WarHound Wraith

[69rd96]

I bought a WarHound chassis from RC4WD, always awesome dealing with them, especially here in Canada, and I wanted to do almost a full Wraith swap out with a few modifications and tweaks.
I liked the size of the chassis and it will allow me to extend the wheel base in the future, and being steel, I can also "tweak" it some more (big time tweaking)
It started looking like this, 1 day before I tore it all apart:


Chassis comparison:






First issue was how to mount the RC4WD 2 speed transmission, it wouldn't fit in the frame rails, so I chopped it off and welded it on top:



Considering the old shop welder is 30+ years old and stuck on a high heat setting, I did really well with some 6013 rod.




But then I did a mock up and realized the drive line was binding due to the extreme angle. So chopped off and tried another position.
Welded the chopped plate to the inside of the frame rail, and spur gear is backwards. A skid plate will do it's work in the application.


Made a battery tray that mounts to the angle brackets provided with the chassis and the stock battery holder, battery goes in and out very easily.



Electronics box I've used for a while, it's from an XTM X Factor, I have my ESC and receiver in there and it's 100% water proof. Mounted to the servo mounts in the chassis and I let enough room for the LED lighting module for the future.


Mock up with the wheels, it looks better, but there's one thing that was really pissing me off since I got the chassis.

[69rd96]

The one thing that I read about with this chassis is everyone seems to notice how the top of the roof line is sloped.
I measured a 1/2" slope from the back to the front, and the front window frame is almost square, not at all like a modern Jeep window angle.

So chop, chop, chop. I also used my own Jeep as a reference for the window frame angle. Matched perfectly.


Upper cage trimming:



Thank God for zip ties!




30 minutes later.



Much better now.


Double checking for accuracy.





I will leave the painting of the chassis last, I'm thinking of adding a rear tire carrier and a light bar mount on top.

[ka1fornia]

This looks awesome so far! It looks quite a bit bigger than the wraith too.

[evan03]

Dude you sir are baddass. I wouldn't able to weld anything that small with 6013.

Love the pics

[69rd96]

A bit more progress, more welding and pondering.

Mounted the Axial lights, I don't have enough room for the smaller ones, so I just used the big ones, and I put reflectors in them from a ball cap LED light clip I bought for under $10 earlier this year.


Used the scrap tranny skid plate as a mount for the rear lights, I like the look of the round tail lights better:



Front ones work:


Then I needed a skid plate, I like steel and I wanted it to look like it took a beating.
So a shovel donated it's life for a better cause. Some redneck cuttin' with real power does the job:


Clamped up and tack welded in place. It even has realistic dents from all the metal pitting from rust over the years:



Shined up ready for primer and paint later on.

[matt889]

sick build and nice welding skills, can't wait to see this beast finished

[69rd96]

The skins are done, a local fabrication shop I deal with gave me a scrap to use.
2 hours with a jig saw and a dremel tool followed by a file.






I don't know about the paint scheme yet. The cage will be bright green.

[wmax99]

awsome job cant wait to see more pic and see im running ;) what motor /esc will you run ?

[wheelhead4x4]

Wow that's coming along nicely. You got some mad skills there bud.

[69rd96]

Originally Posted by wmax99

awsome job cant wait to see more pic and see im running ;) what motor /esc will you run ?

I am using the Tekin FXR and a 35 turn motor. Nice and small a d never gets hot. I average 90 minutes on a 2 cell 4200mah lipo. I've had the system since earlier this year, the brushless Novak I had prior was junk, glitchy and a drop of water would kill it instantly.
Today I will do some more welding on the cage. The front stinger has an issue.

[Harley]

Good work jumping right in and improving the chassis. I was not too keen to style of it originally. The windshield slop and flat roof are a nice change.

[69rd96]

The front stinger got some choppin' and some weldin', I hated the way it looked and it blocked the head lights to a certain extent.
I might decide to do the rear stinger as well. As for the lights, I have cut out the holes in the hood and the stock Axial lights clip inside the holes and after painting, they will be goo'ed in place, the bottom of the frame will likely get fog lights instead.
I am finding flaws with this chassis, although it is square and true, the bolts that were welded for the body panels and hood are completley out of whack as well as the front stinger is off by 3 mm, so measuring before welding was only a suggestion, and I had to rely solely on eye balling everything.

[69rd96]

Some more time behind the work bench, got the links and heim joints in, I accidentally odered the links too long, so I rigged up the drill press to drill down the shafts 1.5" in both holes to cut and re-tap them.
For you American viewers, that is a Canadian Dollar Coin, it's not real gold, but it's worth more than a real American Dollar in the good years, but you will get kicked out of a strip joint if you try to put them in the coin slots from the dancers.


Then I ran into a road block, the steering servo wasn't going to work on the front servo as it hits the upper control arms. So I swapped it out and moved it to the inside of the chassis and did a high steer and new tire rod, I'm not 100% happy with the main tie rod, I would like to run it above the diff cover later on.




Made up some front shock brackets to level off the chassis:


Compressed shock height:


Extended shock height:

[69rd96]

Not too much going on, just waiting for the Dinky servo mount, after 10 seconds of the first little trip across the work bench under it's own power, I hated the high steer instantly. Also waiting for new shocks from RC4WD.
But I did paint the cage after some more welding and prep work. 2 cans of Green.

[hagnyosaroyo]

can't wait for more pics
awesome...

[69rd96]

Some more progression.
The servo mount had to be chopped for more room for the upper link:


3mm allen key comes to the rescue as a linkage rod:



Chassis got a good splash of paint, I opted out of powder coating just because this cage will most likely see carnage:



The hood got a nice coat of candy apple metallic



The lights are gooed in place and 3 layers of Hurricane tape will protect the paint from the chassis:


Dinky RC's servo mount arrived:


And my heim joints didn't work as they aren't the bent style, and I wanted to re-use the lower links as uppers, so I made a simple mount:


RC4WD dual scale shocks arrived, very scale looks:




Ran into a problem on the rear end, the CVD joint hits the chassis frame, so I might make some drop down brackets for the rear shocks to raise the rear end a bit more and play around with the front, and order up a CNC'ed center diff axle later on.



These shocks look so damn good!

[evan03]

Awesome. The dinky mount looks good. Love the lime green

[69rd96]

More updates.

I fixed the rubbing issue with the rear CVD joint by adjusting the upper links.



Made some drop down brackets for the rear shocks:



Took it out for a spin to make sure everything worked, and Krawler Kitty gave his seal of approval:



I then made a radio box and a single body mount post for the hood:




And took it out to Page Quarry, a local RC Crawling hot spot, damn skeeters drove me nuts, and then a heim busted out of he link. I also need stiffer foams, these tires buckle under the weight.
I left lots of paint behind on the trails.

[Szczerba]

Nice build. Great work on reworking the chassis. Any side proflie shots?