D90 1/18 Ute pick-up build

[hymnforthewretched]

So I've been creeping this forum for a while now and decided I should share my build.

Just Before Christmas I purchased my first RC ever, a brand new RC4WD 1/18 D90. I'm a 1/1 guy, specifically a Land Cruiser guy so naturally 4x4 anything sparks my interest. I have been fascinated with the 1/10 scale rigs I would see around, but they were just too big for me for to bring camping etc. When I came across the 1/18 D90 I was instantly interested and me and a buddy both bought one.

Like many, first thoughts were " This thing has no power..." " Why does it keep stalling? " " why cant it go up a tiny hill? ". Besides the power issue we were quite pleased with the details and set-up. After a week we couldn't stand the lack of power anymore and started researching what could be done about it. Like many, we came across the twin motor setups, and decided to buy a couple because they looked promising. It wasn't even one minute after installing the twin motors that I realized the biggest flaw of this design... the axles are not connected...and basically act like an open diff. I was bummed to say the least, the twin motor setup in my opinion was worse than stock setup. once one axle looses traction or stalls it can no longer help the other axle. If all we did was trail ride then I suppose the twin motor setup would be ok, but for any crawling it was useless.

Then I came across Sparks1337 and his 180 motor mount/mod. Now this was a great setup! and after watching his videos I had to do something similar! Mark was super awesome and gave me some tips, advice and information about the setup. I cant thank him enough for his kindness toward a RC new comer!

Now to my build. I didn't mind the stock suspension set up after doing some of the popular link tweaks and fixes. But I had a different look and direction I wanted to go with this little D90. First was I wanted to build a single cab Ute. So I chopped up the body and made it happen. Because it was now a ute, I wanted a longer wheel base so I extended it 20mm on the rear end using custom links ( red cat parts, threaded rod and alum tube ) and cutting up the driveshaft and extending it. Then I thought.. I want more articulation to keep traction when crawling with this new 180 motor, so built some custom coilover shocks using LMC shock parts and the old stock links and now I had some coilovers capable of 20mm of travel, but only 3mm longer compressed than the stock setup. The end result was amazing! low ride height but tons of extra flex. The shock design meant I had to use limiting straps to retain the shocks from flying apart at full droop, but not a huge concern because they perform great. To top it off I ordered some Scrambler 1.0 tires to see just how big they were... they are big! but I love them and the axle clearance they provided. Turned out more crawler than I first planned, but I'm excited about the end result and how it performs, its a whole other beast now. Next on the list is to finish the ute tray for the back and add some offroad gear to it.

Heres some quick poser shots. Ill try and get more footage when I have time and update as I go along.

[Sparks1337]

Wow! That looks like it's gonna be pretty capable. Love what you've done with those shocks. Glad I could be of help birthing another 180 conversion, great job