Hulksta Engineering "Joker" Build

[LAY80N]

After running my current BWD SSS-R sportsman rig for a few seasons, i decided it was time for a bit of a refresh. The SSS-R has served me very well right up to the end, taking the win in our local 2.2S comps with a round to spare this season, as well as being at the pointy end of the field at Nationals and monthly round at the local comps. Talking with Dan @ Hulksta Engineering, he showed me some solidworks models of his new chassis and I was hooked. Over the weekend i picked up the new chassis and gearbox setup (and 4 stitches whilst retrieving his glitching FPV quad copter from a tree ). So time to start

Current rig specs

Chassis -
BWD SSS-R
All alloy bolts, balls, C/F upper links, stock lower links

Diffs:
AX10
Front - OD, Creation fab tubes, XR mod with shaved uni's. Top Cad C hubs, HR Wraith knuckles, BWD link/servo plate.
Rear - UD, BWD link plate, stock Axles.

Electronics
CC Micro Mamba
CC BEC
Fly Sky GT3B
Savox SA1230 Servo
Br00d Apocalypse 35T skewed

Gearbox
Stock AX10 with HD outputs (using HE gearbox in new chassis)

Wheels & Tyres
D'lux CF rims (glue on) 0.8"
Heavily shaved and siped rovers
Axial Poison Spider Wraith plastic pin drive hubs

Body
Cut Axial Hardline

Current RTR weight (using zippy 500mAh lipo)
1580g

New rig currently has 3.5BB on it for mock up. But i will be changing over to SCX shocks as i have been running them on my pro for a while and have my head around their setup.

This rig will be donating the driveline and electronics to the new chassis.


Just a sneak peak at the moment



Much more to follow in the next few days.

[Hulksta]

Thanks for taking on this project Layto to help speed up testing

[LAY80N]

Thanks for the chance to help Dan
The quality of machining and design in this chassis is excellent.

Few more pics:

Gearbox plates -





Chassis side plate & skid with Hulksta Engineering logo machined into it -



Bare chassis

[LAY80N]

Got stuck in this weekend and swapped everything over. The gearbox is super smooth, and this thing nice and light compared to most other chassis. The links, hardware and shocks are mostly temporary as im waiting for my new gear to arrive.




I am expecting this number to fall as the proper parts arrive and tuning is carried out. I think i could go close to 1450 - 1500 RTR.

Got some spare time on Sunday afternoon, so i decided to go for a crawl. Still running some random temporary straight link till my alloy comes in. So far it works excellent, just a few little tuning things to change. It works as good as my old setup currently. Hats off to Dan, the design is very solid. I bound it up pretty hard a few times and the gearbox just pushed through like it was on flat ground. The ratio is a bit lower than an AX10 box, so i have upped the pinion to a 20 tooth as i like the extra wheel speed for jumps and bouncing the rig. Even geared up the motor and ESC run at ambient temp of just above, no sign of stress. The drive shafts are currently a mixture as i am testing and working which shafts can be used and how they will handle the setup so Dan has the info for the chassis development.



Few pics from the build -

Full droop


Full height



Underside



Flex shot



Ride height stance - Random links with spacers will be replaced with alloy when material arrives



Top down -



Gearbox and shaft layout




Got a few short video's today, will try to get them posted.

Quick video of the gear box working. Very smooth.

[LAY80N]

Some of the alloy arrived for the links, so the uppers are done now. Running 3/16 0.49wall 6061-T6 for the uppers. Cleaned up a few more temporary parts too while i was there. Dropped the weight down to 1508g RTR. When the alloy for the lowers (3/16 6061-T6 solid rod) turns up and i swap over the SCX shocks i should be able to drop down below 1500g. Lower rear links will be bent to make the most of the large clearance the chassis offers under the rear shaft. Fronts will have a slight bend or possibly straight. Will work it out on the rig. The front and rear plates will get swapped too, working on the final design at the moment then will speak with Dan @ Hulksta Engineering about getting them done in a carbon fibre flavour. Steering will probably go full BTA too now that it looks like out 2.2S class out here will be allowed to run it.

Snapped a few pics as it sits. The body is an old one i cut up for testing. Over Xmas i will sort out a decent lid.

[LAY80N]

Alloy finally turned up for the lower links, so i got stuck in and got my lower links made up. The rig ended up dropping more weight. If a stubby is used and a of effort applied to trimming weight 1420 or lower would easily be achieved. I have also ordered a set of silver Voodoo's to go on the rig, and will be seeing Dan @ Hulksta to get some new C/F rims to go with them. I would love to go to stubbies in this and my pro rig, but i dont know if my bank account will handle that kind of stress at the moment :doh:

Few link shots. The solder roll is approx 3" tall, and there is plenty of clearance still. This rig is really starting to work now, still doing some fine tuning but the overall impression of the new chassis is that it is a great improvement over my previous chassis.

[luxenberg]

very can't wait to get my hands on one.

[Hulksta]

Originally Posted by luxenberg

very can't wait to get my hands on one.

Will have bearings any day now

[LAY80N]

Been a bit slack with updates here. Rig has had a few changes and upgrades since my last post, and a whole pile of drive time. I have changed the shocks over from the big bores to SCX10 shocks, currently running Mini-T green rears and orange fronts.

Current Stance -


Our local rules have finally changed allowing BTA steering in 2.2S so i quickly knocked up a new steering setup, i have a new servo on order as the oversize savox SA-1230 is too deep and clashes with the tyre. I have ordered one of the Pro-Tek 170T servo's from Amain. The servo plate is only a quick mockup, once i am happy with the new servo placement i will get it cut in CF. Steering is still over 55deg.






I also remade the chassis braces out of some left over 3/16 alloy tube.



My silver voodoo's arrived, so i headed up to see Dan @ Hulksta Engineering for some new carbon rims. I am running the HE Joker rims, 3 piece in the front with flipped 2 piece in the rear. Running the small wraith plastic pin drives hubs.





Current RTR weight sits around 1490g (or 3lbs 4.5oz).

[Hulksta]

Those joker rims look really good hey, funny that they came about from a set of super rims I designed :-)

Cheers
Dan

[Colgout]

Good work... would be interested to see how the Protek 170T perform. I like that rim too...

[chevotafun]

Sweet looking chassis
Dam you Dan wish I would of know about this chassis.
that trans looks so nice and snug in there.

[LAY80N]

Originally Posted by Colgout

Good work... would be interested to see how the Protek 170T perform. I like that rim too...

I will be either fitting it to this rig, or swapping it onto my pro and fitting the 7980 to this. I will wait till i have it in my hand then measure up, the savox is very long, a good 4mm or so over the already oversize 7980. Depending on what fits best i will figure it out then. I will be posting my impressions up of the servo though. On paper it looks great, so fingers crossed it performs that way.

[Colgout]

There seems to be a bunch of HV, high torque servo coming out at a more reasonable price.. It can only be a good thing for us, not anymore to choose from only 7950, 7980 and BLS 157 and 174....

[Hulksta]

Originally Posted by chevotafun

Sweet looking chassis
Dam you Dan wish I would of know about this chassis.
that trans looks so nice and snug in there.

Its been out before the gearboxes im doing.. Sort of lol.. Its been getting a thrashing by Layto while ive been meeting demads of the GB's.. There is a thread in the ax10 section for the Joker chassis

Two production versions go out this week

[chevotafun]

Ahh now I know why I didn't see it
it said it was for a Losi

[Colgout]

As far as I know, the Joker is the first RC Crawler chassis in the world which is designed with the built-in gearbox in mind...

[chevotafun]

Originally Posted by Colgout

As far as I know, the Joker is the first RC Crawler chassis in the world which is designed with the built-in gearbox in mind...

He is not the only one
Nordic crawler has one as well

As for who was first I have know idea

Both are amazing works of art IMO

[Colgout]

Originally Posted by chevotafun

He is not the only one
Nordic crawler has one as well

As for who was first I have know idea

Both are amazing works of art IMO

The NCD one was designed based on an AX10 tranny, and later adapted their own version of tranny using R2 gears.

For Joker, the gearbox is integrated into the chassis and as far as I know, its the first in our hobby.

[TotoRax]

Originally Posted by Colgout

As far as I know, the Joker is the first RC Crawler chassis in the world which is designed with the built-in gearbox in mind...