DB's Axial Yeti Build Thread (Deja Vu)

[Dbdynsty25]

Well...back in January I bought the RTR Yeti RR. It was a blast and I had fun driving it. Then the TT caught my eye at a local track and I had to have one of those...so I got the TT. A few months in I decided to sell them both and go back to my first love, the Stampede VXL 4x4. Then I missed the TT so I bought another one. Now I miss the RR. So...I made the rash decision again, to sell the Stampede and the TT and buy a RR Kit because I want all of the upgrades and I want to put in a little quicker motor. I can now buy the retro TT body and some wheels and tires and I can go back to the TT whenever I want anyway. So this was the way to go IMO.

Yes, I could have went and just bought the parts to convert the TT into a RR and get all of the motor/esc upgrades I wanted, but decided I wanted to actually build it from scratch. So sold the other two cars and had more than enough money to buy the Kit and everything I needed. And here is what I went with as far as upgrades and electronics go:

Hobbywing SCT Pro ESC
Hobbywing 3656SD Black Edition 4000kv Sensored Motor
Tactic TSX57 (higher end stock w/ more torque)
Tactic TTX300 TX w/ Tactic TR25 RX (stock)
Crawler Innovations Deuces Wild Single Stage Foam
MIP Rear Drive Shaft
Tamiya PS46 Purple/Green Irredecent Color Shift Paint
SPC Racing 4300mah 40C 3S Batteries

Still a pretty basic build, and I haven't run it out in the street/dirt yet, so not sure how the motor combo will work out on 3S which is all I run. It may be a bit fast, so I might have to gear down ,but I don't want to overspeed the motor. Going w/ the stock 16T and the spur so we'll see in a few hours when I get a chance to run it a bit. Got my temp gun to be safe.

[Dbdynsty25]

Took it out for a little lunch time bash and it worked great. Motor got a bit hot, around 135 degrees, but I was consistently doing speed runs to see how quick it would be. It's quite a bit faster than the stock RTR Yeti on 3S even with it geared a bit higher, I just don't know if I'm going to hit some even higher temps as I bash around in the dead of summer in So Cal. So we'll see...probably should have went with the 3400kv motor, but we'll see. I don't know if I can gear it down any more than it already is at 16/64 so might drop down to a 14t pinion to keep it a bit cooler. We'll see.

I'm really shocked at how much better the sensored motors perform. I read about the more linear throttle response without any cogging but I didn't really believe it would be that much better...but dang it's awesome. So much more control when driving slow, I'm glad I spent a bit more to have a sensored setup.

The thing that ended my quick session was a dumb servo horn screw. Kept backing out. Guess I'll have to loctite it.

[CamaroTom]

Nice clean build. One tip, on the steering linkage coming off the servo arm, find the slightly longer ball ends inlcuded with the kit and swap them out. This will give you a better grip on the turnbuckle.

[VenomousSVT]

Originally Posted by CamaroTom

Nice clean build. One tip, on the steering linkage coming off the servo arm, find the slightly longer ball ends inlcuded with the kit and swap them out. This will give you a better grip on the turnbuckle.

Great advice!!! I had this issue and had to tighten it up a food but. Threw my steering off. Ill have to get the longer ends out when I do my next upgrades

[Dbdynsty25]

Originally Posted by CamaroTom

Nice clean build. One tip, on the steering linkage coming off the servo arm, find the slightly longer ball ends inlcuded with the kit and swap them out. This will give you a better grip on the turnbuckle.

That is a good idea for sure. However the issue I had was the aluminium horn coming unscrewed from the servo itself. Loctited it tonight and ran for another hour and it didn't budge.

One thing I noticed for sure is that this powerplant sure uses up power faster than stock. My 3S 4300 was done in about 20 min instead of 30ish. Guess it makes sense.

[84yoda]

At 135 degrees motor temp, you got nothing to worry about. 160-180 is good, 200 is time to shut it down and 220+ is when shit hits the fan.

[Dbdynsty25]

Originally Posted by 84yoda

At 135 degrees motor temp, you got nothing to worry about. 160-180 is good, 200 is time to shut it down and 220+ is when shit hits the fan.

Yeah I thought 180 was when it got hairy...so that's good to know. Just a little worried about when the temps are in the 90s here in So Cal instead of 75. I'll prob just grab the 14t Robinson pinion and see what that does just in case. Thanks!

[VenomousSVT]

Originally Posted by 84yoda

At 135 degrees motor temp, you got nothing to worry about. 160-180 is good, 200 is time to shut it down and 220+ is when shit hits the fan.

are yall checking temps with telemetry or with a little laser heat gun?

[Dbdynsty25]

Originally Posted by VenomousSVT

are yall checking temps with telemetry or with a little laser heat gun?

Infrared gun. Bought mine here:

Amazon.com: Nubee Temperature Gun Non-contact Digital Laser Infrared IR Thermometer: Kitchen & Dining

[VenomousSVT]

Originally Posted by Dbdynsty25

Infrared gun. Bought mine here:

Amazon.com: Nubee Temperature Gun Non-contact Digital Laser Infrared IR Thermometer: Kitchen & Dining

perfect. thanks! I'll pick it up on payday. Never had to worry about temps on the crawler.

[Dbdynsty25]

I'm pretty sure I need to go down to the 3400kv motor...not because of heat reasons, but because of run time. I've got three 3S 4300mah batteries and I can barely make an hour of runtime with all three of them. Just not even close to what I was getting w/ the stock Vanguard system previously. I mean, that's as expected, but I didn't expect HALF of the run time. I thought i'd lose like 20-30% but not 50. Eeesh.

[Dbdynsty25]

Built my Yeti Kit last week, and now got the parts to convert it to a Trophy Truck. My almost 4 year old loves the Monster Energy Trucks (Trophy and Monster Jame trucks) so decided to do it up in that livery.

[ser3100]

Love it! Making me think about getting the retro body.

[Wes S.]

That truck looks amazing! Love that someone used the green Methods now...

[Dbdynsty25]

Ended up going down to the 3400kv Hobbywing instead of the 4000kv...it was just a bit too much for the truck. Lower voltage w/ slightly higher gearing and I got all of the speed I could possibly want. A few screen grabs from my GoPro session today.









Hopefully I can edit up the video soon. Got about an hours worth with the Trophy Truck shell and another 30 w/ the RR today. Editing takes forever, lol.

[mikemcE]

What is your bec voltage ?? I had heat issues running my savox servo on 5.1 volts ?

[Dbdynsty25]

Originally Posted by mikemcE

What is your bec voltage ?? I had heat issues running my savox servo on 5.1 volts ?

The BEC on the Hobbywing Pro SCT is 6V.