rag6's first crawler/scaler

[rag6]

Well, I have a couple cliff climbers on the way and weighing my options. I have been reading on here all day, and still have a couple of ?'s.

First off- I want to build a scale basher. Not much crawling, but a little. I am interested in off road /small jumps hill climbs and 15mph or so. I have a sidewinder free to use, but I want to keep it (and its connectors) stock. I would like to run 6-7 cells and plan on using the tcs proto scale chassis with stock shocks. My questions are:What motors should I get that will perform with a 6-7 cell w/13t pinions to get a little speed? Can I fit a 7cell subc between the rails? Will an HPI Rubicon body fit the wb? Will the stock tires work for trail bashing? I will probably have more questions as I go so I would like to thank any helpers in advance!

Will post some pics of the trucks when they arrive.

Later- rag6

[rag6]

Well, here they are!

[Jamus]

I am willing to bet any motor of the same size, Duratrax VR3 would be my suggestion, that is meant to go fast would work. I slapped a couple stock motors out of a china cheapo(wind hobbies ferret) mini and on 6-cell is was pretty quick. The VR3 is a really economical motor that performs, around $15 each. If you figured out how to flip the rear axle around, so both motors turn the same direction, you could advance the VR3 timing and that wakes them up.

[rag6]

Well, I just completely tore one of the trucks down. I see that sus mount b can fit both ways. But the steering is completely limited? I will search for it.

[rag6]

DUH! I should have read your post! Yeah the rear- right.

[InFlames]

Why are you parting these rigs out already?

[rag6]

Just 1. I bought it to get free shipping on my tower order. I may part #2 out at another time. But for now I just want to paint it and shelf it in case my daughter wants to get into crawling later. She has not seen it yet, but she likes her pede so Idk if she will be game.

I am worried that the tcs ladder is not going to match up with the rubicon wheelbase. I may have to rethink my body choices. Still want a jeep, but this will be run pretty hard so I want to stay with lexan.

[rag6]

I got tired of wondering when the c-trail chassis was going to be in stock, so I improvised.
Well she is officially a project now.









I flipped the rear axle, used 4 long steering drag links to extend the front 1".I think 1.5" rear extension will do the trick.
As you can see from the last pic, the wheelbase is not quite there yet. I still don't know exactly where I am going with this but I have a couple of issues to deal with. First I want to add some traxxas stampede front or rear shocks (prob front), and I may have to do some cutting to get more suspension travel, but it is a start.

EDIT: I also locked the rear steer with a short link to the rear (now front) of the rear axle.

[Jamus]

That looks good, way to use what ya got. I like the flipping of the rear axle too. Could you get a side shot with the tire off? I'd like to see the angle you have that flipped rear axle clocked at.

[rag6]

The first is the rear, second is the front (let me know if this needs clocked?), and the third is a pic of the rear steer lock.

How do I make links? I have a bunch of traxxas stampede link ends. Could I use knitting needles over allthread?

[Jamus]

Thanks for the pics. I don't know if that rear needs clocked or not, you'd probably be a better judge of that. If you could gain some clearance from the rotation of the axle, why not. As for making links, if the allthread is big enough then it doesn't matter what you cover it with. I run #8 with plastic rod over it just for looks, and probably slides better than the thread.

[rag6]

I haven't owned a solid axle rc since my lunchbox in 1989! This is all new to me. Been messing with stampedes for the last decade, and until 2 days ago, I didn't even know what clocking was! I was asking about the front axle. Should I clock it back to simulate front kickup like on indipendent suspension to help with steering?

Getting alot of info checking what the pros around here are doing and glad that you guys have shown your stuff for us crawlin noob's. It has helped me immensly, and I have only been around for a couple of days. If you guys see me making any mistakes, let me know, I can take it. Thanks again for your hard work and great ideas.

Next I will have to figure out the wb/links, and then on to beefing up the chassis.

[Jamus]

I clocked my front axle with a little angle, what you would call kickup, I think thats negative castor. Positive castor is what the CC comes with stock, unless I got my pos. and neg. mixed up. 0 degrees, i.e. parallel with the ground, would be fine. I noticed a huge difference in turning on relatively flat ground, overall improvement really.

[rag6]

I think the truck has found its direction ... monster truck. I put dual shocks all the way around. The springs seem ok, but the stock oil is too heavy (30wt?). A switch to 20wt should help. I used 2 r sus mounts from a madcap on the front axle for the dual mount. I cut the rear sus mount from the madcap chassis and used that for the rear axle shock mount.

This raises the ride hight and now I dont have to cut the chassis for motor/gearbox clearance. The clearance at the shocks full compression with the gearbox is at 1/4" front, and almost 1/2" rear. Clocking the front axle will give more gearbox clearance, but will impede servo clearance. I may have to cut the front of the chassis for the servo.

I think I will use the stock steering link for all upper sus links and find or make something just a little longer for the lower links. This will clock both axles into the ball park.

Well here is some more pics.

[rag6]

I was wondering if anyone could point me to springs that would fit inside the shocks, above the piston? I want to get rid of the ugly yellow springs.

[fixed13]

Originally Posted by rag6

I was wondering if anyone could point me to springs that would fit inside the shocks, above the piston? I want to get rid of the ugly yellow springs.

Larger shocks can use pen springs, I have not had the CC shocks apart so I don't know if they will work or not.

[Jamus]

The CC shocks don't have much travel to begin with. Adding internal springs may reduce it further.

[rag6]

I just put some in, and they reduced the travel about 1mm. I may still switch to single pede shocks, but these look pretty nice now. Funny how the pen springs are stiffer than the bigger stock ones.

I extended the chassis link mounts by using 2 sus link mount (a) and cutting them, putting them next to each other between the rails. The wheelbase is almost there. I still need the 4 steering links. I also figured out the sub-c 6cell stick mount.

I have done all I can with what I got with the 3 kits, so I will be putting an order together. I will get the links, connectors for the sidewinder and motors, softer oil, and some other odds and ends.

I see on tower, that associated has 19t and 17t 370 motors. will they fit the mounts? And also from the pic of the dtx vr3 on tower looks like a closed endbell motor. You can adjust their timing on it? I would like to pick them up because of the price.

This will be on hold till I get those parts, I will post something when I make some progress.

Thanks again- rag6

[Jamus]

Yeah you can advance the timing on the VR3 very easily. It's a surprisingly quick motor after that, have one in my 1/16" tamiya tamtech buggy. That motor even if it wasn't advanced may be too quick for a trail vehicle, fun rock racer maybe? For anyone else, you can only run advanced time motors if you turn the rear axle around, otherwise the motors spin different directions.

[RCer4Life]

That looks very cool. I like the direction you are going with this build. Looking forward to seeing more of it.