My WK Trail truck

[NickRummy]

Originally Posted by cammok5

is that the top speed stock.

It's a little faster than stock since I'm running a 2S lipo.

Sloppy - Bring on the balloons, I'm game for some swimming!

JIA's Dad - Sloppy and I were talking about using the 8-32 all thread through the whole rod. The inserts I have aren't a thru-thread design. I'm sure I could just hack off the last 1/8" of them so that they would be though. I might give it a shock.

I did some work over the weeked. I added some savage shocks. I ended up using the stock WK springs, lower rod ends and spring perches because the stock savage shocks were WAY to stiff. They are a bit long too. Ride height is awesome but the droop is just insane. I'll end up making some limiting straps or something.

Here it is mocked up with the new shocks and the swamp dawgs.





and this would be an example of to much flex





It runs great though. I need to lock the front diff if I want to crawl on the rocks. With all that flex it likes to try and roll over on the rocks too. I'll get that fixed soon though!

[Nitro]

On your links, try running a piece of 8-32 all thread thru 1/4 steel brake line, this is what I run on my comp rig and I have not had any trouble.
Plus it puts some weight down really low, it helped the cog on my rig.
(Just my 2 cents)

[NickRummy]

I've seen the 1/4" rod idea but I wanted to use the revo rod ends and I like the look of the arrow links diameter. They are about .300 diameter and match up to the revo ends nicely.

I actually found some raw aluminum that is the same exact dimension as the arrow shafts so all I'll do is buy the arrow inserts and this tubing and be set.

[pbfrk4life]

Very nice rig, like what you did with the savage shocks. The tires look great.

[NickRummy]

Broke my first part last night. Just the servo saver which I had plenty of extras from for my MT. It's supposed to be 70 here today so I'm hoping to take it on a little trail ride after work.

[pbfrk4life]

Let me know how those savage shocks work. I like what you did with the shorter springs.

[Creep]

Nice, man - I can't wait to get mine out and about for some testing. I think that much flex is perfect... but yeah, probably not stable. It's looking good though.

[NickRummy]

I put a good beating on it last night. It was finally 70 and sunny here so I headed out to the trial with my girlfriend, her aunt's dog fonzy and the wheely king!

I'll tell you what I think of the setup after the pics

Fonzy in attack mode



Bustin some donuts!



Found a little mud. I didn't get to crazy thought because I haven't water proofed anything.







I took some video but I didn' think it was worthwhile to post.

I was still running stock tires as you can see. They really suck. I can't repeat that enough. I did some rock climbing. It definitely has to much flex. The body roll is horrible. (you can see that in the pics) My lower shock mounts weren't sturdy enough so I'll have to move those. I'm thinking about just making some new shock mounts for the savage shocks that are higher than the stock ones then mounting the shocks to the top of the axle.

It did suprisingly well climbing too. The front end started lifting on seriously steep climbs. If I had limiters or less travel this would have helped.

I'm also thinking about swapping out the stock 27t to a 35t lathe. I don't really want to but I think I might have to scarifce some top end for some more bottom end. The ESC really heated up when I was crawling. That motor stalls pretty easily on the rocks and took a lot of throttle input to get the truck to get up over the larger obsticles.

Does anyone know what color savage springs are the softest?

[pbfrk4life]

Very nice. The way you have those shocks setup would be nice on the rocks, but are to long for normal driving with the spring setup you have. They definatly need tome sort of limiting strap.

I dont think its your suspension making your rig so wiggly on the rocks, it the fact that the wk's stock setup is so top heavy. If you had a lower cog then the shock setup would be bad i dont think. Your rig is basically a droop setup with external springs.

The rig is looking sweet. What happend to those Boggers you had on?

[NickRummy]

exactly, It's basically a droop setup. So when the springs aren't compressed the only thing I have slowing the suspension movement is the oil which is like 30wt (stock savage oil) which is nothing.... I know it has a higher center of gravity but its still not horrible. The motor is higher but I have no wait in the battery. I'm going to move that up front I think. Maybe put it ontop of the servo holder.

I'm working on the shock setup tonight. I htink i'm just going to make a taller shock tower and try to find some soft savage springs.

As for the boggers, they were just mock ups in the last photos. They weren't glued and were on stock wheels. I just narrowed a set of wheels today on my lunch break. They are drying now. I'll have the boggers mounted up tonight.

[theshimonator]

this builds just waaaaay too cool!

[pbfrk4life]

Before you do any more fabbing try running a higher weight oil in your shocks. This should reduce how easily the suspension unloads. Just run a nice heavy oil. That should fix your suspension problems. On the rocks droop is one of the best things you can have. You can also try limiting straps.

I dont recommend using the savage shocks any other way. With higher mounts they will perform no differently than the stockers. If anything they will make your rig way to tall making the cog worse.

[NickRummy]

Well I have to change the axle mounting points of the shocks. They will be on top of the axle now which is about 1/2" higher than before. So if I make the shock tower 1/2" higher there would be no change in performance.

At ride height the shock is probably %50 compressed. That is why I have so much droop. One side can still compress %50 more while the other side can droop another %50. If I raise the shock tower say 1" then just run a normal savage spring (soft) I'll have the same ride height, about 1/2" less drop and have 1/2" more upper shock travel. I really think this is the way to go. I won't be changing the travel, just changing where the range of travel is in relation to the frame.

[pbfrk4life]

How will you still be getting 1/2in droop with normal savage springs? At full legnth you should get no droop.

[NickRummy]

I was thinking since I'm adding 1/2" to the shock tower height that will stretch the shock out another 1/2" taking away 1/2" of droop but it all depends on how stiff these savage soft springs are.

Right now i'm running around 3/4" worth of spacers with the stock WK springs to get my ride height. I'm hoping that by stretching the shock tower up an inch, plus taking away those spacers that the soft savage spring will give me around the same ride height. We'll see I guess. I'm hoping to pick the springs up tomorrow.

I'm hoping that the soft savage springs will still be soft enough to give me a little droop.

[pbfrk4life]

Change over to a higher weight oil and run the softest springs you can. With a higher weight oil you will still get the droop and your suspension will be smoother and less springy. You can move the shocks up some and take out the spacers, that should work fine. Worst case is that you get no droop. Then you can just cut about 1/2in off the new springs.

You should try cutting about 1/2in off the stock savage springs, then relocate the shocks. This could work well.

[NickRummy]

yeh I think we are on the same page. I don't want to run to heavy of oil and I'd like to run no more than about 30-40 percent droop.

Remember, this is a trail truck and I still want the suspension to absorb jumps. If I run to heavy of oil it's going to hit the ground and bounce. If I run to much sag it'll bottom out the shock.

The biggest thing I want is to not run spring spacers and I want the spring to be touching the spring perch and the top of the shock when the spring is full extended.

If I cut a spring down can you stil pull the spring to stretch it out a bit so it still has the same length?
Another idea is simply to use two springs...... Maybe the nice soft WK spring on bottom then a firmer spring on top. I've seen spring couplers somewhere that allow a spring to be "stacked"

[pbfrk4life]

Yes you can still stretch it. I fugure just use the stock spings you didnt plan on using as a guine pig. You can gun off roughly 1/2in and if you dont like it they can be stretched back. After they are stretched they will be softer than they were before.

I keep forgetting this is a trail rig...my mind is always on the rocks.

If your running a 30 weight oil now try running about a 50 weight. That should keep the truck from botteming out after jumps and it should still absorb bumps well.

Dont touse 2 spings, they should make dual rate spings for the savage wich will perform much better and do the same thing.

EDIT- Check out theses springs- http://www.fullforcerc.com/springs.htm

[NickRummy]

Those look to be perfect. $6 shipping on a set of springs? ripoff......

I'll play around with some parts I have and see what I come up with. I ran 50wt in my WK shocks and thought they worked well. I think a lot has to do with how hard these tires are.

[pbfrk4life]

In trail running the tires arent going to have much to do with your suspension. Firm or not the tire doesnt absorb much of the bump.

Do they stock rims have vent holes drilled in them? If not drill vent holes. This will let the tire compress more.

Let me know what you decided to do with the suspension. You have me interested now, lol.