no foam testing with new setup

[jwo]

well after the thread about the g-air system, i decided to try it out. i have seen it before, but was never tempted til now. i used my 8 shooters that i was running all along. sealed up the vent holes in them. used one of the beadlock bolts for the breather. found a video on you tube on getting air into your tires with any special pumps or what not. just put em in the freezer. let them sit pull them out replace the last bolt and let them warm up and you have a pressurized tire! i did the fronts for 10 minutes and the rears for 7. i did not have high hopes for them, but i was surprised how well they worked. the leopards were hooking up hard. alot more traction. the last time i ran them i was feeling i needed more from them, so i went back to my rovers. after running the leopards then back to the rovers i just prefered the leopards mostly because of the soft sticky compound. anyways i wwent down to my favorite spot. i have pics and a couple vids. so with that being said on with it.

big large open area. pics dont show it for what it really is. theres lots of large challenging climbs and giant bolders. the best spot is right by the dam if your brave enough to get that close to the water.

air filled leopards ready for the testing. its amazing how large and narrow they grew with some air. they are still very soft. same amount of slack as with foams. also you can see the now chassis setup i am running. its almost a copy of the mantis chassis. if dna didnt shut down i would buy this chassis in a heart beat. it flat out works. still needs a few minor tweaks though. made from cutting board with a bent nylon skid. front droop setup only. the rear acts more like a torsion setup. i can tune the flex with a turn of a bolt in the rear. it can climb vertical ledges with ease. the articulation is not limited at all. same amount as with shocks all the way around.

stopped for a break. the sidewinder was getting toasty. it gets slightly warm usually after an hour and half run, but it was 100 plus outside when i did this.
http://s780.photobucket.com/albums/y...7-08170424.mp4
short little video at the beginning of testing.
http://s780.photobucket.com/albums/y...7-08174739.mp4
the second one toward the end of my run. when you see the front locking up it was due to the pin in the dog bone pushing out. so it forces its way out of the wheel stub forcing my servo to go where it doesn't want. in the end it locked up for good and fried the servo making the end of the run.

the pins getting pushed out from digs. i had it with those ones. i picked some better bigger hardened steel dogbones up today. they are going to require modifications though. gonna shorten them. sleeve them, then weld em up. in the end i am very pleased how well the chassis works as well as the aired tires. there is one very steep climb that needs wheel speed to get over the first couple dips. it did bounce as it was digging for traction, but it wasn't any worse them with foams in this spot. other then that i had no issues at all with the setup. traction was great. sidehilling was just as good. maybe differ with other tires due to the fact that the leopards have a thick sidewall and thins out where the lugs start. im going to continue to run this setup on different terrains so i can better tell how they function.

[eggie]

I saw that same video about the freezer. Pretty cool idea. Hows the flexibility on rocks?

[FullScaleDreams]

Any pics with the lid off? i wanna scope the chassis set up. looks good

[jwo]

Originally Posted by eggie

I saw that same video about the freezer. Pretty cool idea. Hows the flexibility on rocks?

chassis? the chassis flexes really well.if i stiffen up the rear of it i can get about 4" of flex. as for the tires that was a pretty cool trick. the tires have been holding air with no leaks at all. there is some pressure fluctuation with the heat and cold, but it isnt as bad as i though it would. like i said i want to do some further testing with them.

Originally Posted by FullScaleDreams

Any pics with the lid off? i wanna scope the chassis set up. looks good

. yup ill post some up in a bit. its pretty much the same thing as a mantis, but modified a bit to accommodate the rs10 axles a little better. still needs a few tweaks. i want to bring the front end of the chassis a bit closer to the axle to help aid a bit more on taller vertical ledges, and lengthen the rear a tad to bring it back to 12.5".

[jwo]

[FullScaleDreams]

thanks. looks awesome. It must kill on vertical climbs.

[jwo]

no problem! it does do vertical climbs very well. this is the chassis i plan to stick with. best one to date that i have made. in the process of changing the front links a bit, so it can preform even better on vertical climbs. having that much clearance in the rear really helps for climbing off vertical ledges to. it will just hang from the rear and use the dig to pull it down and out of it.

[jsowens]

That looks pretty interesting...definitely a way to step outside the box on a chassis. I'm curious though...what are those metal washers on the inside of the front wheels? Just spacers to widen the stance perhaps?

[jwo]

Originally Posted by jsowens

That looks pretty interesting...definitely a way to step outside the box on a chassis. I'm curious though...what are those metal washers on the inside of the front wheels? Just spacers to widen the stance perhaps?

thats a good question jsowens! im surprised no one else noticed them. i made some 1/2'' wheel spacers to widen the front stance. front only. i have used washers for wheel weights in the past on other rigs placed in the dish of the rim.when i did my build thread when i had the claws on it, i had that system on it. they work very well. i have a big variety of them weighting .5 all the way up to 2 ounces a piece. i changed the weight a bit from that pic. but i have been gluing them directly on the outside of the knuckle. much cleaner weight system then mounting directly on the axle. being on the knuckle brings the weight out as far as possible with out putting them in the wheels. this way there is not as much stress on the drive train then with weighted wheels. i did the axle weight thing. to cluttered and looks bad. this was my best idea i came up with.right now im running 4.5 ounces on each side. they end up tucking into the rim and have not gotten hung up on anything yet. good eyes! no one asks, im not tellin!

[jsowens]

You know, that's actually not a bad idea...it certainly makes it easier to change up the weight without disassembling the beadlocks. How's that chassis doing?

[jwo]

Originally Posted by jsowens

You know, that's actually not a bad idea...it certainly makes it easier to change up the weight without disassembling the beadlocks. How's that chassis doing?

my wheel spacers allow more room for them.
its coming together. made some changes to it where needed be. still waiting on a new servo. i ordered two, but they should be here very soon.

the new dog bones. modified. they have larger pins and they are hardened steel. should last longer then the stockers. sleeved an welded.i had to shorten them. they are a little ruff looking, but they wont be seen. i will have to open up the stubs a little.

i shortened the front to bring the tires closer to the belly. then lengthened the rear. raised the rear a little bit. minor changes to the chassis. thats a rover under the belly with room to spare.

lengthened the skid.blended it into the front skid.

a very tight fit for te esc, receiver, bec, and the dig. also a gearing change. should be better then before. while testing i ran a few runs with the body off so i could see what needed to be tweaked. so after my new servos arrive i will go out and test again.

[rc_pimp]

That chassis is nice bro . I think I will try to make something like it . I will probably waist a bunch of material though . Any chance you would be willing to make one for me ? If so please pm me with a price and a time line .All I need are the side plates . If youre not interested in making one , will you please share the rough dimensions ?

[jwo]

Originally Posted by rc_pimp

That chassis is nice bro . I think I will try to make something like it . I will probably waist a bunch of material though . Any chance you would be willing to make one for me ? If so please pm me with a price and a time line .All I need are the side plates . If youre not interested in making one , will you please share the rough dimensions ?

thanks. its just from cutting board. i made this by hand. no special tools, or special machines. copping saw, hand drill, and a few different files for clean up on it.

[jwo]

alright got a chance to go out and test again after some changes.changed to a 10t in the front.thanks zno.if you need bored pinions and dont have the stuff to do it, he's the man to talk to. specially the 8t pinions. left the 8t in the rear. the 10t made a world of difference.it didnt start out to well, i had a feeling something was going to go wrong as i was driving to the dam. it started raining right when i got there. waited for a while and the rain passed. the testing was run short again due to a stripped servo horn. i have spares, but im gonna run to the lhs and pick up an aluminum one when i get a chance. testing went well. improvement wise. still a minor change to finish it. the front had a light ticking in it from the start since pinion change. i will have to tear it down and see whats up. i know its not the gears, because there was 0 wear when i changed the front pinion. a little pebble or a sand is probable the culprit. i didnt do much crawling. i know what its capable of. i was testing on the stuff that caused issues before.

okay so after i pass the gate and about 50 feet later this is what i find. not good if you ask me. someone ripped off someones purse.i hate thieves! makes me feel a little uneasy about leaving my car unattended. i was just hoping not to find a dead body down by the dam.

anyways i have a short 30 second video of one of the climbs. i finally made my own photo bucket account. i know the mrs. will be happy. hopefully these videos can be seen that i have been posting. this was a pretty good climb. the ticking you hear is the front. its no were near as bad as it sounds. its amazing how well the mic works on my phone.
http://s780.photobucket.com/albums/y...7-22170707.mp4

side view shot of this climb from the video. pretty tall ledge. 14 or 15'' give or take. plus you can see how the ledges angle is. required a bit of wheels speed to get the back tires up and over due to the angle.

please excuse the dora fruit snacks. this is a pic of the minor improvement needed to make this chassis perfect.you can see how the link is angled and the slight little hump behind it. this is what is mildly getting hung up on the ledges. a slightly longer link and locating it back a little or shaving that area will fix this problem.i think shaving that area will give it a better outcome for climbing ledges. all in all i am very pleased with how well this chassis works. this thing is amazing. there was one hard tall ledge it would not do at all. it did it once. so i tried to get some video, but thats when the servo horn took a term for the worse. im proud to say i made it. best one and cleanest one yet. that copping saw is the key. no burning or melting and it rips right threw everything. heck i even use it to cut out 1/8'' aluminum. so i guess sense i went out testing again, you all know i got a new servo. i picked two up from hobbyparts.com. the site that's posted in the corner from rcc. i plan on doing more biz with them.super cheap and out of the us. i never checked because i assumed it was from hong kong or some place that requires a 2 week wait or more.we all know where that gets you! i was going to go with a nice servo, but i had good luck with the towerpros.figured they are cheap enough if they die early i wont be out much.my others lasted a couple years.crawling 3 or 4 times a week at the most. my original choice was the 996. had the 995's before. after nosing around the site i found the 946r's. that's what i went with. they work so much better then the 995's. more power. no centering issues. didn't even break a sweat.

[AngryTradesman]

That is the tits! Cutting board eh? Awsome!

[nwcrawler]

sweet rig how do you like your rc4wd motors, i just put mine on yesterday and i thought they were pretty good with 10t pinions

[dgna5]

Once again top-notch wrk how are your gears hold"n up any issues yet

[RTVIC]

SO killer!!!! nice job that rig is saweeeeeeet!

[jwo]

Originally Posted by AngryTradesman

That is the tits! Cutting board eh? Awsome!

yup, cutting board. 2.50$

Originally Posted by nwcrawler

sweet rig how do you like your rc4wd motors, i just put mine on yesterday and i thought they were pretty good with 10t pinions

they work just fine for me. they are just some stock motors with higher turns. the caps weren't soldered to them though. no biggie to me. cheap and they work. figured i would give them a shot for the money.

Originally Posted by dgna5

Once again top-notch wrk how are your gears hold"n up any issues yet

still holding up great. look perfect as well. its the dog bones that are hurting me at the moment. the pins keep pushing out when i dig.

Originally Posted by RTVIC

SO killer!!!! nice job that rig is saweeeeeeet!

thanks, its the best working one yet. needs a few minor tweaks, but im happy with it.

[jr104]

Originally Posted by jwo

my wheel spacers allow more room for them.
its coming together. made some changes to it where needed be. still waiting on a new servo. i ordered two, but they should be here very soon.

the new dog bones. modified. they have larger pins and they are hardened steel. should last longer then the stockers. sleeved an welded.i had to shorten them. they are a little ruff looking, but they wont be seen. i will have to open up the stubs a little.

i shortened the front to bring the tires closer to the belly. then lengthened the rear. raised the rear a little bit. minor changes to the chassis. thats a rover under the belly with room to spare.

lengthened the skid.blended it into the front skid.

a very tight fit for te esc, receiver, bec, and the dig. also a gearing change. should be better then before. while testing i ran a few runs with the body off so i could see what needed to be tweaked. so after my new servos arrive i will go out and test again.

That rig looks bad ass!!! Nice job!!
Jake