Natedog's Trail Findering TF2 Tiny Truck

[Natedog]

Thanks, yes she's crawling quite well and tons of fun! I'm hooked on tinier tires at the moment!

Edit: I pulled one shim from tie-rod and now just one 1mm spacer to give slight toe out. Two of these spacers was giving a little too much toe-out and maybe lost tiny bit of steering throw, re-adjusted epa afterwards. Front lower shock mounts use 2mm spacers between axle housing and shock, I replaced them with 1mm to get more steering since the knuckle arms were contacting the buttonhead screws. Needed to Dremel tiny bit of housing around lower shock mount so that they didn't bind the rod ends. I've got another mod in progress to help the front axle.

[mgputer]

Originally Posted by Natedog

Thanks, yes she's crawling quite well and tons of fun! I'm hooked on tinier tires at the moment!

Edit: I pulled one shim from tie-rod and now just one 1mm spacer to give slight toe out. Two of these spacers was giving a little too much toe-out and maybe lost tiny bit of steering throw, re-adjusted epa afterwards. Front lower shock mounts use 2mm spacers between axle housing and shock, I replaced them with 1mm to get more steering since the knuckle arms were contacting the buttonhead screws. Needed to Dremel tiny bit of housing around lower shock mount so that they didn't bind the rod ends. I've got another mod in progress to help the front axle.

I'm liking small tired rigs also. It makes crawling a little more challenging than just driving over things. Also they look so much cooler!

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[Levi]

Originally Posted by Natedog

Great supper cooking view of sunset on the lake!




After supper coffee on my recliner rock




Return

Loving the pictures. Makes me very jealous that I've been stuck at work all day and night as always. Now that's all I'm going to think about it if I get a chance to go run trucks tomorrow. So thank you very much.

[OSRC]

Love your scenery shots! Some beautiful areas out there on the left coast. Glad to see the TF2 doing work too.

I just hiked through Gorges State Park in NC (which was stunning) and all I kept thinking was "I wish I had a tiny truck with me!"

[HumboldtEF]

Thanks for putting up the pictures! I really want to check these spots out eventually, they look amazing. It looks like the smoke dispersed a bit (hopefully)

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by mgputer

I'm liking small tired rigs also. It makes crawling a little more challenging than just driving over things. Also they look so much cooler!

Agreed!

Originally Posted by Levi

Loving the pictures. Makes me very jealous that I've been stuck at work all day and night as always.

Thanks, enjoy as your window to nature while at work.

Originally Posted by OSRC

Love your scenery shots! Some beautiful areas out there on the left coast. Glad to see the TF2 doing work too.

I just hiked through Gorges State Park in NC (which was stunning) and all I kept thinking was "I wish I had a tiny truck with me!"

Thanks, yes all over this great country! Been there too, not always practical to carry one with us though.

Originally Posted by HumboldtEF

Thanks for putting up the pictures! I really want to check these spots out eventually, they look amazing. It looks like the smoke dispersed a bit (hopefully)

You're welcome, yes great crawling and hiking! First day was bad, but it cleared a lot that night.


Little mods to get more ground clearance under the knuckles, I had scrape marks on both screw heads. RC4WD should incorporate shorter knuckle pivot bushings and screws as a running production update. Took awhile to do since I was doing it with a mill bastard file (keeping it all square) and then took couple tries with Dremel to get the screw as long as possible (for thread engagement in the aluminum axle housing) but not so long as to bind the XVDs when tightened.



Stock (before)








And after

[OSRC]

Originally Posted by Natedog

Front kingpin screws extend an extra 2-3mm top and bottom and this had kinda bothered me. Confirmed that these screws drag on the rocks often enough to start grinding down the 3mm buttonhead screws. In the meantime, I'm going to file the brass stockers shorter and install shorter buttonhead screws. While it's apart I'll measure and see if Axial or Vaterra bushings will fit (I've already got spares of both).

I'm not sure how relevant this is, but back during my short lived TF2 days I had a ton of issues with the kingpins. They flat wore out after only a few runs leading to all kinds of camber issues and floppy front wheels. Wasn't the bushing that wore out IIRC, i think it was the holes in the knuckles enlarged. I bit the bullet and did this bearing mod and they were absolutely perfect afterwards. The truck is long sold, made the rounds and now a friend has it and the knuckles are still nice and tight. I did use some red threadlock on the screws and a set of metric bits, otherwise followed the directions to the T.

That was years ago, I'm not sure of the Yota 1 axles have been changed in the meantime or if it's relevant anymore, but it was one of the best changes I made to the truck. I see you liked the thread. Maybe something to keep in mind?

[rockhugger]

I see that as a must do mod. That is awesome OSRC

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by OSRC

I'm not sure how relevant this is, but back during my short lived TF2 days I had a ton of issues with the kingpins. They flat wore out after only a few runs leading to all kinds of camber issues and floppy front wheels. Wasn't the bushing that wore out IIRC, i think it was the holes in the knuckles enlarged. I bit the bullet and did this bearing mod and they were absolutely perfect afterwards. The truck is long sold, made the rounds and now a friend has it and the knuckles are still nice and tight. I did use some red threadlock on the screws and a set of metric bits, otherwise followed the directions to the T.

That was years ago, I'm not sure of the Yota 1 axles have been changed in the meantime or if it's relevant anymore, but it was one of the best changes I made to the truck. I see you liked the thread. Maybe something to keep in mind?

Thanks, I've got one front wheel that's getting a little floppy, but not bad, dont' recall if it was this way to start with. That's a great tutorial thread, I ordered 3x6x2.5mm flanged and non-flanged bearings, just in case!

Originally Posted by rockhugger

I see that as a must do mod. That is awesome OSRC

Could be, great information either way!


Fitting Tamiya grill, lights etcetera to the RC4WD Mojave body is not quite exact fit. The grill curvature of the Tamiya part is slightly more pronounced and better fits the hood line, but there's a slight gap at top, that I will fill on backside with a bead of E6000. When grill/light assembly is properly positioned against bottom edge of hood, the headlight/corner marker lights are about 1/8" too short, I'll fill the black Tamiya part with some scrap styrene to make up the difference. Also needs a thin strip behind the corner light area which I'll shim with thin styrene. Odd that the grill area behind the headlights on both RC4WD and Tamiya don't follow the contour of the fender's leading edge, wth? Stock plastic bumper mostly covers this, but doesn't make sense to not line up properly.


CCHand headlight lenses are too opaque for me (would probably clear up with light touch of acetone on inside of lenses), I'm using Tamiya lenses. One lense snapped in and fit pretty nice, but the right side lens is loose in the headlight bucket and rattles around. I suppose dab of Gorilla glue or E6000 will fix this, kinda surprised Tamiya parts fit is loose. I got them installed right side up first try, they have tiny barely legible logo in center of lens and a water drain hole at the bottom.

[Bananaclip]

Straight cut that fender/flare. Cut right from bottom line of Tamiya grill.... Looks nice when cut clean..... P.S while you have the dremel out remove the hideous lower valance. Just follow the protruded lower grill line. This makes for a super clean front end with better approach lines. Will require custom bumper....

[Natedog]

Initially that was where I was going to cut mine, but been researching and looking at lots of pictures. Userid noname0383 post #14 of his Marlin TF2 thread has great pics of headlight and grill area. RC4WD headlights are definitely larger diameter and their cut is about almost 1/8" below the step in front fenders. I've been thinking cut right at the step, leaving about 1/8" below bottom of the Tamiya grill I'm using if that makes sense?

New RC4WD tf2 Marlin Crawler rtr edition

[Bananaclip]

Originally Posted by Natedog

Initially that was where I was going to cut mine, but been researching and looking at lots of pictures. Userid noname0383 post #14 of his Marlin TF2 thread has great pics of headlight and grill area. RC4WD headlights are definitely larger diameter and their cut is about almost 1/8" below the step in front fenders. I've been thinking cut right at the step, leaving about 1/8" below bottom of the Tamiya grill I'm using if that makes sense?

New RC4WD tf2 Marlin Crawler rtr edition

I'm tracking......... Do it up brojangles.....

[Natedog]

Roger that, thanks! I bought a helical gear set for this and one half of the pinion gear shaft is machined flat, how is this going to hold onto the driveshaft securely with only half the steel there? Seems like the screwpin will get worked around and maybe sheared off much easier, also isn't the driveshaft going to be kinda floppy on the pinion shaft?

[Natedog]

Pictures of helical gear set, is this normal?

[mgputer]

I didn't like that either when I had my tf2. You can fabricate a little spacer. I used a piece of aluminum rod and ground it down so it fit perfectly and drilled a hole in it. Worked great!

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[rockhugger]

AND THEN??? meow

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by mgputer

I didn't like that either when I had my tf2. You can fabricate a little spacer. I used a piece of aluminum rod and ground it down so it fit perfectly and drilled a hole in it. Worked great!

Not the proper way to make a pinion shaft, thought about that, went to the LHS, bought everything else I needed and forgot the aluminum rod. Thanks, I'll pick one up next time and get to fabricating a spacer.

Originally Posted by rockhugger

AND THEN??? meow

Right!?! Damn it Jim, here's a side angle shot to show the nice fitment all around. I went against friend's advice and OCD fashioned little bits of styrene to perfectly fit the Tamiya grill around the RC4WD body, then sanded and painted with Tamiya X-18 Semigloss Black and a small brush.

To fit the grill better, I flipped the aluminum angle brace that holds the grill to the body 180* around and still had to gently bend the tabs ever so slightly. Used couple dabs of E6000 around the headlight areas and a small bead down both sides (on the inside). Will do couple more dabs across top of grill to hood.

Edit: yes I have the marker light lenses.

[HumboldtEF]

Great job! I dont even see the patch.

That Tamiya grill sure looks sharp

[Natedog]

Originally Posted by HumboldtEF

Great job! I dont even see the patch.

That Tamiya grill sure looks sharp

Thanks, I agree, much better with round lights.
Start of steel spacer for helical gear set pinion shaft.

[Natedog]

Disassembled to find out why front axle was binding. Short side outer bearing (5x8mm tiny!) had exploded, tiny balls and cage fell out, seal mia. It appears this is why the diff was kinda tight initially after installing XVDs, they seem to be more precisely machined than the dogbone setup or maybe improper tolerance on the XVD? Stock spool/ring gear looks ok so far, need to clean rest of grease off to be sure. Axle housing is poorly machined and the spool kinda binds once the housing halves are bolted together. Was going to install the helical gearset I bought, but it's improperly machined too, the gear side with raised ridge to index off inner bearing race actually sits BELOW the ring gear, therefore it indexes off the outer bearing race. Opposite side away from ring gear has no raised lip at all and therefore indexes off entire bearing! Somebody either forgot to design in or skipped machine step and left it as one big surface.

Stock spool/gear assembly bearing surface to bearing surface is 0.498" (nice and snug in axle housing0, helical gear is 0.508" and will not fit in housing!

Searched the web and RC4WD appears to have removed all contact phone numbers so I get to send them an email and hope they will take care of this.

Considering possible axles to replace these.

Some of the bearing remains in there, gotta hunt for the rest of them, the balls are tiny and only found a couple so far!




Helical ring gear on left, kinda hard to get a good picture of the reverse step where bearing should index, but standard gear on right easy to see the step up that the bearing indexes on.




Helical gear on left again showing side opposite ring gear where no step is machined to index off inner bearing race, instead entire bearing rubs on the spool causing drag.