Espeefan's SCX-10 Jeep Rubicon
 

I picked up a new scale 4x4 for myself. An Axial SCX-10 Jeep Rubicon Unlimited kit. I don't plan to go to crazy with the mods on this one. The intention is to keep it stock, or mostly stock, upgrading only the weak parts, things that fail, or hinder it's performance.

The mod list is pretty short so far. This was a bit of a budget build for me, using electronics and parts I already had, or made myself. I machined my own front servo mount to get the steering servo off the front axle for a more scale look. I upgraded all the gears in the transmission, and the axles, to the optional CNC machined and hardened versions. I made my own custom electronics box, since I couldn't fit anything in the stock Axial box. I bought a spare Axial axle truss and 4 linked the front axle to match the rear. The truck seems to flex a lot better now. Finally I dressed up the Jeep body with my own home made light kit.

Pictures -

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ps1b184755.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ps3ed33331.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ps0da5093e.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...psddb7dbfa.jpg

The electronics box was made from a HiTec servo package. It proved to be the perfect size for my Tekin FR-X, Castle 10 amp BEC, and my Futaba FASST receiver. I machined each wire strain relief from aluminum, to secure the wires for everything, but in two piece, to make removing the components inside the box easier. The holes in the electronic box are larger then the strain reliefs, so I don't have to de-solder any connectors that way. The box isn't waterproof, although I could make it that way. I'd call it more splash proof, and that was the intention. I don't like the idea of running my models under water! The three toggle switches on the side control the lights on the Jeep. Mini Deans B4 and B2 plugs allow me to remove the body and front bumper from the chassis.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ps85b828b7.jpg

The front servo mount was pretty easy to make. Nothing to fancy here, but it's solid and does exactly what I wanted it to do. You can also see the Axial axle truss that I added to the front end, along with the plastic upper 4 links that came on the same parts tree. A new servo drag link was made from a piece of carbon fiber rod I had laying around.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...psc8d00246.jpg

Underside shot of the above mentioned 4 link front suspension. Hard to see all the parts though. The axle hides some of them.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...psfa24623f.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ps9bb3737d.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ps0ba348b6.jpg

And here it is with the body mounted and finished. Painting is not my thing, so I stuck to what works best for me. A single color paint job. I like it, and think it turned out nice. No sense in going to crazy with a body that's just going to get run and beat on anyway!

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...psda398e96.jpg

My favorite parts of the build was bringing the Jeep body to life with some lights! I wired up parking lights and the bumper fog lights to one switch.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ps00bbaaa2.jpg

The headlights to their own switch.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...psd835cec2.jpg

And finally, the off road lights to their own switch. Warm LEDs used for the fog and headlights, and cool whites used for the off road lights, to give some contrast to the color and simulate some HID lighting vs. stock road legal lights.

Here are a few more photos of the Jeep, in it's more natural environment.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ps87116c02.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...psda1d337a.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...psc5fb770f.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...pse152a2e6.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...pse12e5663.jpg

Thank for looking guys!

Re: Espeefan's SCX-10 Jeep Rubicon
 

nice night pics! lights look awesome. love how the aux lighting is a different color from heads & fogs. cool idea!

Re: Espeefan's SCX-10 Jeep Rubicon
 

Looks great! Nice and neat!!

Re: Espeefan's SCX-10 Jeep Rubicon
 

Very neat job there dude, great example of how a SCX10 should come out the factory... "thumbsup"

Re: Espeefan's SCX-10 Jeep Rubicon
 

Thanks guys. I appreciate the comments!

Re: Espeefan's SCX-10 Jeep Rubicon
 

Nice like the wiring layout an lighting. May steal a few ideas for mine.

Re: Espeefan's SCX-10 Jeep Rubicon
 

Great job!! You are awesome with creativity!! I love the Hitec box!! You should sell your custom aluminum bits!! I love how they turned out!! I am jealous!! :)

Re: Espeefan's SCX-10 Jeep Rubicon
 

Thanks guys. Feel free to steal away! As for machining and offering my aluminum bits for sale, maybe in the future. Right now I have my hands full just making things for myself, and I'm still learning how to use my milling machine.

Took the Jeep outside for a short run and some more photos. The ground was froze, and my fingers got pretty frozen too, but I did get some nice photos to share!

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ps923252fb.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ps17149efe.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ps5fa12b2e.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ps945addf0.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...psfd437fa7.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ps8af90995.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...psed7273f1.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ps1fe1f1da.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ps975257ae.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...pse0051139.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ps961dcea0.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ps1b1af0d0.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ps8069c588.jpg

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ps502f8d7e.jpg

No hard core crawling yet. Just a simple shake down run in the yard, and maybe a couple poser shots. :mrgreen: I also added a Mad Skinz bikini soft top to the Jeep, which I like a whole lot better then the lexan hard top! I'm really happy with the Jeep and the way it performs. Not so happy with the stock shocks though. I think half the oil has already leaked out of them, so sooner or later I'm going to some better shocks. Suggestions? Been considering the Pro-Line Powerstrokes. Enjoy the pics!

Re: Espeefan's SCX-10 Jeep Rubicon
 

Very Nice build! As for shocks here are a couple of choices for you that I have used personnaly and they work for me got the scale look to.

Axial Racing - Icon 61-90mm Aluminum Shock Set - 7mm piston (2pcs)
Axial Racing - Axial 61-90mm Aluminum Shock Set - 7mm Piston (2pcs)
G-made : All the rock crawler lovers // gmade.net

Re: Espeefan's SCX-10 Jeep Rubicon
 

looks really nice. i'd love to see how you have all your wiring for the lights done :) that's where i'm stuck at currently. I like the switch idea

Re: Espeefan's SCX-10 Jeep Rubicon
 

I love the clean lines of your Jeep. Very nice. "thumbsup"

Re: Espeefan's SCX-10 Jeep Rubicon
 

All Jeeps should be green. Love it!

Re: Espeefan's SCX-10 Jeep Rubicon
 

The Wrangler kit comes with Icon shocks doesn't it? G-mades would be nice I guess :)

Re: Espeefan's SCX-10 Jeep Rubicon
 

Thanks for the comments again guys.

Yes, the Rubicon Unlimited kit does come with the Icon shocks, which in my humble opinion are the worst shocks I have ever assembled and used, as far as leaking goes. Anyone have experience with the G-Made shocks? I am considering those as well.

I was asked by a couple guys if I could share how I wired up the lights on my Jeep, so I spent some time drawing up an electrical print, showing just that. For clarity's sake, I didn't include the fog lights, but they are wired in with my parking lights. It is very easy to add, change, or modify this print to your liking. I only used three toggle switches, but you could easily add more. My body (and front bumper) can be separated from the chassis by the Deans B4 and B2 micro plugs I used. To keep things neat I used one common (black) wire for all of the LEDs. To turn them off or on I am only switching the hot (red) wires with the toggles. My toggles are SPDT (single pole double throw)switches. Most of the wires under the body are all shrunk wrapped together with heat shrink, to consolidate and keep things neater. I used some hot melt glue to secure the wires to the underside of the body. That keeps them out of the way, and so far it has worked very well. The wires are very secure.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ps6e5d6128.png

And here are some actual photos of my wiring job.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...psdf879618.jpg

The underside of my Jeep body.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...psa4ca179c.jpg

Tail lights.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ps4cf060ff.jpg

Headlights, parking lights, and the off road lights can be seen here.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ps1225b309.jpg

Underside of my toggle switches. Notice all of the switched wires share the same heat shrink, so it's hard to tell which is which, but after it's wired, it's nice and tidy.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ps784ae6cd.jpg

In this photo you can see the feeder wires coming off my Deans ultra plug for the ESC. This splits into two circuits, inside my electronics box. One feeds my BEC, the other comes out of the box, behind my toggle switches and runs the LEDs. Also notice the Deans B4 (4 pin) micro plug that connects to the body. It's a little hard to spot, but it's there.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...psfcf820b7.jpg

Here you can see two extra Deans B2 micro plugs. These go to the front bumper and run the fog and off road lights. I don't need to unplug these unless I want to remove the bumper. Only the 4 pin Deans B4 micro plug needs to be unplugged to remove the body.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...ps2df9426d.jpg

Here is a shot of the bumper, from behind. All the wires are, once again, heat shrunk together, to keep things tidy. This is just to give you some idea of how I did things.

Hope this helps everyone out, who was wondering how I wired my Jeep.

Re: Espeefan's SCX-10 Jeep Rubicon
 

Very nice and super tidy wiring!! You did a fabulous job man!!

Oh and yeah the Icon shocks are a JOKE!! I hate the way they go together too. My Jeep came with custom lower spring cups and you have to un-thread the shock rod ends to get them apart. The joys of rebuilding now..hehehe. Only plus is I will never have to worry about a lost spring cup ever again. :)

I want to try G-mades!! They have to be better than the Icons??

Re: Espeefan's SCX-10 Jeep Rubicon
 

nice! thanks man. that helps. never head the icon shocks. had some gmade. leaked all over. had great luck with traxxas big bores. never rebuilt on the 3 scx10. losi shocks seem pretty good too

Re: Espeefan's SCX-10 Jeep Rubicon
 

the secret to the axial shocks is the O-rings - mine originally leaked like crazy, but I was reading one of the thread Ty (from tekin) has and he explained how he built his shocks. once I followed his, mine haven't leaked since.

I built mine by putting the shafts in place THEN putting the bottom O-rings over the threads and then place them in the bottom.. doing it the other way the O-rings seems to pinch and leak. I also used AE' green slime for the first time and it helped build them nice and smooth - with no leaks

Re: Espeefan's SCX-10 Jeep Rubicon
 

Thanks for the shock info and advice guys. I appreciate it. I think I will give the Pro-Line Powerstroke shocks a try. I have used Traxxas shocks with good results too, but I like the design of the Pro-Line Powerstrokes, and they offer a scale crawler/trail type shock that I think will work nicely. I also like the threaded body, which makes adjustments easier.

When I assembled my Icon shocks I did use Green Slime, but I never thought about putting the O-rings on after inserting the rod end of the piston into the body. That's a good tip. I also read that someone had used some Tamiya O-rings with better results, but they were tight, and only slowed the leaking.

Re: Espeefan's SCX-10 Jeep Rubicon
 

Subscribed.

:twisted:

Re: Espeefan's SCX-10 Jeep Rubicon
 

what are you using for your rear tail lights? doesn't look like the non-lightable ones that come with the body

thanks!