Josh's Y-Town Crawlers "Villain" Shaftsmen Build

[Joshie]

Decided it was time i started this build thread.


First off to a big thanks to Krawlfreak for pushing the bar higher with the YTC line of chassis'

So to start off this build i ordered up a couple of AR60 housings with intentions of shortening them.


A set of plumbers/fridgey tube cutters made short work of the plastic housings. 19mm (3/4 inch) was removed from the long side tube.

Next cut a piece of 9mm thin walled brass tube to length, to be slid into the axle to reattach the longside tube

The sleeve is inserted into the housing with C.A glue/epoxy then the longside slid back into position.( I should mention i marked a line before cutting to make realigning easier)


Next was time to add the usual VP steering parts aswell as some VP vvds, now that the longside tube was 19mm shorter than standard obviously these wouldnt be a straight fit, so axle housings, steering components and VVD's where dropped off with Dan @ Hulksta Engineering to have him work some magic.

Here you can see the standard axle in the shortened housing

in this pic you can see the axle is shortened and a new tang milled onto it.

The internals on the axles will be gripfab spools and the usual over/under gearing. Dan is making a custom set of 5mm Ti axles to suit these housings.

Josh

[Joshie]

So next was time to build the transmission.

After reading a few threads it was decided a HR gearset would be used.

I ordered up a set of long 4340 5mm Crawler Innovations lightweight outputs

I bolted them upto the final drive gear, marked it then set my dremel onto it, here is the outcome.

With the outputs bolted up

Once again i did the insert mod on the mounting holes of the transmisson

For the idler shaft and slipper elimination shaft i picked up a set of Ti shafts from RCP and an axial transmission kit with the plastic spur carrier

On this build i will be running 32p spur and pinion


Now onto the chassis

My kit showed up Tuesday and i dove straight into it


Every piece of this kit is excellent quality and fits precisely.

I got the chassis together and ready for my axles to return



Thats all for now.

Josh

[JeremyH]

Nice work so far!

[filotr14lsdude]

Updates

[Joshie]

Originally Posted by JeremyH

Nice work so far!

Thanks

So next on the list was the shocks.

This chassis is designed to use shocks ranging from 3 to 3.5 inches.
I decided to shorten my Alumnium SCX shocks 10mm total 5mm from the shock body and 5mm from the shaft.

Here is the body chucked on the lathe ready for shortening

This is a comparison of the shortened body and a standard body

With the shock rebuild i ordered up a set of the Axial machined pistons to use on this build.
Machined piston and shortened shock shaft compared to standard shaft and piston

The finished shock measured in at 3 1/8" or 79mm eye to eye.


I have set these shocks up with 35w oil and will be using Losi Mini T Silver springs, also have done the bladder mod on the shock caps.

Thats all for now.
Josh

[Highlucks]

Looking really good Josh, how long until you think this one will be a roller?

[Joshie]

Originally Posted by highlucks

Looking really good Josh, how long until you think this one will be a roller?

Thanks, I am hoping to have it rolling by the end of August but that will be dependant on when Hulksta finishes up the TI axles for the rear.

So tonight I finished up the transmission and fitted an unused HH motor just for mock up.

The longer bolts I had been waiting on showed up today and I was able to get the YTC motor plate mounted up.

You can see it is designed for a smaller diameter motor can

And the complete trans lubed and ready for install into the chassis

I will be running 32 pitch gearing in 60/9 with a BROOD 30T powerplant to supply the torque.

Fitted up the trans to the chassis


This picture shows the transmission mounted and sitting in front of the chassis centre line adding to forward weight bias.

And finally the gap between chassis rail and spur is more than enough clearance for my liking.


Rob over at SMW did a fantastic job on these skids, no slop and awesome tolerances and finishes all round

Josh

[filotr14lsdude]

Nice work man. I like it

[krawlfreak]

this thing looks awesome!

hope it is everything you expected and more

[MRCrackhead]

I'm not familiar with the wraith axles and what they measure stock. What's the purpose of cutting down the long side tube?
I understand centering the pumpkin would have driveshaft clearance advantages, but what about staying full legal width for stability? (stupid question if shortening it actually makes it legal width)

Otherwise I love the idea of having access to your internals without having to take apart the whole freaking axle. Very cool.

[Joshie]

Thanks So far it has been above expectations and once i get it driving im imagining it will be the same.
Great design work as always

Originally Posted by krawlfreak

this thing looks awesome!

hope it is everything you expected and more

The villian link plates are designed for an ax10 axle or narrowed ar60(wraith) i chose the ar60 housing as the diff pumpkin is offset keeping it closer to the wheel and hopefully keeping it away from the diff catcher rocks that i get hooked on with my current ax diffs.
i believe the ar60 housing is legal for 2.2s in standard form.

Originally Posted by MRCrackhead

I'm not familiar with the wraith axles and what they measure stock. What's the purpose of cutting down the long side tube?
I understand centering the pumpkin would have driveshaft clearance advantages, but what about staying full legal width for stability? (stupid question if shortening it actually makes it legal width)

Otherwise I love the idea of having access to your internals without having to take apart the whole freaking axle. Very cool.

[Colgout]

Originally Posted by MRCrackhead

I'm not familiar with the wraith axles and what they measure stock. What's the purpose of cutting down the long side tube?
I understand centering the pumpkin would have driveshaft clearance advantages, but what about staying full legal width for stability? (stupid question if shortening it actually makes it legal width)

Otherwise I love the idea of having access to your internals without having to take apart the whole freaking axle. Very cool.

There is no legal width to speak of. But the minimum gates distance is 14", so the wider you goes, the less lines you can use to tackle a gate. A shorten AR60 will allow more options (compared to full width) in tackling a gate and also being wide enough to improve lateral stability.

As Joshie said, an offset pumpkin will minimise rock hung up and also lower servo placement.

[ittybitty]

Originally Posted by Colgout

But the minimum gates distance is 14", so the wider you goes, the less lines you can use to tackle a gate.

16"

[Bc Paints]

Originally Posted by Colgout

There is no legal width to speak of.

Yes there is, 12.5" is max vehicle track width

[Szczerba]

Nice build so far. What dremel bit did you use to hogg out the final drive trans gear?

[Joshie]

Originally Posted by Szczerba

Nice build so far. What dremel bit did you use to hogg out the final drive trans gear?

thanks, http://www.dremel.com/en-au/Accessor...l.aspx?pid=194
this is the bit i used, drilled out one of the holes big enough to get it through the gear then just worked away at it.
josh

not sent from an ifail.

[MRCrackhead]

I understand the advantage of the offset pumpkin. Any top 1:1 rock crawler has them.
I guess my question still remains. What about overall width?
The XR mod with Creation Fab tubes to get VP Wraith knuckles, XR universals, awesome steering AND XR width seems to be the trend these days for anyone with an AX10.
You are actually going the other direction and making the axle AX10 width.....that's where I'm confused.
12.5" is max width and it would seem you would want to stay as close to that as possible for stability and tire clearance for tighter steering (rubbing shocks, links etc.)
Since there's also a max tire height, you could argue that the wider axle causes more hang-ups due to the tires being much farther apart. I only have stock width experience, so I wouldn't know.
Am I missing something?

[MRCrackhead]

By the way I'm in love with this chassis and super jealous.
Don't mean to bog this thread down with my questions.
Thanks everybody for your input.

[krawlfreak]

Originally Posted by MRCrackhead

I understand the advantage of the offset pumpkin. Any top rock 1:1 crawler has them.
I guess my question still remains. What about overall width?
The XR mod with Creation Fab tubes to get VP Wraith knuckles, XR universals, awesome steering AND XR width seems to be the trend these days for anyone with an AX10.
You are actually going the other direction and making the axle AX10 width.....that's where I'm confused.
12.5" is max width and it would seem you would want to stay as close to that as possible for stability and tire clearance for tighter steering (rubbing shocks, links etc.)
Since there's also a max tire height, you could argue that the wider axle causes more hang-ups due to the tires being much farther apart. I only have stock width experience, so I wouldn't know.
Am I missing something?

narrowing it actually makes it the width of the front xr axle

[Joshie]

Originally Posted by MRCrackhead

I understand the advantage of the offset pumpkin. Any top rock 1:1 crawler has them.
I guess my question still remains. What about overall width?
The XR mod with Creation Fab tubes to get VP Wraith knuckles, XR universals, awesome steering AND XR width seems to be the trend these days for anyone with an AX10.
You are actually going the other direction and making the axle AX10 width.....that's where I'm confused.
12.5" is max width and it would seem you would want to stay as close to that as possible for stability and tire clearance for tighter steering (rubbing shocks, links etc.)
Since there's also a max tire height, you could argue that the wider axle causes more hang-ups due to the tires being much farther apart. I only have stock width experience, so I wouldn't know.
Am I missing something?

This is a comparison pic lifted from krawlfreak's thread

In it you can see the narrowed ar60 is the same width as the xr10 housing, which in theory should be very close to the same width as an ax housing w/ tubes.

Josh