The Duke and the Team NFA Chassis

[Grizzly4x4]

A couple weeks ago Pinchflat and Kaetwo posted up the UTRCRC V2 Competition chassis and the criteria they used to design it.
Needless to say I was blown away by it and realized that my steel chassis was not going to be competitive anymore so I knew I needed to design a chassis based on their 4L theory.
Longer, Lighter, Lower, ugLier (Ace came up with that guys)

I started the chassis on Wed night, finished on Thursday night, and left for Utah Friday night so I had no Idea how this thing was going to werk! There are still some tweaks I want to do but overall I was very pleased with the performance, I was hoping for a top 5 finish and that is exactly what I got.
I am gonna borrow Gimbal's pics of it and then post mine. Thanks Gimbal.

I ditched everything I could in the name of weight, kept the coil spring suspension design (cuz I love it too much to use coilovers), and tried to get the CG as low as possible.



Call it The Duke, The SuperDuke, or The AlumiDuke, whatever, I am just really happy with it. Hope you guys like it.

[BLADE]

That is sweet Grizzly!!

[Gimbal]

I have a couple more shots Griz...




I was very impressed with your design, so I snapped these spy shots while you weren't looking Great work man!

[SR5Dave]

No, heavy good! I guess its just me and Adam now!!

Whats the final weight on that?

[Krod_Clod]

awesome grizz!

i have a question for you though...are you happy with the lst tires? i've been contemplating getting a set to try..but i'd like to hear some feedback on them if you have any


Matt

[cman_1500w]

Man, I like your truck alot! Mostly because of its originality in the suspension and the fact that it's functional and performs! I give it a 10!!!

[Grizzly4x4]

Thanks Blade, next photos will show your motor mounts on it.

Thanks Gimbal, those are great shots. I'm glad you took them and glad you like the design. It's not as impressive as the Rainmaker's chassis but it seemed to werk.

Here are some body off shots.




and a werkbench shot.


Next step is to change the upper link mounting locations so I dont need that extra bracket, and mount the electronics lower. Those were both temporary things done to get the truck running for the comp.

[Grizzly4x4]

Dave, I know, I tried to hold out with the weight thing but I was seeing more and more evidence that suggested I was too heavy. On many vertical climbs it seemed like the tires wanted to grab and get the truck up but the weight was overcoming the amount of traction the tires could give. The Duke will live again with a steel frame because I still love the scale look, especially with the rollcage, but for the comps I am gonna stick with the aluminum. Especially if I keep getting closer to beating Jtothec, Kaetwo, and PinchFlat at the comps .

Matt, I really love the LST's. They are super grippy, the rubber has great traction and the lugs bite hard. I have noticed that they have some trouble on smooth river-type rock. They tend to slip but I'm not sure what tire wouldn't. They are pretty heavy, alot of that is cuz the sidewalls are quite thick. However they still flex well after putting Savage foams in them.
At the Sept 11th comp I will be trying out the JumboMaxx Swamp Dawgs for comparison, they seem to be a really good tire as well.

One thing to note with the LST's. Since I put them on I have stripped three sets of metal gears in three times out. I dont run servo savers and I have them mounted on offset RPM wheels but with the smaller lighter Savage tires I never had a problem. Just something to think about.

[Grizzly4x4]

Originally Posted by cman_1500w

Man, I like your truck alot! Mostly because of its originality in the suspension and the fact that it's functional and performs! I give it a 10!!!

Thank you cman, I really appreciate it. I love the suspension as well, for both the look and the performance. I thought that as it became more competition oriented and less scale appearing people wouldn't like it as much but yours and everybody elses comments sure make me feel better about what I am doing to it. I mean ya gotta build what you want but it is nice to know that others appreciate it.

[CustomCrawler]

Looks good. Why'd you ditch the canti's?

[kaetwo]

Top notch chassis. When you pulled it out I said to myself, it looks like we have a very tight comp on our hands. And that it was. As always your maticulous work the day before a competition has paid off again

Oh by the way..... I really want one of your steel chassis..... Lets talk

[SR5Dave]

Originally Posted by Grizzly4x4

Dave, I know, I tried to hold out with the weight thing but I was seeing more and more evidence that suggested I was too heavy. On many vertical climbs it seemed like the tires wanted to grab and get the truck up but the weight was overcoming the amount of traction the tires could give. The Duke will live again with a steel frame because I still love the scale look, especially with the rollcage, but for the comps I am gonna stick with the aluminum. Especially if I keep getting closer to beating Jtothec, Kaetwo, and PinchFlat at the comps .

Gotta love the scale look ;) Maybe I'll get two chassis goin.. one for fun one for comps.. My old one is actually pretty nice, guess I'll put on some new links and shock mounts and hang onto it.

[Grizzly4x4]

Hey CC, I ditched the cantilevers for two reasons. Weight and CG. The links and mounts for the canti's were extra weight even though it may not be much. Also, with the canti's, the shocks sat on top of the frame rails so putting them on the links lowers the CG a little.

Kaetwo, thanks for the kind words. I was very happy to be more in the mix this time. We can werk sumpin out on the steel chassis. I am doing another design change on it to make it a little easier to build.

Dave, yea I think yer chassis had lots o potential. Now just get sumpin goin an dont spend all yer time on that lathe.

[SR5Dave]

Originally Posted by Grizzly4x4

Hey CC, I ditched the cantilevers for two reasons. Weight and CG. The links and mounts for the canti's were extra weight even though it may not be much. Also, with the canti's, the shocks sat on top of the frame rails so putting them on the links lowers the CG a little.

Kaetwo, thanks for the kind words. I was very happy to be more in the mix this time. We can werk sumpin out on the steel chassis. I am doing another design change on it to make it a little easier to build.

Dave, yea I think yer chassis had lots o potential. Now just get sumpin goin an dont spend all yer time on that lathe.

What it had goin was it was freakin LIGHT, the only weight was from the water in the tires.

Oh, and whats the weight on that? How much weight in the tires?

[Krod_Clod]

glad to hear the LST tires are working well....gonna have to get a set for fall I really need more sidebite than what the pullers are giving me (even when mounted backwards and narrowed :? )

I refuse to run without servo savers. period. so hopefully i wont have the stripping gear problems that you mentioned. (if i do, i'll send the servos back to hitec, gotta love warranties :o ) I've found that a metal output shaft is sometimes more important than the metal internal gears...but the servosaver has saved my butt a few times...and for 5 bucks per servo...its worth it. just run the Kimbrough 124's and a metal gear/output servo and you're fine