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"RAZORBAK" ROUGH trucks and Generis Custom Metalworks co-lab buggy

CrawlMater

Rock Stacker
Joined
Oct 20, 2008
Messages
65
Location
Ottawa Canada
After a short hiatus from R/C due to steadily changing jobs, I now have full time work and I’m back at the work bench. So I figured since I plan to hold a TTC event in March and to make it to the MSD Scale Nats in May, I better get building.
Normally I build my trucks to a spec I pull out of my head, and run it without tweaking till it breaks or I get bored. But for the TTC and Nats I needed more. I needed something that would be well rounded and that I could tweak to peak performance.
For this I decided to look into factory made scale chassis’. After lots of searching I found nothing that I deemed worthy…. But then I was creeping on gcmachine.ca and saw Chris’s scaler T-case kit, it sparked my interest. So I shot Chris an email about his T-case and next thing I know I’m standing in his shop and chatting about build plans. He told about a chassis that a guy had ordered, it was a cross canyon but in a way beefier ¼” thick 6061 aluminum. This would have gotten stamp of approval, if I had known I could get one. Lucky for me Chris makes 4 chassis plates at a time, and so it began.
After some more discussion and plans being passed back and forth, I ended up getting the 1st GCM Cross Canyon scaler kit, in the super beefy ¼” thick 6061 material. This kit includes a CC chassis, UH (Under Hood) motor/tranny mount, chassis servo mount, 1:1 transfer case, and delrin skid plate.
Then I started mock up. Transfer case first, this thing is sick, it’s super beefy!!
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IT’S SO SIMPLE!!!! The only thing that became an apparent problem was the notched shafts were just too short for MIP drive shafts to mount to….
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So out came the dremel.
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I told GCM about this shaft issue and I believe longer shafts will be available shortly!
Next I greased it up, lightly on one side then some gloops on the other to get sucked into the gears.
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Then assembled.
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The install is easy. Right now I am only doing mock up and not using the new skid plate. I’m choosing to do mock up with my old axial one because the GCM one features triangulation and requires different hardware. But to install on the stock skid plate is easy, the t-case is designed to mount with one end in the stock tranny holes. All you need to do is drill 2 new ones. You’ll notice the lock nuts holding the t-case down. I believe GCM did this to make the mounting more forgiving for the people that want to mount these to custom rigs. I really like it cause I’d rather use a nylock nut then chance striping the t-case.
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Drive line is now perfectly straight, very nice!!
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Then it was time for some very quick mock up assembly. I bolted it altogether in a rough assembly based around a 12.5” WB and a centered geo. Please ignore all the mix matched hardware, I was just throwing it together and I’m going to buy all new hardware for final assembly.
You can really see how beefy this thing is.
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The motor/ tranny mount is brilliant, both the motor and tranny mount directly to the mount which is a very stiff piece of 6061 aluminum. The mount has 3/8” thick material that you bolt into, creating a very solid assembly. This thing has servo flex which to me means much better power transfer!
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Ignore the crazy links they were only for pinion alignment and not permanent nor necessary. Look how low the motor sits in the frame.
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Since the tranny’s original mounting holes are no longer needed I decide to file them off. Later on this will get a shot of sliver paint and have a very cool detail or 2 added around it.
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Lots of clearance.
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The servo mount is equally beefy if not more. The mount is 3/8” thick has lots of contact surface with the frame rails, very stiff. Though it’s 3/8” thick it is light as a feather thanks to some very clean machined hollows. This is very much over kill and I’m sure it will never fail.
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The mount has many options for locating your servo just where you want it. Over, under, front, back, left, right, and combinations of the above. The holes that you use to bolt this to the frame are offset which allows for a lot of this free range movement yet retains that GCM standard in strength.
This is my current placement looks just right.
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Well I guess it’s a good time to explain why I’m building this truck, instead of just fabbing up some gnarly beast like every other time. I needed something reliable, adjustable, scale, and easily modifiable. I have always built one off trucks that once broken are hard to fix or find parts for, it has ended a lot of days early for me and is frustrating. So I needed something I could count on and find parts for easily enough. Most of my trucks were also built with one fixed geo that really limited their performance on different terrains, going from dirty trail awesome to steep rock sucky, frustrating. So I needed an adjustable platform, this truck will see a lot of terrain over the summer and I’d like to be ready. As for the scale aspect my usual beasts were scale looking sort of but nowhere near scale in construction. The ¼” thick chassis is very scale in appearance and has some great scale shape, really looks right. Not only is breaking one off trucks sucky but getting bored of them is worse. You spend weeks building it only to find out you’re bored of it on the shake down run…. Having this constant truck base to build off of means I’ll always have a truck running and be able to build multiple cages and bodies. THIS IS THE BEST PART!!!!!
So this rig is being built for our TTC event in March and needs to be able to handle a lot of abuse. Lots of rough terrain and speeds that are a little too fast for full droop, which is how the platform was originally designed. So I had to figure out what shocks to use, I have a set of axial, losi, and traxxas shocks. Axial shocks at full droop were perfect, but no shock absorption. Sprung they were way too tall. The losi shocks are a bit shorter but sprung were too tall as well. The traxxas I could have run sprung but they leak like a shot up PT boat. So it was time for internal springs. Losi crawler shocks have aluminum bodies and are very smooth, so they were picked over the rest. So after some tweaking I found a 70/30 combo 70 droop and 30 up travel was perfect with stiff springs and 50 weight oil. Ride height is bang on.
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Well time to start a cage I guess, since I like cages more than bodies. I plan on running a full interior, driver and spotter, tool boxes, fuel cell, a spare, and lights. But it all has to fit in a rock racing style buggy cage. I want to fit all the scale Nat requirements, be tough, look crazy and last but not least be original.
When this build started I didn’t have the budget to go out and buy a body, but I did have one lying around. So it got busted out of its package and I let the tin snips work some magic. After buying a wicked little bender and a length of brake line I did a little mock up.
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Well with the body set in place and measurements taken, I sent my chassis, links, spacers, mounts, t-case, and servo horn out for anodizing. Now the fun begins.
Ya I know, a rockstar body, weird right. But you’ll notice that with the Generis Customs servo/tranny mounts I can fit everything under that tiny hood, and it looks cool too. But that’s not where it stops. This truck has some cool lines that I really wanted to work around and show off. I also needed to beef it up to protect all my guts under the hood so out came the bender.
Here you see a nice hood bar that follows the body line on the hood. Also you may notice that my cage is welded to a piece of sheet metal, this just keeps it square and lets me hook up my ground out of my way.
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Then I found out that GCM found a sweet deal on winches and well I had to have one. So I need to make a spot for it that would be solid and well protected. So the cage got a nose job, this will also give me a really good chance to incorporate my front cage mounts. I also added a dash bar to fill the void at the back of the hood.
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Well I got sick of looking at this cage, too bland…. So out came the brake line. HOOD BARS!!!
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After that I saw a cool opportunity for a wind shield bar or 2.
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Then the it really hit the fan….. I ended up cutting, bending, and welding half a length of brake into head light hoops, and roof bars….. I REALLY LIKE IT!!!!
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Body back under.
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Well it’s been a busy 4 days here with Valentine’s day and such, but I did get some work done. But first things first, I’ve had a few people me ask me which bender I’m using so here it is.
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And the part number is 8243834
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I always like seeing where people work and where they create so I figured I’d include some pics of my garage. It isn’t much but it’s home.
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I love posters!!!!
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I found that old trunk in the trash, still can’t get the lock off though.
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Alright back to the action, in the last couple days Chris and I had some real fun working on this thing. Got the front mounts made and welded on. The welds still have to be cleaned so don’t be scared off by their big muscles.
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Aswell as the rear cab wall, rockers, and door bars.
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We redesigned the rear part of the cage and added bracing.
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Then all around beefed it up.
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Chris and I bumped heads while running around the shop in excitement, and while we were picking ourselves up, we found some plastic. Just what we needed, so we started playing catch. But that was a bad idea. Then we used it as a hockey puck (Olympic fever), bad idea also. We even used it for taking down notes on. Then threw the scratches and marker scribbles it became obvious.
It became the start of my new electronics box. Though it may look like a beautifully machined piece of plastic now, when I’m done it will be a scale masterpiece!!!!
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More on that later.
Awhile back I had mentioned to Chris that this truck needed an engine, and he found just the right beast. He picked it up at the local wrecking yard, a wicked little rotary engine, out of some old import. He was nice enough to have it delivered too.
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I had ordered an injection system for this truck from the local performance shop and it finally arrived aswell. Injection system, control system, and fully sensored should be a great match for this old engine.
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Fuel cell came in this morning, not a fan of the colour but what can ya do.
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Everything in the box. Nice fit, should have not troubles finding space for a BEC in there.
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Lots left to do, so have another look soon. Thanks for looking
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Got parts back from ANO today!!!!!! SO SICK!!!!

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Okay so the shock go together first this is what my spring setup look like. Big one below the piston and little one on top, it’s about 70/30.

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Once all 4 shocks were done I reassembled my transfer case the same as before and it went together great.

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Then I mounted my t-case to the new GCM skid plate which is way too beefy!!! But awesome, 2 sets of holes for the different drive input/output options. The really nice part about it is it’s nut free, and the bottom is smooth!! With it being Delrin the threads are sure to hold.

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Then I reattached the tranny to the mount and removed my slipper clutch and went with a locked spur gear. I also put a broken out drive in the front and shaved it flat, just for looks.

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After that mounted back in the chassis, really like the black and red combination glad we went with it. Got the servo mount back in, DAMN IT LOOKS GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!

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And the shocks.

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These photos don’t do the red justice, this stuff almost glows…
Then a quick reassembly, went together really well so I’m very happy right now.

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A shot of my steering linkage, it’s sitting a little off center because there are no upper links on it right now, but you get the idea. I put a spacer between the 2 links which made them almost parallel, no bump steer.

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Well GCM, has posted some pics of his drive line with a dog bone going from the tranny to the t-case, I liked it. It should give my driver that extra leg room…

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The assembled chassis from another angle, this thing has 2 7/8” clearance under the belly!!!!!

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Last but not least a teaser shot with the cage. The cage is sitting about ¾” of an inch too high cause I need to drill the mount holes and finish fitting it. But it looks killer still and is dead square.

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I'm really diggin' the vibe you give to this thread. Makin' it sound and look like all of your parts are 1:1. Really, really nice. Not to many people do that.
 
Thanks guys, yeah I like adding little details it's more fun for me. Glad people like it 8)
Big update tomorrow, had a killer build day today.
 
Well yesterday was a productive day. First off I spent some time with the grinder cleaning up the welds.

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Looks pretty good

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After a quick assembly it looks pretty awesome lots of triangulation. THIS THING HAS A LOW COG!!!

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Though we made a great electronics tray for this truck Chris suggested mounting the esc close to the motor so we can run short wires. Made sense, so we took the bottom of the esc, drilled and countersunk the screws threw it and mounted it to the 2 unused skid plate holes. AWESOME!!! It will fit under my seat and be protected by the floor.

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Now you get to see the future!!!! I am a huge fan of 4-link, but hate the space the plates take up not to mention they look kinda out of place. I like trusses but again they need space and the little holes in the axle that they bolt to are fairly shallow and weak. So GCM is now prototyping the Mini Truss 4-link mount!!!

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This thing is beefy and threaded for 3mm hardware made out of 6061 aluminum and has clearance for a
full range of motion.

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Then I installed the cage. It fit perfect dropped right on and is solid!!!

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Shot of the 1/8 scale winch!!!! Got a cool idea for controlling this thing more on that next time.

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FLEX SHOT, not a lot but this thing is gonna see a lot of different terrain and needs to be predictable.

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Tonnes left to do!!! Need to paint, wire up my winch, clean up wiring, lighting, interior and so on. BUT

FIRST TESTING!!!!!!!
 
That looks cool, has a nice lower stance to it. Love that little pallet lol. Those GCM parts are also very nice, I will be getting 1 of those T cases for current build. Do you have any bump steer with that current steering/suspension setup?
 
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