The miXer Chassis Build

[Harvo]

This is going to be a build thread of the RCBros new miXer chassis. There has been a lot of buzz about this chassis, and from the look of the prototype and the video it's all for good reason. Lunatik888 and I will be building this chassis together as an experiment in the mini class. We are taking the cheap way out by splitting all costs down the middle and will both compete at area comps with this truck.

William at RCBros was kind enough to hook us up with a chassis kit to build and test. We will be competing with this chassis kit against others like the mini GC2, the mini Rockshow, and soon the mini zero. Our local comps are pretty tough as we have to deal with drivers like JoeBruiser and TylerD, Gatekeeper, Sven, Sddill, Pdog7 and Rockpayne. All of these guys are great drivers so this truck will get a real workout.

We are starting out with:
miXer Chassis Kit
Tekin FXR
1300 HH Lipo
HH Torqumaster Motor
Metal lockers
Proline Titus Wheels
Hitec MG645

I will be using my DX3R and Lunatik will be using the stock radio.
Other parts are stock for now, but we will be upgrading shocks soon and tires as soon as the Chisel 1.9's are released.

[Harvo]

I was pretty excited about the build up so I tore the truck down the day Lunatik brought it over.





When the RCBros box arrived, I was pretty impressed with the packaging. Everything was labelled and packed neatly, then packed into a larger bag. Ver proffessional.








Next was to tear into it and examine the major parts.... the TVPs and skid !





Lots of adjustment options with this chassis kit for sure!

One of the big questions in the prototype thread was skid fitment in between the TVPs. "Would there be any sharp corners or skid material sticking out to get hung up" was the question.



You can see the TVP corners have been rounded. The delrin skid sticks out past the aluminum just a little, but i don't see this as an issue as the delrin skid corners are rounded some too. I may file those flush.

[Harvo]

Next up was motor fitment. A Holmes Torquemaster is supposed to fit and that is what we got. (It came in a cool little velvet bag )

I like gear mesh loose because I like a quiet truck, and that makes a tight fit for the HH motor. If you mount the motor in the correct position it will fit, but I ground a little off the back of the TVP to get my desired motor position before I realized that. I used the second set of holes on the skid back from the front for mounting the tranny and motor.








You do not have to do any grinding to make the Holmes Motor fit. That was my scew up

[Harvo]

All the holes lined up, all the screws threaded in straight and everything was going great! Then it was time to make links .

Fortunately, upper and lower link kits were included in the kit . All I had to do was tap them for 3mm threads. You will definitely need a tap. Don't try to self tap the screws!

The kit provides all the threaded inserts to attach the ball ends, and the delrin links. You need all the stock Losi ball ends and at least 4 Taxxas 3mm ball ends. The Traxxas ends go on the skid and the Losis attach your links to the axles and link plates.

For your upper links at the skid, you can use whatever you like. Lunatik had Axial ball ends... so I used those.

The links provided will give you an 8" Wheelbase, but we wanted closer to 8.5". I could have made new links, but I decided to use the kit links and some small spacers to stretch the wheelbase just a little.




One of the coolest parts of this chassis is the ability to choose from any lower link mounting point on the skid that you want. There is a long screw that goes across from one TVP to the other, through the skid. There is a large gap in the center for mounting ball ends and spacers in any configuration you want. Spacers are not provided, but if you are like me, you have lots of junk laying around that will do.



We used some aluminum sleeve that I use for sleeving allthread to make links. it may be too soft, so I plan on doing the same thing with Delrin.

We decided on full spread of the links at the skid first since the video demonstration in the proto thread was set up that way and worked so well. It is so easy to change, that Lunatik and I discussed running different link setups at the same comps.

The front 4 link plate is a sexy hunk of metal. It holds a full sized servo and offers several different link mounting positions.



We have chosen to run parallel upers back to the secont set of holes in the plate. This seemed to be where the links naturally wanted to go to. We may make some changes later.

The rear plate is big enough to hold a 1300 lipo easily. It also offers many set up options for upper links. If you want to mount electronics on here too, they would have to go on top of the battery.



I am going to try to find an alternate spot for mounting electronics. This is just too perfect for a battery mount not to use it. That will keep the battery very low too.

So that brings us to a Roller. Everything to this point has been basic bolt on work (except for tapping the links) and that was cake.

I shortened the shocks before we recieved the chassis, so I dropped them too much. You can see in the pic taht this baby is low at about 1.5 inches at the belly... and I mounted the shocks as low as possible.

For the time being, I'll take the spacer back out of the shock body to get some more belly height. I think Lunatik wants to try some of those RCBros shocks too... maybe with the orange springs, so we may not use these for long anyway.

I'm loving the Proline wheels! They look way cool and the weight system is great. The offset is a little narrower than stock though (I think). I haven't measured, but it looks that way.



Next up will be electronics, my grappler body (Lunatik will be running the stocker), and tuning. I'll continue the thread as we make progress and post as much tuning info as possible when we get to that point.

So far, the product seems to be high quality, the price is very reasonable, and the customer service is tops. All my questions have been answered in the same day (night) as when i asked.

My only constructive critisism up to this point would be the corners on the delrin skid, but like I mentioned above... it's no problem to file them down if you don't like them.

So far so good Stay tuned !

[LIKES2CRAWL]

Ok it has lots of trany adjustments....


but whats the point if you have to dremel the chassis for clearence...

[jnev]

Rig looks great so far! I'll be purchasing this chassis as well once I start building my MRC. Glad to hear its working well for you.

LIKES2CRAWL - Judging from one of his other pictures (Post #4 Picture 2), he could have moved the transmission another hole forward to clear the motor. He also mentioend that he liked loose gear mesh, so that could also contribute to the motor being close to the chassis.

[RcBro]

The holmes motors fit perfect, I've ran them in 3 different rigs with the mixerchassis you simply need to roate the motor to clear the side of the brushes. Please see the prototype thread many posts show the holmes motor fitting with no issues. The back of the can needs to be positioned correctly which is way the motors typically have 4-8 sets of holes.

[Reflection]

You need more antisquat in the rear. More squat in the front.

[nytuber]

That chassis does have alot of options and I agree the proline wheels are cool! nice build

[Harvo]

Originally Posted by LIKES2CRAWL

Ok it has lots of trany adjustments....


but whats the point if you have to dremel the chassis for clearence...

I could have turned the motor to make it fit without Dremmeling. I just got ahead of myself at that point and cut before asking questions. After William and I messaged I realized it was a duh moment for me. (I have lots of those)

Originally Posted by RcBro

The holmes motors fit perfect, I've ran them in 3 different rigs with the mixerchassis you simply need to roate the motor to clear the side of the brushes. Please see the prototype thread many posts show the holmes motor fitting with no issues. The back of the can needs to be positioned correctly which is way the motors typically have 4-8 sets of holes.

He's right

Originally Posted by Reflection

You need more antisquat in the rear. More squat in the front.

I'll make those adjustments to it when when I get the shocks at the right length. Thanks Steve.

[alwaysfixin]

Is this kit available for all yet?

[Harvo]

Originally Posted by alwaysfixin

Is this kit available for all yet?

He's taking pre-orders I know.

Check the other miXer thread ... he may actually be ready to start shipping.

[rex cars]

Originally Posted by Reflection

You need more antisquat in the rear. More squat in the front.

How is this achieved?

[Hillcrawler]

Looking very nice

[Harvo]

More work.

The stock battery and electronics plate is pretty convenient and not unattractive, so I used it for the ESC and Receiver. I liked the electronic tray idea on my berg, so why not one here too? It also allowed me a place to put up top post body mounts





Lunatik and I will be changing ESC settings according to personal preference, so we put the Tekin up top to make the buttons easy to reach. The ESC and Receiver weight next to nothing, so I saw no harm in mounting them a little high. The truck wil still stand on it's sidewalls and beyond without tipping.




I still have the inadequate stock shocks and springs, so I had to make some adjustments to make them tolerable.






And that gets us to a working rig... ready to tune and test. New tires will be coming soon, new shocks, and I will be making some delrin steering links.

We have Lunatik's body redrilled, and my Grappler is painted and stickered up. Once I get my improved light box finished, I'll post some finished pics with the stats and measurements.

[Harvo]

Originally Posted by rex cars

How is this achieved?

Changing the distance between one end of the upper and lower links

Originally Posted by Hillcrawler

Looking very nice

Thanks

[Harvo]

I finally got to put a few scratches on it today. I have a small rockpile out back just big enough to test 2.2 setups. Turns out it's a good size for the mini.

Moving the links around helped with what little twist I had. Now it's gone. When I stretched the WB to 8.4 inches, my uppers were too short. My pinion angle was really bad, so I lengthened the uppers in the rear and got it right.

We drilled both bodies for the top posts, but we still need to find a height that works for both so we can cut the posts down.



Lunatik's Stock body lowered very nicely.



The truck gets the max flex (limited internally) with this body.



My Grappler. I trimmed the body, but tires still touch limiting the flex some. I might cut more, but I like the amount of flex that it limits me to. I like a little less travel than Lunatik, and this may be a way to accomplish that easily.






Still need to get the pics up with the measurements, and a few more tuning and adjustment tips and details

This truck is way more fun and capable with his chassis!

[RcBro]

Looking great!!

Just like to let everyone know the kits are shipping, just pm me to get yours!

[Harvo]

More info...

With the stock shocks and stock limiters this is the skid hight. If I had left the wheelbase at 8" instead of stretching it out, it would be a touch higher.




Width is a little narrow with stock hexes and the Pro Line wheels. I have some double width hexes that will actually work, but the wheelnut doesn't grab much thread with those.




And it wil go beyond standing on the sidewalls. The pic shows the max it will lean beyond 90 deg. and still fall back on the sidewalls.




The Proline wheels have a weight system built in. If you haven't seen the write up on them, there are two half moon weights inside that are strapped on with two bands. Both weights per wheel equal 8oz. I have 8 oz. in each front and 4 oz. in each rear. This seems to be a good weight for my suspension. It may need to change with new shocks.

Foams are the stock losis in the stock claws. I ordered the Proline Chisels yesterday and they should make a big improvement.

[Pdog7]

That will never work. Got my 1.9 Rockshow dialed, looks like its on now:-P
Better watch out Looks like the 1.9 class is going to be a little more fun with 5 new 1.9 rigs in the E.T.R.C.

Seriously though it looks good. Nice paint on the lid Bring it to Brians this Friday and lets see what it can do.