Mini Giant Bronko Crawler

[C*H*U*D]

Nice Work! What's your ETC.......Estimated Time to Crawl?

 

[toybuilder]

looks good, what electronics are you going to use?

I plan on using a HS225 servo and the stock Venom electronics for now. I have an extra Losi Mini Crawler speedcontrol and I'll use that when I get another spektrum reciever.

looking good so far. Those are some nice cuts on the aluminum pieces.

Thanks! "thumbsup" I do my best with the cut-off wheel and then spend too much time with my friends here trying to make it look pretty:

 

[toybuilder]

Drive Shaft

Nice chassis. I like the "build with what you have" threads too.

Yours will probably crawl better, it looks like it has good articulation, vs. too much like a stock MRC...

Thanks! "thumbsup" I'll let you know how well it works when I finish it.

Nice Work! What's your ETC.......Estimated Time to Crawl?

I rigged up the electronics and did a test run this morning... unfortunately I'll have to add some gear reduction before I'm going to be able to crawl... It's way too fast and has very little torque with the stock gearing and huge tires.

I built some drive shafts yesterday. I'm not sure how well they are going to hold up as they are only epoxied together, but they held up through the initial test run which was pretty brutal on the drive train due to the glitching electronics. :roll:

I had to spend another $2.47 on this project :lol:. The shafts are built out of some Evergreen styrene that I had on hand and these aluminum tubes I just purchased. I used 30 minute epoxy and they seem pretty strong. If they break, I'll have some nice ones machined up in exchange for beer, but I'm trying to avoid that.

Here are some pics:

 

[toybuilder]

I built a 4:1 gear reduction unit out of some junk I had laying around. I cobbled it together out of some random pinions, a brushless motor shaft and it's bearings, and some parts that I made. The motor sits a bit lower than it did and more importantly... now it can crawl!

Some pics:

 

[Big Mike]

I built some drive shafts yesterday.

Those look good. I ran dogbones for a long time on my TLT. I used to make them out of 1/4" brass rod w/ steel pins.

With that much surface area, I think you'll be fine w/ epoxy...

 

[C*H*U*D]

Nice job!

 

[BeeRC]

Mini Giant Bronco Crawler

After you have ran this little guy for a while, and if you think about selling it, please keep me in mind for the first opportunity to buy it from you. As a side note, I have a new VMG with all Venom factory options (with a one-off Grave Digger lexan body) that has never been powered up if you might be interested in it.

 

[toybuilder]

Now With More Gear Reduction

Those look good.

Nice job!

Thanks for the feedback!

After you have ran this little guy for a while, and if you think about selling it, please keep me in mind for the first opportunity to buy it from you. As a side note, I have a new VMG with all Venom factory options (with a one-off Grave Digger lexan body) that has never been powered up if you might be interested in it.

Wow! That someone would consider buying this, really is a compliment. Thanks! I don't think I could part with it, but I'll keep you in mind should things change.

After a quick test drive on the rocks, it was obvious that the 4:1 reduction wasn't going to be low enough. So, I replaced the 40 tooth gear with a 72 tooth gear. I had to do modify one chassis plate and add another cross member to stiffen things up again. I also decided to paint everything flat black while it was apart.

 

[C*H*U*D]

Nice to see this moving forward.....still amazed at how fast you implement your changes. Any action pics??

 

[toybuilder]

Nice to see this moving forward.....still amazed at how fast you implement your changes. Any action pics??

Things will probably slow down now that I'm back to work. I don't have any action pics...I should have grabbed the camera while you were driving it.

I haven't had much time to work on it the last few days, but I shortened the wheelbase to 8" to make the length and width a bit more proportional. I also mocked up the battery mounting location. Shortening the wheelbase hosed up my suspension geometry, so now I have to move the upper shock mounts. I'll probably set the ride height a bit lower while I'm at it. Here is a pic of the 6-cell battery location:

 

[KrazyKrawler48]

love the rig it looks really good

 

[C*H*U*D]

Things will probably slow down now that I'm back to work.

I haven't had much time to work on it the last few days, but I shortened the wheelbase to 8" to make the length and width a bit more proportional. :

I can't believe you'd let work slow you down :lol:.

Have you started on the body yet, and do you have any new pictures with the body on after the more proportional wheelbase?

 

[toybuilder]

Change of Direction

I decided to go for a more scale look with this project. So the first thing to do was to cut down the tires and narrow the rims. I have never cut and glued tires before and I wasn't really looking forward to it, but I decided to go for it.

Here are some pics of the tire reduction process. I used IC2000 tire glue and it worked great.


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[toybuilder]

Narrowing the wheels.

 

[toybuilder]

After narrowing the wheels they were looking kind of ugly so I added some detail and paint to make them pretty.

 

[C*H*U*D]

I have never cut and glued tires before


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Hmmmm.....you sure about that?!? Awesome job!!

 

[moabax]

Loking good. Is there any way to get more steering angle out of it?

 

[toybuilder]

Loking good. Is there any way to get more steering angle out of it?

Yeah, I'm working on that. I dremeled out the steering knuckles a bit more, now I just have to do the drive cups.

Here are some current mock-up pics:

 

[po' riggity]

Lookin good dude... I love the whole "build with what ya got" mentality!
Scott

 

[xmodcrawler]

dude your lucky you can do that im getting three vmg one a crawler and two regulare. i race and crawler 1/28 scale most of the time