Fallen's RC4WD Miller Motorsports #4421

[Fallen]

Oh, it is. I ran two batteries through it this morning, and everything is running nicely.

A 3S, 2200MAH battery lasted 1 hour. And that was an hour filled with 2WD blasting, 4WD blasting and 1st gear crawling. This truck feels like it's about 1/3 the weight of my SCX10.3 Bronco.

[JDM74]

How would you say it compares in size to a bomber? Similar scale? My wallet is getting itchy....

[Fallen]

I unfortunately never had a Bomber, which I regret.

But the size is very similar to a 2.2 Wraith. The chassis on this one is a bit bigger, but the wheelbase, track width, and overall height really reminds me of my 2.2 Wraith Poison Spyder.

Scale is probably similar to Bomber. I bet having a Bomber to run against this thing would be awesome.

[xwaz]

Mine has about a pack through and I had the same Pinion grub screw coming loose that sadly ended the run. But I got a few minutes to run the Miller and my Ryft Side By Side.

[Fallen]

At least someone else has now had the same pinion set screw problem, so I know it wasn't only my truck the factory guys were sleeping through the build on.

That motor is a pain to access! It was such a pain I considered dropping in a 3300KV motor while I had access to it. But I like how in 1st gear that 1200KV motor doesn't cog at all, and I was worried the 3300KV motor would.

[xwaz]

I think a HW Fusion would be my choice to put in this, Its smooth and more power but not enough to test the drivetrain to the point of explosion.
I think one issue is that you cannot change the pinion size, at all. Its a fixed gear mesh so if you put anything fast in you'll lose some low end resolution.

[JDM74]

Originally Posted by Fallen

I unfortunately never had a Bomber, which I regret.

But the size is very similar to a 2.2 Wraith. The chassis on this one is a bit bigger, but the wheelbase, track width, and overall height really reminds me of my 2.2 Wraith Poison Spyder.

Scale is probably similar to Bomber. I bet having a Bomber to run against this thing would be awesome.

That is what I was thinking since the run the same 4400 class in KOH.

Pic of bomber, just because:



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[bgredjeep]

Usps says I'll have my miller chassis on Monday, so probably Tues at the earliest because they suck. I'll get a pic beside my bomber before I get into swapping parts around.

[Fallen]

Well I've now suffered my 3rd and 4th failure in about 5 batteries.

1st was the broken front ring gear.
2nd was loose pinion gear.
3rd is ANOTHER broken front ring gear.
4th is the driver's side steering knuckle arm.

The ring gear broke the same way as last time; the three tabs that interlock with the differential locking sleeve sheared off of the ring gear. The truck still drives, you just can't lock the front differential.

The steering was still working as the arms on that steering knuckle are double shear. The thru-bolt was holding everything together and I didn't notice it was broken until I took the axle apart.

So I'm calling 3 of those 4 breakages race enders. I don't think you're finishing KOH with a front differential that won't lock. And you're certainly not finishing with no drive (slipping pinion gear). On this truck, you can't fix the ring gear without completely removing the axle housing from the truck. And the pinion gear also requires a lot of tear down. Neither would be a trail repair.

So in 5 batteries I would have finished 2 races. Not a good record so far for the Miller Motorsports.

I've ordered a new differential and the aluminum knuckles / C-hubs. If the differential locker fails again, I'm just going to Silly Putty the front differential until someone comes up with a beefier solution.

[JDM74]

So, question, is the ring gear and its associated locking tabs sintered metal or machined steel?


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[Fallen]

Definitely not machined. Looks like pot metal to me.

[themountain]

Originally Posted by Fallen

So in 5 batteries I would have finished 2 races. Not a good record so far for the Miller Motorsports. .

Lets be honest..everybody who knows a thing or two knew already that this rig isnt for racing .
Its a very cute , highly detailed shelf queen, you can take out ones in a while .

[Fallen]

And these failures all came after taking the truck apart and rebuilding it.

The steering knuckle failure doesn't surprise me, they're plastic. We all expect to burn those. The ring gear failure does surprise and bum me out. One of the coolest features of this truck is the locking / unlocking differentials. It'd be lame to give that up.

I emailed RC4WD about the ring gear. I'm outside of the warranty period so I'm not looking for a free part. I just want them to be aware of a weak spot on the truck, that's resulted in repeated failures.

[JDM74]

I looked at the pictures of the ring gear and the locking mechanism attached to the axle shaft with the little spring that engages the teeth on the ring gear. That part is made of hardened steel like the axle it seems. Did you find the sheared off teeth and if so did they look mushroomed at all?


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[Fallen]

I did find them, both times. The first time I looked at them I didn't see any mushrooming or deformation. All three tabs were cleanly sheared off.

I haven't inspected the 2nd ones yet, just disassembled to confirm the failure. I'll confirm tonight, but I suspect those will also show no deformation.

[durok]

I'd say involving RC4WD is a good idea - who knows, they may end up doing what they did for the C2X, when the plastic Panhard mounts kept breaking...

They made an aluminum upgrade and went so far as to reach out to people that had bought that model direct from them, and offered to send the part for free!

[Fallen]

After I emailed RC4WD they told me they're going to send me a new ring gear & locking sleeve for free. That was after I told them that I wasn't seeking any free parts, I was outside of the warranty window and I had already purchased the new parts myself. Good service.

I asked them if they're seeing this problem from, anyone else, but haven't heard an answer yet. If they are, hopefully something along the lines of what Durok posted ends up happening. But if I'm the only one, maybe I am being too hard on this thing (which I doubt).

I looked at the broken off tabs after cleaning them. No deformation visible, not even on the faces of the teeth which make contact with the tabs. The locking sleeve definitely appears to be hardened or heat treated steel. The ring gear and its tabs (all one piece) are cast metal.

Makes sense why the locking sleeve keeps winning this fight.

[xwaz]

As it came up earlier on size. Here is the Miller next to a Bomber, Ryft, and a custom ar60s truggy. The Bomber and Miller are almost equal in wheelbase and width. We're the Ryft is longer and wider by ~inch in each dimension.

[bgredjeep]

Thanks for that pic. I'm excited to build my own performance version of this car.

My chassis was supposed to be here yesterday, but per usps SOP it's running late. Tracking shows it never left Bakersfield CA (I'm in GA) after it arrived there on Thursday. It'll be here eventually.

[bgredjeep]

Hey Fallen. If you happen to pull this apart at any point in the near future, could you snap a picture of the grill straight on, and get me a measurement of the overall height so I can scale it? The grill comes with all the interior parts and I'm not buying that. I'm going to draw something yj style in Fusion for the grill on my bomber swap.

Thanks