bitPimps.lixlink.com

Hey all you pimps out there. This is one of my first posts and my first crawler.
It's very much so a work in progress, but I thought I'd post up what I have now to get some input and advice.

What I have done is
-the articulation mod
-extended the driveshaft (To 2 3/8" to fit a 1:35 scale body)
-trimmed the front suspension

What I will do is
-4th gear it down (via the instructions found here)
-add springs to the body and the top to control flex
-find a way to mount the jeep body to the crawler (excuse my lack of terminology)

What I hope to built/do is
-make a winch (anyone have some detailed instructions?)
-find some tires with more ground clearance

Here are most of the parts I used. Not pictured is the antenna I picked up from RadioShack for the lengthened drive shaft. Ignore the monocular in the upper right.



Here is the beast so far.




Here is the body I hope to mount. It is die cast. Does anyone have some advice on how I can do it? Please?





Also, I have photos of the stock insides if anyone needs them for reference.

Looking reall good...welcome to da hood

Looks good. That die cast body is going to be tricky because of the weight. I tried to do the same scale in diecast on an mt and it wasn't worth it to me because of the crappy performance it caused.

I would first suggest trying to find a plastic body. If you are dead set on running the diecast, the way I did it was to sleeve the d/s with brass tubing and bearings and then brazed a frame off of that to mount the body to. I hated the way it drove though. Way too top heavy for me.

Or if you really love it you could check out steelwoolghandi's tutorial on resin casting. Its not that hard or expensive and it can be a lot of fun. Not to mention how much weight it save over pot metal. But to each his own, great work, hope we see more of you.

sidewinder wrote:Or if you really love it you could check out steelwoolghandi's tutorial on resin casting. Its not that hard or expensive and it can be a lot of fun. Not to mention how much weight it save over pot metal. But to each his own, great work, hope we see more of you.

Yeah I was thinking about that. The only reason I wanted to to use the Jeep body is because I have an actual wrangler that I drive. I supose that if I make the mold my self, I could paint it just like the real deal. I think I'm sold.

Thanks for the advice guys. I'm glad to see I was able to generate some responses. Do you happen to have any other tips or a location of where I could the bearings? I know my local Ratshack doesn't have the Xmods ones. I have noticed that my wires keep breaking, so I think I'll resolder them all with a single wire each instead of two per.

Smoke&Mirrors wrote: Do you happen to have any other tips or a location of where I could the bearings? I know my local Ratshack doesn't have the Xmods ones. I have noticed that my wires keep breaking, so I think I'll resolder them all with a single wire each instead of two per.

I dunno I got mine from Radio Shack.

What do you mean by re-soldering them with a single wire? You talkin' about using single strand wire? Not sure that's a good idea. An easy way to keep the wires from breaking is to super glue them to the board. Just make sure you catch some of the insulation. I usually re-solder mine with old servo wires and use liquid electrical tape over the board to secure the wires.

UPDATE:

It's been a while, so here is an update on what I've done.

Project Rubi

• ZipZaps SE Servo Mod
  Removed front suspension
  bigger tires (walmart atv)
  mostly mounted the Jeep Body
  Hydro Steering mod

I think that is all that is new. Here are some pics of what she looks like and I'll have a video together soon.

I have a plastic Nikko Rubicon body that's ever so slightly larger than a Zip Zap body. Probably too small for that chassis as its set up, but I'd send it to you if you thought you'd make use of it.

crazydave wrote:I have a plastic Nikko Rubicon body that's ever so slightly larger than a Zip Zap body. Probably too small for that chassis as its set up, but I'd send it to you if you thought you'd make use of it.

Absolutely, I can always use a jeep body. I've been looking for a zipzaps one (or same size) to put over my rig Black Bear. How much would you like for it? Do you have a pic or two? Thanks!

hey for a winch, if you're still looking, check frizzen's posts... I believe he was working on one a while back..

Nasphere wrote:hey for a winch, if you're still looking, check frizzen's posts... I believe he was working on one a while back..

Thanks, I'll have to. I built one for my xmod so I have a good idea of what I need. I've already got my se servo all wired up and a 5th gear mod. I put a switch on each so that I can run the winch by itself, the motor by itself, or both together. I'm definitely going to make a tutorial as best I can with my pictures.

Frizzen is a fuckin' lazy poser! His closest thing to a winch so far is really only a spring-loaded self-retracting pull strap. (Desperado project)
http://bitpimps.lixlink.com./pages/phpF ... 5b1ce45a34

Redrustbucket built atleast one.
http://bitpimps.lixlink.com./pages/phpF ... 5b1ce45a34
http://bitpimps.lixlink.com./pages/phpF ... 5b1ce45a34

Guerd started on one
http://bitpimps.lixlink.com./pages/phpF ... 5b1ce45a34

Supergroup Crawler built one, but many pics bad linked and went away
http://bitpimps.lixlink.com./pages/phpF ... 5b1ce45a34

There could be a few more dirving around pimptown, these were just the ones I could find.

Yeah, I built two.

One was just an mt green motor under the hood on this one. Didn't work too good but helped with climbs as it kept the front end planted.



Second one I built was with an se servo. Would lift truck into the air with the line doubled. This one was fun!



You can just make out the gearbox in the cab of the 45 in the 2nd pic. The on off switch from the se is perfect for the winch. Just wire it to your motor leads to spool in or out under power and cut a small block off out of plastic to cut power to the drive motor when winching another truck.

Frizzen
I love that idea. It's like a snap strap for the crawlers. I like that it doesn't require wiring, which I need a break from. Where did you get that mechinism and do you happen to have a spare one lying around?

RedRustBucket
It seems like no matter how far out there I go, you've already been there and have some expertise to lend. I did end up building the ZZSE winch and just 5th geared my crawler instead. It's a good slow speed, so as always, thanks for the inspiration.

Smoke&Mirrors wrote:It seems like no matter how far out there I go, you've already been there and have some expertise to lend.

No worries, start molding some sticky tires and you'll be smokin' my ass. The great thing about this site is the mass amount of inspiration. Good luck and happy modding!