Del Monte's Secret Agent build

[DickyT]

I really like the design of those weight bodies The ability to easily shift the bias point is pretty cool.

[Del Monte]

Originally Posted by CrawlrKing

hey Jake !!! Nice knuckle weights, Tomy surely makes awesome products...

I need some advice man, I mounted my big bore shocks as you did with your SCX10 ones on your rig, 40wt all around, mini t silver in the rear, like 80mm long, tried the whole panel of mini-t springs for the front (pink, red, orange), a bit over 90mm and the fact is that when I go front dig, I can observe the truck lowering itself like at full compression !!!! Is it normal ? What is it due to ? What can I do to fight this in case of wrong setup ?
thanks for your input champion...

Nothing wrong with that at all... Once you get used to it, you will see that a truck that drops down like that will be very stable. You can use the front/rear dig to plant the truck when it might otherwise roll.

[Tomy]

Jake, I noticed you had to mount your weight behing the weight holder. Using a standard weight for this puts the weight holder off center as there is not enough room for the weight to be mounted behind the holder.

The actual weight designed for this looks like this:




You'll notice it has a channel cut out along the inside of the weight. This provides room for the knuckle and still allows the weight to be rotated.

I'll have a set of these in the mail for you today.

Tomi

[Del Monte]

Originally Posted by Tomy

Jake, I noticed you had to mount your weight behing the weight holder. Using a standard weight for this puts the weight holder off center as there is not enough room for the weight to be mounted behind the holder.

The actual weight designed for this looks like this:




You'll notice it has a channel cut out along the inside of the weight. This provides room for the knuckle and still allows the weight to be rotated.

I'll have a set of these in the mail for you today.

Tomi

Thanks again for the support Tomy!

I don't think I will need the extra rings though. I will be switching to some Y-Town CF wheels here very soon

[63comet]

I always enjoy the tech updates in this thread. 3.5 lbs with a nice forward bias is a great target, the rig should go just about anywhere! I love mine at a hair under 4 lbs. (And slowly dropping)

[HARDKNOCKZ]

Do you remember the average running weight of yer LCC? HAD to be around 8lbs right?

Do you foresee a level where going any lighter just wont work? With your growing experience in tuning the skinny rigs...do you think that ANY weight will work as long as you have the bias & tuning where it needs to be? Obviously I understand that at some point the sacrafice of durability wont make sense but in your opinion, is there a ceiling...or a floor in this case?

J.D.

[losiking1]

I'm no expert on the crawling scene but lighter weight certainly has some good if not great advantages. Wayyy less strain on drivetrain parts, more throttle response and efficiency from electronics to name a few. Plus it's less strain on the older folk!! (My own personal experience!!)
And i can't wait to start my SA!!

[JeremyH]

Originally Posted by HARDKNOCKZ

Do you remember the average running weight of yer LCC? HAD to be around 8lbs right?

No way. I would guess around 5.25lbs.

[HARDKNOCKZ]

Originally Posted by JeremyH

No way. I would guess around 5.25lbs.

I may've gone to the extreme high side but I think you went to the extreme low side. Since he hasn't answered my text yet & I can't cheat...I'm gonna go with 6.134 pounds.

[HARDKNOCKZ]

Originally Posted by losiking1

I'm no expert on the crawling scene but lighter weight certainly has some good if not great advantages. Wayyy less strain on drivetrain parts, more throttle response and efficiency from electronics to name a few. Plus it's less strain on the older folk!! (My own personal experience!!)
And i can't wait to start my SA!!

That's all very true but tuning a rig that light is crazy work...especially for the "average cat". Every little issue...ESPECIALLY in the suspension is magnified by lighter rigs.

[Del Monte]

Originally Posted by HARDKNOCKZ

Do you remember the average running weight of yer LCC? HAD to be around 8lbs right?

Do you foresee a level where going any lighter just wont work? With your growing experience in tuning the skinny rigs...do you think that ANY weight will work as long as you have the bias & tuning where it needs to be? Obviously I understand that at some point the sacrafice of durability wont make sense but in your opinion, is there a ceiling...or a floor in this case?

J.D.

It started somewhere around 6.5lbs in the early days, and it was about 5.3 when I stopped driving it.

At some point there will definitely be a limit to how light a truck can be and still work. I kinda think we're limited by the components that can't be eliminated, motors, esc's, servo etc. If there is still is a set amount of weight that has to be in the truck, there will have to be a certain amount of weight everywhere else to make it all work.

Having said that, I think a well tuned truck at 3.5lbs or less can still be very good at most comp sites.

[Hittman]

Originally Posted by Del Monte

At some point there will definitely be a limit to how light a truck can be and still work. I kinda think we're limited by the components that can't be eliminated, motors, esc's, servo etc. If there is still is a set amount of weight that has to be in the truck, there will have to be a certain amount of weight everywhere else to make it all work.

Having said that, I think a well tuned truck at 3.5lbs or less can still be very good at most comp sites.

Very well said!!!

[JeremyH]

Originally Posted by HARDKNOCKZ

I may've gone to the extreme high side but I think you went to the extreme low side.

I thought you were asking about it near the end of it's career.....
\/ \/ \/

Originally Posted by Del Monte

It started somewhere around 6.5lbs in the early days, and it was about 5.3 when I stopped driving it.

[stelerzman]

Originally Posted by Del Monte

It started somewhere around 6.5lbs in the early days, and it was about 5.3 when I stopped driving it.

At some point there will definitely be a limit to how light a truck can be and still work. I kinda think we're limited by the components that can't be eliminated, motors, esc's, servo etc. If there is still is a set amount of weight that has to be in the truck, there will have to be a certain amount of weight everywhere else to make it all work.

Having said that, I think a well tuned truck at 3.5lbs or less can still be very good at most comp sites.

Inspiring words.

Originally Posted by Hittman

Very well said!!!

X2.

[HARDKNOCKZ]

Originally Posted by JeremyH

I thought you were asking about it near the end of it's career.....
\/ \/ \/

Actually...I was but didn't want YOU to know that.

I don't think I ever weighed my LCC & thought somebody said recently that his was around double of what it is now. Guess that's what I get for thinkin

[JeremyH]

Originally Posted by HARDKNOCKZ

Actually...I was but didn't want YOU to know that.

[mrG]

Originally Posted by Del Monte

I also got a set of VP Wraith knuckles installed tonight. Now I can max out the stock axle shafts... with room for much more.

Can someone explain the differences between using the vp wraith knuckles and the vp xr knuckles. It's time for me to upgrade

[vypr]

Originally Posted by Del Monte

Here you go

Front shocks = 90mm eye to eye
Rear shocks 80mm eye to eye

Full droop = 3.3" at the front of the skid
Full compression = 1.9" at the front of the skid

Its pretty low compared to most XR's in competition, but the forward bias helps it up and over breakovers pretty easily.

I also got a set of VP Wraith knuckles installed tonight. Now I can max out the stock axle shafts... with room for much more.

What VP hubs are you running front and rear.... Curious on the width to get everything to clear with that much steering. Impressive!!!

[Del Monte]

Originally Posted by vypr

What VP hubs are you running front and rear.... Curious on the width to get everything to clear with that much steering. Impressive!!!

No VP hubs at the moment, but the plastic HPI wheels are roughly equivalent to running a 350 VP hub on a .7 SLW. I finally cracked an HPI wheel hex yesterday, but it was under some pretty impressive abuse. I know a lot of guys had failures pretty quickly, so I guess I'll consider myself lucky that I didn't have one during competition.

[Del Monte]

I finally made some fancy aluminum crossmembers to replace the stock delrin ones. I was really surprised how much stiffer the chassis felt after adding these, and as an added bonus, they're actually lighter.



The crossmembers are made from 3/16" .049 walled tubing and have .015 thick walls in the center