Fallen's GCM CMax LC70

[Fallen]

Two firsts for me; my 1st 1.55 wheel build and my first hardbody. This will be my most scale, and most challenging build yet. This is as close to scratch building as I've ever gotten, and it's still not scratch building!

I scored this GCM LC70 chassis & body from Mudbeast in a trade for my old LMT.

I'm currently planning for a different bed, different color, different tires... and I think that's it.

This truck will be driven and expected to perform like a full-size LC70 that showroom stock, with nicer tires. In case you didn't notice, scope the machined radius arms at the front suspension. I think the chassis is my most exciting part of this build.

 

[JatoTheRipper]

Looking forward to this one. I'm not a Yota boi, but I love that body. GCM seems to make very nice stuff. I'm lazy so I would have bought the Boom Racing LC70 kit, but you will have a better truck in the end.

 

[Fallen]

Yeah, this one is a departure for me, and thanks for the interest. I'm hoping I can do justice to how good this body looks.

For reference, here's a photo of how it looked when I got it:

Electronics not installed yet, body assembled in white, and a few unfinished odds & ends.

 

[JimrC]

Good looking project that, any idea on colour scheme yet?

 

[Fallen]

I'm planning for single color, Tamiya TS-53, deep metallic blue. But let's see what colors my hobby shop has in stock...

I might buy new versions of those orange stickers to go back over the blue.

I've never painted styrene well before. I'm assuming it's just lightly sand, clean & paint. But is primer necessary? The body is in good shape and doesn't need any holes or gaps filled.

 

[HumboldtEF]

I'm not sure how necessary it is but I alway use Tamiya's fine surface primer on raw plastic. If you're putting down new paint on old paint all you should need is to scuff up the body so the new coats have something to grab onto.

I assume those radius arms and axles are from GCM?

Looking forward to what you come up with.

 

[Fallen]

Thanks. The arms are sold by GCM and come with their CMax LC70 kit.

The axles are the NCYota 157mm housings from Bowhouse's Shapeways store. Bowhouse designed them to be used with the LC70 chassis, so GCM recommends them.

Fortunately for me, the chassis came as an unfinished roller that just needed some finishing.

I plan on hitting up the hobby shop today for hardware and paint.

 

[Fallen]

I made a satisfying amount of progress on the LC70 tonight. After two trips to the hobby store, I scored several bits and bobs. Most notably, 3 cans of Tamiya TS-53 and some Tamiya Fine Primer.

My new bed also showed up 1 day early; the CC Hand Kober bed for the LC70 body. It's designed to fit the TF2 chassis and I figured that would give me problems. This bed is nice! It's all steel and wood.

I thought mounting the bed to the chassis would be hard, and mounting the bed to the cab would be easy. The inverse has proven true.

The front mounting tabs which secure the bed to the chassis align perfectly with the front leaf hangers for the rear suspension. I had to open the bolt holes up from 2MM to 4MM.

That left me with only needing to figure out the rear mounting. Fortunately, Mudbeast included an aluminum brace he made to mount the stock bed. I just needed to add new holes to that brace, new holes in the bed matching those and voila! She's on! A couple of spacers under the rear of the bed get my bed nice and level.

Now I have to figure out how to mount the cab to the bed. I figured that would be easy, but that's going to be difficult. What I may do is just mount the cab to the chassis instead. I know these GCM chassis are designed to run SCX10 sliders. I may try to get creative and mount the body to some of those.

Paint and finishing is a ways off. I have a decent amount of structural work here first.

And boy is this type of building neat! I'm still far off from scratch building but this is way more fun than opening a box and installing a battery.

 

[Fallen]

Looking forward to this one. I'm not a Yota boi, but I love that body. GCM seems to make very nice stuff. I'm lazy so I would have bought the Boom Racing LC70 kit, but you will have a better truck in the end.

While the GCM is more realistic, that realism definitely comes at the cost of performance.

The Boom Racing truck is probably more fun to actually drive. Maybe suspension tuning on the GCM will lead me to feel otherwise though.

Now with that super heavy bed I'll need to add helper springs to the rear. And even 5WT oil in the dampers is way too heavy.

 

[ferp420]

performance dosent always equal fun

 

[Fallen]

performance dosent always equal fun

I'm betting on that with this build! Plus, that Boom Racing kit is pretty expensive.

 

[cooper_xl]

Just the radius arms give an unmatched look. I did them for my LC70. Flex better than I've expected. Downside is that they only accept just one shock length

 

[Fallen]

I noticed, your LC70 is quite the build. You did everything from scratch, whereas I'm relying on GCM and Killerbody.

And I don't mind the limits on performance that the realistic suspension comes with.

If the LC70 gets stuck, my SCX10.3 Bronco has a winch...

Also, I'm glad I score that CC Hand Kober bed. It appears to be discontinued and I might have scored the last one commercially available.

 

[cooper_xl]

I didn't made the body..and there's nothing wrong in relying on GCM. They make nice stuff. Don't know about the Cmax but tried a Skeleton once and was a real performer. But they are a bit expensive to get on my country.
By the way, when I said mine "flex better than I've expected" , I didn't say it flexes much . But it is enough for the build

Following this build . Love that rear bed

 

[Fallen]

More satisfying progress! The chassis is finished as I just needed to finish the transmission by installing the motor. I included a tray between the chassis rails for mounting the ESC, RX & winch controller.

I cut holes in the bed frame & wood slat to route the battery wires through. Those holes matched the bottom of the Boom Racing "tool box" made for the LC70 bed. That's where my battery hides. To push the look further I painted it to look like aluminum.

Speaking of paint, my plans changed due to my inexperience with hardbodies. I did way too much sanding. Oh well, maybe my next hardbody will turn out better. Or maybe years from now I'll restore this one. Now it's going to look like an old farm truck.

She's all up and running now though with an ECO Power WP110T steering servo. I also got a cheap Spektrum DX3 to control it all.

I used RPM's sliders for the cab mounting. I bolted the interior to the slider mounts, but don't use the actual sliders.

Next up is possibly new tires, trying to lower the cab slightly, suspension tuning & lights in the distant future...

 

[cooper_xl]

Looks very cool . That optional bed looks great and it is a bit unusual.Attention that the hinges are really weak. I broke several during my build. Replaced them by small metal hinges

 

[Fallen]

Thanks for the warning on the hinges. Fortunately the bed I bought is the CC Hand bed which is entirely made out of steel. If I break these hinges, I'm doing something wrong.

That comes with a heavy weight though. I'll eventually need stiffer foams in my rear tires to deal with it. I've added one leaf to the packs in the rear to make it more like a real truck; sprung more stiff in the rear than the front.

And I swapped the tires for the RC4WD Falken Wildpeaks. They look great, and they're the same tires that are on my full size truck in 35"X12." The neat thing is that these 1.55 versions scale out to the same dimensions in 1:10.

There isn't much articulation with this rear suspension. Or maybe I just need to tune it better. I'm not expecting the amount of articulation I see from my SCX10.3. But the rear suspension acts like it has a sway bar installed. Is that normal for leaf spring suspension? Are sway bars only used with coil sprung suspension set-ups?

 

[ferp420]

There isn't much articulation with this rear suspension. Or maybe I just need to tune it better. I'm not expecting the amount of articulation I see from my SCX10.3. But the rear suspension acts like it has a sway bar installed. Is that normal for leaf spring suspension? Are sway bars only used with coil sprung suspension set-ups?

the leafs will soften up as you work them

the leafs only job at this point in the conversation is to set your ride hight the shocks control the motion of the truck body

if it feels like it has a sway bar and you dont like it remove a leaf and see if your ride hight is still good its not like your hauling a bunch of weight around in it lol

leave it alittle stiff though cause they do soften up as you drive lol

you can also play with the location of the swing shackle mount for more tuning

 

[Fallen]

Thanks!

And yeah, with one less leaf the rear of the truck was too low.

The stiffness of the rear just forces the articulation to come from the front suspension, which is as soft as I can make it (super soft SCX10 springs).

I'll just leave it alone and drive it, it's fun enough as is.

 

[Fallen]

Some running photos:

I had to winch out once today. I didn't apply any foresight and entered a wash that had no good way out.

The Wildpeaks did decently in the deep, loose silt and great on the rocks.