders came in, these are from TGH, they resell them and I really like that they have a Velcro strap loop integrated into the design on the top side. Also got the universals so I was able to wrap up and hang the front axle.

Not too much left to do, just need to build and mount the front shocks. Front driveshaft. Get the motor and esc in and tuned. Then figure out the body and which wheels and tars will end up here.

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

The Sherpa is looking great! This is a great looking chassis!

Looks like it went together fairly easy and looks like it’s going to be a great performer!

Looking forward to seeing the final steps of the build and hearing how it does on the rocks!


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Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

Thanks BMow! It was certainly an easy chassis to work on IMO. No issues, especially after building the tgh/gspeed v3 since they’re similar.

Made more progress last night and got it to a slider. I think the motor bullets I needed showed up in the mail yesterday so I’m going to try and knock out the electronics today and start some body work tomorrow.

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

Yesterday I got the electronics in and moved all the wiring out of the way. Running the TGH low profile servo horn but I still had to space the servo up a tad with 3 shims to get full compression on the passenger side.

The servo horn is long and I’m not sure I’ll keep it as the length will take away torque and my end points are turned down quite a bit. May swap it for a VP horn in the coming weeks.

The wires on the snub nose revolver came out at such an angle that I had to mount it with them kicking out to the side but it worked out okay.

Need to figure out where to put the body mounts. The rear won’t be a problem but the front isn’t as straight forward due to the limited number of holes on the rails and all the stuff that’s going on up front with the FMM. The only hole the mount fits in up front has it rubbing against the spur gear which is a no go. May have a look at mounting them on the outside of the rail but not sure if the PWag will be wide enough to mount like that.

Otherwise once I figure out the body mounting, get it cut and painted, wheels and tires on here, then tuning the esc, I’ll be ready to rock.

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

This is turning out super "thumbsup" Another good one TB!

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

Quick update here. I ended up spending more time yesterday on the steering. I realized that with the servo spaced up that the TGH horn would hit the chassis and prevent full throw to the left.

At this point I decided to ditch the long tgh horn and go for a SSD horn I had around. Once I swapped everything cleared and moved well. Still have as much steering as I can get out of the axle as it sits but had to turn the end points back up over 100 since I have the shorter horn.

Thanks RB!

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

impatiently waiting for a run video...

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

Got the body, well the cab anyway, all done and it’s ready for action. I haven’t entirely decided what to do with the back but I think I want to leave the rails/shock towers exposed. Will likely print a little flatbed to go between the rails.

Also tried something a little different to get the logos to look faded and not so new and crisp. Basically I sprayed some black before peeling the masks then sprayed gold before that black was completely dry. I think it worked out well enough, also matted it out as there’s only one shiny PWag I’ve seen that I really liked a lot (Bill’s). The name on the hood I left clean since the dots in the letters are so small and spacing is tight I didn’t think it’d be legible faded.

Soon! "thumbsup"

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

I'm not generally a fan of Pwagon bodies, but this thing looks wicked! That stance though!!! Cant wait to see video!

Lou

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

I was wondering what you did for those though I'm still a bit lost on the order and where you painted. Did you paint the sticker or the body, inside or outside?


Anyway that came out great "thumbsup"

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

Thanks Casey!

I do all the paint on the inside, except for the flat clear of course. Here’s what I went through, longer than I thought it’d be after typing it out.

This one I printed the vinyl sticker mask on the cricut joy. Reverse the image since I’m using it on the inside.
Then once the decals were down I sprayed a few coats of the black and let it dry pretty well.
Then I went back and sprayed black again where the masks were on the doors and the back and then removed the masking before the black was completely dry.
Then I hit it with the gold to paint where the vinyl was. The gold was laid on kind of thick for the first coat and that got it bleeding into the black for a faded look.
I let that dry, went back and pulled the mask from the name I have on the hood since I wanted that to be clean, sprayed more gold there. This time they didn’t bleed together since it was dry and it preserved the small dots in the letters and the definition between them since they’re close to together.
Then i pulled the window masks on the inside and hit the windows with a few light coats of smoke for a light tint
Then I cut the outter film layer around the windows to get ready for the flat clear.
I took another decal but this time printed the right direction since it’s on the outside and covered the name on the hood
Sprayed the flat clear
Let that dry
Then removed the window film and the decal on the hood and that left them name and windows shiny and everything else matte. Then went around with a chrome pen for a little bit of detailing on the door handles and hood vents.

Thanks Lou!

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

Checking out the suspension with the different sized shocks. More than enough flex for me.

Changed the grill a bit too. Sticker wasn’t really doing it for me.

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

That is looking sweet!

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

Love it! 😎

The paint effect turned out really well!

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

Great looking truck Topher! One of the better power wagon setups I’ve seen. But solid looking rig


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Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

Another outstanding build TB!"thumbsup"

Great choice in color! Looks cool with the faded logo! Love the flat paint look! I've been using the flat clear more and more these days!

Yeah, looks like plenty of flex to me. I'm sure with your setup it's going to crawl well no matter how much flex you have. I've been happy with 90mm length shocks or less. Crawls just as well and requires less body trimming.

I agree, a little flatbed in the rear between the rails would look good! Maybe a little wooden bed made out of Popsicle sticks made to look distressed and worn out. Just a thought!

Well, after seeing how good this chassis looks, I'm not sure if I want to build the Sherpa or the Gspeed chassis. Decisions, decisions! I'll wait to hear what you think of this chassis after you've had a chance to get some rock time on it!

Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

Awesome truck as usual. Really liking the jacked up in the back look, reminds me of an older hot rod, which paired with the power wagon body reminds me of a kind of rat rod crawler.

On a side note, I think these pics are the first time I've seen one of my Coke machines in an actual scale garage setting... really need to finish my garage, lol

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Re: Topher Builds a Sherpa - Rear Portal Class 2 comp truck
 

Thank you!

Thanks Dez!

I appreciate it "thumbsup"

Thanks BMow! I’ve been patiently hoping that we start seeing some more 85mm shock options as I think that could be a nice sweet spot for travel and ride height. Incision/VP could do it with a slightly longer shaft as they have more room in the shock body with the 80mm shock.

I’ve wanted to do a wood bed for a while but haven’t figured out how to get a good wood effect with lout vinyl, aging some popsicle sticks is a good idea. May need to give that a shot. I have some scale diamond plate that will most likely make its way onto a bed that ends up here.

Thanks Jeff! It definitely has a bit of a rod vibe that’s for sure.

Love the coke machine, I see you have a vendor star here now (thanks and congrats!) so I may go post a thread about it. I’m still wanting one of those snap on tool boxes and will be hollering at you once I get the garage expanded, I have a second sendero box to set up :)