Custom F350 Build & Trail Creation

[lonleycreeper]

[QUOTE=I think it is and I think my motor is okay but I'm wondering if maybe this nimh doesn't have enough power to power it correctly? Feels underpowered. Also I know a big part of this underpower feel is coming from my driveshaft angle being too high, [/QUOTE]

What motor are you using? The problems you describe could be caused by worn brushes.

[aebstract]

Originally Posted by lonleycreeper

What motor are you using? The problems you describe could be caused by worn brushes.

Holmes Hobbies torquemaster pro 540 35t
I might have caused it.. if I messed the brushes up can I fix it?

[lonleycreeper]

Its a new motor?
Do you have a differant battery to try?

[aebstract]

I have a lipo that I'm going to switch to as soon as I get the charged from my buddy.

[aebstract]

Latest update: Problems!
So I got all my connectors and everything soldered up correctly. Hooked everything up and did a test run with the battery, filmed it to post up in my electronics thread to make sure everything looked okay. I had a suggestion to try and recalibrate the esc, so I went back to try this. In between filming and doing this I did nothing at all except unplug the battery. When I went to plug the battery back in JKAJKFANA smoke and fire.



Hoping ProjectSCX10 gets back in touch with me and isn't busy later this afternoon or sometime later this week and I can go pick up one of his used ESCs and get it all hooked up while I'm over there. Contacting where I got the BR-XL from to see if there is any type of warranty/exchange that can be made, since nothing was different between the two runs it makes no sense. The ESC had seemed to be acting up from the start and didn't even get a full 15 minutes of run time (including calibration and motor throttle tests). :'(

[Kitty]

Originally Posted by aebstract

So far but I haven't gotten to do any really good testing yet because I was out of an esc when they came in and I've been trying to get the new one working right. I think it is and I think my motor is okay but I'm wondering if maybe this nimh doesn't have enough power to power it correctly? Feels underpowered. Also I know a big part of this underpower feel is coming from my driveshaft angle being too high, which I'm going to fix and I have already sorta fixed it in the rear. The driveshafts I got, the set screw is coming out after a few minutes of play so I kinda have to wait til I get some loctite before I can go back. :(

I'll post more about the shocks once I get my driveshaft and stuff working right.

waiting for the feedback,thx allot

[aebstract]

problems - problems - problems - problems - problems

So far I've ran in to lot's of... problems.
As you know, my HH BR-XL was bad and I've contacted Holmes Hobbies in attempt to get it replaced under warranty. I'm still waiting for a response back from them.

Yesterday I went and bought a new Sky Lipo 2s 4400mAH 30c continuous 60c burst. Went from there over to ProjectSCX10's house to buy an HPI SC15-WP esc so that I could run my truck. I had plans to go with someone I work with out on a trail I found later that afternoon, so I was really hoping everything would work out alright. I let him do the soldering to see how he did it and make sure everything went smoothly, we put traxxas connectors on the battery and esc. Soldered the motor wires from the esc to the Holmes Hobbies torquemaster 35T. Got everything bolted up and flipped it on. Success! It ran, though the esc thought it was running in reverse so you have to double tap throttle to go from reverse to forward. I didn't really have the time to sit and fiddle with it, since I had a trail to go conquer so I decided to just deal with it for now. I have to go back and setup the drag brake and other misc things in the esc but at least it ran.

My transmission shaft was wobbly, we took it apart and couldn't find a reason for it to be so.. maybe it's bent slightly or the bearing is bad, I plan on replacing them and trying to find the root of the issue. Again, just didn't have time before the trail, so I went with a motor that was mounted slightly crooked and a transmission shaft that was wobbly.

We got to the trail and everything seemed like it would be okay, but not too far in I realized I was having some slipping issues with the pinion and gears and whatnot. I couldn't really fix it in a hurry so I decided to push on and GIVE IT HELL! That is exactly what I did too.

So, we arrived:



The trail is absolutely awesome and a blast! There's a fairly cut trail for walking which is full of loose mid sized rocks and great obstacles. On with the pictures:















There are many spots on the trail where it splits and you have options to go deeper, turn back or turn down an easier route. We got to one of the last of these splits and scroped out the paths. One route was a very difficult looking mountain climb through dirt/mud/leaves/rocks/etc with the added difficulty of it being on a steep slanted hill where a roll isn't pretty. The other route was down in to the creek and then up the creek. The creek in this area wasn't that deep, it's 99% rock with water flowing over it and some deeper pools of water in spots. We decided to take the creek route. I'm glad we did, the creek was so much fun!











We eventually made it to the top, well sort of. There was still one more ledge to try and get up to get to the very top. Here we are at the top:





Then I decided to take a stab at getting to the top.







Made it to the top! :P

If you are wondering why you see a rubik's cube, well I didn't have a good way to mount my body in a quicky so I double sided the cube to a brace and to the bed of the truck. It worked well enough for the run.

The piggyback shocks work really well, I'm pleased with that purchase. I need to dial them in finely for the rig, but I'm waiting until I have everything else set up in it's final state and working correctly.

[1MEANMACH]

Thanks for the invite I had a blast. Maybe next time we can try some of the other trails!!

[aebstract]

Originally Posted by 1MEANMACH

Thanks for the invite I had a blast. Maybe next time we can try some of the other trails!!

Yeah, this run turned out to be a lot of fun and there were still like 5 other alternative paths to get to the top and/or other locations. We'll try one of the new unridden trails next time so that we're both clueless :P

[aebstract]

Okay, got new gears for the transmission and greased them up nicely. I'm missing the shaft that goes through the drive gear so it's just sitting there. Any idea where I could get just the shaft? Or maybe a little rebuild kit with new bearings and one of those shafts?

Went to drive, everything finally seemed pretty solid for the most part. I forgot that the screw holding the bottom part of one of my steering knuckles had fallen out and I didn't replace it. 5 minutes in to driving it today and I snapped the knuckle. Got a stock replacement coming from a friend tomorrow. Will have to upgrade them soon.



Went down to an 18T pinion, I think it'll be nice but didn't get enough time.

[aebstract]

Been awhile since I last updated here. I got my brxl back from warranty replacement and it seems to be doing well. My motor however does have a problem so I will be sending it in for repair/replacement soon. So, for now, I had to put my axial 27T back in. Still on an 18T pinion and I just put a new spur gear on, the one it had was stripped pretty bad. Transmission gears seem to be doing well, except for the output shafts/plate coming loose. The screws that hold the two shafts together have backed out twice now. I put some gorilla glue and quite a bit of red locktite this time and haven't slipped out 'yet'. My steering servo arm has been slipping so I replaced it with a basic straight arm, at least until I do something better with it. This past weekend I flipped the truck straight in to a creek deep enough to submerge the entire truck. Nothing worked when I pulled it out, figures I would fry the ax3 receiver I just put in, immediately. Once I got home I guess it dried out, because it works now. I'm going to definitely balloon the receiver before I'm near any more water. (This happened mainly because I took the 'waterproof/resistant' box completely off. Once that was removed I mounted my battery a lot lower and it seems to have really helped with my top heaviness and 'big foot' stance to where it rides a LOT better. Also, I'm not sure if my battery has issues or if it was just because of the motor I had on there, but I already cut the connector off of it. I've been running on a NIMH for the past week, which I'm not too fond of. I'm gonna solder the connector back on tomorrow and give it another go.



Oh but wait! There's more I've been working on my trail quite a bit and really loving the way it's set up so far. I plan to keep expanding and making it a huge trail of fun. I ran through the entire thing and took pictures on the routes, enjoy them. I'll make notes on certain ones and appreciate any feedback.


This rut is pretty challenging.. It's not as bad coming in as it is going out but you do get caught up quite a bit. It's a blast to get through though.





Down a little ways, high side walls that keep you in, there are pretty deep holes coming through this section that make it a challenge.


Top of a hill climb


Top half of the hill climb


The whole hill so far




This section I don't have much pictures of, theres gonna be a lot of work done below this spot and to the left. I got stuck trying to get to the top of this spot for a good while.


And back up on to the big green rock




Headed back


Trail to the rocks


Rocky section coming up


Still a lot of work to be done to this section, but it's still pretty fun to try and get up




Trip up the starting path


The most trouble of the trail so far, that damn rut


Getting out of this spot took longer than any other spot and was tough as hell






Rut seems to be really realistic, I'm sure if it rains it'll be near impossible to get up this spot on 1.9s

A little section that has been in the works since the very beginning but not much time has been spent on it:








This entire area was covered with sticks, roots and leaves. I've dug and cleared a LOT to get to the starting point I'm at. Pictures may make it look like there are a lot of roots still but it's actually pretty cleaned up compared to how it was. It's not so bad now and just needs some fine cleaning once everything is layed out.

What do you think?

[1MEANMACH]

Niiiice Terry can't wait till I can come by and play on ur playground

[mitchr97]

I like it man but for that rut, you should use a winch. Like yourtruck, looks pretty spiffy!

[Joe$]

I like it. Do you know what brand the body is?

[aebstract]

Why should I use a winch? I got up it.. The body came with the truck when I got it but I think it's one of the tamiya f350 bodies. Front bumper and tail gate have snapped off on numerous occasions, I plan on working on the body/frame a lot after I get all the parts on it working near 100% first. Getting close to that point though!

[mitchr97]

Originally Posted by aebstract

Why should I use a winch? I got up it.. The body came with the truck when I got it but I think it's one of the tamiya f350 bodies. Front bumper and tail gate have snapped off on numerous occasions, I plan on working on the body/frame a lot after I get all the parts on it working near 100% first. Getting close to that point though!

the winch would be to get up that hill easier.

[Needboost]

Originally Posted by Joe$

I like it. Do you know what brand the body is?

Yes it is the Tamiya F-350 body, it will run you about $80 - $100 bucks for all the parts to make it complete. My rig ha gone from this,

to this



to this my first F-350 creation



to this is what I'm running now it's a Pro-Line F-250, I love my F-350 body but is way to top heavy for most of the trails I run.

[mitchr97]

Thay thing looks really cool!

[aebstract]

How did you attach the honcho rear end to the F350 body?

[Needboost]

Originally Posted by aebstract

How did you attach the honcho rear end to the F350 body?

For both my F-350 hard body and the Pro-Line F-250 I filled in the open space with Styrene, on the hard body I CA glued it in with bracing and on the Pro-Line body I used GOOP to attach the styrene then braced it. The only mounting holes from the stock Honcho back I used on both were the two bottom ones but it still fastens in six spots..

Here's a pic of the back of the F-350.



and here's one of the back of the F-250.