Everest gen 7 - how i improved my steering... other thoughts

[2k2wranglerx]

So I bought this with the intent of keeping it as CHEAP as possible. Because if i spend more on it i should have just bought an ascender, scx10.2, or trx4 lol.

BUT... I can't leave anything alone. soooooo

First thing i did was 25 KG turnigy servo. I bought that a few months ago for something. I can't remember what. But it was sitting in the servo bin so i tossed it in. Instant improvement.

Then I started trying to figure out how to get a little more throw out of it. The new servo was strong enough that with the single sheer setup and stock soft plastic knuckles it would twist when they hit their bump stops.

a buddy had a set of SSD C's and Axial aluminum knuckles for an SCX10.1. I bought those off of him and set to work.



I had to grind down the SSD's a bit... i took them a bit too far.

Also, i had to shave down the nipples on the redcat axle to get the inner C's to slip over them. Also, I had to drill 2 new holes just slightly outside the holes for the stock c's.



I tried some VP knuckles but they didn't clear the stock wheels/tires which at this time i'm planning on keeping.

vp knuckles:



showing them hitting the tire:



Anyway, so that didn't work out. So i went back to the axial knuckles



had to get a little crazy to get this to work.

Spaced the tie rod as high as i could in order to clear the pumpkin. This could also be done with a bent tie rod... i didn't have any that were long enough so i did this.



So in order to get that to work i had to remove the servo mount. drill the forward holes a little bigger and moved the servo mounts forward 1 set of holes. That allows the steering horn to clear the tie rod and the drag link can be mounted below it.

I don't love this setup. the geometry works but isn't ideal and it's still in single sheer. But it seems to work pretty well. That's also why I went aluminum for the inner c and knuckles. So hopefully that negates the poor geometry to a point.

in hind sight... i'd just leave the stock C's and toss the axial knuckles on. But i took it that far so i went the rest of the way.

https://youtu.be/MU7PLYil99w

there's a vid of it working.

[2k2wranglerx]

a couple other thoughts.

I think the shocks are letting this thing down. they just don't seem to have the travel it needs. I swapped over axial soft springs and moved them down into a droop setup. It seems to need more.





I also weighted the stock wheels (again keeping this cheap)



the stock wheels are ok. It's nice they're beadlocks. But they're REALLY light. The stock foams appear to be some kind of memory foam.

[number9]

So I bought this with the intent of keeping it as CHEAP as possible. Because if i spend more on it i should have just bought an ascender, scx10.2, or trx4 lol.

BUT... I can't leave anything alone. soooooo

That was my line of thought when me and my 2 boys bought our E10s a couple months ago...........now they are all 3 slowly morphing into SCX10s.......

[Jim85IROC]

For guys looking for a cheap steering upgrade, I'm seeing some guys bend the tie rod and add some spacers between it and the end links to maintain proper toe. I'm planning to keep the tie rod straight but replace the end links with bent links in order to move it out. This, combined with trimming the steering stops down, seems to be providing a lot more steering for basically no cost. My truck gets here tonight, so hopefully by this weekend I'll have a full report on the improvement. Until my CVAs get here, I'm expecting the improvements with the stock dogbone axles (I have a Sport) to be somewhat limited.

[nightcrawler48]

Originally Posted by Jim85IROC

For guys looking for a cheap steering upgrade, I'm seeing some guys bend the tie rod and add some spacers between it and the end links to maintain proper toe. I'm planning to keep the tie rod straight but replace the end links with bent links in order to move it out. This, combined with trimming the steering stops down, seems to be providing a lot more steering for basically no cost. My truck gets here tonight, so hopefully by this weekend I'll have a full report on the improvement. Until my CVAs get here, I'm expecting the improvements with the stock dogbone axles (I have a Sport) to be somewhat limited.

Yup. Did exactly that. Used some RC4WD Z-S0401 offset rod ends I always have in the parts bin. The short offset rod ends are exactly the same length to pin center as the Redcat rod ends so didn't even have to shim. Very simple, took about 5 minutes. Still think more steering angle would be nice but I'm trying this out for now.

[Jim85IROC]

Originally Posted by nightcrawler48

Yup. Did exactly that. Used some RC4WD Z-S0401 offset rod ends I always have in the parts bin. The short offset rod ends are exactly the same length to pin center as the Redcat rod ends so didn't even have to shim. Very simple, took about 5 minutes. Still think more steering angle would be nice but I'm trying this out for now.

I ended up not being able to use my angled rod ends... they're the ones from my Bomber kit, and they're 4mm. I could have drilled & tapped the tie rod, but I decided to take a different approach.

I had some RC4WD angled rod ends, but they angled the bar up instead of out. The more I thought about it, the more I liked that idea, so I ran with it. Moving the tie rod up gets it out of the path of obstacles. I cut the rod ends down to the right length, and installed them, along with some small bushings underneath the rod ends to lift it up even higher. This required me to convert the servo link to an angled end too, in order to avoid interference.

But, the big change I made compared to everybody else's, was that in addition to cutting away the stops on the knuckles, I replaced the chub screws with countersunk screws. This gave me even more steering angle. I have enough steering now that the CVAs bind, and the whole thing cost me virtually nothing.

[nightcrawler48]

Originally Posted by Jim85IROC

I ended up not being able to use my angled rod ends... they're the ones from my Bomber kit, and they're 4mm. I could have drilled & tapped the tie rod, but I decided to take a different approach.

I had some RC4WD angled rod ends, but they angled the bar up instead of out. The more I thought about it, the more I liked that idea, so I ran with it. Moving the tie rod up gets it out of the path of obstacles. I cut the rod ends down to the right length, and installed them, along with some small bushings underneath the rod ends to lift it up even higher. This required me to convert the servo link to an angled end too, in order to avoid interference.

But, the big change I made compared to everybody else's, was that in addition to cutting away the stops on the knuckles, I replaced the chub screws with countersunk screws. This gave me even more steering angle. I have enough steering now that the CVAs bind, and the whole thing cost me virtually nothing.

Like that countersunk screw idea a lot. I'll be tryin' that today and checking how much more steering turn angle I get.