METALHEAD's 1.9er

[METALHEAD]

Okay, new build eh?! I’ve wanted to make this build for a long time. I’ve had the body lying around for about a year and I just needed a nudge to get moving on it. That having been said, the nudge was Unimoger’s All NW Scale Meet in Helena, Montana this coming May. I don’t see any reason why I won’t have this bad boy done by then. So far, I’m happy with the way it’s coming together. Any pointers, tips, suggestions, critiques, creative criticism, insults (HEY, up yours too, buddy) and all that would be greatly appreciated, so if you see something you’d like to comment on, please do.

The body will put this build right in the ballpark with the High Lift in terms of scale and actual measurements. The specs for the body are 18”L, 6.5”W, and 5 1/8”H. The wheelbase will be right at 12”, with an 8.25”- 8.5” track, depending. At this point, my plan is to run TLT axles, a Tamiya TA02 transmission, 1.9 rims (duh) and Losi Mini LST “Mini Claw” rubber, although that is subject to change.

I started with a cardboard mock up and went from there.

I started with 1/8” X 1” aluminum for the frame and went to drilling, cutting, filing, cussing, filing, measuring, cussing, filing, drilling, tapping, cussing, sanding and cussing. Anyway, I ended up here:

Same thing, different shot:

I thought about using steel, but decided against it. What’s more scale than a rig that can actually end up with a bent frame? Ahahaha…yeah….so…here is the frame, partially assembled with part of the cross members installed. This is just a rough assembly at this point, but it sits straight and flat and is already fairly rigid, even at this point with nothing tightened down too much.

To beef up the cross members, I’m using a brass sleeve that fits exactly over the 10-24 Allthread, then countersinking it 1/16" into the frame on both sides. I intend to solder the nuts on one side of the cross member, then Locktite the opposite side. That way, nothing’s permanent and I will still have the option to take the frame apart if I need to. Here are the brass sleeves inserted, along with the mounted tranny/motor plate bolted to the threaded frame. Everything is tightened up and we’re still straight and true.

That’s all I got for you guys for now. Let me know what you think. I’ll get some more shots, with the body, when I get further along. At this point, I’m thinking 4 link suspension all around, with some (God help me) TLT shocks. I’m not opposed to running leaf springs. In fact, I’m going to order some High Lift leafs from Tower and see if I like them, or if they will even work for this application. Thoughts?

 

[obijuan]

leaf springs would definaltey work. why dont you try maybe leafs setup front and linked rear? that would be a pertty good setup IMO. the only poblem i see it (it may be the angle) but where will your driveshafts go? the xmembers seem to be in the way? other than that it looks real straight and clean.

 

[METALHEAD]

obijuan, the transmission I'm using has really low outputs, so the only problem I think I may encounter will be clearing the plate that the tranny mounts on. Depending on the mounting position of the transmission, the drivelines I use, the ride height, and the so called "angle of the dangle," I figure I may need to cut slots in the plate to get the drivelines down to the axles. If I need to do that, it won't be the end of the world...in fact, I'm almost counting on it. This is just a work in progress, so I'm kinda just hanging loose wiff it. If I need to scrap this plate and go with something different, that'll be okay too. Part of me really wants to kick in and just buy the RC4WD R2-V2 transmission, but I'm trying to limit this build to "stock on hand" and see how resourceful I can be...maybe cheap is the word...oh well...you smell what I'm steppin in?

 

[Unimoger]

Looks like a great start man. I would suggest the Diaz bruiser springs in the vendor section, great leafs with lots of flex. Also, make sure you run a pan hard bar on the rear axle to keep it from wrapping in a bind or under accel."thumbsup"

 

[obijuan]

yeha i gotcha "thumbsup" thats a good suggestion with the bruiser leafs and you have a good ride height for sure. what body do you plan on? how do those bfg's look with it?

 

[METALHEAD]

moger, I'd be TOTALLY lying if I told you I knew what you were talking about when you mentioned a "pan hard bar," but...I......looked it up....using the (GASP) "SEARCH" button! ahahahahaha Good suggestion, fo sho, and definately one I wouldn't have thought about. I plan on running an Integy 45 Turn Lathe Motor in this bastage, so it should have enough grunt to tear itself up if it does bind (especially using 1.9's), so that's good advice. I'd love to check out those Diaz leafs, but my wife's already getting suspicious about what I'm spending my beer...er..ahh..."fun money" on. I figured I'd try out the High Lift leafs since they're cheap and I'm already placing an order to Tower. Well, I found out today they're on backorder... (dirty......nevermind) Anyway, I'm waiting on a new TLT-1 kit to get here, so depending on when I get that, I'll see where I end up. I guess for now, I'll start on the rear 4 link and "borrow" an axle from my 2.2 and get that rolling.

obijaun, IMO, the body looks great with the BFG's. I was gonna keep you guys in suspense with it until I got closer to mounting it, but I'll break down and score a pic. I think you'll approve... HINT: NOTAFORD. ahahaha

 

[tmaxxking1]

.

here is the pan hard pinchflat made

http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/showpost.php?p=529225&postcount=28


check out the rest of the thread the frame rails are real low profile like your's

 

[METALHEAD]

here is the pan hard pinchflat made
http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/showpost.php?p=529225&postcount=28

That's funny man, that is the thread that came up when I ran the search. Thanks for the hook though, I appreciate it.

check out the rest of the thread the frame rails are real low profile like your's

Yeah, that is nice looking frame fo sho! My rails are right at 1/2", pretty close in scale to a 1:1, or close enough. I didn't want to crawl under my pickup in the mud to find out for sure. hahahaha

Well...as promised, here's the "body on" mock up:

I'm really really really kickin myself in the junk right now, wishing I didn't drill those holes in the hood and rear deck to mount it up to my last chassis. Oh well, it's gonna get painted anyway, so I may as well do a little body work too, right? Whatchu guys think?

 

[Kranberry]

well i geuss its time to...
















throw some mud!!!"thumbsup"
nice body

 

[jason]

Also, make sure you run a pan hard bar on the rear axle to keep it from wrapping in a bind or under accel."thumbsup"

A pan hard bar won't do anything to help keep the leaves from wrapping

 

[slobin3d]

A single upper link to the chassis will, the pan hard should keep it from sliding side to side though, right??

 

[obijuan]

ahh yeah i saw that body the other day, i was thinking that would work really well, it does look real good with them tires you got. if you dont mind me askin, but did you pay full retail or was it on sale?

 

[METALHEAD]

ahh yeah i saw that body the other day, i was thinking that would work really well, it does look real good with them tires you got. if you dont mind me askin, but did you pay full retail or was it on sale?

You're gonna laugh dude, I got it off ebay for like $13 bucks shipped about a year ago. The seller didn't have a reserve on it, and it slipped by for a buck, no lie. Then he emailed me and told me his nephew came over to his house when he was gone, thought it was his, and ran it into the wall and broke it. I told him to go ahead and ship it, since it was so cheap, but he wouldn't. We went back and forth and a month or two, but he made good and sent me a new one. I think they wanted like $75 for 'em at Toys 'r Us.

 

[Unimoger]

A pan hard bar won't do anything to help keep the leaves from wrapping

you are correct, but a track bar will I was not in my right mind at all this morning, it is monday after all :roll:

 

[METALHEAD]

Mondays suck, no doubt. So just outta curiosity, is a track bar the same as an anti-wrap bar? Am I correct in that an anti-pan bar keeps it in line and won't let it slide left and right, and an anti-wrap bar keeps it from litterally wrapping the axle up in the leaf springs outta torque?

 

[Robb]

you are correct, but a track bar will

A track bar is the same as a panhard bar.

An anti-wrap bar is what you are going for."thumbsup"



edit: and somehow completely forgot................GREAT work METALHEAD!!!!!

 

[METALHEAD]

Thanks for the input guys. I got my new TLT kit on Monday, built both axles last night and started to think out and play with the mounting of the suspension. I've decided on 4 link suspension, front and back. I have some pretty good ideas about the way it's gonna go down...or...UP. YEAH!! UP!!

Anyway, I think I'll ditch the TLT shock idea and run with shocks that have more adjustment, more spring options, and aren't so freakin long. I'm gonna try to use as much of the stock TLT linkages for the 4 link as I can. I think it'll get me where I wanna be if I just think it out enough. I'm not going for crazy ride height and articulation as much as I'm going for scale appearance, so I should be right in there with the stock TLT crazy mad whack, yo. hahahaha...okay then...

Hopefully I'll get some time to do some more work tonight on this. I'll get some progress pics, as I progress.

 

[METALHEAD]

The build is progressing nicely. I was up late last night working on this little booger and am happy to say I have a mock up of a mock up. Well...you'll see what I'm saying. Cool...onto some pics:

Here's the frame with axles mounted and the four link "clipped" onto the frame. Before anyone asks, YES, those are binder clips and YES, I stole them from the office. Oh, and NO, I'm not paying for them. Call it a perk.

Here's another shot of it:

The binder clips work really well for this purpose because they hold the suspension arms in place fairly securely, but I can also tweak them forwards, backwards, and angle them to get the right angles before I fabricate the permanent mounts and start drilling into the frame rails. Also, you can see on the left side where I soldered the nuts to the Allthread, then trimmed them, and cleaned them up.

I'm not entirely sold on the lengths of my arms at this point. I have good articulation, considering, but I'm thinking I might build some new links and lengthen the front and rear arms a little bit. As is, the rear arms are about 3" and the front are about 2.5". I'm considering maybe adding another 1/2 inch to both front and rears. Any thoughts?

Here's an articulation shot. The rear left is up there around 4.0" and the front right is on a 7.2 V battery and all tires are making contact.

Of course, as you can see, I don't have any shocks, springs, or leafs on it yet. Now I'm thinking that I may run with some springs mounted to the axles, and some dampers, although I'm not giving up on regular TLT shocks. I had one on there last night, and in theory, it will work. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Okay, now for the gratuitous "body on" shot. Agian, this is without any kind of shock absorbers on, so the body and frame are just sitting flat and level. I had to try it though. As you can see, the tires will tuck up into the body. Of course, this is an optimal circumstance, and I may need to do some body work to flare out the fenderwells a tad, but this frame/axle/body combo is looking like it will work nicely. Obviously, I'm going to mount some kind of shock absorbers on there to see how the body and frame roll with the axle articulation, but this shot just really makes me happy:

That's all for now. We'll see what tonight brings. Let me have it guys. I'm steamrolling on this thing and I've got the momentum built up, so give me your best....or worst. hahaha

 

[mxer611]

i may have missed it in a previous post but i have to ask. what is that body from?

 

[toomanyrcz]

Lol! it's from Dale Earnhardt toy r/c truck from ToysRus, did a build using this body about six months ago...Mine wasn't very scale at all though...