c0bra’s base camp with a vfd twin!

[c0bra]

As the tittle implies this truck began life as a boring base camp. For the first several runs of its life it ran a Holmes crawlmaster 16t paired with a 1080 on 3s. It ran fairly well for a bone stock rtr rig but was a bit boring, specially considering how much I like the gladiator.

After debating on getting a gladiator roller off eBay and building that to a trail pig, I realized why don’t I use the base camp as s test dummy to fix the 1 thing I don’t like about the gladiator. The issue being the shapeways mount for the vfd trans. Ever since installing it I’ve had issues, basically the mounting screws for the vfd NEVER stay tight. I’m not blaming the designer of the mount, more shapeways.

Now why a vfd twin? That’s easy! With getting a Phoenix chassis kit and the build for it not needing a vfd twin, why not put it in the base camp? As an added bonus this will hopefully have more room to mount electronics.

Now your probably wondering how does a vfd twin fit into a scx10iii chassis? We’ll see for yourself



Looks to me like it’s a tight fit, but there’s no clearance issues.

Now since I haven’t seen anyone else crazy enough to do this yet I figured I’ll show how different it is to a stock scx10iii.

First issue to resolve is the skid plate. Basically the sides of the skid plate don’t fit inside the rear section of the scx10iii chassis. Once they are cut down so they are flat it should fit right in. Now that’s not the only issue with the skid plate. The other issue is the mounting holes don’t line up at all and there’s no way of knowing were the skid plate is even supposed to be located on the rear rails.



So the front upper link mount will screw in to the second hole from the end of the chassis, then use a dremel to stretch out the 11th hole so you can get a screw into the rear upper link mounts. Once the rear chassis plates are modified you can put a m3x20 button head into the chassis through the slot and into the upper link mounts but don’t fully tighten. Then you can use the front rails with the sliders already mounted and use another m3x20 button on the side with the upper link, and a m3x12 or similar on the other side. Once that’s done all 4 screws can be tightened!

For the rest of the chassis it’s your standard scx10iii, in this case the gladiator version. If your converting a short wheelbase 10.3 to a long wheelbase you will need the extended rails and longer wheel wells. Part numbers AXI231022 and AXI231023.

Next steps are to figure out link lengths. So once the axles are mounted and driveshaft angles look good I will post an update!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Fricker08]

Hell yea, looking forward to seeing how this comes together. My gladiator is going to get a trans swap at some point


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[twade984]

Yes this is a cool project, the stock gladiator trans is not ideal imo.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Rcdood]

Really cool mod.
Kinda surprised that none of the bigger companys make a decent skid for the 10.3 to easily put a vfd in.

[c0bra]

Originally Posted by Rcdood

Really cool mod.
Kinda surprised that none of the bigger companys make a decent skid for the 10.3 to easily put a vfd in.

Agreed. I’m surprised the only vfd trans mount for a 10.3 is from shapeways. It wouldnt take much for vanquish to modify their existing skid and this would be drop in.

UPDATE: I picked up the gladiator rear bumper mount as it is a bit different than the base camp. Also have a custom link kit on the way from intheworks. So let’s hope it works!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[c0bra]

Update time but it’s not too good.

I got the intheworks links in and unfortunately they are not going to work. The front axle is way to close to the trans, and the rear links are too long. So the links won’t work.

However I did order custom length lowers from hardcore so as soon as I know I have the correct lengths I’ll update this thread.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[c0bra]

Front:


Rear:


Front links are 106mm straights. Right now it looks like it could really use high clearance links for chassis clearance as the lowers look like they will hit the chassis before the suspension compresses

Rear links are 154mm s bend links, really should he regular high clearance, not exactly sure why I thought the s bend would be a good idea.

As far as this body goes I think the links will work, I’ll order uppers this week and I’ll update with what I find once they come in and are on it. I’ll decide if I want to rebuild the base camp shocks or go with different shocks on this truck as well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[c0bra]

Update time!

The upper links came in and finally settled on 90mm vanquish s8e shocks for this truck. After getting everything assembled I put it on the chassis with the wheels from the ccw reaper



Now this is the body that is actually going to go on this truck, but this truck is also a test rig as I’m going to do the vanquish skid conversion on the gladiator and I’d like to use the same links for both. So on went the gladiator body



Now with the body sitting on the mounts I marked the center of the wheel wells, which is the line on the left. Then using a straight edge from the table I marked the center of the wheels. The result is I need 5mm shorter links.



Onto the front after the same process I discovered I need 10 mm longer links for the front….. I really thought I would be closer.

Anyways that’s not all that matters with links, so here’s the underside



The rear links are about perfect, if anything the uppers can be 1-2 mm longer to get a slightly better pinion angle but it’s really not bad. The links also clear the chassis for the entire travel of the shock.



Now onto the fronts. On full compression the lower links hit the chassis before the shocks are fully compressed, now I know the chances of the shocks ever fully compressing probably isn’t going to happen all that often. However I want to fix this issue in case someone else wants to do this conversion. Front pinion angle is about perfect!

New links are ordered! Will update when they come in. I will post lengths when finalized to

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[c0bra]

Motor/esc and aluminum shock towers on the way along with a replacement panhard link


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk