Just another BTA steering thread
 

Heres some pics of my homemade BTA setup. Didn't cost my anything but a couple hours free time at the workbench. Just two pieces of 1/8 steel plate bent and then welded together. I keep meaning to make another one with speed holes, cause it does weight a couple ounces, but does an excellent job of protecting my servo so I haven't gotten around to it.

Tie rod is stock with added washers to make aprox. 3.5 mm longer, draglink is Traxxas out of spare parts bin, I believe it is a 105mm, which should be the toe links on an early T-maxx.

Vanquish knuckles

CKRC C-hubs

Robitronics servo arm


http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/...xykodak019.jpg

http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/...xykodak027.jpg

http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/...xykodak033.jpg

Steers as much as the stock dogbones will allow.

http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/...xykodak027.jpg

Nothing linkage wise rubbed untill I drilled new holes in the stock chassis and used longer uppers, but added a couple degrees of caster. Ever since then the spring cups have been slowly removing the green coating from the stock tie rod. It still steers very smoothly.
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/...xykodak039.jpg

It is crazy how much more you can get up onto without anything in front of the axle.
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/...crawler014.jpg

Goes alright for a mostly stockish Axial.
http://i1198.photobucket.com/albums/...crawler026.jpg

I've been abusing this setup for about a year now without any broken steering parts.

Few questions :
a) that's the max steering ?
b) stock cups ?

Man, i dont mean to offend you or else but i've been abusing the hell oout of my old Ax10 RTR without craking a thing. The amount of steering you have is just as RTR provides !!!

TIPS:
a) Upgrade to CVD's, Gunnar pins (THAT IS A MUST, TRUST ME ON THAT ONE), and then get some real steering !!!
b) Move the battery to the front axle for a better weight distribution a better CG!
c) if you upgrade to CVD's pay attention to tyre rubbing against lower links and/or shocks.
d) get rid of the tube that is all over the servo wires.....it seems like your rig needs oxygen....

Chris.

Thats certainly bombproof.

BTW: you can get more steering out of your stock setup by grinding the stubs out a bit. There is a thread on that somewhere around here...do a search and you should find it pretty easily. You won't get as much as cvd's, but its definitely and improvement.

I'm usually good at finding threads without help, but I can't find the stub grinding thread for shit, help please?

I can't find it either. Its around here somewhere...:ror:

Dezfan to the rescue! Thank you sir. "thumbsup"

thank you dezfan.

Seems like something I'd do...or did. It works, but stuff sticking up above the tires isn't condusive to easy roll-over recovery.

Aluminium dog turd:

http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/o...ttraydone1.jpg
http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/o...ttraydone3.jpg

Gotcha in the steering dept.:)

http://i359.photobucket.com/albums/o...ttraydone4.jpg

The rig will work better with the steering components at a lower level, unless you really need to run that 2200mah Lipo you got sitting around:ror:

CVD's are out of the question for me because of cost/durability issues.

The top the the servo guard is only 1/8 above the top of the rovers, which is still under the Chevy body so it doesn't affect rollover recovery very much.

The link to the modded cups looks usesful, I'll have to try that.

My tires are already into my lower links and springs at full lock, so I'm not sure how much more steering I can get. For me it was more important to get the linkages out of the way than it was to increase turning angle. I'm used to driving spooled fullsizes so I just deal with the large turning radius.

There is a fourth screw partially under the servo attaching my bracket to the axle tube for additional support.

Actually the 2200 is my "lightweight" pack. For over a year I ran 3300 Nimh stick packs, so these are about half the weight. One of those pics shows a 4000 mah Turnigy, which barely fits, but provides over an hour and a half of runtime.

I like having half the battery weight on the links and half on the transmission. My CG is right at the front of the skid so I don't really want to move any more weight forward. I don't run any weight in my tires, but my wheels do weigh a couple ounces more than stock.

I modded my cups today and it makes a huge difference. The only downfall I can spot is that it hops and binds alittle if I get on the throttle while turning all the way. It's badass and free!!!! total cost was 3$ for a cone tapered grinding rock to re bevel the cup.

Damn! That is good steering! I need to do that.

BTA steering is fine but the wish to have a good one collides with the wish to have clocked axles.
And the servo on one side of the axle isn't possible at my rig.
With my good steering angle, the tire rubbs like crazy at the servo, also with a widener of 13mm.

I have tons of room on my axial front end for steering clearence or whatever. I have my esc and rx on the upper links, servo in the middle where it comes stock, and battery on the axle beside the servo standing up straight(850mah3s) I modded the stock tie-rod, grinded cups, clearenced bump stops, inboarded lowers links, put a taller foam in the rovers and have about 38-40* steering wih minimal mods. Thats the funnest part of crawling is testing and tuning, trying to figure out a new way to do something and coming on here to share with everyone.