Colorado Comp. June 19th

[DirkDigler]

"Yay!!! Finally you guys are strating to admit that Clods are kinda capable on the rocks "


Actually......NO.....Clods still suck!!!!!!!
I'm going to build one though....just for fun!

There were certain situations that, clearly, the clods were better suited but it also went the other way. There were many areas that I watched clods struggle with only two of four wheels spinning. Our shaft trucks walked right up these sections. Overall though.....the clods came out on top. At the next comp......I believe penalties are in order if there is any siezure of forward motion for more than a couple of seconds or backing up. The Clods would really rack up the points this way due to loss of momentum.

[Ace]

The clods did rule the day, but I'm not ready to say they are better than shaft trucks... YET.

My driving style (right or wrong) is to crawl everything. I really enjoy watching the suspension work, I like picking lines slowly. Clods excell at momentum crawling. I may have to change my driving style.
Plus in shear straight up vertical how could you build a shaft truck with as low a CG as a clod? Maybe, but it wouldn't have the ground clearance (under the tranny).

That said, there are no style points in a rockcrawling competition so maybe the clods are the answer. Hard to say in one comp.

Also, every rock on the trail was roughly the same size. I think my wheelbase was "wrong" for that sized rock... Plus my damn truck was breaking all the time which makes it hard to concentrate.

Clods rule momentum and steep climbs, I think no one can argue that.
Shaft trucks rule off camber turning because the front and rear are the same speed (static friction -vs- dynamic)

All in all getting my ass whiped got my creative juices running and that's what I enjoy about this hobby the most.

[Grizzly4x4]

I believe at the next comp there should be a penalty for stopping forward progress for more than 5 seconds, an automatic penalty for 4ws, and a penalty for tires bigger than 7" tall. This should make things good for my truck.

[Ace]

If changing batterys incured a penalty I'd be screwed!

Them damn clods run for freakin EVER.

[DirkDigler]

It was those 55turn motors and light weight. I'm going to pop those new motors in tonight and see what it does for my run time!....if it ever stops raining!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What is this........Seattle?

[DirkDigler]

Griz....actually......the tire size should be an 8 inch limit.

[Grizzly4x4]

Originally Posted by DirkDigler

....if it ever stops raining!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! What is this........Seattle?

No kidding, this is getting ridiculous. I know we need the moisture but not all in one week!

[Grizzly4x4]

Originally Posted by DirkDigler

Griz....actually......the tire size should be an 8 inch limit.

No, cuz it's hard to gear a Clod low enough to run more than a 7" tire. I want the rules set to favor my truck.

Nah, I dont really care what the rules are, make em favor the shafties for all I care. I will still find a way to beat you guys.

[DirkDigler]

I just emailed the guys at IMEX, asking when we could get our hands on the new tire. If they are tall enough....I may go to those instead of the Kongs.

[PinchFlat]

It wasn't the clod as much as it was ME!... I RULE THE ROCKS!!! BITCHES!

Ok seriously.. We had a great time, a lot of laughs and BS and yummy burgers. I would have had a blast if I came in dead last (which I did at our last comp). Thanks Dirk... We had a great time. It was great to meet all you guys.

Know one mentioned the section where I had the worst score... it was more than double score of the next closest score (something like 9 and I had 22...OUCH). I was surprised that I actually won I thought it would be Griz or Kaetwo. And yes, the Diggler did struggle with the course w/o 4w steering - that Beomoth of a crawler.

Thanks again all, it was great. I'll try and get some picks up soon and some short vid clips. So keep an eye out.

-PF

[kaetwo]

The competition was fun as hell. It's great to see what other clans are doing and how there setting up the courses and such. It adds a whole new dimension to the crawling sport.

I found out that the Colorado Chapter of Crawlers are one narley group. Most of there rigs where so heavily modified and well built that they looked scale under the hood. Custom made chassis with turbo switches, worm drive axels, suspension designes only used in NASA type engineering. Holy crap these guys are hardcore. I'll definately use these guys as a fall back when my wife gets on me for spending too much time with these crawlers

The course was very difficult and required a sharp eye for the right line (or in DirkDigglers case, huge tires with 8 pounds of lead in them). It cattered to no single truck style and caused some great carnage :P . There where all types of challenges most of which I thought where impossible to tackle until one of the rigs would tool right up. I am still amazed at what these rigs will do. To add to the difficulty the rocks and dirt where wet causing a significant loss in traction. Then when it dried out the dirt left on the rocks turned to sand. Now it was even more slick . All in all it was very challenging and fun as hell to drive.

DirkDiggler did a great job of creating and hosting the competition. My hats off to you.

I'll get some images up ASAP. PinchFlat and I will have a video up just as soon as we get some time to edit the 2.5 hours of footage 8O .

Later

[Ace]

Hey Dirk, I heard there were tornado's over your way yesterday. Any of them get close?

[DirkDigler]

As a matter of fact....yes. The tornado that touched ground in Black Forest was less than 1 MILE from my place. It was sucked back into the sky after only 1 minute of touch down time. What happened was: After it touched down, it actually saw The Digler truck making short work of the rock courses with its newly adapted 4 wheel steering and it decided to retreat back to the clouds!!!!!
Yep....after getting the rear steering back in order, I went out and hit the courses. I don't know if I would have taken the top prize but I'll bet I would have had that Mag Mayhem!!!!!

[Grizzly4x4]

My hats off to PinchFlat and Kaetwo. When I first saw their trucks I thought "they are too long and wide for the size of tire they are running", boy they proved me wrong right away. Really showed me that the breakover angle lost from a longer wheelbase may not be as much of an issue as I thought. Awesome rigs you guys.

I agree with you Dirk, 4ws would have netted you the Mag Mayhem cuz I still would have given it to you for finishing 3rd.

We must not forget the most important element of the competition. A good driver! PinchFlat won because he drove his rig better than everyone else...period. Regardless of excuses...Bitches! (inside joke)

[DirkDigler]

Griz.
I just picked up a couple of the those Dynamite Servo skids. Do they just mount onto the face of the servo or what? It looks like the servo arm is what is protected...and that's it, right?

[Grizzly4x4]

Originally Posted by DirkDigler

Griz.
I just picked up a couple of the those Dynamite Servo skids. Do they just mount onto the face of the servo or what? It looks like the servo arm is what is protected...and that's it, right?

Cool, I was really happy with mine. Yes they just mount to the face of the servo using the existing 4 screws. I put it on because I kept bending the aluminum arm back into the case when I would drive into a rock. The servo skid protects the arm and also helps to slide over stuff.
If they do anything more than that I dont know what it is.

[jtothec]

i tried to let you guys in on the 55 turn motors but all i got was a bunch of skeptical posts that dumped on the motors and people that wanted to test them out for free! Oh the irony that you got spanked buy those same motors. no hard feelings though.

[sig_p232]

Looked great, sorry i missed it. I cant wait to see more on the cd's. I too had a wedding, but will be ready to crawl next time,
Nate

[Plays_with_Toys]

Looks like alot of fun. I don't think I would've made it past where diglers truck is, with how narrow my truck is, it would have ended the run there

Where's the waterfall? That's what I wanted to see, it received so much hype and all ;)

Wish I could have made it, wish I would have had a truck to run too, but maybe next time. When is the next Colorado event? I know I read about a utah trip in late july, but thats much too much for me.

[DirkDigler]

Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2004 2:14 pm Post subject: Re: Colorado Comp. June 19th

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"i tried to let you guys in on the 55 turn motors but all i got was a bunch of skeptical posts that dumped on the motors and people that wanted to test them out for free! Oh the irony that you got spanked buy those same motors. no hard feelings though "

First of all....no one was "spanked" because of any particular motors. That's rediculous! They may have added to make a good winning combination but the motors didn't win the event. Those motors seem to help the clods because it's hard to gear them down enough to gain torque. The few people that I have heard test them, have hated them. They also used shaft driven trucks to test them out. I bought two of these motors from Kaetwo and I am going to try them out. I will give my feedback once I test them. I hope they work well for me in my shaft driven trucks. If not, I am going to build a clod and they will reside there in the future.