New comp chassis build...

[89redranger]

Got the side plates for my new chassis done far enough to mock everything up. This will be the home for the 180 Big Block Stroker Kit I just picked up from DANALLY. I'm thinking it needs a trimmed and custom painted Bug body or Micro Desert Truck body for a nice comp look. Obviously I'll pick up some MiClaws for this rig when the time comes.

Still need cross braces, another truck for axles, trans, and electronics. These are pics of the mockup with the parts from my Trekker. None of the link lengths are right, there are no front lower shock mounts due to a ditched BTA setup, and it sits WAY too tall right now. Anyway, on with the pics...















This was built with 0.080" styrene sheet. Rough cut with a hacksaw and miter box, then painstakingly hand-filed into shape. Yee haw! Still FAR easier than building aluminum parts for my 1.9 rigs...

[89redranger]

Well, I got a bunch of styrene tube laying here...

Contemplating building a tuber top for it, but I really like the looks of the full bodied comp rigs. Come on guys, gimme some feedback.

Other than doing a little trimming of the plates now that the geometry is laid out, I'm at a stand-still. I wanna open up the center of the plates a little, and I think I'm gonna trim the lower corners a little. The wheelbase in the pics is at about 4 3/4" right now. Due to the tipped skid, it ate up a little of the Trekker's wheelbase. When I build links I want to stretch that out to around 5 1/8"-5 1/4."

With the DANALLY wheel mod and Miclaws I should be set. I just need a little direction for the rest...

[smuggl1n]

Looking good so far!!!

[DANALLY]

To be honest the big side plates kinda throw me off. I love the angle belly. My only advice would be to make it a droop chassis and cut down the side plates and lower the spot where the shocks mount. Very clean though. On the right track.

[89redranger]

Originally Posted by DANALLY

To be honest the big side plates kinda throw me off. I love the angle belly. My only advice would be to make it a droop chassis and cut down the side plates and lower the spot where the shocks mount. Very clean though. On the right track.

I'm not really digging the tall height either. I really like how the bottom of the chassis works, but the lower the skid sits the higher the plates have to be.

I'm thinking I'm gonna take your advice and whack them down and go droop. Hey, quick question, do you take the little plastic tube stops off the shocks when you run them in droop? I don't know if that thing really has any function, or if they will even compress further if they're removed. I'm thinking that the shocks have a short throw, and without the stopper deals they still will stop in close to the same spot as with them.

[89redranger]

Made some more progress on my chassis build and got a chance to mock it all up again. Pretty close to done as far as the chassis itself. I still need axles, trans, and electronics to put this one together. All these parts belong on my Trekker. Once again, the link lengths and angles are wrong, and I with the shorter wheelbase it sits really tall. Pay no attention to this, it'll drop after a little stretch. I've cut almost 3/8" off the tops of the plates already. If I can't get it to sit where I want with springs, I am going to end up going droop as DANALLY suggested. Anyway, here are the pics...













Here's the first plate I cut. This is basically the template of what the ones on the truck USED to be. You can see how much material I've removed. The hang up points at the bottoms of the plates are gone, I lopped off a BUNCH of the tops of them, and the shocks are mounted closer front to rear. Hopefully it'll sit a little lower once the wheelbase is stretched out...

[89redranger]

In more recent news, the girlfriend and I are talking about buying a CNC router kit in the next few months. Who knows, you may see a vendor's star by my name soon enough. My plan is to offer a few products for RC crawling as a whole (custom chassis for every popular size-Micro, 1.9, 2.2, and Superclass?), and try to focus on cutting parts YOU design. That's right, I'm thinking of offering a small scale CNC service for the guys out there that like dabbling in a CAD program, and want to see THEIR designs come to life. Working on a simple flat-rate pay scale as I sit here. Lets just say that, if I can assure I don't have to spend a bunch of time behind a computer fixing other people's designs, I can cut YOUR design for less than the cost of some aftermarket chassis. That is including material. I've had talks with a fellow member about offering a chassis of my own, but the cost of production ceased that. I can buy my router for the price water-jetters and laser-cutters wanted to do one run of my chassis. Still just tossing around ideas, but I'd appreciate your input.