C*H*U*D's Ridgecrest

[MudHoncho]

You are right.... if it rolls over enough it literally sits perfectly flat on its back lol

[DickyT]

Originally Posted by C*H*U*D

What are you doing awake?!?!

I'm on a medication that one of the side effects is insomnia.... Plus I have a ton on my mind between work, unemployed wife, kid, and berg weight loss project..

Mostly the latter

[cheesefart]

Is it cut yet? is it? is it?

[BigSki]

Originally Posted by C*H*U*D

It's almost 1:00 here at the Underground Lair, and I'm just thinking out loud, but what if......

Meh, just run a bug body!

[Highlucks]

Chop Chop, Juan we are waiting

[C*H*U*D]

Ok, here is where it was after last weeks comp. There were four 10 gate courses and I got 122 points for the night. I'm shooting for double digits tomorrow night



The steering servo died on the last course of the night last week, so it had to go. I've had this laying around for quite awhile, and figured the Ridgecrest was the perfect spot for it. I also installed a new BEC and will be direct wiring 7.4v.



I had to take a few things off the chassis to get to the motor and make it easier to wire, and while I was at it I figured it was a good time to toss the electronics tray.



I also decided to ditch the stock body mounts since I'll be running my stock XR-10 body. Sorry...no cutting of the original body



That left me with this:



The motor was the next thing to come out:



If I was keeping this as a basher, I'd keep the cover but for dedicated crawling I saw no reason to keep it. Another addition for the box:



The little 20 in this picture (along with the 20 on the side of the motor) is a big problem if you want to crawl this rig. I'm going to miss the speed, but this pinion (and motor) have to go. I'll be running a 14 tooth pinion with the stock 87 tooth spur. I'll also be running a 35t Holmes Torquemaster Expert that I got from The Crawlspace:



While I was rewiring, I opened up the ESC. I don't like these little switches so I always take them off.



A quick solder bridge and it's ready to go back together:



This isn't the real reason I do this, but figured I'd toss it on the scale anyway:



Time to start putting it back together. I grabbed some Delrin crossbars, trimmed them down and put them in place of the E-tray:



I'm taking tomorrow off from work to get this thing ready, and will have more updates tonight.

[Hittman]

That looks real nice. Seems like with some work this turns out to be a decent rig

(although thats true for all axials)

[DickyT]

Originally Posted by Hittman

That looks real nice. Seems like with some work this turns out to be a decent rig

(although thats true for all axials)

That's true for all crawlers I think the only "berg" left on my berg is gear cases and 4th gear in 1 and 2nd and 4th in the other.

Keep up the great work Juan!

[C*H*U*D]

I decided to use my old XR-10 body on this.



It sits pretty high and part of that is because of these guys hitting the body:



So the Dremel came out and they came off:



Here is the after...not much, but better than before. Maybe about 3/8":

[Super Fabrication]

Looks like its turning out ok but I was just wondering, how much flex do you get out of that chassis? Is it more or less than a delrin chassis. Really sucks that the chassis is so tall so you can't mount your body lower.

[C*H*U*D]

The chassis is pretty rigid, but I don't really care much for a very flexible chassis. I'd rather have the chassis remain stiff and let the suspension control the articulation.

[C*H*U*D]

The only other thing I have time to do before tomorrow night is replace the stock knuckle, C and dogbone on the right side with VP parts.

[klampykixx]

im glad i subscribed to this, pretty interesting watching the transformation and what it takes to make a stocko perform like a pro

[C*H*U*D]

So last week was a struggle with all the stock parts, and my score showed it...122 points after 4 ten gate courses

Last night my goal was to hit the double digits. I figured I'd still have a hard time finishing a course, so I was shooting to make 8 gates per course. I actually did finish the last course in the negatives, and should have finished the first but I miscalculated my penalties and gated on the last gate. But I still hit 67 points with the changes made, so I was happy

The truck was 100% more manageable with the motor and gear change...it actually felt like a crawler. The plastic links were a weak point, and the stock steering tie-rod gave me troubles all night, but I was very encouraged with how it did.

Next up for changes is the tie-rod, new links and overdrive gears in the front. I want to get some new wheels or make some that I've wanted to do for awhile. The rear is pretty wide, so I'd like to narrow it.

I'll put pictures up as I go.

[jmecmore]

Nice improvement.

[DickyT]

Congrats on the improvement! Keep at it Juan

[j22]

Hey juan i have shortened me wraith rear axle by using xr lockout an u got to cut the axles down right at the stop on the axles . I use slw's with 225s hubs an it's just as wide as my xr with 600s it works good just don't like how the diff is off sat the rear axle always gets hangup on rocks real easy

[C*H*U*D]

Originally Posted by j22

Hey juan i have shortened me wraith rear axle by using xr lockout an u got to cut the axles down right at the stop on the axles . I use slw's with 225s hubs an it's just as wide as my xr with 600s it works good just don't like how the diff is off sat the rear axle always gets hangup on rocks real easy

James was telling me about yours this past Tuesday night. I have an idea for some wheels I want to make when I find the time that will narrow things up a bit.

I'm not totally crazy about the offset pumpkin, but I'm also not used to it yet. It gives you a bunch of clearance if you drive it right, but I keep forgetting that

I drilled out the pinion from a set of Overdrive gears I had laying around, so those will go in this weekend, and I'll also fix the tie-rod...That piece of overcooked spaghetti gave me nothing but problems on Tuesday night

[EverettY]

If you got another 7950 laying around I'd be interested in buying it from you

[C*H*U*D]

So it's Monday, and as usual I'm trying to find time to do the upgrades I want before tomorrow night.

I've had this set of Overdrive gears hanging on the wall for quite awhile, and figured they would be perfect to slip into the Ridgecrest's front axle:



The biggest problem I had last week was the steering. The servo was a big help, but the drag link and tie-rod are just way too weak for crawling. I didn't have much time to do what I really wanted, but I was able to toss this together during lunch today. It's 6-32 all-thread and 1/4" aluminum tube.



There isn't enough room inside the stock XR wheels to mount both the tie-rod and drag link onto the steering arm, so I had to duplicate the stock setup for now. I made this real quick to slide over one end of the tie-rod:





It actually works pretty well. I'll see what issues I have with it tomorrow night, but it already feels 100x better:



It's toed out just a bit, but I didn't have time to do any trimming: