Sevastra's Monster G.O.A.T.

[thirdeye]

#35 chain Masterlinks.

[Sevastra]

I got the link from an old chain we had sitting on a shelf for a few years at the shop. Nobody could remember what it came off of, however it does have the rollers built in.

Szczerba had a pretty awesome idea when he built his 4x4 Wrecker, one I plan to copy by adding a boon and servo winch to the rear of the chassis.



Doubt mine'll look as good, but it'll do the job.

[Sevastra]

So I've been contemplating how to do this, and I've decided a more agressive chassis mod is in order. Never liked how far back the 'cab' of the Wraith came back anyway.





Will be doing cleanup and adding upright supports tomorrow. Should be a more scale truck appearance when I'm done.

I've went ahead and splurged a bit more on some Blue Monkey trailing arms, and a Dlux Yeti sway bar for the rear. (Why the Yeti bar? I like the looks of the arms better over the carbon fiber ones. )

Now I'm playing the waiting game.. All these tracking numbers. Kinda irks me that the most expensive of the packages has been sitting in San Francisco for the last few days when the expected delivery date was yesterday. It's not RPP's fault, but USPS.. And my own as well. I specified I wanted it sent out USPS priority because of where I live. Local Fedex and UPS drivers aren't as reliable here as USPS.. usually anyway..

Edit: Almost forgot! I've got a VP goodie coming as well. Last minute order last night, will likely be here Monday.

Hrm.. contemplating a name change. This rig isn't exactally a Wraith anymore either.. Sevastra's cobbled together mess?

[Sevastra]

So.. had a minor problem. Inner adapter tip of the welder was broken in two. Saturday was a bummer because of it, but I was able to use a friend's welder today and got some more butchery done.








Gotta cut off that center support bar and re-attach it straight. Wasn't paying attention when I tacked it in place, was more concerned with not getting burned in the process. I've got a little bit of clean up to do, but it's not bad for a guy who never welds. Will look better once I get it painted (reminds me, need to find a powder coater..hrm.. also need to figure out if I'm going to change it some more before hand or not.)

I did get a package over the weekend. The thrust washers I ordered from SuperShafty came in on Saturday. Now to wait on USPS for the rest. heh

[Sevastra]

The D44's and shocks are in! Kinda hard to concentrate on work today knowing what's waiting for me when I get home.

[Sevastra]

RC4WD Should really just go ahead and sponsor me already. I'd settle for some RC4WD stickers tho!

Now to figure out where to start...

[Sevastra]

Didn't get very far tonight into the parts (did you really expect me to?) ...Don't answer that.

Dlux goodness:


I really like the setup on this. Very light weight, much longer than my former setup, and although it's larger than the HotRacing setup I had I feel it's more tunable to my needs. I opted for the smallest torsion rod Dlux offers to start with. Will see if I need something stronger once I get a few test runs in.

Comparison: Hot Racing Wraith swaybars (which stripped out easily) vs Dlux Yeti sway bars.



I believe the Wraith will be able to accept the Yeti swaybar length with ease once it's re-assembled. We'll find out later on.

Next up I opened one of the G-Made XD Piggyback bags:


I was a little disappointed to see plastic parts here. For some reason I had thought they were all aluminum. Assembly took a little time, however so far I'm quite pleased with them. They come with different ported valves and really do give a variety of options as far as tuning the suspension.

I was also pleased to see the Proline Powerstroke Dual Stage shocks were the same diameter as the factory Gmade springs.



The Proline springs are much nicer in my opinion. For instance, look at the way the spring ends are cut:



The overall fit and finish looks good as well:



I've only assembled two of them tonight. Will tackle the other pair later on when I have more time.

And of course I atleast had to start assembling the D44s.. Look, Gripfab awesomeness!



Will have to pay close attention to how I assemble the D44's. They aren't as forgiving as the factory wraith axles.. If I make a mistake it's a tad bit more complicated to flip the differential compared to the ar60s.

Can you guess which spot this is going?

[Sevastra]

Plugged away at it a bit more tonight.

D44 Axle Assemblage!



These are quite hefty in weight compared to the stock Axial housings. Should get my center of gravity a bit lower now that I've added more up top with the wrecker arm.

I wasn't completely thrilled with some of the axle tube fitmets. The front short tube has a bit of slop when slid into place, but that did disappear once I installed and tightened the hold screws. The front long tube had a nice snug fitment all around. Swapping them side to side didn't change anything. The rear axle tubes were decent on both sides, even after swapping them side to side to double check.

However I was fairly pleased to see RC4WD gave us options when it came to installing the c-hubs. 3 clockable positions (standard option by now) and the choice to use the standard M3 screws, or grub screws to hold them in place. The grub screw option is simply for a more scale appearance. They would prevent the c-hub from sliding off if set to the proper depth (top flush with c-hub.) However I fail to see how they'd prevent slop from occuring in the future, so I went with the screws. Sadly the rear bearing caps did not come with this option, only the grub screws for them.

I did check the drive shaft rotation to ensure these go together the right way the first time.

One saddening thing I came across is the rear bearing caps themselves. From the factory Axial put 5x11x4mm bearings to support the axle shafts at the ends of the housings. RC4WD saw fit to use 5x10x4mm bearings in the rear bearing caps in order to keep a more scale appearance. Wishing I'd realized that when I placed my order. I'm not saying it wasn't noted, I simply didn't read over the details.



I do believe the G-Made Piggybacks will blend into the overall color scheme rather well once the D44's are installed tho.

[Sevastra]

I got some more goodies in the mail today!

My Vanquish 5 inch lightbar arrived! Sadly the pre-made mounts I welded to the chassis awhile back are a bit too narrow, but I've a plan to fix this and still keep it scale.


Received the Blue Monkey lower trailing arms I ordered. 95mm length.


E-bay special LED wrecker lights I got for a bargain last week.


They look pretty good when mocked up, and cycle between several pre-programed flash patterns.


Installed my Super Shafty AR60 Thrust Bearings. The pinion still has a hair of play forward and back, but not nearly enough to cause any issues. Should work well.


Got the chassis cleaned up a bit. I've decided to attach a bed to the rear, and a rear cab back under the flat panels. Will start fabbing up the panels tonight.


I've also decided how I want to use the Dlux Yeti sway bars. Going this route will allow me plenty of clearance for the shocks while remaining easily accesable once everything is trimmed (rod length.)

[djjiz]

Parts are coming together nicely.

Do the axles share any internals with axial?

[Sevastra]

Originally Posted by djjiz

Parts are coming together nicely.

Do the axles share any internals with axial?

Gearsets and lockers..

The RC4WD D44 Rear axle shafts are much beefier than the stock axial shafts. They're also the same length side to side (centered pumpkin) vs the offset axial pumpkin.



According to RC4WD the D44 front shafts are unique to the D44 axle housings, and no others will interswap with them. However.. I've got a set of RC4WD Heavy Duty VVD axle shafts for the standard AR60 Axial housings to compare this with. (Excuse the pics, I've already loctite'd the screws into place and didn't want to take it back apart for direct comparison.) From what I can tell with a minor mod or two you can use your own front shafts.






----------------------------------------

Things I've learned in the last hour:

1.) The alen wrench I need to assemble the screws on my Vanquish lightbar is at the shop, not at the house.

2.) The Blue Monkey trailing arms take a larger diameter threaded rod, hence larger rod ends.
2 b.) The larger rod ends I have are straight, not angled like what I need.

3.) I need to flip my lower arm mounts. A bit of a pinion angle issue while test fitting:

[nfcrockett]

Very cool build.

[Sevastra]

Thanks! Now if I could just get reality to leave me alone for a bit so I can get some real work done on it.

So much left to do.. At this point I'm just happy if I can get something minor done each day. Makes me want to take a week's vacation and focus on it.

With that being said, how do guys like Harley get anything else done with such awesome distractions?

[Revoasian]

This is freaking cool. Makes me want to build one but I don't have the talent nor skills for this. Awesome work man! Cant wait to see the finished product.

[Sevastra]

Originally Posted by Revoasian

This is freaking cool. Makes me want to build one but I don't have the talent nor skills for this. Awesome work man! Cant wait to see the finished product.

Talent? Pfft.. I don't have no talent. In fact I often forget to be patient. If I didn't end up rushing myself everything would be much cleaner looking and I wouldn't have to spend so much time cleaning up my sloppy welds & panel alignment.

All that's really required is that you start. Doesn't matter how bad it looks, you'll improve with time & experience. After all, how do you think guys like Werty, Mattzilla, and Harley got started?

[B-radNC]

Looking good man!

[Sevastra]

Flipping the lower mounts fixed my rear pinion angle problem.


All the way up:


And hanging much lower than the suspension will ever allow when completely assembled. Good thing too, look at that pinion angle at the trans:


I wasn't happy with the wheelbase. The new front axle stuck out way too far, even after flipping the mounts.


So I shortened the front links, got everything lined up where I wanted it. Wheelbase measures at 13 1/4 inches now.


Problem.. Now my front drive shaft is too long, and I can't shorten it any more.

[Sevastra]

And this is why you keep old parts..



A set of Axial plastic drive shafts I can cut down and use till I order some shorter MIP's for the front.

[Sevastra]

I didn't think about shock length when I ordered my 103mm piggybacks. Was running the 110mm 3Racing shocks, and knew I wanted a lower ride height, figured the 103mm would be perfect.

I also knew I'd be ordering the trailing arms and shortening the front links when I ordered. Never thought about the shock length..

Which brings me to an Oops I discovered last night. The 103mm shocks give me an un-desirable ride height. Did some measuring and used google to convert to mm, and I've decided I need the 93mm piggybacks. Haven't decided if I want to try trading for them yet through the wanted section, or just buy another set. I am a little bummed I won't be able to use the dual rate springs tho without ordering a combo of other spring lengths.

[Sevastra]

Got to playing around with ideas for relocating the shock mounts, and ended up with my desired ride height to make sure I get this right.



Note the deliberate placement of the coke can for size reference, and the lack of rear wheel nuts.

I'm likely going to keep the 103mm Piggybacks and relocate my shock mounts instead. Thankfully I'm still in the cut and weld phase, and haven't decided on paint yet.



Little cutting, flipping, and welding willl put the shock mounts (or hoops) up through the hood, giving it a more aggressive look.

Will likely relocate the rear upper mounts onto the wrecker arm just before the cross support bar. Plenty strong enough here to handle the abuse, will just have to clearance one of the lower bars so they don't rub the springs.



(I knew I'd find a use for that model paint thinner!)

This quickly became my favorite picture of the night. Looks mean!



I did grease the differentials before installing the covers and the D44 steering links. Pretty happy with them except for this.. Little close to the wheel.



Believe it or not there actually is enough clearance to keep them from contacting the wheel.