RickM's Berg BJv3 now bjv4 Build

[RickM]

I purchased a lot of this from a great member here on the forum and went to work getting into the MOA game. Tips and tuning coments desired, no wanted, no needed.

Info first
BJv3 Chassis
Home made delrin lowers
Traxxas pushrod uppers
Berg v1 axles
Brood motors 35t
Sidewinder
Punk Dig
CC BEC
Spektrum RC in shrinkwrap
Eretex Wheels
Proline powerstroke SCX10 shocks
Sedona/Rovers CI DD foams
Savox servo 86'd on the axle.

Please let me know what you all think of my build so far. What do I need to do to tweek and tune it?

[billj]

Looks like a great start With those Br00d motors i would get a hard 3rd gear and some 300's.

[RickM]

Good point Billj. My list of upgrades is as follows.

1. 300's
2. Tranny gears as mentioned.
3. Wantasummit's two esc adapter
4. Two Mamba Micros (?) if they will work on an moa.
5. smaller axle tubes.
6. a V4 chassis.

[strawb]

lookin sweet ... the herby color scheme is rockin ....

ive been running mamba micros on my bjv3 xr-10 without problems for 4-5 months now .... they barely get warm even

[RickM]

Strawb. That is awesome info. I have been wondering if this was going to be an issue. Also the Herbie theme is really more to impress my kids. I certainly liked the movie but my 4 year old and 6 year old watch it all the time. It was either go with a Lightnin McQueen or Herbie and I simply liked the herbie idea.

[RickM]

It appears to me that the BJv3 is really almost a plug and play style of chassis with the berg axles. Coming from a stock ax10 to a fb ax10 I am used to having to do massive mods to get performance out of it. I was looking for ways to enhance performance from my rig and came to a couple of conclusions. The rig starts from a more advanced starting point thus mods are "built in" if you will. The only improvement setup wise I can see is playing with the upper link placement, and inboarding the shocks up front (which as of now is next to impossible due to the axle. Any thoughts on what I am missing. My upper link mounts by the way are mounted at the screw holes holding on my side plates.

[McTwist]

Nice to see a Juice in the mix for the Dallas area.

[slowride1]

looks good rick i run a juice as well without the cab an i run a lil diff set up 2 holes in on the rear shocks an3 in in the front the uper links in the rear or above the bend in the chasis an below the bend in the front an im really happy with this setup im going to try an space out my links an the axles to see how it works for i see alot of guys doing this

[billj]

Originally Posted by RickM

Good point Billj. My list of upgrades is as follows.

1. 300's
2. Tranny gears as mentioned.
3. Wantasummit's two esc adapter
4. Two Mamba Micros (?) if they will work on an moa.
5. smaller axle tubes.
6. a V4 chassis.

Nice list Im waiting for the WAS adapter also, i think that will be the ticket for my DX3R. I have only had my berg running about a month or so. It does so much more than my shafty, i love it. My son (Rocky666) has the V4, it is a excellent chassis!!

[RickM]

So far from the little I have driven my rig is much more capable. I did some carpet/couch cushion crawling the other day and my rig get into a funny spot and would not roll. My FB axial would have flipped in an instant. I am impressed with this chassis. I am sure I have some setup things I am way off the mark on though. I am also very excited about the WAS duel esc adapter. I am no where near able to get rid of my dx3r, and I really like it to begin with anyway. If this adapter is anything like the 3 pos for a mech dig we should be golden.

[jeepsohigh]

Looks like a solid rig and the paint theme is COOL

[RickM]

Thanks all for the compliments. It is re-affirming after spending some stupid time getting this put together. I think I put in close to 9 hours with this thing when it came to me as a artr build. I will keep you all posted on how this goes.

[RC Shocker]

Please let us know what you think of those Powerstroke shocks once you get some runtime on them.

I run my shocks one more position inboard than the way your's is set up. At times all the way inboard up front.

However I have no experience w/ the ps shocks.

Nice rig btw

[RickM]

RC Shocker. I will tell you that these shocks are where they are due to length of them. I am running a skid heighth at 3 inchs up front and a little bit higher in the rear. If I inboard them any I will be dropping ride height and I want my front of my skid at 3 inches. The shocks are pretty good so far. One thing I did notice is that they do hold air on install which is fine if you don't want to run them inverted. The minute you flip them you notice a little of that air in play. I am trying to work that out now. I tried overfilling them last night and burping the air from the bottom (now top) cap. I then put some AE green slime on them and put them back together. Got it a bit better but still room to improve. I notice this when cycling them but when driving they performed really well on a the rockpile at the LHS this past weekend. Any ideas on how to bleed these to work like this would always be welcome!

[RickM]

Could not leave well enough alone. I did a knuckle weight project tonight and have a few very small things to call it complete. I will be posting pics tomorrow when the rig is ready to hit the road.

[RickM]

Alright. This is what the night held for me last night. Did a knuckle weight mod that was surprisingly really simple and helped me take about 2 oz out of each front wheel. I was surprised at how much that turned out to be. I think with a harder metal I would have worked harder but gotten more out of each wheel. These pics are mounted and the clearance tight but it works.





Correct me if I am wrong in my thinking here but to remove wheel weight will increase wheel speed, and by dropping the weight to the lowest point of the axle should require less weight overall to accomplish the same goal right???

[billj]

Knuckle weights look good, how are they attached? Is that brass?

[RickM]

They are brass. I took the knuckle off and tapped a 3 mill hole in the lower side of the knuckle. I then took the inside plate and recessed a hole to put the 3 mill through. After that I took the outside holes and drilled them for a 3 mill to slide not thread through. I then took the 4th and final (at this time) plate and tapped the holes for both the "holding" screws. My wheel setup really was good for this to begin with. I am running an eritex wheel with a recessed backside. I am also running the wideners from Junfac. I had plenty of room to work inside here. The washers are brass washers that I had to pick up from a specialty store. I purchased a drill press from Harbour a while ago and none of this would lay out near as well without that.

[hotrod2]

How wide are you up front (outside of tire to outside of tire)? Can we get a picture of the knuckle mounts? I am thinking about doing something similar setup.

Thanks

[RickM]

I am about 11.5 inches wide. I am pretty sure I am legal but that might just be a little wide for comp sake in terms of performance. Not sure yet. Will let you know soon.

I will post pics first and give a brief rundown of what I did.



Here is what I did. For description sake lets call plate one the plate closest to and mounted to the knuckle and plate 4 the outermost plate. Plate one has three holes drilled. I held them both together under my drill press and mocked them up to the same spot. With them now alligned I took plate one off and recessed a spot for a recessed 3 mill screw to go into. I then took all 4 plates off and clamped them down together and drilled the outside holes in them. After that I took plates 1-3 and enlarged the holes to make them just so big as to allow a 3 mill screw to slide through. I then took plate 4 and tapped the outside holes to be able to thread the 3 mill screws through to hold the entire assembly together. After this i mounted plate one by itself with the recessed screw into the knuckle. I then inserted the outside 3 mill screws and slid plates 2 and 3 into place. Then I tightened plate 4 in place and everything was clamped into place. I did take my dremal to the assembly to make certain my brass plates/washers would not hit anything on the inside next to the axle and on the outer rim surface as well. Hope this helps.