My....Longest....build.....ever

[mikl]

The past few years I mostly raced. This year the track I usually go to basically shut down. Also work has been crazy this year, the only time I have had time to go race, it rained and the race was cancelled. Hence the Wraith. It looked really fun and I figured I can get my RC fix easily in the backyard or the local park down the street.
So back on April 3 I bought a Wraith Kit. Before then I read a lot on this forum and had a decent idea of what I wanted to do with it. Lots of great help on the forum. I had a 3s battery and a MMP ESC, so I was half way there, right?
So my set up to start was-
Wraith Kit
Tekin ROC412
Castle BEC
VP 10pc Ti kit

[mikl]

My plan was to build it and replace things as they broke. My wife had other plans. She is great and bought me a few things to move the project along faster.
She got me
ARB diff covers
VP 10pc Ti link kit.
Pro-Line Powerstroke shocks- I had a set of rears I stole from my Slash so I only needed another pair of rears.
The RipSaw Tires that come in the kit seem nice and I really didn’t want to ruin them by gluing them to the kit wheels. I decided to buy some cheap bead locks from Axial until the VP wheels I want come off back order. The bead locks needed the SLW hubs, so I picked up some VP 475’s.

[mikl]

The first big dilemma was what servo to use. I really wanted a waterproof servo. I was not sure of what servo to buy and looked at Xpert, Holmes Hobbies, HiTec , Futaba and some others. Everything was out of stock or not water proof. I ended up getting a Futaba S9157. Lots of torque, waterproof and has Futaba quality behind it. I really don’t like the Futaba website and looking at the servo chart the only indication of a waterproof servo is a small “wp” in the servo specs. But a couple of emails to Futaba helped and I think I got a good servo in the end. To finish off the steering duties a Robotronics servo horn is attached to the servo. I did’t know any better and got the long horn. I had a little panic when I read that the long horn won’t fit at all. Fortunately when all together it clears the diff cover, but only just.

[DTB1]

Off to a solid start!

[mikl]

Thanks, it has been fun.
I read a lot about the ROC412 motor and how it can break drivetrain parts. My original plan was to replace parts as they broke. But it took so long for me to build this truck that Fathers Day and other present worthy event came and went. So my wife got me Super Shafty Beefy Top Shaft, RRP Slash slipper and MiP driveshafts. Also picked up some Hot Racing steel gears. Should be bulletproof now.
I took this photo before I installed the upgraded parts.

[blckgnx]

Ha, ha, ha, I'm not laughing at you, just the irony of it!! I got an RTR, yes, ready to go, for Christmas 2014. Long story short, yep, tore it down before ever even running it just to add a "couple" of upgrades to insure no breakage. Ha, ha, ha, not to worry, how can something that still hasn't been run break??? It does have lots of upgrades by now though. Yeppur, LIFE does get in the way sometimes. Hang in there, someday we'll actually get to run our Wraiths!-----------------------------------------------hopefully.

[mikl]

It is funny! Best laid plans right? It is easy to create a wish list on RPP after a long day and you don't want to touch a wrench. Bam- all of a sudden you have a box of goodies in the mailbox.
I decided to to the stock driveshaft mod, put the female shaft on both ends and cut the male drive shaft half to go in the middle. I got to the point of installing them but not quite to gluing a metal dowel in the male half and then my wife gives me the MIP drive shafts. Now I can go install the MIP and take off the never used stock shafts.
It's all good, got my mind of work for a bit and allowed me to get more practice wrenching on the truck.
My battery is pretty big so it rubs the hood. I layered some drywall tape and shoo goo to prevent the paint from rubbing off. Used magnets and washers to secure the hood. I think it has a nice look when closed.

[mikl]

there seems to be several options for waterproofing the electronics. CorrosionX and Conformal among others. I settled on CorrosionX.I dipped the MMP and the motor sensor board. I used liquid electrical tape to seal the ends of the BEC. Starting the build I wanted to achieve fully submersible (for a quick creek crossing or the like). But the deeper into the project I got, I decided that I am going to try to avoid water. I'm glad that I have a water proof servo and that the ESC but I consider it more splash proof now.

[mikl]

Spoiler alert, I am done with the build and I think it turned out great. Went out for a couple of hours (!) this morning on the local greenways and park. Several people out in the park and were very curious about it. It was fun talking with people about the truck.
Coming from a racing background it's awesome that one 5000mah battery lasts 2 hours. 20 mins of which were full speed blasts up and down the greenway.
Nothing broke on the truck and it performed great. Towards the end some fishing line got caught up in the axles but it didn't hinder anything.



Found 4 foot black snake.

[mikl]

I thought this was a good idea, wire tie the spring perch to the spring. No more lost spring perches.

What kind of shock set up to you guys use? Right now I'm on the softest springs I can find (Losi SCTE springs, just fit the PowerStroks but barely) and 22.5wt oil all around.

[mikl]

Thanks, happy to help if you have any questions. I'm no expert but I've read a lot on this forum and may be able to offer some insight.

[tacocat]

As soon as I saw the snake picture I said I bet that guys in NC. I scrolled over to your location and sure enough haha

[big daddy smokes]

What kind of shock set up to you guys use? Right now I'm on the softest springs I can find (Losi SCTE springs, just fit the PowerStroks but barely) and 22.5wt oil all around.[/QUOTE]

im running the powerstrokes (slash rear) with 20 wt oil and the soft dual spring set from proline

[Sevastra]

Originally Posted by mikl

What kind of shock set up to you guys use? Right now I'm on the softest springs I can find (Losi SCTE springs, just fit the PowerStroks but barely) and 22.5wt oil all around.

Spring rate and etc really depend on your setup (Rig weight, etc) and driving style.. Going too soft can lead to excessive torque twist / too much flex and get you stuck more often than it helps. Too firm and you'll roll on easy obstacles, lose traction, etc..

From the looks of it you're building a trail rig. Try and limit tire flex to no more than one tire high. It'll make it much more capable. You may wish to look into a sway bar kit for the rear.

Shoot for a middle ground. A little stiffness in the suspension will help keep it from bottoming out off jumps and etc, while the remaining softness will help it keep traction over rocks / branches, etc.

[mikl]

Thanks for the tips. I appreciate it. I do need to be more specific in my questions and info I give out. I will weigh it when I get a chance.
You are correct, I would consider it more of a trail rig with light crawling.
I wonder if the springs I am using are good, maybe just fine tuning the damping. At the moment the shock pistons are the stock 2 hole pistons. I wonder if 3 hole pistons would work better, allowing a little better shock shaft speed on slow maneuvers but more firm damping on on high speed runs.

[mikl]

Happy Birthday to me! Had a great b-day. My wife and mother in law are great! I'm busy installing these parts now.

[SCREAMER]

Oh man that's a good feeling. I love getting a box full of new parts and I love VP stuff. Enjoy!

[mikl]

It was fun installing all the parts. And it looks great. One thing I am not impressed with are the small screws that attach the axle truss's and rear lockouts/chubs. Super easy to strip the plastic axle housing with screws. There just isn't enough plastic to screw into. I think I will want to get some BeefTubes just so to have some metal in there and get some machine screws.
The VP axle lock outs and chubs are really nice. They fit the end of the AR60 really well, almost a press fit. Their brass bushings for the steering knuckles provide slop free movement.
The Axial HD gears are nice and smooth and bolt up easy to to the LockedUp lockers.
Although you can't see it when installed, the VP red AX10 transmission case looks very cool. It is fully bombproofed HR steel gears, SS motor plate, 6mm outputs and Beefy top shaft with RRP spur.
Unfortunately the servo has not proved to be bombproof. It has great specs and from a quality company but the gears striped with only 2.5 hours of use.
I emailed them to see about a warranty.

[IntenseCrawling]

I love the build so far great look, are you running 2s or 3s?

[mikl]

Thanks, it has been a fun build and it fun to drive. It looks even better with scratches.
I am running 3s. Using a 14t pinion and the Slash 56t Gen 3 slipper. It runs really well (at least as far as I know). Really smooth and controllable at crawling speeds but will get out of it's own way when you peg the throttle. I need to play with the ESC settings. The brake at neutral is too strong even set at 50%. It wants to nose wheelie when I let off the throttle.