In progress: My first MRC tuber

[lostissues]

well this is going to be a build thread for my first tuber. please if you have any suggestions or tips let me know.

first I would like to say that this is my first real RC car. all I had before this was the crappy tyco cars that i ran until i realized that jamming AA batteries into them gets expensive. I grabbed a MRC because it looked like a nice low priced entry into RC rock crawling, and because my brother in law got one and it was a ton of fun to play with.

I wanted to customize it so I first made a mock up with pipe cleaners:

Then I tried my hand at bending and brazing with 3/16 brake line. for my first attempt this is what I ended up with:




This was just an attempt to see if i was capable of doing it. it just straps to the stock chassis as you can see from the top view I was not very good at keeping things straight and my bends were off.
after that I wanted to try to make a whole tuber and this is a little ways in:

Here is my chassis plate and my base for my tuber. I cut the chassis out of 18 gauge steel the first attempt that i had turned out too short and it was a pain to cut out because I used a hack saw and refined it with a lot of filing. the second time around I used a band saw that my father had that i have never seen work so i assumed it was broken. well i threw a blade on it and it cut like a champ. so I did that and refined it with some filing and came out with that.
then I used a metal cutoff wheel in a chop saw and I was able to cut the brake line at 45 degrees, cleaned them up with a bench grinder and brazed them together to get a nice even rectangle base.

This is where it stands now:


the chassis plate is held on by magnets just to snap a pic. I just have to make the rear hoop and the front stinger part and then find out how I'm going to mount the shocks.

Please let me know what you think so far.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[RcBro]

keep up the progress, you'll only get better from there. I really like the idea you mocked the chassis up using pipe cleaners! Never thought about doing something so easy as that

[drewmaloy]

yes keep it up! that's a great start! peace

[Uniballer]

Looking really good I have been thinking about building one myself. Keep us posted it is coming together nicely.

[WranglerV8]

That's better than what I could do.Keep practicing.

[lostissues]

Well got it mostly done today. I wish I took more pics but once I get going I don't think to snap a pic. so here it is all put together. I only need to find out where im going to mount the shocks right now they are just zip tied on. and then I have to figure out how to stuff the electronics in all nicely, I have link plates but now they hit the bottom of the tube frame.
sorry for the crappy pics

[fixed13]

That looks great for a first go at building a tuber, not sure I could do that good. Keep up the good work.

[Drvnbeing]

Looks good! This has been my biggest problem so far is shock placement. I got my first tuber together last week, took it out and it worked so much better than the normal mods. But I was just not happy with my shock placement and I did not allow for other shock placement. So I make the suggestion to you to make sure you have a few option for where you want your shock to run. Keep us posted on the build!

[lostissues]

Well I got all the shock mounting locations done. I'm not sure how they will work out but we shall see. I have a few pics of just the chassis, I have it all together and will take a couple pics in a little bit. here are some pics of just the chassis all complete. now I will just have to fine tune it and then paint it.




I will take a few pics and post up how it looks up all together. I also picked up some axial 1.9 bead locks and some losi rock bashers.
but I am having one problem and it was doing it with the stock setup also. I will probably address it in its own thread but when I start to climb something at an angle and the front tire gets up on it the opposite front tire lifts in the air, then when i move the steering back a forth the whole truck pivots and the front tire goes down and the rear tire goes up and then the truck flips over. could this be a problem with the shocks? it looks like some of the oil leaked out but I don't know if all of the oil is gone. if it is gone would it cause the truck to act like that? when I compress the axles up with my hand it feels like the shocks are a little scratchy if that make any sense at all.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[lostissues]

Here are the pics of it all back together. I still have to organize and strap down all the electronics somehow.

[CreepyCrawl]

Looking good for a first shot tuber bro'

Where in NH are you?

[lostissues]

I live in deerfield, its about 20 mins from concord and about 30 from manch.

[CreepyCrawl]

Nice! You have a PM

[bcrofts]

keep up the good work man the tuber is looking good

[MR. MAX]

rattle that thing black and it will look great nice work

[dannymilholland]

nice work

[jackel18]

Looks great bro, now i gotta work on mine

[lostissues]

got it all painted up.





I just threw a couple coats of spray paint on and then cut up and painted an inbox tray I found at work for the tops. should just have to strap down the electronics and figure out why it doesn't flex correctly.

Jonathan

[MR. MAX]

wouldent mind having one of those myself looks good! dibbs if you sell it

[tju2]

I maybe a little behind in your build but it looks good. To keep things straight use a jig if you can and apply as little heat as you can. I have warped a few tubes on some other small scale projects. Some one also showed me a neat trick to use a round file on the ends of the tubes where they are going to join another tube in a perpendicular fashion versus a end to end joint. Planning for my own tuber. Great idea with pipe cleaners, better then my legos