Turning my WK/CK into a trail truck

[road_rascal]

Right here: This was the only place I found that had them in stock.

[AlvaCracker]

I think your truck is awesome looking. The body is pretty sweet too. The wk is what got me into crawling and it was also my first Rc. I bashed it for about 3 years and sold it about 10 months ago to help buy a wedding ring. I do miss it though and I plan on getting another one soon as life can afford it. Look up alvacracker on youtube some time to see my wk videos.

[road_rascal]

A little update on my rig here. Been out of the truck modding phase for a bit (got that frakkin rc helicopter bug again so I've been messing with my 450's). I ditched the 4WS because I think it's really not needed for the driving I do (it was fun in the snow though). I also ordered a different ESC (Axial AE-2) because the drag brake was really bad on the stock WK ESC. The AE-2 on my Ridgecrest has been great, plus I already have the Castle Link. I'm also probably going to get a 35T or 45T motor to slow it down a bit and give it a bit more torque. Happy to say the CVD front axle and Solar D772 servo (with a 5A BEC) really improves the steering. I may be going to Colorado at the end of June to visit my parents, and since my dad likes driving my Ridgecrest I'm going to bring both rigs out and hit some major trails.

[road_rascal]

I'm going to try and fab up some sort of front bumper for this rig. It seems that to run scale classes I need a front bumper. Since I already know how to solder copper pipe (that's what the union fitters card is for right?) whipping together brass or SS brake line shouldn't be too difficult...

[road_rascal]

Hit the LHS after work and found a bumper set that looked good. Took a bit of monkeying around and a lot of head scratching figuring out a way to mount the front. Used a stiff piece of plastic inside the front grill of the body shell so that the bumper is sandwiched between. I would have taken a few more photos but my camera battery was low. Came out looking fairly decent. I'll have to dig up another section of plastic and maybe do the same on the rear. Also picked up a Novak Terra Claw 55t motor (I know I know, not the best but it was cheap) and see how that works out. The 27T on there now with an 18T pinion is still way too fast. Going to fire up the soldering iron later and get the leads connected.

[Mandetiger]

Could you post some pics of how you mounted the bumper on the Bronco?

[road_rascal]

OK- for the outboard screws/bolts I removed the back cover for the LED light buckets and snipped off the little chrome/ faux light. The black piece of curved plastic was from a front bumper mount for some unknown 1/10 touring car (it was on the clearance rack at the LHS and I grabbed it thinking it may come in handy one day). It looks cobbled together but it's pretty stout.

[Mandetiger]

Originally Posted by road_rascal

OK- for the outboard screws/bolts I removed the back cover for the LED light buckets and snipped off the little chrome/ faux light. The black piece of curved plastic was from a front bumper mount for some unknown 1/10 touring car (it was on the clearance rack at the LHS and I grabbed it thinking it may come in handy one day). It looks cobbled together but it's pretty stout.

Thanks, going to try fabricate something similar to put a bumper on Bronco.

[road_rascal]

A little update on my rig. I ordered the hardened steel transmission gears from RC4wd as I now plan on using this truck for snow bashing (well, running in the snow). I also put the BEC in a Traxxas waterproof receiver box and zip-tied it to the frame. I'll either try and waterproof the existing Solar servo on it or just buy a waterproof servo, probably a Traxxas 2075. I've been having a fun time working and driving this rig. Not the best at extreme crawling action but for trailing and light bashing it's been holding up well. Old photo posted from last year running in the snow.

[4wdbowtie]

Originally Posted by road_rascal

I'll either try and waterproof the existing Solar servo on it or just buy a waterproof servo, probably a Traxxas 2075.

The Traxxas 2075 is not that great of a servo, yes its waterproof from the factory, but it has plastic gears and the torque is not that strong. I would recommend a savox sc-0251 and use plasti-dip to waterproof it. it has metal gears and puts out almost twice the torque

[road_rascal]

Yeah, I know the 2075 doesn't have a lot of torque, but I've been beating the heck out of my 2 Slashes for over 2 years now and so far the servos haven't failed (yet). One of them I run with 1/8 scale buggy tires. I'll probably plastidip the Solar servo since it's easy to do.

[AXLE 69]

Very nice build man!

[MechanicJoe18]

I like your truck man.....i wanna make mine more of a scaler look like yours..��

[road_rascal]

Thanks for the comments. So far I've been pretty satisfied with the performance. It's a tad top heavy, and I'm still trying to find the right shock/spring combo setup. I'm not sure it'll ever crawl as good as my modded Ridgecrest and Trail Honcho, but it's fun running around on trails and goofing off in the snow. I'll get the new trans gears installed in about a week or two, and I'm contemplating extending the wheelbase out about 1/4" (1/8" front and back). Still trying to locate some rear lockouts, looks like the only ones available are from Hot Racing (STRC ones appear to be out of stock everywhere).

[road_rascal]

So far my WK/CK has been holding up well. Only during yesterdays snow bashing race course and impromptu demolition derby with some other guys I finally managed to break a part; the frame/ chassis. Right at where the upper right rear link bolts to the frame. So far I've only found 2 options: OEM frame or the STRC alloy chassis kit (which I can only find in blue, and I don't care about the color). I don't think I'm willing to drop $70 on an alloy chassis, as I think the stock plastic chassis is fine for 'normal' use. Getting sideswiped by a 9lb brushless Wraith at 20mph is not normal for this truck. I also installed the hardened trans gear set from RC4WD about a month ago so I don't see that failing anytime soon. The stock driveshafts are doing OK, but I'm not running monster power (yet).

[OSRC]

Nice, doing the same thing right now as well. My WK was set up as a Grave Digger build, but I've torn it back down to make a crawler king snow rig. Ideal truck for it since everything is up high.

I will say the STRC chassis is very nice. Really stiffens up the link mounts. I only paid $35-40 for it a while back, keep digging around and I'm sure you'll come across one. It's worth the $$. $70 is way high.

[road_rascal]

I went ahead and ordered the stock chassis from the LHS- it was less than $14. I'll keep looking around for the STRC chassis. Hopefully I can score a deal on one.

[road_rascal]

I put the new chassis side plate in the other day (easy). I also was messing around with different motor turns and pinions to see if I could get a bit more speed for the upcoming local get-together snow cross/ snow course. I gave up and slapped in a Traxxas VXL brushless system that I had lying around. I had to cut off the stock ESC mounting tabs on top of the battery box for the new ESC and cut a small hole in the battery box for the motor cover to clear (black plastic cap on the end of the motor) so that it would sit flush with the motung plate on the trans. I also had to cut the motor shaft about 6mm so that the spur cover would fit. Also needed a short wire extension as the VXL ESC wires were about 3 inches too short to get it to plug into the receiver.

Running on 2s with a 93T spur and 20T pinion I figure top speed was around 30mph- plenty fast for this top heavy rig. No problems powering through powder and snow drifts. Ran very cool, but it's only 2 degrees out so measuring motor/ESC temps are a moot point. I only drove the truck maybe a total of 10 minutes before my hands started going numb, but boy, was it fun! I'm going to price out some paddle or spike tires for a little better grip on packed snow and ice. The stock Mud Thrashers do OK in the fluffy stuff.

The sensorless VXL system does cog a little at super slow speeds but not as bad as I thought it would. I'm happy with how the truck drives. I'll probably go back to a brushed system for trail driving. I'll report back after the snow cross (on Feb 22nd) if anything breaks.

[dna4engr]

Nothing like pulling out all the stops to try and beat my wraith

Make sure you bring your scx10 too and try the course. We need more 1.9s

Dna

[fried daddy]

You got one of the best lookn crawlerkings I have ever seen . if your going for a high power bashn machine I'd say your on your way and that's cool but if your going to rockcrawl ya gota ditch that chassis. I tried every mod in the book to get mine to crawl but it just wouldn't perform on the rocks. When I finally built my own chassis then I found out how tough it really was. Man them things will take a beaten there tough, mine still going strong I guess what I'm tryn to say is I like it, great build thread