[Build thread]: From a Chevy, to a Ford and finaly Jeep!! (warning! lots of images!)

[Intashu]

This is the life of my Losi micro crawler. It has gone through three versions of modifications as I seek what it was I wanted out of my crawler. I believe I am almost finished with the final build and it's time to share what I have done, and explain how I did it.

[Feel free to ask questions, about any of the editions on any of the mods I have done and I will do my best to answer them, however do NOT link the first post because we really dont need to see ALL the pictures multiple times on multiple pages. you can quote a single image if you'd like to help explain what you mean however.

Opinions are welcome as well, it's always good to hear other's ideas!

I hardly got it out of the box and immediately looked into how to widen it. it toppled way too much!

darn flash.... anyways, the right side is with the cut hub widen trick, the left is stock, to show the difference. I ended up using a nail, a drill and a exacto-knife to cut them and superglue to hold them together!

Flex testing, this is about how far it can go without lifting tires off the ground with the stock setup. Any more flex (which i could do) would lift a tire because of these stiff shocks.

I found some "Mega Tread" toys from Fleet farm (also avalable at walmart) that when you chip out the center the cut out rims that come with the crawler fits perfectly into. thus it gives me MONSTER TRUCK tires with a perfect rotation (no centering issues) and the rubber on these is ridiculousness soft with lots of tread options!

Well, I didnt like the body it came with, it was too..... stock. so I found a 51 chevy grave digger... and this is the result..


It was tippy with the darn stiff shocks, so I used a hairtie in the rubber band trick. it allowed the suspension to flex completely, but would keep the axial at the lowest point. thus lowering the Center of Gravity.

Course I couldnt leave the body stock either so I made it a honcho out of brass.


Course this is only the FIRST edition of the truck....

[Intashu]

Well.... this is where I got excited....

blade SMC 4.5 chassis arrived...


ditched the heavy metal chevy body and went ford.


course I kept the mega tread tires... and it performed incredibly well. it literally was able to roll over everything.
I convinced my dad to get a trekker, he kept his stock... and mine was able to crawl over terrain he couldn't even get into. where he had difficulty clearing I was able to go full speed over and beyond.


made a brass bumper, added chains, working key spring type winch


AND for example, here is the stock trekkers...



Of course enough is never enough. I had to have my honcho back... more brass, more paint, and alot of dremel...


and the final edition of the 2nd version of the crawler... I didnt take a picture where the back had all the details added back into it. silly me. but this is very close...


needed new fenders because I overcut my last ones.
that's a xmod truck body btw, if your hardcore xmod your probably crying a little inside at what I have done to it. you can't get them anymore!



One of the final mods I made was narrow front chassis on the SMC to allow a better steering stance

It required a new servo set up to clear the springs so... more wire!



Without a doubt this is the way to go if you want performance. However, I was bummed that it was TOO good. there wasnt a challenge anymore. it was simply too big for how small it was. but too small for the big stuff.


so I went onwards to my final scale build version 3....

and since friends dont let friends drive ford... i went jeep.

[Intashu]

And here is the build thread part of this long post. by far the hardest part... since it required the most work... in fact, at the time of posting it isnt even done yet and I can continue to post as it comes to completion!

SCORE! ten dollars UNOPENED!

About halfway into this build I learned these are really rare and worth $75 and up in value for a mint condition one like I had...
no turning back now that I had it opened and apart!

I at this time ordered the losi 1:36 micro desert tires and suspension, and a mini-T ball end set for the link. Going 3 link suspension up front and leafs in the rear.

had to think.... whats a color I havent seen much on a jeep?
Got it... Purple.


Here are test fits...

[Intashu]

Got the Rear axial mounted to the jeep frame. I wanted to go SMC with this one but simply put, the frame is too large, and lifted the axials too far off the body.

[Intashu]

Got 2 of the links on the front, and got the work done to mount the steering backwards. it required me to cut one screw out of the axial and made a custom link between the tires, but it allows me to better hid the servo and make the truck look more scale.


and a few more test fits. still no springs on the front, working on the mounts, so i got a tire propping up the front frame.




I got a LOT more pictures along all three versions of this truck if you got questions I probably have more pictures to explain it!

[Intashu]

Found this image laying around too, the 2nd edition of the truck with the chevy body on it...


I got tons of images of stuff I've done, just need people to ask questions that give me an excuse to post them!

[Intashu]

Got the front tires mounted. the Knuckles got in the way of the tires since they are signifigantly smaller.... so.... dremel dremel dremel...


Now they fit with no resistance! sure it's a little weaker, but at this scale it's overbuilt anyways.

[Intashu]

Originally Posted by kakachille

looks sweeeeet lol

Thanks! I wish I had 4 of these trucks because every time I do something to it I absolutely love it!
Alas I wanted a completely custom truck, and I wanted it to be harder to crawl with for the challenge...

[Intashu]

Got the rear shocks installed. Why I installed rear shocks when it has leaf springs you ask?
Because I found some rechargable AAA 1.2v batteries, thats why. They will be mounted mid chassis along the transmission and rough estimates it will give me the standard 4.8v and an HOUR of run time. It isnt Lipo, but I wont have to charge the thing every 10-20 minutes. so I'd say it's worth it to have more time on the rocks and less time waiting for batteries!


the pin that holds them together slots into a notch I cut under the trunk of the jeep. this will hold it in place while allowing it to flex easily.

Other updates include I have begun working on the top two links. they mount to the firewall of the jeep. it twists the axial a little more than I think is necessarily but it works just fine. got to do a few more chassis braces before I can show pictures of the link setup.

[Intashu]

Went with a 3 link suspension up front. and I got the servo mounted. mounted the servo BEHIND the transmission with a push rod to the front L bracket.


And here is the pushrod setup:




Last things to do are batteries, and the front shock's plus the mounting for everything. It's starting to look more like a truck and less like a mess on my desk!

Here is the L bracket.... Donation from a Coke can.

[Intashu]

Finally! got the Front suspension mounted and working. Took about 4 different trial and error designs to get one that functions and does not get in the way!







It took two cross bars, one for holding the suspension and another for the forced height center mount.
granted there are better ways of doing this but not within my budget, space, and tool allocation!

the shocks alone are not strong enough to hold up the front end, so the 2nd cross bar is placed with a upside down U shape to hold the middle top link at the right height, it allows it to move around freely over rocks but never lower than the stock height. and the shocks pull it back level.

The shocks are mounted to custom fabricated brackets and metal bonding glued to the hex screws on top of the axial. I shouldn't need to take the knuckles off for anything so this shouldn't be a problem.

for the moment I am using the stock trekker battery mounted on the driver's side. it's a bit of a trick to get AAA's into this tiny truck I have to think of how to do it without making them really high up!

but it runs under it's own power and sits on it's own! just a few more paint jobs left to do to it and it's ready to hit the rocks for some action shots!



OH and on another note in the final shot, yes I cut off the front screw and glued a thin plexi sheet over it to protect the glue on the axial. It got stuck on a rock one day and I thought the placement was stupid so I cut it off!

[Intashu]

WHOO HOO!

only a tiny amount of details left to do and I'm done! I won't post anymore after this it's just the windshields left. It was a fun project and it's unfortunate that although many people looked nobody said anything! I have too many pictures to post along the build and if you want to see more details all you need to do is ask!





NOTE: "M3A7" or MEAT is my tag for videogames like halo and such. ^^;

[angelicgundam90]

it looks good! how well does it perform?

[Intashu]

I have to modify the front suspention a little after doing a few test runs. since the top is mounted only in one place on both sides as it twists it moves left to right more than I thought it would. will have to make it more true to a 3 link design.

other than that it actually performs fairly good, for it's size of course. the leaf springs are soft and the current angle of the front shocks means its very flexible. That being a general term, it flexes in the same sense that you would expect a real jeep with this level of lift could. Some but not too much basically. and best part is I didn't have to hack any fenders for everything to clear!

It can't go over half of what the stock micro crawler could, and not even a fourth of what the monster SMC build with jumbo tires could, but it has a more scale sized tire on a true 1:24 chassis so I expected that.

Hopefully I can get some action shots posted in a week or so. there isnt a whole lot of really good looking crawling grounds near my home and my darn job eats up my week.

[Jiggawhut]

Awsome build man nice work

[Intashu]

xD well thanks! I stopped updating images for this thread though since its getting a little too Heavy for my phone to load (primary internet source these days)

[Ebola Zaire]

Looks awesome! I can't believe more people didn't post so I will, even though I am a lurker! I wish I had a bunch of micros too I have so many different things I want to do with them.

[Intashu]

May as well update this thread with the new shots I took of my suspension setup.

4 linked the front:


and turned my bump steer issue'd rod into a cable steering setup:



used a piece of tubing and a steel braid wire to the servo located behind the transmission. allows unhindered articulation and I have not noticed any bump steer at all.

Got a winch mounted (key retractor with a hook on the end)
and currently working on a foe warn winch where the fog lights are located in the picture.

Also added a Hi-lift jack! Probably will make another that is a little more accurate later one.








*sigh* I only wish I had more money for a second one.

[Intashu]

In case your wondering because it's hard to see, I used a set of losi's desert truck shocks in the front, the top is mounted to a wire strung just under the hood, and the bottoms had a custom bracket set to the axles.

[Intashu]

Originally Posted by Ebola Zaire

Looks awesome! I can't believe more people didn't post so I will, even though I am a lurker! I wish I had a bunch of micros too I have so many different things I want to do with them.

Thanks! The possibility's are endless if you got the time, the tools, and a little bit of money. I think I probably spend about $200 dollars into this rig, and I bought the truck for $110 of that.