Prometheus: Updated with new vid 7/12/07

payaso · Post by **payaso** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 10:28 pm

Go dig in some dumpsters for styrafoam<sp? inserts. You can shape the fuck out of those. Make yourself a killer light weight crawler course.

Just a thought. Or you can go snag some large rocks from the park...lol

silla

sg219 · Post by **sg219** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 11:24 pm

I should say....

I do have some in mind. There's plenty of area around.

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 9:16 am

Cool vid, love that song, but... Was it done? I wanted to see more.

Hard to say from what I saw, but the suspension seemed a bit stiff for a crawler, maybe some lighter springs?

sg219 · Post by **sg219** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 9:22 am

crazydave wrote:Cool vid, love that song, but... Was it done? I wanted to see more.

Hard to say from what I saw, but the suspension seemed a bit stiff for a crawler, maybe some lighter springs?

I'm still tuning the suspension. I just can't seem to find the right springs.

For those who don't know the music....

The Creeps by Social D

sg219 · Post by **sg219** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 8:16 pm

I went out and hit a stream up for some action today...

Prometheus: Gettin' Wet

I ran into a couple of problems. Nothing major.

-The wheels need to be glued. After I cut the foams up a bit.
-The nyloks on the wheels kept falling off. Lock-tite!!
-Battery tray busted. Either fix with screws or go lipo, up high and dry.
-I'm going to add some 1:1 tire weights to the rims.
-Lower the body a bit? Or install the other mount, that I mentioned before. The body just bounces around too much.

sg219 · Post by **sg219** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 8:14 pm

A few pics....

sg219 · Post by **sg219** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 12:18 am

I did a couple of modifications tonight to the truck.

First I lowered the body about a 1/2'. Then trimed the back corners a bit. I think it may need more trimming, but that wll come with testing it out on some good terrain.

I'm not worried about the other holes. I sorta like the option to rasie it back up.

Next I added some weight to the wheels.

A few days ago I went out to try and buy some of the stick on 1:1 wheel weights, but no one sold them to the public. I finally went to a tire shop that had some cool people there!! I told them what I was going to use them for and showed them the truck. They took me into the bays and showed me a box of about a bajillion used weights. Help yourself, just bring the truck back so we can check it out when its done.

Free used weights!!

I used 25 weights on the front wheels=175g=6.25oz X 2 wheels
I used 15 weights on the rear wheels=105g=3.75oz X 2 wheels

Added 20 oz. to the weight of the truck.

I used reinfored strapping tape. Won't strech.

Next I cut my foams up.

I made a rough template, then I used a ruler to draw clean lines around the outside of the foams. I recommend just winging it your way. I did each foam slighty different and I became more efficiant as I went on, modifing my technique as I went along.

Next I epoxied the breather hole in the rims shut. H2O tight. Then put everything together and glued the tires, really well!! I then put a small bead of CA around the outside of the tire along the rim to ensure the seal is H2O proof.

Next I put some Lock-tite on the wheel nuts. I had issues with them falling of during my last video in the H2O.

I'm going to try to make it out for some crawling tomorrow. Hopefully all goes well and I can get some more footage.

sg219 · Post by **sg219** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 9:14 pm

Well, I just got back from some testing and all I can say is....

I need to build another one!!! It works and functions great.

I took it out for a three batt pack walk up and down a streamside trail. It performed remarkably well thru mud, shallow h2o, branchs, slippery rocks, and other debris and obsticales.

I really like the speed of it while walking, and the surefooted-ness of it since I added the weight to the wheels.

I also tried it out on some large rocks. It didn't perform that well on the rocks. They were just too big and steep of a terrain. If I had a longer wheelbase, I think it would be a bit better, but still tough. Plus the pack was running a bit low.

Overall, it performed great. Lots of fun and NOTHING broke!!!

evoraptor · Post by **evoraptor** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 9:17 pm

Wow, she's going strong isn't she!

If only I can get mine to work... Oh yea.. I still think that needs to be a little bit lower... Make some shock mounts from lexan maybe?

sg219 · Post by **sg219** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 2:16 am

I went camping the past couple of days and had a ton of fun with Prometheus!!!

The campgrounds are called "Jellystone", as in Yogi, Boo Boo, and Cindy. My nephews and neice was there, along with the rest of the family. It was interesting and fun.

The campgrounds are near a place clled Ohiopyle, a nearby town known for its access to whitewater rafting, hiking, biking, fishing, and other things. Down the street there are some "natural" waterslides. I went there for some rock crawlin' action...

It's approx 6 minutes long.

http://www.sg219.com/downloads/waterslide_crawlin.wmv

betty.k · Post by **betty.k** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 6:42 am

nice looking rig

weighting the wheels works great, i remember what a difference it made when i did it to my zzmt!

so how are the sealed tyres and wheels working out?
i'd personally make a little removable plug for each wheel. i think water will sneak in and having the plugs allows you to dry out the insides when you're not running it and still have it sealed when you are.

fuggit, go all the way and put bike valves on em. then you can blow em up like little prickly balloons

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 10:18 am

Cool vid. We got lots of places outside of town like that, unfortunatly I never get out to them.

Hey, I saw what you were saying about the body bounce. I think its because the body mounts are mounted horizontal, and they're made to flex so they act like shock absorbers. Anyway to mount them vertically?

sg219 · Post by **sg219** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 4:52 pm

@ Betty.... I have thought about inflatable tires. The problem I see with them, would be that they would float in shallow water and I would need to add more weight to the truck.

crazydave wrote:Cool vid. We got lots of places outside of town like that, unfortunatly I never get out to them.

Hey, I saw what you were saying about the body bounce. I think its because the body mounts are mounted horizontal, and they're made to flex so they act like shock absorbers. Anyway to mount them vertically?

The mounts that are on there were the only ones I had on-hand. I need to space them apart more and that would solve alot of the bouncing. They are too close together and are twisting and causing hte bounce.

I need to get my hands on some stock TLT body mounts. They mount from the side.

Just the rock, you mean?

You have some natural waterslides out there? I didn't think there was enough water around to make a puddle, let alone a raging stream or river.

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 9:27 pm

sg219 wrote: You have some natural waterslides out there? I didn't think there was enough water around to make a puddle, let alone a raging stream or river.

Oh hell yeah we do. We got a natural water slide called Sliderock, go figure, they're so clever with the names around here.

Phoenix is basically barren desert land, but up north in AZ we have lakes, streams and creeks. The creeks do dry up during the summer, but we also have the Salt River out west, and the Agua Fria river is just a few miles up the road from me. Its dammed up, so its dry 99.9999% of the time and there's tons of people offroading and partying out there.

We have water, just not a lot... damned low-flow shower heads!

You know what? I'm bored what the hell, I'll tell a funny story from an event in my life.

I was camping with some buddies in Sedona. There was the creek bed that looked just like the area you were in, that's why I bring it up. We decided we wanted to drink some beer next to running water. We set off hiking down the creek bed. We had some girl carrying a 24 pack in her backpack for us, I'm not sure how we got her to do that. So we're hiking along drinking beer the whole way, the girl with the beer is falling into every cactus along the way. After about an hour and a half we come across a barbed wire fence, and still no water. So we said fuck that, we came too far to go back, I was saying, "I don't know guys this sounds like news report I saw once, 'Five guys head off into the forest with a case of beer and were never heard from again..'" So we venture onwards for about another hour, when we start to see houses. We're in a residential, then the creek just ends in somebodies back yard. We're like damned rich bastards with creeks in there back yards, they're blocking our path. So we turned back around, and just on the other side of the barbed wire fence there is a puddle, about a foot deep, and 4 feet around. Its green and got tadpoles in it. So we said good enough, and crowded around to have a drink next to the water. We must have been 3-5 miles from the camp site at that point, so the journey back, drunk, was quite an adventuere. We bounced around through the creek bed rather than hiked. Our voices apparently echoing through the canyon. Our group back at the camp ground said they heard us coming for an hour, "D'oh, owwww, shit, son of a...."

sg219 · Post by **sg219** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 10:21 pm

I can see myself doin' some shit like that.

Build yourself a crawler. A case of 4 TLT's is $270 at Ultimate Hobbies. Approx $67 each, free shipping.