WOW---another TLT buildup

[crash]

So the next step was to make a good/strong servo mount (I think I overdid it but as anybody knows me in the 1:1 world---well thats just the way its gotta be,lol





I think this will hold up ok> as you can see the upper links will also mount to it (saw a couple rigs done this way and I liked it)




As you can see I went ahead and just mounted the shocks in the same location for now.

[crash]

So now that it was done I tried it again (just toying with it by hand and not running it) and found VERY little body sway when you cylced the suspernsion(was easily doing it on the other 2 setups) and little to no axle steer. I think I made a huge jump in the right direction. Another thing I have to remember you can actaully change the spring rates(not really but changes how they react with the rig) by changing the canting/degree of how the shocks sit--less degree/closer to verticle more the stiff the spring acts but the less travel you get out of them.



And whats odd now, the rig sits lower with the shocks mounted in the very same location. And now the flex is much better and the shocks don't rub the chassis

[crash]

I am still fighting a little bit of torque twist but no where near where it was.

[crash]

I finally got the body hacked up and started masking--this is where I messed up. I tried and tried to mask off the windows so they would be clear but---I said screw it and painted the whole damn thing Then when I was going thru the baggy to put some stickers on it---guess what I found.. Pre-cut mask's for the windows---duh I am such a noob


In any case I got it out and damn---is this thing a hoot. I am still playing with the shock location and gotta up the spring rates...

[4RnrRick]

And you thought Toyotas were addictive!

Welcome aboard Crash!

Nice build there. Just to let you know its possible to repaint that body.... Brake fluid will take that old paint off with a little bit of elbow grease and some time.

stripping paint from lexan

Originally Posted by JasonInAugusta

Brake Fluid (NOT CLEANER) also works.

Sure does.......

Old Paint


After about 2 hours using brake fluid and a tooth brush


New Paint

[crash]

Hey ya rick (saw you bouncing around here) Does the brake fluid cause the lexan to cloud at all?

[Yotakid89]

I thought for sure out of all the RC guys on here you would have a brusier body on your rig and not a wrangler

[crash]

Originally Posted by Yotakid89

I thought for sure out of all the RC guys on here you would have a brusier body on your rig and not a wrangler

Find me one,lol... I looked but no luck..

[WRXronald]

i have some issues with torque twist as well....

i've stretched a PTI MT and reduced the gearing for crawling (brushless). i eliminated the cantilever setup in favor of a VERY similar shock angle to yours. using Integy piggybacks (MSR4 or 5 or something like that-- big mothers anyways ).

i guess i'd have to get a pic up to show you the way my 4 link is connected (just like a stock PTI only longer t-maxx turnbuckles of course)... but i find the MORE i tighten down the collars and put tesions on the springs, the MORE it tends to twist and then just sit like that.

at this point i've managed to get it to 'sit back up' once its come down from an obstacle to a level stance. (at full spring height on the threaded collars-- don't ask me why less tension is allowing to 'sit up' while more tension does not, cuz i can't for the life of me explain it or understand it-- but it works). it will twist badly in reverse if it gets 'hung up' on obstacles-- that i HATE the most. forwards it does not twist too terribly at all. i am using softer slighly shorter springs than what came on the Integy (came with medium T-maxx springs)... so i may try the stiffer original springs they came with for a change.

i can say that the cantilever system also twisted as well, its unfortunely just a bad tendency of a shafty rig. and i find if you put a stiffy (or just shrink down a threaded shock body to put more tension the spring) for the rear left shock, it will combat the torque twist when driving fwd, but at the same time it creates MORE twist when in reverse, for obvious reasons. so i try to keep even or at least very similar rates all four corners.

lexan body ride height and weight make a difference too, believe it or not. i'm using a scale-look F150 '70 proline body and its HEAVY... 200grams (equal to the wheel weights i added to each front wheel. Also worth noting, i couldn't get my PTI stretched beyond 11.25inch base-- but the Proline '70 Ford is near PERFECT wheelbase for this setup, which i was surprised about, i always thought it would be too big/too long-- just mentioning it if you're looking for that old school scale basher look ) so anyways thats a considerable change in CoG and certainly when i take the body off--- the chassis returns to center much more quickly/accurately/and effectively with the body removed. not to BOOT the rig crawls noticeably better-- due to the lower CoG. but hey, CAN'T sacrifice that old-school scale look that everyone loves... its just too cool looking i think.

keep us updated in your endeavors on beating the dreaded 'twist' and i'll do the same.... wish there was a 'magic pill' to cure this.. other than 'clod-based'

probably might be worth while trying some shorter shocks and going more vertical with them, but like you said that causes issues with articulation. and at this point i've got the artic EXACTLY where i like it-- proly 70-80 degrees ability. similar to whats shown in your pics... but i have to maintain a LOW ride height (near horizontal lower and uppper links) to keep the drive shafts/CVD's hooked up correctly and the wheelbase long enough-- and of course a good crawler CoG too. that makes vertical shocks an unlikely possibility--- unless perhaps you were to fab some TALL upper shock mounts, that lifted the shocks up HIGH off the chassis base. then limit the ride height with chains/zip ties/etc. i had initially limited my ride height (for CVD angle sake) with zipties on either side of axle-- but didnt' like it due to limits on downward travel for each side. now i have limiter (made of zipties) in the center of the tip of the chassis, and mounted center of the axles--- ensures EASY left to right articulation but accomplishes the goal of keeping ride height where i want it (shocks are too long to limit the ride height themselves).

ah well, keepin' at it... that's whats fun about this hobby anyways

[K_Willis]

I'm not sure if any one else agrees with me here, but WRX, you seem to have a habit of hi-jacking threads.

If you have questions or problems with one of your own rigs you need to start your own thread. It's generally considered rude to post questions about your own truck in someone else's thread.

Not trying to be harsh or anything, just trying to help.

[mikhail]

Originally Posted by K_Willis

I'm not sure if any one else agrees with me here, but WRX, you seem to have a habit of hi-jacking threads.

If you have questions or problems with one of your own rigs you need to start your own thread. It's generally considered rude to post questions about your own truck in someone else's thread.

Not trying to be harsh or anything, just trying to help.

I don't see any questions in his post just some specific examples and advice.

[4RnrRick]

Originally Posted by crashfab

Hey ya rick (saw you bouncing around here) Does the brake fluid cause the lexan to cloud at all?

Now, I'm only bouncing around since I've sold the Comp Clod and the Comp TLT , but I use to be addicted and was logged in 24/7... I decided to do something a little more scale and fun as a crawling basher ( Score Trophy Truck TLT )

Anyways, the brake fluid does NOT cloud the lexan or damage it. I was actually surprised myself! The images I posted only look cloudy because it was a well used body and totally scratched up on the outside. look at the first photo I posted and you can see how scratched up the windows are. also in teh second photo there is one cloudy spot where I tried some solvent on it which was a BAD thing! And in the third photo you can see that the color took to it nicely. Oh and to clean the lexan after you use brake fuild on it, I used castrol super clean (the purple stuff) and that seemed to work really good.

Try it - you won't be disappointed! plus you won't look like a noob with painted windows!

[WRXronald]

Originally Posted by mikhail

I don't see any questions in his post just some specific examples and advice.

took the words right from my mouth... but hey that's cool. sorry if you think i'm rude and hijacking. i won't argue sometimes i can get a bit off topic.

but i believe the some of the most recent discussion here regarding his rig was about 'torque twist'. correct me if i'm wrong but i think the Crashfab wanted to discuss an issue with torque twist and i feel sharing my experience and what i've noticed with it was relelvant, sorry if you believe differently.

AS WELL i posted to discuss this torque twist with him AND share my experience on it, in relation to a rig i've buillt that is somewhat similar in size and setup to Crashfabs... (ESPECIALLY the shock mounting pattern and size/length of shock)....

so lets see-- i discussed torque twist, about a small scale scrawler, and in addition the crawler i mention is of similar construction to the original thread starters.... so HOW far off topic am i really? yes i realize my post was long and contained an occasional comment that wandered off topic slightly, but if nothing else i was sure to get right back to the main topic, torque twist.

but heck, read the ENTIRE thread... people are talking about 1:1 crawling and competitions on the weekends.... are you considering that off topic as well and calling them rude too? or is it 'ok' cuz crashfab decided to discuss it with them? if that's the case then i must be 'ok' as well, since crashfab brought up the topic of torque twist, not me.

at any rate--- NOW i offer my apologies to Crashfab for HAVING to hijack this thread just to defend my posts.

as well-- my apologies to crashfab IF you also thought my post was off topic and rudely hijacking your thread, that was not my intention at all.


if you're gonna call people out-- have a better argument dude--- i won't deny i can be long-winded AND i can be off topic--- but not much more than the average member, i don't think. sorry if you disagree. if i've gone blatently off topic at points, it was ONLY to gain some info about something i saw in a thread and i was sure to comment regarding the thread AND apologize about going off topic in advance.... hell its one lousy post, and i'm not going to start an entire thread just to find out where to find TLT-1 brackets on Towerhobbies when i can just point out a picture in another thread and ask the question there.

K_Willis--- do you have anything constructive to add to this thread? if not i'd say you're the rudest and most off topic of us all in this thread.

Not trying to be harsh or anything, just trying to defend my post.

[crash]

Cool. Thanks for the info and I will keep this post updated on the torque twist problem...

[crawl_tis]

Originally Posted by crashfab

Then when I was going thru the baggy to put some stickers on it---guess what I found.. Pre-cut mask's for the windows---duh I am such a noob

lol, I almost did the same on my courier. I was fighting around with the masking tape trying to mask the windshield and windows. Then it hit me to try reading the instructions, and there it is precut stickers.... There's a whole sticky section in the general crawler forum about painting the body. It helps a lot.

Are you using wideners?

[crash]

Originally Posted by crawl_tis

lol, I almost did the same on my courier. I was fighting around with the masking tape trying to mask the windshield and windows. Then it hit me to try reading the instructions, and there it is precut stickers.... There's a whole sticky section in the general crawler forum about painting the body. It helps a lot.

Are you using wideners?

Read the what---instructions ha ha ha (love to see anybody put a TLT together with no instuctions,lol)

I am running 1" wideners but not 100% on who's they are as I have lost the link to what I thought they were (they were on my boys tlt when I got it for him) They are really nice looking though--not hexagon like most

[DUDE]

hey Mike, you going to be ready for next weekend?

[customxprone1]

ok got a question....Im gunna ask even thoguht I may get flamed nicely for it lol...When mounting the pede tranny, how did you know where to drill the holes to run the screws that hold it in. I am assuming your using the stick holes in the tranny, but how do you know where to drill on the chassis plates? Thanks in advance.

Christian

[mikhail]

When I modded my stock chassis plate I used an existing hole for one screw then measured for the other 3 so that I had a point of reference. Then I took the whole thing apart and got a SW2 chassis.

[crash]

Since the center of the tranny is also the center of the output yokes--just make sure to center the tanny in the chassis