RcBros BrokeCam DNA SSS Proto

[RcBro]

I was one of the lucky few to get a prototype DNA SSS Chassis and I must say I'm happy to have one!

If your curious about the tittle, I had my Nikon D40 Camera on the Tripod getting ready to take pictures and the G/F accidentally bumped the tripod.. Now I have a two piece camera, one lense and one case! lol

The Specs:
DNA SSS
DNA Dig
DNA Motor Mount
Axial Axles
CKRC High Clearance Knuckles
Axial CVD's
Mamba ESC
35T integy
94780 Airtronics for steering
94162 Airtronics for Dig
3s Lipo


Anyways, I started off by opening up the package kinda suspicious of the whole concept, yet excited to try it..



Then I butchered my SWX to get my parts



Putting the chassis together was pretty interesting, I played with several link setups, slowing cutting to length trying different holes. Up, down, left, right etc... Getting use to what kinda of performance it would give me.. I ended up going with what I felt was the softest setup..





Then it was just a matter of putting the electronics in, all seemed easy until I got to gearing.. There really isn't much room to make your spur/pinion combo happy.. I couldn't find a happy medium and still have yet to find a happy medium. I tried what some others are using and either hit the delrin frame, or the rod end. To big of spur or to big of pinion.. :S

I decided I just wanted to run it, so I got something close to work for now and installed all the electronics.











Upon installation I realized my 3racing drivelines werent going to work, so I went back to stock, charged a battery and mounted the body for testing.. Instantly right away I could tell with the weight of the electronics the chassis flexes much better. I was getting worried up until the point it had tires underneath.

Horrible sound mesh and all I decided to take it out for its maden run, 15 minutes later the spur eat through the top rod end

But my initial impression are good!! Super low center of gravity, just the right flex and so far an even weight distribution. I have a small rock formation outside my basement door. This is where I get the bugs out of my crawlers, the SSS has battled and past two lines I've yet to do with any of my other crawlers. I'm very stoaked!

So far so good, just need to get this gearing fixed.

[atekt]

Looking good man! I cant wait to get my hands on one of those!

[jimbiss]

Originally Posted by RcBro

Aren't the c part of your knuckles on the wrong sides? Resulting in the screws on the outer knuckle to be tilted way forward. Or maybe you did it that way to make your linkages for the steering to work.


these are sweet looking chassis

[D.I.L.L.I.G.A.F.]

sweeeeeeeeet like the way it came out.

[O.C.D.]

Originally Posted by jimbiss

Aren't the c part of your knuckles on the wrong sides? Resulting in the screws on the outer knuckle to be tilted way forward. Or maybe you did it that way to make your linkages for the steering to work.


these are sweet looking chassis

Yeah, your steering knuckles are way too forward. But, as mentioned you may have done that on purpose.

Looks like you have the higher clearance leafs?! I need those still. :-(

Get used to driving it, it is different. I can make some really crazy climbs though. Fun to drive and I can't wait to comp it in a couple weeks.

[RcBro]

Yes, I didn't notice how severe the axle was pointing forward till after I drove it and began uploading the pics. I'm going to shorten the upper links tonight to bring it back down to earth

I also will try the 81/16 gearing combo OCD is running to and maybe just notch out what I need to for room

[jimbiss]

Originally Posted by RcBro

Yes, I didn't notice how severe the axle was pointing forward till after I drove it and began uploading the pics. I'm going to shorten the upper links tonight to bring it back down to earth

I also will try the 81/16 gearing combo OCD is running to and maybe just notch out what I need to for room

if you flip the c-part on the knuckle to the opposite side it will change the angle

[RcBro]

Well I took alot of peoples advice and changed some things. I brang the caster just slightly negative keeping the driveshaft angle suitable and above the lower links.

By shortening the links to fix the caster I noticed the chassis is much more responsive!! A plus for me I think with this chassis I'll learn alot more about tuning a crawler.

I decided to run a 81t spur and 16t pinion. To do so I notched off the top of the side plate to clear the spur and slightly widened the area closest to the pinion. I now have no more clearance issues.

You can see by the pics, this thing sits low!!!

[RcBro]

Well got my new camera lens so I can take decent pics again

So I started re-working the steering, I didn't care for my first setup as it seemed to limit steering to one side and created a bad angle bind for the steering arm.

My fix:
TRA5338 Revo toe Link
AXI30441 6x106mm Alum Pipe

I first took the revo toe link and slightly bent it in the center, just enough to clear the diff housing at full lock left to right. Then I adjust the revo rod ends till I felt my toe was neutral.

Then I took the 106mm Axial link and cut it down to about 90mm. Used a 3mm threaded and extended the threads inside the link. Then I used the normal set screws for installation, using a bent axial rod end for the knuckle side.

Now I get plenty of steering and have a much stronger design.










and I guess i'm just hard on these stupid DX3S remotes, I just pushed in my spin dial into my second remote, now I got to send this one in when the other gets back!!

[EeePee]

Looks good dude.

[Cave Dave]

I want one of these.

[Tanis]

You use a remote???.....I use a remote for the TV:-P....oh, you mean radio, gotcha

Can you drop that mamba down on the front links by your rx, or is there not enough room?

Any drive time on it yet?

[RcBro]

There might be enough room, Just haven't pick up any new wire to resolder it yet

Haven't had any real drivetime on it yet, just what I have around the house, have a comp thursday to see how it does, and going out again saturday. Weather has sucked lately.

[Tanis]

Originally Posted by RcBro

Weather has sucked lately.

I hear that, you guys must have pushed it north, it started raining here this afternoon

[RcBro]

Well everyone was making fun of my mamba on top so I lowered it down and moved my electronics around.. Is it better now? lol (Tanis :P)







With weight in the front wheels I'm tipping the scales right at 5 pounds.. To heavy??

[RcBro]

Went and did some crawling yesterday, the terrain was rather rough but made do and made some crazy lines! Picked up a truck load of rock and started building the course at my house too

[RcBro]

Well I always say, if you wanted something broke, leave it to me.. And well the meaning still holds true. I know i'm not the first to break here, and I also know DNA has changed some things to keep it from happening, but I managed to break mine in the same spot.



I'm not sure when or how it broke, but noticed it today when I was playing on my course at home. It kept reacting wierdly so I started to examine it and noticed it had cracked..

My overall impressions are really good. I've set of my g/f's rig rather well for her and I can take her lines and many more lines she cannot even get close to. The SSS is incredibly stable!! And the more I drive it the more I get use to it and can predict what it'll do in certain situations, now I'm no pro at driving, but feel I've gotten alot better driving this.

I saw another SSS owner mention the chassis slightly stretching when the dig is engaged and I've encounted this as well and have only noticed it on steep climbs. At the point when your trying to get your front tires over the ledge, you engage the dig and it stretches ever so slightly to give you the grip to get over the edge and continue on your course. Very cool!

[RcBro]

While I wait I got a set of these for both my SSS and MRC

Super sweet!!!

[bigflex]

rig looks good. The more I look at these the more I like them.

[RcBro]

So Here's an update..

I got the 4th revision of the SSS chassis earlier this week, I'm still disappointed to see they didn't add much more material above the screws holes mounting it to the skid, but they did supply chassis braces which should hopefully fix the breaking issue that was originally caused by a pulling stress on the hole.

The also changed the link tower design some.



Still delrin, but this time in black and looks to be sand or bead blasted for that graphtie look.




The spur stuck out just alittle to far still and this time I didn't want to hack the top off the tower because the top hole is where the brace was to be secured.. So instead I filed down the back side of the spur mount as far as I could just until it almost hit the aluminum motor mount, this gave me plenty of room for a larger spur now.

My second problem was mounting the brace on the side of the motor since the motor mount was in the way, I used some small aluminum spacers I had laying around which gave it just enough clearance to mount.



Just need to mount up my mini puller and the new FXR. My losi CC got my steering servo from the axial so I'm going to pick up one for this today for tonights comp. Once the bugs are worked out on my LCC I think this chassis will bolt right up.