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

[Jrgunn5150]

I've doubled checked and didn't see it mentioned, but is that the RC4wd radio?

[Sevastra]

Yes, it's the 3 channel. Decent radio, easy to setup but I'm not quite happy with the range. If I was just using it as a crawler it would be fine, but what's the point of having high gear if I don't try and race others from time to time?

[Jrgunn5150]

I need a simple radio lol. Idk wth expo and as and all that is, I've only been a basher

[Sevastra]

I did get some chassis work done today at lunch and after work. It's far from finished, requires cleanup and etc. Still haven't decided if I'm going to weld panels on the rear to form a steel bed or not.



New front skid still needs to be finished. Should look accurate and fitting when I'm done (I hope.)



The front hoops have bent rod for strength, and a large washer welded to the center of them. The shiny parts in the pictures aren't holes, just light reflecting off bare metal.



Cut off the old light brackets and welded on some longer ones. These will get trimmed to length and the sharp corners towards the cab ground off.



Had to add a straight cross bar for the wrecker arm. Looks much better now to me. Left the shock mounts for adjustability, just moved back and up higher now.

Give me a day or two, and I'll have this looking good. Perhaps even ready to paint.. Going to give myself a deadline of Wednesday night to decide if I want to panel in the bed with steel or not.

[Revoasian]

Man this is gonna be sick. If you have the extra money and time I would send it out and have it powder coated, much more durable and shouldn't be that expensive if you stick with a single stage coat. Cant wait to see some color on that chassis.

[thirdeye]

Hadn't looked at this thread in a while... man it looks awesome! Nice use go that Chain link. This thing is gonna be rad.

[Sevastra]

Hrm.. Need to figure out a better way to smooth everything out. Looks better than what it did tho.



Got it slotted so the line and fairlead will mount up cleanly.





Whoops.. gotta straighten out my mounting holes for the VP lightbar.

I did get some more goodies from RC4WD and RPP Hobby.



Already had the front winch gearbox in the pics above. Going to use this servo and convert it into a winch for the rear. Can't complain about it's size for how cheap it was. Should work well.



The much needed rear bearings, and other goods. (Finally some RC4WD stickers! Counts even if you have to buy them, right?)

[dirty_coyle]

if you want a rear deck but don't want a solid panel, do what I did on mine
I cut the top off an old house stereo amp, cooling fins are perfect and it's lightweight

[Sevastra]

I like that idea. Gives plenty of space and places to tie other items down to as well.

[Sevastra]

Now where'd I leave off? Got a bit done since I last posted.

Installed the front winch gearbox, just haven't wired it yet.

Tore the large servo down and I've got it ready for a controller. Pin & circuit board removed.




I've built the rear shocks and got everything mocked up. still playing with my spring setup.. rears seem too soft, and the front's too firm. Don't have all the electronics and such in it yet tho, so the weight of the batteries and such isn't there for fine tuning. Gotta get those ordered soon.



I need to re-configure out my layout in the rear. since I moved the upper shock mount I could no longer use it as my sway bar mount location. still wanting to put a scale bed on (obtained a sheet of 18 gage steel for this.)



I'm looking at a couple different options to fix this. Currently the tip of the arm hits the spring. Could go with a shorter arm, but I'm determined to use these. second option is to move my sway bar mount back farther, easily done with a grinder & welder.

Put some items up in the for sale section I no longer need / have plans to replace with better. I may be blowing a bunch of money on this, but believe it or not there is a budget.

I did decide to run a separate battery for the lights. Might have it run both winches as well, undecided on that part. Going to use a small 3s battery for this, just unsure of the mili amp hours to grab. suggestions?

Few items on my to get list:
Airtronics Aquila 6-ch Crawler/4WD Radio & Receiver
Screw Loose 650 Hardware Kits
MIP Front shaft
An exterior body. Bouncing back and forth beteen a Proline 2015 Chevy body, and the RC4WD Mojave body..

[ribaja]

very cool build I cant wait to see to finished product

[Sevastra]

Got my Airtronics radio in the mail yesterday. Will post a picture later. This morning I ordered a couple 3000mah 3s Lipos and a RC4WD Mojave bodyset w/ inner fenders. I'm sure I'll have to do some more modifying to the front of the chassis to make it fit right (Doh! No for-thought into a body on the chassis will do that.) Wasn't happy with the home made panels.. Will attempt to 'fit' the bed to the rear. Probably end up sanding "Toyota" off the tailgate and putting something else on it.

As for my inspiration for using the Mojave bodyset? At 8:22 there's a good shot of the front end on a Hilux bodied wrecker in this video I thought was pretty awesome. Planning on weathering mine and making it look pretty rough.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTRvoPym_HM

[Revoasian]

Just saw the video to what you wanted to do, does look pretty cool. Either way no matter what you do, you're gonna have a pretty sick looking recovery rig. Cant wait to see the end result.

[Sevastra]

Pictures say so much more than words




And if you can't tell what the clear package on the left is, let me help you.





Hrm.. needs some trimming.




I'm actually kinda impressed how well this chinese made cage fits the body so far. It's the mods I added preventing it from going right on.

[Sevastra]

So I did a cheap overhaul of my picture / workbench. Now to get better lighting.

Started with a trip to town this morning for some posterboard, and paint. Ended up undecisive on rattlecan paint color for the chassis, so instead I got a couple paint markers for detail work. Needed some model glue as well. Krazy glue is about as close as I can get without a trip to Lubbock (70 miles one way.)



This quickly turned into a sticker & parts wall..




The promised radio pic:


More to come later tonight. I really did make progress today, but the family is watching the new Hobbit movie. Time to go join them!

[Sevastra]

The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies was pretty good.

On to the progress!



Yes, alot of body hackery, trimming, paint, and more went on today.



Core support, radiator, and even the windshield among other details installed.

Oh, and I also found a place for the Exo rear lightbar.



So much more to do still.. inner fenders, patch up the hood where I had to clearance it, run the lighting & wiring, and of course this:



No point it letting the bed go to waste. Just got to make it fit the chassis now. And lets not forget an interior! Actually thinking a bench seat and raised floor will work well for this. Going to set my batteries so they ride low on the chassis on either side of the skid. Probably tuck my electronics under the hood now.

The rest of the dash is already installed in the truck, and comes out with the cab.

[Sevastra]

Couldn't sleep. But I did figure out how to hide the gaping holes from the shocks / towers!



Going to copy the old Roadrunner hoods

[Sevastra]

Left my heat gun at the shop on Friday, and didn't feel like making a 60 mile round trip to go get it for rc body work. So.. I got some other things done today.

Relocated the rear sway bar once again. The arms are long enough that the tension bar still allows it to flex where needed, while keeping torque twist to a minimum. Fully usable now without the end rubbing on the shock springs.

Also, titanium gets REALLY hot when you're using a dremel cut off wheel to remove a corner that was catching..



Minor detail shots showing where I clearanced the radiator for a nice tight fit. Was determined to get it in there while keeping the chassis mounted servo, and using the lexan core support. Really close fit, but it works!




You might not be able to tell, but the core support and the radiator are actually mounted to the chassis. The front clip sort of floats over it in the front, and is going to be mounted to the frame at the cab.

Dash hackery! Need to get some styrene and extend that out a bit. Was worried about cutting it too close to the detail area and completely ruining it. Should be fairly straight forward to fit it properly now.



Best shot I could take at the moment to show how much room the cab actually has. I'm excited! I think I can get a full bench seat interior in there and still have room to mount my batteries saddle style on either side of the skid.



Had to change up my lightbar mount (again.) The windshield kept it from fitting close to the cage, but some chain links provided adjustable spacing.

Also, I couldn't wait for my new Lipo's to come in (Why does Amazon have to be so slow?) so I plugged in a 7.2v nimh and did a test run today. Was really happy overall, but it's a very noticable difference running the nimh over the 3s lipo's I'm use to. Would barely skim up the loose hill dirt in second gear and cogged in reverse unless in 1st gear. Will have to play with the settings via castle link once the lipo's come in.

I also collected some scale body damage while I was out. Did you know the black RC4WD Mojave bodyset is painted, and is yellow underneath? Good thing I bought a black paint pen.

[Sevastra]

Ordered up a few things over the weekend to help with maintenance and etc..

Bought one of the Integy Lipo Voltage Checker/Warning Buzzers. Cheap insurance to protect the batteries.. My last lipo sort of died because I ran it too low, charger won't bring function on it because of it.

Went ahead and ordered a Castle Creations CC Blower Fan w/ heatsink as well. Just more cheap insurance against overheating, especially since I'm in West Texas now.

On the cosmetic side I ordered up one of Speedweigand Custom's oil pans. I can't remember any specific builds I've seen them on here, but every time I see one I grin. Gotta love the small touches!

[Sevastra]

Picked up a spare motor today pretty cheap. (Can't beat free, right?)































Ya'll think torque twist will be an issue?