Duke's Bomber

[DukeMinnix]

Picked this bomber up. I'm not a fabricator, so it'll most likely be the boring bolt on thread. As it sits:

Axial 55T brushed motor
Axial metal servo horn (25T)
Incision stainless steel link package (steering and suspension)
Vanquish rear trailing arms (metal)
Proline plastic beadlock wheels with blue (metal) locking rings
Proline Super Swamper TSX SX tires with stock Proline foams
Axial wheel weights up front
Team Associated LED light bar
Savox 1230 SG steering servo
Castle 2.0 BEC
Traxxas TQi transmitter and receiver


Mods to follow

[DukeMinnix]

Decided the Bomber needed to look different than the run of the mill RTR, so made a few changes

Had a Jeep show event a good friend was putting on to benefit WVU childrens hospital, the bomber made an appearance.

[DukeMinnix]

Took it out for the afternoon Sunday. Buddy has a Poison Spyder wraith, hasn't done much other than replace his motor with one of my extra when he smoked it. It went well. We put four packs through them. Had a third buddy (who after yesterday is in the market for a bomber ) with us and my fiancé and another girl taking pictures and keeping the Pits from chewing our tires off. Enjoy the pics!!! No carnage for the bomber, wraith lost a driveshaft set screw. No worries, trail fix with one of the girls bobby pins bent up

[DukeMinnix]

I ran half the packs on the rock beast IIs with CI foam and method vps and half with TSL SX, stock proline foam with weighted front wheels, and axial beadlocks. For our conditions, the swampers far outshined the rock beasts. I'll be doing a tire and foam swap.

[DukeMinnix]

honestly thought people would enjoy seeing one of these things getting used, but apparently not

[Rat]

I'm liking it. I run similar conditions to you and love the Rock Beast II's. One thing about them is they work a bit better when "broken in". If your's are new, run them for a bit and see if you change your mind before buying new tires.

[DukeMinnix]

Originally Posted by Rat

I'm liking it. I run similar conditions to you and love the Rock Beast II's. One thing about them is they work a bit better when "broken in". If your's are new, run them for a bit and see if you change your mind before buying new tires.

I know part of the problem is the firm crawler innovations closed cell deuces wild single stage foam that's in them. I'm going to disassemble them and try some softer foam from the swampers and see if it doesn't work better before I throw in the towel with them. I've emailed CI to see if I could use the foams I have with some soft tuning discs if I moved up to the XL swampers, but I have yet to hear back.

[shiftauto]

You need to just convert to the CI Double Deuce dual stage foams. Don't give up on the rock beasts either. They will break in and get much better. Could always use the simple green trick to soften em up a bit and make em more tacky.

[DukeMinnix]

So....

I did a thing today...

Bought a MMP w/bec and Rok412 3100kv... Guess I should start ordering some axle strength parts now

[DukeMinnix]

So bomber gurus, help me with a shopping list before I make my order...

I know I'll need:

Beef Tubes
Vanquish motor mount

What else before I fill my cart to get this thing up to par for a rok412?

[shiftauto]

HD diff gears would be a good idea.

[DukeMinnix]

well, I couldn't wait any longer. Installed the esc and motor yesterday afternoon and went out last night and ripped. Thing is awesome. On 2s is barely controllable, it'll help once I get it tuned with castle link. Once I throw a 3s in, it's gonna break parts on parts.

[calcagno45]

I run 3s on the Holmes PP3500 and only thing I've broken so far is axial rods ends and 1 driveshaft. I swapped to the Traxxas Revo ends and replaced the driveshaft with another WB HD.

If you have the kit version, you should have HD diff gears. If not, that would be all I'd upgrade. I don't think you need the VP motor mount as the stock is robust. I have new Incision motor mount sitting here that I've yet to swap in...

It's hard for most to have that many different tire/foam combos but since you have it, good job testing the tires to see what works best for you.

[DukeMinnix]

Originally Posted by calcagno45

I run 3s on the Holmes PP3500 and only thing I've broken so far is axial rods ends and 1 driveshaft. I swapped to the Traxxas Revo ends and replaced the driveshaft with another WB HD.

If you have the kit version, you should have HD diff gears. If not, that would be all I'd upgrade. I don't think you need the VP motor mount as the stock is robust. I have new Incision motor mount sitting here that I've yet to swap in...

It's hard for most to have that many different tire/foam combos but since you have it, good job testing the tires to see what works best for you.

Thanks for the wisdom. As for the tires/foams... I'm not done testing yet. The memory foam in the proline swampers works great for crawling, but last night while ripping, they were far too soft and would crumble during cornering and hard braking and collapse. Im not sure if the dual stage foams from CI will help that or not, I'm going to reach out to them. If needs be, I'll keep the firm foams in a set for speed runs and softer memory foam in a set for crawling runs. Just gets annoying swapping back and forth.

[DukeMinnix]

I DO NOT have the kit version, it was the rtr version to start with. That being said, I have gone to order HD gears and have several different options. What is the go to ratio front to rear for these for a good dual purpose, but mostly crawler bomber? 43/13 front and back? 43/13 front and different back? different all together? This is kind of new to me, in the 1:1 world, you run the same gearing front to back.

[calcagno45]

In the Bomber, my choice is to keep the front and rear ratios the same. Stock is 38/13.

If you're looking to crawl more with the Bomber or get a tighter radius, I'd look at 38/13 front and 43/13 rear.

[DukeMinnix]

Originally Posted by calcagno45

In the Bomber, my choice is to keep the front and rear ratios the same. Stock is 38/13.

If you're looking to crawl more with the Bomber or get a tighter radius, I'd look at 38/13 front and 43/13 rear.

That's the goal, tighter steering and better crawl. Thank you.

[shiftauto]

You just don't want to bash to hard on different gear ratios. I'll do different front and rear ratios I am scx or dedicated crawler only, not on a hybrid basher/crawler bomber

[DukeMinnix]

well, took it out Sunday afternoon... got it ready, dropped it off the bed of the truck and started up the road to the trail head. Did a nice wheelie and subsequent stoppy.... and sheered both front dogbones clean off. Didn't even make it to dirt.

Front and rear shafts and beeftubes ordered. Arriving Friday. This thing is a money pit.

[calcagno45]

Diff gears will like be next... The Bomber kit version is probably the best value in that it includes the HD diff gears, front universals, and better links.

But run it til it breaks!