Queso meets a Buffalo (GS02F)

[QuesoDelDiablo]

Originally Posted by TheLetterJ

I can't quite tell from the pictures, are the holes for the fender flares predrilled, or are they just dimpled? Looks like the body with all the accessories is only $55, not bad.

Just dimpled unfortunately. Lots of drilling to do on this body, having a decent set of metric drill bits or a body reamer is key..

And now I'm realizing I forgot my own cardinal rule of fender mounting - drill one hole and then install the fender to match drill the remaining holes. Damn. Well, hopefully they line up ok...

[TK421]

GReat work so far bro, looking forward to seeing how it progresses.

Lou

[QuesoDelDiablo]

For the next update, the exterior body is complete! There's still lights to install and I'm gonna throw a tray style interior in, but the vinyl wrapping is done and all the plastics are installed..

Overall I'm pretty happy with how the wrap turned out, there's a few spots that I would've liked to have done a little bit cleaner (mostly Spurs where I put seams or corner reliefs) but from 3ft away she looks perfect...

Just don't look too closely at the tailgate area..

Now that I'm seeing how it's built/designed I'm not ultra-pumped about how the body mount system works. It'll work no doubt, but the attachment is secured by traditional body clips in an awkward/not easy to install location. Essentially, the F/R bumpers key into the chassis and the bumper mounting posts become body posts .I'll post more pictures of the interface one I've got the chassis built and explain my thoughts more thoroughly then..























Built the shocks. Not much to say there Gmade shocks are pretty nice and the kit comes with their upgraded delrin pistons in 2, 3 or 4 hole damping. I used 4 hole with 45wt oil and bled them for a droopish style setup (slight rebound and full compression). Conveniently the brass spring cups I made for my Venture fit so I'll throw a set on after I paint them black..





One of the nice little things that Gmade pretty good at is bringing in the runners for their molds to join the part on a hidden surface. Makes for easier parts tree trimming and cleaner edges on finished parts. This is the back of the grill and you can see the the runner came in against the back side of the part so the visible edge is clean.

[themountain]

Came out very nice , Kudos!
What electronics will go in ??

[QuesoDelDiablo]

Originally Posted by themountain

Came out very nice , Kudos!
What electronics will go in ??

Many thanks! It was more than I expected and I'm glad that part is done...

For Electronics I've got:

SW4
Trinity copperhead 27T motor
10A BEC
JX CLS5830 servo for steering
HeyOk servo bypass cable
Tactic TSX45 servo for shifting
PowerHD LF-20MG Servo winch (HeyOK controller)
6ch Flysky Rx

I've got a castle duo-connect that I'll probably scab in as well for easier programming changes. Or I might leave it out because I already have a lot of wire to deal with..

Plus I'll be using a remote switch to the harness of LED's for headlights and taillights..

[QuesoDelDiablo]

Here's the next update..

We're past the body building (for now at least) and we're moving on to things of a more mechanical nature..


Here's one thing I don't love about Gmade kits, they sort the hardware by size as opposed to by step. Not a huge problem, but it does mean a little more work finding the hardware required in each step of the manual and keeping track of the extra stuff intended for use in upcoming steps..



Links. Gmade uses M4 hardware which is nice, and they've used some machined grooves to make it easy to identify fronts/rears. The stock kit comes with full metal links throughout; panhard link is ss and the remainder are all aluminum; I'll likely make a set of lowers in brass or ss in January when the shop is slow and I've got more time..

*not shown but the kit comes with metal pivot balls throughout.



The GA44's are a pretty nicely designed axle. They've taken cues from a lot of the other brands out there, similar gears to an axial, similar housing to an SSD, similar shock mounts to a 10.2. They have a nice smooth bottom to the diff, 45* steering but there's no room in the tubes to add a brass tube inside.

Their locker is keyed into the ring gear (similar to boom racing) but they use a different output which forms a part (the ball portion) of the driveshaft u-joint. An option part is available to convert to a standard 5mm output but the Gmade driveshafts seems pretty strong so I'm gonna run the stock setup.

As with all my axles, I upgraded to aluminum hubs/knuckles right from the start, I think this should be a standard for all rigs. Some people report that 10.2 knuckles fit, and c-hubs can be made to fit. I tried on a previous set of GA44's but there was just enough difference that I consider them to be incompatible. Properly designed parts are readily available from junfac.com so I see no reason to mess around with forcing a fit..










Watch for the next post with the tranny build..

[QuesoDelDiablo]

All right, time to build the transmission. I've never built anything with a two-speed before so this might be interesting..

A couple of key points about the Gmade transmission and drivetrain layout first, and then we'll get on with the pictures..

Counter-rotating drive shafts. I love this feature, I don't know why more manufacturers aren't doing something similar. They drastically reduce (eliminate?) torque twist, the transmission/transfer case has less gears/bearings/moving parts and the CoG is lower. I see no downside to this layout..

The transmission and transfer case are all metal gears throughout, I don't think they're machined and hardened, but they seem to be of pretty decent quality. At least on par with any axial or traxxas transmission that I've ever built and not made from that world famous chinesium pot metal. All metal transmission gears should be standard on everything I think.

The motor mount is indexed by pinion size and I really like that setup. It makes life so much easier, especially with internal pinion/spur cases.

This spur gear is plastic, I think that should also be a standard offering on every rig built; I like having that as a fuse in the system and I don't care for the noise of metal spur gears. The slipper clutch (dual plate) uses conical spring washers instead of a traditional spring, I don't see that one or the other is functionally very different from the other and I expect it work just fine. That's more or less a moot point though since I always crank the slipper all the way down and only back it off 1/8 of a turn or less. I don't ever want it to slip, but I do want it to strip before the diff transfer case or transmission does..

The shifting fork is plastic, I expect that will keep the noise down as opposed to having a metal fork rubbing against a gear shaft all day long. There was a bit of flash to clean off before I put it in just to make sure that it would run smooth and it didn't have any little burrs that might come off and get jammed in a gear tooth somewhere.

I particularly like that this rig has got overdrive right out of the box, optional gears are available if you want to eliminate the overdrive or increase it. Stock setting is 12% od.

The instruction book came with an addendum but from what I can tell they're just reminding the builder not to miss the plastic spacers that go into the noted gears. Some people have noted that the spacers are the same size as some common bearings and used bearings instead, I didn't bother with that since those particular gears are rotating with the shaft so there's exactly zero reason to waste a bearing since all it needs is a spacer to help maintain alignment.

Now, on to the pictures.


Gears and bearings!


Not the actual addendum but these are spacers I was talking about, they appear in a few other places. Addendum had 3 steps noted.



Gears and bearings on shafts!

(I'm using Phil Wood waterproof grease throughout and I use a small syringe for tidy application)













If you want to lock it in low gear, just pop a c-lip into the machined groove.



High gear position



Built!
(I decide to revive/refresh this classic older motor from my parts bin, We'll see how she does...)



Built!

[QuesoDelDiablo]

What's left now. I'll have to go through my photos and see where we're at. Hold on a second.


Here we are, chassis assembly.

Pretty straight forward, c-channel frame rails and some cross members to hold them together, nothing significant to report here.

But check out the last picture, I love love love how low the trans/t-case are on this rig.

Ok, here it is, check out this next phase. Chassis assembly.

[QuesoDelDiablo]

And then to button up final chassis details like fender liners etc.

Again, not too much of any real significance to report here, except for a couple of things it all went together quite easily. But the shifter linkage, I messed that up initially by using the wrong parts off the tree because they had all broken off in the box so I couldn't ID specific part numbers and I probably wasn't totally paying attention until I realized that the way I had built it the shift linkage wouldn't move at all. And the captured nuts on the shock tower braces weren't being captured properly and just wanted to spin so they were a bit of bastard to tighten down since you can't get pliers on them. I got them on and I hope I never have to take them off. So far that's probably the single most irritating thing about this build.

I love the Gmade Rx box, it's huge and uses the some waterproofing method as the Traxxas Rx box (which is the best Rx box commonly available imo, well, second best now..) I've got a 6 channel Rx (in it's case), a servo bypass, the excess wiring from 5 channels worth of gear crammed in there and it wasn't even a tight fit.

I'm quite pleased with how well laid out this rig is for wiring, there's a lot wires involved (esc, servo1, servo2, light switch, bec, bypass, winch) but everything tucks up really nicely...

[soze]

Build's looking good! I look forward to building mine to see what improvements were made over the GS02 that I have.

[CyberFox]

Hi,

What do you think of the plastics, and overall quality of this car, compared to an Axial or Traxxas for example ?

[QuesoDelDiablo]

Originally Posted by soze

Build's looking good! I look forward to building mine to see what improvements were made over the GS02 that I have.

Yeah, this is a really nice update for the GS02 chassis. they've made some key improvements over the Bom. The most important one being this new transmission, super low for a nice CoG, OD in the TCase, stock with 2-speed and of course the TTR counter-rotating dshafts, I think they nailed it with this one.

I'm not super pumped about how they did the post-less body mounting, I don't like having to fiddle with body clips that are a bit hard to access. But that's fairly minor and some small zipties make them much easier to deal with.

Originally Posted by CyberFox

Hi,

What do you think of the plastics, and overall quality of this car, compared to an Axial or Traxxas for example ?

I'm quite happy with the quality of the plastics and the quality of the design. I like this new transmission and motor mount far better than any Axial or Traxxas because the transmission weight is all low and the motor is centered on the chassis.

This Gmade body is definitely better than Axial or Traxxas, it's 1.5mm (.060") thick so it's really strong.

I've built several Axial (one 10.1 and two 10.2's) and HPI (three Ventures) trigs (never a TRX4 though) and I really feel that Gmade is the same quality as any of the other major brands. Their kits are the best value in the business and I'm always surprised that they aren't more popular in North America.

There's a few odd little issues with like using multiple different sizes of hardware in seemingly strange places, but those are really minor and don't affect the performance at all.

[QuesoDelDiablo]

Couple slightly random pics-

Checking the weight & balance; without a few things installed (interior tray, winch, alum shock towers) it lands close to 60/40 f/r which is pretty much the ideal fore/aft distribution imo.







And I decided to use some slightly wider wheel hexes that I had in the parts bin. Going from 3mm to 5mm. Even with the wider hexes, the tires are nicely tucked under the flares.

[QuesoDelDiablo]

For an interior, I bought one of the cheap knockoffs (AliExpress) of the proline pl-c/t. It's ok, but you can definitely tell it's a cheap knockoff. The molding quality is pretty poor, there's lots of spots that didn't get pulled properly and that causes some of the detail stickers to not fit properly so I had to pull out the blow dryer to stretch them into place..

One day maybe I'll have the time & energy to do a full 3d interior but for I'm content with these tray style interiors..

It needed a slight extension at the back to fill the cargo area so I just made a quick and easy filler plate from scrap lexan painted to match. The seam is pretty ugly but it won't be noticeable once it's installed. And I used some foam gasket tape to widen it.

It mounts by using the windshield wiper posts and then the gasket tape sits on top of the inside clamping piece for the rear fender flares. Forgot to grab a picture of it but it worked out pretty well; completely removable, totally secure and it was easy..

I like that it comes painted, but I shot the whole thing with a coat of matte black because the yellow on the seats was hideous. Looks much better this way.

And then some interior accessorizing. Most of these items I had kicking around but since we don't have a color printer I had to send the box files to Staples to be printed and I had them do it on cardstock so that they would fold better..

The way I see it, the story goes that this guy went back to town to do a bit of a supply run for some of the guys (and girls!) back at the base and that's why he's got a truck full of whiskey, weed magazines and new RCs..

I'm kinda pumped about using this dude for a driver, I actually bought 2 of him (and 2 of another variant) at a Dollar store 5 years ago and every rig I've built since then have had one of them driving it. I've even sold them a couple times but managed to get them back...

[Phildirt]

Need to draw tats on his arms and a beard

[QuesoDelDiablo]

Originally Posted by Phildirt

Need to draw tats on his arms and a beard

You're right, I do. That's a really good call.

Sent from my ELE-L04 using Tapatalk

[FJ60ADV]

Following.
Almost bought this kit, bought a BOM instead. I'm very curious to see how the GS02F performs compared to the GS02, and if I should pursue converting mine to an F

Sent from my SM-G781U using Tapatalk

[QuesoDelDiablo]

Originally Posted by FJ60ADV

Following.
Almost bought this kit, bought a BOM instead. I'm very curious to see how the GS02F performs compared to the GS02, and if I should pursue converting mine to an F

Sent from my SM-G781U using Tapatalk

My Bom is currently my 2nd favourite rig, second only to my HPI Venture. Once the Buffalo is officially added to the garage I'm expecting it will bump the Bom and take over second place..

I wouldn't necessarily recommend converting a Bom into a Buffalo, that's a whole bunch of parts that when purchased separately would likely end up costing enough to justify just buying another rig. And it's always a good idea to buy another rig..

Your Bom kit already the TTR (counter-rotating) driveshafts which is a huge benefit and presumably your kit is new enough that you didn't get the original (badly designed) transmission case. So really, it's a killer rig already..

(I highly recommend NOT using the cantilever set-up unless you also bought the heaviest springs they sell and the sway bar, v-style configuration performs MUCH better.)

Performance wise, I'm anticipating some distinct improvements from the Buffalo because of the overdrive, but that's the only significant performance benefit I'm expecting, everything else (2-speed, hidden body mounts, inner fenders, HD body) are really just lip gloss..

[smog]

Weed world....lol.

Love the scale boxes too. Sargent Day-off has some fun times ahead of him.

I haven’t built a GMade kit since my R1 way back when. It might be time, I enjoyed your thread here. The truck looks really nice. GMade, has some really good shocks and some really bad shocks. Where to find these land, any leakage?

[Robotboy]

Super looking rig, Great job! I think GMade got it right on this one.
I may have to put this kit on my list of wants.