Yet Another Yeti Build

[binaryterror]

You should buy the 43/13 gears, they will mesh the best and give you best life.

Also good time to get a dlux rear housing and front too. The big bearing helps keep the bearings lasting.

[rob4607]

Well if you are adding the HD gears you may want to upgrade the rear driveshaft, tore out at the rear axle connection twice. Like "tore" it out like peeling an apple. MIP shaft is supposed to be on the way. And FYI The Robinson Racing slipper clutch has made a HUGE difference! I adjusted it to have more slip than previous by a good amount so I am hoping that it will help save DS's and gears. I am on my last replacement stock DS to test my settings before I install the MIP shaft. Basically I do not want to move breakage further down the driveline or somewhere else.

I was in the Kerrville area with the Yeti's last week at a friends property and my son and I were a bit rough playing in all of the mud and ruts so I am really surprised that was the only failure. ( 3S probably had a good amount to do with it.... )

As for your rebound issue I noticed the same last night. I am wondering if it is the springs. I am running LOSI 25# oil in the rear.

[Sh0rtBus]

Originally Posted by binaryterror

You should buy the 43/13 gears, they will mesh the best and give you best life.

Also good time to get a dlux rear housing and front too. The big bearing helps keep the bearings lasting.

Already running the Dlux rear housing with bigger bearing, along with Beef Tubes and Dlux CF truss as well. Knew I'd eventually have to upgrade the stock gears to handle 3S, so it really doesn't come as a surprise. Just wasn't exactly looking forward to spending money on it for a while, especially since I just dropped $150 on two lights for diving. Taking the NAUI advanced open water course this weekend in OK.

Originally Posted by rob4607

Well if you are adding the HD gears you may want to upgrade the rear driveshaft, tore out at the rear axle connection twice. Like "tore" it out like peeling an apple. MIP shaft is supposed to be on the way. And FYI The Robinson Racing slipper clutch has made a HUGE difference! I adjusted it to have more slip than previous by a good amount so I am hoping that it will help save DS's and gears. I am on my last replacement stock DS to test my settings before I install the MIP shaft. Basically I do not want to move breakage further down the driveline or somewhere else.


I was in the Kerrville area with the Yeti's last week at a friends property and my son and I were a bit rough playing in all of the mud and ruts so I am really surprised that was the only failure. ( 3S probably had a good amount to do with it.... )

As for your rebound issue I noticed the same last night. I am wondering if it is the springs. I am running LOSI 25# oil in the rear.

Yup....already have the MIP rear drive shaft, too. Did that when I installed the new rear axle housing, truss, and axle shafts after snapping the first one at the passenger's side shock/link mount landing a jump.

I was actually in Llano this past weekend and had planned to take the Yeti to play on some rocks right by the dam. of course I didn't make it down there after the gears shit the bed. So better luck next time.

I may very well be down in your neck o' th' woods next weekend (6/13-6/14), though for my dad's b-day. Well....Spring anyway. I'm sure I'll get down a little further south while I'm there since my mother-in-law lives in Alvin.

As for shocks oil, I'm running Team Associated 40wt in the rears. Seemed like it was okay before, but not it has pretty much no rebound at all. May need some stiffer springs.

[Crawler80]

Can you post some more pics of the wheel and tire set up? I was looking at those wheels and would like to see some pics of them on a truck.

[Sh0rtBus]

So little update no this old thread. I did end up getting the Axial HD gears, but decided to stick with the stock 38/13 ratio. I know the 43/13 provides better gear mesh and longer life, but I wanted to keep the speed/torque the same. Didn't really want to replace the front yet, either. If it happens again, though, I'll try the 43/13 route.

I did end up completing my NAUI Advanced Open Water dive certification, so I is now an Advanced Open Water diver. Although, I haven't even veen able to swim since then, much less dive, because I ended up with an ear infection that resulted in a ruptured ear drum in my right ear. More than two months later, it's still not complete healed and I still haven't gained my full range of hearing back yet. May be time to see an ENT at this point. As much as it sucks, I'm beginning to wonder whether or not I'm going to be able to dive or not. Don't want to permanently damage my ears if I haven't already.

On a completely different topic, started a new job earlier this month that's literally night and day different than my last one. No more on-call shifts, no more getting woke up at 3 in the morning because some stupid truck driver was texting and rolled his truck over, spilling diesel fuel everywhere. No more weekends, no more working holidays, no more peanuts for pay....it's all so much better. Finally feel like I'm comign to a career every morning and not just another job.

Will update further on the Yeti when I have more to do. So far, nothing new to report, as I really haven't taken the time to get it out anywhere. But I have found a couple places here on campus where there are some good rocks to play in and a few open fields to open it up. Should be fun!

[Sh0rtBus]

Took the Yeti out to a new spot I found here at the university I work at and has some fun. But unfortunately, not without a little carnage! I think I need to go thicker than 500k on the front diff fluid because the first sign of resistance makes it slip. Maybe I just didn't put enough fluid in, but I think I'm going to try the silly putty I have at home next.....at least until I decide to remove the stick from my ass and pony up for the Dlux OFNA front end. I still don't know that I want to completely lock the front end, though, for handling at speed. We'll see. Now....onto the carnage!

I unfortunately didn't get any good pics/vids while I was running other than a couple stills with the suspension sort of articulated, but I found a fairly large gravel pile that stands about 6 feet tall or so. Didn't hit with any real speed, as I didn't give myself much runup room, but still enough to air it out pretty well....I'd say maybe a foot taller than the pile itself. So....maybe 7'. Guess my Yeti didn't like that very much because after the second time....the Dlux CF truss on the rear axle snapped. Not along the axle part of the truss, but at the upper link mount. Guess the material is just really thin there and apparently the weakest link because my upper links are no longer attached to the rear axle. The grub screww on my Dlux sway bar doesn't want to stay tight, either, so I lost one of the spacers that go between the sway bar arm and the cage, too. Gave the Beef Tubes a good breaking in, though, and my housing is still in tact, so they and the truss did their job of keeping the housing in one piece. Biggest problem I'm having is keeping the wheel nuts tight. For some reason, the rears just don't want to stay tight at all. Don't know what's causing it, as they're Pro-Line serated lock nuts, but they just don't want to work. May have to eventually find some regular nuts and install them with Loc-Tite!

Anyway.....my Yeti is down again and will be awaiting parts for a few days. Had a blast running, though! And it did a lot better than I expected on the rocks where I playing. I think if I can get the front axle to slip a little less, it'll do even better. So with that........onto the pics!

The play area.....what I've officially dubbed Willis Hill




The yEDi.......





CARNAGE!!!!!

Rear axle looks a little shifty...


Oh snap!


What's Wrong With This Picture......

[fr8cture]

Have you looked at the Dlux G10 truss? much thicker than the CF one.

[Sh0rtBus]

Originally Posted by fr8cture

Have you looked at the Dlux G10 truss? much thicker than the CF one.

Yeah....I think that's probably my next choice. Truthfully....I think I'd really like to see a steel/aluminum truss at this point. My yeti landed pretty flat the first time off that hill, but more on the rear axle the second go 'round and I think that's likely what did it. Pay to play, though!

While I'm thinking about it.....what fan gos on the Axial ESC? It's the one for the Sidewinder 3, right? it kept thermalling on me while I was out there, which was quite annoying. Only in the rocks, which makes sense because its a sensorless sytem. May have to chang that eventually. Guess I could throw my MMP and Pro 4 3300kv in it and call it good. Just don't know how well that would work for speed. I'm sure it would probably be faster than the stock Vanguard system and would definitely crawl better, but then what would I put in my Wroncho build? Decisions decisions......

[fr8cture]

Yeah Sidewinder 3 fan.

[Erik D_lux]

Bummer on the truss, sorry man!

Sorry, I am not making a metal truss at this time.

G10 will be a lot stronger but it would have failed too in that situation, it seems. It looks like the failure isnt really due to the material directly. The bolt that holds your upper links to the truss needs to go through both of the spacers for full strength. Looks like they were at some point but either it un screwed or pulled out on impact. This is what caused the failure.

A good safety measure would be to get an even longer screw and then put a nut on that side of the spacer then the only way it can fail is to pull both mounts off, not just simply twist the one like you did, which is pretty easy to do and obviously not the way I designed it to work.

For the missing spacer, just hit me up when youre ready and I will slip one in with your package.

[Sh0rtBus]

Yeah, I pretty much figured that's what caused the failure after I thought about it for a minute. I'll definitlely make sure I grab a longer screw and secure it better next go 'round.

Would there be any downside to running the upper links on the lowest mounting holes on the truss? Better up high for anti-squat maybe?

[Erik D_lux]

Its not necessarily better at the highest setting. It all depends on your preferences.

Even the lowest of my settings provides more anti squat than stock, which IMO is critical on the Yeti. So, any setting on my truss is good to go, again, just depends on which setting gives you the best feeling.

Even with that truss broken, I would guess that you could put the links back on at the lowest setting and it would still hold strong for awhile. The back piece that broke does add support but it provides the least support of all of them. Nothing to lose at this point anyway.

[Sh0rtBus]

Originally Posted by Erik D_lux

Its not necessarily better at the highest setting. It all depends on your preferences.

Even the lowest of my settings provides more anti squat than stock, which IMO is critical on the Yeti. So, any setting on my truss is good to go, again, just depends on which setting gives you the best feeling.

Even with that truss broken, I would guess that you could put the links back on at the lowest setting and it would still hold strong for awhile. The back piece that broke does add support but it provides the least support of all of them. Nothing to lose at this point anyway.

I considered using the lowest mounting location, but it seems that one ear on the inside of the truss is broken completely off, which would mean mounting the spacer only to the outside hole. I can give it a shot, though, to get it back running again, but I'm ordering up the G10 truss shortly.

[Sh0rtBus]

Completely unrelated to the damage, but anyone have any idea why my passenger rear tire would be ballooning up? If you look at the pic of the axle from teh rear, you can see that the passenger rear tire looks more rounded than the other three. Don't know if maybe the rubber just stretched or what happened. Probably not a big deal; just an observation.

[Sh0rtBus]

Dlux G10 U4 truss ordered. Should be back up and running shortly! Having the hardest time finding a 3mm x 40mm screw, though. The one I used previously is 30mm long but a bit to short. Home Depot didn't carry anything long enough and didn't have any allthread small enough to work, either. May have to look online and find something.

[svt923]

Originally Posted by Sh0rtBus

Having the hardest time finding a 3mm x 40mm screw, though.

Traxxas sell some (part # 2592), I used them for another project. Pretty much any hobby shop should be able to get them. Just google the part number and you will find about 50 online sources for them.

[Sh0rtBus]

My Dlux U4 G10 truss came in yesterday and wow! That thing makes the carbon fiber piece look like a match stick! It's probably twice the thickness of the carbon piece, so if I break that one, I better damn well have it on video! Also found some screws at a local fastener store so I should be set on those for a while. The ones I got arent threaded the entire length of the screw, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing, as the pivot balls now sit on the smooth section. Made certain this time, too, that the threaded portion goes all the way through and put a standard 3mm nut on the back side with some blue Loc-Tite. I'll throw some pics up later this afternoon, as I had a brain fart this morning and left my phone at home, along with my Oakleys, which is going to really suck when I have to venture outdoors in the bright sun.

Also, thanks to Dlux for the throwing in a couple spacers for my UCFab sway bar. Hopefully I've got that grub screw locked down tight now and won't lose another one.

I did realize after buttoning everything up that not only did I snap the ear off the truss, but I also bent the long side axle shaft on that landing, too. Guess it's getting to be time to order up a titanium set of shafts. For now, though, I have a long side Axial shaft so I'm good. May try to straighten the bent one for a spare, though.

[Sh0rtBus]

So I didn't get to it yesterday, but as promised....pics of the Dlux G10 U4 truss. Much beefier than the carbon fiber!

Installed...........properly this time!


Comparing thicknesses


An angled view comparing thicknesses.....quite a difference there!

[Tommy23490]

It's been a while since it has been mentioned in this thread.. But I tried the 1.71lbs/in White springs in the rear with 25wht Associated oil.. It was better but still not to my liking.. I then went to 2.25lbs/in Green springs with 35wht Associated oil... I think that's the winner for me.. Just as a side note I run the 4.95lbs/in blue in the front with 35w oil..

[Sh0rtBus]

May have to give that a try