RC Command Spartan Buggy build

[dondraper25]

Hello, my name is Nick. I have been a fan of RC Crawling for quite some time. I have been stalking these forums for years, and always wanted to post my own build. But my family and the Army has kept me busy.
I bought a Wraith to get in to the hobby for my son, but it became more my thing, so recently I broke it out of storage and began working on. My son is actually enjoying the updates i send to him (he lives in NH).
I took lots of pictures for y'all too. I hope you enjoy, and please hit me up with any feed back.
I'll leave you with a couple of shots of progression, and update regularly.

[CR4NK]

Nice! Good to see you're gettin' back into it Nick! Thank you for your service to our country!

[dondraper25]

Originally Posted by CR4NK

Nice! Good to see you're gettin' back into it Nick! Thank you for your service to our country!

CR4NK, it is a pleasure to serve my country. I am actually facing med board or release for medical, due to 7 deployments and nearly a decade of jumping out of airplanes. I plan to appeal and fight to continue to serve. I have written Congress, and will not stop until I am cleared to stay. I get great satisfaction knowing that I am doing my part to help keep my kids and others safe.

Before the Army I was in the automotive industry for 10 years. I have always been a gear head at heart. However on a military salary, I'm not able to afford the 1:1 size rigs, so I take great pride in wrenching on what I can afford. I really hope you guys enjoy this build, and then the rest that will come out of the RC Command shop.

[Brake Weight]

I keep my projects on a budget as best I can. I've got two Wraiths going if you wanna check them out for ideas.

Nothing but respect for y'all. Through my career in the oilfield I've had the pleasure of hearing first hand stories from the Korean War all the way through to Afghanistan. As well as little skirmishes all over: Panama, Somalia, N. Africa, E. Africa, and parts unknown. A classmate from HS won medals in Baghdad recusing people from the US Embassy. One of my crane operators was 3 tour "tunnel rat". Door gunners, gunnies, reactor guy on a sub, an E7 and an E8 (brothers, too), handful of grunts, two tunnel rats, and there's more I'm forgetting.

[dondraper25]

Originally Posted by Brake Weight

I keep my projects on a budget as best I can. I've got two Wraiths going if you wanna check them out for ideas.

Nothing but respect for y'all. Through my career in the oilfield I've had the pleasure of hearing first hand stories from the Korean War all the way through to Afghanistan. As well as little skirmishes all over: Panama, Somalia, N. Africa, E. Africa, and parts unknown. A classmate from HS won medals in Baghdad recusing people from the US Embassy. One of my crane operators was 3 tour "tunnel rat". Door gunners, gunnies, reactor guy on a sub, an E7 and an E8 (brothers, too), handful of grunts, two tunnel rats, and there's more I'm forgetting.

Yes for sure, I would love to check out your rigs.

Man what an honor it would be to hear all of those stories. Serving has made me very humble, and I would really enjoy listening to all of the stories that you get to hear, over and over and over. I am truly envious of you.

Where can I check out your rigs?

[Brake Weight]

They're here. #1 and #2.

The E7 had the most and best stories because he was a retired lifer. The Rat stories would give you nightmares.

[dondraper25]

Originally Posted by Brake Weight

They're here. #1 and #2.

The E7 had the most and best stories because he was a retired lifer. The Rat stories would give you nightmares.

Is that their handle in the forum?

[Brake Weight]

Originally Posted by dondraper25

Is that their handle in the forum?

#1

#2

[dondraper25]

On the rocks. I call this Milgen Hill. I kind of treat it like a bounty hill. It's pretty fun. Not long, a lot like you see in the rock bouncing videos.

[dondraper25]

Alright enough chit chat. I'm excited to share the life of this little buggy with y'all.

This is right after the first run. I know you all have seen Wraiths before, I just ask that you bare with me.

[dondraper25]

Prior to my last deployment, last summer, I took the kids to Florida to visit my mother. I brought the Wraith with me (this was about the time I finally broke it out of storage). I blew it all apart. I ordered some hop up parts that include SSD Steering Links and Axial Steering Horn and SSD Lower Links. Here are some shots of that work.

[dondraper25]

Merica!!!!

[dondraper25]

This build is going to have to be a budget build. I will have to make good decisions on the purchases I make, and then re-use and recycle all that I can in order to make this a strong performer.

The first mod I did was to move the battery to the front. Keeping weight to the front will help with steep climbs. Below are some shots of how I went about doing it, only using simple hand tools.

[dondraper25]

My next move was to install a little axle beef. We chose SSD Diamond axles for their scale look (including the center diff rear axle). We went with SSD lower four link bars, and SSD steering links. What great products. Check out the highlights.

[jreining]

What axles are those? I really like the centered rear and Ford 9" look of them.

Nevermind i read through your post and found out. Great looking rig though.

[dondraper25]

Thank you for the comment. Building this rig with and for my son has been a really good experience. More updates coming soon.

[dondraper25]

You all have seen in previous pictures I've posted which gave away the tires we decided on. We wanted to add the tallest 2.2 tire we could. This would mean more ground clearance, plus any tread was going to be better than the factory BFG's.
We stuck with the factory wheels for budgets sake. I have had no issues with them.
Next update I'll explain the back half modifications I made.

[dondraper25]

Although the station wagon look may look cool in some full size rigs, it wasn't the look we were going for with our Wraith. So we hacked off almost the whole back half of the cage. Because this is a budget build, we re-used the plastic cage as opposed to buying a DMG cage.

[mooman]

that looks sweet!! What did you use to hold it together?

[dondraper25]

This is what I am using to "plastic weld." It seems to be holding up alright.