Go Back   RCCrawler Forums > Scale Rigs Brand Specific Tech > Axial Brand Scale Rock Crawlers > Axial Yeti
Loading

Notices

Thread: Fallen's Yeti Build

Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 03-26-2016, 06:48 PM   #1
Rock Crawler
 
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: San Marcos
Posts: 659
Default Fallen's Yeti Build

This Yeti has already been built from the kit, run for about a year, and recently torn down to be re-built. Non-kit upgrades already installed are as follows:

1. UCFab Al lower links
2. Vanquish Ti upper links
3. SSD 2-speed transmission
4. Carter Fab front hinge pins
5. RPM A-arms
6. Hot Racing Al C-hubs & axle carriers
7. All linkage eyes changed from plastic to metal
8. STRC Al pumpkin cover
9. Robinson Racing slipper clutch
10. 500,000 weight oil in the front differential

The wheels you see installed are Pro-Line Renegade beadlocks in 2.2/3.0, and I cut the BF Goodrich Krawlers to fit them. These wheels change my track width to 11.5 inches, which is only .2 of an inch wider than most shortcourse bodies. Wheelbase is still stock 14.5 inches.

I'm building this to either be a shelf queen, or a rock bouncer. My opinion on the Yeti is that for high-speed performance, my Traxxas vehicles are superior. The Yeti is too fragile, and handles too poorly to be built for high speed performance. I know that with enough money/time I could overcome both issues, but my Slashes are already built to do that.

I'm open to body suggestions from the experts, as I don't know yet what would be nice. I'm currently thinking of chopping the front off of a Pro-Line 1982 Ford Bronco body, and using that with Axial's extended body mount. At the end of the build, my hope is that it will look like a crawler/bouncer built out of a full size truck or SUV.

I'm open to turning it into something else, but I don't have any other ideas for an IFS/solid axle 4x4 rig.

Here are a few pics of how it currently looks:






Last edited by Fallen; 03-28-2016 at 04:11 PM.
Fallen is online now   Reply With Quote
Sponsored Links
Old 03-27-2016, 08:11 AM   #2
Rock Stacker
 
Join Date: Sep 2015
Location: US
Posts: 98
Default Re: Fallen's Yeti Build

Looks pretty good. Why did you cut the top of the fuel cell open? Anyway the yetis aren't as fragile as you may think. I've had mine for about 6 months and I haven't broken anything. It does need some upgrades to fix some issues but they are a fun truck

Sent from my XT1042 using Tapatalk
mattehmer01 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-27-2016, 10:42 AM   #3
Rock Crawler
 
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: San Marcos
Posts: 659
Default Re: Fallen's Yeti Build

The hole in my fuel cell came as a result of me having to access the RX box under the belly too much (dead servos, adding lights...). I finally got tired of running wires from inside the chassis, to outside the chassis and then fiddling with the seals to make the box waterproof.

So I put a waterproof RX in the fuel cell and cut a hole in the top to easily run wires through.

Now that I'm interested in scale modeling this build, I regret having cut it, but not enough to buy a new one yet. Depending on how good I end up making this thing look, a new fuel cell might be in order.

I'm glad you've kept yours break free for 6 months. Part of my problem is that I was primarily letting my 7 year old son drive it. While he is fairly careful (as careful as a 7 year old can be), ultimately no one is going to be as careful as the one spending the time/money for repairs, which he isn't.

I noticed that with the track width narrowed, this thing looks like a Vaterra Twin Hammers in 1:8 scale.

Last edited by Fallen; 03-27-2016 at 10:47 AM.
Fallen is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 03-28-2016, 11:01 AM   #4
Quarry Creeper
 
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: Florida
Posts: 346
Default Re: Fallen's Yeti Build

Nice looking build. Do you know your trailing arms are backwards?
CamaroTom is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-28-2016, 12:42 PM   #5
Rock Crawler
 
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: San Marcos
Posts: 659
Default Re: Fallen's Yeti Build

Made some interesting progress between last night and this morning. I realized (through pictures on this forum) that my UCFAB lower links were installed backwards, so I flipped them around. No wonder my rear shock springs kept hitting my upper links! Somehow, I didn't notice CamaroTom's comment, but now that I see it, it's much appreciated buddy!

I wanted to run dual shocks, simply because I think it looks cool. I am committed to using parts I have already as much as possible, so I wanted to fit my spare Traxxas Slash rear shocks. They're too short to fit the rear shock mounts on the Yeti, so I mounted them in the sway bar locations and turned them into a hydraulically damped sway bar. Rad! I get the benefit of a sway bar, and sort of get that dual shock look. Maybe the coolness of my sway bar will push me to building this thing for speed... we'll see.

The downside to this Traxxas shock sway bar, is that it limits my suspension travel by 2 or 3mm. You could probably fix that by mounting shocks with the correct eye to eye/travel specs, which these shocks don't have. I also have too much damping currently, with 60wt oil in all 4 rear shocks. An upside is that with my rear track width narrowed to 10.5 inches, the travel limitation imposed by the sway bar keeps my wheels from rubbing the cage too much at full articulation.

Sticking with what's on hand, I started to throw in some underpowered electronics. Dynamite Tazer 3300kv system and Hi-Tec 5646WP steering servo that both came out of my old Twin Hammers. Being that I currently only intend low gear, bouncing speed out of this thing, these electronics should work, but if my sway bar creativity pushes me in the direction of speed, I'm definitely going to need nicer electronics.

I put a Spektrum RX (SR300) back in the stock RX box under the belly.




Last edited by Fallen; 03-28-2016 at 10:15 PM.
Fallen is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 03-28-2016, 06:38 PM   #6
Newbie
 
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: Kennesaw
Posts: 27
Default Re: Fallen's Yeti Build

I have never seen that shock mod before...outside the box!
wesleyb420 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-28-2016, 07:02 PM   #7
Newbie
 
Join Date: Feb 2016
Location: Sydney Aus,
Posts: 36
Default Re: Fallen's Yeti Build

how did you actually fit the shocks at the sway bar mount location? just bolt through the mounting hole or have you worked out something more inventive/strong

also curious to hear how much anti-sway is left as i've thought about that mounting setup myself
......both shocks would move independently wouldn't they?
Jubes is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-28-2016, 09:28 PM   #8
Rock Crawler
 
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: San Marcos
Posts: 659
Default Re: Fallen's Yeti Build

Thanks guys!

I don't really understand suspension engineering well enough to speculate as to how or if the different shocks might be isolated by different motion inputs. I wish I could answer your question.

To fit the shock to the upper sway bar mount, I removed the bolt that allows the jaw to open and close. Then with a slightly longer bolt and a spacer to keep the top of the shock vertical (not angled towards the center of the vehicle) I attached the upper shock bolt into that same hole. You can also mount the top of the shock at the front of the sway bar mount, to get a different shock angle. To do that, remove the bolt that the jaw rotates on, add another spacer to the bolt and install the shock there instead.

For the lower shock attachment, the stock Traxxas eye slides right into the stock Yeti sway bar mount on the axle, and is secured with the stock hardware. Easy.



I would imagine that the benefit of this system compared to a regular fixed length sway bar, is that this sway bar will still dampen out high speed swaying motion, reducing body roll, yet it will still compress slowly, allowing full articulation for low speed crawling. I hope I'm right!

Last edited by Fallen; 03-29-2016 at 01:36 AM.
Fallen is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 03-29-2016, 06:34 AM   #9
Pebble Pounder
 
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Douglas
Posts: 107
Default Re: Fallen's Yeti Build

Quote:
Originally Posted by Fallen View Post



I would imagine that the benefit of this system compared to a regular fixed length sway bar, is that this sway bar will still dampen out high speed swaying motion, reducing body roll, yet it will still compress slowly, allowing full articulation for low speed crawling. I hope I'm right!


Are you running a lot of rebound in the shocks?
lv-eg is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-29-2016, 07:09 AM   #10
Rock Crawler
 
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: San Marcos
Posts: 659
Default Re: Fallen's Yeti Build

As far as damping, I don't know. I've yet to get into changing pistons for the sake of tuning, so I don't know what pistons are currently installed in any of my shocks.

What I can tell you is that I have a ton of preload on my shocks that have springs, and 60wt fluid in them. I have the threaded preload adjusters maxed out, and then some Traxxas preload clips installed to go beyond that.

I'm waiting on a new WB8 drive shaft assembly to test drive this rig, and even then it's going to be a slow vehicle. My experience from downhill mountain biking tells me that a suspension system that feels good at low speed, will probably feel like crap at high speed. That being said, this sway bar might end up never getting fully tested on my slow Yeti, as I won't invest in nice electronics just for the sake of testing this sway bar idea. Maybe sometime in the future I'll build this truck for speed and get to fully test and tune my idea.
Fallen is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 03-29-2016, 07:37 AM   #11
Rock Crawler
 
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: San Marcos
Posts: 659
Default Re: Fallen's Yeti Build

So this is how it currently sits, and will likely remain for a while. No new body for now. It'll be sharing the cage with my Traxxas Slashes (last photo) that I built to look like Class 1 buggies. I only need a new rear drive shaft to finish this up, and then this will likely be my go-to truck to take on family hikes, replacing it's predecessor, the Vaterra Twin Hammers.

The body panels are cut & painted from clear, flat lexan and screwed to the cage. Simple.

The electronics are all installed and are:

Dynamite Tazer 3300kv system
Hi-Tec 5646WP steering servo
Traxxas 2065 shift servo (dead)
Spektrum SR300 RX bound to Spektrum DX3E TX





Fallen is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 03-29-2016, 11:23 PM   #12
Rock Stacker
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: simi valley, ca
Posts: 79
Default Re: Fallen's Yeti Build

Just because those shocks are bolted to the sway bar mount holes does mean they will act as a sway bar. The sway bar controls body roll by forcing the suspension to twist the sway bar in order to body roll/articulate. Your setup is just dual shocks.

Sent from my XT1030 using Tapatalk
am4x4 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 03-29-2016, 11:49 PM   #13
Rock Crawler
 
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: San Marcos
Posts: 659
Default Re: Fallen's Yeti Build

Yeah, after considering it earlier tonight I had reached the same conclusion; its basically just an over damped dual shock set-up with less-than-ideal geometry. Oh well, a swing and a miss... except that I still think it looks cooler than one shock, so I'm leaving them there until I see that performance is so badly degraded that I'm shamed into removing them, or draining all the oil from them.
Fallen is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 04-06-2016, 11:05 PM   #14
Rock Crawler
 
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: San Marcos
Posts: 659
Default Re: Fallen's Yeti Build

Thanks! I gave in and made some changes:

I switched to 1" wide Crawler Innovations wheels with Deuces Wild Foams inside of Axial Ripsaws in R35 and stock Axial hub adapters. The Pro-Line wheels gave me a track width that I preferred the look of, but the tires rubbed the cage too much when the suspension articulates, and being that I use this as a crawler/bouncer, I couldn't have that.



I also fiddled around with my janky dual shock set-up, and moved the upper shock mount to the front of the sway bar mount, and the lower shock mount to the aft hole on the UCFAB trailing arms. This gives the dual shocks a more parallel look, and softens things up. I also replaced all 4 rear shocks old 60wt fluid with 30wt fluid to speed motion up a bit.



This thing bounces quite well. The stiffness of the rear end really keeps it balanced when bouncing up and over an obstacle, and it likes to go nose up over, then land on all 4 on top. The Tazer 3300 system provides decent wheel speed for bouncing, and my temps show some room to gear up, which I'll probably do (low gear running only). I'm seeing 45 minute to 1 hour run times on 2S, 5000mah batteries.

The Hi-Tec 5646WP steering servo is definitely underpowered, and when it dies I'll want to upgrade.

Keeping this thing at low gear, bouncing speeds really lets me not worry about putting the radio in my 7 year old's hands. And he's happy to be driving the Yeti again, and taking more interest in finding bounce-able lines through rocks. He's done a few top speed, direct wheel hits right into rocks when trying to bounce up lines, and there isn't the slightest sign of damage.

So we're enjoying our Yeti again. I'm sticking with my Class 1 Buggy Slashes for speed, but those obviously won't be any fun in the rocks, where our Yeti and Wraith shine.
Fallen is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 04-07-2016, 08:18 AM   #15
Rock Crawler
 
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: HB
Posts: 946
Default Re: Fallen's Yeti Build

Does the rear suspension twist a lot or does the 2nd shock minimize that?
shiftauto is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 04-07-2016, 08:51 AM   #16
Rock Crawler
 
Join Date: Apr 2015
Location: San Marcos
Posts: 659
Default Re: Fallen's Yeti Build

When I had the lower eye of the shock mounted to the sway bar mount on the axle, that really slowed down the articulation. The benefit I noticed from that was that instead of rebounding from an articulation quickly, causing the suspension to push the truck on to its roof, the axle didn't try to straighten out until it was past the obstacle and the truck remained stable as it crawled through an articulation. You would get the same effect by simply removing the sway bar, but you can increase that effect by increasing the suspension damping.

In the position that I currently have it mounted to (on the trailing arm) that effect is decreased and the suspension just has extra damping.
Fallen is online now   Reply With Quote
Reply



Fallen's Yeti Build - Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
My yeti XL build domindart Axial Yeti XL 30 04-09-2016 02:42 AM
Yet Another Yeti Build Sh0rtBus Axial Yeti 120 11-03-2015 09:55 AM
Just got a used Yeti build Smonkman Axial Yeti 7 11-01-2015 06:09 AM
Fallen's Yeti vs Twin Hammer Review Fallen Vaterra Twin Hammers 10 07-17-2015 07:41 PM
My yeti build yfztitan Axial Yeti 2 03-13-2015 06:37 AM
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is On
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On



All times are GMT -6. The time now is 08:17 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Content Relevant URLs by vBSEO ©2011, Crawlability, Inc.
Copyright 2004-2014 RCCrawler.com