Coming soon: Mastodon

[crazydave]

Hey all. My first post here, so be nice.

Just here to show off the new WK. Only had it a few days, but soon it'll be "Mastodon". (I noticed a trend with people naming their trucks, so I'm rolling with it.) I've had a vague interest in crawling, but not enough to put forth the effort (apparently). The WK seemed like a nice short cut for me.

So far I've:
-Reversed the chassis
-Locked the diffs with a kneaded eraser
-Built a pair of Savage shocks for the rear
-Did the 4-40 rod/brake line tubing/Traxxas ball joint thing to stretch the rear by 2 1/4" and the front by 1/4", for a total wheelbase of 12".

I still need to mount my Proline early 50s Chevy truck body, and Masher 2000s that I have waiting. I also need to score me a lathe motor. With the diffs locked the stock servo seems really weak, so that's on top of my must have list.

So far other than the servo, I've had no performance issues, and a test drive around the apartment left me really impressed with its ability to basically get over anything.

So anyways, enough talk, here's my baby:











So that's it for now. I hope ya'll enjoy my company, because I think I could get used to it here... you guys got my little thumbs up guy.

[crazydave]

Originally Posted by M715ForLife

why reverse the chassis?

To put the battery and the weight in the front. I don't know, just doing what I've seen the crawler guys doing.

Lookin good, but, why put in the savage shocks?:-P

Because when you stretch the chassis, you angle back the shock, reducing ride height and ground clearance. I've seen people do all four Savage shocks, but that sits a bit too high for my personal taste, or I'd have to lay them down to the point where it becomes too long for my taste, or I could make custom shock towers, but this seemed like the best compromise of everything I wanted, and the 60/40 setup transfers even more weight to the front. I have to say, I'm actually quite impressed with myself, because it has proven extremely effective.

[Natedog]

Too much flex and the shocks are too long.

[Shaun]

Still looking good CD, I think his truck will perform just how he wants. Hes a smart guy.

[crazydave]

Originally Posted by Natedog

Too much flex and the shocks are too long.

Well I'm new to this aspect of the hobby, so what are the negative aspects of too much flex. It was my understanding the more the better.

I like the way it drives. On flat ground the inside front wheel lifts during hard cornering, and that's kinda fun, but if it became a problem, I could with stiffer springs. Besides, I didn't think these trucks were really meant for running on flat ground. Out on the rock bed by my parking lot, I'm not even crawling, I'm just flooring it and its just sucking it up.

I think its really cool I can drive up to a wall and get my front wheels on it while the rear is still flat on the ground. Don't know if that's much use in real world crawling, but its really fun for me right now.

Hey shaun, thought I might see you here. I appreciate the smart guy comment, but I'm here to learn. I'll take any advice I can get, but for now, it does perform as I'd like, so people are gonna have to really convince me before I change it.

[getbent]

A lot of flex looks cool, but will often hurt you while crawling. Too much flex will allow a tire to fall into a hole that a rig with less fllex would just float across. The deep holes are the ones that you get bound up in, so if you can stay out of them it's better. I like about 45-60% flex in my rigs. I know it seems like the more flex the better (I thought so too at first), but try it with a little less flex and see what you think. It also depends on what type of driving you do, just experiment and you will find the right set up. Lot's of good info here, so Welcome and good luck!

[crazydave]

Hey getbent, thanks for the useful advice, and welcome. I will have to take that into consideration.

So when you say 45-60% flex, what are we talking about here, degrees of articulation, spring stiffness, other?

[mrpink]

Originally Posted by crazydave

Hey getbent, thanks for the useful advice, and welcome. I will have to take that into consideration.

So when you say 45-60% flex, what are we talking about here, degrees of articulation, spring stiffness, other?

make it easy... a little over a pop cans worth of articulation is about right, anything more gets you in trouble with no real benefit.

[sg219]

Nice rig you got started on CD!!

I do agree with getBent. I never really thought about that perspective, but too much flex will get you into jams. However, it is still up to personal taste and experience.

Otherwise I think you are definitely headed in the correct direction.

Can't wait to see the body!! I know you got some sweet paint job in the works and getting ready to drop!!

C-ya @ BP

[crazydave]

Originally Posted by mrpink

make it easy... a little over a pop cans worth of articulation is about right, anything more gets you in trouble with no real benefit.

Well sounds like the WK had plenty of travel to begin with, but my train of thought wasn't to increase articulation. I was just trying to keep the ride height up.

The "too much flex" thing came up at my forum where I regularly post, and I asked this question that I'm gonna go ahead and pose here, since you guys obviously have a much larger information base on the subject. It was: Isn't it better I got the wheelbase where I want it, and kept the ride height so the tranny isn't dragging? Now I could just dial the extra flex out with some fuel tubing on the shock shafts, couldn't I?

[crazydave]

Sorry guys, I guess I jumped the gun on that one. I'm not used to playing the role of the newb, so you guys will just have to bear with me.

I got a little excited when I got it together, and got a little ahead of myself, but I've been refining it over the week. In retrospect the travel on those Savage shocks was ridiculous. I solved my problem by simply putting the stock WK shafts in the Savage bodies. I didn't realize how much higher the back was sitting, but it seems to be sitting level now. I was being thrown off by the optical illusion of the top bar's angle, but if you go by the bottom of the chassis, and the tops of the shock towers its pretty much level now.




That helped my flex issue quite a bit, but I still need to dial out about an inch and a half with some fuel tubing on my shafts. I'm guesstimating about 1/4" on the front, and 1/2" in the back will get me right in the range.




I made my under body antenna mount by drilling a 1/8" hole in the top bar of the motor's roll cage. I was pretty proud of it, but I needed just a drop of CA to secure it. A 7/16 hole might have been better to jam the tube in there.




I had just snapped the Tmaxx shafts over the HPI drive pins, but I noticed the HPI ones are smaller and were creating slop. So I reamed out the hole of the HPI drive cup with a 1/8" drill bit, to use the Tmaxx drive pins, and its perfect now.




I just got the wheels on for mock up. Still need to score some lead weights, and cut the foams before I glue them, but I did narrow up the set of stock WK wheels.




Then finally the part that gets my panties in an uproar, test fitting the body. This is just a rough trim, still need to go over my edges with the dremel, at that point I'll open up the wheel wells more.




Getting there, I'm gonna take it slower now that some of the excitement has worn off.

[danielk]

lookin good. i like your 40/60 style suspension. looks great and should perform well for using all stock parts pretty much. fuel tubing will work perfect to tone down that flex. the body looks great on there btw.

[AMorgan]

Lookin good, those things are scary with only a few mods.

[SkwerlB8]

good lookin truck..cant wait to see the body painted up an slapped on! I've got a similar set up (60/40) on my wk..but im having issue with shocks..cant seem to get a decent flex when crawlin. Any suggestions? Shocks are mounted stock position..but are maxx fatbodies.

[SACCO]

~60/40 here too. You rig is lookin really good.

[yarddog35]

Good lookin wk, the body looks just right on there.

Not trying to jack this thread but to answer SkwerlB8's question the maxx shocks are shorter than the stockers so mounted in the stock position makes you lose travel and articulation.

[crazydave]

Thanks for the positive feedback. I was hoping to have some more progress shots for you guys after the weekend, but I spent all weekend limiting the suspension, getting the body trimmed just right, and getting it masked up to paint. Just got the first few coats laid, and I have to say, its gonna be good.


Still need to cut my tire foams and weight my wheels. With the weights my wife brought home for me, I'm looking at 56gm-front, 28-rear, or should I do 49-front, 35-rear? Any recommendations?

My new servo should be here today. (Thanks SG) I also picked up a 15 tooth pinion to tide me over until I get a lathe motor, but I think I need a bigger spur.


Soon very soon.... I don't have the patience for this kind of stuff.

[Shaun]

I had a 14t pinion and had to dremel the motor mount. worked great after that.

[getbent]

Starting to look really good! It's nice to see someone take others advice and use it instead of getting all wadded because they think they know everything. The pic you posted isn't too bad as far as flex goes, you could wheel it like that and probably never have an issue, but it sounds like you already tweaked it some more. Remember, he said a little MORE than a pop can, so don't limit it too much! Too little articulation is also bad, play with it some and you'll find that sweet spot. Everything else is looking great, nice work with using mostly stock WK parts. Now let's see that body painted.

[scaryclownguy]

Yep that looks good. I hope that that I can take the advice I see in this forum half as well as it looks like you are