Noob crawler's mods. Whatta ya think?

[TunaMaxx]

I'm not new to RC... it scares me to think how long I have had the RC bug. I am, on the other hand, a total noob when it comes to RC crawling. :-P

Having had the Scorpion for a few weeks now, I made a few teaks and adjustments that I thought would help. Some were a complete failure, others have been pretty successful. Here are some of the more useful ones. Let me know what you think or if I've missed anything important.

Click on any picture to see a larger version!


A couple of things going on here...

One is the servo flip with the longer drag link. Not a huge deal, but the longer you can make that link, the less angularity you get through the servo sweep.

The other thing is that as you can see by all the scratches on the tie rod that I was obviously bashing into stuff with the steering. So, I took some aluminum rod (like you'd make suspension links out of) and bent up a 'stinger' of sorts. I just tapped the rod for M3 hardware and installed slightly longer allen bolts through the opposite direction from stock. So far, I love it and I hate it. When it contacts a rock or something that would normally just jam into the tie rod, the stinger pushes the front end up and over! What sucks is that when you are coming up under a lip or something and the top of stinger gets trapped underneath it. I think I'll build another one that is 3/4" or so higher so that the top of it sticks out over top of the tires.


Not a new idea by any stretch, but one that has helped keep the stock Axial drive shafts from barfing out on every run. It's just some aluminum tube from the LHS drilled out to 15/32" ID. I don't know what 'tubing size' it is, but it measures 0.550" OD.

I just drilled out the tube, cut it to 3/8" rings, and slid them over the u-joints until the edge of the ring was about in line with the cross-pin. Then I CA glued 'em in place and let them dry for a few hours. This is not the best solution but it has reduced driveshaft failures to probably less than 10% of what I was having.


Small LiPo battery slung under the stock battery tray. The tray is also mounted under the stock brackets. This battery (FlightPower 2 cell 1800mAh) is perfect thickness for sliding in there. I countersunk a couple of holes in the plate to make a stop for the battery so it doesn't get jammed into the spur. It's just a couple of M3 countersunk bolts and lock nuts. Then I slid some fuel tubing over the exposed threads so the battery would have something comfy to lean against.

Now I know that the hardcore crawlers are mounting packs down on the front axle, but for some reason I don't want to do that. Having the battery mounted under the top plate has made a massive difference on the COG. It will easily do the 'rest on the sidewall of the tires' trick, and I don't have a mondo bulge of batteries on sticking out front.



This is probably my favorite mod to date. I was always getting snagged on the lower links where they stick out of the side of the chassis plates. A couple of 3/8" strips of aluminum and some countersunk holes later, and... No more hang ups! The only thing I might change about these is to make them so the dip in towards the center to narrow the overall width of the chassis a bit...

Oh! I forgot about this... and it's definitely not my idea, but I flipped the shocks upside down. That way, the heavier end of the shock is down at the axles instead of up in the air. Not shown in the pictures though, is that I flipped the lower angled ball joints over so the bend goes down instead of up. This is so the link clears the larger 'top' of the shock body. Yes, this reduces the ground clearance by a fractional amount but I can't see it being a problem.



The second I noticed that RyansRubicon.co had relocated his top plate mounting bracket, I new I had to steal... er, use that idea. Whether it's his idea or not, I don't know, but it is a good one. So I bought a new bracket from the LHS and installed the Spektrum receiver on it. The rx is offset a little bit so the servo wires sneak out past the battery, but it fits in the perfectly!



A few shots with the body(s) on. At first I ran the Proline Blazer because it reminded me so much of my old 1:1 version that I had for years. After a couple of days crawling, I realized it was pretty top heavy so I got an HPI Nitro MX-1 body and hacked the heck out of it. Now it sits pretty low and there is very little teetering weight up in the air. I still like the Blazer better, though.

Oh! And one last thing... Ya gotta have a flex poser shot, right?

[firesprink281]

wow. lots of good ideas there!!

[scuzzy51]

ok i know you dont have to listen to me but i saw a scorpion take like 8th or 9th place at a comp the other day with over 40 trucks...... all he did was put a one inch space inside the shocks. so you dont sit so high and dont have ungodly amounts of un-needed flex!! he also put 100 wt oil in them too. and with that little, well i call them fag bars you need to get rid of it!! it sits even lower then your tie rod does!! you will get snagged up on everything! and the battery thing, the more weight you have higher on the chassis the crapier the truck is gonna handle period... strap that little lipo right to the servo and front links!! you will notice a huge difference!!!

[TunaMaxx]

Originally Posted by firesprink281

wow. lots of good ideas there!!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by scuzzy51

all he did was put a one inch space inside the shocks. so you dont sit so high and dont have ungodly amounts of un-needed flex!! he also put 100 wt oil in them too.

I definitely am going to lower it some for sure. Just haven't wanted to redo the shocks again right now. I say again, 'cause I already put 100 wt oil in the last time I had 'em apart!

Originally Posted by scuzzy51

and with that little, well i call them fag bars you need to get rid of it!! it sits even lower then your tie rod does!! you will get snagged up on everything!

Ha! That's funny. My buddies and I call parts we don't like the same thing. But even though it does hang below the tie rod, it doesn't get hung up like you think. Because of the angle it actually helps the truck slide up and over obstacle that would otherwise stop it. I will admit that it does suck when you are coming up under a ledge and the top of the bar digs into the bottom of it... At those times I curse it!

Originally Posted by scuzzy51

and the battery thing, the more weight you have higher on the chassis the crapier the truck is gonna handle period... strap that little lipo right to the servo and front links!

Yeah... I know. I just can't bring myself to drop it out there though. I might get over it one day, but for now I really don't like the look of the pack jammed out in the open.

[scuzzy51]

do you live in vancouver washington?? or is there another i'm not aware of?? but if you do you should come out to one of the comps some time.... we're having one down in gresham next month on the 28th....

[colonelangus]

if you can balance your truck you will get better overall performance.tracks and comp courses are all different and have a variety of obstacles.front heavy trucks are great ,but the cource may not be built for them.then you have a truck that may not do as well as on others.my sons truck had the batts up front and my truck kicked his *** everywhere accept when i got high centered on something his front heavy truck would naturally fall over the otherside ,but thats the only real advantage i saw.....how about vancouver ,canada

[TunaMaxx]

Originally Posted by scuzzy51

do you live in vancouver washington?? or is there another i'm not aware of?? but if you do you should come out to one of the comps some time.... we're having one down in gresham next month on the 28th....

No, Vancouver, BC, Canada -- about 2 hours North of Seattle. It's the host city of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

Thanks for the invite though.

[scuzzy51]

we actually went to one in washington last weekend.... it was like an hour east of seatle... a place called lake kelchas or somthing like that.... we drove 4 1/2 hours to that comp!!! good thing i won

[miller]

'Nother Vancouver noob here too!

[miller]

Originally Posted by colonelangus

if you can balance your truck you will get better overall performance.tracks and comp courses are all different and have a variety of obstacles.front heavy trucks are great ,but the cource may not be built for them.then you have a truck that may not do as well as on others.my sons truck had the batts up front and my truck kicked his *** everywhere accept when i got high centered on something his front heavy truck would naturally fall over the otherside ,but thats the only real advantage i saw.....how about vancouver ,canada

Hey where are these comps up here? I'm from the 1:1 world and wouldn't mind running in one. Let me know,

Joe

[tat2INDY]

the collar around the drive shafts great idea i like the mx body

[brettd]

'nother Vancouver here too....Abbotsfoerd actually.

[Dragon51]

Some of these ideas should have a sticky or at lest posted in the tips and tricks thread. Since you have some really useful ideas. Thanks for sharing

[TunaMaxx]

Originally Posted by tat2INDY

the collar around the drive shafts great idea i like the mx body

Originally Posted by Dragon51

Some of these ideas should have a sticky or at lest posted in the tips and tricks thread. Since you have some really useful ideas.

Hey, thanks!

Originally Posted by brettd

'nother Vancouver here too....Abbotsfoerd actually.

Lower Mainland in d' house!