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Old 03-20-2017, 04:28 PM   #61
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Default Re: My little Jimmy... lol

Fired up the old Lincoln MIG welder this weekend and got to making my frame extensions/bumper mounts. I have a set of SSD stock GM style bumpers kicking around and wanted to use the rear one. I want this truck to look semi stock like something you'd still drive on the road to work but play a little on the weekends. I tucked the rear bumper in as far as I could and high as well. It'll be a dragger for sure but it's only slightly lower, less than 1/4" than my stock vaterra bumper on my Original Jimmy. I may end up filing the front lower edges more flat. The real truck's bumpers aren't that exaggerated with the downward angle.

I made my own front bumper. My wing it / eyeball engineering front tube/stinger bumper. Haven't mounted it yet but will soon. I made a new crossmember right infront of the steering servo, so I'll be able to cut out the stock plastic one and fit another servo right up front for a servo/winch. I think this truck will need it with the low set up. Maybe not, the front bumper is very high and tight and with the 4s power I'm going to be running, maybe I can drag the rear up and over everything lol.

I've got to buy more round stock and flat stock to make my simple sliders then it's onto inner fenders/floors to keep dirt and water out of my electronics and inside of the body.

Going to be mounting the battery out back in between the frame rails where the fuel tank would be. Hopefully making a fuel tank like cover to cover the battery when installed. I'm going to semi-permanently mount the body on this one, only taking it off for maintenance. I'm tired of pulling bodies off and removing lighting wires just to do a battery sway so thats why I'm making sure the battery will come out the back and bottom easily. Which it will. I think the little bit of weight out back will benefit this truck since everything is right up front. I'm going to be running small 1300mah 4s batteries to keep them small and light. Don't mind changing batteries mid crawl. Well, here's some more pictures of progress...










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Old 03-20-2017, 05:05 PM   #62
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Default Re: My little Jimmy... lol

Lookin good Ben! Just throwing this out there, how about making an opening hood and a battery tray on an angle above that top drive shaft where the fire wall would be.
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Old 03-20-2017, 05:48 PM   #63
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Lookin good Ben! Just throwing this out there, how about making an opening hood and a battery tray on an angle above that top drive shaft where the fire wall would be.
thats an idea i will look into. I'm thinking it may be a little too far back to be able to secure once the battery is slid in the tray but I'll look into it. I'm really trying to keep everything at frame height or very least above as possible. This thing is so nose heavy it's not funny right now, and I'm looking at some really small 4s packs to keep the weight down and be able to easily mount them with the body still on. Did some measuring and the stock battery tray will fit perfect between the rear frame rails and the battery will sit above the rear axle but not be more than 1/2" above the frame. I mean most of the battery will be between the rails and only 1/2" will stick above the rails. But it isn't set in stone yet for sure. Thanks man!.
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Old 03-20-2017, 07:27 PM   #64
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thats an idea i will look into. I'm thinking it may be a little too far back to be able to secure once the battery is slid in the tray but I'll look into it. I'm really trying to keep everything at frame height or very least above as possible. This thing is so nose heavy it's not funny right now, and I'm looking at some really small 4s packs to keep the weight down and be able to easily mount them with the body still on. Did some measuring and the stock battery tray will fit perfect between the rear frame rails and the battery will sit above the rear axle but not be more than 1/2" above the frame. I mean most of the battery will be between the rails and only 1/2" will stick above the rails. But it isn't set in stone yet for sure. Thanks man!.
Ben
Looking good Ben, I think you are one of the best DIY builders in this section. I like the way you take the time to think out every move you make on your projects. Keep up the good work young man!!!
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Old 03-21-2017, 05:16 AM   #65
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Looking good Ben, I think you are one of the best DIY builders in this section. I like the way you take the time to think out every move you make on your projects. Keep up the good work young man!!!
Ernie
Thanks Ernie I really appreciate that. This is my first rc build but I've been building and restoring big rigs at home all my life so I guess I'm kind of a hustle around here still. I try to vision everything laid out and done b Ford I even start anything to prevent doing work twice. Not 100% successful with that for sure but I try! Sometimes I just stare at this thing for a half an hour or so not even doing a thing. I'm too lazy to write things down or make jigs or such so it takes me More time I know but thats just how it goes for me.

I got the front bumper put on last night but haven't taken pictures yet. I'm happy that the bumper height is actually higher than the cut up vaterra one on Jimmy #1. The leaf springs and shackles hang down but hopefully won't be a problem. The clearance under the middle of truck is another 5mm or so higher on this truck because of the flat belly so this thing may climb alright compared to my #1 truck. I'll take some side by side pictures with my other two ascenders at some point just for fun. Thanks again!
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Old 03-22-2017, 04:12 AM   #66
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Got the front bumper mounted. Still need to add a shackle and eyelet for winch cable when not in use. This style bumper works really well on my Ford so I'm trying it again on this rig.



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Old 03-26-2017, 02:34 PM   #67
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Got some more done on the Jimmy last night. My plan is to mount the body in a more hard body fashion. No body pins and clips showing, and also, not taking the body off to replace battery. I'm going to be running lights in the body like my other trucks and having the ugly body clips, having either a mile of wires so I can set body off to the side to replace battery or having to unplug the wires every time is just a pain. Also, I decided to run the battery out back because of lack of room upfront, didn't want to run it in the middle because of the transfer case that would make the battery about an inch above frame rails and ruin my COG. SOOOOO.... I took the stock battery tray, flipped it upside down, drilled and tapped some holes in the front and threaded some unused link threaded rod into it. Mounted some unused link ends to the stock ESC tray mounts, Cut out the stock rear crossmember, Mounted the top of the stock electronics box to the stock battery tray, made mounts on the rear of my frame and now I've got a battery tray that slides in from underneath. Has the look of the factory gas tank in the stock location of a K5, is as low as possible in the frame and still allows full compression of rear suspension and is easily taken in and out with the body still on.

I've still got a few tweaks to do to it, want to fill in the sides of the fuel tank to make it look a little more scale where there's a gap below the frame rails. Going to fit the battery holder to my 3s batteries that I have and will get a few more. I decided to stick with 3s instead of 4s because I had one here to measure everything up with. The 4s batteries were just thicker and I would have had to raise the battery tray higher than I was willing to go. The way I play to wire lights in I want to run straight off battery voltage and 4s was too much and didn't want to deal with buying more resistors or another BEC to regulate voltage for just the lights so that's that.

I also got some boring stuff done like final assembly of the rear axle, (shimmed, loctited pinion bolt, greased and put all screws in.) Made some front inner fenders out of my hummis container.

I've got to make up my sliders next so I'll have mounts for the floor boards I'm going to make. That's my next focus. Now here's a few pictures...









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Old 03-26-2017, 06:06 PM   #68
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Default Re: My little Jimmy... lol

Ben, that's hawt!
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Old 03-30-2017, 05:28 PM   #69
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Hey Ben, your knuckles and weights package is on it's way. The weights are glued to the knuckles, and I don't think you need to worry about the mounting screws. They are a pita because they need to be machined so that the don't rub on the hex. I included a couple other goodies I thought you could use.
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Old 03-30-2017, 07:24 PM   #70
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You are the man Ernie! Can't wait. Thank you very much!
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Old 04-14-2017, 07:59 AM   #71
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Got some more work done. Been slow with Easter coming and other projects. Finally found a good use for the stock rtr steering servo, winch! Made this one with an internal drum because I just didn't have room for an external spool below or above the servo. Plus I wanted to try it this way. More of a pain for sure but hopefully will work out well. I just took a 1/4" aluminum rod, drill press machines the ends to fit into the output gear and in the bushing I glued into the bottom cover. Will be stringing it with locked up rc 200lb line and hook like my others. I'll be using an esc to control this one, took the servo board out of this one completely I like my others that I just epoxy the potentiometer in the neutral position and add a power switch to control drift.

Also got my shift servo mounted and the linkage made up. Still need to shorten the link just a bit for best geometry but should work good.

I know I'm missing a bunch of bolts her and there, still in lock up stage. I've got to make my other slider but haven't had time to get down the garage and fire up the welder. But once the other slider is done, that's the last big piece, other than electronics. Then I'll have to take it all apart loctite everything and then start running it with my spare blazer body before I do up the blazer body that came with this kit. Here's a few pictures...





Last edited by Itali83; 04-14-2017 at 08:02 AM.
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Old 04-14-2017, 08:40 AM   #72
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Got some more work done. Been slow with Easter coming and other projects. Finally found a good use for the stock rtr steering servo, winch! Made this one with an internal drum because I just didn't have room for an external spool below or above the servo. Plus I wanted to try it this way. More of a pain for sure but hopefully will work out well. I just took a 1/4" aluminum rod, drill press machines the ends to fit into the output gear and in the bushing I glued into the bottom cover. Will be stringing it with locked up rc 200lb line and hook like my others. I'll be using an esc to control this one, took the servo board out of this one completely I like my others that I just epoxy the potentiometer in the neutral position and add a power switch to control drift.

Also got my shift servo mounted and the linkage made up. Still need to shorten the link just a bit for best geometry but should work good.

I know I'm missing a bunch of bolts her and there, still in lock up stage. I've got to make my other slider but haven't had time to get down the garage and fire up the welder. But once the other slider is done, that's the last big piece, other than electronics. Then I'll have to take it all apart loctite everything and then start running it with my spare blazer body before I do up the blazer body that came with this kit. Here's a few pictures...




Very nice Ben, like I've said before, you do such a good job in planning your builds! "Plan your work, and work your Plan"! Good job young man!
Ernie
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Old 04-14-2017, 09:17 AM   #73
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Thanks Ernie. Also forgot to mention that the other reason I mounted the servo winch this way was because the servo motor is lower than if I mounted the servo upside down with a spool on the bottom behind the bumper. Trying to keep everything as low as possible. Probably be a big fat top heavy pig out on the rocks but I hope not. I'll take some pictures with the clear body on but there is no more room left at all for anything up front! Talk about 10lbs of crap in a 5lb bag lol
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Old 04-14-2017, 10:30 AM   #74
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Very nice tight setup solutions Ben!
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Old 04-14-2017, 10:33 AM   #75
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Wow that is one full front end lol...with that much up front your gonna be able to enter pulling events haha

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Old 04-17-2017, 02:54 AM   #76
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Not much has changed but I got my front servo mounts and bumper mount painted. Winch and shift servo final installation done. Put the rest of the bolts in all my mounts up front too. I also strung up my winch. I got a good 6 feet of line in there with out really cramming it in there. Don't think I'll have any binding issues. I still need to make up my other slider then I can get after the plastic floor I'm going to make to keep everything clean and give me options for electronic mounting.

Here you can see the line routing for the winch. I took the brass bushings that come with every servo, and used them for a nice smooth guide for the line going into the servo and through the front bumper plate mount.



These pictures kinda show you how tight everything is in there and how it all looks under the body...





My daughter was helping me work and decided to decorate the truck with old broken Christmas ornaments...



Started routing wires back towards where electronics will be mounted. Yes, that is a crack in the output housing on the servo winch. Those stock rtr servos are pretty much cracked from the factory. I did the ball bearing mod to this like Natedog did when I was using this for a steering servo. There's still plenty of material there to make everything solid and since it's not being used as a steering servo with a pitman arm (servo horn) I don't think the stress will be there to keep cracking it.



It's amazing what a little dress up will do to a wheel. Got some lockedup rc lug nuts and the factory axial plastic hub covers and man, these wheels came to life. I'm still going to paint the 4wd lock on the hubs for a little more realism but am very happy with the cheap and easy upgrades to the wheels.

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Old 04-17-2017, 06:19 AM   #77
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Looks great! My daughter is just as helpful lol. Love the scale hardware and the axle caps...I need some of those! I'm still amazed you were able to squeeze all that in the front end haha. Where are you going to mount your bat? Wonder if you will need it farther back to help balance things out on the decents, I noticed the new rear codyboy axle really helped my truck when descending. I used those little brass servo bushings for the same thing! How did you set up the servo winch internals? What did you use for a spool and how did you support the shaft in the bottom? Bearing? Bushing...nothing? What are you using for winch line? I think I'm going to go the micro esc rout for my servo winch too (there are some for $5 on fleabay), even with the pot glued in place it always seems to need trim adjustment to keep it from creeping...just gets annoying. Looking good, giving me lots of ideas!! Cheers

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Old 04-17-2017, 07:55 AM   #78
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Looks great! My daughter is just as helpful lol. Love the scale hardware and the axle caps...I need some of those! I'm still amazed you were able to squeeze all that in the front end haha. Where are you going to mount your bat? Wonder if you will need it farther back to help balance things out on the decents, I noticed the new rear codyboy axle really helped my truck when descending. I used those little brass servo bushings for the same thing! How did you set up the servo winch internals? What did you use for a spool and how did you support the shaft in the bottom? Bearing? Bushing...nothing? What are you using for winch line? I think I'm going to go the micro esc rout for my servo winch too (there are some for $5 on fleabay), even with the pot glued in place it always seems to need trim adjustment to keep it from creeping...just gets annoying. Looking good, giving me lots of ideas!! Cheers

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Thanks man! Post 67 shows my rear mounted battery tray and explains it.

As for the servo winch, I took all electronics out of servo except motor, took a piece of 1/4" aluminum solid rod cut it to length. Drilled and tripped one end for 3mmx.5 thread. Drilled out the threads of the output gear of servo. Ran a bolt down from the outside into the aluminum rod and loctited it, I drilled the bottom servo cover out and fit a brass bushing I had laying around into ignition and epoxied it in place. I drilled a hole in the aluminum rod to run my line through, tied a knot and wound the line into the winch. I would have liked to put a bearing in the bottom of the servo for support but had th bushing and it'll be just fine. I put some grease on it and I'm just gonna send it.

I use lockedup rc 200lb line on all my winches. Looks scale, plenty strong and you can wind a ton on your spool. I get about 9 feel on my other sewing bobbin spool winches. My other winches, I glue the potentiometer in "center" then add a on/off switch somewhere easily acessable on the truck, and just shut power off to winch while not in use to prevent winch creep but I'm going the esc route for this one. I don't want to touch the truck to run the winch. PM me if you want more pictures or help. Putting pictures on here is a total pain but texting them is quick and easy. Hope this helps!
Ben
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Old 04-17-2017, 09:10 AM   #79
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Very nice Ben, Chris, he is the best on here for "Plan your work and Work your plan"!!!!
Ernie
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Old 04-17-2017, 01:56 PM   #80
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Awesome thanks...I need some more tools...maybe I can incorporate them into the cost of my garage I'm building this summer....

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