How to fit a Vf Dig in an SW3...Stock Location.
 

Thanks to Don and the crew at Visionary Fab I was lucky enough to receive one of the prototype VF dig's.

Mounting the dig in the stock location in my SW3 presented some clearance issues. The easy route would have been to just move the mounting holes for the tranny over and hang the motor further out the passenger side of the rig... Nah, I wanted my weights centered like before.
Easily solved with the trusty dremel and some creative cutting. "thumbsup"

First I removed the rear mount point for the pede tranny and the surrounding area. Next I had to chamfer the lower edge of the side plate so that the dig unit could slide all the way to the driver side of the chassis, right at the short red line at the bottom of the picture. it's the area in between the dig unit and the chassis.

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/8...patterndv9.jpg

Once I had enough room there, I realized there was still some interference at the servo horn. I imagine I could have just moved the servo to the other side of the mount, but I wanted everything nice and tight. ;-) So I milled the mount down servo mount about a 1/4" you can see that in the next pic, with the red arrow.

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/2298/dsc2890lk8.jpg


Once I had that done, everything fit just like I wanted and... WOW does the VF Dig work well. I had been fighting dig for months due to the lack of reliability. Once set up correctly, the VF dig works very well. It definately made a difference at our last comp. I can't wait to try the production version which is upgraded from than the one I have. "thumbsup"

Thanks VF Fab! You guys rock!

One last pic of the install.

http://img172.imageshack.us/img172/4489/vfdigsw3jy2.jpg

Nice dude!

The best part is where you put the receiver! That's great!

proximity :lol:

No way in hell I would do that.:shock:

Mine bolted right in, no cutting required;)

To me, that is like defacing the Mona Lisa.

It looks nice and clean, like it was made for it"thumbsup" Nice work Brian.

Man, Brian...I hope Brad doesn't see this. You may be getting a knock on your door... :shock:

That is a lot of stuff in a little area. I would hate to have to work on it... ;-)

Sure would like to see a pic of that Jason.:)

Nice work Brian, you gotta do what you gotta do. :lol: "thumbsup"

I like how you took a sharpie to make sure the chassis was black after you cut it. Great idea :lol:

Been using that trick for years on anodizing.

Ok Mr. Hensel let's see how you mounted it in the same spot without cutting.

What? I wanna see it... I have an idea how he might have done it. ;-)

So do I ...

I eat just as much popcorn while watching DIY Channel as I do during a drama"thumbsup"

Ya know what's funny? Last night as I was posting this thread I was thinking to myself, what could possibly go wrong in a tech thread. This morning I open it up and people are wanting to kill me. :shock:

:roll:

Good job Brian.. This is good tech information for folks wanting their VF dig in an SW3. "thumbsup""thumbsup"

I guess my joke was in bad taste, sorry Brian.

I met Brian last Friday night at RCP. I had a chance to look over his set up. It was well thought out. Everything fits well and centered. I may need my plates cut the same.......it would be modified......but still an SW3!!!!