Not exactly what Axial intended.

[tcanin00]

I decided to get on the Wraith bandwagon, since I have so many Wraith specific parts that are not being used. I also wanted to mod the drivetrain a bit. Since RC4WD makes an SCX 10/Wraith specific 2 speed transmission, I figured that would be a nice addition along with the 4,000kV sensored Tacon motor and Mamba Max ESC. The first order of business was to buy the kit version:



And get to building:



I will use the Vanquish axles that I took off another build:



I wanted this build to be unique. So I thought Storm Troopering it out would be a great idea. After many hours on Amazon, I found a scale Storm Trooper:



I thought it was an action figure from the description, but it turned to be a static model. More work, great. And I paid $40 for it. Oh, well moving forward. Here are some gratuitous chassis and flex shots after staying all night putting it together:







I wanted to use a 1973 Ford Bronco body to carry on the Storm Troopered Out theme:



I painted it from the outside so it would have a matte finish. Here it is on the Wraith chassis. It will take quite a bit of trimming to make it work:



It took some time, but I cut away the fenders until they cleared:







Unfortunately, this didn't work out as the body would hang up on obstacles while crawling. Time for plan B. that meant inviting Jay and Silent Bob to the party to see if they had any better ideas. Bob was the first to show up, and he approves of flexibility:



Then he fell to pieces when he heard he was going to riding with Jay:



And how do you think Jay reacted when he found out he could drive it?



Bob was soon back together again and swinging a pick axe into battle:





The idea I have for a new body is to cut up HPI's extended cab 1979 F-150:





I wanted the Wraith to look like a purpose built crawler that someone put an old truck cab on. I painted the body silver on the inside and blue on the outside so that as it gets scratched up the silver will look like bare metal:





I had to alter the wheelbase a bit to make it look right by taking 20mm out of the front and adding 15mm to the rear. I did this by making custom links out of aluminum rod. I will make a flat bed with scale diamond plate to cover the battery.

[TheScaleAddict]

How did you shorten/lengthen the wheel base? What are you doing for drive shafts with the shorter/longer wheel base?

[JasonInAugusta]

Looks like you need to get those E4s in line.

Especially Flores, that little punk.

[tcanin00]

Originally Posted by cephas

How did you shorten/lengthen the wheel base? What are you doing for drive shafts with the shorter/longer wheel base?

I made different length upper and lower links from 3/16" aluminum rod stock. I bent the uppers to match the stock 30* of the originals. I can take betters pics for you if you like. I also repositioned the front shocks to the outside of the lower mounting points, so I could mount the top of the shock in the furthest position back.

I made the front driveshaft out of a friend's spare parts here, since I measured mine wrong and ordered the wrong length. He had a MIP rear driveshaft set for a Traxxas Slash that he was not using, so I took the output flanges apart at the CVD joint and made one driveshaft with both output flanges. The rear is a cut to length Traxxas E-Maxx driveshaft. Pictures will help explain this, I'll load them up for you.

[tcanin00]

Originally Posted by JasonInAugusta

Looks like you need to get those E4s in line.

Especially Flores, that little punk.

I am an E-4 as well, so I guess I will be lining up with them in the buffoonery. That aside, how do you know me and Flores? I am not recognizing your avatar or screen name.

[Pita]

What wheels are you running??

[tcanin00]

Originally Posted by Pita

What wheels are you running??

I was running Pro Line Epic 2.2 Slash beadlocks with the stock Ripsaw tires, but I swapped them out for a set of Axial 8 hole 2.2 beadlocks with RC4WD Interco IROK tires.

[JasonInAugusta]

Originally Posted by tcanin00

I am an E-4 as well, so I guess I will be lining up with them in the buffoonery. That aside, how do you know me and Flores? I am not recognizing your avatar or screen name.

SSG V wrote you a note about evals. It's on your bench.

[tcanin00]

This is for cephas. Here is what I used to make my front driveshaft and how I altered my wheelbase. First is the half of a MIP CVD for the 2WD Slash. This is the hub end with the wheel hex and lock nut. I disassembled the opposite of the driveshaft that has the output on it and made one complete driveshaft with two output yokes:



I don't like mismatched parts, but I didn't want to keep spending money on "guesstimate" length driveshafts. The reason I couldn't use two Traxxas E-Maxx driveshafts is their diameter is too large to clear the open spur gear assembly of the 2 speed transmission. This is the bottom of the Wraith showing the different driveshafts and the new upper and lower links:



Here is another shot of the new links from a different angle:

[tcanin00]

Originally Posted by JasonInAugusta

SSG V wrote you a note about evals. It's on your bench.

I hate to sound dense, but I'm not very good at putting together clues. I just looked on my very cluttered and disorganized bench for the note and could not find it. I had spoke with SSG V earlier and he did not mention anything about evals at the time.

[tcanin00]

Here are some more detailed pics. A friend here has a stock wheelbase Wraith, so I used it for comparative purposes:



Front view:



Even though we're both running 2.2's, the RC4WD Interco's are much larger in diameter and its throwing off the real difference in wheelbase between the two. I lined up the rear axles on both and you can see how altered mine actually is. At first the truck was very front heavy and did not crawl as well as the stock set up, especially down steep grades. Changing the front shock mounts really helped counter this. Here are the stock shock mounting points:



And here are mine. This also shows how far back I moved the axle:



This is how I moved the lower mount to the outside of the axle bracket:

[tcanin00]

Now for the glamor pics. Admittedly, I am went a bit overboard with detail parts. I actually had to remove Silent Bob and the majority of the detail parts I had added to reduce weight over the CG. Here is Jay's dog in the place of Silent Bob:



I also finished the diamond plate flat bed. I just need to make the back of the cab and rear window, along with some filler plates for the front to seal up the interior:



This isn't complete without a rear flex shot:



I will post some pics of the crawling we can do here. I honestly didn't think there would be any areas to crawl since this is a desert, although I have had to set up three different courses since base maintenance likes to take them away. Odd that on a Military Installation there are dedicated crews that clean up and organize things such as sandbags, pallets, and rocks. Who knew?

[Turn'Nburn]

Originally Posted by tcanin00

Originally Posted by tcanin00

I hate to sound dense, but I'm not very good at putting together clues. I just looked on my very cluttered and disorganized bench for the note and could not find it. I had spoke with SSG V earlier and he did not mention anything about evals at the time.

You underestimate his sneakiness.

[TheScaleAddict]

Originally Posted by Turn'Nburn

You underestimate his sneakiness.

Seriously, keep your socks away from that guy... He's sneaky and creepy...

(reference material)

[tcanin00]

Damn! This is getting creepy! My two seperate worlds, military and radio control are colliding!

[tcanin00]

Originally Posted by Turn'Nburn

You underestimate his sneakiness.

I see what you did there.

[JasonInAugusta]