RCP BTA mount

[ruinx]

RCP Wheely King BTA Steering plate.

In RCP Crawlers efforts to bring the crawler community aftermarket Wheely King parts they had a BTA (behind the axle) steering plate made up. The object was to move the steering linkages behind the axle to help battle the hang up from the pushrods. The company that made the plate made it backwards. The plate will still work with some slight modification. I went down to the RCP shop to pick up a esc and motor and possibly test out the set up. Within seconds of running on the course I realized that the pushrods were holding me back. Brian came over and handed me a plate and explained that it was backwards and asked if I wanted to see if I could make it work, well it did not take long and here is what you need.
Materials:
RCP BTA steering plate (it is not on their web site but if you want one just e-mail them)
RCP universal upper link mount
TLT shock/link mounts

You will need a small curved file to shave the area around the pumpkin so that the plate will fit. Remove the upper link mount and the screws that hold the c hub on. Shave the plate till it fits correctly over the pumpkin. Once you get it to fit properly, attach the triangle shaped link mounts from the TLT Mounts, and attach the universal upper link mount with a 3mm .50 pitch screw from behind the plate (top hole). Once all the pieces are assembled mount the plate securing it to the pumpkin first. You will notice there is a gap on both sides where the screw for the c hub goes. You need to shim that if you don’t it will bend the plate and the servo wont fit correctly. Mount your servo. Ooh yeah you need to flip your knuckles over. Your link between the knuckles should work, I mounted my linkage on the bottom with a spacer to clear the pumpkin. As for the pushrod from the servo you can do this many ways but I recommend using the Al. knuckles and mounting a post on the far knuckle from the servo and running your pushrod to the post. It has worked for me. The post method only works if you have Al. knuckles. Here are some pictures of my set up I am not done with it yet as I will be making new pushrods to match my others and I will be shortening the post.
The plate Installed

TLT Link mount installed

Steering post

Spacer between link and knuckle

Spacer between plate and c hub

Random pics of my rig

[Offroader5]

Holy cow...that third pic makes me think of something from the "scary steering pages". You'd be almost forced to use aluminum steering knuckles with that setup (which I see you have) due to that very long spacer mounted above the knuckle. The stock plastic one in a single sheer setup like that would bend and tweek like crazy.

Looks like the tie rod is still down in harms way and could cause some hang-ups on the rocks. Has this posed a problem yet?

[chrisjlittle]

My first crawler build had BTA steering, and I never could get it to a point where I was happy with it, and that truck was a torsion rig with no links or shocks to clear. I can't quite imagine how having the tie rod so low is better than having it in the front, but if you like it, good on ya.
I'm guessing you spaced your tie rod down for clearance, for full steering throw, it seems to me if you carefully bent the rod, you could ditch the spacers and still clear the pumpkin and still have full throw, but gain a little ground clearance. What rod ends are those you're using?

[rambuller84]

I'll just say it. That looks like a big hot mess. I can't see how that is better than a good solid tie rod.

[DirtRacinFool]

Looks a bit cheesy to me, that long spacer on top of the knuckle looks like it would be a major problem, like Offroader5 stated in his post.
I'm all for a behind the axle linkage set up, but I have yet to see one for the WK that looks good enough for me to try, or buy.
I'll stick to the set up I'm using with 1/4" solid stainless steel stock. It may hang up once in a while, but it's taken some hard hits and has yet to be bent.

[Offroader5]

Originally Posted by rambuller84

I'll just say it. That looks like a big hot mess. I can't see how that is better than a good solid tie rod.

Better yet...a flexible tie rod I use solid .250" OD acetal rod for all my tie rods. It's stiff enough along it's length to put up with the torque monster servos without bending, but when you hit a rock with it, it deflects.

[ruinx]

ok guys here are the answers I plan on shortening the spacer and i was crawling on granite all day saturday an had no hang ups. there are many different ways to set this up if you get creative. so far it seems to work for me. The long pushrod is using lst rod ends and 8-32 rod with a brass sleeve and a al sleeve over that. I have yet to comp with this set up but when i do it will be my first so i qont be able to give ya the down and dirty but i will try.