BWD Mini Wedge with Dub Topper build
 

so just in the course of a week's time my gc-3 truck bodied mrc is transformed. found some worn out bearings while making the transition, now it is silky smooth in the front end.

custom OTA steering , BWD mini-wedge chassis and updated rear upper link mount, BWD black .125" DUB topper. Traxxas OD gear up front, MIP shafts, alum knuckles, c's, rear lockouts, alum locked diffs. 22T Holmes Hobby mini Torquemaster. Hobbico CS170 servo, CC BEC, Mamba 25. Futaba rf603ff and 3PMX. still running el-cheapo Blue 2s 40c 800 mah packs, now located over the rear axle. VP slugs all in the front wheels, rears light as possible.

first impression crawling in the basement on the 18" paver stones =

DAMN! this thing is agile! even with my limited crawling time, I already know this will make up for a LOT of my lack of "seat time" and it feels extremely stable and nimble. having the delrin links it has greater clearance yet low COG even with the heavier of the DUB toppers.

I used clear lexan with "engine spun aluminum" vinyl made for the SS inserts on 62-64 Impalas. sticker side in, the lexan keeps it protected.

Rollover capabilities?? YES. barely touch the throttle, its back shiny side up. The DUB topper seems to feel like a springboard and does very well at correcting. This is gonna be a killer setup for a seasoned pro OR the greenhorn like me just realizing what setup changes affect performance and tailoring to individual driving styles.

I did have to modify the spacers on the topper where it joins the chassis. I snipped 1/8" off of all 4 spacers, and it took it out far enough to clear the shock mount swivel assembly. cant wait to bust out on the rocks! "thumbsup"

Nice rig,but it will never work!:flipoff:

looks like green flames makes a crawler work better. i might have to steal somebody's skins! :mrgreen:

took a 2nd place finish behind EvilTwin v2 at its first official comp. this chassis rocks! and loves rocks too! we had killer traction but climbed some slippery areas that others had some trouble with. the DUB topper is great on recovery, almost feels like a spring board with little to no throttle needed to get back shiny side up. the delrin links are way slick compared to the straight metal of the previous GC-3 chassis I had ran. adding some RCBros high steer 0-ack knuckles very soon. maybe knuckle weights but it has no twist now and does what I want it to."thumbsup"

I bought a couple FlySky 2 channel radios with 3 channel rx, $20 per combo, to try out on my 1.9s and get the electronics smaller cause the F603FF Futaba rx with my 3PMX was just overkill.

The tx felt good, different setup as far as feel from Futaba, which had been the only radio sys I have used until now. install was quick, no bind needed, set my neutral and throttle with the mamba 25 and took it outside after setting my steering trim and end points up. (no separate L/R but HEY, its $20)

First impression.... HOLY S#!T!! for some reason, maybe due to a reprogram or resolution differences, the steering is more responsive, and I swear it runs like its on a 3 cell lipo now. Feels like the motor lost 11 turns somewhere. Had some new 2s Skyy lipos to cycle out but I know they were not the reason for the increase in wheel speed. Fresh bearings couldn't have done it all by itself, either. The radio is well worth the money, and then some. Unless I run a MOA or scaler with a winch, these little radios do one hell of a job for 2 channel needs. Sure there isn't a ton of settings or features, but you can bind more rx's to them if you need to.

here's a link to where I bought mine.
"thumbsup"
http://www.hobbypartz.com/fs-gt2-24ghz-radio-black.html

added some RCBros high steer knuckles. done the caster mod. crazy amounts of steering. my tires were catching the lower links! it seems to steer way beyond what the mrc cvd's want to handle. dialed some of it back out but cranked it back up for a few close calls. finished 3rd behind the most consistent heavy hitters in 1.9, Evil Twin and Stick King. Still have yet to do the underdrive rear axle mod, but its doing great for now. :flipoff:

Is this the topper that will fit on the MRC Pro?

Actually yes. Don confirmed that it will directly bolt to a mrc pro chassis. "thumbsup"

I havent been on his site. Does he have pics of it installed yet.

no pics on an MRC pro, just the mini wedge.

Yeah I just checked.
I would love to be a test subject to see how it looks. Hint Hint!!!
LOL.

while cleaning up the slop in the front axle diff, i decided to take some left over 1/4" brake line tubing and make "mrc beef toobs" that just occupy the axle and add a marginal amount of weight. come to find out, they can tighten up the slack when you offset the lengths, and put your diff closer to the overdrive gear taking the lash out of it.

Alright. Very Cool! We are going to need a little walk through on this tube setup. I loved my home made beef tubes on my ax and have aways been kicking this around for the mrc.

Idea. How bout extending the tubes all the way outside to the c collars so you can tap and thead then for camber? Just a thought. Anyway questions.

1. Did you have to dremel out the inside of the tubes?
2. Did you have to bore out the insides of the tubes?
3. I get that you used break line but how thick is the wall thickness?

Thanks for the ideas.

X2. added weight with no loss of space. gotta love that on these little things

The plastic axle cases were not modified at all. still retained full amount of material; using these tubes for the c's to bolt to, would be a delicate procedure.there is much more plastic to grab the hardware versus the brake line. you would have to make the hardware perfect length or risk hitting the axle, just like the ax beef toobs. also, we're talking small screws...not easy to clean threads up on these or tap the brake line with such small threads. I used them to clock the ring gear assembly and add a little more weight up front. I suppose you could weld larger ends onto the tubes and adapt different C's onto them, like D-Lux is doing, but via the tube. ax-sized stubs will fit snug in this 1/4" line. I dont know the thickness but any auto parts store can give you specs, or look up online?..."thumbsup"

I am getting ready to do a d-lux setup to my front end, and am going to be running lcc axles. As a result I am not sure if the 1/4 brake line will take the axle size but I am going ti pick some up just in case. I may try to extend the tube to the end of the housing and tap it just to see what happens. I will report back on this. Big props on getting this done.

RickM

I was just thinkin for weight. Every little bit helps.

yeah one of these days I will buy a digital scale and see what is going on with these subtle mods..8)

thats the best idea ever! now...go make a thread just on that!

well this little truck finally had a good driver for a weekend, I took 1st for the first time at a local comp. I think this chassis is starting to make some believers out of some :twisted: including me!

Nice job on the win. "thumbsup" It's a shame that I wasn't there to see it. I'll have to do my best to beat it next time out. :lmao:

with 1.9 blowing up this season, its easy to rack up points when you miss it. what was it you were saying about a comfortable points lead?:lmao:

had a little clicking in my trans since I had the 1.9, tore it down finally. One tooth chipped on the idler gear, got a replacement (thanx StickKing) in OG plastic to swap to till I break down and go with HR aluminum internals and case... and BWD motor plate while its already apart. this little truck does some work! got a Fantom motor from BuckIMod to see if it wakes up over the higher turned HH mini torque master. the cases and endbells look identical.

well i got the gearbox back together, installed, everything snugged down. popped in a fresh battery, and OMG this Fantom mini-mod is a little hellion. guess how long the gears lasted? oh roughly 20-30 seconds. :twisted:

time for HR aluminum gears or steel. :x

added HR aluminum gears inside, and a spur. we're all metal drivetrain now. I bet the driveshafts die now, or a cvd shaft bites the dust. still want to reclaim the setscrews in the MIPS (common problem) and remove them and install the traxxas boat yokes and shafts. gotta get rid of the aluminum diff lockers and put some proper losi STEEL ones in it, aluminum softens and slops quick.

I use prothane grease cause it sticks like hell to the gears, this thing sounds like a mini lcc with metal worm gears. it might get nicknamed the "Mangler":twisted:

still hoping to change out to lcc stubs and steering parts for smooth steering, i fear the Fantom will eat a cvd shaft when it binds from all the added steering the rcbros knuckles give it... i dial it in and out when needed for now8)

You still messing around with the outdated BWD Mini Wedge?:lmao: JK, you know I'm a BWD Fan. You need to stop over this weekend when I open the new package Don sent me. I will be doing a make over of Ryan's Lightning McQueen MRC Pro. I think it will be the most BWD Blinged out MRC a 5 year old could ask for.:ror:

outdated?
 

yeah sounds like a plan. hope this weather holds up I wanna get some practice in soon. as far as outdated goes, it doesn't take long to outdate a rig, somebody is making parts constantly better than the last. hell, look at my sportsman rig.. its ancient! :lmao:

i have some lcc parts coming and might score some knuckle weights if dlux still has them. this mrc is gonna be done before too long... :mrgreen:

DLUX LCC knuckle mount build
 

got the dlux mounts slipped on, just like onespeeder said, no need for screws aside from the two holding the C on.

had to clearance a LOT of parts... but I got killer steering with full CVD happiness. used small burrs on a drill press at low speed to relief more out of the cvd pin slot on the ball of the axle, and shaved down the edges on the cup of the stub. shaved off the flange that stops at the outer bearing on the axle case, and deleted the bearing as well. my brake line beef tubes still fit inside and keep the diff against the pinion.
if you run the lcc C right up against the end of the axle casings, the mrc axles fit into the lockers perfectly. shave the C's down to smooth like jeremyh's thread says.

shaved the knuckle, c, mount, rcbros high steers would be great but not sure if weights are available for them,which is the plan for these anyways.

cutting and trimming the mrc axle and lccstub yielded a little better result over the lcc axle,and it fits right in the locker...both over 45 degrees.

ok, enough rambling, PICS!! (can you say, STEERING?!?!?!)

DANG! Now thats some steering!

it binds the lugs on the rovers on the lower links... time to clearance them as well.. i dont want to lose the traction so the links gotta get smoothed up.

smoothed the lowers on the outsides, no more bind, and more importantly, no less traction! "thumbsup"

these are shown with aluminum mrc hexes, drilled out to fit the lcc stub. If I had went with a 4" rover or custom pins, wider hexes would be in order stat.

went ahead not tempting fate ( and a strong motor) and installed the lcc shafts in the axles. cut, grind, fit, cut, grind, fit... nice and snug till these lockers give up.

after a few courses on the rocks, looks like I will be going back to the mrc inner shaft and my mini toobs to shim the diff, the larger lcc's still binded at full lock, and the toobs are needed again, the front end clicked like mad when under stress. the mrc inners should hold up fine.

testing the fantom mini-mod, it was a mah-hungry top end monster, but lacked the low end and power needed for this lil 1.9...

I guess I'm just lucky... :roll: the only times my CVD's have failed (probably 5 or 6 of them by now) is on the inner shaft right before the ball. I have yet to break any part of the outer CVD. Yet it seems most everyone else is just the opposite.........................

my spares had one broken, right before the ball. seems to be the weak part,but then again, its also what binds up. i bet a sideways fall, during a turn, made it snap,cause i doubt it would break otherwise. I will mod a couple spare sets in case, but enjoy full gear mesh and no cvd bounce at probably 50* of steering enjoyment.

can we make the mini beef tubes as long as the plastic in the axle or did you cut them short

If you make them a hair long you can shave them little by little to shim the ring gear.

I tried the beef tubes as well but they would not work with the lcc inner shafts. You posted something earlier about what will give next. My money will go with rounding out the hr locker in your tranny. I was really bummed about how poorly it held up.

I wound up making the tubes fit in the large recess of the axle. where the ends come together I left them alone, the tube pushes off of this extra plastic and keeps the stress on the diff keeping the gear mesh consistent after heavy use. it takes some cutting with a tubing cutter to get it perfect, and clean the ends up with a burr or file inside the tube so the axle ends pass through it."thumbsup"

I really hope not, its one big piece! solid with the gear. My original Losi steel ones still held and were slop free. wish my diffs were the same!