...Chaotic Switch........ "The Wicked Tuna"

[Chaotic Crawlers]

Here we go again kids...

I have had this chassis idea in my head for close to a year now.
I can't tell you how many times I have drawn and redrawn this on paper and then cut it out of styrene to do some very rough mock up.
It's crazy how fast time flies these days(I must be getting old)



First of all... Every rig should have a name.
It's like naming your car. If you care enough about it, you will name it.

I saw a tv show title that just was too good to pass up.

Introducing "The Wicked Tuna":

I have been driving this rig since early march.
It has blown me away with it's capabilities and really
Pushed me to start taking steps towards the ultimate goal of a sub 5lb car.

My old rig weighed in at a healthy 5.8 pounds which is 5lbs 12.8oz.
I was very comfortable at this weight, but always knew I wanted to try a lighter setup.


THE GOODS:
Chaotic Switch Chassis
all aluminum hardware and rod balls
chaotic Titanium links(60/40)
Dlux carbon wheels
Sedonas/rovers and BC's in the future
Rc4wd gears
Vp motor plates
Rc4wd Trans cases
Vp upper link mounts
Rowdy batt mount
Vp c hubs and knuckles
Chaotic tierod
Futaba bls157hv
Futaba 4pks
Cc BEC
Du Cc sidewinder micros
cbp.com elite 3 cell lipos(850mah and 600mah)
Traxxas 3.5" big bores with rid end mod
Mini t springs


I will start by noting that you will see some variance from my chassis and links versus production. I always seem to run the prototype or blemish links on my rig. I will try to point out the differences as I go.

Here she is as of tonight before I started tearing it down.




The first things you will notice are my links are different than normal and my body panels are actually made from 1/32" black delrin.

I just swapped my skid out to the new one.

Here are some close ups of it mounted.
You can see that the idea here is to keep the carbon off the rocks.
We achieved this by making sure the rod ends and skid were completely aligned, next you will notice that my side panels actually sits even with my skid plate. This keeps my carbon fiber 100% protected and keeps a very smooth transition from rod end to skid to sideplate.




Onto the upper links. In the kit comes 4 small spacers.
These are designed to go on the upper links either inside or outside the rod ends. Thes spacers allow some adjustment to the end user but also make sure the panel stays straight and doesnt get warped from being sucked into the chassis plates.
Mine are still some axial spacers I had laying around.

[nicodrive01]

saw it first time at the Shamrock Showdown, great job Marc!

Just awaiting how low you wanna go with your weight

[TSK]

It has some pretty solid design elements no doubt

What was the RTR weight before the teardown?

[Chaotic Crawlers]

Originally Posted by TheSCorpionKing

It has some pretty solid design elements no doubt

What was the RTR weight before the teardown?

5.8 lbs.

It is currently sitting at 5.1 lbs RTR. I know this is nothing special these days, but my transition will be done slowly.
I could easily pull my half steel rings off the knuckles and lose and immediate 4-5oz. But I would rather leave my knuckle weight on and start finding better places to lose the weight first.

Your rig is looking good Travis. What island are you on? I might be headed out there this fall.

[Going Up!]

Man these are just sick looking!!

I cant wait to see them in person this weekend!!

[slowride1]

lookin good mark ill run mine over to the po an see what it is setting at

[slowride1]

wow i myself am at 5.2 rtr

[TSK]

Originally Posted by Chaotic Crawlers

5.8 lbs.

It is currently sitting at 5.1 lbs RTR. I know this is nothing special these days, but my transition will be done slowly.
I could easily pull my half steel rings off the knuckles and lose and immediate 4-5oz. But I would rather leave my knuckle weight on and start finding better places to lose the weight first.

Your rig is looking good Travis. What island are you on? I might be headed out there this fall.

Ah. I thought 5.8 was the RTR of your Special.

I'm on Oahu, but all the good rock is on the Big Island

[63comet]

This is a great looking rig!

[EverettY]

That is totally sick! I like all the blacked out look

[Chaotic Crawlers]

Originally Posted by TheSCorpionKing

Ah. I thought 5.8 was the RTR of your Special.

I'm on Oahu, but all the good rock is on the Big Island

Oops I read that incorrectly.
I was at 5.5lbs before this tear down.

[Chaotic Crawlers]

It's been a little bit.

I was able to take home a 3rd place finish this past weekend.
I was extremely happy with the truck. I judged all day and then used out 5 courses in a hurry so I could get to the other 2 classes I had to run(I ended up only running 1.9's and then decided that beer was a better option than fixing my super)

I spent a bunch of time tuning my rig at this location.
I threw some boss claws on slw v2's on the rear and it was insane how much traction they had. I struggled to keep the front end on the rock on some vertical climbs.
53willys donated me some pink foams and this was a game changer. They helped out a ton.
I also was having battery runtime issues all weekend. Every time I tried to run for over 10 minutes the packs would die on me. (normally I can go a solid 20 minutes)

I ended up standing my front shocks up one more hole to the upper second hole from the front. And also took some spacing off the shock mount as well.
My rear shocks received pink springs and are in the 3rd hole from the back upper row.
I am going to shave some rovers this weekend and mount them up fort next outing.
So far, all of these changes have been extremely positive.
I tend to change my rig so much that I have a hard time feeling comfortable with it.
This past weekend I felt like I could trust it in every situation.

Unfortunately every time I bring a camera to a comp it never leaves the truck

[EverettY]

Well sounds like you still did good even for the rush of the comp. Great job. Sounds like the Switch works How did you do in 1.9?

[53 willys]

nice driving Marc

your priorities are screwed up though...mini's are boring
you should have drank beer and fixed your super then drove the super instead of the mini

My thoughts while I drive mini's...."wish this thing could turn...wish this thing had dig.....wish this thing could climb like my 2.2......man this mini is boring i'm going to drive my super instead"

[RockMafia]

When i saw this chassis i loved it straight away so last night i placed an order for one , cant wait to get it and run it at Canz

[HARDKNOCKZ]

Glad shes workin for ya brutha. I ended up pullin 3rd in the Axial Malvado Rock Riot this weekend with my Switcharoo. Thats 60 pro comp gates x's 3 laps = 180 pro comp gates. FUN is an understatement.

[Chaotic Crawlers]

Nice!

I'm looking forward to running a rock riot course hopefully this year depending on a few varying factors.

[papafogle]

Hey looks great i have a axial xr10 with your links but now i have a viper2
chassis can you make me some upper links for it front and back.thanks tracy fogle.

[Chaotic Crawlers]

Originally Posted by papafogle

Hey looks great i have a axial xr10 with your links but now i have a viper2
chassis can you make me some upper links for it front and back.thanks tracy fogle.

If you can get us lengths we can make anything.

[papafogle]

can you give me a call so i can tell you how i want them bent.309-283-7308.thanks