My baby blazer

[Yeti.stealth]

I have always been intrigued by the mad beast tyres, tall and skinny! Boy do they look good on your truck with the red wheels, I like it!

There is a YouTube vid with Des Mooney from Pit Bull saying just sit there and slow spin the tyres, give the compound a chance to work and the tread to find some grip, or do the work for you or something like that... don't be too quick to quit when they start slipping.

I changed my driving style after hearing him speak about this, I'm not using Pit Bulls but this technique seems to work well with what I have, truck just seems to hang there while slow spinning, minimal wheel hopping and for the most part really good steering control, I also gently vary the throttle up and down trying to find just the right wheel speed for each situation too.

This style of driving doesn't work everywhere, some times you still need to gun it and power through things. Fun times!

Your truck is looking cool as with the bobbed blazer body and mad beasts!

[Itali83]

Thank you. The whole purpose of new wheels and tires is to add some variety to my truck. I hate change so I question why I'm doing it every time I take the truck out lol! I love the look of the tread on these tires though. Thanks for the compliment on the wheels, I always like color matching these rally wheels on my real trucks so it was an easy decision to do it here.

Ben

[Yeti.stealth]

We need ( I need ) pics of the scrubbed mad beast tread!

Get out there man and rough them up good on your granite climbs and show us how beat up the tread gets!!!

[Itali83]

I'll take some of the tires chewed up soon. Here's a picture from yesterday ontop of a huge boulder that took some patience to get up. Major 3 wheel action at the top lol!








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[Itali83]

Originally Posted by Yeti.stealth

We need ( I need ) pics of the scrubbed mad beast tread!

Get out there man and rough them up good on your granite climbs and show us how beat up the tread gets!!!

Here ya go. On their way to being broken in. Nothing like your tires though! Those must be the softest compound tires known to man or you've mastered the art of doing 4 wheel burnouts lol!




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[Itali83]

Since I'm on the chewed up tire picture kick, here's my trusty tsl's with many many hours of fun on them.

CI lil novas are holding up great still with soft outers all around. New one still has stock single stage and isn't mounted on a wheel, that's why it's so much wider.




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[gforce13]

Originally Posted by Itali83

Since I'm on the chewed up tire picture kick, here's my trusty tsl's with many many hours of fun on them.

CI lil novas are holding up great still with soft outers all around. New one still has stock single stage and isn't mounted on a wheel, that's why it's so much wider.

I'm new to crawling and ascenders, what size and cut would you recommended for the ascender tires?

[Itali83]

Originally Posted by gforce13

I'm new to crawling and ascenders, what size and cut would you recommended for the ascender tires?

I went with the lil nova 4.5" competition cut with soft outer in all 4 tires. They are stiff enough so support my rig even on very steep sidehill situations or every situation really. My truck is 8ish pounds with battery. Hope this helps and post up some pictures of your ascender. Welcome aboard!

Ben

[Chris81]

Was a tone of fun seeing this rig in action today! Super dialed in, def seemed to be the rig pulling the hardest lines today, not sure if it's the driver or the truck but either way very impressive even on damp surfaces. Something tells me your keeping your new tires??

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[Itali83]

Originally Posted by Chris81

Was a tone of fun seeing this rig in action today! Super dialed in, def seemed to be the rig pulling the hardest lines today, not sure if it's the driver or the truck but either way very impressive even on damp surfaces. Something tells me your keeping your new tires??

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Thanks Chris! Yes I've got to say I was pleasantly surprised with the mad beasts today. Today's terrain was about the worst it could have been except for straight mud boggin. Wet leaf covered dirt trails and wet mossy rocks. These tires seemed to hook as well as possible. I hate to say it, but, I pulled a few lines that Chris' ascender couldn't with the vaterra tsl's. I'm NOT knocking the vaterra tsl's, still think they're legit and won't be swayed otherwise but the mad beasts had an edge today. Not like Spider-Man gripping sheer cliffs, just the slightest edge. They side hill great with the double deuce foams too. Still not my favorite tire because they're over 4.5" tall but they'll stay in my lineup I think. Couple pics from today...






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[Itali83]

So I saw Natedog lowered his fuel cell/ electronics box so I had to do the same. Got it down about 12mm. Just cut out the stock X crossmember, leaving just a little bit so the box fits snug between the frame rails. Used longer bolts for the shock mounts and used a lock but on the inside to keep it tight and secure. Even though there are only two bolts holding it, with the lock nuts holding it together, I have to really work to get it to tilt so I really think it'll stay put even during a bad tumble. I'm also cleaning up wiring and replacing my heyok bec with a spare castle bec I have. Only because the castle unit fits in the fuel cell better. I'll keep the heyok one for another build. I'm also swapping out the mad beast tires for the new braven Ironsides that should be here tomorrow. Lightening up and lowering cog is the mission I'm on with this truck.

Ben








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[CODYBOY]

Nice job Ben, as usual!
Ernie

[Natedog]

Good job Ben, I'm going to de-case my rx too, that may help you fit HeyOK BEC in there easier.

[Itali83]

Nate, it's not the esc I'm having trouble with. In fact, I'm leaving where it is. Seems like a good spot to me. Plus I won't have to redo wiring etc etc. the heyok bec won't fit in the box all by itself without being a savage with bending the wires and just stuffing which isn't my style. So the castle bec it is.

Ben

[Itali83]

So winter time blues/boredom already. No time or weather to crawl so I just sit by the coal stove and stare at my rigs. Been bugging me that I did away with the servo winch even though I don't use it much and this isn't my super scale rig, but I still want it. I spent the time a few months ago to make a new servo winch with an internal spool so I could drop it lower that my previous one to help with cog of course. But the electronics in it couldn't handle battery voltage and just didn't work like my previous solar d772. Im now going to be switching to 3s with this rig and no servo except the HH servo will take straight 3s power that I know of And I'm not hacking up a $100+ servo.

So, I thought and thought and looked and looked for a cheap micro esc to use for a winch controller. I didn't find any that were for brushed motors and would run on 3s that were small enough to cram into the electronics box Also they were more than I wanted to spend on such an item. Knowing heyok makes a high voltage relay style servo controller I kept that in mind. I also didn't want to run the winch off my bec at a lower voltage because I had already fried the board to this servo and want to run the winch on battery power, plus didn't want to rob power from my hitec 7955tg steering servo.

So, I ordered the heyok high voltage controller which isn't in yet but did mount my servo winch again. I think this is the best possible setup with cog in mind. I mounted it as low as possible with just a kiss from the panhard at full suspension compression. Even mounted it with the heavy motor side down so it's even lower than the stock steering servo position. I have tested this servo and it's a full metal geared no name servo but will dead lift truck with ease. I machined the spool shaft and installed a bearing in the cover for extra support and life.

I'll take pictures and give a review of the winch controller once I get it in.

Ben






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[svt923]

I see you bought a HeyOK controller for your winch but if you still want to try an ESC, pick up one of these:

Robot Power Products - Wasp

It can handle up to 28V and is only about the size of a Castle BEC. That is definitely the best winch controller I have ever used.

[Itali83]

I knew there was an esc out there that I forgot about and that's the one. It's the same price as the heyok controller so I'm not too mad. I'll post a review and pictures of it when I get it in. I'll keep this in mind for later builds though. Thanks!

Ben

[Itali83]

Got my heyok relay style high voltage winch controller in today. Wired it up and crammed it in the fuel cell. Nice piece. Works great. Easy to install and no winch drift. The cheap servo winch I built really gets it done on 3s lol.

I also got in some CI foams. Lil novas, 4" regular inners and medium outers. I had ordered a set of the deuces Wild that Ernie suggested for the braven Ironsides but rpp was out of stock. Anyway, the foams are too small and way too soft, they were advertised to fit 4-4.19" tires but no way. This truck isnt heavy and just sitting flat on the bench, the tires were half flat. Oh well, I may try a set of the lil novas in the 4.25" size. I have the 4.5" lil novas in my vaterra tsl's and LOVE them so maybe those will work.

I did modify the stock pitbull foams just because I couldn't stand how hard they were to mount. The opening in the foam was too small and really hard to get inner wheel ring in, they were too wide making the tire bulge and almost impossible to mount. So, with a sharp utility knife, I trimmed an 1/8" off the inside hole, about a 1/16-1-8" off the width, angle cut the inner circle just to give the bead a little space and mounted them up. Much easier mount for sure. Still seem to be firm but not as bad. Hopefully they'll work well. Gotta get some time on the rocks which who knows when that'll be. Just winter time boredom getting the best of me.

Ben




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[Natedog]

Good info, pics of tires mounted?

[skybolt]

Hey Ben, I think you’ve told be but do you vent your tires/wheels?

Oh, and I think your right about the TSL’s belong on the Ferd, they came off the the ole Honch..

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