Dudley Deadbolt's Adventure Thread by T-money

[NaZ-T]

Finally got Dudley out on an actual trail this week

Lake Marry is a small lake at the top of one of the local canyons here on the Wasatch front (Salt Lake City)
The trail is 1 mile in, so 2 miles round trip.

The trail goes on to a couple other lakes a few more miles in. But do to this being an evening run we didn't have time to run up to the other lakes (maybe in the near future, on a day trip).

The trail starts out pretty mild other than the gradual up hill. About half way up is when the fun starts and the trail gets better and better as you get closer to the lake. Once near the lake you could fun crawl almost endlessly. If it wasn't for the hike this would actually be a great place to hold an Event or kill a full day fun crawling. Once at lake Marry it's nice to stop for a break and soak in some Mother Nature.

A couple pics from the outing

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by NaZ-T

Okay time to squeeze a little performance out of Dudley before the next outing. An easy way to get a little more performance is to relocate the electronics. Lets get to it!!

first up, I prefer the motor to be mounted on the passenger side of the rig to help compensate for a little bit of the torque twist. This will also give us more room for the electronics relocation. I just unbolted the skid plate flipped it around and re-installed. Pretty simple. (you'll need to swap the + and - on the motor so it runs the right direction)

The battery is the heaviest single component in the vehicle so moving it to the front helps keep the front end down on some of the bigger climbs. On one of Rocksurfer's rigs I saw a pretty trick way to get the battery up front, using a few parts that come in the extra parts bag included with the rig.

First I had to move the RX box and the ESC to the rear of the vehicle to make room for the battery. There is already mounting holes for the RX box on the rear chassis brace. So a simple bolt in relocation for the box.
The ESC was just as easy. A glob of silicon glue on the bottom and I stuck it right on the rear chassis brace, right behind the newly relocated RX box.

Now that the ESC and RX are out of the way, I had the room to mount the battery where I wanted. First I found the extra servo mounts in the spare parts bag and bolted them up to the chassis where the support legs for the RX box used to go. Next I bolted a couple of the P-shaped rodends onto the battery plate in the slots where the velcro straps used to go. Then place the battery plate across the chassis and line up the holes on the new mounts. The P-shaped rod ends line up with the rear screw on the shock hoops. So with nothing more than a couple screws the electronics relocation is complete.

After the mods
Installed the extra servo mounts on the chassis
Bolting up the P-shaped rod ends onto the battery plate
And a couple completed pics to show you the mounting.

That's a sweet idea! Helps tilt the tray up out of the tires way at full lock suspension compressed too.

[jhghah]

Originally Posted by NaZ-T

Finally got Dudley out on an actual trail this week

Lake Marry is a small lake at the top of one of the local canyons here on the Wasatch front (Salt Lake City)
The trail is 1 mile in, so 2 miles round trip.

The trail goes on to a couple other lakes a few more miles in. But do to this being an evening run we didn't have time to run up to the other lakes (maybe in the near future, on a day trip).

The trail starts out pretty mild other than the gradual up hill. About half way up is when the fun starts and the trail gets better and better as you get closer to the lake. Once near the lake you could fun crawl almost endlessly. If it wasn't for the hike this would actually be a great place to hold an Event or kill a full day fun crawling. Once at lake Marry it's nice to stop for a break and soak in some Mother Nature.

A couple pics from the outing

If there were fish it would really make for a great day trip. Still a great place to get out too.

[sjc115]

I just bought one of these for my son and I, and we are having a blast with it (it's our first crawler). Did you do anything to waterproof the receiver or servo before going through the water?

[jhghah]

Originally Posted by OneBadHoncho

Is that up little cottonwood canyon? Looks like it is, I can't tell though, it won't let me click on the picture.

Ya it is above Brighton snowboard resort.

[if0rg0t2remember]

Man I was just out there helping my brother move. I totally thought about taking my SCX10 knowing how great the mountains are up behind SLC.

I am pretty sure I saw all the trophy trucks getting towed from CA to SLC while driving out to CA as well.

Plus I have some major maintenance to do on my truck so I think I'll be fixing up my truck exactly how you did, reversing the motor and moving the battery. Thanks for the info, I've been wondering how to do that effectively.

[TAT76]

Man you get some killer pics.. Looks like some great areas. Loving that battery relocation and may have to try that out..

[NaZ-T]

Originally Posted by sjc115

I just bought one of these for my son and I, and we are having a blast with it (it's our first crawler). Did you do anything to waterproof the receiver or servo before going through the water?

The Deadbolt has been a fantastic rig and in just a few weeks has become one of my favorite R/C's.

The stock RX box is not waterproof so while I was moving the electronics around I did take the RX apart, taped off the pins and sprayed the board with "Never Wet" I have had the RX wet before and it kinda wigged out, but after blowing the water out of it it worked fine again.

Haven't done anything to the servo. So far it's been great with no issues.

[NaZ-T]

Originally Posted by if0rg0t2remember

Man I was just out there helping my brother move. I totally thought about taking my SCX10 knowing how great the mountains are up behind SLC.

Plus I have some major maintenance to do on my truck so I think I'll be fixing up my truck exactly how you did, reversing the motor and moving the battery. Thanks for the info, I've been wondering how to do that effectively.

Yep us Utahrds have some great places to play

The battery relocation is super clean and works amazing. After running it with some very heavily modified SCX10 I'm even more impressed. It kept up very well and even showed them up on a couple lines

Originally Posted by TAT76

Man you get some killer pics.. Looks like some great areas. Loving that battery relocation and may have to try that out..

You'll like it.
I've had more than a few local guys do the battery relocation after seeing how easy and clean it was. All have had nothing but great feed back on the mod.

[sjc115]

There is a blog post on Axial's site about relocating the battery to the front, but it sets it on top of the servo (Axial Racing - Battery Relocation – SCX10 Jeep RTR). Is there any benefit to having the battery further forward like that?

[sjc115]

When you flipped the motor/trans to the other side, are there any addition parts required, or is everything symmetrical?

[NaZ-T]

Originally Posted by sjc115

There is a blog post on Axial's site about relocating the battery to the front, but it sets it on top of the servo (Axial Racing - Battery Relocation – SCX10 Jeep RTR). Is there any benefit to having the battery further forward like that?

Positioning the battery down the middle and over the servo does move the battery weight more forward but it is also significantly higher. So there is a good trade off. Both setups would work well. I opted for the lower battery placement. A little lower CG and I don't have to remove the battery tray to get into the RX box.

Originally Posted by sjc115

When you flipped the motor/trans to the other side, are there any addition parts required, or is everything symmetrical?

No additional parts. Everything is symmetrical.

[NaZ-T]

Took Dudley out to the 801rcc event over the weekend. The course was just shy of a mile long but with some playing around Dudley easily cracked the 1 mile mark.

The course was very difficult and Dudley probably saw more abuse in the 1 mile run on course than in all previous runs combined. I am happy to report that Dudley made all but 2 of the lines on course, with no actual breakage. Very impressive considering the course was designed to challenge even the most competitive Wraiths and Ultra4 cars.

This was however the first time the Dudley showed signs of fatigue. During the run the front 3-link popped off. Not a big deal I just simply popped it back on without further incident. It is however very sloppy now and will likely start popping off more and more with each run. The lower links are showing stress too, and becoming very flimsy. On a few of the tough lines the lower links would flex pretty bad making it very hard to pick the right line. The steering link is also starting to flex pretty bad, but it wasn't as irritating as the lower links.

So it may be time to pick up some alum links for Dudley. I just need to decide if I want to piece together a kit (I have some stuff from previous rigs) or just buy the kit Axial offers. I'll keep you guys informed on what I decide to go with.

Anyway here are a couple pics of Dudley making his way through the challenging course.

[trukkracea]

This thread is so informative Naz. Im getting a deadbolt for my brother for his birthday and its good to know it can take some abuse before it will need some upgrades.

The Trukkracea

[NaZ-T]

Originally Posted by trukkracea

This thread is so informative Naz. Im getting a deadbolt for my brother for his birthday and its good to know it can take some abuse before it will need some upgrades.

The Trukkracea

Dudley has been a tank so far. The Deadbolt SCX10 is tough to beat for the price. Your brother will love it!!

[fried daddy]

I already have a few to many rigs now, but I just may have to pick me up one of those. Great thread man

[NaZ-T]

Dudley has been a great rig so far, and I have yet to spend any $$ at all on him. I figured it was time to get him a treat. I notched in PinchFlats thread, he had made a very sweet looking grill for his Deadbolt. After a quick phone call, he agreed to make a stop by my work on his lunch the next day. This grill would be perfect for adding a little detail to Dudley and set him apart from the other RTR deadbolts out there.

The Grill is incredibly cool, with a small etching around the lights and slots in the center to break up the grill and is a very nice detail. The grill has another trick, you can just snap the Axial light buckets right into it. Then the Axial lens fits into the bucket to finish off the look for the headlight.

The install was easy. I just lined up the grill with the mold in the body and taped it in place. A poke in each of the mounting hols with a punch made a small hole so I could run the screws right into the body. I traced the holes for the light buckets and removed the grill. Dremel in hand and some test fitting along the way, but a short time later the holes were cut out. Remount the grill , snap in the buckets, press in the lenses and we are finished. I Still need to install the two small amber lights next to the headlights but here is how Dudley looks now.

A quick shot of the front sticker for comparison.

[trukkracea]

That looks awesome. I may try something similar for my brothers

The Trukkracea

[sjc115]

Awesome! Can you post the link for the thread that talked about making the grill?

[im gunna crawl]

Dudley rules !