Tamiya TXT full aluminum project

[endy]

Hi all,

I'm Endy and i'm from the Netherlands. I know this forum a lot longer and wanted to register me when i had a nice project to share on this forum.

For some time ago i bought myself a brandnew tamiya TXT, which i assembled to an almost finished truck.

This is how i bought the kit:





This is the state of the almost finished standard TXT:


At this point i wanted to mount the electronics, but wanted to make some improvements to make the truck handle better.

For me these improvements were partially aluminum hop ups to replace the plastic parts and add some more strength overall.

Of course these parts aren't available in the Netherlands so i had to go overseas to get hold of these at several online shops and on Ebay.

But before you know it, i was trying to find more and more items to replace the original stuff on the TXT. This took me almost six months.

The first major improvement i wanted to make was to replace the plastic axles for aluminum ones.



After this purchase i purchased / collected every part i could find bit by bit.



This is how the TXT looked like when i started to disassemble all the plastic parts. At the time of the dissambly i had a full box of aluminum hop ups / parts to mount on the frame.



To mention which parts are in the cardboard box :

- 20 Aluminum rodends M3
- 50 stainless steel conical washers M3
- 2 aluminium Skidplates
- 1 Center skidplate
- 2 Aluminum CNC wheel axles
- 2 Sets stainless steel screwkits
- 4 Stainless steel links
- 4 aluminium links
- 1 stainless steel batteryholder
- 2 sets aluminum bodyposts
- 1 set aluminum bridge for bodyposts
- 1 locked Differential for rear axle
- 1 gearbox TXT blue anodised
- 2 Punisher shafts
- 4 Aluminium cantilevers
- 1 aluminium front bumper
- 1 aluminium rear bumper
- 2 sets aluminium shocks
- 2 sets foam inserts for TXT tires
- 2 sets aluminium fusees
- 2 sets bearings
- 2 sets aluminium underguard mounts
- 2 sets aluminium Wheel drive adaptor
- 2 Brushless motoren type LRP vector X11, 21,5 turns en 15,5 turns
- 1 Ace digi 1015 Servo
- 1 Aluminium motormount heatsink
- 1 set aluminium side shock mounts.
- 2 setjes RVS stainless steel drive shafts



the first thing i assembled were the aluminum axles




Too bad i forgot to take a picture of this so the only thing i can show is the plastic version, like above this text. :-(

In the meanwhile a friend of mine helped me out with the removal of the plastic parts on the TXT frame.

After removal the frame looks like this:



Right after that i wanted to continue the assembly of the new parts, but sadly enough i was missing several rod ends and screws so i had to order first before i could go on any further.

Besides this there was a problem with the gearbox. It had a blue anodised colouring. The frame however is silver / aluminum.

I had to get rid of the blue anodised layer.
There are several ways to do this but a friend of mine has a special compressor unit which removed the blue colouring with a fine sand like material.

I was there when he removed it, and it was gone under 5 minutes.




The result is shown above
Sadly enough i don't have a before and after image, just the result.
the result of the aluminum gearbox without the colouring looks just fine to me. Of course the inner gears are all equipped with very good bearings.

Some time later i received the parts i was missing to continue the build.
I assembled the links and the rod ends with the conical spacers and the front knuckle arms to the aluminum axles.



Now everything looks like above in the picture.
Next i went to assemble the aluminum gearbox.

I installed two brushless engines of the LRP Vector X11 series.
Of course only one can be connected to the Esc, i installed two for
esthetic reasons and this way i always have a spare engine which i can use



And another close up of the gearbox:




Next i installed the RC4WD punisher shafts. These will hold i guess hehe.
the next thing to do is bolt the tires



I'm still not finished and wanted a custom painted body to fit the truck.
At an Ebay auction i won this body for a very nice price:





For now i have to stop, tomorrow i will add some more neat stuff.
With regards,

Endy

[endy]

i m sorry i m having a bit of a struggle with image shack, i will get it right today

[EeePee]

Better!

[endy]

Thanks! Tomorrow i will add some more new information.
I have to go to sleep.

With regards,

Endy

[Nate08]

Holy Jesus God I want....

[endy]

ThX for the reply Nate,

Check out this post tomorrow, then i have several updates which
i made to this TXT. It s only getting better

With regards,

Endy

[JLF]

This is an awesome project truck!!!!

[endy]

Thanks JLF,

Tonight i will post new pictures, then there will be a lot more interesting
stuff to see

With regards,

Endy

[endy]

Today i wanted to post some more information about my TXT project.
Recently i bought 4 Rc4wd mudslinger tires to fit the plastic rims of my TXT


these tires have a real good profile and are very flexible so they have very good traction on different soils,rocls or roads.

At that time i wanted to replace the plastic rims bij custom CNC machined rims. This ofcourse for the looks and ofcourse these rims are a bit stronger





The tires fit nicely around the machined rims. I also used inserts so the tires wont collapse due to all the weight





And some pictures when the tires are mounted on the TXT
Some time later i was browsing on Ebay and by chance i saw a unique frame designed for TXT trucks.

I won this auction on Ebay and several weeks later i received the 'Le bat frame'. Only 30 pieces were manufactured by this company.
And some pictures to see how it looks:



So during the first weekend i was kinda busy to remove the old TXT frame and mount all the pieces / parts back on the "le bat frame"

first a few pictures without body:







And some pictures with the body:





Next thing i wanted to create was a way to get rid of the servo in front of the axle. Normally it is bolted in the tray in front, and i don't like it like that.

I wanted to create a way to position the servo in the middle of the Le bat frame, and connect it with a rod/ link to the axle.

For the centersteer servo i had to create a bracket which fits the servo.
this bracket with the servo mounted will be bolted to the frame.

Here some pictures so it is better to understand how i fixed it



And a picture with the servo, an Ace digi(15.0Kg @ 6.0V) and Kimbrough Servo saver







the whole bracket bolted together:





And this is how it fits onto the frame:



I had to cut a small part of the edges of the servo saver, but now it works as it should be.

The next step is to create a way how to make steering possible possible from the front axle.

I needed a part of a high lift to make this possible and ordered a
High Lift Bearing steering Bell crank set.

I CNC milled a thick aluminum bracket which holds this steering crank set.


And the parts bolted onto the front wheel axle:


Last but not least i created the connection between the servo and the steering bell crank set.



It is designed in a way so the servo never reaches the full end because of the limit of the front knuckle arms.

The next thing to do is create a nice way to place a battery.

My idea was to use small round aluminum towers which will be bolted to the battery plate.



Raw material



Cut the unneeded aluminum out of the raw material



Rubber pads sticked to the esc and receiver.





Esc an receiver bolted into the aluminum brackets


And several pictures of how its finally fitted onto the TXT













For construction this is how far i am right now
To make the looks even better i purchased a true fire body to fit the TXT.







I still have to drill holes, so i just put the body on top of the body posts.
It looks a bit to high now compared to the chassis :-P

Hope you all like it,
This week i will go on to modify special thumb screws to fit the battery plate so i can easily swap the battery.

With regards,

Endy

[DickyT]

Very shiny! who makes the axle cases?

[endy]

Originally Posted by DickyT

Very shiny! who makes the axle cases?

thanks DickyT,

Well these axles can be bought at www.inetrc.com
They cost 399 us dollar a pair.

whats even better is to check out ebay and search for nickname "inetrc"
or in the product search "tamiya TXT"

He has 5 pair of these axles for sale, and they are a lot cheaper. only 225 us dollar. So grab yourself a pair before it's too late

With regards,

Endy

[vonclod]

very cool project, work of art

[endy]

thX Vonclod,

I'm very proud of the results

[killbucket]

WOW!!!!


Nice assembly of parts, there. I really like that radio bracket. The flame body could make anything better, but it ices this cake nicely.

Simply incredible looking frame, I'm going to assume it was done with a waterjet cutter. My own CNC can't do something like this...or can it? Hmmm...

Really, really nice rig. It must weigh a minor ton with all that metal. Have you done any vid of it? My guess is it would act a lot like a scaler (Grandaddy IS the Bruiser) with the ground pressure on the tires.

I actually found this while Image-Googling "Clodbuster axles suspension" for a project I'm wasting time with myself.

(I'm trying to decide JUST WHAT the original clod arms would be classified as, and the nearest is a semi-trailing arm, like an old Datsun 510.)

What would I add to this?


A Plexiglass case and two Dobermans.

[endy]

Thanks for the reply Killbucket,

The radio bracket was something i made with some aluminum and small tooling. With several drills and some sanding paper i created it. It took me sometime to figure out how to put the radio and esc in a decent way onto the frame.


The TXT frame was made by Inetrc, check out their website. It is cut by a waterjet cutter. But i think your CNC could do the job as well

Just give it a try.
At the moment i dont have a vid of it, but that wont take long.
Last time i wanted to give the truck a run, but the ace 1015 servo was a bit too much for the transmitter, so now i have to fit in a BEC for separate power to the servo

At the moment the truck weighs approximately 11 kilo. So it is quite heavy.

The clodbuster axles are very decent as well, the difference is that these axles have the engines bolted onto them.

I m not sure what they would be classified as.
But i guess you want to create something similar with a clod axle setup?

With regards,

Endy

[killbucket]

Not specifically the axles, but the stock swing arms and stuff, including the 'ball joints" molded around each axle half.

It's actually a semi-trailing arm, with a 'fudge-link' to keep the axle from rotating in the lower ball-joints.

You could take a stock clod axle/arm assembly, and 'float' the axle housings by adding an upper arm from the frame to the upper housing, effectively making a '3-link' out of it.

That's a LOT of kilograms. I can imagine hitting my leg with it, and having to call an ambulance.
And then have to explain I was run down by a foot-high truck.

[xoed4runer]

nice truck. it should be named heavy metal

[killbucket]

Some "Metal Hurlant" stickers on the silver body, it would be sa-weet.

[endy]

Originally Posted by killbucket

Not specifically the axles, but the stock swing arms and stuff, including the 'ball joints" molded around ...

Now i understand what kind of setup you are trying to explain.
Is it a setup you are already building?

Perhaps a topic in one of the categories at rccrawler.com?
The truck is quite heavy indeed

with the pointy frame at the front and the rear it would sure be a nasy injury when one would get run over.

I have some other pics i will show in this topic, so there will be some more detail visible

With regards,

Endy

[endy]

Originally Posted by xoed4runer

nice truck. it should be named heavy metal

That would be a name to fit the truck haha it weighs a ton!