Ascender/SCX10 to Bomber???

[soze]

Originally Posted by Browneye

BTW, what do you guys know about these 'boom racing spools' from asia tees? Does it make sense to replace the sloppy locker? Or just run it 'till it pukes or gets sloppy?

What other upgrades should I be looking at?

I was going to pick up their SS 'beef tubes'. Or are they junk too? Adds 48oz - would put them in the front axle.

I used these tubes (non-brass ones) in my Axial SMT10's. No problem. They do what they need to do.

I didn't go with their diff locker though... I just used the Axial HD Diff locker.

EDIT: My bad, I didn't use the Boom Racing ones. I used XtraSpeed (RCMart) - Soze's SMT10 fleet.

If the tubes are like the XtraSpeed one... you'll need to get the Boom Racing HD Axle shaft for tubes (or something similar). Just check my post and you'll see what I mean.

[Shinchu]

yup I've been watching KOH stuff for a few years. i really want to build a scout based on the rig Aaron Kaufman (former gas monkey genius builder) tried to run this last KOH. thing was a beast but he really screwed up on the engine choice.

so yeah i want to build a vintage style KOH rig. among dozens of other ideas including a bomber lol i need a grant or something...

[Browneye]

I hear ya...
If the wife adds up all the CC and debit card charges for toys recently she's gonna have a heart attack.

I'm rebuilding and resurrecting my other idle rigs, new bodies, drivetrain updates...so the whole fleet is running. More $$.

Recently I was sitting there building on my Bomber, having taken over most of the whole dining table, and she says, "I just love it when you're tinkering on your trucks. It's like building a whole car." Yup!!

I'm happy and contented when I'm focused on something fun. Stress-free.

I now have a new reason to go see KOH.

[Browneye]

Originally Posted by soze

I used these tubes (non-brass ones) in my Axial SMT10's. No problem. They do what they need to do.

I didn't go with their diff locker though... I just used the Axial HD Diff locker.

EDIT: My bad, I didn't use the Boom Racing ones. I used XtraSpeed (RCMart) - Soze's SMT10 fleet.

If the tubes are like the XtraSpeed one... you'll need to get the Boom Racing HD Axle shaft for tubes (or something similar). Just check my post and you'll see what I mean.

Thanks! I was gonna order beeftubes and F1 spools from Locked-Up. Seems like more of a sure thing. And I found about the last Vaterra front tubes from all places, RC Mart. Out of stock everywhere else including Beeftubes. I wonder if they're gonna make them again.



I read that the stock axles can be ground down just enough to fit into the tubes. Leave enough ridge to hold the bearing.

[Browneye]

Update...

Okay, I spent several hours last night re-doing all of my electronics. I didn't see the little diagram in the manual about leaving enough room for the battery box in front of the esc if you mounted it on the receiver box. Duh. And of course the MambaX is WAY bigger than the RTR speed controller so that creates a whole 'nother set of challenges.

I spent quite some time trying to figure out where to put it elsewhere, but nothing seemed satisfactory, plus I would run into motor lead and battery lead problems if it got too far away from the front of the rig. I was concerned about not having enough mounting surface to hold it if I crossed it on the receiver box all the way to the rear. Plus, it covers the screws for the cover, so once it's mounted on there with tape, it would have to be peeled off to open the radio box. Kind of a hassle. Mounting it beside the motor/trans unit is a potential spot, but you would have to either mount it in there AFTER the cage is on, or build some kind of platform so you COULD get the cage on. I didn't like the options, and then my power leads would be too short anyway.

It's all very fiddly. And since I was going to have to more or less button everything up permanently with the esc mounted on the radio box I went ahead and broke out the Castle-Link, downloaded the program, and connected it to my Surface Tablet with Win10 - works great!. Oh my, what a very cool little setup that is. I went thru all the settings best as I could, set the bec, speeds, cutoff, and configured the rock-racer/crawler mode with 50% drag brake and a linear step on my aux1 radio channel. Very very cool the way that works. So now at 50% drag braking it switches to crawl mode for instant reverse, and I can run the drag brake all the way to 100% or all the way off. I had assumed it was just a switch from one to the other, but no, with a linear channel mode it is completely variable from zero to 100% with the instant reverse kicking in at 50%. As a network admin and working with so many programs and computers, it always amazes me how people figure this stuff out. Figuring it out how they explain is another challenge all together. But I now have a very good understanding of how it works, even the basic setup with the transmitter and Castle in programming mode. Gave me a headache, but I got it. LOL

I don't think I'll need the quick linking harness, but if I have to make any programming changes it would be a real hassle, so I may end up ordering one in anyway. I'll only have to take it apart one more time.

I went ahead and made up a power lead for the fourth channel so I could connect lights or whatever later without having to undo the receiver box setup. And then tidied up all the wiring, mounted the on/off switch pointing down beside the radio box so it's easy to switch on and off under the rig, but tucked up enough it won't drag on the rocks.

The HH servo is WAY stupid fast, amazing. I did have to re-set the steering link to the last mounting hole on the servo arm, but in setting up travel it goes from stop to stop - REALLY FAST!! LOL And the TrailmasterProBLX is silent and starts very slow - I set the throttle curve down a bit on it for a slow start, and it sings at full throttle. It's easy to see what the aux channel does with the drag brake and reverse with the pinion backed off the spur. Very impressive.

This thing is ready to rock and roll. The missing cross member and radio box support will be here today, I've decided to go ahead and use it. Once everything is buttoned up it's ready for a maiden run. Building this one was WAY WAY more difficult than the standard crawlers, Axial for Vaterra. I'm a little more excited about the the prospects of running it, now that it's all sorted.

[Browneye]

Welp guys...maiden run tonight - got everything in to finish it, final assembly and put a battery in it and all I can say is OMFG.

Torque twist was completely out of hand, so built the sway bar setup and installed that after. More trials tomorrow.

Crawl is SO smooth, top speed is way beyond ridiculous. It has already cart-wheeled.

The Castle tuning is beyond belief. Now I get it.

More to come.

[Browneye]

Took it crawling yesterday and had a blast. It just walks over EVERYTHING. Took all the hard routes out at our favorite crawling place and simply puts a 1.9 rig to shame.

Also tried it out on 2S power and it is WAY more manageable, plus the motor doesn't get hot. It gets REALLY hot on 3S. Current gearing one tooth down on the pinion, so 11/64. Everything else is stock. No broken parts yet.

This rig is very addicting, it is so much fun to drive. Glad I took the plunge - and many thanks for all the help and advice here - you guys are dabomb(er).

[Shinchu]

Chris you aren't helping me decide on a new scale rig here... ;)

haha this looks so awesome i really cant figure out if i want to build the new SCX10.II builders kit, or take this plunge... maybe a "scale" bomber??? this is really cool to read your experience since you are a scaler guy (at least that's how i met you) its very relatable. thanks for the awesome thread of your journey and a great build! i think for your first of this kind you KILLED IT!
very cool to hear about the mambaX being the hot ticket so it can crawl AND rip if you want. ah yes, the good ol axial 2.2 on 3s cartwheels... as a yeti owner/operator i am familiar with that! maybe i'll swap the yeti for a bomber. you have done a good job convincing me that's a good idea.

[JatoTheRipper]

It looks great! Now the only thing left to upgrade is the tires.

That's one problem with the Bomber - it easily manhandles 1.9 terrain. You have to find more challenging spots.

Did you play with the Mamba X crawler/rock racer mode?

[Browneye]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

It looks great! Now the only thing left to upgrade is the tires.

That's one problem with the Bomber - it easily manhandles 1.9 terrain. You have to find more challenging spots.

Did you play with the Mamba X crawler/rock racer mode?

Yep, tires and foams. Stocks are just okay, do-able for now.

Locked-Up is backordered on the wheel widening rings but I'm not so sure I want them now. Hyrax tires keep popping into my head. Or PB Growlers. I like how hyrax's grip but they're my least favorite for any scale look.

Speaking of LU wheels - the quality is very high - a pleasant upgrade from the stuff that comes from China. Fit and finish is just outstanding. I'm just not used to paying three times the cost for a set of wheels. LOL Definitely worth it for this rig though. Very happy with them.

Yes, I setup the rockracer/crawler mode with 50% drag brake with linear adjust for Aux1 on my radio. It is Castle's second example - at 50% of the trim it shifts from rock racer with adjustable drag brake and 2-sec pause to reverse, to crawl mode - adjustable drag brake to 100% and instant reverse. It's a very cool setup for going fast and going slow, simply by adjusting the Aux1 trim button.

I have to say though, the 3300kv motor is way overkill. I figured as much. But on 2S it tones it down nicely, still plenty fast but much more controllable. Very impressive how this setup works.

I'm going to pick up a nice 2S 5Kmah battery today since I don't have any 2s battery packs. And a compact just doesn't fit in the tray at all - full size only.


@Shinshu - these things are the bomb.
Seriously, I went looking for something of a slightly different challenge and this filled the bill nicely. Building it was just complicated enough to be fun, and the final product is an eye-opener. Performance is shocking.

I started out in RC cars about a year ago with a Arrma Typhon on 4S. I sold it almost right away as I was enjoying the crawlers way more. This is like a cross between the two - you get your go-fast and crawler on steroids all in one. Just don't turn it while on the throttle - it will cartwheel. LOL

[JatoTheRipper]

Originally Posted by Browneye

Yep, tires and foams. Stocks are just okay, do-able for now.

Locked-Up is backordered on the wheel widening rings but I'm not so sure I want them now. Hyrax tires keep popping into my head. Or PB Growlers. I like how hyrax's grip but they're my least favorite for any scale look.

Speaking of LU wheels - the quality is very high - a pleasant upgrade from the stuff that comes from China. Fit and finish is just outstanding. I'm just not used to paying three times the cost for a set of wheels. LOL Definitely worth it for this rig though. Very happy with them.

Yes, I setup the rockracer/crawler mode with 50% drag brake with linear adjust for Aux1 on my radio. It is Castle's second example - at 50% of the trim it shifts from rock racer with adjustable drag brake and 2-sec pause to reverse, to crawl mode - adjustable drag brake to 100% and instant reverse. It's a very cool setup for going fast and going slow, simply by adjusting the Aux1 trim button.

I have to say though, the 3300kv motor is way overkill. I figured as much. But on 2S it tones it down nicely, still plenty fast but much more controllable. Very impressive how this setup works.

I'm going to pick up a nice 2S 5Kmah battery today since I don't have any 2s battery packs. And a compact just doesn't fit in the tray at all - full size only.

2.2" Pitbull tires tend to be huge. And, honestly, Growlers aren't great tires unless you have flat, clean rocks. If you encounter dust or wet there are better options like the Hyrax, TSL Super Swampers and Rock Beasts.

The problem with getting expensive wheels is that the next time it makes it a little easier to spend that much on wheels and you realize the cool factor is way higher than Chinese wheels. So, if you're like me, you get an expensive wheel habit that is super expensive!

Cool! It's a very fun ESC.

Yes, I agree 3300kv is overkill. My 3100kv ROC412 is even overkill on 3S. Maybe somebody here can get you going the speed you'd like and recommend gears to get there on 3S. If the motor gets hot on 3S than I'm going to assume your gearing is "wrong" for that setup with that battery.

[Browneye]

Yeah, I already have a setup of trailready wheels in 1.9 in my cart. The spending has gotten little out of control as of late. Wifey said, "I don't know what happened - we keep going over." That means the checking account went past zero. Oh well. LOL

I had tried to source a 68t spur gear with no luck. But did find a couple of smaller pinions, so there's a 11T in there and I have a 10T to try. But really, just putting a 2S battery in made it everything I want for now. I may try 3S again later and mess with gearing, especially if I can get a larger spur. Or if diff gears go south I might look at a lower ratio there.

The motor only got really hot with a lot of full-throttle runs up and down the street in front of the house. Out on the trail it was fine - could hold a finger on it, so maybe 120 or so. High speed runs with the 2s it didn't even get warm. Right now I don't see a downside to running the lower voltage, unless my battery life suffers.

I would like to add some wheel weight, at least up front. Removing the spare worked out better than good, besides KOH rigs don't carry spares cuz they're never that far from camp or pits. Some beeftubes are on my shortlist, and alloy end caps and links bracket. Other than that the chassis works really well. The sway-bar is a must have - really stabilizes it. Seems to me I saw a Currie version somewhere, something nicer than the plastic one it comes with.

I'm still undecided on the interior panel. I like having at least some access to the interior without it. Once you put the interior panel in then you can't get to anything without disassembling the rig. I find that pretty fiddly and a PITA.

[Browneye]

On the 'trail'.

[Shinchu]

Originally Posted by Browneye

@Shinshu - these things are the bomb.
Seriously, I went looking for something of a slightly different challenge and this filled the bill nicely. Building it was just complicated enough to be fun, and the final product is an eye-opener. Performance is shocking.

I started out in RC cars about a year ago with a Arrma Typhon on 4S. I sold it almost right away as I was enjoying the crawlers way more. This is like a cross between the two - you get your go-fast and crawler on steroids all in one. Just don't turn it while on the throttle - it will cartwheel. LOL

man you know i have a yeti, right? that thing cartwheels if you LOOK at it wrong! unless you are on some loose dirt or wet beach sand. then its a drift maniac (humboltef/casey will tell you, he tried it at proline)! but you could imagine my frustration when i tried crawling with it. hence my arrival in ascender-land

but yeah i am really tempted to build one of these.
i'll add it to my list for sure, just don't know when.
super cool hearing about the mamba X though!

great shots on the trail!
have you looked at tires from voodoo? they have some neat looking U4 style stuff.
and yes the currie "anti-rock" is what you are looking for in the sway bar dept. that's what i want, too because... scale 8^B (that's a scale nerd btw)

**also here's what i have to say about KOH rigs without spares... ;)

http://www.axialracing.com/blog_posts/1073925712

and if you look reeeeally close at the spare...

[Browneye]

Originally Posted by Shinchu

man you know i have a yeti, right? that thing cartwheels if you LOOK at it wrong! unless you are on some loose dirt or wet beach sand. then its a drift maniac (humboltef/casey will tell you, he tried it at proline)! but you could imagine my frustration when i tried crawling with it. hence my arrival in ascender-land

but yeah i am really tempted to build one of these.
i'll add it to my list for sure, just don't know when.
super cool hearing about the mamba X though!

great shots on the trail!
have you looked at tires from voodoo? they have some neat looking U4 style stuff.
and yes the currie "anti-rock" is what you are looking for in the sway bar dept. that's what i want, too because... scale 8^B (that's a scale nerd btw)

I haven't looked at Voodoo 2.2 tires - will do that, see if anything jumps out at me.

I found the Currie 'anti-rock' it's a Vanquish item. Lots of yays and nays for it, some say it's too stiff, others like it. Typical.

Another start-up was making a really nice billet-armed kit - DFAB? - or something but they seem to have ceased operation - have a carbon fiber-armed version on their site but everything is 'out of stock'. Dayum.

I'll run the stock one for now.

"Scale nerd?"

Speaking of scale nerd...I found a vid on Honcho upgrades and they suggested a Bomber interior panel for an interior. Darned if it doesn't fit in the Nukizer715 body I just got. I think I'd rather have a bench seat though, than a passenger grabbing a 'ohshit' bar. LOL.



In other news...
I picked up a 5Kmah 2S battery today with deans connector for $33 at LHS. Should work perfect in the Bomber.

And I already broke the hood hinge, so ordered that parts tree. I think a better solution is in order.

Ordered Barndog rear panel and side 'number panels'. Since no spare tire for me. Are you saying they all have a spare tire?
And I want to paint the fuel cell red.

LHS already has the SCX10 Raw Builders kits on the shelf for $189.

[soze]

Originally Posted by Browneye

LHS already has the SCX10 Raw Builders kits on the shelf for $189.

Ultimate has it already? Any idea if they're going to carry the HPI builder's kit? I've got the Tamiya Buggara Fox on order from them.

[Shinchu]

"i see a black cell and i wanna paint it re-ed..."

its like the ascender thing all over again haha i painted my yeti cell way back too. then fuel hose, fire extinguisher... then i went full scale nerd and started my ascender build.
as for the anti-rock, if its too stiff you can use any thickness music wire to fine tune it ;)

and HOLY SMOKES yeah im with soze the shelf price on the SCX10 SBGKGBG whatever that's... man i need a 3rd job lol

[WHITE-TRASH]

Dluxfab.com has carbon fiber arms for the sway bar. It only fits a pretty small diameter bar so I'd recommend against it.

Ucfab has a pretty decent bar sold through supershafty.

Best bang for the buck is easily HR $53 for both the front and rear bars and they come with 2 different rate bars in the kit.

[durok]

As pretty as the Vanquish sway bar is, the Axial is set-it-and-forget-it, whereas the Vanquish has always had issues with the hardware loosening.

There's people that have changed the grub screws for somethin' else, but I forgot what exactly... (feeble-mindedness creepin' up on me).

While I have a tire fetish (as many of you keep mentioning), the kit tires help reduce the 2.2"s habit of climbing everything in its path, they make you work a little harder.

Mine have lovely little rubber feathers on all the tread blocks from when I was in a granite creekbed and was using a lot of wheelspin to climb the obstacles...

Once I wear them a bit more, I have an idea from watching rock bouncers that I'm gonna try out.

I still can't make myself care enough to install my interior - the Bomber has one big flaw for me, and that is access to it's internals.

At least with the interior left out I can finagle my way to adjusting most of the bits without TOO much hassle...

And lastly, as far as the spare tire goes - we are running very out-of-scale wheel and tire sizes compared to the 1:1 KOH rigs, they can fit the smaller spares much lower and tucked into the cage.

I decided pretty early on that mine wasn't going to get mounted, after all.

(and that was AFTER buying an Incision spare wheel and a DMG mount!)


D'Oh!

[Browneye]

Originally Posted by soze

Ultimate has it already? Any idea if they're going to carry the HPI builder's kit? I've got the Tamiya Buggara Fox on order from them.

Yes on Axial.

I don't look at the other brands. I'm stuck in Axial-Vaterra land. [shrug]


***************
Batteries...

I was doing some research on voltage, gearing, and run times. I now have a 3s and 2s 5Kmah batts...if the 2s runtime is too short I can regear and go back to the 3s, just gear it down. That may end up being the better solution in the long run.



Sway bars...will look at those...what is 'HR'?