Wroncho Baja Bug - Wraith, SCX10, Yeti

[bilinvic]

Ha....I know what you mean. Some of these builds I see on RCC make me want to drop everything and start over! I can't wait to get out to give this updated design a good 5 hour crawl with the guys....I gotta feeling this is going to rock (pun intended!). I'm also excited to get these R35 BFG Krawlers out again....their performance completely blew my mind.

[bilinvic]

The Wroncho Bug is getting a make-over! While I wait for parts for the B1B Bomber and since I have two-thirds of a new Yeti kit not being used, I thought I would change things up a bit and give my Wroncho Bug a U4/KoH race inspired look.

I used the Yeti roll cage/chassis and chopped the roof off of the Proline Bug body to fit the cage. I was able to fit the radiator and fuel cell to fill the rear end up perfectly. Everything is just mocked up right now.

I'm thinking of repainting the body to freshen it up since it's in great shape other than scuffs.

I'm loving the new updated look. What do you guys think?


Before:





After:

[bilinvic]

Workin' on some of the details. The fuel cell and radiator was first washed and then primed with Tamiya Fine Surface Primer. The fuel cell was painted with Tamiya TS-49 Bright Red and the rad was painted with Tamiya PS-41 Bright Silver and then a coat of PS-55 Flat Clear. Tamiya acrylic paints were used to pick up some of the details and metal HVAC tape was cut into strips to create the fuel cell's straps.

Yeah Racing fuel cans were mounted to the main fuel cell to fill up the void space!

The Yeti roof panel was painted PS-5 Black on the underside and then the top side was painted with PS-55 Flat Clear using the Axial Brass Knuckle/grenade mask (minus the Axial lettering) to match the rest of the body.

I still have to get the interior painted.

[bilinvic]

Almost done with the makeover.

Have to get a couple more rear oval light lenses and maybe a rear bumper.

[Alexander_0_1]

I thought I liked it before, but now I want one of my own......I'm out of points though.

[bilinvic]

Thanxs Alexander_0_1, I love this new look....it's more my style.

[k goodrich]

Damn that thing looks good.... whats the ride height and weight?

[bilinvic]

Thank you....just over 8.5 lbs without the battery. The GC at the skid is approximately 3 inches. This machine is a crawling beast, extremely well balanced with all the weight down low.

[Ahod39]

Looks great with the cage exposed! Even more rad than previously shown.

[bilinvic]

Video of some backyard testing...

[k goodrich]

How do you like the tire foam combo?

[bilinvic]

Love them...very plush and grips like crazy....I was very surprised by these tires, despite how narrow they are compared to all my other 2.2 tires.

[bilinvic]

A buddy and I took the machines down to the ocean shoreline today. This jagged rocky terrain can destroy the driveline parts very quickly...and I found out after a couple of hours.




This is why I swear by plastic spur gears, only a few bucks to replace and easy to swap out. Everything else further down the driveline is much more expensive to replace.

[bilinvic]

Here's some video footage of my Wroncho Bug down by the Sea! Right at the end you can hear my spur finally let go.

[PileDriver]

Originally Posted by bilinvic

Video of some backyard testing...

thats one hell of a backyard!

[bilinvic]

He had a local crawling competition today at an abandoned rock quarry in Shawnigan Lake today and the Wroncho Bug was one of the 2.2 rigs I brought with me today to compete. Unfortunately, I snapped the rear Axial HD diff gear pinion output shaft about 5 minutes in to my run leaving with me with FWD only. Needless to say, the Wroncho bug was retired with a DNF. Bummer.
I brought a ton of spare parts, but of course, no extra diff gears!

[k goodrich]

Nice vid. there was some nice steep climbs. You can really hear the metal axles hitting the rocks. Looks like you are trying some new shoes can't wait to see the next one.

[bilinvic]

I'm back from a family vacation and finally got around to tearing down the rear differential to replace the Axial HD underdrive gears....here's a pic of the failure:

[bilinvic]

A few more pics from the Quarry comp:

[bilinvic]

Some updates for the Wroncho Bug.

When I stripped the spur gear a while back, my LHS didn't have any 56T spurs in stock, but they had a 54T, so now I am geared 11T/54T (I was at 12T/56T).

I've been playing around with the rear suspension for a while trying to get the most crawling performance possible. I found the rig was torque twisting too much causing the right rear shock to fully compress on some steep climbs...and this is with the stiffest red stripe Powerstroke springs. Because this is such a custom build, adding a sway bar is next to impossible, so I tried going about this another route.

I removed the rear elevated shock mounts and swapped the P-L Powerstoke SC rear shocks out for the shorter SC front shocks with rear length red stripe springs filled with 55wt shock fluid. Removing the elevated shock mounts accomplished two things, maintaining the ride height with shorter shocks and orientating the rear shock into more of an upright (vertical) position compared to the previous set-up.

So far the initial testing has proven to be very promising with this new rear suspension change.

The next change is track width....this rig was just too wide at around 13 inches. In order to use the RC Bros knuckle weights, a longer wheel hub had to be used. I removed the knuckle weights and went back to the stock Gear Head RC hubs that come with their wheels. The track width is now at 12 inches...much better. I added 2oz in lead weights under the front bumper to compensate for the loss of forward weight. I also swapped out the Vanquish Ti drag link and tie rod for Incision's stainless steel steering links. The ti links weigh .85oz together and the SS links weigh in at 2.15oz together. Both left and right knuckle weights weigh in at 3.6oz together. Between the lead weights and the SS links, I have almost equaled the loss of the knuckle weights.