Bully ARTR Build

[EXW]

I received my Bully ARTR last week and figured I would post a build thread, not that there is too much.

A few notes:

Overall quality seems excellent; it has a very solid feel to it.

The wheelbase, as has already been noted is not the advertised 12.5". Mine comes in at 11.8". I have sent an e-mail to RC4WD and seeing how they have a solid record of taking care of their customers, I'm not too worried about them resolving this.

The belly height out of the box was a little over 4". I brought it down to about 3.25".

I switched out the shocks to Losi's, which seems to have really improved the overall articulation.

I'm using a PunkRC dig switch. I can't say enough good things about this. It was easy to install, works great, the the lights really help out since I don't have much experience driving with dig.

Roborg and others from RC4WD have been great to work with.

Finally, this is my first build, so the wiring is not the best. This is primarily due to me leaving too much length in.

If it stops raining, I plan on heading out to Red Rocks tomorrow for a field test.




The goods: Mamba Max, Spektrum receiver, Integy 50T hand wounds, HiTech 7955, CC Bec, PunkRC Dig




The dining room table - my wife puts up with so much.



Testing it out.





Losi shocks and lowered ride height.



My, uh, wiring job.





Gotta have a flex shot.

That's about it for now.

[paintballer9876]

Looks good, dont worry about the wiring i have built 5 crawlers and it still looks like crap .
Just dont show me up to much at hobbytown next saturday

[run2jeepn]

Was the 11.8in Wheelbase before or after you Lowered it?

Looks good so far.

[EXW]

Thanks Adam. Not much chance of me showing you up at Hobbytown.

The 11.8" is both out of the box and after dropping the height. The shocks have 0.6" of fuel tube inside and are in the second chasis holes.

[hitman46mod]

Looks good.

[run2jeepn]

11.8 is too short for those tires. You need to get it at 12.25 to 12.5in... What is the length of those lower links eye to eye?

[carbonuts]

Originally Posted by EXW

The 11.8" is both out of the box and after dropping the height. The shocks have 0.6" of fuel tube inside and are in the second chasis holes.

Originally Posted by run2jeepn

11.8 is too short for those tires. You need to get it at 12.25 to 12.5in... What is the length of those lower links eye to eye?

Run2, is right you need to get it out as close to the legal limit as possible.
RC4WD, is aware of the issue and is working to correct it.

EWX try running the lower links on the inside of the chassis. I run both the upper and lower links inboard.

[EXW]

Originally Posted by run2jeepn

11.8 is too short for those tires. You need to get it at 12.25 to 12.5in... What is the length of those lower links eye to eye?

It's 4.6" eye to eye. I definitely agree about the need to get to 12.5".

Thanks Carbonuts, I will probably give that a try. It looks like I will need to remove the plastic dust covers from the axles for the lowers to clear. On the uppers, I'm not sure if I have enough room to move them inboard and still keep all of my electronics in there. But, I will check it out.

Any offical word from RC4WD on fixing this and how it will be handled?

Thanks for the advice, keep it coming.

[carbonuts]

Originally Posted by EXW

Thanks Carbonuts, I will probably give that a try. It looks like I will need to remove the plastic dust covers from the axles for the lowers to clear.

I used the plastic covers provided as a template, and cut some thinner ones out of spare lexan from cutting out my body.

[53 willys]

Originally Posted by carbonuts

I used the plastic covers provided as a template, and cut some thinner ones out of spare lexan from cutting out my body.

Ive been having good luck with duct tape
think I'm gonna make some thin aluminum covers tho...

























to the OP..

Nice build bud! looks great!

[EXW]

Thanks for the good ideas. I will play around with the dust covers and see what i can find.

Took it out to Red Rocks yesterday and it did OK. Today I discovered that the rear pinion was slipping. Turns out that the pinion's set screw hole was not threaded all the way, so while I thought the set screw was cranked down, it wasn't.

I put a new set screw in and made sure it is all the way through. Now I'm getting equal power to both axles, but need to wait on a BEC before I can test (another story altogether :-().

Anyway, here are some pictures from Red Rocks.

[dezfan]

Looks pretty cool, I'm sure once it's streched out to 12.5, it will really shine!

[Tomy]

Originally Posted by EXW

Took it out to Red Rocks yesterday and it did OK.

What do you think of the X-Locks and the stock foams? They feel really hard, how did they work for you?

[run2jeepn]

Originally Posted by Tomy

What do you think of the X-Locks and the stock foams? They feel really hard, how did they work for you?

The New Foams in the X-Locks are really nice. I have a set running Memory Foams and one set running the Stock Foams...

[Tomy]

Originally Posted by run2jeepn

The New Foams in the X-Locks are really nice. I have a set running Memory Foams and one set running the Stock Foams...

And which ones works better for you?

[EXW]

Originally Posted by Tomy

What do you think of the X-Locks and the stock foams? They feel really hard, how did they work for you?

The stock foam felt really hard to me as well. However, as soon as it got warmed up on the rocks it became softer than memory foam. It almost seems too soft on the sidewalls. I was originally planning on swapping the foams out but now I'm going to keep them in for a bit and see if I like them. The tires seem good so far. The rubber is definitely sticky - I put the crawler on it's side to check something and when I put it back on all 4 wheels, the sidewalls were covered in small rocks and sand.

[RPMJ]

I saw this rig in person on Saturday. I was impressed and I was most impressed by the tires. (the foams need work) I liked the tires so much I ordered the 40 series ones for my super.

[RCROCIN']

One of the competitiors in our comp yesterday had the super x-locks and they seemed to hook up really nice. He said he liked them so much he was going to order the 2.2 version.