Happy Bronco’s Facial (pic heavy)

[LincolnofDeath]

Got this HappyBronco six months ago as my first crawler and totally loved it and still love it. Even talked a couple friends I used to work with and race SCT into buying a Blazer and a Sport. While hanging out with them two weeks ago at their homemade crawler course, I got to drive the two back to back and yeah, not much of a suprise, but there are lines you can hit on a Sport that are more problematic with a Blazer, Bronco, Defender or G-ride.

[LincolnofDeath]

In the back-to back comparison, the only mods were a cheap Vanquish bumper for the Sport as well as a lighter battery and some siping to the tires. But the clearance and approach/departure angles were an obvious advantage driving the Sport and to a lesser degree body shell weight.

The Happy Bronco is stock except for the Traxxas light kit that is wonderful but questionably worth it for the amount of anxiety I felt over the purchase price. And that a cat immediately chewed through the spiderweb-thin connecting wire from the body mounted voltage regulator. But besides random cat interference and one of my feral nephews dropping the transmitter and breaking a diff switch then lying about what happened, I have nothing but great things to relate about owning a TRX4 Bronco. And that was the only mod I’ve ever done in maybe 100 giant 5000Mah battery packs through it, 2S and 3S. The Traxxas ESC is still running strong and as well the micro servos, the dopey stock steering servo and the OG 21T motor. It had a HW1080 in it for a minute but I pulled it back out because it didn’t play nice with the funky and expensive Traxxas branded light systems. And the 1080 got pulled for my first kit build in a SCX10ii. But I’ll belabor that point later.

So the Bronco has been a tremendous good sport for me starting out and I always feel comfortable recommending it when someone is leaning toward a solid RTR, wouldn’t be easily talked into a kit build, isn’t necessarily “all-in” on technical proficiency, is wowed by the scale experience and at the same time probably wants that experience to be mostly unfussy. Does that sound fair to you? If you’re looking here for direction, the Blazer, Bronco, Mercedes (all 12.3”, I think, so apples to apples) or the just slightly longer wheelbase Defender have great curb appeal, are strong performers with a “trailing” versatility that is hard to find with portal axles and a hi-lo range and switchable diff component. If you happened to come here from Traxxas’ forum for the purpose of researching their models, RCCrawler is absolutely the right place to read on and there are countless threads for you to search with really solid insight into a first tiny truck.

Deciding what truck to buy isn’t the purpose of this thread. I’m not a Traxxas (albeit admittedly middle-aged) fan-boy, but the TRX4 platform does not suck. Well, other than Traxxas’ proprietary power connector. That sucks. Okay, and their servos, but as mine hasn’t failed yet I can’t really act snotty, right? I write a little tongue-in-cheek, and I hope that comes across lightheartedly without ending every other sentence with “lol”, lol.

The picture accompanying this current rambling is important for me. And I am grateful to you for reading this far. Seriously, thank you for letting me share all this. I’ll probably explain why and how at some point, but:

This is my Bronco. There are many like it, but this one is mine. “Without me, my Bronco is useless.” Without my Bronco—-well, I am not exactly useless. But it is fair to say that with this, my first crawler, has given me much joy and really made me happy. I’d put my first crawler as one of the best purchases of my life. When my lady first saw how happy it made me and that it really did seem to bounce around happily of its own accord, as if anthropomorphized by remote control, that’s when she first said, “It’s such a happy Bronco,” and that stuck. I just read this to her and she replied emphatically, “It IS a happy Bronco! The happiest of all Broncos”. One of my co-worker/friends has a 1:1 ‘82 Bronco with long-travel on 4” Kings. That’s a pretty happy Bronco, too, there Sean Daly!

I guess the point is that there can be lots of “Happy Broncos”, or Unimogs, or Tatras, or 1/24 rally cars, or perhaps “Happy Tactical Shotguns”...when you connect with something. And can share that—-I think that’s an important part to all this. And why I wanted to say thank you for reading, and sharing whatever it is you are doing in the same spirit of “Happy Bronco” or those absolutely stunning Capra builds or whatever shaved tire, gravity defying witchery is taking place at your workbench or desk later today.

But the Bronco needs some cheap mods to stay relevant as my skills develop. And I’ll qualify that with “totally amateur” and “cheap”. In the next post.

[LincolnofDeath]

The Happy Bronco in 2019.

[LincolnofDeath]

If you haven’t before heard “Strong, Light, Cheap—-pick any two”, well, I’m sure it goes back to the Bronze Age but I first heard it attributed to Gary Fisher, of North American mountain bike lore. MTBs in the early nineties we’re giving Formula 1 a run for their money in the material strength vs. weight reduction weapons race. Strong, Light, Cheap lol, my Bronco is bobbing for apples just to get past Strong.

For our current example, we’ll try and break “Fisher’s Law”, just this once, here and now. This here, well, you’re not seeing it too good because it’s an unpainted Yeti shell from Pro-line. Note how wide the bumper skins from the Bronco stick out on either side. I should have kept the stock bumper position for these photos, but you can get the idea if I tell you “The bumper mounts are now pushed all the way back”. We’re gonna leave the skins off and trust the Pro-Line shell rigidity will function week enough, and that serious impacts will strike the bumper mount rather than getting our bumpers hung on obstacles—-that’s the trade-off here. And it may not look as refined. I’ll slap a Gmade bumper on in a later pic, as it’s the most flush I have if you really want an actual bumper for either protection or scale good looks. I think I’m leaving it off for now.

As regards the shell, it’s gonna be fairly strong because (I think/hope) it’s just a wee bit thicker than some of the shells I’ve recently held in my hands. It’s much cheaper than repurchasing that lovely Traxxas shell, about $45 out the door from your LHS, AND if it’s stronger than the original then we’re two out of three on the Light, Strong, Cheap test. And I know we can call it at least minimally lighter on two counts. First, it won’t have any of the really awesome scale stuff that made it so unbelievable bitchin to first open the box like I was ten and Christmas came in April, 2019. We won’t have the grill, the bumpers, or light kit.

Those measly grams saved don’t add up to enough to matter because 1) this is a lovable but portly Bronco and 2) I’m really chasing more agility on tint stuff and shoulda quit that Light part of the equation and bro, maybe I’ll get around to editing that in a while—-but I’d pay a bit more for sure if Pro-Line had anything as cool as the scale stuff that came with Traxxas’ Bronco. But we can mod those bits commensurate with our skill sets and wallets.

[LincolnofDeath]

Lots of trimming here. And the colors, hell. I know I’m being dramatic but it seemed like a total fail at first. My Molly (my “lady” as I refer to her in these texts), she said, “That’s not my favorite that you’ve done so far, baby.” Which is a really really really sweet person’s way of saying “That’s F-ing egregious ��”). The purple was supposed to be really dark from the sample I painted. I guess too many coats prior to black backer. And sort of the opposite happened with the pink stripping—-too many coats before silver backer. But we gotta make mistakes along the way. And decals help hide a multitude of sins. I’d hoped to just revel in a “damn that boys’a genius” sort of paint success. But alas, that’s not what you’re seeing here. This color combo would only win in an Easter basket.

Not to get too into the weeds here, but would anyone venture to say if flat clear or perhaps semi-gloss can spray over raw lexan with decals? I’d like to cover all but the windows like that, with your suggestions. I know it’s just tiny trucks, I was so butt-hurt with how this came out at first that I almost just re-sprayed with exterior competition orange. I prefer that, too, the exterior style, but my wager was that the colors needed to be backed really scrupulously from behind and that’s why this seemed to require an interior job. I don’t hate it, now all decal’d up. But I think a degree of flattening and maybe a wash like on Humoldt’s old Dodge, with the diluted housepaint. I’m really digging the experimentation and like to play around with paint, especially, because it’s relatively cheap. Lol, I also like an educated guess because this stuff ain’t free, any of it, and there’s no hobby stores real near where I live. Which begs the question I’ve searched a few times and don’t think there’s anything definitive...maybe a cheap Krylon type? I had bad stippling the time I put it over an exterior job. But this would be simply over fresh lexan and decals. I’ll buy a can if no one tells me otherwise. Cheers.

[LincolnofDeath]

Dang, I really wish I’d left these bumper mounts and skin brace out where they were...but this was the goal, and that is loads of clearance and much improved approach angle. The turn wheels now have better access to side bite. Climbing a sidewalk curb, for example, doesn’t require such an oblique angle to bite and is also less inclined to tipping.

[LincolnofDeath]

This angle better illustrates how little bumper overhang there is left to fight. And two more photos with the Gmade bumper borrowed from an Element that B-Mow71 recommended a couple months ago. I think snip the wide bits, it’s a soft and flexible plastic.

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?m...2F141778042159

(thanks, Brian—-I wish I’d bought that lower metal part like you said, doh!)

[LincolnofDeath]

The departure angle and drive wheels side clearance is is much improved, almost the same as you’d find on a utility or cage style bed. The bumper brace is here has been pushed all the way in and flipped. I’ll take a measurement in the near future and edit in how much clearance is gained with the bumpers all the way in, unskinned.

That’s all I got for now, Loca! Have a good one, Lincoln!