Unconventional Mini.

[clm]

Hello,

It has been a few years since I registered, I could have sworn I posted some stuff in the beginning but my post count shows zilch. Oh Well.

Lets just start out by saying... I know nothing about Crawlers.

I had often read several points about crawlers;
unsprung weight is better,
low center of gravity is better,
weight biased towards the front is better,
torque twist can be mitigated but is always there on shaftys.

I also, maybe incorrectly, got to thinking about the suspension on a crawler. How shocks are more or less designed for comfort and handling at a higher speed and mainly act as a suspension limiter at slow speeds. And the springs which are there also for comfort and there to resist articulation (an attempt to keep the chassis flat)

With those thoughts going through my mind, sometime back in 2012 or 2013 I was unable to sleep one night and came up with a way to eliminate any chassis lean... ever, while still allowing as much articulation as I cared to allow it. I also got rid of all shocks and all springs and decided to rely on gravity only to keep wheels down.

I had only ever run it around the house and on the small rocks in front of my neighbors house and just loved how the articulation just flows over everything. Occasionally it will hold one of the front wheels in the air due to traction on the other three, a flick back and forth of the steering always seems to drop the tire down fairly quickly.

At the end of last month I finally took it to the LHS, I wanted someone who actually knows crawlers to look at it and give me their impressions. They all seemed to be impressed saying they had never seen anything like it. I asked the worker there if he wanted to try it on the rocks and he quickly said yes.

He took it over and managed to drive the mini from the bottom to the top of the rock in one go which impressed me... on the way home I kicked myself because I did not record it.

I fixed the flaky sensor cable to the Novak 380 brushless and took it back a week later, he was unable to do a clean run this time although I did get some video of it crawling.

As for the specs of this truck, it has;
Novak Timbuk2 and Three-80 13.5 brushless
Hitech HS645MG front and stock MSX12 on the rear
MIP Center CVD driveshafts - took a while to find these, then the online seller sent me two full packs because he had no one who wanted to buy them
OrangeRX 6 channel Air receiver - stupid dsm module only works with air receivers
Futaba 3pk w OrangeRX dsm module or Turnigy 9x with dsm module... both only bindable to air receivers
reedy 6 cell 1600 nimh because I can't find any lipo to fit on the Mini Crawler Pro front mount...
and stock losi wheels and tires with beadlock rings and foam removed because I know nothing about crawlers... really!

I am posting this more than anything to talk to some people about crawlers, maybe talk to some about what I came up with, although I can't post revealing pictures of it as it's kinda secret and stuff.... but I could send some revealing PM pictures to people who want to see it... just need to keep it off general view on the interwebz

I am going to attach a few non revealing pics, and link to my unlisted video... and my apology for filming it in the wrong orientation

And yes.. the second image shows a gallon of water on top of it showing it's lack of suspension... ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxqKQZuOy5o

On that day I filmed that I also ordered a Trx4... and am now waiting for Traxxas to send it out to the LHS... Fun fun. At least I have my Micro Trail Trekker and Bizaaro Mini to drive over stuff with

P.s. first post here with images.. I am still playing with it.

[xCoolHandLukex]

I don't get the big secret ? You basically slammed it with the no suspension and are running a torsion setup.


I typed this almost auto correctly free