ITS FINISHED!!! updated 5-24; now a TRULY BAD A$$ CRAWLER!

[SR5Dave]

ITS FINALLY FINISHED!!! THANK GOD (Finished in the way that any rig can be finished... its drivable and gets it in current condition)

Specs: Was a Clod.
Rear Lockout, front only steering.
Made servo mount from 16ga sheetmetal.
Steering rods are all 3/16" Stainless
14.4V EVX ESC, soon to be running 12T Truck Puller motors from Airtronics.
Narrowed rims in back, sealed
Custom rims in front, with 1/4" backspacing
Cut treads in front as well
4 link, more flex than its own good (forgot the gratitous flex shot, Ill get one later)
Stock Clod shocks, mounted really far in to net good travel
Aluminum Chassis, all hand made, 3/8" aluminum round stock for the links, itty bitty heims at the ends (that need to be upgraded)

Now for the pics!


Wheelbase is about 16-17" About 5.5" clearance in the center.

Homebrew rear steer lockout, bent that bolt there.... Going to use a SS rod instead of the aluminum deal in the middle with the bolt going into it (That was just to get it moving, forgot about it)

1/4" BS rim; made the front way wider so it could both fit under the body right and because wiiider is betterrrr


Servo saver, needs a MUCH bigger servo though with the BS of those rims...

Cut treads. Holes in them so they flex and grip to everything.


And good ol clod axles with a lower COG than anything else.

Some carnage already. Not sure how it happened but Camo (PBB refrence) would be proud!!!



Ill get some wheeling shots and flex pics either tommorow or tuesday I need bigger batteries too, only getting about 7-8 minutes of run time (itty bitty 10 year old 1500 MAh batteries)

[SR5Dave]

Oh cmon, no comments? Nothing? YOu people suck :P

[firstumustcrawl]

cool

[metallicamaxx]

why are you still using stock shocks? they suck for travel.

[SR5Dave]

You're right. 110* of articulation isn't NEARLY enough!!! Its all in how they are mounted.

[toyofast]

I think what metallicamaxx was getting at is that the stock ones are just springs, no actual dampening action.

Time to find some real shocks! Lookin' good.

[SR5Dave]

Yeah, Im really missing the :flipoff2: icon.. Without it all my posts seem to serious. I guess years of posting on pirate yielded an addiction to the flipoff2 dude!

They dont have any dampening, but they are doing fine, I might increas the spring rate a little, but otherwise im pretty happy with them.

[zBigBadWolf]

Guys, let's think about this... how much dampening do you need for a crawler? The only time you really see benefit of that is when going fast or jumping. It's funny because I was thinking the other night about throwing a set of stock Clod shocks on one of my crawlers to see what the difference is. Now, I think I will have to do it to prove or disprove my theory that it won't make that much difference.

Anyway, suggestion for your Clod. That upper steering link... move it to the top of the servo saver to take some of the angle off of it.

Dude... necessity is the mother of invention and it seems you've taken what you had and made yourself a crawler. Kudos for the ingenuity.

[TwistedCreations]

it looks good dave..nice work...although not sure if camo would approve though,since you didn't spend $10 g on the axle

BTW- yes we do need the icon on here

[SR5Dave]

Originally Posted by zBigBadWolf

Guys, let's think about this... how much dampening do you need for a crawler? The only time you really see benefit of that is when going fast or jumping. It's funny because I was thinking the other night about throwing a set of stock Clod shocks on one of my crawlers to see what the difference is. Now, I think I will have to do it to prove or disprove my theory that it won't make that much difference.

Anyway, suggestion for your Clod. That upper steering link... move it to the top of the servo saver to take some of the angle off of it.

Dude... necessity is the mother of invention and it seems you've taken what you had and made yourself a crawler. Kudos for the ingenuity.

Im glad someone agrees with me I cant do much with the steering link, when I move it above it hits against the servo itself...

Thanks for the good work TFW ;) Oh, and I PM'd the pic to Camo, he got a kick out of it, and said "Just be happy that fawker didnt cost you 10k!!"

[Fishmaxx]

Looks good.........................I am concerned about your steering assembly sticking out past your front tires. I had the same problem on my project. I kept getting hung up on vertical hazards that required a straight on approach (steps, logs etc) Matts RC Page has 3 clod steering mounting options. If you can't find it let me know, and I wiil post the link.

[TwistedCreations]

Originally Posted by SR5Dave

Im glad someone agrees with me I cant do much with the steering link, when I move it above it hits against the servo itself...

Thanks for the good work TFW ;) Oh, and I PM'd the pic to Camo, he got a kick out of it, and said "Just be happy that fawker didnt cost you 10k!!"

hahaha...yeah if an axle would cost me $10k, i would get out of that hobby

[SR5Dave]

Originally Posted by Fishmaxx

Looks good.........................I am concerned about your steering assembly sticking out past your front tires. I had the same problem on my project. I kept getting hung up on vertical hazards that required a straight on approach (steps, logs etc) Matts RC Page has 3 clod steering mounting options. If you can't find it let me know, and I wiil post the link.

Yeah, I keep meaning to trim back the mount, I might even mount it somewhere else, but im not sure where.. The axle already has sooo much crap mounted to it I dont know if there is another place. I can take off about .5" from the mount, that should be just enough. Post the link; I have NO clue which site that is... I dont know any RC sites, the only place I looked at was Jay's RC site... The rest I just sorta used trial and error.

[SR5Dave]

Originally Posted by Toyotafourwheeln

hahaha...yeah if an axle would cost me $10k, i would get out of that hobby

Thats what I like about this more than my 1:1 rig.. it has 1,500$ in it and all I've done is the axles!!!!! (60F 70R, hummer rims)

So far in this guy I've got 350$... Pretty cheap buildup. I have a knack for saving ;) Im cheeeep

[Fishmaxx]

http://www.mattsrcstuff.com/

http://www.mudcow.com
Mudcow has a tech link also
There is also some very cool videos.........check out the one called "The Distance" and you will change your steering setup. 8O

[SR5Dave]

well, after seeing everyones clod on here I made mine a bit prettier... but that was the easiest of what I did!

First take your drill press, and mount a steel wire brush on it, set it to the highest speed, PUT ON A MASK AND SAFETY GLASSES, and start brushing ANY metal pieces you want to look nice, it'll give em an awesome brushed look. Did I mention put on a mask? dust goes EVERYWHERE!!!



YOu can also see I added some braces... I never realized how much the frame flexed until I put them on!!

[TwistedCreations]

looks pretty now

[SR5Dave]

Redid some of the steering... now its further back and I wont jam it into everything. Still ahve to think up a bumper though.

[SR5Dave]

YEAH STOCK SHOCKS :P

I cut 3 coils off of them to reduce ride height, and they seem a bit softer as well. They can be clearanced for a TON of travel, I havent with these, I will do a writeup later.

[SR5Dave]

Stock shocks doing their flexxxx thing... I could have more flex, but I have chosen not to... I dont need any more, just starts to get in its own way when an axle goes vertical.