SCREAMER's IFS Bomber "Qwiksilver"

[*Old*]

I'm wondering if there is room in the back to run, say a VP shock tower, on the rear bulkhead, and run shorter shocks off that??

[SCREAMER]

Great idea, and I have one in the parts drawer. Let me go try that now.

Edit: No go, trying to use a Yeti front shock tower on the rear would move the upper mount so far back that even a smaller shock would try to occupy the same space as the camber links and driveshafts. Even if that cleared the shocks would be leaned way back at the tops. I think the Exo Terra lower arm shock mounts might work as a means to raise the lower mounting point and allow a shorter shock to be used. I may order a set and try them or see if I can get a set of JEC upper mounts made out of 7075.

[*Old*]

Originally Posted by SCREAMER

Great idea, and I have one in the parts drawer. Let me go try that now.

Edit: No go, trying to use a Yeti front shock tower on the rear would move the upper mount so far back that even a smaller shock would try to occupy the same space as the camber links and driveshafts. Even if that cleared the shocks would be leaned way back at the tops. I think the Exo Terra lower arm shock mounts might work as a means to raise the lower mounting point and allow a shorter shock to be used. I may order a set and try them or see if I can get a set of JEC upper mounts made out of 7075.

Well that sucks. But thanks for checking!

I'm just thinking it would be nice to be able to run a shorter shock b/c there many more options to choose from. Would be interesting to see if the JEC mounts could work but it looks like the DMG rear bracing won't allow us to use the JEC mounts...atleast that is what I'm gathering from viewing your pictures.

[durok]

Boom Racing BullRopeRC shock tower? Tons of locations, replaces stocker...

[SCREAMER]

Small update. Finally got my limited slip setup installed in the front. As well as Qwiksilver was doing with the completely free spinning stocker in there, I'm excited to see how much better she performs crawling with this 20mil silicone in. I'll be running her again this weekend and I'll report back right after. Old posted up a great video of this setup in his build thread so I'm curious to see how it feels for myself. I'm really enjoying the excellent steering and higher speed handling that this open front enables so I'm hoping that I don't lose too much of that as well. I'm really striving for a perfect balance with this setup.

I'm also going to be swapping the tried and true Flat Iron XLs for some Hyraxes. I've been really impressed with their superior traction on my other trucks and although the Flat Irons are great at speed, they are no match for Hyraxes when it comes to absolute grip. These tires coupled with more forward pull from the new diff should be a significant improvement to crawling.

On a side note, I'd like to mention again how nice it is to perform any kind of maintenance to this chassis. As buried as the front diff is, it took me less than 30 minutes to swap It out with the new one. All I had to do was swing the front bumper up out of the way, remove the front skid and there you are. There's a lot to be said for a truck that's easy to work on, especially for a person like me.

[*Old*]

Nice! I can't wait to hear your thoughts on the 20M wt. I've been messing around with it more and am getting better at managing it's capability and do like the high speed handling of it much better than locked. But I think in the end, I might go back to locked for my purposes. I don't "slow" crawl as much, but my terrain is much more slippery and wet than your nice beautiful backdrop dried red rocks you guys have out west!

I forgot to mention, I do like how these we can change from locked to unlock fairly easily as well. I think I'll be doing that quite a bit on the B2B to match what I'm doing.
Lastly, I just received a set of the Hyrax and TSL XLs to see which I will like more. The one I don't go with, I'll put on my sons rig. I'm still putting them together and figuring out which foam setup I like best with them, but the Hyrax has a super grippy feel to them. The TSLs reminds me of the 42" version I ran way back on my 1:1 rig, so I'm hoping they perform better just so I can keep that look on my rig... wishful thinking?

[SCREAMER]

TSL XLs are really good, Hyraxes are better. Unless you spend most of your time in the slop then the tread pattern on the TSL wins.

You're right about our terrain, dry rocks abound. I love the desert.

[*Old*]

Screamer,

On the B1B, I think I read you tried the Twin Hammers length TAs and then switched back to Wraith length.
Did the B1B perform poorly at higher speeds with the Twin Hammers lengh?

I'm considering changing to TH length for the B1B, after seeing how the shorter WB of the B2B handles, but don't want to if the high speed performance deteriorates completely. I don't mind a little worse, but don't want to cartwheel at every corner either. Thanks

[84yoda]

So, how did the 20m do?

A few other options I wanted to try next to 20m was bad horsies diff lock. Its a grease. But I ended up picking up some macks silicone putty ear plugs. And racers edges locking putty. I heard its the closest to locking the diff with some give.

[SCREAMER]

Originally Posted by *Old*

Screamer,

On the B1B, I think I read you tried the Twin Hammers length TAs and then switched back to Wraith length.
Did the B1B perform poorly at higher speeds with the Twin Hammers lengh?

I'm considering changing to TH length for the B1B, after seeing how the shorter WB of the B2B handles, but don't want to if the high speed performance deteriorates completely. I don't mind a little worse, but don't want to cartwheel at every corner either. Thanks

I went from Yeti/Bomber length TAs for the first couple runs with my B1B then immediately switched to Wraith length and noticed no loss in high speed handling whatsoever. It had Wraith length TAs for the rest of its life as a B1B. I've only ever used Twin Hammers length on my dedicated crawler Bomber and will be doing so again with my new 1.9 Bomber build. I can honestly say that my shorter B2B is even more stable at speed than my longer B1B was and the B1B was no slouch, especially compared to a solid axle front and rear Bomber.

Originally Posted by 84yoda

So, how did the 20m do?

A few other options I wanted to try next to 20m was bad horsies diff lock. Its a grease. But I ended up picking up some macks silicone putty ear plugs. And racers edges locking putty. I heard its the closest to locking the diff with some give.

I'm more than happy with the 20mil putty in mine and I feel like I found that perfect balance I was looking for. Improved turning and high speed performance while being a true limited slip. The front end no longer unloads like it did with the stock Yeti Score diff installed. I was going to try the Macks silicone plugs next but I think those will be staying in the parts drawer now.

[*Old*]

Originally Posted by SCREAMER

I went from Yeti/Bomber length TAs for the first couple runs with my B1B then immediately switched to Wraith length and noticed no loss in high speed handling whatsoever. It had Wraith length TAs for the rest of its life as a B1B. I've only ever used Twin Hammers length on my dedicated crawler Bomber and will be doing so again with my new 1.9 Bomber build. I can honestly say that my shorter B2B is even more stable at speed than my longer B1B was and the B1B was no slouch, especially compared to a solid axle front and rear Bomber.



I'm more than happy with the 20mil putty in mine and I feel like I found that perfect balance I was looking for. Improved turning and high speed performance while being a true limited slip. The front end no longer unloads like it did with the stock Yeti Score diff installed. I was going to try the Macks silicone plugs next but I think those will be staying in the parts drawer now.

Wow, good to hear!! Thanks for the info. I'm going to put an order in for TH length TAs for the B1B. And thanks again for steering me to the B2B...I haven't had much time with it yet, or even a full shakedown, but so far, it's in a league of it's own.

Also, I'm definitely liking the 20M putty more as well, especially in the GCM cup. Not sure if it's the cup or I stuffed so much putty in this time, but it definitely seems to "lock" more. I need to take a new video and post so others can see...

[SCREAMER]

After weeks of waiting and several emails to Amazon customer service, I finally got this gem in the mail today. Initial impressions are that this is an incredibly nice motor. It's also huge (relatively speaking). Much larger even than a Holmes 540XL which is the largest motor I've had in any of my 1/10th scale trucks. I had a 1515 in a Summit before but proportionally, this motor is much larger than the puller pro it replaces and will take up plenty of space in my B2B. It already comes with 6.5mm bullets installed so it will be a perfect match to my existing MMX. You can see it has the option for M3 or M4 mount hardware to be used which I really like when building from a strength standpoint. Beefy 5mm shaft and came with the sensore wire which I'll have as a spare. I'll get this beast installed asap and post more pics of it installed. I'm very very excited to get this out tomorrow for a good test run. Stay tuned.

[SCREAMER]

So the motor install didn't exactly go as planned. Turns out this motor is just too damn big for the Wraith trans in my B2B. It is 42mm in diameter as opposed to the 36mm diameter Holmes Puller Pro that it was going to replace. In order for the motor can to clear the trans housing, I had to mount it to the motor plate at its farthest point away from the spur meaning I would have had to bump up to a 17 or 18 tooth pinion just to make contact with the spur but I don't want a 40mph Bomber so that was a no go for me. Even if I had changed the gearing in order to fit, which I'm sure this monster could've handled without breaking a sweat, it still would've contacted the chassis plate before the transmission set flat. That means I would've had to run spacers on the bottom of the trans to lift it up and get the motor just off of the chassis plate. Big no go for me on that as well.

Not to worry, I decided to try and install Thor's hammer into my solid axle Bomber build that is running my beefed up Bomber trans and the motor fit great if not just barely. Mesh is perfect with 64/13 and I was able to mount it in the low slung position with the cam plate holes closer to the skid. GTG.

Now I still need a motor for Qwiksilver. I've remained determined to try one of these new Castle sensored motors in this truck so after some quick research, I decided to order up a Castle 1415 2400kv 5mm shaft sensored motor. I really like the specs and design on these new Castle sensored motors and if they work half as good as they look on paper, I'm sure I'll be happy. The 1415 is 36mm in diameter so I know it will clear the trans housing and chassis plate just fine allowing me plenty of options for tuning at the pinion. I chose the 5mm shaft version again because those pinions are so much easier to work with and don't strip out on the set screw near as easily as 3mm pinions. 5mm shafts also don't flex like 3mm shafts might, again, strength and reliability first. I will have to swap the attached 4mm bullets for some 6.5mm plugs to mate with the MMX but I can make short work of those. The length of the 1415 is actually even longer than the monster 1512 at almost 70mm long but the B2B has room to spare so it'll nestle in just fine. It's already on it's way so I will post up as soon as I get it in hand with some more pics.

In the meantime, here's the 1512 mounted to my Bomber trans and installed in the truck. Pictures don't really do it justice in showing its sheer size. This motor is certainly going to be a drivetrain punisher.

[MAC FAB]

Ive got the Mamba Max setup, same kv 550 can for my build. Should be interesting to see how your's works.

[*Old*]

Man that's huge!!

Your solid Bomber was built to crawl right? Stay under 5mph most of the time?
This thing looks like a rocket in there

You gotta shoot a video of this thing with a full throttle take off. I have a vision of wheels flying off and the motor flying through the cage

[svt923]

I had the same thought when I build my Bomber and had a Tekin T8 in the spare electronics bin. Motors with 42mm cans fit surprisingly well on the Bomber trans so it seems natural to let the chaos ensue. Sadly, I never followed through on that giant motor experiment so I look forward to your results.

[mikemcE]

Originally Posted by *Old*

Man that's huge!!



Your solid Bomber was built to crawl right? Stay under 5mph most of the time?

This thing looks like a rocket in there



You gotta shoot a video of this thing with a full throttle take off. I have a vision of wheels flying off and the motor flying through the cage

I don't think he will be able to find the shrapnel, but hey let her rip !!


Hang up and Drive

[SCREAMER]

It's not going to be any faster than a "regular" 2650kv motor, it'll just have a shit load more torque. If I want I can throw a 25 tooth pinion on and then it will be a speed demon while barely getting warm. I wouldn't have set out to buy this motor for the purpose of using it in my dedicated crawler and it is most definitely overkill for the application but, I have it, I'm going to use it, it will be great in this truck, and never give me any problems. It was a deal I just couldn't pass up and it was worth it to see if I could fit it in the B2B.

[SCREAMER]

Quick update. Finally got my Castle 1415 sensored motor in, plugs swapped to 6.5mm to fit the MMX, motor installed and short test around the house. First impressions tell me it feels exactly like the Holmes it replaced but is a LOT louder. I'm not sure if that's because of the MMX's new firmware which I heard made many other owners motors much louder or if the motor itself is just louder. Either way, I could care less as long as it performs well. Sadly, I'm busy this entire weekend (figures) and won't be able to give a thorough test until next weekend. I am going to try and maybe hit some rocks before then if I can get an hour or two to head to the spot. It's been too long since I've driven this truck and with the new motor installed, I'm dying to get it in the dirt. I'll post up as soon as I can get this thing ran.

[SCREAMER]

Wanted to give a quick review on the new motor and more thoughts on the truck overall. I was finally able to get this truck out on Saturday and as luck would have it, the first true test was an actual race. I was at the New Mexico State competition and a "King of Hammers" type course was setup for go fast(er) type trucks to compete in a staggered start race. Qwiksilver performed amazingly well even surprising me on some of the obstacles. First off, I am more than pleased with the 20mil silicone in the open front diff and I will stick with that from now on. I definitely feel like I found that perfect balance between higher speed handling and a true limited slip setup. Whenever bound up or stuck for a moment, the front would continue pulling enough to help get me up and over every obstacle. On faster sections at closer to WOT, she handled beautifully.

The new Castle sensored 1415 motor is awesome. Incredibly smooth, plenty of parts breaking torque if not careful, and stayed very cool in hot ambient temps. At well over 90 degrees outside, the motor was just warm to the touch after some spirited driving in everything from bound up crawling to deep sand roosting. I'm super impressed with this motor. I need to get in some longer crawling sessions to get a better feel for its low speed characteristics but I'm pretty happy so far.

I'm sorry there's no pics this time. I was having way too much fun at the comp to remember to put down the radio and pull out the camera but I promise I'll get some pics at the next outing.