Getting Smashed at the Fox and Bull (my Bully v2 build) lots of pics :)

[Foxy42]

Hey hey, here's another bully v2 build thread!

I'm new to crawling but not to RC, some of you may even know me as Foxy on RCuniverse.com.

Well, after a long RC career without ever going slowly, I finally started getting into crawlers about this time last year. I bought a Bully ARTR and while it was a great learning experience, I really wanted something that I'd built myself. To that end I bought some more bullies, this time the lightweight axles and ordered a Chaotic Switch Smash chassis and some VP wheels etc. After a while I realised I was facing an uphill struggle with the bully v1s, and decided to wait for the v2s. I waited patiently, and was one of the lucky few to snag a set through a friend on this forum.

This is the parts list so far...

RC4WD Bully V2 2.2 Comp Axle Front
RC4WD Bully V2 2.2 Comp Axle Rear
Steering link for BV2s
VP SLW V4 1" Wheels (2) x2
VP 2.2 Beadlock Rings (2 inner, 2 outer) x2
VP SLW .600 Hubs (2) (rear)
VP SLW .725 hubs (2) (front)
Hot Bodies Rover white dot (2) x2
Chaotic Switch Smash Carbon Fiber Chassis
Chaotic Titanium High Clearance Links
Chaotic Ti Sliders
Revo ball ends x lots
Traxxas Big Bore Shocks (4)
Tekin FXR ESC x2
Tekin Hotwire PC interface
Castle 10A BEC (already got Castle link)
Nordic Crawler Designs Bully V2 Battery Mount
Nordic Crawler Designs Bully V2 High Clearance Lightweight Servo Mount
Nordic Crawler Designs Bully V2 Axle Mounted Electronics Tray
Protek 170T Chad Bradley 630oz-in servo
Various batteries to try on the NCD mount from 500 to 1050mAh, all 3S
Futaba 4PLS radio (finally, an excuse to upgrade from the 3PK which has been fulfilling all my RC needs for over 10 years! No ESC mixing!!)
R204GF FHSS micro receiver (no antenna!!)
Turbofest Bully 2 CF Hub weight carrier
VP 3/8 weights (2)
VP 1/8 weights (2)
Holmes Hobbies Torquemaster Expert 35T x 2
Mini T spring cups for traxxas big bores (4)
Mini T springs front variety pack
Mini T springs rear variety pack
Crawler Innovations tire foams
Jato rod ends
Traxxas short rod ends
Blue Monkey RC Bully v1 electronics tray

They finally arrived yesterday and due to teh age of this project, most of the rest of the stuff was waiting. So, here's the progress so far. Kudos to Cabron on this forum for the mod to the traxxas shocks, on the rear they work really well, the front not so much due to space restrictions.

I know its riding way too high, I'm going to get mini-T springs soon. I also need to vent the tires/wheels.

Well, here's a load of pics of progress up to now anyway. Enjoy...













































More info and pics to come in the coming weeks.

 

[Foxy42]

OK, here's progress over Christmas...

Starting with some more shots of the axles as I was taking them apart, inspecting and greasing them...











And now motor and servo installation. For the motor I used the stock pinions. The carbon fiber motor mount pictured is the Nordic Crawler Designs item. More about this in a minute... At this point it really strikes you how well these axles are put together, like a perfectly fitting jigsaw. I admire the brain that came up with this modular design of the covers.



Nice servo, at 7.4v it makes 630oz-in. :O









At this point, I would have proceeded with some shots of the electrics installation, unfortunately, due to heavy use over Christmas, by camera got mauled by various unskilled users both small and large (I'm looking at you wifey) and those shots seem to have been lost. So here's a token shot of the less visible shock mods, a 10mm fuel tubing spacer internally on the shaft, and a long rod end to help clear the servo and battery mounts.



Now what follows is basically the finished shots. In as much as anything is ever finished. It still needs foams and tire venting, as well as knuckle weights (waiting for Sniper and Turbos adapter) and lastly, mini T springs and cups. I'm going to try it out in the next few days, but so far I'm really, REALLY pleased. I have full clearance, full steering (ok, I'm rubbing the battery more than I'd like, but that's because its a big battery). The roof paint came out really wrong, in fact, its nothing like I envisioned it, however, I actually really like it. Must thank Holmes and Chaotic for the epic logos, can never go wrong adorning an off road machine with gear and skull motifs. lol.





Despite the significant lowering from last time, it has retained a lot of articulation.





Front axle shots





Rear axle (sorry about the flying motor wires, they'll be reigned in in due course.



Receiver, sitting on an inverted and slightly bent Blue Monkey RC Bully electronics plate. Very handy, though I will be cutting a slither of metal off the side as it limits articulation ever so slightly more on one side than the other...I really like this solution for the RX so far...



A vanity shot



And the obligatory profile clearance shot...



As I put this rig together, I began to realise how everything is a compromise, and the need to drive the rig and match it to your style to make sure your compromises are giving you what you need and taking away something you don't.

Will be updating this as I tweak over the coming weeks.

 

[CrawlrKing]

Looks pretty nice "thumbsup"!!! One thing : did you check size between both axles ? Because the links vendors sell here are usually made for XRs or Bergs, not Bully 2s and it can rapidly make ur truck illegal for comping... If you don't plan to comp, enjoy yourself !

 

[Foxy42]

Berg/Bully 1 lengths are good for the Bully 2s by the look of it. So far so good on link lengths, I'm 12.4ish fully compressed. "thumbsup"

These are the Chaotic links sold as 'Berg/Bully'. Yeh I know they mean bully 1, but they work great, the rear axle has a nice pitch on it, the upper fronts could be a tad longer though. Good enough for my use and legal.

 

[cabron]

those red rings on the wheels go well with the red springs on the shocks

if you turned the shocks around in the front so
they are standing up a bit more (like at the back)
would that give you a bit more clearance?

a piece of silicone tubing inside the shocks below the pistons
would limit the length of the shocks and lower the height.

oh and you have the tires on backwards, the tread should go the other way.
haha

 

[Foxy42]

Yeh, I'm going to limit the shocks, but I'm going to get some mini T springs first, the red springs which do indeed nicely match the VP beadlocks, are too stiff. With the Mini Ts I'll get some lowering and subsequently also some droop, might see how that works since I have the clearance to fully extend the shocks. If I mount the front the same way up as the rear (I wish I could, the slight cantilever on the rear really works great, LOADS of extra clearance AND travel, this mod might catch on), then I wouldn't be able to fit the NCD battery mount, and I'd run out of travel on the shocks before full articulation. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do for the front, for now, this works, just. I might swap the shocks for something else and use these on another project, I really don't know right now, but I really love how the rear works like this.

 

[cabron]

i wish i could take credit for the shock mod, but i saw it in one
of the rs10 threads. it does give us a bit finer tuning.

the things one can find looking around in the forum

 

[Foxy42]

Are there any internally sprung shocks that are considered good enough/smooth enough for comping? I like the idea of a naked shaft without even a spring cup.

 

[cabron]

most claim the big bores are the smoothest shocks.
it seems it would not be too difficult to find springs to fit inside the
tubes
also how much shock travel do you want. internal springs would
seem to limit travel.

 

[Foxy42]

They are really smooth. I'll try to make them work with the mini T springs and some limiting. What do folks do for the spring cups when going to mini T springs?

 

[CrawlrKing]

Jeepindoug´s cups !

 

[cabron]

dlux no load cups for mini t springs
he also has the mini springs

 

[Rckcrwlr]

Looking good so far.

 

[Chaotic Crawlers]

Looks pretty good, but it looks like your front shocks are camming over a bit.

I would reccomend doing the regular big bore cap mod if you have the chance.

It will help limit all that flex and make the truck much more predictable while crawling. "thumbsup"

 

[Tossedman]

Looks pretty good, but it looks like your front shocks are camming over a bit..."

Here's a noobish question. What do you mean by camming over?

 

[Foxy42]

Looks pretty good, but it looks like your front shocks are camming over a bit.

I would reccomend doing the regular big bore cap mod if you have the chance.

It will help limit all that flex and make the truck much more predictable while crawling. "thumbsup"

I expect I will end up having to do that, but I want to try this way first, reason being the rear works so well. I've switched the front shocks to lever up and over now (as opposed to under in the photos) like the rear and I'm still experimenting, still not 100% happy with it, but I've still got to limit the fronts loads. We shall see. I'm one of those annoying noobs that even in the face of perfect advice will test it himself. Sorry about that, it's just the way I am. When I limit the shocks and subsequently reduce the ride height, I'm going to lose a lot of that articulation due to the upper links contacting the frontmost crossbrace, but that's fine, I need less flex, 90* is nuts.

Tossedman, due to the offset of the upper shock mounting eye, the shocks produce a cam effect. With the cam above the mount (as I have the rear in the pics) you gain travel, with the cam below, you reduce travel. It may not work all that well in the end (at least compared to a nice smooth set of slim 80mm shocks), but I currently have full clearance everywhere, which is nice, and that is definitely a virtue of this shock setup. I also really love the way they look like that (now that I have both above the mount), it gives it a really aggressive stance as it seems the whole chassis is low between the shocks. you'll see at the weekend, but I keep walking into my office at home and seeing it on the desk and thinking 'dude, you look BADASS', cos it does.

I'll be working feverishly over the weekend and will put some more pics up. Everything is here now except Turbos and Snipers knuckle weight adapters.

 

[Chaotic Crawlers]

Here's a noobish question. What do you mean by camming over?

Foxy had a good description but the in a nutshell, camming is when the shock stops utilizing the stroke of the shock and just starts pivoting on its mounting points.

This is bad because it makes the truck extremely unpredictable. You can't tune the shock or spring to compensate for it. You end up with a suspension that does what it wants when it wants.

Imagine trying to climb a vertical face at a slight angle.
As soon as the front shock cams over it will just throw the high side front tire into the air and most likely cause the truck to roll over. Same goes for the rear shocks. If they cam over it would cause the chassis to just twist to one side and pull your front tires off the rock and roll the truck over.

 

[Tossedman]

That makes sense. Thanks.

 

[cabron]

seems that will only happen when the bottom eye of the shock
gets even or above the top eye or in other words at extreme suspension travel

the more upright the shock is the more benefit you get from it

so as in everything are the benefits worth the drawbacks?

 

[Chaotic Crawlers]

seems that will only happen when the bottom eye of the shock
gets even or above the top eye or in other words at extreme suspension travel

the more upright the shock is the more benefit you get from it

so as in everything are the benefits worth the drawbacks?

Maybe I am misunderstanding your post, but I see no benefit to a camming shock.