Getting bombed (in a good way)

[Red Eye R/C]

Hello RCCers!

My friend said I should post my Bomber build here to document it as my insanity and bank account go in seperate directions so here goes nothing.

So I'm new to this hobby having been introduced by said friend before with his Vaterra Twin Hammers in my backyard. Something happened when I saw his beautiful rig and what it was capable of. It took me back to the 80s as I stood in my townhouse complex with a bunch of friends marvelling at a new "toy" that one of my friends older brothers received, a Tamiya Grasshopper. It was big, you could drive it crazy far, it was crazy fast and more capable then anything I'd seen up to that point (I'm like 7 lol). I knew I was in trouble and fast forward to now I own this:



It was a little crazy how I ended up with it. 3 days after being bewitched by my friend I was messaging him how I really wanted an R/C car now. He told me to consider the SCX10 II to which I replied I wasn't a fan of the body but diving deeper into Axial's offerings I really liked the look of the RR10 Bomber. Said friend then showed me a Kijiji ad to the above pictured rig. I immediately got him to engage in a heated "take my ****ing money" chat with the fellow selling it and a whole bunch of whatever took place and money changed hands and I now own it.

First thing my buddy did was adding a Hitec ultra torque MG servo which my 2 year old managed to burn out in our first day with it (really it had a weird screw holding the servo arm and it got pinned against a fence and overheated the PCB). Now my 2 year old doesn't drive it much anymore.



I started going a little insane research "crawling" servos, finally settled on Savox waterproof and my friend talking me off the ledge on a 12** or 22** $$$ to the more affordable SW0231MG with a Kimbrough servo saver. So far I've pulled out the steering links twice on crashes but the servo is going good. By the way can anyone recommend any metal glue/bond for stripping aluminium? The threads are pretty loose so I have a ghetto mod holding it together:



I went further off the deep end getting a Castle Creations Mamba X / 1406-3800kV combo. It's sitting for a bit until I get a 3s LiPo this week. A few days ago I installed an AMF SS skid plate and RC4WD trailing arms...



So sick... I unfortunately (eh it's a rock crawler lol) scratched the shit out of one of the trailing arms already as a link popped out and the rig dragged it for a bit. Again any good metal glue???

I have a big'ish shopping trip this week which should hopefully help me run my LED lights off its own 3s and a 3s ESC/sensored brushless madness thing to do. Bunch of parts incoming that I will save as a surprise. Can't wait to see how much fun I can squeeze out of this thing on the trails...





By the way that's the Twin Hammer that got me into this mess

To be continued...

[Ironhide13]

Hope you enjoy it!

I just purchased a RTR Bomber 2.0, and haven't had a chance to put it through it's paces yet.

[Timmahh]

Been looking at a rock racer rig myself. Likin the lose Rock Rey. Wit the Yeti being disclosed, the bomber 2.0 and Capra look like a good option.

I seen the Capo Ace 1 though a few days ago... $$$$$$$$$ (1100.00, but a sweet rig for sure)
However the cost is not relevant. lol as if.
But the Rock Rey is one path I'm leaning on, the 2.0 Bomber is in close contention.
Just hard to ignore that Ace 1 from Capo.

Nice looking rig. Lots of fun to be had.

As I say.
And the Needle Goes In. lol

[Red Eye R/C]

Originally Posted by Ironhide13

Hope you enjoy it!

I just purchased a RTR Bomber 2.0, and haven't had a chance to put it through it's paces yet.

Oh boy do I enjoy it lol. Which version did you get? I really like the Savvy for the Fox trades, probably because it's different to the original version.

Originally Posted by Timmahh

Been looking at a rock racer rig myself. Likin the lose Rock Rey. Wit the Yeti being disclosed, the bomber 2.0 and Capra look like a good option.

I seen the Capo Ace 1 though a few days ago... $$$$$$$$$ (1100.00, but a sweet rig for sure)
However the cost is not relevant. lol as if.
But the Rock Rey is one path I'm leaning on, the 2.0 Bomber is in close contention.
Just hard to ignore that Ace 1 from Capo.

Nice looking rig. Lots of fun to be had.

As I say.
And the Needle Goes In. lol

I wish I could help you, alas I have zero experience. That being said I like what the Capra does over the Bomber (portal axles, dig trans). Either way you get a new toy and I wish you luck in your hunt!

Now back to my Bomber. Yesterday did a run to the hobby store (shout out Hobby Hobby Mississauga holding it down during these strange days). After picking up some more POWA (aka LiPos) and other stuffs me and my buddy took our rigs over to Serena Gundy Park for some trailing fun.

Everything started out well, the park is fantastic place for crawiling lots of paths, roots, scrambles, spines, rock side hits... minus the humidity and the ****ing bugs it was paradise.



This was a shot of the Bash Bros prior to a sweet line we scoped out that had a nice wide singletrack path with 2 fallen trees and a root(y) technical section near the top. Everything started well, both rigs cleared the first tree but once I squared up to the 2nd one I noticed that I couldn't get under. To the left the tree continued and was impossible to mount but to the right was the drop off the trail that had a lot of loose crap but was doable in my mind. I started out slow riding reverse for most of the way down to a small clearing. Once the rig was stable I started to climb back up the semi-steep incline to the spine path. I was getting hung up on some roots when I thought I smelled something burning. Not a moment later my friend says "SMOKE" and shit, the Bomber is smoking out the cabin. I ran to turn off the ESC and unplug the battery, man my motor was blistering hot. Even the ESC was starting to get hot on the heatsinks. My Bomber was fried, and I did the walk of shame back to the parking lot.

We went back to have fun with the TH, even my friend had a technical issue when the spring in his Spektrum radio "popped" in the wheel (we both heard it). So weird driving when the wheel doesn't return back to centre lolol.



Such a beautiful place, this picture however lacks how steep the paths were when I toasted my Bomber. In hindsight I forgot to factor in that we changed the gearing in the Bomber to overdrive it to satisfy the speed demon in me. That's all fine and dandy in short grass or pavement but on the technical trail it marked death as I was constantly on the throttle to control the decent and climb. It's going to go back to stock gearing until I get the 2-speed and 1406-3800kV sensored brushless in.

Today I was going to start diving into the drivetrain to see if I really smoked anything important. The good news is after our walk with the TH, we tested out the Bomber as it had cooled down and everything runs but the rig stutters on really slow running. I just managed to take off the LED lightbar to remount somewhere else before I had to tapout. Oh, my steering link looks to be fixed! The loc-tite is holding oh happy days.

We also managed to sneak in an order through AMain (more toys!). Until the next update.

[DCrock]

Looks like a nice build so far. Similar to mine and I am loving it so far.

[Red Eye R/C]

Wasn't feeling that hot today so I thought working on the FIMV.1 (Bomber is now know as ****ing Insane Mini Vehicle 1 🙃) would be good. In the morning I was able to take out the motor, pinion, spur and ESC. Picked up some electric motor cleaner (holy **** that shit smells BAD, like you can still smell it forever after you dispose of it lol). Not much came out of the motor so I'm hopeful I just started to fry dirt/dust and nothing important. I also removed the pinion and spur, no damage but the slipper plates have part of the slipper pad now embedded in them, A) is this bad and B) how the **** do you remove it? Not even an ISO pad/wood scraper worked which surprised me.

With most of the main powertrain removed spinning the axles feels way too ****ing tight, the idiot who assembled this thing was a butcher truth be told. I have to go and fix all the stuff he didn't do properly (tightening/proper placements/cutting off sharp flash). I was so pissed I had to clean up and walk away probably until next week. How do you folks deal with shitty/problematic builds?

[Ironhide13]

Originally Posted by Red Eye R/C

Oh boy do I enjoy it lol. Which version did you get? I really like the Savvy for the Fox trades, probably because it's different to the original version.

Yes, I picked up the Savvy version, mostly because I wanted the Wildpeak M/T tires. Most of the terrain I'll be on will not be pure rocks, but will include a bit of mud, sand, etc. I didn't keep the stock decals on it for long.

Originally Posted by Red Eye R/C

How do you folks deal with shitty/problematic builds?

Drink, work on RCs, watch YouTube vids or search the forum for advice, rinse and repeat...

[Red Eye R/C]

Finally felt better and had time with my friend to continue fixing up FIMV.1. This photo is maybe a couple of hours into our 12 hour day (psycho but time flies working on these cars):



Notice I'm in the top and my work area looks like a bomb went off, my friend who took the pic is so organized. 👍

Currently the model sits like this:



The front and rear axles and transmission / transfer case units are sooo much better. I know once I get all this hooked up minus the motor/main transmission gears it should spin freely for several seconds. The space cadet who put this together used some thick-ass greenish grease all over the differential gears that it actually added a shit ton of resistance to the whole drivetrain. We washed the diff. gears with soap and water and once dried cleaned up all the crap in between all the individual teeth and added (sparingly) Vanquish rock lube (fanastic stuff, thick but not overtly heavy). Really looking forward to running the rig once it's all back together. We also cleaned and lube all the bearings in the drivetrain (had to replace one bearing it was too rough).

The new hop-ups are Vanquish clamping lockouts (actually my friend discovered my rear axle was slightly bent so initially they didn't fit until I was able to straighten out the axle carefully with a hairdryer), Incision motor mount and Vanquish motor cam plate, Axial metal servo mount and SSD steel main driveshafts (front and rear).

Hopefully this Monday we can put it all together with the Mamba X and Titan motor to see how it runs cleaned up on a 3s LiPo (heavy breathing intensifies).

Also anyone have any tips on how to get the plastic ends on the suspension links to face the right way once you have them all tightened up? I keep trying a little bit CW/CCW and I can never get it to line-up. 🤦

[Red Eye R/C]

Yesterday got the rig all attached with the Mamba X and Titan. The new steel driveshaft rubs on itself in a few spots so it clicks but I'm hoping since it's minor it should resolve itself over time. The rig was a lot smoother running and pretty quick on 3s with the stock gearing. Barely got above warm for the motor temp at well which is nice. My friend who was with me thinks the motor might be on it's way out based on it's performance however.

Today I received the Hi/Lo tranny components and Team KnK SS hardware, just started to change up the screws (KnK is SO nice, way better than stock hardware and for sure I'd grab it again if I get another model). This Thursday should be another big install as we go for the tranny, 1406-3800kV and Spektrum upgrades (maybe all in the same day!).