Buford: Papa's MG200 Chassis Build

[Szczerba]

Oh, boy, now we are talking and subscribing.

[papabash]

Here's what the interior looks like assembled. The driver I had hoped to use (Psycho Miko) was just too big for the size of the body so I had to go shopping for someone more appropriately sized. Came up with this guy at Wally World - he's a wrestler, but is wearing a shirt and jeans, so I didn't mind. Added some cool shades to him, painted over his athletic-taped hands to make them look like driving gloves, and grabbed the Dremel to make him fit the seat. Used a Dinky Cheap Seat to save weight. The first picture shows how a lipo fits into one of the battery pods. I fabbed dual pods so I can run 2 3S lipos in parallel for longer run times or, if I ever feel the need, switch the motor and connect them in series for 6S power on short runs. I hated to cut the driver's legs off below the knees, but space is limited, and the electronics will mount in front of the firewall.



Other views of interior, also installed the fuel cell and made some fuel lines for it:

[papabash]

Originally Posted by Szczerba

Oh, boy, now we are talking and subscribing.

I'll try not to disappoint!

[papabash]

Decided on a 3300kv Holmes TrailMaster BL Pro 540. Thought about trying one of the new Puller Pro BLs, but this rig will be used primarily for G6 type events so longevity and reliability are more important than axle-snapping power.

Transmission is built with following:
HR hardened steel locker gear
Robinson steel idler gear
BWD Foff motor plate
LockedUp RC slipper eliminator
VP housing
Fast Eddy bearings
HR steel spur

[papabash]

Everyone else in my family had to work today, so I got some quality time in my shop and made some good progress.
Trenton had been running 4" Traxxas shocks, but I chose to go with the 100mm RC4WD King Off Road shocks. The aluminum shaft ends that come on these shocks are very short and were causing some pretty severe binding on the lower mount. There aren't a lot of threads on the shafts, so I was afraid plastic ends would strip. I discovered that the King Short Course shocks have longer shaft ends, so I ordered a set to try on the Off Road shocks (The short course shocks only come in 90 and 110mm sizes, so ordering them to begin with wasn't an option). The longer ends fit perfectly on my shocks, and eliminated all binding.




They did end up making my 100mm shocks 106mm, but that's still shy of the 110mm shocks.



After installing them, they look like a perfect fit and I am very pleased so far.

I made some new lower links out of 3/8" Delrin rod and put XR10 bent rod ends on the chassis ends. I also put a slight bend in the rears:



Got it all together and almost have a roller; just need to work on steering linkage, drive shafts, and hub widths before installing the electronics and painting the body:

[vwmopar]

How do you put the chamfer on the delrin links?

[papabash]

Originally Posted by vwmopar

How do you put the chamfer on the delrin links?

I have a little jig I made years ago for chamfering pinewood derby axles on my disc sander. It's a little small for this application, and it certainly isn't high precision, but it gets the job done. I just spin the rod with my right hand while the sander is running and slowly feed it into the disc.

[papabash]

Wasn't able to make the trip to Worlds so I had time to get Buford ready for a local comp tomorrow. I still have a lot left to do, including painting the new body, but he's close enough for a little shake-down run.

[sam63]

Nice! You did some great work on that interior and battery boxes, very clean and well thought out. I have that same motor in mine right now and really like it. On 4S it kinda sounds like it wants to explode but hasn't.....YET

[papabash]

Originally Posted by sam63

Nice! You did some great work on that interior and battery boxes, very clean and well thought out.

Thanks Sam! It was very time consuming trying to figure out all the angles, etc., but I'm pretty happy with it.

I have that same motor in mine right now and really like it. On 4S it kinda sounds like it wants to explode but hasn't.....YET

I was amazed yesterday by how smooth and powerful it is for a 2 pole motor.

[papabash]

Had it's maiden run yesterday at our local comp. It was pretty much just a chance to see how I like the setup so far and I have to say I'm very happy with it to this point. Still have some tweaking and tuning to do here and there, but I was surprised at how well it drove for coming straight off the bench. Ended up taking a DNF about half way through simply because I didn't want to beat on it real hard until I get it finished. Here are a couple pics from yesterday:

[papabash]

I'll be taking this rig with me to Crawlapalooza, so I've been busy tuning, painting, and otherwise trying to get it finished in time. Got some color squirted onto the new body; it's a combination of rattle can and air brush:






Made some inner fenders:




Did a little work on the sway bars and blasted them:



Still have some work to do: hook up the servo winch, tidy-up the wiring, etc, but happy so far with how it's turning out.

[90Finder]

Loving the way this turned out Dave! Looking forward to comping with you later this month, still bummed I have to miss crawlapalooza though!

[Jeepiac]

I'm still drooling after looking at this truck over and over all weekend. The pictures do not do it justice. A lot of thought and attention to detail went into this thing, and it was great meeting you, Dave!

[papabash]

Originally Posted by 90Finder

Loving the way this turned out Dave! Looking forward to comping with you later this month, still bummed I have to miss crawlapalooza though!

Thanks Mike! Wish you could've been there, it was a great time!

[papabash]

Originally Posted by Jeepiac

I'm still drooling after looking at this truck over and over all weekend. The pictures do not do it justice. A lot of thought and attention to detail went into this thing, and it was great meeting you, Dave!

Thanks for the kind words John! I really enjoyed meeting you too, hopefully I can make it back next year.

[papabash]

Didn't get many pics of Buford at Crawlapalooza, but he performed pretty well for his first real run. Still have some tuning to do but I had a blast driving him. Here's a pic waiting to run course 2 of the scale comps:



And a couple I took after packing up to head home: Not nearly as much carnage to the body/cage as I was afraid there might be. I held nothing back at Crawlapalooza and drove it like it was meant to be driven. I think I surprised a lot of people that I would actually drive it so hard; guess they thought since I showed up with a new purty rig it must be a shelf queen. No shelf queens in my stable! . Anyway, the only real damage was a bent front bumper and that will be an easy fix when I get around to it.

[snowman13]

Great looking rig sir!!! By the way what's your wheel base and track width on Buford? Is there anything you would set up differently that is battery placement, shock posistion, or link mounts? Your rig is turkey an inspiration and tryen the do my homework as I build my own. Thanks for the pics and the build thread!

[papabash]

Originally Posted by snowman13

Great looking rig sir!!! By the way what's your wheel base and track width on Buford? Is there anything you would set up differently that is battery placement, shock posistion, or link mounts? Your rig is turkey an inspiration and tryen the do my homework as I build my own. Thanks for the pics and the build thread!

Thank you, glad you're enjoying the thread. As he sits, the wheelbase is 12.5" and the track width is 11 3/4" to the outside of the tires. So far I haven't found anything I would change as far as shock position, link mounts, etc. Trenton knows his stuff and got all those things spot-on. If I go ahead and run it in G6's as planned, I may change the battery placement to a single larger battery across the front of the cab, simply to speed up on-course battery changes. The dual pod system I built for the batteries works very well for weight distribution but is a little tight for quick changes. Right now for how I'm using it, I think all I need to do is play around with different shock springs on the rear, and fine-tune the foams a little more.

[snowman13]

Thanks sir!! Building a beetle bodied rig with wraith axles now hope to have a thread when I'm done...many, many, many moons from now.