OS's Low-Ball Deadbolt

[OSRC]

Never bothered to post my V1 SCX10 over the years since it was pretty much like everyone else's. It still is, but since I just got a II in a trade, I thought I'd build this up, take them both out on the trail and have a little comparo just for giggles.

I've had a bunch of these over the years in various configurations, bodies, and wheelbases. Sold some, bought a few more...the usual for us RC addicts. I'm down to just 2 V1's now, each very different. In it's most recent life, it was a New Bright JK that I simply lost interest in. Since I have a hard body SCX (Yota), I figured I didn't need 2. The Deadbolt body was always my favorite, so picked one up, gave it a quick spray, and behold the Low Ball Deadbolt!

Overall chassis shot. Picked up a lot of hop ups along the way, and pretty much all I have left was slapped on this chassis. It's mostly metal at this point. Amazing how much aluminum bits really stiffen up the stock chassis. Anyway, I've gone old school on this one - no front motor, no fancy trans, no 2-speeds, nothing overly custom - pretty much stock configuration with beef where it counts. I would have put the servo on the axle and the battery up front like the OG Honcho, but I shaved the servo mounts off the axle long ago, so CMS it had to be.

Front CMS and winch control on a little mount I made on the cross member. the aluminum shock mounts let me use 80mm shocks, just mounted a bit lower. Never felt the deadbolt looked right jacked up with 4.75 tires, looks better to me sitting lower with smaller meats. Shocks may get changed out, want to see how it does first sitting low.

Rear has 85mm shocks with just a bit more travel than the front. SSD bumper is a perfect match for the Deadbolt body.

Cheap 35t motor, WP1080, and 32p gears with internal steel gears. Same setup as my II so it should be a nice comparison. Battery and electronics are on custom trays on the sliders (yes, zip tied) and I fabbed up some new taller mounts for the upper links front and rear.

Axles are Boom housings with aluminum bits all around, RCP lockers, and OD/UD. I've had these housings for 2 years, and the only scratches are from sliding it around my workbench. Sad...need to go get some trail rash. Note the red links and super skinny tie-rod....all I had on hand "thumbsup"

Deadbolt body with a custom grill and lights in my usual colors

Just waiting on wheels and tires to finish it up - should be here tomorrow and in time for the weekend!

 

[RiderZ]

Looks great.That DB body turned out fantastic.Thats probably the best looking DB body I've seen.

 

[OSRC]

New dancin' shoes arrived and installed. The 4.19 Hyrax's look great to my eyes! First experience with them, I've got to say they feel great. Mounted up with stock foams for now.

Obligatory flex shot...Overall, the LB Deadbolt sits low, somewhat stiff and not a ton of travel. I'm thinking it should be very stable out on the rocks, though have to keep an eye on breakovers with the lower stance.

 

[OSRC]

Weather finally broke here in the frozen NE (for 2 days anyway) and had a chance to get the Lowballer out. I expected a very stable rig that crawled like a champ. I got instead a somewhat tippy truck. Straight climbs were no problem, but with the lack of travel and a somewhat stiff rear suspension, it tipped quite a bit more than I was expecting. Breakovers were fine though which I kind of didn't expect. I got hung up here and there, but as long as I was paying attention, a little throttle bump got me right over.

The Benchmark...All of my rigs hit this rock. It has a nice steep incline with a notch 3/4 of the way up. Can be a very tricky spot depending on how you hit it. Stock Defender TRX-4 couldn't make it no-way no-how due to the rear weight bias. The Lowballer got right up there.

Ran the same trail as I did with the II last week. Never had a problem with the steering per-se, but after driving the II I really noticed how much less the original turns. Didn't really notice the bigger pumpkins surprisingly, even with the smaller 4.19 tires.

Little bit of three wheeling due to the stiff rear shocks.

Same breakover/sidehill challenge I tried with the II. Did it, but wasn't nearly as adept. Sidehilled great though, even with the stock foams inside the Hyrax tires. The Phat axle housings really make a difference.

So now what? Well since it's back in the 40's this week Again. All week. Maybe 50's by next week....(Can't remember a spring this cold, unreal) Got some time to wrench I guess. Going to be swapping back to the Icons I think for a bit more travel, and that winch bumper needs to go. Front got hung up everywhere, and I really don't do much winching. Going to drop it on the scales and see how it fares...feels like it has a rear weight bias a bit. That cage up top looks great, but puts a decent amount of weight out back. Much better performance to be had I think.

 

[calcagno45]

Good looking rig. I surprisingly like the tiny tire look here, looks proportional.

 

[BigSki]

"thumbsup"

I've been enjoying a slightly used Dolt for myself, just doing basic mods and some CG/anti-squat tuning. I'm absolutely amazed at how well it preforms now. I went to one comp in Winchester, VA a few weeks ago and pulled off a 2nd place in C2, mainly based on time/penalty points. I only had like 15 scale points ( if that ). I'm having a bit of fun again and didn't spend a lot of money to do it. "thumbsup"

 

[OSRC]

I've always liked the DB - probably the best offering of the V1 line imo - both in looks and performance!

Time to make some changes!

First off, the truck felt rear heavy to me...after putting it on the scales, I found it was actually front weight biased 54/46. So what do I know? Sometimes you nail the setup off the bench, sometimes you're in left field (or occasionally, the far edge of the parking lot wandering aimlessly in search of left field - see Yeti thread)

I removed the bumper and winch setup from the front - could get away with it when I had bigger tires, but with the smaller 4.19's, I was getting hung up everywhere. Never really winch anyway. To offset the loss of weight up front I swapped out the rear steel housing back to a stock one w/beef tubes and a lighter locker. Even with the tubes, the axle is 90g lighter! Holy Boom!

Also decided to go back to the 93mm shocks. My "low and stable" set-up proved to be anything but. Should be calling it the Low Roller Deadbolt. Going back to what I know works....had some Icons laying around, so added some 40wt oil and a hybrid Proline/Axial spring setup. I know dual rates sometimes get a bad rep for instability, but I generally like them for trail running which is mostly what this truck will see.

Back together..I set up the shocks so the ride height and compression is about the same, but I have much more drop out at full extension now and similar spring rates front and rear. Feels much better. Then again, I thought that last time too. Ordered a smaller front bumper as well, just waiting on the PO. Maybe I'll be able to ditch that orange spacer bar up front finally...

Putting it on the scales, I expected a bit more bias up front with all the weight gone out back, but the steel bumper and winch hanging off the nose counted for a lot apparently- I dropped to a 52/48 bias. Hmmm. Definitely going to be a balanced rig.

 

[OSRC]

Bumper came in - Less than day and a half delivery from A-main...not too shabby!

First Scalerfab bumper...less than impressed. The side mounts are quite a bit wider than the chassis itself, and I can't quite crank down on the screws to tighten it without it seriously folding in on itself. I added some washers on each side to fill it in. Little more tedious than it needed to be.

Does look good though, and definitely gave me a better approach angle. Was debating between the Trail bar and the Stinger style - glad I got the Stinger. Does hit the body a bit, but I have it down pretty low. I can live with it.

Test run Pt. 2 this weekend. Hopefully these changes are for the better.

 

[OSRC]

Wow,what a difference. Drove like a whole new truck. The tires were folding over a bit during side hill action as expected. The stock proline foams are far better then the old memory foams they used to come with, but still a bit soft. Otherwise, I had rock velcro action. Much more planted and predictable - going back to the stock shocks/40wt oil made a world of difference. Springs and oil felt perfect. Note to self: stop messing with what works!!

Didn't get too many shots, was having too much fun playing.

No more lawn darts! New front bumper definitely helped approach angle a ton.

As much as I like the Deadbolt body, it's a lot of weight up top with that cage. Leaving it for now since I love the look, but eventually going to look into something lighter for performance running