BlacknDecker's Twin Hammer Build

[BlacknDecker]

Going to try this again, having problems getting pictures to load.

Like many people who have the Twin Hammers or any RC for that matter there's always room to make it better or Unique.

So begins my personal quest to make the Hammers better.

1st for myself anyway was to get all the electronics mounted lower in the chassis.. well I went a bit overboard.

I started by making a combination chassis brace, but ended up swapping out the steering since i was already in there. I used Traxxas Nitro 4-Tec bellcranks for their low profile design.






This also relocated the steering servo in front of the motor.

[BlacknDecker]

I had Originally wanted to keep all the bodywork intact for this build but I really didn't like the front shock set up so I had went with some slash front shocks since that size can be upgraded easily.

Made a separate mount for them and had to play with the height a few times, to get full travel without popping out the drive shafts.

Here it is with the receiver installed.

[BlacknDecker]

Next was relocating the battery and putting in a full size shift servo for the transmission. I've never been a fan of having batteries up high in chassis. Also since I have like 20 full size LiPo's laying around I wanted to fit a full size battery in it instead of buying new smaller size packs that I won't use in anything else.

Installed Shift servo, and full size Venom 2s 5000mah 25c battery. Not for the faint of heart as I had to dremel a lot of clearance in the pan.

[BlacknDecker]

Finally got a chance to run it with the new steering and the weight lower in the chassis. Huge improvement. Steering is responsive, less body roll, everything is better.

I had thought it was done, but needed a better place to mount my ESC, and ended up revising the rear shock set up as well.

Small hole in the front for the shocks to clear and a small section of the cage needed to be removed to clear the steering servo.


Ended up making new rear shock mounts and switched the lower locating points to the back of the lower link. Also had a permanent spot for my ESC now.




Decided to shorten up the rear of the cage and re-mount the stare tire for a cleaner look.




Body back on and only need to remove 2 screws to tilt the body up for battery and electronics access.

[BlacknDecker]

A couple days after I had finished my TH build I saw the new Vattera Blazer 1.9 crawler at our friends HobbyTown. Honestly I like scale stuff better than anything but I just couldn't justify buying another Crawler, so why not turn the Hammers into a 1.9 IFS Crawler?

Well bought a HPI Savage Bronco body and tore the poor thing apart again.....

I used some aluminum angle and extended the topline of the front cage, and made a stand up mount for a Slash rear body mount that I had laying around for the front body mount. For the Back I cut off the top of my roll cage and made some aluminum frame rails that mounted to the remains of the lower cage.

Here it is with the body trimmed and mounted.


After I painted the body I went to the local LHS to see what was out there for off the shelf bumpers and stuff.. Well the overly helpful person that was there was more than happy to open kits etc to help me out... but he wouldn't stop talking, or putting parts up on the truck to give me enough time to figure out what i wanted... Honestly it's great to see some good customer service, but I needed more time to think.

I finally ended up making my own bumpers.
The Front is 5/16 brake line that I welded and bent to what i wanted, and the mount allows me to flip it upside down to mount a scale winch or fog lights later on.





I ended up revising my front shock mounts to integrate the body mount into one piece to save some weight up front and make it look a little nicer.


Out back originally I was going to mount the tire in the rear of the cab.


instead I decided to finish up the back of the frame rails make a bumper and mount a tire carrier to the bumper.



Bumper and Mount finished and installed


With no tire in the back of the truck I cut up some aluminum flashing and bolted it to the driver and body to make it look more complete.

[BlacknDecker]

So other than some final detailing, lights, scale accessories and stuff my Twin Hammers "scale" crawler is pretty much done.

Hopefully this gives other people some ideas to work with.

[Rastaman]

Looks good man, is that steering servo holding up with only two screws holding it?

[MCE Jason]

Looks great! Can you post how you mounted the shocks on the rear axle please?

[BlacknDecker]

Thanks,

Yep, for now the servo is only held up by the 2 screws. I've ran 3 packs of batteries through it and haven't had an issue but I was planning on making a stand up mount to the chassis to have it held in place by at least one more screw. I wasn't sure on clearances when I first made the top plate so I din't want to have to re-make a bunch of stuff.

I also plan on making a set of posts that run to the lower chassis for the steering bell cranks soon too.

I plan on doing some work in the garage tonight so I will post a pic of the lower shock mounts as soon as I get a better picture of it.

[sb4pro]

B&D , I'm looking to do the same type of thing and add a truck body , did you try to do it and still keep the cage ?

[Szczerba]

Nicely built and slick looking Bronco!

[Sr.Irie]

Bronco
My laptop parts need to hurry up and get here so I can see pictures again, sounds cool.

[BlacknDecker]

Here are a couple pics of the lower rear shock mounts:
All I did was run a longer bolt in the lower link to mount them up.





I originally tried to keep the cage and just mount a body on it, but it was easier to cut the top off, mount the top of the cage in the body with the driver, and make a sub-frame to mount everything up to.

[BlacknDecker]

I started installing lights today, you can see some of the wiring in the picture above. I'm not that great at soldering but I've seen worse jobs.

Picked up LED's from Radio shack, and started making a harness out of old rc stuff.



I have all the lights hooked up to an old ESC switch, and it has 2 seperate power connectors, one to go to the Receiver, and another to go to a small LiPo I had laying around just in case I add more stuff down the road and don't want it all running off the reciever. I also made an extra power lead in the middle of the chassis for when I start making a light bar for the roof.





Made a push bar for the front off and old Slash Nerf Bar, and used some extra light housing that came with my Wife's Wraith.





Better Pic with the driver in it.



And the Rear Bumper with the lights going.

[skidtoy]

it looks good now with a truck body on it, ive been toying with the same type of idea as I need to buy something new to play with and was thinking a TH may be a good parts truck as it has the basics im wanting...after seeing your one I think I will have to