Natedog's Wraith Kit Build now with Cage Mods

[Natedog]

Last night I cut up the rear upper cage area to do the two seater cage mod. After I cut out all the unnecessary plastic cage bars, I used a heat gun to bend the roof bars down to meet the sides near the rear shock mounts. Notched the down bars to mate up to the horizontal ones and drilled through and into the down bar. Ran a 3x20 screw through the horizontal bar and into the down bar, but now the rear of my Wraith is kinda too flexy imo. I have a 0.030" lexan plate in the back lower area to put my cooler, supplies, gas can etc. on, but it does not tie into the upper shock mount area. Going to try putting the stock battery tray in place of the lexan piece.

What the heck do you all suggest to stiffen the rear of the cage when doing this mod?

[frdtrkguy]

Got any pics of the lexan seats mounted? Thats a great idea since the axial seats are heavy as hell..

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by frdtrkguy

Got any pics of the lexan seats mounted? Thats a great idea since the axial seats are heavy as hell..

Thanks and yes the stockers are pigs! Forget what they weigh, but these are 16 grams each plus the two screws. LOL I secured the seat with 3x6mm buttonhead screws and blue anodized aluminum flanged locknuts. I didn't have any red ones.



Got another stock battery tray to replace my lexan tray and help stiffen the rear cage. Bent the plastic a bit more and tucked it in, need to cut a bit more off the ends and drill holes.

Any other suggestions for my cage? If you have a pic of how you did yours post it up here please.


I put a stock battery tray in place of the green aluminum tube and my lexan bed bottom after those pics last night. It's stiffer now and I think it will be ok, going to check out the Dingo spare mount.

I like this look better than the full top and it is a lot easier to get my big fingers in to work on it...lol. Going to bend the two down tubes forward a little bit more and then drill and screw them in. Up through the horizontal bed rail tube and into the down tubes. I'm getting spare cage left and right sides and the top roof piece to have on hand in case my mods don't hold up.

[Natedog]

Got r dun, just had to bend and heat a little more to get it where it's best. I like it! Definitely a spot to take your time with.
Now to mount my spare tire!


Got the down tube notched perfectly and the attaching screw head is nice and flush wiht the other tube. Used a 3x18mm self-tapper left over from my kit.

[Matthewboerner]

I made some down tubes from leftover suspension link building scraps and the are super sturdy and can be made longer or shorter and shaped to your liking.

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by Matthewboerner

I made some down tubes from leftover suspension link building scraps and the are super sturdy and can be made longer or shorter and shaped to your liking.

Looks good thanks for the suggestion!


Weighed my Wraith this morning and minus driver, battery and a couple scale items (no spare tire) it weights 5 lbs, 13.9 oz....so should be just over 6 lbs with driver and rest of my scale items!

Lipo weighs 115 grams as per HK's site: HobbyKing R/C Hobby Store : Turnigy 1300mAh 3S 20C Lipo Pack

Prolly going to order three 3300mah 3s1p lipos for comps, which is 297 grams per HK.

[Natedog]

My gearing at 14/54 is fun but changed to 13/54 for better crawling and bought 12 tooth pinion in case that's not low enough. Lower gearing will help run-time. I'm running Turnigy 1300 3s1p 20C packs from my Honcho and debating on 2200 or 3300 and soft vs hardcase. I carry my batteries, tools and parts in my Camelbak when out crawling (along with 3 liters of water).

What do you all think about the different batteries that I'm considering?

[snohiker]

heres my mod i have a post on here somewhere about it

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by snohiker

heres my mod i have a post on here somewhere about it

Thanks.

Ordered a couple SkyLipo Hardcase 3300mah 40C 3s1p, will see how they are. Always used Turnigy lipos (non-hardcase) so will be interesting.

SKY LIPO 3300mAh 40C 11.1V Hardcase Lipo battery pack

[Natedog]

Ahhhhh....lake....too cold for a swim this day but great day!


I got my eye on you...


KABOOM


Going...up.

[fernando]

Cool looking rig and great action shots.

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by fernando

Cool looking rig and great action shots.

THanks.

You can see the extra roof screw that I drilled and put in at the middle rear of the roof, really helps when it goes for a long tumble. Lost traction and rolled down a granite face last time at the lake and it landed HARD on the rear at the bottom, prolly 20 foot drop, smacked loud like it broke something, but it's ok. The rear most part of cage has several big scrapes and gouges where it had final impact at the bottom, but no cracks or breaks!

[Natedog]

Went crawling up at the lake again yesterday (perfect day for swim too), had a great time with 13/56 32pitch gearing, waaay more crawlable than the stock-ish 14/54 that I was running and battery run-time was way up too. Bummer is it started making a nasty gear mesh type noise towards the end of the day on the rocks. Need to tear down the diffs and have a look, the rear pinion gear input seems to have a lot of play and the front pinion gear has more than it should but not as bad as the rear. Before the noise started I was jumping off the top of some really steep granite slabs after crawling up, punch it at the top and launch a couple feet onto the top of the slab lol.

EDIT: Blasting up and launching off the top of stuff like this

[Jeepfixer1]

Sweet looking wraith! Really like your build with your detail on the batt forwards mod. Looks good!

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by Jeepfixer1

Sweet looking wraith! Really like your build with your detail on the batt forwards mod. Looks good!

Thanks!

My Wraith is a blast on 3s 40C with Traxxas Titan 21T 550 motor, and 13/56 32 pitch gearing!!! I'm getting the itch to drop to 12/56 gearing and up to 4s 40C...not sure my driveshafts and gears will like it though. Needing some stronger capacitors for my FXRs...here:

http://www.crawlerinnovations.com/in...mart&Itemid=70

Yes I'm running external CC BEC.

Tried my new SkyLipo 3300mah 40c 3s hardcase and Turnigy 5000mah, 20-30c 3s soft lipos. Did a lot of tuning this week, more pics and info to come!

[Natedog]

RPM or somebody needs to make the stock Wraith bumper (Axial p/n AX80077) beefier and out of a little more flexible material! This happened on a simple backflip down the granite and my Wraith is only about 6.5 lbs with a 5000mah 3s lipo under the hood:


I've seen many with broken front bumpers in this exact same place! The plastic is very thin around the screw holes and not reinforced on the backside in any way, no ribbing, no nothing! Damn, $8 for this wimpy piece and out of stock everywhere til mid August supposedly.

EDIT: Just emailed RPM RC Products about this! Please everybody email, call or write to RPM too....this part breaks so often and easily! RPM's contact info:
http://www.rpmrcproducts.com/contact/

Also emailed Axial with pic of breakage too:
http://www.axialracing.com/support

[Natedog]

So I changed out the stock shocks for some Losi buggy 0.9" hard anodized with threaded shocks (3 hole #57 pistons), 30 weight oil, and Losi Gold springs. Stance is way better and travel seems just what I want. I had tried stock Wraith kit springs, Losi White and Losi Golds, and every shock mounting hole on the chassis. After the shock change, the Losi Gold springs felt way too soft so I moved up a bit with Losi Whites.

EDIT: UPdated running stock Wraith kit springs the Losi Whites were a little too soft for me.

New losi shocks on top and stock Wraith on bottom.

Before measurement to top of roof at this spot was about 9.25", after is about 8.75"


EDIT: Added my Reno, Nevada G6'n pics on page one of this thread to keep them in chronological order...I had forgotten somehow?!?!??

[slimfire]

Originally Posted by Natedog

What I wanted all in ONE sealed box! Also my selection of Ace Hardware rubber grommets that I was going to use around my wires where they pass through the electronics box.



Will it all fit???

Hi natedog,

Do you not have any issue with Receiver and Esc and BEC all in one place close to each other? I mean issues like interference or similar?

Thanks for your kind reply


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[GravelDuster]

What size is that link you have between the rear tower? I need some support there, that's a great idea

[slimfire]

Originally Posted by GravelDuster

What size is that link you have between the rear tower? I need some support there, that's a great idea

7x55 mm (AXA1319)
I have it too ;)