gottorque's 4488 Jeep TJ

[gottorque]

The 1.9 Wraith has been around for quite a while. They combine great scale looks with performance to back it up. In fact, most everyone who does the 1.9 conversion never goes back to the larger 2.2s and AR60s. The one downside to them lies with SORCCA rules and those who specifically compete in those events...with the 1.9 Wraith. Class 2 rules state that you must have a rail type chassis and despite the smaller tires and axles, they are automatically put into Class 3 with their much larger brethren....Till now

Jens Cole of JC Auto Designs posted up a concept rendering of a scale rail chassis last March (Feeler/Preview - JCAD Scale Tech Wraith Chassis Rails), but I know the idea has been tossed around over the years.

Months later, Jens gave me the opportunity to be one of four to test out the new prototype rails and of course, I jumped on it. Anyway, I finally picked them up from the Post Office today.



First impressions...
*The Aluminum these are cut from is quite thick, which should add a significant amount of rigidity to the entire Wraith cage.
*Durability. I just recently installed my 3rd set of stock rails but basher/rock racers could really benefit from them as well.
*Weight. While not heavy by any means, they will add just a bit more weight down low where its needed most.
*Tune-ability. There are 3 holes in each of the upper link mounts. Could come in handy.
*The triangle pattern on the lower subframe is a nice touch.

I am definitely looking forward to getting these installed and tested over the coming days.

[lostonthetrails]

Thanks for the write up. I'm interested to see how this product worked.

[lostonthetrails]

How do the front shock towers and cross brace mount to the rails? I don't see any horizontal mounts just the vertical ones on the face of the rail Itself.

[fr8cture]

Surprised you didn't show them off to be before this thread. should be sweet on the raptor.

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk

[gottorque]

Originally Posted by lostonthetrails

How do the front shock towers and cross brace mount to the rails? I don't see any horizontal mounts just the vertical ones on the face of the rail Itself.

There are ABS printed mounts that bolt up to the chassis and provide mount points for the shock towers and front bumper mounts. When I begin the install, I will be sure to let everyone know what goes where

Originally Posted by fr8cture

Surprised you didn't show them off to be before this thread. should be sweet on the raptor.

Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk

haha nope. i didnt even have the package 5 minutes before I took the picture and started this thread. Once i get going with install, I can link this thread to the various FB pages.

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by gottorque

The 1.9 Wraith has been around for quite a while. They combine great scale looks with performance to back it up. In fact, most everyone who does the 1.9 conversion never goes back to the larger 2.2s and AR60s. The one downside to them lies with SORCCA rules and those who specifically compete in those events...with the 1.9 Wraith. Class 2 rules state that you must have a rail type chassis and despite the smaller tires and axles, they are automatically put into Class 3 with their much larger brethren....Till now

Jens Cole of JC Auto Designs posted up a concept rendering of a scale rail chassis last March (Feeler/Preview - JCAD Scale Tech Wraith Chassis Rails), but I know the idea has been tossed around over the years.

Months later, Jens gave me the opportunity to be one of four to test out the new prototype rails and of course, I jumped on it. Anyway, I finally picked them up from the Post Office today.

First impressions...
*The Aluminum these are cut from is quite thick, which should add a significant amount of rigidity to the entire Wraith cage.
*Durability. I just recently installed my 3rd set of stock rails but basher/rock racers could really benefit from them as well.
*Weight. While not heavy by any means, they will add just a bit more weight down low where its needed most.
*Tune-ability. There are 3 holes in each of the upper link mounts. Could come in handy.
*The triangle pattern on the lower subframe is a nice touch.

I am definitely looking forward to getting these installed and tested over the coming days.

I've always liked your 1.9 Wraith and these JCAD frame rails look great too! Nice to have beefier and good looking frame rail options that open up class 2 to 1.9 Wraiths! Now get wrenching and post more pics!

[gottorque]

Originally Posted by Natedog

I've always liked your 1.9 Wraith and these JCAD frame rails look great too! Nice to have beefier and good looking frame rail options that open up class 2 to 1.9 Wraiths! Now get wrenching and post more pics!

Thanks Natedog. If I wasn't so busy during the week, they would have been installed yesterday

Actually i could probably slap them in as quick as the stock rails, but i will be doing an in depth write up and pictures, so its gonna take some time.

[Richterat83]

Get a chance to get yours started? You running CMS or axle mounted?

My axle mounted servo hits the frame rails. MonkeyRacer is looking into it already.

[gottorque]

Originally Posted by Richterat83

Get a chance to get yours started? You running CMS or axle mounted?

My axle mounted servo hits the frame rails. MonkeyRacer is looking into it already.

I will start this evening. I saw your thread and the servo will be an issue since I run axle mounted. Once I get it built up I'll think it over.

[gottorque]

Finally...wrench time. Lets get this party started

I got the ABS mount pieces out and took a bit of time to get them all oriented correctly with help from Monkeyracers pic.

Heres an easy way to identify which way the rails go...

Three holes is the front


Four holes is the back.

I started with the back first.

The back pieces have drop downs for a sway-bar and are cleverly notched on one side so they join with the metal frame rail. I got one side bolted on and noticed a significant gap and the plastic was being forced up from the bend in the frame.


To remedy the issue, I busted out the Dremel with a sanding drum and little by little, relaxed the angle on the plastic piece, as well as shortening it up.

After some massaging...
.

And the final fit. Its not 100%, but its close. Once I get the chassis installed, I will check this area for any issues. I had to Dremel both sides.


One cool feature I noticed on the rear, was the holes to bolt up SCX shock hoops. While I don't plan to use them, it is nice to have.



On to the front mounts...
All three bolt holes matched up with no issue, however, you'll notice the rail on the left fits much nicer at the inner bend than the one on the right. That said...I think the rail on the right may have been slightly bowed during shipping, thus causing that small gap. Again, upon install, I will check frame alignment.



One modification I would make is on the front section of rail along with the plastic piece. These plastic pieces mount the bumper which, as designed, takes a significant amount of abuse. The issue is nothing is bracing that piece to the metal frame rail from that 1st bolt forward to the tip. A large offset hit might yield some damage to these pieces. This coming Saturday, I'll take the truck out and see if I can confirm this.



(Note that the black pieces I have are ABS, and not the material that will ultimately be used. The final material will have a definite strength advantage)

And all ready for installation in the truck

[monkeyracer]

The prototype rails weren't bent as precisely as I would have liked, causing some of the issues noted above. The production rails will be bent more precisely, allowing the pieces to fit as designed.
The Nylon pieces are much stronger, and will be sent out to the testers very soon. There is also a good chance the rails will be changed for production to clear axle mounted servos.

[gottorque]

Thanks for the update. I was made aware of the servo clearance issue on Tylers rig. Ill have the chassis installed this afternoon so I can see how it is on my rig.

[STANG KILLA SS]

been looking forward to these for months

[gottorque]

Originally Posted by STANG KILLA SS

been looking forward to these for months

Oh yea. Long awaited, thats for sure

Teaser pic...

[gottorque]

Fully installed and I gotta say...it really does change the look











I was made aware of this issue by Richterat83 who is also testing these rails; where an axle mounted servo gets stuck on the frame rails and limits uptravel.



I know Monkeyracer is already looking into this, but heres my solution...

CMS

Yup, the chassis is absolutely fine, however when your installing this scale oriented frame, it would be only natural to go with a more scale cms as well. Plus you SORCCA boys would get those few extra scale points.
Thoughts?

[Richterat83]

I completely agree. I love the rails but I think a cms is the route to go personally. And since monkeyracer already has a cms setup for the axle, an added Panhard mounts to the frame rails and a servo mount is what I'd do. We shall see what Jens comes up with

[gottorque]

Well it's been a minute since the last update. I plan to run the next G6 with this truck, so either I come up with a CMS solution or put the stock rails back on. I didnt not want to take off such a fine piece of scale frame so naturally, I went with the CMS route.

While I had done custom CMS before it still took a good bit of trial and error to get everything functioning properly. Starting at the axle, I picked up the Vanquish 3 Link/panhard axle bracket. It ties into the top left housing bolt and to one of the holes on the top of the housing. Of course I went ahead and drilled/tapped my Beef Toob for that hole, so its safe to say that mount is not going anywhere.


For my upper panhard mount, I used a bracket I made a few years ago out of 1/4" square tube that I cut out and drilled. In the future I'd like to have a mount that bolts to two places rather than just one, but this seems to work fine. The CMS mount uses an STRC servo plate for added rigidity and that bolts to some sheet metal which bolts to several points on the frame. It's far from perfect, but I'm limited by the tools I have.


After this picture, I moved the entire servo plate and servo back about 3/8ths of an inch to get the drag link parallel with the panhard and to allow for clearance with my hood.

Links all mocked up


I have good clearance and even at full stuff/lock, the drag link does not hit the frame. Since I built the truck originally, I had put uptravel bumpstops on the shocks to keep the tires from stuffing too far into the hood and they ended up keeping everything clear on compression.



After a quick test run, I sleeved the links and buttoned everything up. A little over a month after installing the rails, I finally took it out for a good solid run with the local crew. Other than a few little needed tweeks, it's a solid setup. No bump steer or loss of travel and overall I'm pretty happy with it

[gottorque]

Update. Since my last post it seems like its been torn apart more than it's actually been ran, but hey, wrenching is half the fun.

Mod number 1...Trailing arms.
My buddy gave me a plastic set of Twin Hammers trailing arms, and not wanting them to go to waste, I pulled the rear links off the truck and on went the trailing arms. I wanted to keep it scale, so mounting them in the stock lower positions wasn't gonna work. So, i went ahead and bolted them to the 4th hole back on each side of the skid...bingo. Used some extra long M3 bolts to mount the axle end outside of the first tab. For uppers, I'm using stock Twammers uppers. Actually got a very neutral pinion angle and was quite pleased about that.

For shocks, Im using stock SCX ones I had laying around. Perfect length and sits nice and level with my 100mm front shocks




After only 2 runs, I found out that the frame side mount point was not only a hang up point, but I bent both of the m3 bolts from impacts. To fix it, i found some aluminum U channel and essentially made a slider out of it. It runs the full length of the lower frame and also gives me a spot to mount that trailing arm to the frame in double sheer. Very important. Should hold up much better.




Next item it got was an RC4WD 2 speed trans. Got it installed but I have to pick up a better servo. Yes i scored a used one, but its in real great shape.


Finally, my latest mod, a pair of custom scale bumpstops. I made these up today. Very basic and they aren't functional, however I'm looking into ways to get them to function like the real deal nitrogen bumpstops that are common on almost every desert and Ultra 4 these days. Yes, i used the feet from the stock SCX sliders as mounts...worked like a charm

[fr8cture]

Looks great.

[Richterat83]

really digging the trailing arm setup! I've let my rigs sit far too long and got the itch to start working on em, This is the perfect motivation!