My semi scale "DD Clone" build thread

[camaroguy327]

I was in the local hobby shop picking up some things for my touring car (tc3) a couple of weeks ago and I noticed a proline jeep cherokee body sitting on the shelf. Well since my daily driver is a 2001 sport I decided that the proline body needed to come home with me. After a couple hours a digging around the internet that night and looking at what I had cash wise I decided on a venom safari rtr. I went with the rtr because I want as little fuss as possible, but now that I've found this site and been looking around at the cool scale stuff. I really wanna scratch build a truggy once this project is done.

Here is the inspiration for the project - my daily driver and weekend toy:



I'd like to do a mild lift on the daily driver eventually with some nice wheels and tires so thats how I am going to build the crawler.

After unboxing:



Body painted and set on posts, not mounted:



Hmmmm looks like the first thing I need to do is shorten the chassis and links about 10-15 mm to get the tires to line up with the wheel wells. I'll have to measure everything up tonight.

The to do list:

• shorten chassis, links, and driveshafts
• 1.9 wheels and tires to make it look less like a monster truck
• mount body
• scratch make a hitch
• scratch make a hitch carrier for a dirtbike
• find a 1-10 scale dirt bike to put on the carrier
• roof rack (maybe)
• finish off some details on the body ( paint on the black plastic trim)
• drive it till the wheels fall off

I took it to work today to give it a test on a pile of old rotten pallets that are sitting out back. I was surprised how well it would go up and over just about anything I stuck in front of it.

[camaroguy327]

Ok I did some measuring, looks like the body is 300mm (actually got that from the proline website) and the wheelbase of the chassis is 317mm. Looks like it will be easier to take it off the rear instead of trying to divide it evenly front and rear. I've ordered the wheels (axial satin chrome 8 hole) and still debating on tires between the rc4wd mud thrashers, tomahawks, or mud slingers. I'm gong to wait till after the weekend to start in on hacking down the chassis and links so I can use it at a possible g2g sunday.

[stanmondz]

1.9's wont fit, the steering arm on the knuckles are in the way, axials i know for fact wont fit. i tried that already.
put the axle updates that came with the truck on,you'll end up loosing the drive pins in the axles

[camaroguy327]

Originally Posted by stanmondz

1.9's wont fit, the steering arm on the knuckles are in the way, axials i know for fact wont fit. i tried that already.
put the axle updates that came with the truck on,you'll end up loosing the drive pins in the axles

Axle update? I didnt see any extra parts, I better go back thru the packing again.

The axial wheel must have a different back spacing than the venom. I didnt think I would run into issues after looking at the amount of room the stock wheels had.

edit: Thanks for the heads up on both issues!

[stanmondz]

i retract that. the axial 1.9's will work. you'll have to drill out the hole the axle goes through. must not have been axial wheels i tried shortly after i got my safari.

it looks like the update parts are already on your truck. theres metal sleeves on the ends of your center driveshafts? are there metal sleeves on the axles inside your knuckles?

read RMDW's tip and tricks thread. tons of good info there

[camaroguy327]

Originally Posted by stanmondz

i retract that. the axial 1.9's will work. you'll have to drill out the hole the axle goes through. must not have been axial wheels i tried shortly after i got my safari. No problem I'll chuck the wheels into my lathe when they get here and drill em out.

it looks like the update parts are already on your truck. theres metal sleeves on the ends of your center driveshafts? are there metal sleeves on the axles inside your knuckles? Yes and yes

read RMDW's tip and tricks thread. tons of good info there

Yea I've read thru it two or three times, awesome info in there for sure!

Thanks!
Jason

[stanmondz]

heres my sons creeper comp crawler

my safari

[camaroguy327]

Very cool! Good job on the pickup, very nice detail on the interior.

[winnerone23]

Originally Posted by camaroguy327

Ok I did some measuring, looks like the body is 300mm (actually got that from the proline website) and the wheelbase of the chassis is 317mm. Looks like it will be easier to take it off the rear instead of trying to divide it evenly front and rear. I've ordered the wheels (axial satin chrome 8 hole) and still debating on tires between the rc4wd mud thrashers, tomahawks, or mud slingers. I'm gong to wait till after the weekend to start in on hacking down the chassis and links so I can use it at a possible g2g sunday.

Just for thought.. before you go cutting down the links, front an rear or just the rear.. to get ur wheel base to fit ur body, cut them to fit.. not divide.. it may be 5mm up front an 12mm in the rear. However it works out.. the easiest way to do that tho, is by cutting the link ends down.. if It ends up even, front an rear, you can cut 4mm off each link end an get ur wheel base to fit ur body.. venom link ends are long, so you will have room to do it this way without hurting anything.

Above an beyond that, I'm with ya on the "DD clone" idea!





Not on a creeper tho.. my creeper is fully paradox'd...

[viper6171]

i was about to say that the axial 1.9's will fit the creeper axles ( if you drill out the hole in the wheel or cut the nub off the wheel hex ) as that is what i have on mine



sorry not trying to hijack your thread

[camaroguy327]

Nice rigs everyone! I'll have to look into cutting down the link ends for sure. That would be a ton easier.

[camaroguy327]

Quick update for tonight. Disassembly is complete, everything is measured and marked for cutting. I also picked up the aluminum needed for making the mx carrier.

[mgputer]

1.9 axial wheels do fit. I ran them on mine for a while. They are the 8 shooter that I used. I used a pair of hexes from another rig without the nipple. Heres a pic of my creeper scaler with them on.


Here is my scalers. The 34 ford was mine til I sold it recently and the GD is my 5yos.



I have a build thread for both here if you want to see lots of pics

[camaroguy327]

Super slow progress report:

Now that the holidays are mostly over its time to get cracking on the project.

Tonight I fabbed up a one off reciever hitch based of the one found on my 1:1.

[freakylee77]

used a newbright jk body on my safari
almost perfect fit just need some 1.9s
gonna start a build thread soon
love the cherokees

[camaroguy327]

Here is some video from a local city park. I broke the right front axle at the cvd.

Scalin Hammock Park 1 - YouTube