1/5th scale 6x6 flatbed, 4500 watts, 10s Lipo

[Irishchamp]

This build started a couple years ago with two Cen Genesis/Nemesis parts trucks. I wanted a large fast beast. I used a chassis 3-4" longer than a standard Nemesis truck, a direct drive center diff, powered by a Neu 1527 825kv & a Schulze esc on 10s Lipo. It was outrageous! It spewed gravel 30 ft behind it and with the center diff and longer chassis it stayed planted on all fours. It seemed bulletproof in the few times I ran it, the only problems I had were broken shocks in the back from flying debris and sand blasted rear arms, again from flying rocks.
Recently my 2.5 year old son has been REALLY noticing the rigs in my shop, "Daddy, me ride this" he says. I've explained to him that you don't ride them you control them with a remote but he persisted.
So, I got this idea in my head that I could pull him around in a wagon, take him to the park, for walks etc. We did a couple tests with the Wroncho pulling a wagon around the back yard, he approved.
Now, it didn't do a great job, but once you got going it was easy pulling.
The Nemesis XL with 4500 watts on tap and huge tires was a much better candidate.
I started by throwing a Summit transmission in it reducing the top speed from approx 70mph to 9mph, a final drive ratio of 80:1.
Now I'm sure that it would have no problem as a 4x4 pulling my son but that just wasn't enough, so into the parts pin I go and the 6x6 is born.
I haven't driven it yet but I assume six 7.5" tires and 4500 watts should make easy work of most putting tasks.
I'm going to hook it up to a Gorilla Cart, it weighs about 60-80lbs and is rated and tested by me to 1000lbs capacity. I'm hoping I can load it up with a cooler and beach or camping gear as well as my son and then throw the Wroncho or another crawler on the flatbed (yet to be built). I'm thinking snow plow duty in the winter too, I have two dif lockers waiting......think it'll replace my 12hp snow blower??
should be fun, I hope it lives up to my expectations, I'm really not sure what to expect as far as practical ability, fun factor I know will be up there. If it doesn't have enough traction I have enough parts for an 8x8!
extra chassis portion is pretty rough looking right now, scraped together with random stuff, I'm thinking I'll do an entire new chassis, one piece bottom plate for the whole truck.


with the independent suspension and fat tires its obviously not very scale but I'm thinking something like this with a big flatbed would be awesome!



Here it is next to a 1/16 scale Rally, the Body is a 1/5 scale Redcat body


Thats a Revo in the middle

[Irishchamp]

Progress:

[Irishchamp]

Bed is all mounted up.

[Irishchamp]

I think it's ready to go. Electronics are all secured. I just need to find a body now!


RTR minus a body it weighs....

[Irishchamp]

Now we just need to go camping. Trailer weighs 80lbs.

[Gula]

You should be able to pull that easily! I pulled my son 65lbs, daughter 25lbs on one of those radio fliers made of plastic approximately 45lbs with small cooler in the back with a rig that weighs half of yours on 2s.

[Irishchamp]

Took it for a quick spin, it definitely has no problem pulling my son and the trailer but traction is going to be a problem I think, uphill on thick grass it starts to slip. Wheel speed and a little momentum it gets over most basic bumps and up small hills.
I can tell you now I'm gonna want to lock up the rear dffs and put better tires on pretty quick, weight on the front bumper might be a good idea too. Also, the Esc has lousy reverse, it's more of a large scale heli & airplane Esc with a basic forward/brake/reverse mode.
I knew that traction would be the biggest problem even as a 6x6 but if I'm being completely honest I was hoping for slightly better traction and am a little disappointed. I'm sure it's nothing that can be remedied though. :-)
It's dinner time so we had to call it quits but I what to see if it'll pull me too.

Originally Posted by Gula

You should be able to pull that easily! I pulled my son 65lbs, daughter 25lbs on one of those radio fliers made of plastic approximately 45lbs with small cooler in the back with a rig that weighs half of yours on 2s.

[Irishchamp]

I swapped out the the Schulze esc for a mamba XL2 which only goes up to 8's. Reverse is excellent now, now quite as much wheel speed on tap though. with a lighter wagon I took my son for a walk, about .5 miles, half downhill, half uphill, the hills in my neighborhood are pretty steep, it sure was nice to having to pull that wagon or carry him. It pulled it like nothing, motor temp was 120, esc 85. I used 2500mah. I still wish it had more traction for the bigger wagon, with the lighter wagon, about 30lbs plus another 30, it pulled it over much steeper grass hills and rougher uneven ground. definitely closer to what I wanted out of it with 50 less lbs. Just for fun I got in the big wagon, it pulled me around fine on mostly flat ground but if the incline got too steep is lost traction, I only tried it on my driveway which is pretty steep, I was too embarrassed to hit the sidewalks pulling my self in a wagon :-) with me in the big wagon thats 300lbs. Again, power was no issue just DAMN TRACTION.

I couple questions I'd like to put out there.

1) both batteries I used were approx the same capacity but a different brand and cell count. a 35c 2s 5200mah pack and a 30c 6s 5300mah pack.
the 2 s pack discharged 1800mah, the 6s pack 700 mah. I've always ran matching pack in series but I don't have 4s packs, obviously these packs are somehow mismatched but could someone explain exactly what's the problem?

2)any suggestions on some grippy (on dirt and grass) tires between 6.5"-8"?

[OSRC]

That's an awesome project! I've pulled my little ones around in their wagon many a time, but never with something that big. Reminds me of a 1/5 electric puller someone build on another forum to pull himself around burning man.

Imagine the mud slingers would be best for raw forward grip in that size range? Maybe the Demolishers? Might be a bit tall...
40 Series Tires

[Irishchamp]

There aren't many tire choices in the size I'm looking for, the Mud Slingers look like they'd grab in dirt and grass. Those Demolishers are beyond huge! I've wanted some 40 series rock crushers for a while but I think they're a little tall and I do t think they would grip as well as the Mud Slingers.
I'd like to see that 1/5 scale puller from Burning Man!
Thanks

Originally Posted by OSRC

That's an awesome project! I've pulled my little ones around in their wagon many a time, but never with something that big. Reminds me of a 1/5 electric puller someone build on another forum to pull himself around burning man.

Imagine the mud slingers would be best for raw forward grip in that size range? Maybe the Demolishers? Might be a bit tall...
40 Series Tires

[Irishchamp]

Well I should have built everything I could out of heavy gauge steel, that or I need to add some lead weights somewhere. I slapped 20 lbs of weight on the flatbed and it pulled me in the big Gorilla Cart up my driveway which is a 6% grade. It did it with zero momentum starting uphill and not using any wheel speed, just relying on traction. Well I should say it did it till the slipper clutch gave out. I found some info on replacing the summit slipper pads with a tmaxx brake disc pad, under $3. I'm gonna try that but I definitely need to add some weight to the truck itself, I'm thinking that if it was 10-12lbs heavier it would be a perfect compromise of added weight without making it too heavy to carry.
I suppose I could redo the flatbed out of steel, I hate that I spent my time and money on it only to rip it off.
I guess I could permanently strap the Wroncho on the flatbed........

[Irishchamp]

Tmaxx brake disc pad works great, no slippage and no need to over tighten the slipper to get grip.



Comparison of contact area.

[Irishchamp]

Well I redid the chassis and a few other things. new wheels and tires are on the way too, they're actually here but I ordered the wrong hubs so I can't install them, grrrrrrr.
I've run into a problem.
I made the rear two axles as far apart as I could with the doggones I have but I also added rear steering, so its front and rear axle steering, the middle is currently stationary. This doesn't work though, when the rear steers it barely touches the wheel in front of it, I haven't driven it so I don't know if it will be a big problem. if the turning radius is good I don't see it being a big problem as I'd only turn sharp at really slow speeds. if it still has a horrible turning radius it could be a problem if I'm going fast (rig doesn't go very fast but still) and the tires rub. if both rear axles turn together it eliminates the problem.
However, this brings up a new issue; I'm limited on space for servos unless I completely fab up a new steering setup.
SO,
would it be totally crazy and ineffective to only have the rear two axles steer? I assume this would give better steering power/traction? before when I would steer while pulling a heavy load it would drag the back end when I tried to steer increasing the turning radius from bad to HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE. With the rear I'd have two sets of tires steering and I'd be steering from where the weight is attached. steering radius should be a little better too yea? not sure if two axles steering together would negate the decreased turning radius of rear only steering though. ???

Not much to look at but here are a few new pictures:

[Irishchamp]

So I took this rig with us to my family reunion and I'm completely baffled as to the problems im havig. The slipper clutch nut won't stay on. It literally unscrews it self within about 20 seconds of driving around at a couple miles an hour. I'm stumped. I replaced the nut, I even tried thread lock on the nut, same result. It worked flawlessly pulling a lot of weight before. Now unloaded it unscrews itself immediately.
Help me with the stupidest of stup problems, all the kids want a ride!

[silver falcon]

was thinking about the slipper nut coming lose. could you turn your tranny around and face it the other direction. then will have to reverse the direction of the motor rotation to keep it going the way you want. that way the slipper nut won't want to unscrew it self, it might want to tighten up on you on the summit tranny. but won't have to keep stopping to tighten the nut all the time on the tranny. just a thought

[Irishchamp]

I was thinking that too but I don't have room unless I change out the motor. it unscrews till it falls off instantly, my first thought was, had I turned it around but its the normal direction, so strange.
Come to think of it, I may have turned all the diffs over, that would mean I'm running in reverse, hmmmm. I'll have to investigate that.
thanks for bringing this up and getting me thinking on it

Originally Posted by silver falcon

was thinking about the slipper nut coming lose. could you turn your tranny around and face it the other direction. then will have to reverse the direction of the motor rotation to keep it going the way you want. that way the slipper nut won't want to unscrew it self, it might want to tighten up on you on the summit tranny. but won't have to keep stopping to tighten the nut all the time on the tranny. just a thought

[Perkolator]

red loctite? drill/pin the nut on the shaft?

[Irishchamp]

Both those things crossed my mind, but both would cause too much possibly of damage and or limited adjustment of the slipper. I'm in the process of flipping all the riffs over, if that doesn't fix things I'll try red picture.
Thanks!

Originally Posted by Perkolator

red loctite? drill/pin the nut on the shaft?

[Irishchamp]

You being Punny about the slipper NUT not staying tight or commenting on the truck?? elaborate, good, bad or other......

Originally Posted by jbondbmw

Wow, this is nuts!

[S1NN3R]

Originally Posted by Irishchamp

So I took this rig with us to my family reunion and I'm completely baffled as to the problems im havig. The slipper clutch nut won't stay on. It literally unscrews it self within about 20 seconds of driving around at a couple miles an hour. I'm stumped. I replaced the nut, I even tried thread lock on the nut, same result. It worked flawlessly pulling a lot of weight before. Now unloaded it unscrews itself immediately.
Help me with the stupidest of stup problems, all the kids want a ride!

Is the pin on which the slipper backplate sits broken or missing?