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Fallen's 2nd Twin Hammers I recently bought this from a member of the forum on here, after deciding that I'd like to have a crawler again, and it came quite differently than it currently sits. The person who sold it to me was not the person who built it. Whoever had built it, seemed to have a shelf queen in mind as there were no signs of use, no Loc-Tite anywhere and the steering system was useless. But they had installed some pretty nice parts on it, and sold it for a fair price. So when I got it, it looked awesome, but didn't steer reliably and had hardware falling out after 4 or 5 batteries. Since I really like scale looks, but can't tolerate a shelf queen, I set to work on getting it to look right, and perform properly too. This is how it looked when I got it: http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...psjq1wxpre.jpg This is what it looks like now: http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...psyh2qiqlg.jpg http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7apsthiv.jpg http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...pslqgfww8q.jpg http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...pspccw8oev.jpg So here's what I did to it: 1. Lock the transmission in low gear using a turnbuckle. I only plan to use this for crawling. 2. Removed the Blue Monkey front shock tower, and installed the GCM shock tower with the Sr. Irie steering system. I followed GCM's instructional video, and it went beautifully. Part of the reason for doing this was because I wanted to run my battery up front. After talking with Sr. Irie about his shock mount, I decided that the GCM plate was the best mix of upright shocks, bellcrank steering and forward battery mounting. To the Irie steering system I went! 3. Painted the Axial 8 hole wheels white to make them stand out from the black tires, and installed some Falken Wildpeaks stuffed with Crawler Innovations, 2 stage foams (my wife bought me the tires as a birthday present). I left the tires unvented. 4. Disassembled and lubed the CVD's to get nice, smooth suspension and steering motion. 5. Loc-Tited all metal to metal hardware connections. 6. Trimmed the roll cage, because I really want to show off that beautiful, aluminum RC4WD axle housing. I also really enjoy watching the axle articulation when crawling, and the rear section of the roll-cage hides that too much for me. 7. Installed the Pro-Line scale light bar. I don't plan on ever wiring lights to it, as it's just there for looks and to raise the roof line. 8. Installed a Tactic 3 channel radio system. Maybe I'll add a winch someday. 9. Put new 50wt fluid in all the shocks. 10. Locked the front differential using hot glue. Future changes: 1. Some scale shocks all around, once a company produces some internally sprung shocks that are durable, don't leak, and perform well. 2. A roof rack of some sort. 3. If I ever become independently wealthy, some aluminum 1.9 wheels. Thanks for looking at it, and hopefully this gets you stoked to build and drive your Twin Hammers! Any questions? Feel free to ask, as talking about our RC cars is why we post them to begin with! |
Re: Fallen's 2nd Twin Hammers Took the Twin Hammers to my favorite crawling spot (Dixon Lake) and snapped a few photos of it "in the wild." All of the pictures in this post show the Twin Hammers in situations that it was both driven into and out of. Not always on the first try though... No "hand of god" in these pictures. On the way up: http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...psmbyabky7.jpg And on the way back down: http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...psi9sqrnkt.jpg Yay for ledges! Did it make it? Yes, and then finished the rest of this steep climb. http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...psy644p7gz.jpg From the top of the aforementioned steep climb. The penalty for rollovers on this climb: a violent trip into the lake below. http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...psnrt8pphp.jpg The Twin Hammers is an awesome crawler, though it likely won't win any crawling competitions anytime soon. For scale rock crawling and bouncing though, it wins top honors in my book! |
Re: Fallen's 2nd Twin Hammers AWESOME! Great work Fallen, I am glad to see that this thing is being used and not sitting on my bench! I really like it with the cage cut off looks way better! Cheer! |
Re: Fallen's 2nd Twin Hammers Thanks man. I'm stoked that you sold it for the price that you did. I was thinking I'd buy a new SCX10ii kit, but saw you selling this and jumped on it. I'm glad I did because I prefer the look of a rock bouncer over a crawler. With the steering jazzed up, it's quite the capable little rig now, and I agree on the cage - I think it looks much cooler without all that extra plastic hiding the rear axle. |
Re: Fallen's 2nd Twin Hammers Today I finally tried a change I'd been considering for a while: "locking" the front diff with Silly Putty. I had previously locked it using hot glue, which fully locks the differential, very well. But having it fully locked was creating an intermittent "click" from the front diff which wasn't there previously, and visibly strained the drive-train when steering at full lock, even at low speeds. So I bought two eggs of Silly Putty from Toys R Us, and I barely used 1/4 of one egg. Now my kids have extra Silly Putty to play with. The hot glue had to be chipped out in chunks, but it did come out cleanly. Then I set the first sun gear in, and put Silly Putty on top of it. Then I added all 4 planetary gears, mashing them into the Putty. Then I topped off the diff case with more Silly Putty, added the final sun gear and closed the case. A bit of Silly Putty squeezed out as I tightened the screws down, and it was easy to scrape away prior to greasing the ring gear and re-installing the differential. The result: exactly what you'd expect. The Silly Putty functions as an extremely thick diff oil, and is so stiff that it only lets loose as an emergency release to save your drive-train components when a wheel gets jammed up, but if a wheel isn't jammed up, you've got a "locked" differential. Another benefit: no oil in the diff, which means no need to seal it, and no leaking oil! The steering radius is noticeably better on concrete than a fully locked diff, and I noticed zero-crawlability reduction over the hot glue locker, but I'd still only do the Silly Putty lock if low gear crawling is your goal. If you plan on any high gear driving, don't do the Silly Putty. Go with 500k or thinner oil in the front differential. Onto the photos. Once again, these photos only show situations that the Twin Hammers drove into, and out of. http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...psxiy8cftk.jpg About to descend a technical drop. Skeleton Man is not comfortable with this situation: http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...psj6nt2rqm.jpg And after 4 tries, it's on its way out: http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...psraobjofn.jpg A different angle of the first photo: http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...pssnmvjtup.jpg Skeleton Man happy for his Vaterra brand 5 point harness: http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...psbp9tayug.jpg A satisfying shot of axle articulation and mud filled rear tire tread. The Falken Wildpeak M/T still works fairly well on rocks, even with mud filled tread. http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...psv7js1eau.jpg |
Re: Fallen's 2nd Twin Hammers After taking my Twin Hammers on a 4 mile hike, with extremely rocky terrain and a lot of elevation gain (think 1:10 scale King of the Hammers) the Silly Putty is performing a bit differently. It's definitely an open diff now, and it feels slightly thicker than 500k weight oil. I like being able to watch as the wheel which is diffing out slowly transfers power to the other side and both get up and over the obstacle. I also like the drive train protection. But it definitely isn't a locked diff, so if that's what you're after, don't use Silly Putty. 4 miles of low gear driving used two 2000mah, 2S batteries. It's nice not having to carry a bunch of heavy batteries just to take an RC rig along on a hike, which is why I sold my Summit to buy a Twin Hammers to begin with. |
Re: Fallen's 2nd Twin Hammers What batteries are you using? |
Re: Fallen's 2nd Twin Hammers The stock battery which comes with the RTR Twin Hammers: Dynamite 2S LiPO, 2000mah soft pack. Dynamite RC: 7.4V 2000mAh 2S 30C LiPo, Long w/EC3: Minis, TWH: Dynamite (DYN1476) I have three of them, and each battery gives me about 40 minutes of runtime in low gear with a 3000kv motor. In fact, I usually don't fully charge them unless I'm going on a long hike. I store them at half full, and each battery gives me about 15-20 minutes of run time, which totals 45-60 minutes from 3 half charged batteries. That's enough time for my lunch break runs. |
Re: Fallen's 2nd Twin Hammers Beautiful. The Twin hammers makes a great little rig when set up as a dedicated crawler. I've been running a very similar setup and it's stupid capable out on the rocks. |
Re: Fallen's 2nd Twin Hammers Thanks man. I'm repeatedly amazed at how well it crawls too. On this last hike, I let my 8 year old son do about 1/2 of the driving, and he made some pretty technical lines look easy. One of the reasons for the switch to the Silly Putty open diff was so that he could drive it without me freaking out every time he got close to jamming up a front wheel. |
Re: Fallen's 2nd Twin Hammers I made a few changes to my Twin Hammers over the past few weeks. I replaced the brushless electronic system with a brushed system that uses a 20t motor. I replaced the Axial 8 Hole wheels with some RC4WD, OEM, Stamped Steel wheels in black. I also added some stickers to the body panels to increase my scale factor. These new wheels are vented by design, and boy do these Falken Wildpeak M/T tires grip! The brushed motor is much smoother at low speed, and really lets me creep over stuff which is fun. The 20t motor gives me enough wheel speed that I can hop my rear wheels onto stuff when that is necessary, but it usually isn't. These RC4WD steel wheels are noticeably heavier than my old plastic Axial wheels, giving me extra weight down low, and the brushed electronic system is lighter than the brushless system, giving me less weight up high. I took it out for another drive at my favorite local spot, Dixon Lake, and here are some photos from today's drive: http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...pszfg1lfzq.jpg Skeleton Man keeping a close eye on that 25 foot sheer cliff off of his passenger side: http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...psmac0yspk.jpg Hittin' a 3 wheel around the corner. Having the brushed motor really let me creep inch by inch out of this position, watching out for a rollover: http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...pso2c9rv8h.jpg At the bottom of "3 Wheel Crevasse" http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...pswgjp97id.jpg I hope you enjoyed the pictures, and if you're looking for a Twin Hammers for sale, I'm the wrong guy to ask! I enjoy mine way too much, and will be surprised if I ever sell it. |
Re: Fallen's 2nd Twin Hammers That is one sweet looking TH..wish I can find an aluminum axle housing been looking. I actually ordered the blue monkey shock tower and ita been more than 2 weeks and the order still says " pending". If I dont get a reply soon I might cancel the order and get the GCM tower. I did a simular cut out of.the cage on my clone TH. Looking at yours makes me want to get the GCM.. Heres my clone http://i679.photobucket.com/albums/v...pskg7jjpgv.jpg http://i679.photobucket.com/albums/v...ps3g2ae5fv.jpg |
Re: Fallen's 2nd Twin Hammers Thanks! Your clone sure doesn't look like a clone, and I like the scale details you've added. I can't tell from the pictures, but your interior must be custom to fit that figure? The aluminum axle case I have is the RC4WD axle case, which has been discontinued. They can still be found on eBay. The other aluminum axle case option is the Vanquish Currie axle for the SCX10. That one isn't a direct bolt-on (I've heard), but a few quick mods can make it fit. Blue Monkey parts have always taken a long time to get. They aren't the brand for the impatient, and I prefer the GCM plate anyway, for a few reasons: 1. The GCM plate buys you a TON of space to mount a battery up front, moving weight forward which is generally better for crawling. It also strengthens the entire front end of the Twin Hammers. 2. The GCM plate has the option to take Sr. Irie's bell crank steering kit, which is the single best performance upgrade I've done to mine. 3. I think that the GCM plate looks more realistic with the shock hoops, than the Blue Monkey tower does. Having the option for forward battery mounting makes the battery completely hidden too, increasing the scale factor. You've done nice work on yours so far. Keep it up! There are so many aftermarket and custom options for this rig that there is always something fun to dream up and do to it. Plus, it performs really well, so you've got scale looks, fun projects and great off-road performance all in one truck. |
Re: Fallen's 2nd Twin Hammers Quote:
How's that RC4wd axle housing? I'm wanting to get a few things but probably just going to focus on aesthetic's as the performance is awesome (to me) stock. The steering could use a little help, will look into that. I figure a set of alumimum beadlocks and some BFG Krawlers with that rear housing will be nice. Also thinking of going up to 2.2 tire size. |
Re: Fallen's 2nd Twin Hammers Thanks Matty. I think your appraisal of the stock performance is spot on; pretty darn good. Aside from the steering, there isn't much that needs to be addressed, and the steering really only seems to need help if you're crawling. One of the bellcrank options will get that sorted out, should you decide you'd like that. The Irie bellcrank set-up really is worth more than what he sells it for, because it works gloriously. The RC4WD axle housing has been awesome on mine. Mine is all scraped up from a lot of crawling, but once properly assembled, it's a "set it and forget it" part. It adds a significant amount of weight, right where you need it: LOW! Plus, it looks awesome. If you can chase one down, buy it, because they don't seem to be easy to find. I think the aesthetic aspect of the Twin Hammers is one of the best parts. They can be made to look really cool, and the off-road performance keeps up with how good you make it look. I hope you enjoy building and driving it! |
Re: Fallen's 2nd Twin Hammers I ran across the aluminum trailing arms in the hot deals section of rc4wd and saw they were discontinued. Almost got em, but then someone suggested solid units that Vanquish makes. Looking into those as well. Nothings wrong with the stock trailers, just want some more bling."thumbsup" |
Fallen's 2nd Twin Hammers Quote:
I've been looking for the rc4wd axle housing for a few months now to no avail. I saw that integy has an axle housing for the twin hammers and it honestly crossed my mind to buy theirs as the rc4wd one is not available. Somebody please talk me out of it. Now I know about integy products and how mich they are frowned upon here, but I figure "it's only an axle housing, no moving parts etc." Is my "thinking" (or lack thereof) flawed here? PS, no intent on derailing this thread. I felt it was relevant to the topic at hand. |
Re: Fallen's 2nd Twin Hammers Quote:
As for the Integy housing, I'm not sure yet either. If I dont find an Rc4wd unit here soon or another company does not produce one, it may actually be one of our more viable options. |
Fallen's 2nd Twin Hammers Quote:
Well said, and I agree wholeheartedly. As for the trailing arms, I bought a set of the rc4wd version and I really like them but have yet to really put them through their paces. Regarding the Vanquish version, I'm not sure how I feel about the "ball end clamp bracket" part of them. I don't know how much (if any) better they are as opposed to the plastic ball ends on the rc4wd trailing arms. ??? Also, the Vanquish trailing arms offer three different shock mounting positions. That's a nice option. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...87f3c0393a.jpg https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...9b795404ef.jpg |
Re: Fallen's 2nd Twin Hammers Looks awesome! The Rc4wd ones do look good on there, the Enkei style Gearheads are icing on the cake! I have set of Gearheads on my SCX2.. might get a set for the THs also! I need to invest more time (and money lol) into my THs. I love it. |
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