My Monster Crawler...

[supergroup_crawler]

''
I have finally finished it. Re-wired it, added gear covers and made a winch.
Here is a picture of the winch before I installed it:



and...


These pics are from my shitty camera phone... I will post my final product when I get my real camera back.

[supergroup_crawler]

Here are a few videos of me crawlin some of my daughters toys and such. The first one, I am using the winch... I couldn't crawl the course without it. Enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kci1OcQcrvI


In this one, I am crawling a rock and a stock ZZMT.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EeznrXUzOF4

I will try to get some good videos and pics of the final product up so that maybe it will inspire some more people to do this (RedRustBucket's) mod.

Thanks for giving a f*ck.

[DarkTari]

That shit is fuckin Awsome Pimp ! Especially the 2nd one !

[redrustbucket]

Looks like my crawler inspired a clone. You've got some really sweet mods going on there. I'm definitely digging the whole package. Awesome work on the winch and transfer case, mine was a pain in the ass as well. That flat green is sweet!

I noticed you're running the front springs on there, try removing them and putting a block off on top of the hole where the pin on top of the knuckle would normally protrude under compression of the front end. By doing this you can shave the lower pins flush with the chassis. This makes a HUGE difference allowing the front end to slide over rocks better.
Also you can remove the rear bottom cover and sand it smooth and flush. Again a huge difference sliding over rocks.

Like this:


You can see in this pic how I siped ( cut ) my tires. This helped quite a bit with traction. Sections I couldn't make before it hops and claws till it grabs instead of spinning. Also try adding some weight to the front tires. I wrapped strips of lead fishing weights inside the front wheels.


Here's a shot of my latest rock box set up and different spring set up.


The rock box is a zzse servo with an se red motor direct to the drive gear. This saved me from having to widen another rear axle after I stripped out the diff gear on the axle ( too much torque ).Plus it's way easier than fitting transfer gears so they mesh properly. It crawls a little faster but works good and has plenty of torque while lowering the center of gravity and moving it slightly forward.

Yours seems really stable with that spring set up. How about a full flex shot or two? Mine had some serious torque twist with the single spring set up. It flexed really well but would pull some gnarly Snoop Dogg gin & juice style 3 wheelin' action on steep climbs. With the dual springs I sacrifice about a third of the flex but it climbs much better when the front end gets light on the steep stuff.

How did you make that winch? Are those custom plates for the gear shafts? I'm guessing the wires through the bed are for charging? What do you use for a charger? Sorry for babbling on in your thread but I was stoked when I saw your crawler and got a little carried away. I used to play with Stompers constantly as a kid and tore them apart as well. I think I'm a little delirious as well. It's 5am and I haven't slept yet...

Keep 'em coming!

[Maxximum Attack]

Thank you...

At least now I know I'm going right with the gearbox.
Removing the front springs and moving them midship :hmm: ?
Shaving all the bullshit off the bottom??

This really helps all of us others that are building crawlers

Thanx man
Haven't seen you post in a while, how's it shakin' ?

Maxx

[supergroup_crawler]

Looks like my crawler inspired a clone. You've got some really sweet mods going on there. I'm definitely digging the whole package. Awesome work on the winch and transfer case, mine was a pain in the ass as well. That flat green is sweet!

Thanks man. I have never tried anything like this before, so it took a lot of idea stealing/ trial and error to get it where it is right now.


I noticed you're running the front springs on there, try removing them and putting a block off on top of the hole where the pin on top of the knuckle would normally protrude under compression of the front end. By doing this you can shave the lower pins flush with the chassis. This makes a HUGE difference allowing the front end to slide over rocks better.
Also you can remove the rear bottom cover and sand it smooth and flush. Again a huge difference sliding over rocks.

I did shave the front nubs down as far as they would go so I could keep the looks of the front springs. On my next one, I wil probably try what you are suggesting.


You can see in this pic how I siped ( cut ) my tires. This helped quite a bit with traction. Sections I couldn't make before it hops and claws till it grabs instead of spinning. Also try adding some weight to the front tires. I wrapped strips of lead fishing weights inside the front wheels.


I will definitely cut the tires. Right now I have about 1 foot of stripped copper wire wrapped inside of the tires for weight. What kind of lead strips did you use... did you just string some Spit-Shot sinkers on wire to make equal weight distribution?

Here's a shot of my latest rock box set up and different spring set up.


Dude, is ^that a 4x4?! How did you get it to be jointed like that?

The rock box is a zzse servo with an se red motor direct to the drive gear. This saved me from having to widen another rear axle after I stripped out the diff gear on the axle ( too much torque ).Plus it's way easier than fitting transfer gears so they mesh properly. It crawls a little faster but works good and has plenty of torque while lowering the center of gravity and moving it slightly forward.

Yours seems really stable with that spring set up. How about a full flex shot or two? Mine had some serious torque twist with the single spring set up. It flexed really well but would pull some gnarly Snoop Dogg gin & juice style 3 wheelin' action on steep climbs. With the dual springs I sacrifice about a third of the flex but it climbs much better when the front end gets light on the steep stuff.


Yeah, the suspension arm is a little too stiff for me right now... I am in search of just the right spring for it... haven't found it yet though... I have taken the springs out of everything in the damn house. My wife got pissed because I ruin all of her pens

How did you make that winch? Are those custom plates for the gear shafts? I'm guessing the wires through the bed are for charging? What do you use for a charger?

The plates for the winch are made out of plastic from the ZZMT box. The gear shaft on the white gear is a sewing needle that the wire actually wraps around. (I am going to get some SpiderWire instead of what I am using now which is three pieces of braided 4lb. test mono filament fishing line)

Sorry for babbling on in your thread but I was stoked when I saw your crawler and got a little carried away.
Naw man, ramble on! I was hoping you would see this and get your input into making it better and tips on improving the design for my next one... I am hooked.
I used to play with Stompers constantly as a kid and tore them apart as well. I think I'm a little delirious as well. It's 5am and I haven't slept yet...

Keep 'em coming!

The videos really don't do this thing justice. They were taken on my cell phone. I have a course set up in the back yard with some drift wood and lake rock. When I get my cameras back (left them at my moms house ) I will take some better, more informational, pics of the whole thing.

[redrustbucket]

Removing the front springs and moving them midship :hmm: ?

The springs are actually off of a rev up quad I found at the gas station. I picked it up hoping to use the gears for a transfer case which didn't work out. Front springs might work as a single spring set up in the middle/aft. Seem too short and stiff to me though.

Shaving all the bullshit off the bottom??

Yep, works real good. Try taking a nail file and rounding and shaving everything on the underside. I also remove the centering spring from the steering and remove the steering center adjuster. Improves clearance and steering response as the motor doesn't have to fight the spring to turn the tires. They don't self center kind of like a full hydro set up on a fullsize crawler. This is useful because it enables you to turn the tires and they stay without input from the steering motor which sends more power to the drive motor and aids in climbing.

This really helps all of us others that are building crawlers

I've been hoping to do a build/tutorial thread for a while now but haven't found the time. My computer is also a POS and slows the process down a lot as far as posting pics and junk. Hope to have a new one sometime after X-mas so maybe then?

Haven't seen you post in a while, how's it shakin' ?

Good, just been busy with other stuff and haven't built as much lately.

[redrustbucket]

I did shave the front nubs down as far as they would go so I could keep the looks of the front springs. On my next one, I wil probably try what you are suggesting.

I did one like that but blew a knuckle off when it rolled and the spring compressed. Removing the springs frees up the steering a little too (less friction).

What kind of lead strips did you use... did you just string some Spit-Shot sinkers on wire to make equal weight distribution?

I found some thin strips of lead about 1/8"x3"x1/16" in my Grandad's old tackle box probably the same way you used the wire.

Dude, is ^that a 4x4?! How did you get it to be jointed like that?

Yeah, it's 4x4 check the first pic and you'll see recent trail carnage that seperated my pinon gear from the driveshaft. I was trying to drive out of a roll while wedged in a crack. Little super glue and it was good to go. Hadn't fixed it yet when I snapped the pics.

I am in search of just the right spring for it.

Try checking the hardware store for brushes for electrical motors. They have springs attached to them that are pretty soft and long. (<insert dick jokes here>)

(I am going to get some SpiderWire)

Yep, that's what I use works great and looks like scale synthetic line.

The videos really don't do this thing justice. They were taken on my cell phone. I have a course set up in the back yard with some drift wood and lake rock. When I get my cameras back (left them at my moms house ) I will take some better, more informational, pics of the whole thing.

Sweet . I'd love to see some video on the rocks. I need to shoot some more videos myself. This new set up crawls way better so I may need to rebuild some of my course again to keep it challenging.

[supergroup_crawler]

I'm guessing the wires through the bed are for charging? What do you use for a charger?

Yeah, they are for charging. Here is my charging rig... I just ran straight leads from the terminals. I think I am going to make a wall charger next, the batteries are getting expensive. When I start to run out of gas, I just stop where I am at and hook it up.




Also, I siped the tires, and holy hell what a difference! If you look closely, you can see my "LED winch/on indicator". I got it out of an old CD ROM that I was dissecting for brushless motors (for my newly acquired Storm Launcher). When I hit the switch for the winch, it lights up. I have it disconnected right now until I get my battery situation figured out. Does anyone have any suggestions for a battery set up with the same output as the dual cell but with more capacity? I tried to rig up a tricell in parallel but it didn't work... I know I suck... cut me some slack I am new at this shit.

[redrustbucket]

Yeah, siping is definitely the way to go. It takes a while but it's worth it.

I rigged up a charger using a 6 volt 800 mah charger from Radio Shack. I just took out the batteries and wired the wall charger into the transmitter. They sell prewired male connectors with bare ends that plug right in to the wall charger or you could just hardwire it.

I usually charge mine 3x in a row to get longer runtimes. I fried one battery this way and have since hooked up a tricell ( quadcell? ) set up by wiring a zzse battery in parallel to the mt battery. Some of you pimps will have to correct me if I'm wrong but i think it goes like this:

mt bat = 120 mah @2.4V
se bat = 70 mah @2.4V
combined = 190 mah @2.4V

It works good for me. I just charge it 3x and get about 7-9 min runtime.

Where were you having probs. with the tricelling? I just wired both + to the same spot and both - to the same spot so it was parallel and gave me longer runtimes.

Hope this helps I kind of confused myself a little.

[redrustbucket]

I thought about this some more and I'm just guessing, but did you tricell it with a single cell from another mt pack? If you did I believe the mah rating and the voltage would be incorrect if you tried to wire the single mt cell parallel to the mt pack ( 2 cells wired in series ).

I may be wrong here but this is how I understand it.

You could either wire all 3 cells in series which would give you more voltage . It would result in more power and speed along with it but risk frying motors and other electronics.(?) I know others on this board have done it so I may be wrong.

You could also wire all 3 cells in parallel which would result in lower voltage but longer runtimes by combining the mah ratings. I think total would be 180 mah but your performance would drop by half.

By using the se pack wired in parallel ( 2 cells wired in series ) your voltage stays the same while your mah rating increases. It also fits nicely behind the mt pack esp. if you move the pack as far forward as possible to keep the front end down.

In short try it with the se pack it works good.

[supergroup_crawler]

Yep, you are right. I wired three MT batteries in parallel. It ran for a long time but lost all power. Wired them in series and it was too much power/speed for crawling with my gear set up. Your set up is what I am looking for. Thanks man!

[supergroup_crawler]

I know I don't contribute in any way to this forum (other than my own thread)... so I am sorry for that. I really don't know shit about RC, except that they are fun as hell.

I just want to post this so that others can see that you too can build a RedRustBucket clone. Building the chassis is the easy part, the bodies that RRB builds are another story... so I just stuck with a ZZMT body.... maybe next time I will try tubing and such.

Changes from the original one I posted include:
-New rims
-A new rear end
-Shorter axle (the original wheel base was too long... it could really stand to be a few mm shorter on this one as well)
-Added nylon braided string to winch (located under the bed of the body)




Videos to come later today... good ones this time... no camera phone shit.

[supergroup_crawler]

Here is a video that I put together showing the awesome power of the crawler...lol.


[YouTube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0FOSLHYNJs[/YouTube]

[supergroup_crawler]

hey thanks for fixing the link.