Took a drive off the deep end, C3 XJ 10.1-2

[Jeepy84]

So it all started one fine birthday last July when my fiancée surprised me with arguably one of the best gifts since... my Dingo kit.

The Dingo is my Class 1, guess where the AR44s found a home.


I can also run larger tires on it and do okay in Class 2


That left me with an axle-less Jeep. Cherokee, in the 97+ body style, literally the body I have wanted since I discovered scale off-road RC. It couldn't stay in the box forever. So the old Dingo axles got some upgrades and a new home.

Other upgrades include the Wertymade Boar to take the brunt of frontal impacts, some Spare Time Hobbies fenders, sand ladders, and eventually interior. OnetoomanyRCs pulls all lighting duties, two Black Beauty v2s, and not installed yet but SMD headlights. I initially hoped this could be my new C2/3 rig, and that it might be a better contender than the Dingo in C2. Admittedly, I really do like the look of the Rock Beast XLs on the D window wheels.


Alas, making a competitive C3 for our indoor winter series requires more than just big tires. Big tires, low CoG, and 4ws or dig. The courses are just very tight and technical. So I found a set of Gearhead Bomber BTRs with KLRs for sale on the Facebook.

I first noticed that they would catch the front of the floor plates when turning. Needing metal sliders, and it being Black Friday, Scalerfab sliders it is.
Next up, to put a metal rear bumper on meant I needed to extend the rear chassis rails. I could've cut up another set of rails, but, never know when you can use whole rails. I also started mocking up the rear axle and steering.


I managed a miracle and won a set of built TKOs in an online raffle. After swapping the OD gears for UD



Then the real fun began as it was time to figure this 4ws thing out, it became very obvious very quickly that I either needed to spring the suspension, lift the body, or get to cutting.


Bringing us up to speed tonight


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[3nrag3]

Looks great


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[luckster]

Great ideas on the use of both sets of axles on both trucks. I am now using the Vanquish Currie axles on mine. And going to order axles and gears to use left over stock parts to make a spare set of stock axles. On your Dingo axle upgrade to the stock axles, did you have any problems? Or was it pretty much a drop in to the finished rig? I am going to put my extra set under my old Toyota hardbody truggy. Thanks for your thread and ideas.

[Jeepy84]

Originally Posted by luckster

Great ideas on the use of both sets of axles on both trucks. I am now using the Vanquish Currie axles on mine. And going to order axles and gears to use left over stock parts to make a spare set of stock axles. On your Dingo axle upgrade to the stock axles, did you have any problems? Or was it pretty much a drop in to the finished rig? I am going to put my extra set under my old Toyota hardbody truggy. Thanks for your thread and ideas.

I already had the GCM panhard kit, so it just required ten new links, some stock lengths from various kits, some, especially the panhard, are custom.
I have too many projects to justify Curries

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[luckster]

Originally Posted by Jeepy84

I already had the GCM panhard kit, so it just required ten new links, some stock lengths from various kits, some, especially the panhard, are custom.
I have too many projects to justify Curries

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Yes the Currie axles are costly but thanks to the wife and gift cards for Christmas from kids and work lol. They were in the budget and oh so worth the money. Thanks for your input in you build. And I really like the 4 wheel steer. Keep up the good work.

[Jeepy84]

On Saturday evening I went down to the RCAddict compound, we tossed a 3d rear seat and a Yeti interior cover in it to get me up to the 40pt max threshold we run locally for the class. Also, finally figured out the best arrangement for the 4ws with my old firmware dx4s. Then I headed over to the comp barn to get a feel for it. The rocks were ready, but without course markers I just started driving whenever I thought it could make it. Driving forklift in my younger days paid off, I took to the rear steer immediately. Unfortunately, within about 10 minutes of playing, I started to smell something burning. Fortunately, it was not the lipo battery I had overdrawn and rejuiced in nimh mode, nope, I forgot to put a smaller pinion on the motor. Scratch one 35t Holmes, lol. Back to the compound! Installed a 13t Holmes that was in stock, and awaited the next morning. Competition was fierce, the courses were pretty crazy with foot tall drop offs and near vertical climbs, hard 90deg. turns at the bottom of said dropoffs.

I finished 5th place out of 17 drivers. Not too bad for a C3 newbie with an almost untested truck, eh?

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[Jeepy84]

I came to possess a free large sheet of aluminum. I needed better approach angles up front, and was terribly uncompetitive with the big tires on the Dingo. So the blue XJ got some mods that are legal for both classes, and a Grundish Customs Willy's nose.

I just swap out the rear axle for class changes, though the Holmes servo doesn't really rear steer unless I tell it to. Better safe than sorry and I'm getting pretty quick at the swap.

I plan on trying a lighter material for the front fenders though. Stay tuned.

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