RickM's son's basher yeti

[RickM]

Ok. So I have been pretty absent from these boards, and have never posted on the Yeti forum. My son desperately wanted a Yeti. Considering how he has a bulletproof lcg slash 4x4, and knowing how the Axial stuff usually needs some upgrades immediately I have resisted. I did leverage his school work though, and he has earned it. We got it, and immediately the typical hinge pin issue surfaced. I had an exo that was saweeet after I completely redid the front end. Since the "yikes" hinge pins are gone I am looking into options. So here is where I am at. BTW. I am not posting pictures yet, as nothing new is here. If we can get anything earth shattering we are on it. This is what I did order.

1. RPM arms
2. HPI savage/Hot boddy's sc10 4x4/sc10 ni ti pins
3. Foams

I am not sure how to capture the pins, but I did like DickyT's idea some. Now to some questions. I would love to convert this to the 2 speed, and I hear that it comes ready for that, but I will look into this.

[MonsterPower]

The only 2 speed available is currently from SSD here on the forums.

[Hunter711]

Originally Posted by RickM

I would love to convert this to the 2 speed, and I hear that it comes ready for that, but I will look into this.

Look here: ssd yeti 2 speed

RPP, your source for SSD products: SSD 2 Speed Transmission Conversion Kit for Yeti

[RickM]

Thanks everyone.

I will stay on it in terms of keeping everyone up to speed on the progress of bomb proofing this thing.

[DickyT]

Looking forward to the build Rick, and welcome back to the addic.. err hobby!

[RickM]

Thanks DickyT- I will definitely keep everyone posted.

I gave this rig to a good friend's son, and I regret it, as I would be using my hinge pin setup from this one for the Yeti. Oh well. Anyway, this is where my durability goal is coming from.

Finally getting on Board - RCShortCourse

[mrhobby100]

Carter fab and machine supposedly has a hinge pin upgrade kit for a couple bucks.

[RickM]

I was in a shop today and noticed mugin makes a pin that is threaded on one end and looks much like the Axial pin. Definitely going to need to do a little bit of drilling but might be a decent alternative. I will report back.

[RickM]

Haven't gotten my RPM arms in to do my hinge pin project, but I did watch my son with this thing last night. He is running a 3s pack, and while screwing around in the Back yard, he hit our garage. That bent the rear axle already. Which reminded me... Those are weak also. Anyway, I have some Berg CKRC axles I could try and wedge in there, but I am not sure I want to do that, as it will then change the bolt size. I have reached out to one of the Venders hear about Ti axles. We shall see.

Anyway, I got some traxxas links for the camber and toe today.

I keep watching DickyT's build, and wanting to really go all in on this, but it is my sons basher, and i keep having to hold myself back.

[DickyT]

I went all in because it is my basher and I had to make it me proof! Which is a tall order... It seems I finally got it there though.

[RickM]

Oh, come on DickyT. Nothing is ever "Me proof"!!

[RickM]

Well Crap. A guy locally was selling a yeti on CL. I couldn't resist. I am picking it up tomorrow. Has a bunch of upgrades but is the kit version.

[RickM]

Ok. So here are my options regarding pins.

Here is where I was headed in the first place with this. On the exo, the diff had toe blocks mounted up. Those from the factory sucked. We would then swap them out with these heavy duty steel ones, and use pins with nuts. Not an option on the yeti. We found though that the toe blocks were part of the problem. So the pins and toe blocks being stronger did the trick. Well I think it is going to be critical to run a metallic toe/bumper block be it STRC, or even something stronger. That said, The pins I am going to start with are the AE ones for the SC104x4. I am going to see if I can uses the chassis and the bumper/toe block as a capture plate, and not completely drill out the front bumper etc. We shall see. I have mocked it up with the plastic one, but have yet to get my STRC bumper in the mail. That is on my sons rig. FYI. The factory pins which had to be cut out, were only in use for 3 days.

Now on the rig I am picking up today, I am going to try the hot bodies pins I got (the long ones in the pic with the chrome surface and threads on the ends). Not sure what they are for, but they are a lot longer than ideal. That one, I intend to drill straight through.

[RickM]

Just did some additional reading on this stuff. The AE number is STA31112S

The drill bit needed is a 9/64. The key will be drilling carefully to not go all the way through the front toe/bumper of the strc.

[RickM]

Ok. So the idea of the ae pin with the beat up plastic bumper es no Bueno. Actually the pin is fine but the bumper is not.

[RickM]

Made some progress over the weekend. I drilled out the front strc bumper and set it up as a capture plate. it worked out pretty good.


Then i drilled out the STRC rear links to take revo ends, and also put ti upper links on there.

Finally I made the the front tunable.

Nothing impressive by any means but progress.

[RickM]

So my son snapped off two revo rod ends last night. I am not sure what type of fall this thing took, but holly cow.

Anyway, so I mentioned I had another rig I was working on. I think I am going to go Trophy truck on this one, in honor of my good friend who is racing in the Mexican 1000 right now.
https://www.facebook.com/corbetracing

[RickM]

Ok. My new to me, really abused by someone else yeti has been getting some serious love.

Front end.
I know I already mentioned this, but these are some HPI pins cut to fit inside the STRC front bumper block as a capture plate.

Then I gave it the STRC steering rack treatment. I also gave did the top camber link as a carbon fiber, and did the turnbuckle from Traxxas. We will see how the carbon holds up.

Now to the backend. I had some old ti lower links laying around from my comp crawler, and they are now my upper links. My lower links came with the RCbros skins, but due to the poor plastic on the axial rod end assemblies in had deteriorated. I wanted to keep the RC bros look, so I drilled pretty deep into the axial links, and installed a Traxxas rod end. I like how it turned out, but we will see how it holds up.

Finally I went with the SSD axle halves and the lockers. Now all my wheels are the same. I will be curious to see how/if the axles shafts are stronger.

[RickM]

So I wound up getting some skins on it today.

[RickM]

Ok. I decided to not leave well enough alone. I had an older tekin motor that was really a better motor for a buggy in my yeti. I was a touch uncomfortable about that, so I pulled a 6.5 ballistic motor out of my sons slash and put a new motor in his...... Anyway, to fit that 6.5 I had to mod my battery trey. I noticed when doing so that the battery would push forward on the bell of the motor. This could impact the gears etc right?, so I took a cutoff disk/dremel and ground down some on the back of the battery trey, clearancing the battery and motor. But what about the idea of a forward hit and battery shift you ask? Well I was worried about that as well, so I put a plastic tab inside the trey up against the motor area to fortify that area and prevent that kind of hit. Hope it works. I will see if I can get some pics up soon.