Cliff Climber from Sweden, build and mod thread

[us_scandinavian]

Bought this RTR climber from Towerhobbies and was already a reader of this forum so I had a list of “must do” modifications ready when the package arrived.
A test drive on the floor right out of the box showed funny moves when the servos was trying to more lifting the wheels than turning them with the axles weird standard caster angles.
And the rear steering was so weak you couldn’t believe that the Climber has four wheel steering.
So step 1 was to clock the axles, here the front axle - left position in the picture below – is done.


Easiest way to do this was to cut the bottom rod in half’s and lengthen them with tread rods, than putting a black rubber hose over and at the same time bending the links upwards a bit.

My first thought was to run this rig with a pair of standard six cell batteries that I use to my other RC cars, so I did a pair of Tamyia adapters. Therefore a set of firmer green Duratrax springs also was mounted. But the batteries was far to heavy for this little climber and when I found a pair of 2/3 battery packs for $24 I had to order them instead!



The rear steering got its aluminium rod removed and the servo link was modified at the same way as the bottom links and attached direct to the parallell steering rod.
First testrun outside finished up with two wheel drive – front left and rear back!
Then I removed the knuckles and fitted a small nut between the axle shafts and the dogbones to hold them in place.


Next fail occurred on the first test drive on some rocks nearby – got sand in the bushings against the dogbone shafts and nearly locked one of them. Bearings was already bought from eBay, so it was time to disassembly the axles to change the bushings, got some minor problems, got to cut away a small ring of plastic around the counter gear shaft when the bearing was wider than the bushing.



Made own aluminium bumper skid plates for a different lock and some better ground clearance.



Played around with some adhesives and tested a few different designs before I decided to go with this:




On this pictures the body mounting pins are moved to the lowest possible position in the stock chassie plates for a lower look.


Last pictures is from the first try with a new chassie, extended 1,25” but stock locking, if it seems to work well I have to drill some holes in it and give it a better look.



Next mods is shorter Axial 12mm black hubs (AX30429) thinks that a smaller rim offset makes it easier for the servos. Has also ordered two Great Planes gearboxes with ratio 1,7:1 because I think the CC it’s a bit to fast, remains to be seen whether I manage to get them there..
Somewhere I had seen a guy that has them mounted on the CC but with much shorter motors, I will try to narrow them so I can use stock motors.

[skeeter1255]

Nice ride.

I think the same thing happened to my bearing, im not sure if they did lock or not but when i reverse it makes the wierdest noise.

Does that happen to you? or maybe I have a different problem.

[nascarkeith]

Looks great. That paint job is original and killer looking.

[DuraJeep]

thats sweet bro i like the custom mods and thx for telling us how to do it.

o that wierd problem i have it to when i back up in the durajeep but i never thought it was that bad but my reverse does suck a$$ realy bad

[us_scandinavian]

Got the gearboxes from Towerhobbies earlier this week, ratio 1.7:1
They fit right on the motors and axles but is nearly an inch or 23mm wide so links wont fit. Had to narrow them a bit.





Made own housings for them and shortened the axles, the output shaft was 4mm and was turned down to 2.3mm. Also ordered bearings 4x8x3mm to replace the bushings.





Here is a test assembly with the new width, now about 14mm.
The motor is bending the shock springs outwards and upper link has to be moved to the outside of the axles mounting points. Also have to straighten my bended lower links too, but it seems to work with some modifications.
Just connected one of the motor to the speed control and it worked as expected.

When the bearings is here I will fine tune everything. Hope speed is more "crawling" than before...

[Nylintbucket]

Fawesome! I'm gonna get those gearboxes if I can't solve this clodstall issue.

[us_scandinavian]

Forget other motors, the stock motors are all that is needed, it is the gear ratio its hanging on! The GreatPlanes gearboxes gives the torque required - and slows down the speed to "crawler mode" - the low gear thats the CC lacks.
To compare with the 10T discussions this gearboxes would be equivalent to between 6T and 7T!
The rear axle has torque enought to spin until it is tipping over!
Full throttle is no longer necessary, the power is available from the lowest possible speed.
The video shows a 50 and a 45-degree hill, the front wheels spins but the rear wheels has all the time power to move the
CC forwards. You can stop halfway and then continue up, speed means nothing, it has enough torque as soon as it moves
forward.
I never did this test while it still was stock, but doubts that it had passed - maybe at full throttle, but that's not
how you should crawl..


Shocks tilted upwards for motor clearance


Upper link moved to the outside gave me enough clearance for a 16mm "longer" motor.


Also had to go back to stock straight bottom links for clearance.



Here is two vids showing how it climbs, or how slow it can run. here is a 50 degree hill:


And a 45 degree hill:

[us_scandinavian]

The upright position of the shocks loosed too much flex, so I had to angle them as previous. And because I could not move back the top mounting hole, I had to move the lower mounting hole forward. At the same time I took the opportunity to do them adjustable.

[han solo]

nice build my friend from the north.

[TimberKrawler]

Are the gear box's still holding up?

[us_scandinavian]

Originally Posted by TimberKrawler

Are the gear box's still holding up?

I had my gearboxes disassembled for inspection after 5 batt packs. couldn't se any wear och burrs inside.
Now they has been running over a month, 10 or more packs without problems.
Can´t imagine that the stock motors could have torque enough to rip the teeths of them.
Mounted as primary gear to the motors, the torque is low and the strain at least - I think they will last as long as my other stock gears. Most stress would be between counter gear and diffgear, there should now handle about double torque as original but they are still working to!

So this gearboxes give the CC the speed and crawler capability that it need, and clod stall is completely gone!
Now the total ratio is up from 28:1 to 47:1 (as AX-10 Scorpion has)

[fabil]

hi..

any new? the gearboxs still works well?

Thanks

[doubletrouble]

How is the set up working? Is it hard to narrow the gearboxes? Thanks for the info.

[73fordhighboy]

now that is CUSTOM great job on the gearboxes.

[us_scandinavian]

They still works great! I´m very satisfied, last project -I have turned a couple of steeldisks in different sizes for wheel weights that I put on the rims inside that I should evaluate when spring comes ...

Originally Posted by doubletrouble

How is the set up working? Is it hard to narrow the gearboxes? Thanks for the info.

I had great help of my micromill narrowing them, but a drill and some grinding with handtool will work. An easier way could be just to shorten the stock distances (tubes) and wind some insulation tape around to protect the gears from dirt and soil.