clod - project im not 12any more!...

[carzlutt]

thanks for the heads up, i acutly need to figure out what motors and pinions i want to run in this bad boy. its a panzy as is and cant realy carry its weight up over much of any thing, the way its set up now is mostly bash ur way over something of dont get over it. kind of lame.......

[carzlutt]

not a clod but .. it was fun all the same.....







dang sway bar lifting that tire....


ohp...... whats this?....


balh..... i think ill order a few more parts beofr i stirp down the clod for a rebirth..... first on the list is motors/pinoins 2nd is some motor plates......


well i just ahd to break down and order, thanks to the guys over at the crawler store, i managed to get a set of integy 55turn motors, motor plates, 9 tooth pinonis and shipping to my door for under 100buks..... not a bad deal.

now iv just got to find a local source for good wire and some otehr odd's and end's. cant wiat to start making templates and cuting som efresh alumanum parts out.

[carzlutt]

Test test test. Oh boy is it real?

rad i can post from my cell phone!..... oh boy...

[Dragon51]

Heck yea when in doubt just bring in the material for building a course, pluss bob cats are fun! Then the left overs just make bigger hills

[carzlutt]

funny, last ngiht i was moving about 14tons of asphault i had dropped in my front yard while i was at work. there is a good 1-2 tons extra, if i dont need it to fill in any low spots i plan to use it for making a simi permanate rock border that kind of big and goofy along part of my yard, mostly so i can crawle in my own yard but also so i can have something to make a small corse out that isnt just drit. once this stuff is left in teh sun it gets hard but not super hard, just firm enough that it dostn make my rig all dusty and such..... nwo to see if the wife figures this out befor i get done building a lill play ground for my clod!....




well today i tossed in the new remote i won off ebay and holy cow wow thing is like a whole new machean!..... only bad thing is i discoverd i enver have had full throtel and i managed to run full speed into some stuff in my yard and ripped 1/2 of the front axel's links compleatly off and bent the holy hell out of the sway bar......

so if i get time tonight or in the am ill be getting over to a local shop to pick up some parts and start the rebirth of my rig....... fun fun...

[carzlutt]

ok, lill update.

found some traxxis rod ends at a local hoby shop. also found a hard wear store that had both solid and hollow 1/4" alum rod's in stock. managed to get a 6/32 tap and such........

now the fun begins.......

is there anywhere id be lucky enough to find some pic's of someone's (if not more) custom upper link mounts? i cant justafy 20 buks to buy one, im sure its not hard to make one...... figure id ask for idea's befor i go put on my thinking cap.

also, battery locaton. is it realy going to make enough of a diffrence on my over all ability to crawl if i put my battery as low as possible in the chassie?

im excited to do a modern 4 link set up as the way my current clodzilla set up is working i have bind on jsut about everything. i mean...... from power wires geting caught up in the, to servo mounts hitting them, even the motor it self hits my lower links just sitting at a rested position.
i allready removed the sway bar set up and have started figuering out part of what i plna to do w/ this joy donw the road, time is hard for me to come by but wow i cant wiat ti get back out beating this rig up. i still need to pick out rims/tires. big...... and mean.... thas all i knwo for sure ill have!...

so far i have a bit of parts needing to be put to use asap.

futaba 3pm
rooster crawler
2 55t integy motors
rcguy 9tooth pinions
thunder tech motor plates (im not happy about the "stickers" dust covers they came with)
lots of traxxis rod ends
new 7 cell batt pack
new body mounts
rear spool (epoxy all the way)
TCS battery strap
and more stuff im sure im spacing out.....


fun to come!.......

[cammok5]

that thing is looking good. i cant wait to il get my clod going. btw is that h2 rc?

[carzlutt]

well it started giong unde rthe kinve a bit more than i thaught it would last ngith. i did discover that my old ESP link ends had a interiting thing about them. i unscrewd the threaded insert in 1 and discoverd taht the threaded end actuly has a alen head insert in the end that was hidden inside the rod end. this is realy cool, as i can reuse the threaded inserts in the new rod ends super easy. actuly, i want to find more of these they are realy slick. much easyer to use than a piece of allthead. i will post up som picks fo this later. any how i reconfigured the chassie and the links. this lead to me placing my 2nd order in only a few day s to the crawler store. i caved inand orderd a upper link mount.... decided it wasnt worth my time to build one from scratch. while i am waiting for the upper link mount i hope to get all my new electronics set up and installed. i also discoverd taht both my trannys have everyother bolt coming loose on the axel tube's and also that only 1 set of my nuckels have the trun stops removed. all this needs to be fixed for sure. i did end up w/ a few questons,

where do u buy good quality nuts/washer/screws/bolts taht are 6/32 pitch? i cant find jack local otehr than some sudo ok 6 sided and sloted screws at any of the local hard wear stores. this isnt realy what id like to build my rig out of.

what do u guys sugest for changing my axel tubs mouting hard wear out so that i can change the tube's out w/ out having to take apart the whole gear case?

what grease do u guys like to use in your gear case?

lock tite or nylock nuts? i was thnking of changing over to all nylock nuts but wasnt sure if that would help as much in the long run as just using lock tight. i mean how much do these things really rattel? enough to need nylock nuts?

oh , and is there any option that if u spend a certin amount w/ any of the supporting venders at there stores that u could "earn" a supporting froum member status? ... wink wink?...... in the end it all helps out the same thing right? ahahah....

once i get the upper link mounts ill tackel the joy of doing my behind the axle steering set up.... boy that will be fun!.... hope its worth it

[Big Mike]

the other shop i visited had a good amount of new in box cars/trucks and some of the normaly replaced parts like contorl arms and tires and such. but i didnt find anything there to mount battery packs or to help me w/ relocating my servo's

You'll get that at the LHS when shopping for crawler parts. The standard question is "what part do you need for what car/truck?" - of course there is no standard answer to that when you're custom-building a crawler. My LHS knows what I'm up to now and they just let me roam behind the counter searching the racks for what I need.

where do u buy good quality nuts/washer/screws/bolts taht are 6/32 pitch?

http://www.mcmaster.com/

lock tite or nylock nuts?

They don't rattle per se, but I used to have nuts come loose a lot until I replaced most of them w/ nylocks.

what grease do u guys like to use in your gear case?

Last time I just used red wheel bearing grease - seems to work fine. I've also used white lithium.

[carzlutt]

thanks for all the info!.... im sitting next to the mail box wiating for my parts....

[carzlutt]

more fun........

chaseing the dog around the yard did this to my rig.....




and here is what i came up with...






i made a new lower frame plate w/ link mounts on it. so far it seems like it works well, i can flex the front axle a good 75-80deg (or so it seems so far) while the rear sits flat on the table. i cant wait to get the steering finished up so i can test this thing out. i have a feeling ill need to remaek my frame plate so that the upper links have a slight angle to them but maybe not. i installed a set of g-made upper link mounts and like how they work. only thing that i didnt like about them was that they didnt come w/ any hardwaer to mount the links to the mount, it was a tad hard to find a 3mm x 0.5 screw long enouhg to fit. but i discoverd a local ace has a monster collectoin of hardwear for my cold!....... im going to swap out evey philips head screw and install alen heads.

i flipped the nuckels around and ran the tie rod's side to side. now i have to build a mount for the servo and build some kind of a drag link. iv been reading a lot on these froums and think i have a good game plan as to how i will be mounting the servo. i jsut hope that i can get the drag link to clear every thing when flexed out all teh way as its going to be tight but i think dooable....

[Kamikaze]

OK, ditch the canti setup, lower it about 3 inches, raise your upper link mounts to about were the bottom of your shock is at now. Put your shocks almost where your cantilever mounts up to, then you will be on to something. And you have way to much flex, 50 or 60 degrees or so is more than enough in a super, a combined 50 or 60 degrees.

[carzlutt]

thanks for the heads up, i was thinking the whole time i put the silly thing together this last time that id be ditching the canti stuff soon. but couldnt bring my self to put any more money/effort into doing so. ill run this for a bit then change to who knows what. i almost want to just finish up this build and start over w/ something else more geared toward hard core crawler style. we shall see....

[Kamikaze]

It won't cost you anything to do what I sugested. The shocks you have are more than good enough to work without the canti's. Everything else is drilling holes, and that don't cost nothin.

[carzlutt]

Well I was told by the wife last night that "if I put any more time or money into my toy" she would leave me. I'm less than stoked about this. I'm working on a plan to get around this road block. Blah no fun 4 now. But wow I want 2 order new rims and tires.

[carzlutt]

SO, i have given in to the lill kid telling me to get bakc into finishing my clod. i have decided that i need some kind of wheel spacer as my tires rub on my lower links at full lock. im thinking of goign w/ a even 1" spacer, is this going to be wayyy to wide and cause me issues down the road w/ wearing out bearns or breaking other aprts too easy?

i also want to make my clod a good 20-24" wheel base, right nwo its barly 14". should i sinply make longer links or build a wider mid secton? right now my links are about 6.5" long.

i plan tonight to sit down and make some templates for mounting my servo's. while iv been looking at my clod i wish that i could get a set of nuckels w/ steering arms on both side's. this way i coudl run my drag link on teh front side of the axle and the tie rod on tehback side of the axel.

[carzlutt]

well, iv been doing good at keeping busy and not geting too in truble messing w/ my "toy"........ ahha.... any hoot. i came up w/ a way to mount my servo's and also keep my cantilever. i know the cantilever isnt needed, dosnt flex super well and is fairly "old school" but id say im happy w/ what i have so far. once i go for more wheel base ill be changin over to a link mounted shock set up im sure.

hows this for flex, all wheels are firmly holding load on the ground for say.....










im happy how the body dosnt rub much on the tires at full flex. i almost bet w/ a set of spacer's id have lill to no rub on the body. iv got lots and lots of rub on the lower links at full lock and when flexed its super bad rub. i almost wonder if i can stack 2 of the oem wheel adaptors, some how glue, screw, strap or somethign them to gether in order to have a cheap spacer to get me by till i make up my mind what rims i wll be changin over too down the road and geting proper spacers/adaptors. anyone have some stock adaptors they'd like to off load w/ the plastic hub thingy (i know im realy using the wrong terms here arnt i) but the idea is there.

basicly now i jsut need to find time to put all the new eletronics into this beast and get back out in the yard having a good time waiting for the next part to break.

oh oh oh, so i dont want to use a servo saver any more (i know not the best idea but i need a reason to get better servo's right?)..... where do i get good quality aluminum servo arms for under a million buks?

[carzlutt]

well, its back in 1 piece and freaking rocks!....... the novak crawler esc is amazing!.... much easyer to contorl on donw slopes. and hte new radio is dialed in super well. only issue is i striped out my rear steer servo and that i didnt take the rear gear box apart yet and install the locked diff iv got for it yet. any hootis... i freaking cant get enough of this thing.... ill have to snap some pic's of it in acton soon.

[jagg]

Originally Posted by carzlutt

what do u guys sugest for changing my axel tubs mouting hard wear out so that i can change the tube's out w/ out having to take apart the whole gear case?

I've seen guys use a 6/32 tap on the axle tubes and gear cases, and then bolt them up with a set of allen head screws. Takes minutes to change an axle tube, instead of tearing the gear case apart .

[carzlutt]

thanks for the heads up!..... good thing i bought a 6/32 tap i guess.... my case's are about due for a full tear down and freshing up!.... this will be on my list of must-do's while im at it!...