The Defenestrator, aka "durok does a Defender"

[durok]

Also - in local crawling news - when I got off work today I drove half-a-block down the road and parked, and got out to check out an odd landmark I had noticed shortly after beginning this job back at the beginning of September. It's a big hill of bulldozed dirt and rocks that been overgrown with weeds, and one side seems to be very steeply undercut - and I've always wondered what the base was like - could it be (gasp!) crawl-worthy?

So, today - like freakin' 4 dang months later, I finally go look at it - walked around the back side of it - holy crap, a total playground!

And the rig that moved the dirt around seems to be retired, just sittin' in front of the mound, rustin' away...

I can't wait to hit it, this is perfect - I can bring my R/C to work and when I get off (at a reasonable 2:45PM, since I go in so dang early), I can just mosey across the way and kill a LiPo or two before heading home... I'm really looking forward to this, can't quite believe I've got such a killer spot right under my nose.

[durok]

Anyway, should I go for a mall crawl first?



2.2" Chanquish wheels with RC4WD Dune T/A tires, got homemade dual-stage foams created by wrapping the wheel with self-adhesive closed-cell urethane weather-stripping foam and then stuffing the stock foams in the gap that remains. I'm curious, knowing the capability of the TRX-4, if I could still crawl any decent terrain with tires with such limited tread depth! Could be fun to try sometime. Or just do some donuts on hardpack. Whatever. Could just drive by the club one night while all the girls are out front, in my sweet and shiny never-been-offroad high-dollar Sport Utility...

[durok]

I am so in love with how perfectly integrated the SSD bumpers are for the Defender - incredible approach and departure angle compared with stock, and the rear bumper tucks right into the notched Lexan body, and the internal rear body support pins drop right into the holes provided:

[GrimmTheTourist]

Looks great! Also with those dune tires. Cool look.

I also had this front bumper. Nice looking and great for driving, but not enough body protection for my driving style so I had to change it

[durok]

Got my Male Deans to Female TRX adapters from Amazon just now... Here we go!

Charging up the Goldbat 6000mAh 55C 3S LiPo starting at 3.90v... Gonna take her for a mellow test run when done.

As I want to paint up the body a bit before really hitting the dirt and rocks, I am gonna try out the T/A tires first.

EDIT: 32 minutes to charge from 3.9v to 4.18v, on such a huge capacity pack! Heck, yeah....

[durok]

It took 1.5 hours to get the pack down to 3.44v, running mostly in 2nd gear on pavement, lots of stop-start, full-throttle blasts on a little tiny patch of gravel (trying to break-in the tires) and then a bunch of hillclimbs experimenting with the diff lockers. Actually ended up getting it a little muddy - no big deal, though.

EDIT: 63 minutes to charge the 6000mAh pack back to 4.18v.

Ready to go out and burn the mud off, in preparation for a wheel and tire change back to a true off-road setup.

[durok]

I really enjoyed the heck out of my first impressions of this rig - just fooling around in very mild terrain and pavement. Ended up "power-washing" the rig by taking it at high speed through a culvert with about 2 inches of flowing (and clear, clean-smelling) water. Got all the mud off, then took it to clean pavement for some more tire scrubbing... Blew off the remaining moisture with my AC-powered air blaster and put the LiPo on storage charge.

Going to detail the body and swap back to the SSD steelies / RC4WD Boggers combo and take it out for a more serious crawl later this week. VERY happy with my purchase!

Scrubbed-in RC4WD Dune T/A (guess they'll make good AutoX tires now ):

[Inspector86]

You only have 1.5 hours on those tires?

[durok]

Originally Posted by Inspector86

You only have 1.5 hours on those tires?

Nearly 3, as I went back out for most of a second battery pack. A lot of driving was on concrete, and I also found fine (almost sandy) gravel on top of concrete and was doing burnouts, J-turns and donuts in it. I was deliberately thrashing the tires...

[OSRC]

Welcome to the Defender club! Been enjoying the heck out of mine. Really like the SSD wheel/bogger combo, looks great under there.

[joeR6]

Durok - glad you are enjoying the TRX4, and i'm digging those black wheels.

I'm in Austin as well and understand your frustration with our 3 "hobby" shops - lots of support/parts for the Slash but not too much else.

Shoot me a PM if you want some help soldering those connectors - i'm not the greatest with a soldering iron but my work has held up so far! (I switched over all my cars/trucks to TRX connectors as i have a bunch of traxxas batteries.)

[mewalsh100]

Man, those Dune's look like my Dunlops after a track day on the GSX-R! Holy Crap they're scrubbed in!

[durok]

Hardly any real wear except the front outer edges - holy body lean, Batman!

I'll need to rotate them if I ever use them again...

They did add an interesting dimension to climbing a damp dirt hillside, had to keep them spinning to maintain forward progress.

Me and Miatardo are hittin' that killer crawl spot pictured earlier in the thread tomorrow after work - a tale of two TRXs, Bronco vs Defender!

(yes, the Boggers will see trail finally!)

[durok]

Loads of fun at "Discard Mountain" - I've found out it was formed over the last few years by what was left after clearing the sites for a couple new buildings across from my work location. They basically shoved everything into a big mound and left it to grow over. The area around it has become somewhat of a minor dumpsite for inconsiderate assholes so it's a little scuzzy, but I'm not gonna deny the level of entertainment it provided Miatardo and myself and our TRX-4s...

The Boggers with the CI Lil' Novas on SSD steelies were fantastic, nice sidewall flex without folding over. I was goin' at stuff kinda easy, as I had not yet gotten around to painting my Defender and didn't really want to scuff up the body - so I concentrated on not crashing, yet was having as much fun as I've ever had crawling... Miatardo, on the other hand, was attacking everything with gusto - no fear there!

It was really overcast, so I didn't worry about pics or video - I'll take care of that when we go back out on a sunnier day. On that note, we are expecting rain all day tomorrow, so I suppose I'll need to stop procrastinating and get to unbolting everything from the body so I can paint the darn thing, and then put it all back together...

I'll need it ready ASAP for MOAR crawlin' at my handy new spot - good ol' Discard Mountain, right across the street from my work. My crazy schedule is paying off now, as I start work at 5:45am - which is what allows me to get off at 2:45PM! I get multiple hours of daylight even during this time of year!

[durok]

Finally finished painting the RTR body to where I like it, masked all window (sticker) areas and hit the roof with Tamiya White and the whole thing with Tamiya Flat Clear - it has a more Pewter color now, killed the metallicness- which I prefer.

Bolted on some front and rear under bumper area skids out of stainless. Reinstalled all the body plastics and rubber bits, then took some pics with every wheelset I have.

The all-black wheels are 2.2" RPM Revolver nylon wheels with Team DC Nitto Mud Grappler Extremes, they are not bolted on because I would need to reinstall the Traxxas flat wheel hexes to use them - plus they aren't glued up yet - I have not decided on the foams, will likely make another set of my budget dual-density ones by wrapping the wheels with self-sticking closed-cell weather-stripping foam and then cram some 2.2" foams in the rest of the space.

All the other wheels are commonly seen on the forum - Injora 1.9" cheapies with 1.9" Vaterra stock TSL Swampers from my Ascender, SSD 1.9" steelies with 1.7" RC4WD TSL pre-siped Boggers, Chanquish 2.2"s with 2.2" RC4WD Dune T/As, and my next set that will see action on the dirt - Chanquish 2.2"s with 1.9" RC4WD Ground Hawg IIs... I will spend the next day or 2 throwing some lightweight stuff on the roof and a handful of stickers on the body. By then we should have a break in the rain and crap weather!

[dr frankenstyle]

Looks good with the new "color". Hard to decide which wheel/tire set-up I like the best, but I'm kinda partial to the SSDs.



jim

[GrimmTheTourist]

Great Diff-ender you have here!
I would go with the SSD steelies or the groundhog on the chinas.

[indybama]

Good lookin defender durok! How do the nitto mud grapplers work for u? The 1:1 version does pretty good n they last for a long time.

Sent from my SM-J327VPP using Tapatalk

[durok]

Originally Posted by GrimmTheTourist

Great Diff-ender you have here!
I would go with the SSD steelies or the groundhog on the chinas.

Thanks!

I'll be rotating through pretty much all the sets at one time or another, depending on my mood and where I'll be running it...

Originally Posted by indybama

Good lookin defender durok! How do the nitto mud grapplers work for u? The 1:1 version does pretty good n they last for a long time.

Sent from my SM-J327VPP using Tapatalk

I appreciate the compliment!

"they are not bolted on because I would need to reinstall the Traxxas flat wheel hexes to use them - plus they aren't glued up yet - I have not decided on the foams, will likely make another set of my budget dual-density ones by wrapping the wheels with self-sticking closed-cell weather-stripping foam and then cram some 2.2" foams in the rest of the space."

[mewalsh100]

Top n Bottom pic get my vote on wheels. Love them!