My Wheely King, soon to be "Mastodon"

supergroup_crawler · Post by **supergroup_crawler** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 7:55 pm

nice!

supergroup_crawler · Post by **supergroup_crawler** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 7:58 pm

I am really digging the blue flames. Real f'n nice man.

SHAUN · Post by **SHAUN** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 8:11 pm

That is hot.

Bird · Post by **Bird** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 8:56 pm

crazydave wrote:SG hooked me up with this TowerPro MG945. Its a little noisy, but its plenty torquey enough that when I tested it, it took about 10 minutes to yank the self tapping screw out of the steering bell crank.

Are you still using the stock WK TX? I read somewhere that with digital servos, you need to be careful with the endpoint adjustments... these servos are strong enough to rip your steering up or even smoke themselves trying to torque past the limits of mechanical travel(of the steering setup) if you arent using a TX with EPAs... I'm planning on using my Iwaver digital TX on my rigs to hopefully avoid any of these issues...

PS... the paint is wicked, man... is that chevy emblem on the nose paint or a decal? If it's paint like I think it is... that's just sick... oh, and the back window is killer, too.

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Mon Aug 06, 2007 11:19 pm

Bird wrote:
crazydave wrote:SG hooked me up with this TowerPro MG945. Its a little noisy, but its plenty torquey enough that when I tested it, it took about 10 minutes to yank the self tapping screw out of the steering bell crank.
Are you still using the stock WK TX? I read somewhere that with digital servos, you need to be careful with the endpoint adjustments... these servos are strong enough to rip your steering up or even smoke themselves trying to torque past the limits of mechanical travel(of the steering setup) if you arent using a TX with EPAs... I'm planning on using my Iwaver digital TX on my rigs to hopefully avoid any of these issues...

PS... the paint is wicked, man... is that chevy emblem on the nose paint or a decal? If it's paint like I think it is... that's just sick... oh, and the back window is killer, too.

Thanks for that tip. I was already thinking about using my Iwaver Tx, the stock one is kinda lame with its plastic steering wheel grip.

All Chevy emblems are decals, but I could've easily done that.

evoraptor · Post by **evoraptor** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 1:48 am

Nice!

The way you did the foams works well. I used to run that, but then I took it step further.

Same idea, where the sidewalls are allowed to crush, but also allowed to move in to the space created by the groove. It also supports the tire sufficiently. (Mind you, I used a dull knife when I did this, so it basically massacred the foam, but it works nonetheless)

sg219 · Post by **sg219** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 5:58 pm

Well I've been without internet for for about 24 hours, until now.

Damn cable company!!

That body came out awesome!!

Those servo's are strong. Becareful with them. They could rip off your pants if the were to get caught in the steering!!

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Tue Aug 07, 2007 11:13 pm

Well, the Iwaver radio seems to be working out fine. I didn't use the EPA, I just used the steering dual rate. Gotta make sure you shut off the ABS brakes too, or it does funky things when switching to reverse.

When I was watching it to determine the maximum range, I noticed how much that steering bellcrank mount flexes. Its really soaking up all the extra power from the servo. I'm gonna brace it up with some super glue and plastic, see how it holds up.

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Fri Aug 10, 2007 5:52 pm

Alrighty, I think I got it pretty much ready to go now.

Saw a great tip at RCC from crawler_king. I just flipped the axles over to make them work in reverse. Had to swap the hubs on the ends to keep the angles right, but it was relatively simple to figure out, and I feel a lot better about doing that, than swapping my motor wires, as I had done.

A nice little side effect is that I had to shave a tad off the bellcrank mount to match up with the new angle on the side of the pumpkin, with the axle flipped. Which braces it up solid on one side.

Still had to brace up the other side a bit,

...but it don't flex now. Took me less than 5 minutes to do this:

That was an easy fix, I just filled it with glue. Its solid now. I ran down the remainder of the pack without any problems. So hopefully I got it.

Another idea I borrowed from crawler_king was his positioning of the rear lock out.

I guess right after I did this, he had a problem with the screw bending. I don't quite remember exactly how he mounted his, but this feels really solid to me. I just used Traxxas ball joints, and I had a couple long screws left over from something. I think from when I took the wheelie bar off. I actually had to shave a couple millimeters off the end to let them screw in all the way. So they're in there pretty good, but my favorite part is how it cleans up the looks of the rear end.

I had read a bunch of stuff where people were using 2/3A cells. So I borrowed the pack from my RC18 to try that out. Packed it in there with some cut up tire foam.

Oh man, that has to have been the one thing that made the most drastic effect on this truck more than anything. I could feel in my hand how much lower the center of gravity is now. It wanted to pull my wrist side to side before, but now it feels totally stable. Though I can't say that made it any easier to keep it on its wheels, because it got crazy quick all of sudden. I was afraid the smaller cells would have less punch, but I could hear off the ground the motor just sounded faster. I knew the stock HPI cells were kinda lame, but, yeah, they're real cheapies. Its a hell of lot more fun now, and it has a lot more power with less throttle input. I think it'll be better if I practice a little throttle control.

I just got off work, and I'm exhausted, been a long week. I'm going to bed early tonight, because I can't wait to get it out on the rocks in the morning. Been testing it out in my bedroom the last week. That was fine for working out the kinks, but I want to see what it can do do now.

sg219 · Post by **sg219** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 1:09 am

Crawler_King is good people. He is in my local crawler group and is a great help with different things. I'm glad to see he helped you out.

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 2:02 am

sg219 wrote:Crawler_King is good people. He is in my local crawler group and is a great help with different things. I'm glad to see he helped you out.

Yeah, that's right, he is from Pittsburgh, I remember seeing that now. Well if you see him, tell him I said "hi".

sg219 · Post by **sg219** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 2:40 am

crazydave wrote:
sg219 wrote:Crawler_King is good people. He is in my local crawler group and is a great help with different things. I'm glad to see he helped you out.
Yeah, that's right, he is from Pittsburgh, I remember seeing that now. Well if you see him, tell him I said "hi".

I will.

He all ready knows you, but don't realize it, from the bodies you painted me.

I had both of them at the last comp, and got great compliments from everyone.

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 5:01 pm

I have to pat myself on the back. I did good. I pounded on it all weekend, and only had two slight problems. After less that 10 minutes, I stripped the teeth out of the input of the servo saver. I just gave it a couple coats of superglue, so I had to jam it on the servo, and it worked fine for the remainder of the weekend.

The other issue is kind of a non issue. It was getting high centered at first, I made mental note I needed to put a bend in the linkage, but when I brought it in to fix the servo saver issue, I had discover that one of the linkages had already bent, so I just bent the other to match. I broke out with a ruler and got it all evened out since I took this pic, but you get the idea.

I would have put the bend closer to the axle, but that's where the curb decided to put it, and if the curb wants it bent, the curb gonna bend it where it wants.

Ironically I was watching HorsepowerTV or one of those Powerblock shows yesterday, and they were talking about brake line. I guess there's stainless steel hard line that needs a tube bender to be bent, then there's soft line that can be bent by hand. Judging by how easy this was to bend, I think they stuck me with the soft stuff. I just asked for "Stainless steel brake line", I guess I got to be more specific next time.

Otherwise, its held together solid, I think it performed excellently. In case anybody missed it, the video thread.
http://bitpimps.lixlink.com/pages/phpFo ... php?t=9415

SHAUN · Post by **SHAUN** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 10:26 pm

Nice. I was thinking of redoing my truck with a 60/40 with high clerance links. You've been doing a very good job on this truck.

crazydave · Post by **crazydave** » Sun Sep 02, 2007 6:08 pm

I just really didn't like the paint job. Just wasn't "me".

So I stripped out the front, and did a more classic style of flames. Now I think it looks cleaner. So whach you guys think, look cleaner, or about the same?