Bruiser 101- Updated 11/08

[1BadJeepBruiser]

Bruisers/Mountaineers tech 101 If you have something to contribute, as I am sure there is stuff I dont even know, please let me know so I can add it. Ill start with the basics and go into details abouts mods.

Body
Bruiser and Mountaineer share very similar bodies, main difference from Bruiser to Mountaineer is that a Bruiser has the sleeper shell on the bed, and the mountaineer uses a chrome double roll bar.

Mountaineers (and new high lift Hilux) use a rear window You'll find that if you obtain a Mountaineer that this part is often missing. This part, as well as the windshield is available from the new Hilux high lift kit sold by Corey @ http://www.shop.rpphobby.com/product...&productId=669 a OG Hilux windshield differs from a Bruiser/Mountaineer windshield in that the rear window incorporated into it.



Replacement Grills are also available through Corey at http://www.shop.rpphobby.com/product...&productId=667
*TIP* If you need the mount for the grill, the one from a clod buster grill is the same thing.
Replacement headlight buckets can also be found there as well http://www.shop.rpphobby.com/product...&productId=674

If you want the rare mirror that is hard to find and often missing, you can get replacement aluminum ones from Mike on Tamiya club, he also makes cool aluminum KC lights http://tamiyaclub.com/trades_model.a...=42029&id=2707

Interiors On the Bruiser and mountaineer are the same, however, a Hilux interior IS NOT and will not work in a Bruiser/mountaineer cab. The Bruiser interior has mounts on each side of the interior, where a Hilux one does not and has the mounts on the back side of the interior. The Hilux interior also does not have that hump in the middle of the seat. A Hilux cab, doesnt have holes drilled in the each side for Bruiser/Mountaineer interior. Re-production OG Hilux interiors are available through RC4WD : http://rc4wdstore.com/product_info.p...roducts_id=420

Lenses are commonly missing or cracked on these trucks, if you need replacement lenses they are available here: http://www.shop.rpphobby.com/product...&productId=668 or from here http://rcgrabbag.com/store/index.htm



Replacement turn signals buckets are available through RPP : http://www.shop.rpphobby.com/product...&productId=674

If you need a rear louver for your Bruiser it can be bought from RC4WD here: http://rc4wdstore.com/product_info.p...roducts_id=118

If your Bruiser/Mountaineer is missing the license plates, I would recommend some of these from Rouge Elements http://www.rogueelementcomponents.co...e%20Plates.htm
These are ultra scale and look 10x better

Chassis

The Bruiser/Mountaineer share the same chassis, its 99% the same except the front cross member and motor mount is ever so slightly different...that is something most people dont even know, so now you do. (pics to come)

A hilux chassis, is not channeled like a Bruiser or Mountaineer chassis is. Its also made of aluminum rather then stamped steal.

Transmission

The stock trans mission is a 3 speed transmission. It uses a slipper style counter gear. The Bruiser/Mountaineer uses a 750 can sized motor, where the Hilux uses a 540 sized. a 540 conversion is offered for the Bruiser trans from RC4WD, however a mount to hold the motor up then, is still in the works.



Stock transmission plugs are available here: http://parts.bruiserbuilder.com/prod...on%20plugs.htm

A member of RCMT.net (KPN) computed the stock gear ratios of the trans, they are the folliowing:
1st gear (low speed, 4x4) - 22.7:1
2nd gear (med speed) - 10.87:1
3rd gear (high speed) - 5.2:1
Dave engle was kind enough to pass along this info for shifting:
All of these setting are true if the transmission is stock.

Shifting rod pushed in to the transmission is third gear or "Top Gear." Two wheel drive.
Shifting rod in the middle position is "Second Gear." Two wheel drive.
Shifting rod pulled to the outter position is first gear or "Low gear." 4 wheel drive.

(^^info aboved sourced from RCMT)

The 3 speed trans is often missing or has dried up trans plugs, these are now available through BruiserBuilder.com

Lubricating the stock 3 speed has always raised a question. I myself have tried many different things. In my mountaineer, that I run occasionally, I give it spay of WD-40 or something similar. I think the best lube for it that I have tried was ATF, However, sealing the transmission isn't the easiest of tasks and it usually ends up pissing out all over the place. I will say things I have tired that did not work good is spray on white lithium grease, it will gunk up the soft weak springs and lead to shifting problems.

Speaking of springs, the stock springs in the transmission are very weak. I replaced mine in my one Bruiser years ago with some from a click type pen. It took a while to find ones that were the correct size and length, but the end result was well worth it, the shifting was more crisp, sort of speak.

Slipper Gear- The stock trans uses a funky slipper gear, which under hard use will slip and then typically doesnt stop slipping. Many people pin the slipper so it wont slip at all, OR you can try to source a COUNTER GEAR from a KYOSHO USA -1

If your stock cross members grommets are dried up, that hold the trans from slopping around, you can replace them with some basic fuel tubbing.

A real good service manual for the stock trans, and an all time 4wd conversion is available from Kope:
http://kope.com/bruiser/TrannySvcManual.pdf

Axles

Bruiser/Mountaineers share the same axles. The Hilux axle however, IS different. The hilux axle uses different knuckles. The arms that come off the knuckles are much smaller then a Bruiser/Mountaineer knuckles. Often times you will see these broken on Hiluxs'. The Hilux also uses a different hub, the front hubs of a Hilux allow you to lock and unlock the hub. The rear axle of a Hilux, is also different, not many know this, but it uses different internal axle tubes then that of a Bruiser/Mountaineer.

Can you convert Hilux axles for use with Bruiser hubs?

Yes, you can, youll need to get 4 Bruisers hubs, Since you will most likely be rock crawling, I recommend 4 rears, however you can JB weld the Bruiser front one way hubs. Youll also need to change the front half shafts and rear inner axle shaft, I would also recommend Bruiser knuckles as well.

How do I install bearings on my front axle?

Yea you have to press is out carefully. Use two 3mm tamiya flange nuts placed, flanged to flanged, around the front axle pin. Then Press it out in a vice. This wont be enough to press it all the way out but you should be able to get it almost out and knock the rest of it out with a small pick or a thin nail of some sort. The course backing on the nuts will grab into the vice and it wont slide around. You can use the nuts again to press it back in then. Just take your time doing it. Think of it as doing u joints on a drive shaft.

Bearings

I highly recommend installing bearings, if you are going to run your Bruiser. I would also shim the pinion gear as well for a tighter mesh.
Front axle requires: (7) 5x10
Rear axle requires: (3) 5x10 (2) 5x8

Diffs and Hubs

The Bruiser mountaineer does not have a differential, its just a pinion gear and ring gear. The front of the truck, in stock form, uses a one way front bearings. This means, you only have 4wd when going forward, so if you get stuck and need to reverse out, you have no 4wd. The front way hubs can be replaced with hubs from the rear, however, you must be careful now because this will put added stress on the front inner axle shaft. This is a weak point for these trucks and are found commonly broken.stock front hubs can be JB welded as well for full time 4wd. ***NOTE- the stock hubs are left and right specific! if you put them on the wrong side they wont work correctly***

Replacement inner axles and parts

Dave Engle, makes a replacement front axle shaft and rear axle, but they are not currently available. RC4WD is also making axles which will be available shortly. RC4WD also makes repalcement front half half shafts too and hubs.

Front axle "play" or slop"

Front axle play or slop often comes from worn front king pins. This can be fixed one of 2 ways. Dave Engle came up with the idea of cutting aluminum soda cans into very thin strips and using it has a shim. This works well as I have done it myself. I typically find, that the easiest way, is to take the king pin plates, bring them over to the vice and smooth the little hump in them flat. The when re-installing, install them so the hump is inward towards the ale pin.

Wheels

Bruiser/Mountaineers do not use your typical 12mm hex wheel like many other RCs. The wheels on these trucks are specific the hubs on the axles.

Bruiser wheels, are a 3pc bead lock design. They use 2 rim halves, and have two inner lock rings. These are not so easily narrowed, I recommend David at Xtreme RC hobbies http://www.xtreme-rc-hobbies.net/

Mountaineer wheels, are a 1pc design, have a cool center cap and are highly desired for these trucks. Be prepared to drop serious coin if you are going buy a set, they will run you close to the cost of an aluminum wheel. The are easily narrowed by cutting the front and rear beads off of them.

Fitting 12mm wheels on Bruiser axles
Is now possible though NickRummy, he offers a rear axle machining service:
http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/showt...hlight=bruiser
as well as front C which utilizes TLT half shafts and hardware
http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/showt...hlight=bruiser
Nicks parts and service will also give you Equal track width He also sells adapters to convert front axles into rear axles

Rc4wd also sells 12mm adapters http://rc4wdstore.com/product_info.php?products_id=82 , however these make for a very stance

[1BadJeepBruiser]

Other wheel options

Few years back BruiserBuilder.com was making their own aluminum 3pc design bead lock wheel. These are currently out of production as well. Also, some will remember Mark Thomsons wheels, they were an aluminum wheel in a few different designs. Unfortunately, Mark is no longer making wheels, a set of wheels originally sold for 90$, if you find a set be prepared to pay approximately 130$-150$+

Tires

The Bruiser/Mountaineer shared the same tires as the black foot. They are hard and not very good for rock crawling. Any 2.2 will fit on these trucks, weather they are from pro -line, imex, or someone elses.

Replacement Transmission

There are a few different Types of replacement transmissions out there that can be used for the Bruiser. The most popular being a stampede transmission. RC4wd is also working on a replacement 3 speed transmission as well. If you can find one, there is the Dave Engle 4:1 pulling trans too, however Dave is currently not making them right now. Daves Transmissions also hang down rather low. Axials transmissions or RC4WD R2 styles transmissions will also work great



Springs

The leaf springs on a Bruiser and mountaineer are the same. The ones on the OG Hilux are completely flat and have no arch to them. You can make your Bruiser/Mountaineer flex better by doing the chino mod to them: scale tricks thread
Another spring option is using Juggernaut springs, this will give your Bruiser approximately a 1/4 inch lift.




Shocks

The stock Bruiser shocks are an oiled filled shock, although then don't work very well and often leak. The cool thing about them is they had a shock boot on them. BruiserBuilder.com offers a replacement shock boot now as well: http://parts.bruiserbuilder.com/product_p/sk-b.htm

If your Bruiser is missing its original shocks, TLT shocks can serve as a good replacement. RC4WD also has started producing a similar shock the original Bruiser shock http://rc4wdstore.com/product_info.p...roducts_id=566

Lower shock mounts Are also available through Bruiser Builder : http://parts.bruiserbuilder.com/category_s/21.htm


[COLOR="Blue"]Steering Servo[/COLOR]
I would recommend you relocate your steering servo on your Bruiser/Mountaineer. The stock location is in the radio box with a long push road to a steering bell crank set up. This systems allows for a lot of slop and not so good steering. I have been using mounts from RC4WD on my trucks, while they do require some notching (show on site) they do work very well





U bolt flip kit
If you are running your Bruiser/Mountaineer or OG Hilux with the stock axles using U bolts, I would highly recommend obtaining a U-Bolt flip kit from NickRummy: http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/showt...hlight=bruiser
This will allow for max ground clearance and will keep you from snagging the rocks.

If you are on a budget and have some extra stock TLT frames you can also so this




Drilled the holes then cut it out



After a minute with a file



In the truck





you will then need to make a lower rear shock mount, I made mine out of some angle aluminum

[Ollis-Mounty]

I hope, I may write this small assistance here.

King Pins with ball bearings:

The weak point of the front axle is everyone well-known.
Here is the solution, which should help durably.
I bought 4 ball bearings in the dimensions 7x4x2,5mm.The external dimensions may not be larger, since otherwise the thread does not fit any longer.
So that the ball bearings sit exactly,I've used shrink sleeve between ball bearings and Kingpin (not heat the shrink sleeve).





Then the steering arm was worked on.

Original:


Worked on:


Assembly with retaining plate:


I think, now should arise no more wear here.

[obijuan]

one thing that amazed me is the relative size to my tlt axles. these things are huge and heavy.

[greasypete]

I think I should ad this information to this thread, so it will not be lost:

Found a way to mount some diaz leafs with TLT axles to an original bruiser frame. The problem with TLT Axles and leafs was, that the bruiser frame is wider at the rear axle. Here is the solution.
(I used: RC4WD straight axle adaptors and diaz jugg leafs with diaz blocks)

I first modified the leafblocks like this:



They should sit in this place:


Then grind down the groove:



This is how it should look like:


Than you should made a little L-frame, drill throu it in the leafblocks:




Mounted on the chassis:


Front axle looks like this:


regards, Pete

[foodstamp]

this is acually a question.....how do you filp the u bolts....some one should add that, im stuck becouse the u bolts dont fit around the axel, do you bend them so they will fit? or what.

[chino63]

I bent the legs of the u-bolt apart slightly then bent them again about 1/4 of the way up from the bottom to accomodate the extra width of the axle tube.

[foodstamp]

after a little while i did mine....heres what i did, i got a 25/64 drill bit, a hammer and the u bolts....













hit the u bolt on top of the drill bit so that it bends the u bolt out, and then with the bit still their, hit the u bolt os it will fit in the stock u bolt plate (flip the plate so that you use the wide holes now)

and it works perfict, and you dont have to make anything or spend money...

[NickRummy]

thanks for the update Mike!

I also have some U-bolt flip kits available. Includes a plate with a shock mount that can be used or trimmed off if you want to mount the shock on the axle in another location.

[jacob d]

hey how does the stampede trany work for u

[DSchulten88]

Any more useful Bruiser knowledge anyone would like to share? I just bought one finally.

[zeppelin]

Check out the instruction manual for the original bruiser transmission and an article on rebuilding the transmission here:
101 Vintage Tamiya r/c models for the radio controlled car collector

[Crawlin4fun]

Just a note - If you rebuild the tranny with bearings you only need one 1985 traxxas Teflon washer per flange bearing instead of the 5 callandra spacers mentioned in the Kope rebuild manual in the first post

[rocpede]

I'm building a OG bruiser. An looking at replacing the tranny, with a stampede tranny. Cause I have a ton of parts for them. I was wondering who made the skid that bolts the stampede tranny to the bruiser chassis.