2.2" 2005 Dodge Ram 2500 Quad Cab Trail Rig

[mysterygamer]

really nice build it looks amazing wish i would have thought or that i have lots of cheap rc hard bodys from radioshack have like 4dodge trucks 3 hummer bodys and lots more lol cant wait to see it when its dont what colour are you going to paint it ?

[monkeyracer]

Originally Posted by mysterygamer

really nice build it looks amazing wish i would have thought or that i have lots of cheap rc hard bodys from radioshack have like 4dodge trucks 3 hummer bodys and lots more lol cant wait to see it when its dont what colour are you going to paint it ?

Originally Posted by monkeyracer

I'm thinking satin or low-gloss black with flat black hood and accents and spray-in bedliner.

Thanks for the compliment!

I'm looking for tires now for this. My local scale club is thinking of adopting the tire ban that MSD is doing for nats. That means Rovers gotta go.

So, I'm looking at a 5"+ tire, that works well, and doesn't cost an arm and a leg.
There's the RC4WD Rok Lox, and Stompers, but that's $60 for a set of 4.
There's the 2.2 Flat Irons, but they're only 4.5" tall
There's the Imex 5.5" All-T, but the compound kinda sucks.

So, any suggestions would be helpful.

Also, I want to find a "berg offset" beadlock that doesn't cost a fortune as well. Something to narrow the track width up a little bit. I wouldn't want to spend a lot here either.

[hotclown87]

really digging that body, i wish i had the patiance and skills to make something that nice

[SlickRockSpider]

Originally Posted by monkeyracer

Thanks for the compliment!

I'm looking for tires now for this. My local scale club is thinking of adopting the tire ban that MSD is doing for nats. That means Rovers gotta go.

So, I'm looking at a 5"+ tire, that works well, and doesn't cost an arm and a leg.
There's the RC4WD Rok Lox, and Stompers, but that's $60 for a set of 4.
There's the 2.2 Flat Irons, but they're only 4.5" tall
There's the Imex 5.5" All-T, but the compound kinda sucks.

So, any suggestions would be helpful.

Also, I want to find a "berg offset" beadlock that doesn't cost a fortune as well. Something to narrow the track width up a little bit. I wouldn't want to spend a lot here either.

Rok Lox rule the ORCRC comps . I think that there is so many 5.0 + tires that the judges are making the courses with tall tires in mind.

Kinda like go big or go home

I am looking fwd to seeing your rig with no lid. The winch you describe sounds really cool.

keep up the good work



Evan

[monkeyracer]

Originally Posted by SlickRockSpider

Rok Lox rule the ORCRC comps . I think that there is so many 5.0 + tires that the judges are making the courses with tall tires in mind.

Kinda like go big or go home

I am looking fwd to seeing your rig with no lid. The winch you describe sounds really cool.

keep up the good work



Evan

Kind of the same deal here, a lot of guys run rok lox, and I like the tall tires. I saw that the Stompers were almost the same height, and I like the tread pattern, but can't find much info on the 2.2's. I would probably get the soft compound version though.

[goobs]

losi rock carvers!.

[70duncan]

No more TALKEE. We need pictues. j/k

I like the idea of no rovers on scale rigs.

I have a set of the Losi Rock carvers, and they work ok. Realy havn't used them much. They are on my wife's Rubi, and I just got it finished before all the snow. She doesn't like to go out when it is cold.:? Says it sucks the fun out of it. Oh well, more time for me go out with my buddies

[monkeyracer]

ok, not sure what is up with the camera, so I took some with the phone...











I'll get better pics when I figure out what happened to my camera.

[ram_tough]

This thing looks sweet, nice work

[monkeyracer]

After seeing this thread (again) I think I've decided on making some TallIrons. They end up at 5.5 which is what I want, and they look a little cooler than Rok Lox. (And it will be a little bit less expensive, not by much though, TallIrons would be about $55 shipped, and Lox are $65 shipped.) With the tall irons, I'd have enough in 3 pairs to make 2 pairs and my spare tire, with the Lox, I'd only have 2 pairs. Also, I'd like to do something fairly unique, and no-one near here has these.

It came down to a toss up between the TallIrons or TallCobras (Tall panther cobras...) and the TallIrons just look more scale.

Pic comparison:
Tall Cobras:




Vs TallIrons:






Now I need to decide between M2 compound or M3.

M2 would give me longer lasting tread life, but M3 would be a little stickier and hold to rocks better. I'm leaning towards M3, but haven't fully made my decision on them yet.

I'm going to try and have a small update on the build later. Working on the interior today...

[monkeyracer]

Update:

I got a small amount of work done.

Here's an idea of the overall stance:





As I mentioned before, I had to fabricate a new 4-link mount:





Here's a better shot of what's under the lid:



It's a really tight fit with the body now. The winch battery is actually mounted on it, and the vehicle main battery will be sitting under the bed in the back.

I also mounted a mini servo on the steering wheel. Yes, it turns with the tires...



Soon, I'll attach it to the driver's hands so it looks like he's actually steering the truck.





I'm getting some 3S 2200 mAh batteries and will be ordering tires, and a 2.4ghz radio soon (yay for tax refunds) So I'll need to decide very soon which tire to go with (Tall Irons or Tall Cobras.)

I also need to mount LEDS, finish the body work, finish the interior work, paint the body and chassis. Later I'll add some more metal work and re-do the chassis rails.

Any comments or suggestions?

[SAL45]

That looks great! Nice job on the 4-link

[SlickRockSpider]

Looking good man. That is one hell of a winch
Still having problems getting a couple of bodys from radio shack. I am going monday to try again .


Looks like fun




Evan

[monkeyracer]

Originally Posted by goobs

losi rock carvers!.

Hmmm... Didn't realize they were scale Pitbull Rockers... I always thought they were more of a "comp tire" but I've been doing more research on them, and I may go with some Carvers instead of having to modify other tires. They are right at about 5" which is on the low side of my limits, but I've heard good things about them as a scaler tire. Plus they're way less expensive than the Tall tires or anything RC4WD has.

I'm also considering leaving the 4-link mount polished aluminum (not polished in the pics) or painting it flat black. I guess I just have to polish it and see if I like it like that. (Mother's Mag and Aluminum polish is amazing, BTW, no hard rubbing, and it's just a wipe on, wipe off affair. I'll post pics when it's done.)

[70duncan]

The stance looks good . Thanks for the pictures of the winch set up.

If you are going for the scale look, I would do the Tall Irons.

[monkeyracer]

Originally Posted by SAL45

That looks great! Nice job on the 4-link

Thanks!

Originally Posted by SlickRockSpider

Looking good man. That is one hell of a winch
Still having problems getting a couple of bodys from radio shack. I am going monday to try again .


Looks like fun




Evan

It's really strange how a lot of their employees don't know the RSU system. I've never worked there and I know more about it than some of them... Good luck!

Originally Posted by 70duncan

The stance looks good . Thanks for the pictures of the winch set up.

If you are going for the scale look, I would do the Tall Irons.

This winch is beefy. I am going to take it apart and lube all the internal gears. They are delrin so I didn't think I would need to, but I want to quiet them down just a little bit, and hopefully make them last a long time. I think the only thing that works with delrin is White Lithium Grease.

I'll probably order a second one very soon for my upcoming 1.9 build. Either that or move this to the 1.9 and make a 540 motor winch. JGoodall has one on his 6x6, and it will practically pull stumps out of the ground. Line speed is really a reason why I would go that route. We'll see.

I polished up the link mounts, and it just shows the deep scratches that are in the aluminum. I might try and go with a brushed look to hide some of the deep scratches, but in the end might just paint it flat black.

I like the Tall Irons, but they'd end up being about $50, 6 hours of labor, and sacrificing my rovers for sidewalls, whereas the carvers would be $22 and no cutting/gluing. I'm wondering if it will be worth it for the Tall Irons, right now, I'm thinking not.

[monkeyracer]

Update!

I swapped my WK axles out for AX10 axles, and now the track width is where it should be, wheels stick out just the right amount past the body.

I painted the frame, and the body, bought the carvers, mounted the spare, upgraded the winch motor (Mini LST 370 Frenzy), got a new LiPo for it (3S 3600mAh 30c) and got some rock rash on the new paint already from the comp yesterday, here's some pics:











Notice the radio sitting next to the truck, that's my TQ6 6ch radio that I am still in the process of building, with proportional winch control!



Finally some pics on the rocks:









The rock pics were taken at the Scale Summer Series opener, and the truck ran well until I shattered a driveshaft, not just broke, but shattered. I put some extended Traxxas truck shafts on, and they may have been a little old and brittle to start with, so I guess I wasn't expecting much, but I didn't bring a spare, so I was out after the first gate into the second course. I upgraded the Axial trans to a 6mm output (using a 6mm rod through the existing aluminum outputs that broke last time I drove it.) Now it's beefy, and I can use my Aluminum driveshafts again, and leave the slipper as the weak point to prevent more catastrophe.

I was also having issues with the MLST ESC. I'm pretty sure it's dead now, but I don't know what killed it... The motor is made for this esc, and it was on it's own battery, good thing I bought a spare for it.


Things to work on:
- I want to rearrange electronics placement, and get the big heavy battery up front, and make a waterproof box for the elecs so I don't have to re-waterproof the replacement MLST esc or the 6ch receiver.
- Add a BEC for the steering and steering wheel servo, the sidewinder's internal BEC isn't strong enough to do the task.
- Look into better servos, the 645 just isn't cutting it, it's not horrible, but there were times where having the strength would have come in handy.
- Re-redo the front bumper, this one just doesn't look the way I wanted to, and the first version got messed up when I was trying some aluminum brazing.
- Maybe look into Tall Irons, and sell the carvers, I found a deal on the irons, but I'd still need some random sacrifice 2.2s for the bead. Either that or wait till PitBull releases their 2.2 rocker (5.5" supposedly.)
- Make a new skid from UHMWPE which you do see on some 1:1s so it is scale to use that material.
- Make the head/tail lights for it, I had the lights from the 3Racing and Tamiya sets, but something fried in them when I powered it on (magic smoke ) but not all of them fried, so I have to find which ones work, and which ones don't, and order replacements.

That's all I can think of now, but I am sure there will be more later.

[SlickRockSpider]

Very nice. That looks so killer. She really looks sweet. I picked up my body, but haven't gotten to it. What voltage should I use for the LED head lights that came with the truck ? i will keep you posted




Evan

[monkeyracer]

Originally Posted by SlickRockSpider

Very nice. That looks so killer. She really looks sweet. I picked up my body, but haven't gotten to it. What voltage should I use for the LED head lights that came with the truck ? i will keep you posted




Evan

Well, they're not LED, so they will not be really bright, but the truck was originally designed to run off 7.2V, but I am not sure if they had anything regulate down to 6.0v or not.

I was planning on just using some 3V LEDs wired in series pairs to handle 6V, and plug into my BEC set at 6V. (Still calculating the resistor values...)

I'd love to see your build when you are done with it, feel free to post a link to the thread in this one. I am still trying to figure out what to do with the "scraps" from the crew cab extension, and I may do something crazy with it like a door-less bobbed and doved front and rear kind of thing... maybe...

[70duncan]

Glad to see some updates to this Rig. Looking good. That body came out great .

The axle swap was definitely a good idea. Looks much better.