The progression of my XR10 into a Secret Agent 3.5

[95geo]

I started with a "good deal" on an XR10 kit for $140 thinking I could put one together a fairly stout package for around $600.... Well, I got carried away and now I dont pay attention, it's more enjoyable that way.

I didnt take many pics in the beginning but you've all seen what a completely stock XR10 kit looks like, mine was in that form for all of about 1/2 a battery pack.

Enjoy the pics, if you have any questions, feel free to ask.





That break was compliments of a Brood Apocolypse type CVR 16t which are soon to be replaced by a pair of 35t Brood motors with the "while in Rome" treatment after countless exchanges of information with EddieO who has helped me along the way more than I could have expected. Top notch company! (and yes, I pay the same price as everyone else )




The steering arm kept coming loose on the VP knuckles so I came up with my own twist to a fix. I havent seen this done but it solved all of my issues.
I tapped the hole to the bottom, put in a 15mm set screw, then used an rc4wd cone washer for the tapered seat and capped it off with a nylock nut. On the outside I had trouble clearing the wheel so what I ended up doing (that isnt shown) was to make my own low profile cone washer and replace the stud with a 10-12mm long bhcs. I havent had to tighten them once since this mod.



Then I went on a hunt for a chassis.... Y-Town got my business:






I couldnt leave well enough alone so after seeing some shaved tires, I took a stab at it. Not too bad for a 3" die grinder with a 60 grit disk. It took about 20-30 minutes per tire.



Then I decided I had to have the Secret Agent 3.5 and I began the never ending game of shedding weight.





I'll update this thread as I continue to make changes to the car. I have a few more items in the mail which should make for an interesting exchange of power and weight.

[Hittman]

This rig has come a long way. Nice work so far

[95geo]

Thanks!

The disappointing part is that I labeled and dated my batteries so I know how old they are and can keep track of them.... The batteries are dated for the 12th of February, of this year.... The changes you see have all happened in the course of less than two months.

[95geo]

I switched from an 850mah 3s to a 450 3s and dropped one ounce. Even though it was on the front axle, it made a big difference in how the car feels while getting the front to climb up verticals and undercuts. It also seems to float a little more while at the balancing point rather than getting to the balancing point and then quickly coming down from being too far past.

The run time isn't bad but a 450 is definitely a 10 minute battery, then all bets are off.

I also moved the BEC from the chassis to below and behind the steering servo. I noticed that the steering is a lot slower to make a high amp draw turn than it was when the capacitor was on it. I still have some verifying to do but I may be switching back.

Rtr weight this time out was 5 lbs 0.1oz with the 450 and 5 lbs 1.1oz with the 850.

I'm still using some slightly modified BJ4.2 chaotic Ti links which have the chassis centered on the WB pretty well. Sometime next week I should have the chassis set forward like it should be.

More testing and tuning to be done! It's quickly becoming an impressive little money pit though!

[BLKXJ 96]

Looks Awesome!!

Have you thought about flipping the shocks? Puts that much more weight lower in the chassis and axle.

[95geo]

Ya, I had them flipped over originally but I had clearance issues, I still do with the rear gear case. Once I get the front to rear bias worked out I'll weigh the shocks to see what end weighs more but im still thinking the dynamics of the body-up orientation is better for handling but I don't feel like typing it all out right now....

[Harvo]

Originally Posted by 95geo

I switched from an 850mah 3s to a 450 3s and dropped one ounce. Even though it was on the front axle, it made a big difference in how the car feels while getting the front to climb up verticals and undercuts. It also seems to float a little more while at the balancing point rather than getting to the balancing point and then quickly coming down from being too far past.

The run time isn't bad but a 450 is definitely a 10 minute battery, then all bets are off.

I also moved the BEC from the chassis to below and behind the steering servo. I noticed that the steering is a lot slower to make a high amp draw turn than it was when the capacitor was on it. I still have some verifying to do but I may be switching back.

Rtr weight this time out was 5 lbs 0.1oz with the 450 and 5 lbs 1.1oz with the 850.

I'm still using some slightly modified BJ4.2 chaotic Ti links which have the chassis centered on the WB pretty well. Sometime next week I should have the chassis set forward like it should be.

More testing and tuning to be done! It's quickly becoming an impressive little money pit though!

I think your amp draw is the motors, not the absence of the BEC cap. Those motors pull the 450 batteries down FAST in a bind. I have hit the cutoff after just a minute on course when the tires got bound up... and It stopped steering just before it cut out.

Those 450 batteries are great little packs, but I have switched to 800's for these motors.

[95geo]

I ordered some boss claws, they showed up today and after getting them mounted to a set of wheels and trying a couple lines outside, I realized one of the 4 were junk. If I had to guess, it looks like someone pulled it out of the mold and it didn't want to come free so it tore but not completely through. So as soon as I realized these tires work awesome, I had to pull them off and now I'm back to the rovers.

[krawlfreak]

That's really odd, but a toothpick and some c/a could fix that if you are not gonna return em.

[95geo]

I thought about it but Im going to see about getting a new tire since its obviously a "manufacturing defect"..... Depending on what horizon hobby has to say about it will determine what I do. Either way, I'll probably just end up buying another pair so I have some backups.

[EverettY]

That looks great! The agent is an awesome looking chassis. If you have the money it is WAY to easy to get carried away with VP stuff

[superduty03]

Originally Posted by 95geo

I thought about it but Im going to see about getting a new tire since its obviously a "manufacturing defect"..... Depending on what horizon hobby has to say about it will determine what I do. Either way, I'll probably just end up buying another pair so I have some backups.

The local hobby shop up in flint has a set on the shelf.... If you plan on attending the next mirca points comp I could pick them up and bring them to ya.... Let me know man!

Btw the rig looks awesome man, looking forward to comping with ya!

[BLKXJ 96]

Originally Posted by superduty03

The local hobby shop up in flint has a set on the shelf....

I was there today Ben, I didn't see any Boss claws. I may have missed them. I saw Pink dot Rovers, and white dot Sedonas. oh and one pair of 2.2 Irocks.....if they had two, I would have bought them both....Cameron needs to step it up....just sayin!!!

May want to try and run Sedonas, if you haven't already. These seem to be a pretty good all around tire on most of the river rock we run. I'm not on board with the "pin" tires.....yet....but a lot of guys run/like them.

Like Ben said "I can't wait to comp with you" it's good to see more people getting into this. hope to see you on the 14th at Davisburg.

[concretejungle]

funny, i had the exact same gear breakage you did and my steering arm kept coming loose from the steering knuckle too!! And, we were running the same chassis! I fixed my gears by replacing with hot racing (RC4wd was out of stock at the time) and i just used blue loctite to keep my steering arm bolts in place.

[95geo]

Well, as my luck would have it, I mounted the tires up to a new set of VP SLW V3's and they put a step in the beadlock rings that increased the bead clamping force at the installed position, after having the remaining three tires mounted for a day and a half, the new design on the lock rings cut the bead on all 3 "good" tires.

So, after an email to horizon hobby and VP, I'm crossing my fingers for some resolution. I just don't think it's going to be soon enough to avoid not having to buy another set.

I've run white sedonas, white rovers, the soft Proline swampers and finally the boss claws... The claws make them all look inferior and I didn't even cut them yet. So, it's looking like I need to get creative if I'm going to run these tires by davisburg.

[95geo]

Less than thrilled about this....

[95geo]

new on left (1.0mm) old on right (1.5mm)


and what it currently looks like:

[ManxCrawler]

Originally Posted by 95geo

Less than thrilled about this....

I feel your pain because mine did exactly the same on BWD wheels - obviously pinched them to death

...now I wonder if Eriks' wheels do this...

[Super Fabrication]

Wow looks good so far, I was gonna get an xr10 but got a deal on some new bully axles

[95geo]

I ordered axial lightweight machined gears for the rear to replace the rc4wd gears. When the axial gears get here I'm going to see if I can lighten them up some more so I can get the front bias that I'm looking for. I'm still trying to find out what weight bias functions the best. A central balance point does everything well except break over climbs. With the knuckle weights it does make the front the dominant end but I don't like that the front does NOT like to climb ledges on off camber and angled transitions. I would like to get about half the weight of the VP knuckle weights on it since that should be just the right amount of weight for how I would like it to handle.

I just got my new broods today too! Without getting too carried away, they are 175g each.