Dr. F's Kit Bronco

[dr frankenstyle]

Originally Posted by Tmaxxed

Lookin great! Can’t wait to see some trail pics!

Originally Posted by B-MOW71

Just had a chance to read your whole thread. Good looking little green machine. You will like the HW 1080 ESC. It is a great ESC. And the price ain't bad either.

Looking forward to your next round of pics and to hear how you like the ESC.

Subcribed!

Thanks Guys Glad you like it. I keep up with both of your TRXs too.
We hit the rock pile after lunch and I gotta say WOW! .... just .....WOW! The 1080 is SOOooo smooth and with the new 8T, it's just AMAZING!



I went straight to the steepest section (for now), at least 55-deg or more, and it just waltzed right up it like it was level ground.



It moves like a sloth on valium. You can just creep over stuff like it's in super slow-mo.



I wish I could get a dang'd video to post up. Even with the little bit of snow and wet rocks, it climbs better than ever. The gear seems to be smooth as silk. It's a bit noisier, of course, but lower gears seem to always make more noise.



The weather was crap this past weekend and it's supposed to be worse this next one, so it may be a bit before I can hit the park with my buddy. I have a feelin' he'd better bring his GOOD rig .... and his A-game.

Thanks for the looks an' likes. Tune in next time .....

[Tmaxxed]

You’re posts always make me want to spend more money! Lol! Nice pics!


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[dr frankenstyle]

Originally Posted by Tmaxxed

You’re posts always make me want to spend more money! Lol! Nice pics!

Thanks At least I TRY to do most things as low-budget as I can (like I have a choice ). It's not my fault tho', the voices in my head keep giving me these good ideas ... and they say insanity IS contagious, you know.

[dr frankenstyle]

I took the little green machine out to the rock pile again yesterday. The new "slo-motion" setup is just SO COOL. I think I saw a snail run past the truck on one of the climbs. The 1080 coupled with the TorqueMaster is just super silky smoooth thru the whole rpm range. With the 8t pinion it creeps so slow you're practically waiting for it to move a little. And according to the Traxxas dashboard it still tops at 10-mph at full throttle on 3s .... going slightly down-hill. Anyway, after about 20 minutes of slow-crawlin', it rolled a baseball sized rock under the front axle and rode it for a foot or so. Well, next thing I know, it got to the top of the pile and the front wheels stop pulling. So I flipped it and saw the retainer coil that holds the pin in the front CV was danglin' around the shaft and the cross-pin had disappeared. WAH wah waah.



Luckily I had recently added a short piece of silicone tubing to the slide-splines at the trans end, so that kept the shaft from backing out and losing the wrist-pin from the CV. As is turned out, I had some extra pivot pins for my mini-Summit crawler's suspension arms that are the same diameter. So i just clipped off a piece the right length, smoothed the end, and voila .... back in bidness. The retainer coil didn't get damaged at all, just spun it off, so it should be good as new. It was kind of a strange situation, but I guess that's a down-fall of this shaft design. I still like 'em, they've been problem free otherwise, and now I know I have spare pins.
When I flipped it I noticed the right front-most rock lite was out too. I guess that little stick that jammed up it's nose tore one of the micro-fine wires loose. So while I was doing surgery I re-soldered the wires and got it working again. Wiring is a bit uglier now, since I had to cut some shrink-tube that i couldn't easily replace, but oh well ... at least the light works.
Thanks again for lookin' and likin'. Tune in next time ....

[dr frankenstyle]

The wind is blowing winter back in, but before it gets nasty I took the Bronco out in the yard for a little side-hillin'.



I tried to spend most of my time circling the rock pile to test out it's lean capability and see how the tires and foams do.



I'm really happy with the little trucks performance so far. I can drive it just about any direction on and around the pile.



The lean angle has improved a lot from the stock setup.



and the Torquemaster is so strong and smooth it just tractors up and over practically anything.



It's like a whole new truck ..... okay, 60% new.

[Tmaxxed]

Originally Posted by dr frankenstyle

The wind is blowing winter back in, but before it gets nasty I took the Bronco out in the yard for a little side-hillin'.



I tried to spend most of my time circling the rock pile to test out it's lean capability and see how the tires and foams do.



I'm really happy with the little trucks performance so far. I can drive it just about any direction on and around the pile.



The lean angle has improved a lot from the stock setup.



and the Torquemaster is so strong and smooth it just tractors up and over practically anything.



It's like a whole new truck ..... okay, 60% new.

Looks great man, awesome build!


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[dr frankenstyle]

Originally Posted by Tmaxxed

Looks great man, awesome build!

Thanks bud' I'm havin' a LOT of fun with this truck. I can't wait 'til the weather clears up and I can go to town and hit the big rocks at the park with my buddy. Even if he has his rebuilt as the Jeep, I think the little Bronco will show him what for. It may be a bit tho', they predict rain again at the first of next week ..... woopeee ... maybe I DO need a set of the M/Ts.

[Topher Builds]

Truck looks very stable. 3rd pic down is impressive. Nice truck sir!

[dr frankenstyle]

Originally Posted by Pant Danza

Truck looks very stable. 3rd pic down is impressive. Nice truck sir!

Thank you Sir. It weighs in right at 9-lbs (a little over with the big bat'ry) but I've tried to spread the weight around down low. So far it seems to be working aight. It goes across or down the slopes almost as well as up .... well, anyway, it does OK. I try to keep the cam' as level as I can to show the real angles.
Thanks again for the looks an' likes.


jim

[dr frankenstyle]

I found some new rock to play on. Just about 7 miles from my house, there's a cut thru the hilltop for the hiway. On both sides of the hiway (rural 2-lane) there's rock faces with open rock on the tops. Before the next winter blast comes in, I took the Bronco down the road to try 'em out.



A good bit of rock to crawl on.



Some side-hillin'.



It's cloudy and 40-deg, but it's gonna get worse.



There's a gravel lane right at the end of the rock, so I have a safe place to park off the hiway. And there's plenty of room to walk along and watch from below.



By now the truck is just above my head. I hit a little box-canyon area and turning around was a bit of a trick. Now we're heading back.



I was holding the camera just over my head here, so it was about 7-ft above my feet.



You can get a little feel for the set up here.



Before I knew it I'd been there for an hour, and hadn't seen a dozen people drive by. NICE!



I'll have to get my buddy up here to try some more areas and lines .... when the weather smooths out.
Thanks for lookin' an' likin'.



jim

[AnimalHippie]

Looks like a killer spot you found Jim! I love/hate how fast time goes when you're having a good time. What feels like 15 mins when you're crawling almost always is an hour or more.

[Tmaxxed]

Nice spot. I have to find something new around my house.


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[dr frankenstyle]

Originally Posted by AnimalHippie

Looks like a killer spot you found Jim! I love/hate how fast time goes when you're having a good time. What feels like 15 mins when you're crawling almost always is an hour or more.

Originally Posted by Tmaxxed

Nice spot. I have to find something new around my house.

Thanks guys I've driven by those rocks for over 10 yrs. I've been eyeing them now since last fall, and I finally decided to just go try 'em out. I'm thrilled to find somewhere else to crawl, let alone so close to home. It might surprise you what could be hiding nearby. Some of the places that you drive right by all the time may be a hidden gem just waiting to be crawled on. It's worth giving them a closer look.

I love how time disappears too ... that just makes it better.

[Tmaxxed]

This spring I’m going to strap the trx to the four wheeler and go looking for spots. There’s a lot of places where they’ve blasted rock for old railroad tracks and roads around my area. Should be able to find some good spots.


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[dr frankenstyle]

We had another break between winter blasts, so my buddy drove up and we hit the new rock spot. We hadn't been there 5 min. and I looked over at his truck as I was backing up, forgot to let off the trigger and backed right off the cliff. Only about a 2 ft fall so it didn't hurt anything but knocked a big patch of paint off of the drivers door. Sorry for the ugly pic's. Lacquer may survive in an on-road car, but it's not for a crawler.
Anyway, as I sprinkled paint flakes along the way, we hit the rocks.





The further we go to the left, the higher up the hill we go.



At this point, the trucks are just over our heads.




We hit the little "box-canyon" area that's the turn-around point.



So we headed back.



We took a different line on the way back and had to duck under an over-hanging rock while keeping from falling off the cliff.



After about 2 hours we both had finished off a battery and the wind was kicking up and cooling things off. So we called it a day .... one helluva FUN day!
And to think I drove by that little "crawl-park" for months. Glad I finally stopped.

Forgot to mention, my buddy went home and ordered a TorqueMaster Expert 550 but he got a 27 turn, just to be different. Now to get him on a 1080.


Thanks for lookin' an' likin'.
jim

[BooneTheGr8]

Just finished reading this thread, thanks for all the info! Can't wait for my rtr bronco to get here... It's supposed arrive Tuesday so I scheduled a vacation day to stay home and drool over my new rig haha. I'm also going to install a savox steering servo and heyok Bec, and do the pre flight checks and adjustments. Too bad there's so much snow outside, going to have to build an indoor course!

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[dr frankenstyle]

Originally Posted by BooneTheGr8

Just finished reading this thread, thanks for all the info! Can't wait for my rtr bronco to get here... It's supposed arrive Tuesday so I scheduled a vacation day to stay home and drool over my new rig haha. I'm also going to install a savox steering servo and heyok Bec, and do the pre flight checks and adjustments. Too bad there's so much snow outside, going to have to build an indoor course!

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

Thanks for reading, glad you like it. I try to inform and entertain a little too. I think you'll like your Bronco. A few minor tweaks will really help it perform, and it sounds like you're on the right track. Al at HeyOk makes great stuff and he'll help with anything you need. Be sure to post up your truck with some pic's, and there are lots of helpful people here if you have any questions. Enjoy your new rig, and welcome to the gang.


jim

[dr frankenstyle]

Winter is supposed to bounce back in tomorrow, so I drove to town today and hit the park with my buddy.



We were wanting to try both of our new setups on the rocks we were used to, but it was kinda muddy from the snow melting.



The muddy tires limited some of more technical crawling, but the rocks were still fun.



We were doin' donuts in the grass between rocks to clean the tires a bit, so we didn't slide off the rocks.



The slick muddies kept things pretty equal, so there was no clear winner today. Maybe next time.


jim

[dr frankenstyle]

I added a little detail today. Found 'em on eBay.



A small, subtle change that makes a big difference in the scale appearance. (at least to me ) I put 'em on all my trucks and now they look "bald" without 'em.



I'll put a little epoxy on 'em, to keep 'em positioned right. They're really soft, but still tough, so they should survive pretty well.



jim

[dr frankenstyle]

Typical roller-coaster weather here in Sw Missouri, a couple days ago the temp' didn't get above 15 and today we broke 60. But hey, I took advantage and hit the road-side rocks. So after a couple "glamour shots" ....




... I headed toward the box-canyon.



Got there and made a circle up and around the big rock .....



... then drove back down and around the front, under the overhanger ....



... and along the edge to the turn-around point.



Of course did a lot of meanderin' around along the way and turning around. Then I started back across. The slip-by at the overhang is pretty snug ...



.... and the rock likes to crumble away as you go by.



But that just makes it more fun.




I spent over an hour and a half by now, and my little 3s was starting to run low ....



So it was time to climb off into the sunset (well, back to the west anyway. ).



All of this, 5 miles from home.

Thanks for lookin' an' likin'.

jim