Szczerba's 2012.2 Secret Agent'd 3.5 Bodiless Berg

[Szczerba]

Picked up a Y-Town 3.5 Secret Agent.
Here: http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/chass...%2A%2A%2A.html

I have been running the Secret Agent 4.0 with great success on berg axles. I finally got the rig crawling really smooth and then Y-Town released the 3.5 Bodiless. I usually run a chassis for about a year then switch. Could't pass up the 3.5 after running the 4.0.

My 4.0 setup was here and was around 5lbs 4oz as of yesterday.
Szczerba's 2012 Secret Agent'd 4.0 Berg



4.0 with body ~6.2oz

3.5 bodiless with all the gear ~4.9oz

[Szczerba]

Links from the 4.0 were a direct swap to the 3.5. Some slight tweaks on the front uppers may be at hand. Might need to shorten them a mm or two.

Front Uppers:
Straight Links- 75mm (unthreaded distance)
Bent eye to eye: 109mm (Revo-Revo)

Front Lowers:
Straight Links- 75mm (unthreaded distance)
Bent eye to eye: 115mm (Jato-Revo)

Rear Uppers:
Straight Links- 105mm (unthreaded distance)
Bent eye to eye: 144mm (Jato-Revo)

Rear Lowers:
Straight Links- 115mm (unthreaded distance)
Bent eye to eye: 140mm (Revo-Revo)

Normal comp berg axles.
CCD tubes with CCD steering, front 300 axle shafts, rear RC Axle Master axle shafts, drilled ligtened gears. Stock locker out back. RcBro's locker up front.
Holmes Hobbies TorqueMaster Pro Handwound 540 Brushed motor with 12 tooth pinions.
Helhedded fabbed up a steering link several months ago for me. Beefy servo.
Vanquish steering knuckles with STRC C-Hubs

[Manning]

Another dude on a diet!

Plastic bodied SCX10 shocks are lighter. Just sayin'

[Szczerba]

Originally Posted by Manning

Another dude on a diet!

Plastic bodied SCX10 shocks are lighter. Just sayin'

I have the plastic bodies in the parts bin. I just bought these as a set from AmainHobbies.

I still have to purchase some other lightweight items in the future as well.

Don't call it a diet. It's a nutrition plan.

[Szczerba]

Cut to the chase.

SCX shocks with 40wt oil up front and 55wt oil out back.
Not internal limiters.
10mm external limiters for now.

[Szczerba]

Swapped out the old V6 Vanquish SLW's for some spiffy new D-Lux beadlocks with aluminum hardware.
Dropped about 0.5oz per wheel/tire/foam


Sanded the sidewalls on the Khoas-Rovers and removed about 0.2oz on each tire.
Tires were sanded before weighing them.

[Almighty Malach]

Originally Posted by Manning

Plastic bodied SCX10 shocks are lighter. Just sayin'

The gain in overall smoothness is well worth the few grams of extra weight. There's no point in going lighter if it makes the car handle worse

Looking forward to driving around ECC with you, I would really like to see the differences between the berg and xr axles on this chassis.

[Szczerba]

Electronics are Dual Mamba Micro pros with Castle BEC and HiTec 7950TH servo.

The tires I have been using since Oct 2010. Good ol' trusty Khaos-Rovers built by Crawler Innovations.
with Crawler Innovations Closed cell 5.5" inner foams
Crawler Innovations Front Soft outers
Crawler Innovations Rear medium outers

Found some old original Moon Buggy skins in the parts bin that Krawler Koncepts made up for me a long time ago.
Went ahead and recycled them into this build.

Truck is 5lbs 0.8oz with 450mah battery.

Excuse the iPhone pictures. Too convenient to not use it for pictures.

[JeremyH]

Nice work Shane!

[Szczerba]

Originally Posted by Almighty Malach

The gain in overall smoothness is well worth the few grams of extra weight. There's no point in going lighter if it makes the car handle worse

Looking forward to driving around ECC with you, I would really like to see the differences between the berg and xr axles on this chassis.

Yea, got alot of testing to do on this truck before then. There are differences with squat and anti-squat setups due to axle mount locations.
I was wondering how the XR axles compare in berg weight. I assume they are lighter.

Going to get a couple hours of testing in tomorrow.

I have exactly two 450mah packs through this new setup and all I can say is

I left the knuckle weight the same as the old 4.0 setup for now. I'll play with weights and shock/link tuning tomorrow.

The setup right now seems even more stable than the 4.0. I dropped about 4oz in RTR weight and I can really tell the difference. No more "pushing" of the front end, truck will grab better than a day ago. Not that the 4.0 setup pushed but the 3.5 is alot smoother overall, so far.
I can make transitions like it's nothing. Like when the front driver is in the air and the rear passenger tire is in the air, the truck is ultra stable.

I drive slow after two years of running pin tires. With the 3.5 setup, I just take it easy and work the rear motor mix and it will do some crazy things right now.

Sidehilling is beyond belief right now. It was good with the 4.0 but the 3.5 kicked it up a couple notches.

I started with the rear uppers all the way up and the front upper one down from top. Ran one pack like that.
Then moved each down one hole.
The rear uppers where hitting the chassis braces and limiting shock down travel before I moved them down. Still does it a little but it's now about when my limiters kick in.
I did notice some differences in the two link positions, time will tell where they'll end up.

More to come.

...

[Szczerba]

Originally Posted by JeremyH

Nice work Shane!

Thanks Jeremy.
This 3.5 setup is slick but I'll put enough of my "ghetto" touches on it to bring it back down a couple notches in the looks department. Like my recycled "Guns" skins. Couldn't help it. Secret Agent, old guns skins just sitting there. it works.

And yes, the skid is reversed.
Not pointed at you. But yer smart and probably have already caught it.
I can't get my electronics up on the axle so the rx goes on the reversed skid and the battery is on my homemade axle mount.

[Tgreer]

Good work Shane!!

[Harvo]

You forgot the balance point picture

I'm curious where that is compared to the XR and considering your electronics are in the chassis instead of on the axle.

Looks good... I knew you'd get the new chassis. Just had a feeling,

[eisman]

Rig looks amazing! I really like these new YTC chassis. Nice job re-using the Skinz too. You should post up a pic in Michelle and Rob's Inside Skinz thread to show the longevity of a well made panel with Inside Skinz.

[ROLANDROCKSHOP]

Fixn to go meet shane and do some practice/testing..ill get some pics/video of this sexy beast.

I'm shure duuuude thinks the chassis Is to light and needs a cheeseburger..

[Szczerba]

Originally Posted by ROLANDROCKSHOP

I'm shure duuuude thinks the chassis Is to light and needs a cheeseburger..

Blah ha ha ha , ha!

[Manning]

Weighed anything lately?

[jeepsohigh]

Really nice build Shane I look forward to seeing it in person.

I crawled with Kevin today and he busted out his XR secret agent and it is a thing of beauty

[ittybitty]

Nice work Shane...just like everyone else I'm looking forward to checking your and many other rigs out at ECC this year...so many changes have been made overall

[Szczerba]

Originally Posted by eisman

Rig looks amazing! I really like these new YTC chassis. Nice job re-using the Skinz too. You should post up a pic in Michelle and Rob's Inside Skinz thread to show the longevity of a well made panel with Inside Skinz.

Thanks. Those skins where from the my original "Moon Buggy" chassis. So they are at least 12-18months old. Maybe older.

Originally Posted by jeepsohigh

Really nice build Shane I look forward to seeing it in person.

I crawled with Kevin today and he busted out his XR secret agent and it is a thing of beauty

Who won?
Like you said, most of the sweet parts are the 3.5 secret agent chassis.

Originally Posted by ittybitty

Nice work Shane...just like everyone else I'm looking forward to checking your and many other rigs out at ECC this year...so many changes have been made overall

Thanks Ryan. I made a few changes to the rig today as well.