PipeDreams Sporty FastBack Build!!!

[PipeDreams]

OK big update with pics. Finished up my motor wiring, re mounted the fxr to the plate a little further back and over. Dropped the front plate, installed the new zero slop felsenfest locker, mounted the rx and started to double check all my bolts were the right length and had nuts on the and so forth. Little bit left. Gotta build the shocks, lay out my skins, figure out what I wanna do with the fxr switch (likely rip it off) and solder on my fxr battery side deans. After that it's just tuning.

After messing with my steering I got it as close as I can get with my servo horn. I run a racers edge horn on the longest hole. It uses almost the entire swing of the servo and because it's short it allows me to drop the front plate. With a longer horn it would take away some leverage, I'd have to run my front plate higher, but it would be a little faster and I'd get the last 1 degree each way I'm missing lol. I figured I'd live with it being a tiny bit slower, to gain the lower cg, more power and cheaper. Everything is a tight squeeze but it all works. Duuuuude the plate is sweet! Can't wait to see if a company picks up our design! Because I lowered the plate I'd think one more hole up would be nice to adjust some.

Hows this for full range of servo throw! The max leverage you can get. Should be plenty strong.





The under side of my front plate. Hobby shop had no red 14ga so I had to use blue

Had to notch the plate to allow room for the wires off the fxr or the tie rod would hit them on full steering... just slightly. The fxr does stick out past the front of the plate but the battery sticks out further so not overly worried. With the battery on the tire rubs it big time so I may need to order some smaller batteries or just tape up the corners really good lol.

Here you can see the plate in stock height

Shaved my posts down between 3 and 4mm to drop the plate.

Also filed down the spot on top of the housing where the front plate braces bolt on... look at both sides you can see one normal and one shaved to make room for the fxr.



The front weighs a ton and the rear is uber light. Almost worried the rear won't be able to hold lines but I guess we'll see. Other then that we worked on our LHS indoor course tonight and laid out 55.000 lbs of rock so we can crawl this winter! Sorry for the poor cell pics.. the gf had the camera today.

[PipeDreams]

Thanks bud!
Wel I had it on the rocks today... Was in a rush and didn't realize I could over trim my radio so I ran with 100% end points the whole night then realized I could go up and get more steering lol. Also having an issue trying to tune my fxr... Not impressed with this software at all... how do I make my own profiles and stuff? Sometimes I see the throttle section other times I don't? How do I see all my options... My castle stuff is much easier to tune! Any help with my fxr would be sweet.. thanks guys.

Oh I also ended up going stiffer with the springs. Moved up 2 colors in the rear and one in the front.. Gonna go at least one more in front maybe one more in rear. Currently is green rear and silver front. Had a few bugs to work out but other wie did ok. Got lots of tuning to do... the front is so heavy and the rear so light when I turn the whole rear of the rig moves over lol. Forgot to put locktite in the rear diff locker so the set screws got backed off and missed a dew nuts on my steering bolts. After all that got fixed it came to life... All in time I'll get it worked out.

Huge thanks to (Greg) and Mikey007 for giving me a hand getting this thing ready today! Wouldn't have made it on the rock tonight with out you guys!

[Cleaner]

Man I'm jealous!! Was there a good turn out at the new course? I can't wait to see you rig go...........

Originally Posted by PipeDreams

Thanks bud!
Wel I had it on the rocks today... Was in a rush and didn't realize I could over trim my radio so I ran with 100% end points the whole night then realized I could go up and get more steering lol. Also having an issue trying to tune my fxr... Not impressed with this software at all... how do I make my own profiles and stuff? Sometimes I see the throttle section other times I don't? How do I see all my options... My castle stuff is much easier to tune! Any help with my fxr would be sweet.. thanks guys.

Oh I also ended up going stiffer with the springs. Moved up 2 colors in the rear and one in the front.. Gonna go at least one more in front maybe one more in rear. Currently is green rear and silver front. Had a few bugs to work out but other wie did ok. Got lots of tuning to do... the front is so heavy and the rear so light when I turn the whole rear of the rig moves over lol. Forgot to put locktite in the rear diff locker so the set screws got backed off and missed a dew nuts on my steering bolts. After all that got fixed it came to life... All in time I'll get it worked out.

[PipeDreams]

Ya we came late trying to get my rig done and there was likely a dozen guys there tonight... really good turn out considering its brand new dust still on the rocks lol... They're getting the water flowing again this week so we can wash the rock!

Still trying to figure out this fxr... I can't even choose throttle profiles? Really hate this thing right now... If I can't get it worked out I'll be putting a castle product back in!

[PipeDreams]

Man I can't figure this stupid thing out.. I need my manual. My hotwire doesn't even show me throttle profiles anymore... wtf? It lets me choose 6 options I'll see if I can get a screen shot.

Got a screen shot but can't figure out how to get it on photobucket to post... Cleaner I need your help buddy lol

Well I got the throttle profiles now but I can't make custom graphs.. Any one else able to on hotwire?

[Cleaner]

Give me a call and I'll walk you through posting a screenshot or I can swing by and give you a hand.

[PipeDreams]

Cool thanks but I think I got it all figured out. Any way I got a few pics after the rocks and the rig is a lot dustier now. Did some spring tuning and shock position tuning today till it felt good on the desk and I"ll try it out next time. It can definitely climb good! My biggest issue right now is figuring out how to mount the battery. With the esc under the plate I can't really use a strap and velcro isn't strong enough to hold back from the tire ripping it off. Might have to try velcro with a cut down skinny strap to fit where ever I can under the plate between parts. Last night I just used 2 sided tape and zip ties for the night... I really wanted to see how it would do.


Weighed it.... 6lbs 0.5oz rtr



Pretty good vert

[(Greg)]

Very nice, now it's time to start on # 2 ???????

[billj]

Looking good PD Makes me miss my shafty, a little

[Stormin2u]

Looks real mean PD, you have a very original location for that FXR.

[Mikey007]

Hey Pipebomb hows it going? I see you put that pic up of your outback crawling the wall..........you can't even see the fishing line huh? I think you need more articulation like 90 degrees or so, and use savage shocks so you can gain more belly height and droop. lol

Subscribed for an awesome build buddy!

Mike

[PipeDreams]

Greg... shhhh can't tell any one I went to the dark side!
Bill.... Thanks man. I owe a bit to you and your build. Got lots of info and insight from yours too. I can't wait to get it tuned up!
S2U.... Thanks man. I like things to look simple when they are actually not simple at all! I'd love to take credit for the fxr locaton but I really can't. It's been done before and I merely just did it again. It's a tough fit and that why most guys don't do it... plus it kinda leaves it a bit exposed. I think EP or Gunar may have been the first one to do it. Even the front plate was mostly designed by Duuuude.... I added one simple bend to his design and we both loved it. It was exactly how I wanted to mount my links but his design to get it vertical was easier and lighter. I crammed my BEC under the plate too on the other side ... just wrapped black to match and blend in.
007... HA HA HA ya for sure need 90+ degrees.. thats how you get a crawler to really shine That clear fishing line of yours sure did come in handy. Glad no one could see it Thanks for the help bolting on my skins! I love the look of the skins bolted vs zip ties. Simple look and clean just takes a while.

Big thanks to KrawlerKonceptz for the skins. The rock our indoor course has is sharp and jagged. With lots of body rubbin my skins would have been ripped off for sure. Michelle recommended I wait for the inside skins and man did it pay off. They didn't even get a mark on them and the lexan got scratched up pretty good! With normal outside skins there is no doubt they wouldn't look near as good as these do. I used a heavy .040 lexan which made it tough to bend and shape but should last a long time!

Hoping to hit the rock again this sat or maybe fri night and try out the new setup. I still need to trim the motor plate and bolt the motor side body panel down low. I think next time around I'll get Michelle to add a little more meat to the lower front section of the skin so I can get a bolt in the lower front too not just in the back. But this was already a custom cut design and considering it was created from 2 different cuts we did good. Easy fix!

[PipeDreams]

Few more updates. Went wheeling sat night and it did really good. I think there might be a little more left in it so I'll keep tuning but I'm getting close. The stiffer springs helped a ton. I have longer silvers in the rear and shorter greens up front. The rear shocks are externally limited about 11mm and the fronts are externally limited about 7 wit internal about 8 I think... Can't remember exactly. I'll mess with shock oil once I'm happy with the rest of the rig. My buddy with an xr wasn't using his dig and was surprised when my truck was following him and even making some lines he had trouble with! So far really happy with it. First comp with it this coming sat and RCTV will be there! So today I lock tite all my screws and put on some bent delrin lower links on the front to try get a little more clearance and make them more slick. All in all just trying little things now. I'll post some pics tomorrow when I have more time!

[PipeDreams]

I apparently forgot to take pics well working on my rig last night but I got some from our night of crawling on sat... Poor cell pics but you' get the idea. All lines were driven too and out of!



Tough to see but this all starts as one tough line. All the rock is still super dusty.. working on getting washed for this weekend. This line starts at the bottom goes up around a big rock and down




same line still... Friends swx behind me with dig and my cousin (cleaner) behind him with his sporty sss-r


Later tried going backwards over the last line. Tougher first climb but easier decent



Another line.

[PipeDreams]

Did a little more work to it tonight... When I set my castor last time I didn't give it enough and ended up ripping the plastic housing between the new hole and factory hole. Not a big deal I needed a little more castor any way. I picked up a new housing shaved it all down, set the castor back a little more and filled the factory holes with CA glue this time. Castor angle is much better now and should be way stronger because the holes are further apart plus there's something filling the factory holes. Although with the set back castor also came a few steering issues.. Not anything big but I needed a tiny bit longer drag link and reposition the servo horn over one tooth. I'll be sure to snap some pics of the new setup this weekend at the comp. Did a few other minor things just to make sure it's ready to go and every time I work on this thing I like it more and more!

[PipeDreams]

New castor is awesome! The under drive gears reduce the push in cornering but the castor helps the tire grip better and pull the truck around tighter! Weather the rig is climbing or descending now it seems to be better. It has no push in cornering and just goes where I point it now. I couldn't believe the difference it made. I threw on some bent delrin lower links up front before the comp and that too went great. The delrin slides easier and with the extra clearance the tire stays in contact with the rock longer on descents which allows me to control the truck better. Overall both things helped a lot. I'm gonna mess with a bit of link tuning this week and after that maybe some shock oil.

Truck worked so good I managed to take home 1st in sporty last night! Great time!

[billj]

congrats on the 1st place finish. Truck is looking great

[version_three]

'grats on the first PD. Glad to hear those bent lowers are working out well for you. How bout some pics of the steering adjustments with the new castor?

[RickM]

Hey man. You are speaking my language. Before I went to a berg I had gotten a bit of a weight, COG fetish with my fb. I pulled the skid and routed it out to give it better sliding. I also routed out the top to allow me to run my dig wires and also my motor wires under the trany instead of over. I dremeled out the front axle housing and dropped my servo/bat tray. I then mounted my bec under that. I mounted my shrink wrapped rx on the front links. I mounted my wantasummit on the front tray. Botom line is I am not the lightest rig but I wanted to truly think about weight placement (which you did too). I then immediately got a Berg based rig, killed my dig, and handed the FB to my 6 year old son. I really never even gave myself a chance to drive it as the deal on the berg was to good to pass up.

[PipeDreams]

Thanks guys!
Rick- ya my whole big goal with this rig was to keep the COG as low and far forward as I could. I tried to fit the rx under the plate but I wasn't willing to take the case off ans wrap it so I opted for just the esc and bec. Every time I drive the rig I love this thing more and more. With the rear being so light it does take a little getting used to. When you steer sometimes it just moves the rear of the truck over and well not always where you want. I found keeping a little throttle applied while steering it helps keep the tires where I ave them and I'm catching on to when and where it wants to do that more and more. I've had other rigs do it but not as bad as this one. Doesn't help I'm sure that our local course is dusty and with that I need more front weight to help pull the truck around... I tried a little less and it just couldn't break through all the dust and get the traction I wanted.

VT- I'll try and snap some pics in a couple days if I don't have some waiting for me when I get home from work on tue. My roomy took a few pics at the comp and I'm just waiting for him to send them my way... maybe well he's at it I'll get him to shoot a few extra of the whole rig... any other specific pics anyone want?