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Old 10-04-2019, 09:46 PM   #21
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Default Re: Fallen's HPI Venture

Took a hike today in Carlsbad, CA. I went to the MTB trails at La Costa where I used to ride my downhill bike.



It was a steeper and longer hike than the hike which toasted the stock motor. My Venture is heavy and the Traxxas 21t 550 motor stayed cool enough to touch the entire time. That time by the way was a 2.5 hour hike on an 80 degree, sunny day. My 3S, 5000mah battery easily lasted for the entire run.



I only rolled it over twice, during some mis-applications of the phrase "when in doubt, throttle out." Other than that the Venture did great.



When descending something steep, once the 80% drag brake kicked in the rear wheels would come up in the air a bit. But my heavy battery and weight on the rear axle would always calmly push the wheels back onto the ground.



The still forward weight bias came in handy a time or two.



The only problem I have now is a leaky front, passenger side shock. When I initially installed them the shock body couldn't move around at all, so I think the shock shaft moved around inside of the shock body. The seals on that shock are probably burnt now.

Dirt Grabbers tires are rad. I can't say they're better or worse than my RC4WD Goodyears in this terrain, but the Dirt Grabbers did well today.
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Old 10-05-2019, 04:50 AM   #22
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Default Re: Fallen's HPI Venture

Truck looks good and so does the weather. Lots of rain here so not out for a while. Glad the servo saver delete worked as well.
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Old 10-05-2019, 06:45 PM   #23
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Thanks. The servo saver delete saved my desire to drive this thing.

It sucks trying to drive a vehicle you can't control, especially when 1/4 of an inch is the difference between getting hung up or not.

And the weather, yeah, that's San Diego's strong point. The weak point? Home prices...
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Old 10-09-2019, 07:31 PM   #24
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I'm hoping to answer a question before it gets asked, and show you guys how I attached the Yeti cage to the Venture. There's 10,000 ways to do this, and the RCC crowd can probably figure all of them out on their own, but for those who want to know, read along.

For those unfamiliar with the Axial Yeti cage, it is designed to attach at the rear of the vehicle, while the front of the cage swings upward to allow battery access and maintenance. That's how I have it set-up on my Venture. Here are a few photos showing how I attached the rear end of the cage.

This shows the two hooks that swing closed to hold onto some structural member of the chassis. The cylindrical section pushes through a hole in the cage and is held in place by a body pin. Photo of that later.



These 2 pictures shows the pieces I added to the Venture rear shock towers for those hooks to hold on to. I used 3 rod ends and 2 screws per side. They attach to the rear most hole on the shock tower and also bolt through the upper shock eyes.





This picture shows the driver's side hook closed, holding onto the piece that I added to the Venture.



Onto the front! This photo shows the stock Venture front body posts flipped upside down. I drilled a small hole into the shaft and threaded a ball-end stud into the hole. Those ball-end studs are a Vaterra part I got off of one of my old Twin Hammers. Those studs go through the body and get a body pin holding the body down.





As stated above, there are many ways to put a Yeti cage onto a vehicle. This is how I did it on my Venture and hopefully it's helpful for someone to see.

Last edited by Fallen; 10-09-2019 at 08:17 PM.
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Old 10-10-2019, 03:38 AM   #25
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Default Re: Fallen's HPI Venture

Nice work. The Yeti cage looks ike it was made to fit there.
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Old 10-10-2019, 12:40 PM   #26
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Default Re: Fallen's HPI Venture

Thanks Mitch. I suspect that the Yeti cage was initially designed to fit the SCX chassis, and the way that it installs sort of confirms that along with it looking great on 1.9 wheels.

But someone at Axial probably decided to chase the 2010 era Traxxas models, and that a go-fast basher was what they wanted to sell. Hence, the Yeti was born. That's what I suspect.

Last edited by Fallen; 10-11-2019 at 06:37 PM.
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Old 10-23-2019, 10:08 AM   #27
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I ordered a set of Vaterra Twin Hammers trailing arms, as I want to try a trailing arm set-up on my Venture. The TH arms are only 1mm shorter than the stock links, so we'll see how that goes.

I added some new rear shock mounts (photos to come with trailing arm installation), and also had to re-do my rear cage mount.

But here are some photos of a sway bar I made up using a coat hanger and spare Venture bumper mounts:





I ran the coat hanger wire through the chassis rails, and went from there. The suspension cycles well up and down, but the sway bar doesn't activate until one side of the axle is quite far up into its travel. Maybe I'll try a firmer bar or tweaking some stuff to get it to activate sooner.

Hopefully I can pull off the trailing arm set-up and get some photos posted soon.

Last edited by Fallen; 10-23-2019 at 10:11 AM.
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Old 10-29-2019, 11:25 PM   #28
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Well, I can't leave well enough alone. My Venture performed awesomely, but still changes are afoot...

I mounted up the Twin Hammers trailing arms, and they fit great. The problem is that most of the arm is buried under the chassis, so attaching a shock to said arm is complex. I've decided to shy away from that project for now.

After somewhere between 4 and 10 attempts, I got a sway bar installed that actually works, and doesn't inhibit up or down travel of the axle.

I dreamt it up, implemented it, tried it and went back to the drawing board several times, but this is what I came up with:







What will it do to performance? I'm really not sure, as I've only bench tested it yet. I assume higher speed cornering and a more stable rear end will be the result, but time will tell. I switched out the coat hanger for some 3/32 steel wire from my hobby shop, and this wire might be too stiff. The sway bar activates almost as soon as one side of the axle moves up.

I know the arms that attach the sway bar to the axle are too long, but I'm hoping to buy longer rear shocks in the future, and the long sway bar arms are intended to allow for more down travel in the future.

I attached the rear shock lower eye to the link mount, and used my modded upper shock mounts to lower the top eye as well.

If anyone sees any glaring mechanical problems here let me know. This is at the top of my "engineering" game, so I don't really know what I'm doing here, other than observing what working sway bars look like, and trying to duplicate it with spare parts.

Last edited by Fallen; 10-30-2019 at 07:28 PM.
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Old 11-05-2019, 12:39 PM   #29
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Default Re: Fallen's HPI Venture

After the good ol' front yard test, the sway bar definitely effects performance.

The rear end articulation is limited, but it still seems to crawl okay because it forces the articulation to come from the front, where there is lots of it.

I got stupid with high speed donuts, and diving into full lock turns at full speed. Couldn't roll the truck over on loose dirt. I don't plan on testing this on high traction surfaces as destructive testing isn't really my thing.

A full trail run will reveal how much, if any the crawling performance is negatively effected. But I'll have some more changes made before I get this thing out on a trail. I think I've finally got the trailing arms sorted out.

I had one obstacle in my yard that rolled the truck about 2/3 of the time I'd try it. Since the sway bar I've made it 5/5 times and the last two times involved front wheel lifts high enough to fit at least 1.5 tires standing under the front tire.

Last edited by Fallen; 11-05-2019 at 07:38 PM.
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Old 11-05-2019, 01:05 PM   #30
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Default Re: Fallen's HPI Venture

'Likes' it. Some good work there. I intended to fit a sway bar on my K10 Ascender, but never did.
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Old 11-05-2019, 11:39 PM   #31
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Thanks Mitch! I suppose you can try it with your Venture now.

I got the Twin Hammers trailing arms mounted, and it was actually pretty simple. So simple that it took me 3 weeks and 5 or 6 attempts to figure out.

I used the same mounting hole as the leading edge for the lower links, but I moved the trailing arm leading edge outboard by using a long ass screw and 3 rod end eyes.

The blue circle is the leading edge of the trailing arm and the red shows the 3 rod end eyes that go outboard of the skid plate.



So now the trailing arms mount parallel to the chassis rails, and about 1/4 of an inch outside of them. See below.



Here's the passenger side arm mounted up. I mounted the trailing edge of the trailing arm on the outboard side of the link mount.



This is with weight on the axles and a battery loaded. It looks to be around 70-80% droop.



This is with the axles unloaded. The shocks I have mounted limit the down travel by about 5mm. I want to eventually buy some Pro-Line scaler shocks in 105mm to get full down travel.



I also put the sway bar back through the chassis rails. It just seems more secure and tied to the chassis to do it this way. Those clamps add unnecessary complexity.



In this photo you can see the holes I drilled into the battery tray to try mounting the sway bar there. As I said above, I tried like 10 different things before I got where I am now.



Even with these shocks that I don't really like (old RC4WD Kings) it's fun to drive like this. It lands jumps really softly. I guess with trailing arms and a sway bar, this is leaning back towards an Ultra 4 build. I really don't like breaking things, so I don't see myself bashing this rig, but I'm already leaning towards a taller pinion gear and maybe going brushless again.

Good thing HPI is selling Venture parts again...

Last edited by Fallen; 11-05-2019 at 11:45 PM.
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Old 11-06-2019, 09:09 AM   #32
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Default Re: Fallen's HPI Venture

A bit of "how to" here on my sway bar:

Everything I used to make it can likely be had from your hobby shop; 3/32 steel wire, 3/32 locking collars, some extra rod ends and eyes.

As far as tools, it was just a 3/32 drill bit and I bent the wire using pliers and my hands. It's pretty simple.

The trailing arms are literally bolt-on, with the addition of the rod end eyes and an M3 X 50mm or so (not exactly sure) screw to space them outboard of the skid plate.

My upper shock mount came from a Losi 22 buggy. I think these were the wing mounts. Looking back any flat plastic piece that is big enough would work, provided you drill some holes into it.

All in all these changes took me a lot of trial and error, and that's probably the main ingredient. But having solved that problem, the trailing arms and sway bar are very simple mods.

The trickiest thing now could be tracking down Twin Hammers trailing arms, as that model has been discontinued.
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Old 12-03-2019, 09:43 AM   #33
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Several recent updates here...

My trailing arms leading edge was connected to the chassis and mounted at the wild end of a long screw. Foreseeably, that much force on the wild end of a screw resulted in the screws bending. I don't have the tools to make up a metal brace for the screw heads, so I just bolted the steel links back in. That way, the axle is held in place by the links, and the trailing arms are only doing the work of managing the damping. Plus, it gives me some weight low to have the steel links back in.



I bit the big weenie and paid $60 for some Pro-Line scaler shocks in 110mm, which are just longer versions of what I have in the front. The rears have 40wt oil, which still feels a tad too light. 50wt might be the ticket. I've got a full inch of more travel on the rear axle now. Time to gear up...





I also stuffed some rock hard, Pro-Line single stage foams in the tires. The tires are like rocks now, and might be too firm to crawl with. With respect to Pro-Line, these are not the right foams for my tires, and I knew that when buying them. I'm using 4.19 Wranglers, and used the XL size dual stage foams. I took the soft ring off and just used the closed cell ring, but it's still too big and hard (which your mom never says)!

I also made a dual spare tire rack with my son's help. Can you Venture experts tell which stock Venture parts I used to make this?






My steel front bumper broke, when my 18 month old son got a hold of the throttle lever as I was holding the transmitter. Full speed into my solid wood front door, and this is what's left of my bumper. I kind of like it like this, and I'm just glad I didn't bend the chassis with how hard it crashed.



More to come yet. I'll probably be trying out a set of larger tires, to make use of these foams I have. Also, some suspension tuning will probably get done in connection to some gearing up. I heard a pro downhill Mtn biker once give this advice for suspension tuning: make your suspension as hard as you can, then go faster until it feels soft. I'll probably start in that direction.
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Old 12-11-2019, 02:55 PM   #34
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The name "U4eeya" is fitting for my Venture at this point. I took it out for a drive today, and it really likes to be driven throttle heavy over rocks and technical stuff. Much more like an Ultra 4 car than a rock crawler.

The recent modifications seem to have combined to result in a vehicle that really wants to use momentum to get up and over stuff.

That being said, I took the Venture up the trail I came down last time. It's a really technical and rocky downhill MTB track. Also, the dirt and rock was moist from recent rains, so there was less traction to be found. So it might really be the trail, more than the car which called for a throttle heavy driving style. But there wasn't really any crawling going on. It was mostly point and shoot rock bouncing. And it worked gloriously! It was pretty much get the front wheels on top of the first obstacle, gas it and hold until I made it up the whole chute. No broken or bent parts. The Queso Del Diablo steel links really take a beating, and hold their shape.

I don't plan to make any changes in the near future. The rear shock damping proved sufficient, and my firm tire foams proved to be an upgrade. No more soft tires folding over and letting the truck slip off line. The RC4WD Goodyear tires held their shape and clawed their way up whatever was in front of them, especially when turning. The lack of traction available means I really couldn't test how dry rock grip was with these firm foams, but my gearing provided enough wheelspin to get me up and over whatever I was trying today. The motor and ESC were cool as cucumbers the entire time.

I've got a Traxxas UDR under the Christmas tree, so that'll be getting most of my attention for the near future. My U4eeya Venture will likely remain as is, and be driven as my Ultra 4 car on hikes, with the UDR taking the spot as my open desert vehicle which I bring to the beach with my family in the summers.











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Old 12-12-2019, 03:13 AM   #35
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Default Re: Fallen's HPI Venture

Very nice build. And it's dry where you are. I still have loads of rain here.
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Old 02-23-2020, 04:14 AM   #36
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I made my sway bar look a bit more scale, and not quite so stiff, both of which were things that I was jonesing for.

I used most of the stock front sway bar kit from my Traxxas UDR, after I upgraded the one on the truck with a Hot Racing sway bar.

I attached it to the aft end of the battery tray, using some existing holes.

*

I added some plastic spacers to stop the bar from shifting from side to side, then mounted the linkages in their stock locations.

*

I also tried the longer linkages from the UDR's rear sway bar, but they looked too big for me.

*

The flex difference is moreso what I was hoping for. The rear does flex now, unlike with my previous sway bar set-up. But it's definitely controlled by the way bar. Here it is with no sway bar attached:

*

And with the sway bar attached:

*

With the bar attached, that passenger side tire is about an inch off of the ground. That's a 1.9 tire (3.85 OD) underneath the driver's side.

No overall shot of my Venture necessary, as you guys already know what that looks like. But here's a photo of the sway bar donor vehicle:

*
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Old 02-23-2020, 07:52 AM   #37
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Default Re: Fallen's HPI Venture

Nice work. My Venture is driving so nicely now I don't want to mess with it.
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Old 02-23-2020, 11:15 AM   #38
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Default Re: Fallen's HPI Venture

Thanks Mitch. Your Venture is also looking killer with that LC70 body.

I think this is the last bit of tinkering I'll be doing with my Venture, now that my sway bar looks more scale. I might paint the linkage, but that's all I can see myself doing.

It's almost sad when a rig feels "done."
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Old 02-24-2020, 08:33 AM   #39
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Default Re: Fallen's HPI Venture

After some more tinkering last night, it isn't "done."

I've decided to change it from the 4400 series unlimited KOH cars into a 4500 series Every Man Challenge car. I think that's a more realistic match for what the Venture started out life as.

So according to the KOH rule book, that means my trailing arms will have to disappear, and I'll have to get creative about mounting the shocks and sway bar together at the rear axle. Everything else about my build already matches the 4500 series rules. I've already stickered it with #4567.

I'll also be adding an FPV system to the U4eeya Venture. That'll make for an interesting challenge for me, both installing it and driving it from that view.
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Old 02-24-2020, 11:44 AM   #40
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Default Re: Fallen's HPI Venture

It will be cool to see what you do. You have some good ideas and that always gets me thinking of the next project.

If I wasn't building a Gen 8 pack kit I bought in May last year I might get another SBK or a used Venture and build something diferent. I have 2 and a 1/2 Vaterra Ascenders so why not 2 Ventures?
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