Exceed Mad Torque - Extensive Review and build thread

[monkeyracer]

I sent my stock tires to xtrmtj, but I think I might actually look at m4 calibers or another similar buggy pin tire instead of the comp claws, but I will likely make both to be able to see the differences between them.

What are you planning on for foams for those tires?

[Big E]

Originally Posted by monkeyracer

I sent my stock tires to xtrmtj, but I think I might actually look at m4 calibers or another similar buggy pin tire instead of the comp claws, but I will likely make both to be able to see the differences between them.

What are you planning on for foams for those tires?

Not sure yet.. I'm going to try some denser foam I have access to for the base layer and cut up my memory foam I made for my stock setup and use it for the outer layer.. try it out at least..

[hobbypartz]

[WILDMAN442]

Originally Posted by monkeyracer

I sent my stock tires to xtrmtj, but I think I might actually look at m4 calibers or another similar buggy pin tire instead of the comp claws, but I will likely make both to be able to see the differences between them.

What are you planning on for foams for those tires?

I really would like to see some more of the chassis you had designed.

Any progress on that?

Thank you for the write up. I am seriously considering one of these as my first crawler.

Justin

[monkeyracer]

I am actually planning on working on the chassis today. Since I am hand-cutting the prototype, it takes a while to get it looking ok. I got one side plate done, and the other rough cut. What I have left to do is get side two identical to side one, and cut the skid plate and braces for it.

I also got some new rod ends (that use M5 set screws) and 1/2" diameter delrin (this stuff is HUGE) to make some new lower links. I need to order some 3/8 or even just 1/4" delrin for the top links.

And, also, I got some different hexes to bring the wheels in a little bit to get some stability there, but as abavuso saw, most 17mm hexes have an 8mm hole for the stub axle, where the EXMT has 5mm stub axles. I found the right size spacer, and will be getting that together today as well.

I haven't found the right tires yet, but if I get to it today, I also plan to narrow the axial 40 series beadlocks.

The first chassis will be a prototype, and only cut out of some thin lexan. This will let me make sure the measurements are correct, and allow me to test shock location, and clearances. After the prototype, I will make my adjustments to the design, and have one of RCC's vendors cut the chassis out of 1/8" delrin.

I also ordered some used 55t motors from a forum member, but I will need to get new brushes, springs, and will need to clean up the commutator to make sure the motor runs like new (or better than new with stronger springs.)

After the chassis and tires are done, I will get a follow-up video, to show how much more capable these are. Now that I am out of school for the summer, and getting over being sick, I will have more progress on this to show.

[Psychomonkey RC]

Hello,
I have been reading your thread and I think that this will work for you on your search for hubs.
Take a look.
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXXE06&P=7
I used this on my LST. There is a step inside the bore that need to be drilled a tad deeper on that but, it had 5mm stubs on it. They might be a direct fit on the Mad Torque.
Hope this helps.

[monkeyracer]

Originally Posted by Psychomonkey RC

Hello,
I have been reading your thread and I think that this will work for you on your search for hubs.
Take a look.
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXXE06&P=7
I used this on my LST. There is a step inside the bore that need to be drilled a tad deeper on that but, it had 5mm stubs on it. They might be a direct fit on the Mad Torque.
Hope this helps.

Thanks for the link, that's good to know.

I ended up buying these:
http://www.nitrorcx.com/mad-bd3048.html
and getting some very inexpensive spacers, so I've got less than $6 in these hubs.

[monkeyracer]

Progress update (sorry no pics yet):

got the chassis cut and started getting the braces done, but broke my M3 tap, so none of the braces or skid plate can get done until I get a replacement tap.

Cut the first front lower link out of 1/2" delrin, and got rod ends installed. The other front link should go pretty easy, but the rear lowers are going to be bent, so they will be harder to do. The uppers will be made of 3/8 delrin.

I was able to get the new narrow hubs installed. This will do a few things for me: narrow the track width, increase stability (since there is less mass further out on the stub axle) and make steering a little easier with the center of the pivot closer to the center of the wheel.

More updates later this week after I get my replacement m3 tap.

[sb4pro]

In order to keep using the stock wheels I'm thinking bout using Pro-Line 2.8 Trenchers made for the TRAXXAS Stampede . I know they are a softer compound and have good foam insets , what do you guys think ?

[MMjeep]

Originally Posted by sb4pro

In order to keep using the stock wheels I'm thinking bout using Pro-Line 2.8 Trenchers made for the TRAXXAS Stampede . I know they are a softer compound and have good foam insets , what do you guys think ?

Dont bother just buy 6 2.2 tires and cut and shut them to fit on your wheels. The trenchers are ok but i love my panthers or maybe get some sedonas. If your gonna spend money on tires might as well go with some that are made for crawling.

[monkeyracer]

Originally Posted by sb4pro

In order to keep using the stock wheels I'm thinking bout using Pro-Line 2.8 Trenchers made for the TRAXXAS Stampede . I know they are a softer compound and have good foam insets , what do you guys think ?

The stock wheels are a weird size, at least for crawlers. If you plan to compete in USRCCA competitions, they are actually out of spec. I really wish they would have started with the 3.2 size at least, but would have been awesome to see 40 series (3.8") rims come stock with this truck.

Originally Posted by MMjeep

Dont bother just buy 6 2.2 tires and cut and shut them to fit on your wheels. The trenchers are ok but i love my panthers or maybe get some sedonas. If your gonna spend money on tires might as well go with some that are made for crawling.

I agree; definitely worth the time, effort and money for the performance benefits. I am trying to find another set of Losi Comp Claws to finish my tires. The problem is that most people think that the Rock Claws are the same thing, and I've now got 8 Rock Claws that were supposed to be Comp Claws.

This does make really tall, but narrow tires, and you would probably need to look into narrowing the wheel to get it to look right though. At that point though, you would probably be better off getting a set of 40 series wheels and narrowing them. (If you are going to put some work into them, they might as well be wheels and tires you can compete with if it ever gets to that point.)


I haven't given up on this build. There are still some great things in store for it, but I've been crazy busy getting ready for school this next semester, finding a job, and so on. I will post some progress very soon.

[BentMetaL]

You might want to nitrorcx.com and look at the 1/8 scale Mad Stone hexes. They are alot shorter and I believe that the stubs are the same. I think I will pick some up and try them wit My Maximizer 3.2 wheels which have more offset. I'm using IMEX 7" Rubicons (soft).

[monkeyracer]

Originally Posted by PHAT2011

You might want to nitrorcx.com and look at the 1/8 scale Mad Stone hexes. They are alot shorter and I believe that the stubs are the same. I think I will pick some up and try them wit My Maximizer 3.2 wheels which have more offset. I'm using IMEX 7" Rubicons (soft).

I ended up using these:



Since they were $3.75 for all 4 hexes, and just used my stock wheel nuts. They have an 8mm bore, so I had to make some spacers since the stock axle stubs are 5mm shafts, just a piece of nylon spacer did the trick.

The 1/8 Maxstone (there is no Mad stone) hexes are 23mm with an 8mm bore, so those would work if you are using the proline cheyenne beadlocks or other wheels with 23mm hex as long as you either use the Maxstone stubs or the same spacers I used.

It's hard to tell the size of these since there is nothing listed on the website.




Now, for the status of this build: I've pretty much done nothing with this since the last update, I've had some other projects and budget restrictions that have kept and progress from this build.

I just ordered some things to help get this project going again, but the big thing holding it back will be getting my custom chassis cut, and clocking the axles the way I want to do it.

The plan for the build will be:

Dual Sidewinders (waiting on one from castle repair)
55t rebuilt motors using integy machine wound arms
FlySky FS-GT3B hacked for 6 ch and dual esc/rear steer mixing
Tall Comp Claws with Moab sidewalls, and possibly buggy pin center tread and custom foams (tires on the way now)
Custom 40 series beadlocks (under wraps for now, need to get the parts cut before I reveal them)
Custom Bodiless Chassis with stock body cut up for panels
Custom axle brace with Large scale servo and battery mount
Clocked axles, looking for about 20 degrees or so, nothing too crazy
Custom C-Hubs/Knuckles (for strength and durability)
Hopefully some CVDs or universals, but no plan yet.

So, still a lot of work to do.

[BentMetaL]

Originally Posted by monkeyracer

I ended up using these:



Since they were $3.75 for all 4 hexes, and just used my stock wheel nuts. They have an 8mm bore, so I had to make some spacers since the stock axle stubs are 5mm shafts, just a piece of nylon spacer did the trick.

The 1/8 Maxstone (there is no Mad stone) hexes are 23mm with an 8mm bore, so those would work if you are using the proline cheyenne beadlocks or other wheels with 23mm hex as long as you either use the Maxstone stubs or the same spacers I used.

It's hard to tell the size of these since there is nothing listed on the website.




Now, for the status of this build: I've pretty much done nothing with this since the last update, I've had some other projects and budget restrictions that have kept and progress from this build.

I just ordered some things to help get this project going again, but the big thing holding it back will be getting my custom chassis cut, and clocking the axles the way I want to do it.

The plan for the build will be:

Dual Sidewinders (waiting on one from castle repair)
55t rebuilt motors using integy machine wound arms
FlySky FS-GT3B hacked for 6 ch and dual esc/rear steer mixing
Tall Comp Claws with Moab sidewalls, and possibly buggy pin center tread and custom foams (tires on the way now)
Custom 40 series beadlocks (under wraps for now, need to get the parts cut before I reveal them)
Custom Bodiless Chassis with stock body cut up for panels
Custom axle brace with Large scale servo and battery mount
Clocked axles, looking for about 20 degrees or so, nothing too crazy
Custom C-Hubs/Knuckles (for strength and durability)
Hopefully some CVDs or universals, but no plan yet.

So, still a lot of work to do.

Hey, did you think about shortening the stock ones and redrill and tap them. Seems like alot of trouble making bushings to fit.

[monkeyracer]

Originally Posted by PHAT2011

Hey, did you think about shortening the stock ones and redrill and tap them. Seems like alot of trouble making bushings to fit.

The bushings are actually pretty easy, seems to me it would be harder cutting and re-drilling the stock ones...

[monkeyracer]

Got a few minutes to work on this today.

No pics for now, but to start, I looked at drilling the stock links with a 5mm bit (stepping up .5mm from 3mm until I got to 5mm) to use as bushings for the axles, and got the first two drilled out. Still need to drill for the pins and cut to length. I think these will work out better than the nylon bushing.

Also got some work done on the tires. I didn't like the pizza cutter style tires so I grabbed 20 tires and started to make some that I think will work great and look the way I want them to. I got one done, and got most of the way done with the 2nd one. There's a lot of cutting and a whole lot of gluing left to do. I also need to find or make some foams though since what I have is too small. These things end up being about 8.25" tall and 3" or so wide unmounted.

Lastly, a few weeks ago I made the front lower links, but need to figure out what to do with the rear lowers since I want them bent.

I will snap some pics and post some more updates soon.

[monkeyracer]

Wow, I didn't realize this thread has over 5000 views... Guess I gotta kick it up and get this thing done.

Here's some pictures of the tire building process.

Started with a pile of rubber:


That's a well used 40 Series Proline Moab, a pair of used 2.2 Losi Comp Claws (front tires have new comp claws), and a pair of 1/8 buggy Venom Forty Fives in V3 compound. All for one single super tire.

Then I cut out the parts I needed:


Moabs for sidewalls, Comp Claws for tread shoulders, and Forty Fives for the center tread. I just noticed that this pic shows the first cut I made to the sidewall. It ended up being too big of a diameter, so I cut it down even further, which you can sort of tell in the pics below.

Started out gluing things together:


Started first by expanding the Comp Claws and Forty Fives.

More gluing and got the first one finished:


You can see the second one almost finished with the treads being glued together.

Here's a closeup of the tread:


The tread heights are pretty much the same between the Claws and Fives.

Like I said above, there is a lot of gluing left to do, and I haven't even started to back the seams with IC2000 rubberized cement. Also, I am going to try and find out where to source some foam for these. I'm thinking of checking the local upholstery supply store to see what they've got for seat foam selection.

Sorry, no pics of the links or the bushings yet, I was too busy getting the tires glued up. I will try to post more soon, but might not be able to until next week.



By the way, these tires stink bad, and it took me a couple washes to get the smell off my hands. I might try latex gloves for the next tire to see how that goes.

[BentMetaL]

Crawler Inovations makes a foam for those I think. Take a look at their site. They don't make any for 3.2's.

[monkeyracer]

Originally Posted by PHAT2011

Crawler Inovations makes a foam for those I think. Take a look at their site. They don't make any for 3.2's.

These are 40 series (3.8" wheels), they don't have anything taller than 7.25" and I can make plenty of foams for the $40 they will cost from them. He is a great vendor, but I don't like to pay for something I can do myself. I'm looking for a 9" diameter x 4" wide foam with a 4" hole cut out, I can chop up a block of seat foam for probably half the cost.

Thanks though.

[Abavuso]

If you go to Walmart in the craft section you can find some soft white foam I used it in my super, worked great.

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