G-Speed V3 build

[pcgab]

So after building the SCX10 II builders kit, upgrading the usual bits, and having entirely too much fun, I decided to build an lcg chassis rig to potentially compete in class 2.

Equipment:
G-Speed TGH-V3 carbon fiber chassis
GSPEED TGH-V3 electronics tray sliders
Team Garage Hack dual servo mount
Team Garage Hack TGH-HH forward motor mount
With 15% od transfer case
Vanquish driveshafts
Boom Racing top shaft
InTheWorks RC stainless high clearance links
3Brothers RC Yellowjacket 1500kv outrunner
Mamba Micro X
HeyOK No Brainer BEC
HiTec 7955tg
AR44 axles, with cromoly axle shafts, vanquish gears, Locked Up RC FI lockers.
Stock 8/30 gears in the rear, overdrive gears in the front axle
SSD brass knuckles
Brass diff covers front and rear
DLux Dravtech short shocks, soft springs in fron, medium in the rear, IIRC
Pro-Line Power Wagon body shell, cut down quite a bit.
Salinas Design power wagon drop bed.
Current wheels are chinese aluminum beadlocks off Amazon.
Crawler Innovations foams, CWR-2024 front, CWR-2025 rear.
Pro-Line tires, Hyrax and Krawler KX's, both in predator compound.
The Crawl Space stinger front bumper, and one of their shorter front bumpers on the rear.

So, a few thoughts about the build, and the performance:

Holy hell it's good, so damn good. Great sidehilling, much improved breakovers, and wonderful stability overall. I am enjoying it so very much.

The 'all up' weight with 850mAh 3s pack is 5lbs 8oz. I really wanted to keep it under 6lbs.

The quality of the Chassis, motor mount, servo mount, etc. are all quite nice. The build was very easy, especially thanks to a few threads here, specifically Topher's g-speed v3 build and his sherpa build.

The dravtech shocks work better than anything I've ever used, hands down. I bought the Channel Lock brand snap ring pliers and a pair of shock pliers. I can not recommend highly enough to buy those when assembling these shocks, it made it very easy and painless. Eric has a video on youtube showing the assembly, this was a great resource as well.

The CI foams are worth every penny, and more. They are so much better than the ProLine two stage foams I was using. I vent my tires, with 2, ~2mm holes, 180 degrees apart, between treads. The Hyrax's work incredibly well in this area (Central Texas), the Krawler KX's work well, but so far I think the Hyrax's are a bit better. I was really hoping the KX's would be better, as they certainly look awesome.


Todo's:
I have some slop in my axles, mostly the front axle. It's mostly noticeable when climbing up, and I have to stop to wiggle or something. There is a bit off 'roll back' that annoys the hell out of me. I'm hoping I can shim the pinion further down into the ring gear and eliminate the slop. I may buy more lockers to try as well.

ESC tweaking. I just got a castle link, and I'm going to program my esc a bit more to tweak the performance. The reverse comes on too strong for my liking.

The low speed control of the 3bros yellojacket is awesome, it really is quite impressive. The whine isn't all that loud, and doesn't bother me a bit. The weight savings between the yellowjacket and my old HH 550 is significant.

Wiring cleanup. When I get the direct servo I can ditch the BEC. I plan to clean up the wiring quite a bit at that point.


Future upgrades:
3 Bros RC G13 servo
3 Bros RC overland winch
SSD Pro44 axles, brass chubs in the front for a bit more weight.
Lighter wheels
More single malt and japanese beer.
Different body shell. I love the power wagon, but wan't something different. I really like the MST FJ45 body, I might have to give that sucker a try.

Portals.... so this is in and out of my mind constantly. Which pretty much means I'll try some portals on this rig, or maybe buid another, at some point. I'm still researching which portals, gearing, etc. to ensure I get at least as much OD in front as I have now (~22.5% I think).

Overall I could not be happier with this rig, the build, the quality of the components and of course, the performance.

Some poorly taken pictures.

[pcgab]

More pics, and yes, I plan to paint the diff covers

[Topher Builds]

That’s a build right there. Great parts list, plans, and execution.

Glad you found my threads helpful and are enjoying the results of your labor and research. It’s definitely a great chassis and performer.

[soze]

Nice build!

[pcgab]

Originally Posted by Topher Builds

That’s a build right there. Great parts list, plans, and execution.

Glad you found my threads helpful and are enjoying the results of your labor and research. It’s definitely a great chassis and performer.

Thank you!

Your threads certainly motivated me, and were a great resource when I was assembling my rig. When I first saw the videos of your sherpa and v3 build, I knew I had to build a similar rig. Watching them stick to the rocks and move the way they do really drew me in, ha!

Cheers,
Gable

[pcgab]

Originally Posted by soze

Nice build!

Thanks!

[antigacho]

this thread is great I really like what you build
I am also building a power wagon using the gspeed chassis but in my case Im using the element enduro axles and transmission

I have to try those innovations CI foams, too

do you know how heavy is your rig?

[pcgab]

Originally Posted by antigacho

this thread is great I really like what you build
I am also building a power wagon using the gspeed chassis but in my case Im using the element enduro axles and transmission

I have to try those innovations CI foams, too

do you know how heavy is your rig?

Thank you!

With battery and everything it weighs ~5lbs 8oz.

Cheers,
Gable

[Lashlee]

Great build!! I'll agree that @Topher has gotten me pointed in the right direction. I've got a Sherpa chassis and 2.low trans on the way to go with my Capra axles but now I want a GSpeed for a conversion on my Enduro. Builds like yours make me want to spend some money!

[pcgab]

Originally Posted by Lashlee

Great build!! I'll agree that @Topher has gotten me pointed in the right direction. I've got a Sherpa chassis and 2.low trans on the way to go with my Capra axles but now I want a GSpeed for a conversion on my Enduro. Builds like yours make me want to spend some money!

I am all too familiar with that feeling, ha!

[pcgab]

Took the rig out with some friends this weekend. We were trying a new spot, and found a great place.

I had a blast trying some very challenging obstacles, and spending the day out with friends.

I made a few small performance tweaks to the rig the day before and I think I'm going to take it a bit further. I had been running nearly full droop in the front, but was feeling like it was a bit lower than I wanted. So I added one of the pre-load o-rings Eric from D-Lux includes with his wonderful shock kits. I think I'm going to add another ring to the front to bump them up a touch more.

I'm currently running 20 weight oil in front and 35 in the rear. Since the rear is so much lighter I think I'm going to go down to 20 in the rear as well. I'll test that out in the next day or so.

The other 'tweak' I did was to better program my esc. I bought a castle link recently and am very glad I did. It was nice to be able to program so many parameters. There is quite a bit you can play with on the mamba micro x. I basically followed John Rob Holmes' video about programming esc's for crawlers. I think I'll lower the reverse power a bit, as 100% is more than I like, especially as I adjust to the new forward throttle curve. I would love to be able to program the reverse throttle curve the same as forward.

The curve Mr. Holmes uses took a bit of getting used to, but once adjusted I find it to be much easier for low speed control. The longer 'throw' of the trigger helps a bit to keep your application of power slow and controlled.

I attempted a third tweak, but screwed it up a bit. I bought a set of Krawler KX's in predator recently, and had been testing them compared to Hyrax's in predator. The Hyrax outperforms them on the rocks around here (crumbly limestone, and granite mostly). I decided to cut every other outer lug on the KX's to hopefully improve the grip, two tires cut and cleaned up nicely, then the second two I cut through the tire, TWICE! I'm going to order another pair of them to cut and test, as I think this will help the KX's on the rocks. I certainly like the looks of the KX's better, though that's not nearly as important to me as is their performance.

I'll post some pics and impressions of the tire mods once executed properly

Snapped a few pics of my sexy new body, now with excellent battle scars.

[MikaelBerberg]

Really nice rig! You have done a good job with this one.
The brake curve works as "reverse curve" when programmed in crawler reverse, so you can adjust the brake curve the same way as throttle curve.

[pcgab]

Originally Posted by MikaelBerberg

Really nice rig! You have done a good job with this one.
The brake curve works as "reverse curve" when programmed in crawler reverse, so you can adjust the brake curve the same way as throttle curve.

Oh, excellent. I shall try that.

Cheers,
Gable

[pcgab]

I changed my rear shock oil to match the front, 20wt today. I also went through the transfer case and added some shims to remove a bit of slop. I was able to get most of it addressed, but need to work on the top input shaft a bit more, it's much better, but I think I can get it even better still.

I took my rig on a hike this afternoon to a new spot I've been wanting to check out. It was well worth the short hike, and ~3 minute drive from my house. There is a nice, long dry creek bed with loads of rock, and a few large water retention structures that are bordered with nothing but large rocks. Going to take some friends back there Friday for more investigation and wheeling.

The shock oil change in the rear seems to have had a positive affect on movement, especially when flexed hard. More evaluation time needed certainly. I'll likely make the additional pre-load change to the front before Friday's session, it's certainly very easy to reverse, or increase.

quick teaser pic:

[pcgab]

Tested the modified Krawler KX's a bit last night on some of my backyard obstacles. The modifications offered a solid improvement, but still not quite as good as the Hyrax.

I am going to put in the same CI foams that I'm using in the Hyrax, for the KX's. Currently the KX's have pro-line dual stage foams. I am curious to see how much improvement the CI foams will make over the proline's in the KX's, they certainly made a noticeable improvement with the hyrax's.

[pcgab]

Added a quick and dirty roof rack tonight. I thought I had panhead screws in the right size, but I didn't. I'll order some, so the the heads are more flush.

I wanted a rack so I could quickly add a light bar when we go night crawling. I think I might get a couple scale points for it as well at comps?

Cheers,
Gable

[Fricker08]

Great build man! Are you happy with the gspeed chassis?
I’d ordered a flatgekko 3 weeks ago still waiting for it to be made. Was hoping to get that order cancelled and order this chassis but no luck.. stuck playing the waiting game.
But I still may end up with one of these in the future.
Starting to dig these simple but super functional builds


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[pcgab]

Originally Posted by Fricker08

Great build man! Are you happy with the gspeed chassis?
I’d ordered a flatgekko 3 weeks ago still waiting for it to be made. Was hoping to get that order cancelled and order this chassis but no luck.. stuck playing the waiting game.
But I still may end up with one of these in the future.
Starting to dig these simple but super functional builds


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I love it, I think I'll build off the sherpa chassis next with portals.... or, I may build a bully2 next, I can't decide, haha.

The chassis is a great platform to build from imo, it was a very easy build. Some planning and research upfront made it a lot easier. Topher's recent threads on the tgh v3 and sherpa were a wealth of good information.

I've heard great things about the Flatgekko chassis as well.

Cheers,
Gable

[pcgab]

Yesterday was an amazing day of crawling with some friends in a fantastic local spot.

As I always do, when I get home from a long session of crawling like that, I do some maintenance and cleaning on my rig. This typically consists of checking for leaking shocks, loose bolts, loose wires, etc.

I've also been checking the suspension, driveline, shocks, etc. for any binding, rubbing, or odd movement.

I noticed yesterday, that when I installed the links I somehow put my third link in backwards. I had the bend in the link on the axle side, instead of the chassis side. This was causing the lower link to contact the third link when the right side of the axle was at full stuff. Thankfully the binding was at the very 'bottom' of the movement, but I wanted to fix it. I took the link off, swapped it around, and now there is plenty of clearance. I'm going to take the rig out to the backyard course later today and see if I can notice the change. It was likely pretty subtle, but still curious if I can feel an improvement.

I also tackled something I had meant to do last weekend. My steering link, across the front of the front axle, was pointing down quite a bit. When I installed the link ends, I didn't rotate them into a spot that kept the bottom of the link rotation to a more 'center axle' spot, and was thus hanging down at the bottom of it's rotation full time. This had caught me on a few obstacles during this weekend's session. I rotated it a bit, and it's now in a much better spot.

I tested the Krawler KX's some more this weekend, and think they may need some siping. If I get some time this week, I'll try some of that.

I'm thinking about trying some other tires, maybe flat iron's, or landmine's? The Hyrax is such a performer, but I would like to have some more options. There was some drizzle this weekend when we got to our spot, and I noticed the Hyrax's grip the wet rocks well, but any moist dirt clings to the treads more than I would like. Thankfully this isn't a common problem where we crawl, but it was a bit of bother once or twice this weekend.

What tires are people liking for performance, besides the Hyrax. I tend to prefer the softers/stickiest compounds, and don't mind the lack of life-time they typically have.

Some pics of the moved third link. I've since moved the servo wire a bit more out of the way as well.

Cheers,
Gable

[pcgab]

We were all so engrossed in crawling that we didn't take many pictures or video. I'm going to try to capture our fun better next weekend when we go back to an awesome place on Onion Creek.

Here are a couple pics from yesterday's fun:

First pic is a nice steep hilly spot, with loads of loose leaves and dirt, and some nice big rocks. This was a fun trail crawl after all the complex rock crawling we did earlier in the day, up the creek.

The second picture is me driving through the course, and in this pic I had just finished the hardest damn gate we setup. When we set up the course, we should have evaluated that gate better. We made nearly all of the gates fairly challenging, but that one was difficult bonus gate material.

So much fun though..