E-Maxx Truggy. resurrected after 4 years! pictures :)

[RCMFMaxxMan]

Okay here's the deal. I got distracted for a couple years and didn't do rc. (hint there was this girl... haha yeah). But then last year I got back into it after deciding i really missed rc crawling. I resurrected my tlt and then when the losi mini crawler came out, i bought it. First rc purchase in like 3 years. haha. After a month of playing with it i tore it apart. So I've gone a couple months without rc's now because i tend to start projects and not finish. Okay down to the nitty gritty. I'm taking a road trip to california and arizona in a week and i'll be gone for a few months. I wanted to take an rc. I put the mini crawler back together and then was inspired to bring the emaxx back to life. It was just suspension on a chassis...

here is the background: http://www.ultimaterc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46364
What's weird is I starting working on it again almost EXACTLY 4 years from the start of it's previous incarnation. I'll take it as a good sign i guess.

So I have 6 days now to get this thing running. or at least rolling. (i can install electronics on the road).

I worked on it a few hours over the past few days trying to figure out what i wanted to do. I wanted to keep it bashable (i.e. cheap and durable) but i also wanted to see if I could make it even more race competitive because i'm thinking of racing at SRS (scottsdale rc speedway) when I get to az. So I knew I had bring things lower, lighter, and try to keep everything home fabbed or stuff i already have.

Tonight I started working on it before dinner (around 5 or 6) and got back on it after dinner (delicious tacos!) and worked until 3:00 am. yikes! The music kept me going i guess. I should probably have more to show for my 9 some hours of work. But a lot of that time was spent staring at the thing and i think i put on and took off the shocks like 4 times. Couldn't get them right. Still need stiffer springs.

Well way too much talk. on to pictures...

i started by tearing things from my ofna ultra lx pro that hasn't seen the road in years. I knew I wanted the shocks and then as I was removing them, I decided I wanted the sway bar and wing...

(i started taking pictures after I got done with the shocks. but those pictures would be boring anyways. They were to soft and too much damping. So I had to put on stiffer springs, new oil, and drill out the piston holes. It still needs even stiffer springs. still too soft)

I filed a slot out in the rear shock tower for the sway bar and drilled holes for retainer screws. Also you see two other new holes for the wing mount and some space near the top filed out for two more screws to pass through for the wing mount:


Then I got everything mounted up:




A note on the shocks: The maxx suspension only has enough travel to use the full cycle of the buggy front shocks. The rear shocks were too long. So I cut down the springs. Then they were the same length. Except with the longer body on the rear shocks, it meant a shorter shaft and shorter travel. So I decided to put those on the front of the truck.

Then I wanted to get the body lower. That meant lowering the shock towers. I decided just to do the front, and then I'm thinking i'll just cut the bed of the body to clear the rear tower because i'd have to hack it for the wing mount anyway.

So first, lowering the tower:

cutting off the bottom half:


done with the cut. Then I had to grind clearance for the diff and for the two upper screws:


i guess I didn't get a picture of it mounted up. But basically the upper screw holes on the tower become the lower screw holes and the upper screws just pass through the grinded out area in the tower and just kind of clamp the tower. I used flange screws. It's okay. If I want to do it right / if i have time, I should make a bracket to clamp the tower.

Next, with the tower lowered, the shocks push the arms down way too much. the suspension was maxed out and and the shocks were having to nearly all the way compress just to fit under the tower. Stock, the shocks mount to tabs on top of the a-arms. like this:


oh yeah and I put those red aluminum toe links on the rear. I'll put some on the steering as well. I just had them laying around and they are lighter than their steel counter parts. so i thought, why not!

back to the suspension arms...
So there is this nice cut out right below those mounting tabs. It looked like it was meant to be. So I cut the tabs off, grinded out the cut-out, and drilled new shock mounting holes (i know they are crooked but that's how the stock mounts were. I just copied them):




So now I'm done for the night. I'm sitting on the sofa, eating a (on sale for $0.34!), drinking milk, and listening to the amazing Rilo Kiley. The Executiong of all Things. A great album.

I'll have this truck done by the end of this weekend. Expect it! Here is how it sits now with the things inside the chassis laid out. I suppose I'll tackle the tranny mounting next!:




Now it is almost 4:40. I need to get some sleep. Dentist at noon. ugh.

[swell searcher]

nice job so far. i'm always confused about a truggy... what exactly is a truggy? a buggy with monster truck tires or a monster truck with buggy tires.

[Tupers]

Nice project MaxxMan. I've been thinking about making one of these but never got around to doing it.

Originally Posted by swell searcher

nice job so far. i'm always confused about a truggy... what exactly is a truggy? a buggy with monster truck tires or a monster truck with buggy tires.

A truggy is based on a buggy chassis with an extended wheel base, longer sus arms and larger wheels. The diffs are also above the chassis where as monster trucks have the chassis above the diffs.

[RCMFMaxxMan]

thanks guys! A truggy (if custom made) could be either a buggy or a truck at heart depending on what it started out as. i think it is easier to take a monster truck to a truggy than a buggy to a monster truck. To make a monster truck a truggy, you really just need the custom chassis. Everything else is up to par. For the buggy, you need the custom extended chassis, longer suspension arms, drive shafts, and links, and the bigger tires. Also the buggy is geared for smaller tires where as the mt is already geared for large tires.

Tupers: were you thinking an emaxx as well? i had someone request a template of the chassis. if you'd like one too, i could post one up.

[super mud]

Holy crap that's cool. Are you gonna race that thing? If so you can probobly race it in the monster truck class and do well.

[RCMFMaxxMan]

Originally Posted by super mud

Holy crap that's cool. Are you gonna race that thing? If so you can probobly race it in the monster truck class and do well.

thanks dude! I got lazy and threw everything in the car when i left for arizona. So i'll get it running soon. I'm not sure if i will race it. I'm thinking I'd need to go lipo and brushless if i was going to go that route. I don't have that kind of money right now, so i don't know. It is a lot of fun to bash all the same though! I do want to at some point take it to the track just to see what it's like.