Elements: An Enduro kit build by SVT

[HumboldtEF]

The skid looks great, it looks a touch lower than I was able to get from shaving the tranny case down.

If the upper links clear, well done! its very tight in there.

Thanks for the pics

[Shinchu]

Very curium about this... Would integrated link risers be too risky? *molecular density joke here*

[svt923]

Originally Posted by HumboldtEF

The skid looks great, it looks a touch lower than I was able to get from shaving the tranny case down.

If the upper links clear, well done! its very tight in there.

Thanks for the pics

The solution to upper link clearance was brilliantly simple, I'll share some pics once my truck gets reassembled.

Originally Posted by Shinchu

Very curium about this... Would integrated link risers be too risky? *molecular density joke here*

I'm sure you're dying (of radiation poisoning) to know.

Too soon? RIP Marie Curie.

Upper link clearance was a limiting factor in dropping the transmission, link risers would have meant raising the transmission back up significantly or pushing the upper link mounts out away from the skid making the stock upper links too long. It was considered though.

[svt923]

Hello everyone.

How are you doing?

Wonderful!

Are we ready to continue our journey through the exciting world of the Enduro kit and chemistry puns?

Fantastic, I knew you would be!

Things are way more fun and engaging when it seems like I'm actually talking to you, the noble (gas) and likely bored reader. I'm waaaay less captivating and interesting in real life, if you ever actually encounter me at an event (such as the Pit Bull Off-Road Jamboree at Uwharrie on October 19-20, mark your calendars!). Never meet your heroes, kids.

Anyway, in the course of this sloppy, shoddy production, some kinda important things got skipped. Alloy me to fill those in.

Shock bodies: aluminum (symbol AL, atomic number - 13, atomic mass - 26.982), threaded, shiny.



Unfortunately, one of mine looked like a squirrel was gnawing on it up by part that separates the cap and spring adjuster. Only a cosmetic flaw, so I press on.

While installing the pistons on the shock shafts, I noticed the pistons had a lot of movement on the shaft. This is not what I remember from my last set of Associated shocks so a 3x5x.1 shim was added under each piston.



Much closer to what I expected the fit to be like.

The seal setup is pretty standard stuff but executed better than most.



With great might and the help of some pliers, I was able to squeeze enough of the last drops of Green Slime out of the tube to get the seals coated.

The lower cap was installed.



Then it came time for one of the worst parts of RC: filling and bleeding shocks. You need to fill these with copious amounts of silicone shock oil as they have a larger bore than most scale shocks.

Fun fact time: silicone is often confused with silicon. Silicon is a hard and brittle crystalline solid and the second most abundant element in the Earth's crust while silicone is a synthetic polymer made up of silicon, oxygen and other elements, most typically carbon and hydrogen. Silicone is generally a liquid or a flexible, rubberlike plastic.

And you thought chemistry puns would be all you get.



There they are all filled. The stock oil is 300cst which is somewhere between 25 and 30wt, I generally prefer a slower shock on a scale truck so I picked 45wt as a starting point. With the valve size on these pistons, 45wt ended up being way too heavy so things were backed down to 37.5wt. Seems good now.

For a change of pace, I decided to listen to the manual this time and set the preload collars 5 mm from the top.



Since measuring is for chumps, I tossed this 5 mm preload clip on for super fast, no-brainer even preload setting.

And we are done.



The pretty aluminum lower spring cups were a pain to press on all the way but I'm fairly confident they aren't coming off accidentally.

On a non-shock topic, I needed to shorten the wheelbase of my truck to fit the body I am planning on running. The Enduro kit gives you links for 12.3, 12, and 11.8 inch wheelbases, none of which were short enough for me. So here is what happened.



All of the suspension links Element gives you are the same so the 96 mm links that serve as the uppers for the 11.8 inch wheelbase became the new lower links but I was on my own for upper links. After much internet searching, I found a solution from the Associated family.



These worked out pretty well though a tad long, 88 mm turnbuckles would have been perfect.

Here we are sitting at about an 11.5 inch wheelbase.



Unsurprisingly, the stock rear driveshaft for a 12.3 inch wheelbase truck doesn't fit so well when you remove nearly an inch from the wheelbase. I picked up a second driveshaft end set and put together a rear driveshaft that is the same as the front.



I don't know why Element can't throw in an extra set of driveshaft parts to make a better fitting driveshaft at shorter wheelbases. Seems like a no brainer if you want it to actually be adjustable wheelbase.

So what body am I going with for all this effort?

As caesium says to water: Boom!



You see alkali metals such as caseium react violently with water and... right, the body. It's an Axial UMG10 because I exist at the intersection of "want a UMG10" and "don't need another SCXII". This was essentially predetermined from the day the Enduro kit was revealed.

How does it fit? Better than I could have imagined.

First, the cage's hinge mount lines up perfectly with the last hole in the chassis.



I trimmed a little off the back of the chassis rail to let the cage hinge further back. Also, a rear brace was designed and printed to replace the stock rear bumper mount.



The bed area required some trimming around the shock towers but nothing major.



It's alright but a tad unfinished looking. 3D printing to the rescue again!



Yes, I printed a spare tire because I'm either a genius that is saving the weight of an actual spare tire or a deeply strange man.

This is the secret of how it fits over the shock towers.



The cab is not secured to the cage at this point but I wanted to see how the 11.4 inch wheelbase body lines up with the slightly longer wheelbase. So some spare wheels were tossed on and....



Yes indeed, that will work. The front wheels line up spot on and the rear wheels are just slightly behind center of the fender. Not far off enough to bother me and I'm an obsessive weirdo.

That is where we sit as of now. I have about 8000 screws to install on the body and 40 parts to paint before this is a real truck. The UMG10 requires more cutting of lexan than anything I have ever experienced, my hands are still sore. Sorry this one was light on element puns, I was too busy cramming in the actual good information. I'll work in more next time come helium or high water.

[Topher Builds]

Nice compromise for the UMG10 Fomo! i like it.

Also a really big fan of that 3d printed spare tire. Looks like it came out really clean, did you sand it much or is that about how it came out of the printer?

[svt923]

Originally Posted by Topher Builds

Nice compromise for the UMG10 Fomo! i like it.

Also a really big fan of that 3d printed spare tire. Looks like it came out really clean, did you sand it much or is that about how it came out of the printer?

It came out pretty good from the printer but I used spray plastidip on the tire portion to give it a more tire-like look. That stuff covers any print lines after a few coats.

[JatoTheRipper]

I like those wheels! Are they eBay specials? And did you weather them or something?

Plasti-Dip on a 3D printer tire is a great iDeer.

[svt923]

Originally Posted by JatoTheRipper

I like those wheels! Are they eBay specials? And did you weather them or something?

Plasti-Dip on a 3D printer tire is a great iDeer.

Yeah, ebay specials. Not weathered, just a little shadowy in the picture.

They are actually for my 1.9 Wraith but they were sitting on top of the tire pile when it came time to grab something for test fitting.

[Cesco]

What a fantastic build. Love the humor, but also just a lot of good information and good use of a 3D printer. So, any updates?

[svt923]

Good day all.

It has felt longer than the half life of Uranium 238 since I have updated this thread. Well not really since the decay of that particular isotope takes 4.468 billion years but you get the point.

Much has occured since we met last and most of it was stuff that I was putting off.

Proof?

Oh, I have proof:



How did we get here? Let's review.

We left off with our hero (me) about to square off with his greatest nemesis: PAINTING!

Why do I hate painting so much? I'm not limited by weather or space, I'm not too cheap to buy the correct paint, I'm not even bad at it. No one really knows the reason but it sucks and I don't want to do it.

Regardless of the awfulness of the process, here are the results:



The rear cage panels were done silver on the inside then flat black inside and out for that "bare metal when scratched" look that never actually works. It is spartan and utilitarian which is exactly what a Mog should be.



For the cab, I chose Duratrax metallic red backed with silver. No deep reason behind this choice: saw the color at the hobby shop, though it looked good, slapped it on, and all worked out.

One of the bits that I needed for this body was the Knight Customs grill because the stock grill is bad and also Unimog.



I made up the badge so you can tell it isn't an Axial but people will still assume it is an Axial.

The KC grill requires you to cut away most of the front end. I guess it is supposed to be secured with hopes and dreams but I used copious amounts of E6000.



The interior required yet more painting.



My driver is wearing a gray shirt while sitting in a gray interior because why not? He's a happy dude, gray is the boldest color he can handle without getting overly excited.

See?



Dude is jacked out of his mind being in a metallic red Mog!

Here is a bit of the running theme on this truck.



The washers holding the body to the cage were printed after I lost the stock ones. That pic of the clear body on the chassis from the last post: the last time I saw the stock body washers.

Builds always start off with certain goals and one huge one for this truck was to have the body hinge just like the UMG10 kit.



And I succeeded. I succeeded so hard.

The cage hinges on the rear most chassis hole.



While the front drops into these mounts I designed to accommodate the factory UMG10 mounting system.



Only 2 body clips for super convienient access with no exposed body clips.



You may applaud now, it is well deserved.

One chassis mod that I had to make for the body to fit was pushing the receiver box more towards the rear of the truck.



The box lid was used as a template to drill new mounting holes.



It isn't much of a change but enough to make things work.

You might have noticed the not stock sliders in previous pics and you would be right that they are much different.



The UMG10 body leaves a large gap between the body and chassis. If there is one thing that I can't stand, it is egregious body/chassis gaps. The stock sliders weren't close to the right shape and the lower edge of the UMG10 body is easily damaged so matters had to be taken into my own hands.

Again, the Prusa MK3S is my friend. Peep the creative process:



Ultimately, I decided on a squared design that wraps around the outside of the body and captures the inner corner of the cab doors to keep them from being pushed in.

Functional versions were printed in PETG and bolted up.



My thought was a real Mog would want some protection for those exposed fuel tanks so that was the inspiration. Functionally, they key the center of the body in place since the body is captured inside and out.

No more body gap, body protection, and that other stuff sliders do; win-win-win.



At this point, it has been so long since the last post that a whole slew of aftermarket parts have become available. I have never been one to apply the mantra "run it until it breaks than upgrade" because if I was then this whole thread would be in defiance to those personal beliefs.

I'll run through this quickly:

#1 - Stock plastic hexes = lame



Samix aluminum hexes = not lame.

#2 - Stock plastic c-hubs that crack when installed per instructions = lame



SSD aluminum c-hubs = very much not lame

#3 - Stock diff covers = function fine, look like big, blocky dog shite



SSD diff covers look 10,000X better.

There we have a whole lot of lame replaced with a whole lot of not lame.



I am going to take this opportunity to stress how much better these axles look with the SSD diff cover so here is another picture.



This is not a debate, this is an indisputable fact. There is no argument or discussion to be had regarding the merits of the stock cover over the SSD because those merits do not exist.

And with that, we arrive to the Enduromog in its current state.



Obviously, the wheels and tires are conspicuously absent on this build. That is for the very good reason that I am undecided on what to run. If that is the hardest thing left to do, then I will definitely finish before June.

For those of you counting, this truck has 5 functional chassis parts that I have designed and printed plus the spare tire on the body. Build time goes up exponentially when you have to make your own parts. It is all worth it when we get to the end and I can confidently say "I have an Enduromog and you don't, na na na na ".

Oh and while I still have your attention, please enjoy these chemistry related puns that I could not work into today's post due to too much good stuff:

"Me take too long, that's phosphorous"
"I have included everything and the kitchen zinc"
"The Unimog grill is positively ionic"
"They protect the noble gas tanks"
"I beryllium got through this"

Tires to come later.

[durok]

Once again, sir - I applaud thee and thine most excellently engineered modifications!

[LincolnofDeath]

Things you have done that I love and applaud:
1) Create brilliant sliders
2) Front body clip
3) Found a happy place for your UMG10 body. Mine hasn’t been
really happy as a SCX10. This looks excellent.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[soze]

Nice update!

[GA Dawg]

Originally Posted by svt923

Why do I hate painting so much? I'm not limited by weather or space, I'm not too cheap to buy the correct paint, I'm not even bad at it. No one really knows the reason but it sucks and I don't want to do it.

Is it painting that you hate, or getting a body ready to paint? I legitimately enjoy painting, but I drag me feet every time I paint a new body because I hate masking it off.

[Jim85IROC]

Originally Posted by GA Dawg

Is it painting that you hate, or getting a body ready to paint? I legitimately enjoy painting, but I drag me feet every time I paint a new body because I hate masking it off.

I hate masking and painting. I've got a pileup of projects sitting here waiting for me to mask & paint the bodies. :(

I hate working inside of a lexan body. It's impossible for me to mask efficiently, and it's hard to get paint into places without getting runs. it's cramped and my hands don't fit.

I guess it's a good thing that I didn't choose a career in gynecology.

[svt923]

Originally Posted by GA Dawg

Is it painting that you hate, or getting a body ready to paint?

Yes

[Lashlee]

Excellent job!! I really like the UMG body and will probably use that after my Toyota body gets destroyed. Keep all of those 3d files handy once I get mine!

[svt923]

Alright, it has been long enough. Let's get this thing to a functioning state (of matter)!

Tires and wheels can be an awfully difficult choice and this truck was no different. My initial choice was going to be RC4WD 1.7 Boggers on a TBD 1.9 wheel but that idea was scrapped. Eventually, we landed here:



Proline Grunts on Boom Racing 1.9 steelies.

The setup is tough and utilitarian thus screaming "MOG!". The Grunts were an obvious choice, the wheels took longer to figure out. While doing one of my browsing of ebay listings for "1.9 beadlock wheels" (we all do that regularly, right?), I came across these Boom Racing ones. These are the old style of the Boom Racing steelies with the built in hex that are becoming harder to find. Clearly I found some in stock though or my Photoshop skills are out of this world.



Mounting the wheels was only a slight pain in the ass as the 2 halves almost line up correctly in multiple orientations but only actually correct in one. Mounting these tires was rough on the finish and quite a bit around the screws came off.

Also, take note the sweet center caps:



I had to take 3 mm off the length of the axles to get the caps close to fully seated. A dremel, belt sander, and M4 die makes this look like less than a total hack job.

Without further adieu, a complete Enduromog:



The stance is on point for a Mog, which means it is tall and tippy looking.

At this point, I'm just dumping pics so as physicist, Thomas Young, said when observing light moving in waves, take a look at this:










Sweet.

If you are the curious type, it does indeed function under it's own power.

I have made a lot of these threads where I promise to drive it soon and I don't so just refer back to one of those threads for a surely to be broken promise that can be applied here. At least the truck came out sweet.

Good day, sirs.

[soze]

Came out looking nice!

[B-MOW71]

Looks great Mr. SVT!

Great choice on the wheels and tires. They fit the look perfectly!