Just a little fun with plastic...

[Wookie]

Well since I put in a Stampede tranny I wasn't really happy with the look or the link locations. So I decided to try something a little different.

I picked up two pieces of Polycarbanate plastic and cut out some new chassis plates. The truck actually performes better than I expected since I lost some ground clearance and length to the truck and the chassis definately has more flex to it.

I need to lengthen it out a little, but I'll have to play with the links a little to do that.

I don't know how long this chassis will last since it's definately not as strong as the stock aluminum one and it feels a little brittle to me. If it does break I'll fabricate a new one out of a different type of plastic.

This took about 5 hours to complete since I had to use different links than previously. I did get to put my link configuration back to normal.

[firstumustcrawl]

looks cool but good luck with taht its so rittle use lexan next time

[Wookie]

Yea, I don't expect it to last that long. It's more of a prototype for me. It allowed me to see the tranny to drill the holes accurately.

I'm going to try and find some better plastic, around town. Some guys around here use Kuydex (spelling?). I might try and find some around town. Maybe Lexan or Delrin (?).

My next one I'll probably make an inch wider to extend the wheelbase a little and give a bit more room for electronics. That may be a project for next weekend

[CustomCrawler]

Lexan is polycarbonate.

How thick is it? It looks pretty thin. Maybe you should just 1/4in next time.

[Wookie]

The stuff I used is 1/8" thick, so it's not very thick. It's actually pretty ridgid and held up great to an hours worth of crawling today.

I'm going to make a new chassis next weekend out of something a little softer, and not so see through . I'd love to find some yellow or green stuff since it goes with my color scheme (all my cars and trucks are green and yellow).

My next chassis will be basically the same, but it will be approximately 1" longer. This will allow me to keep the same link and shock set up, which I'm happy with, but give me an extra inch in wheelbase. I'm also going to add a bit more bracing to really solidify the next chassis.

The next one will only take an hour or so to make and will just need to have parts transfered from one to the other.

[racer1044]

You could get window tint to put over your chassis. They have it in all sorts of colors. How does the stock tranny do compared to the pede one. Does it crawl alot better.

[Wookie]

racer1044,

In all reality the stock tranny is pretty good for rockcrawling, it's just limited compared to the pede tranny.

The pede tranny is shorter, which allows for a shorter chassis and more ground clearance.

The Traxxas sliders make stretching the chassis much easier since you don't have to accomidate a set of dogbones. You can be much more liberal in your link length and selection.

The sliders also allow greater angles in the drivetrain with out binding. This gives you the ability to have more ground clearance and flat servos for better steering.

It appears it can handle large amounts of torque, and everybody around here that uses them seems to be very happy with them.

Overall, I give it a big thumbs up

[NeoSlayer888]

Since it is clear you could paint the inside like you do when painting a body. Click for DELRIN

[Highmark]

I used 1/8" 6/6 nylon on mine, it's not the most riggid stuff in the world but it is strong but don't try to cut it with a hacksaw and expect any precision