Any Monster Truck Fans?

[Fumbles]

Incredible attention to detail. VERY nice build. Would love to see a video !

[TheScaleAddict]

Originally Posted by rcdave13

I have been working on a Losi Micro Crawler monster truck build for the past few months and I wanted to see if there is any interest before I post pics. I know there aren't alot of MT fans.

All men like monster trucks. Hating monster trucks is like hating explosions and guns. Well, I suppose what I mean is that all masculine men like monster trucks. It comes naturally.

Sick work. Keep it up!

[rcdave13]

It's been a couple of years and this has been sitting on the shelf collecting dust so I decided it was time to redo the suspension and see if I can make it handle better. The way it was with the 4-link and single un-dampened shock with soft spring caused the chassis to just flop around and made it no fun to drive. The first step was to find a way to dampen the shock so I found the thickest grease I had and applied it in small amounts until it felt right. I have been testing this on my Rock Racer for awhile and it works better than I thought it would, good dampening and rebound. After some research I decided 2 Xmod Truck springs on each shock would work the best and give it the look of a progressive spring rate. I also fly helicopters so I have some ball joints from an Align 250 and think they will work well for the shocks. After overthinking it, the sway bars turned out to be easy, just styrene rod in an aluminum tube with styrene arms and paperclip links. The styrene rod has just the right amount of flex and resistance based on my bench testing.

[rapttor]

Oh man ! Your work is stunning ! Cant wait to see those sway bars and shocks on the truck .

PS:Oh and i forgot to ask.How does the styrene cage hold up ? I've also been looking for ball joints like that from helicopters but a big part of them are listed as spare parts ,so i cant really find out what diameter ball stud they are for (the losi ball stud is 3.9 mm).Please tell if they fit the stock losi ball studs

Thanks !

[rcdave13]

Originally Posted by rapttor

Oh man ! Your work is stunning ! Cant wait to see those sway bars and shocks on the truck .

PS:Oh and i forgot to ask.How does the styrene cage hold up ? I've also been looking for ball joints like that from helicopters but a big part of them are listed as spare parts ,so i cant really find out what diameter ball stud they are for (the losi ball stud is 3.9 mm).Please tell if they fit the stock losi ball studs

Thanks !

Styrene holds up good if built right but I don't drive this truck too hard. The stock ball studs are 3.96 and the ball studs for these are 3.45.

[Intashu]

I've pulled a handful of idea's from this in the past!

[rcdave13]

Originally Posted by Intashu

I've pulled a handful of idea's from this in the past!

Did any of them work out for you?

[rcdave13]

The hard part was figuring out how to attach all this to the axles. First I used a peice of antenna tube to extended the axles 3/16" to make some room and then I used my Dremel to make mounts out of Delrin that hold the shocks and limiting straps. To mount the sway bar to the axles I cut some mounts out of aluminum and screwed them in an existing hole. The steering arm is aluminum tube with styrene rod and short peices of threaded rod at the ends with Align 250 rod ends and ball studs.The smaller ball joints make a big difference not only for the space they take up but they also look alot more scale.

[Slambaam]

l i cant even handle your builds sir..... stunning

[Big Mike]

It's back!! I love this build...

The new shocks look fantastic...

[Intashu]

Originally Posted by rcdave13

Did any of them work out for you?

Couple of things yes, couple of things I had to modify. I tried to do a push rod setup for steering like you had and mine went wonky. but i just switched it over to a cable and it works.
Before and failure:



and modification and sucess!



Also never would have looked at my old xmod tires if I hadn't seen the smaller tires on your truck.

[rcdave13]

I added some screen in the grill, a front valance and painted the trim black. I lost one of the side view mirrors so I carved a new one out of styrene. Also added some lexan panels to the side of the chassis.

[Intashu]

this truck is perfect for a DNALLY 180 stokker motor I bet.

and which mirror did you craft? I honestly can't tell!

[chevy55]

The shocks, the limit straps, the swaybar's & shyte the whole rig look killer Dave

[rcdave13]

Originally Posted by Intashu

this truck is perfect for a DNALLY 180 stokker motor I bet.

and which mirror did you craft? I honestly can't tell!

I would have to change to much to fit a larger motor but I'm using the BBII and a good lipo so it has enough power for what I need.

Originally Posted by chevy55

The shocks, the limit straps, the swaybar's & shyte the whole rig look killer Dave

Thanks man, when are you going to add a monster truck to your fleet?

[chevy55]

Real soon!
I got all the stuff for a 1/24 grave digger project ready to go......Just need to finish a few more projects off.

Your build is a big inspiration for me to get crack'n

[Bigblockrockwells]

Did you make those headers?

[rcdave13]

Originally Posted by chevy55

Real soon!
I got all the stuff for a 1/24 grave digger project ready to go......Just need to finish a few more projects off.

Your build is a big inspiration for me to get crack'n

Cool, can't wait.

Originally Posted by Bigblockrockwells

Did you make those headers?

Yes, the headers are styrene rod and a drinking straw.

[rcdave13]

Drove the truck for the first time Sunday and it's like driving a different truck. It handles great and was fun to drive for about 5 minutes and I started to smell something funny and the truck was slowing down so I stopped and when I picked the truck up I could feel heat on my hand and it started smoking. Turns out I toasted a brand new Atomic BBII motor. It was obviously defective, maybe I should have broke it in, I don't know. Anyway here are some pics with the big tires.

[Intashu]

Bum motor. granted your pushing it hard too. xD