BigStu's AL Fighters, Build and Re-Build.....

[bigstu]

So, this adventure starts with my crawler parts pusher, A.K.A. Mustangboy_347, selling me a set of AL Fighters about a year and a half ago. He ran them for a while and decided to go back to a more traditional style berg axle'd crawer. I kept running my XR-10 until I put together the Viper II - Almost a Berg rig.. Have been running that as the comp truck for all of the 2012-2013 season. You can read more about that rig and the build up here: BigStu's Viper II almost a Berg..
The truck has performed well, but has some issues that I am hoping to fix, more on that later..

One of the major concerns I had was spare parts for the AL Fighters. With SDS being a busy guy and not selling the AL Fighters any longer, I was on the lookout for a second set, or some spares.
Luck led me to a complete set of axles that were brand new and unused, thank you Chaotic Crawlers. Spares, check..

Evantually I came across a deal on an Evil Crawler Designs MOA chassis and a set of XR-10 axles. One thing led to another and the XR-10s went to a new owner.

A couple other puchases from a fellow crawler here in MI meant spare electronics, servo, and motors sitting on the shelf next to the axles and chassis.

SO, the sight of all these parts sitting in storage was just too much to take, so let the assembly begin.

Parts List

Evil Crawler Designs Chassis and lower links. Might switch to some Ti links in the near future.
SDS Customs AL Fighter Axles
Holmes Hobbies - Cobalt Pullers (Old School) 11t
Berg Gears - From RC4WD or RCBros, have to procure these.
Bearings from Fast Eddie
Tekin FXRs and CC BEC Smashed by Creation Fab (Chris the battery man)
Traxxas Big Bores with cap mod, hoping to shave them down.
Steering chores go to a Futaba BLS157HV
Going to run on 450mah 3s packs from Cheap Battery Packs. If the motors don't melt down, there are 4s packs from CBP in the box.
Tires are OTTSIX Voodoo gold dots.
Foams are Crawler Innovations with some tuning rings to stiffen the sidewalls.
Wheels are DE Racing modified by Rob_b for VP SLW Hubs.
Wheels are flipped inside out so I can use the small VP hubs and keep the weight down.
My back ups will be .700 wide lightened VP SLWs with my favorite Rover and Sedona combo, and a set of Evil Crawler Designs 3-piece G-10 wheels, with some silver OTTSIX Voodoos..
Body mounts are a modified XR-10 kit by Gunnar, love how simple these kits are and they work GREAT.


So enough gabbing, on to the pics. This is mock up only, final assembly will be coming soon..








And since this is a build and a re-build....
The Viper II is going to be torn down and rebuilt.
The biggest change will be the chassis.
I picked up one of the new Pitbull Chassis from Classis Cut Customs.
But in true rebel fashion, the cab from the Pitbull is going to stay on the bench, I fell in love with bodied crawlers again and don't see myself going back any time soon.
The current FXRs are going in to the above rig and are being replaced by a pair of Holmes hobbies BR-Minis. Going to do a self smash with a custom cut delrin bracket and possibly a mini cooling fan, to handle the big power.
Speaking of big power, motovation will be provided by a new pair of Pullers, also from Holmes Hobbies.
The axles will be torn down, new bearings, and some custom parts to move more weight transfer to the front axle.
A custom battery mount will be made off the back of the steering servo.
Most likely going to stick with another hardline body, or maybe something non typical. I like Camaros.. Hmmmmmmm..

Anyway, keep your eyes open here for more coming soon. More pics and the final assembly of both rigs..

Thank you to all the RCC Vendors and to OTTSIX for the contest...

[Chaotic Crawlers]

Looking good.

What did you end up doing with the al-fighters you bought from me?

[bigstu]

That's what I get for starting a thread at 1:30 A.M. I was sure Eddie sold me those axles.

So, as my buddy Mustangboy said, get to work on that PitBull chassis. LOL

So here is the update on the rebuild. Build #2..

This is what happens when the tools attack your crawler. It's amazing how long the take to put together, when they can be torn down so quickly.
Viper II separated from the rest of the pieces..



Since the axles hadn't been apart in more than a year, I figured it was time to at least give them a little fresh grease. In case you've never seen the inside of a set of fighters, here is what they look like.



Along with the grease, some new 30t Holmes Hobbies pullers were installed.
Front axle cleaned, greased, and the new motor installed.



Same treatment for the back axle, and the new chassis. Classic Cut Customs Pitbull.. Very nice chassis.




And just for grins, I tossed the old body on there and bolted up some G-10 3-piece wheels with some Crawler Innovations foams and some OTTSIX Voodoo Silver dots.
Doesn't look too bad, if I do say so myself. Can't even really tell that much changed..



Cleaning up some suspension details, body mounts, and some wiring and she will be ready to test on the rocks.
Keep your eyes open for more details. If the parts get here, build 3 coming soon.

[bigstu]

So the past few nights have been spent in front of the bench, at the mill, and covered in chips..

But I can say, last night was the first time either one of these rigs moved under their own power..

The first project to get some attention was the new Pitbull chassis rig.
Since the suspension was all set, it was time to move to the first departure from the norm.. Ditch the cab for a body.. I've gotten back in to bodied crawlers and don't see getting away from them any time soon.

So first step, recycle the old hardline body from the original truck..
I'll be getting a new body for this truck, some time in the future, but until then, this body will get the job done.

Pulled out my bag of Gunnar body mounts, and pulled together a custom creation that is pretty light and very strong.



The body fit like a charm. It rides a little bit further back than I was hoping for, but like I said, there will be a new one in the future.

Next step, MORE POWER!!!!!! These are DEFINATELY worth the wait.
A set of 30t Flow Pullers from Holmes Hobbies.
Gotta love motor jewelrey....

Keeping up with the MORE POWER theme...
I picked up a pair of the new BR-Minis from Holmes Hobbies.
I bought the speed controllers before John released the stacked pair or the stacker board.
I have to admidt, I was a little nervous about soldering on my brand new speedos. Guys, don't be afraid. Take your time and they will work out great.
They are very easy to work with and I wouldn't hesitate to stack a pair of these again..
I was a little involved during the soldering process and didn't get any pics, but I can give some of the details. First step was to solder on the motor leads. Simple enough, tin the leads and solder on to the boards.
Second setep was to cut and strip two VERY short sections of 14 gage wire and connect the two speed controllers. After soldering the two speedos together, I shrink wrapped each of the speedos to help keep out dirt and junk. Next, I soldered the battery connection lead, with Deans connector, and on the back side, the wires for the Castle BEC. A small piece of foam between the motor leads to keep the boards seperated, some more shrink wrap around the whole thing, and we have power.....

It was only when I tried to cram everything in to the Pitbull, how small the chassis really is. I'm considering a re-location of the batter and other stuff to get things laid out better for the future.. For now, this will work..





Then I had a moment of craziness.
I have been thinking about designing some custom 3-piece wheels. And since this thing was quickly becoming a little over the top, I said WTF.. Why not..

Ordered some G-10 and hardware from McMaster Carr.
Spent a couple hours in front of the screen sketching stuff out and then I watched something that made me draw and cut these.
Can anyone guess what I was watching?
RE-mounted my Voodoo gold dots, with some Crawler Innovations foams inside.







I tossed a battery in, calibrated the new BR-Minis and did some couch crawling.
This weekend she'll be on the COLD rocks, and I'll have some pics for show and tell..

[sally1800]

Originally Posted by bigstu

Can anyone guess what I was watching?

Coven?

[bigstu]

So after three continous nights of working at the bench, I felt I needed more.. LOL..

On to the Evil Crawler Designs Chassis....
I played around with different link designs, and finally ended up going back to the delrin links that came with the chassis.. I'll be replacing them with Titanium in the future, but for now, I think these will do the job.





The electronics for this truck was pretty simple. I pulled the smashed Tekin FXRs/CC BEC, that Christ the Battery Man at Creation Fab worked up for me back in the day, out of the Viper II I was running. They were in good shape and hadn't let the smoke out, so why not. Cleaned them up and paired it was a Futaba Servo to do the steering.
A little piece of lexan glued to the chassis skid and everything dropped right in the chassis. My Futaba receiver was attached to the chassis slide plate, via some double sided tape, and the soldering iron made the link between the speedos and the motors..



Speaking of the motors, I went OLD SCHOOL..
A fellow MiRCA crawler sold these to me about a year ago. They are a matched pair of Holmes Hobbies, original 400 pullers - 13t.
Never used, and came in the original WOOD box. I tried to sell them, because I was sticking with my Brood motors for this rig.
Then I figured, why not see what they do.. Putting them on the scale showed a huge weight savings, so lets see what old school does.



Powered everything back up, set the steering end points and the motors run great. You can tell they are a little old, there were some interesting odors coming from them as they warmed up a little. But that was to e expected..

One of the last pieces I almost forgot to mention for this build was the gears. AL Fighters don't come with gears. I decided on the RC4WD Berg Gear set for these axles. I will say this, AL Fighters aren't for the faint of heart. I was grinding on shafts and file fitting gears, to make everything just right. Overall, the installation went VERY smoothly, and the gears sound great.

The last two pieces for this build, are some bearings for the rear axle shafts, and Avid RC did a bang up job stepping up. I ordered them, and shipped them 1-2 day. When I didn't have them in the specified time, I emaild them. Got a call from one of their reps and he overnighted a complete set of the bearings I needed. Great customer service. Not something you see every day.

The last piece, once again, ditching the cab on the ECD chassis.
I had an extra hardline body on a shelf in the basement, so I pulled that out and contacted Michelle at Krawler Konceptz..

She did some fantastic work for one of my Clod monster trucks, so at the same time I had her come up with these.
Inside metallic skins. Paint will go on tonight, and with some luck, she'll be on the rocks this weekend..

[bigstu]

Finally, two more cars done...
Did a test run with the Pitbull, looks like it is going to need a shock oil change.. Was a little slow to react, but we'll see what happens.

The ECD chassis rig is also done.
Bearings arrived tonight. Shot some paint on the body, and did some 2X4 crawling in the basement tonight.

Here are the pics of the ECD chassis truck.

[bigstu]

Originally Posted by sally1800

Coven?

Ummm. No.
My fiancé said she thought I was turning Jewish..

Watched Smoky and the Bandit.

Trans Am Wheels.....

[Krawler Konceptz]

Originally Posted by bigstu

Finally, two more cars done...
Did a test run with the Pitbull, looks like it is going to need a shock oil change.. Was a little slow to react, but we'll see what happens.

The ECD chassis rig is also done.
Bearings arrived tonight. Shot some paint on the body, and did some 2X4 crawling in the basement tonight.

Here are the pics of the ECD chassis truck.

She's a beauty~!

[sally1800]

Originally Posted by bigstu

Ummm. No.
My fiancé said she thought I was turning Jewish..

Watched Smoky and the Bandit.

Trans Am Wheels.....

Sweet do you watch gas monkey? They are building his car right now.

[GEARSCIENCE]

Those wheels look sick stu. Let us know how they hold up today!

[ubbb69]

Hey Stu, it's been a while. Rigs look good.

[bigstu]

Thank you. It has been a long time buddy..

The wheels held up great and the heat at our comp spot wasn't working real good, so the soft tires did VERY well..
I know I'll be cutting some more in the near future.
The new motors and speed controllers from Holmes did fantastic.. Couldn't be happier.
A little tuning, some weight on the front axle and they will be both be on the money..