RC Bashers

hey all... long time no RC for me but have a new project rolling.. just a couple teaser pics






it's got a junfac 4 link kit, junfac axle servo steering kits front and back... needs bearings installed which I have (sealed from rcboyz) and am working on installing one part at a time. the tranny is going to be a bear but good experience. I am using my dx3s now with the aux channel for rear steer which is surprisingly cool.. I thought it would be mostly annoying but it comes in handy. The 3800kv motor moves it along in 2nd gear well.. I can't shift until I get a 4 chan radio..

wow man, i always likes these things, did you buy it built or not?

good old fashioned tamiya over engineering!

spoecially when you compare this to a more modern honcho kit.

very nice looking. CLean too.

Hi - yeah I bought it assembled.. it had a bunch of stuff I wanted to mod the stock kit with so seemed like a good grab. It is brand new, only run on carpet a few times.. only thing is it needs a bearing kit.. so I will be rebuilding it bit by bit..

Who are you again? lol nice to see you playing with rc again. Killer rig I always wanted one just to dam expensive. Gonna have to hook up for sure now and see her run

yeah.. who am I?? sometimes I need to ask also. :p

I am shooting for this look.. kind of..


those are junfac GT 2.2 Beadlocks with junfac Bighorn crawling tires... I bought another set of wheels on ebay though, 1.9s because the 2.2s seem a little large.. but I don't know now, I kind of like the larger wheels on that truck. Not sure about tire rub though, it looks like it might. I know my proline crome wheels with dirt hawg tires I got for the pede fit right on this truck. not good for crawling but it looks kind of cool. :p

I put my traxxas 2075 servos on the both ends and replaced one of the steering links in the front with a shorter one so center on the servo the horn pointed more down rather than angled to the side. The steering in either direction is more balanced now (before left was weaker and right was too much). Also tuned the 4 wheels steering. I have the rears @ 50% mix and might go a little lower even.. it turns nice and sharp when I want it to but feels a little tippy on cement... I think on dirt it'll be fine though. The 4 wheels steering works a lot better than I expected. I thought it would be clumsy but the truck is pretty darn nimble around the house, more so than the honcho. I tried my proline wheels + swampers but they are too soft for the weight of the truck.

just some random pics
(front)

(rear)




Need to get my new wheels and tires in now.



Shifting would be good also.. I guess I should think about biting the bullet on a 4 chan radio.. in second gear it's got plenty of speed but a little lacking in low speed smoothness.. access to 1st gear would probably help a bit with that.

Watch that 4ws clods were big on this back in the day and why you see so many lock out kits now they just tipped over to much, higher you go, faster you go speels tipping over lol.
But stick to slow it should be ok, might invest in a couple hitec 645's cheap and maybe more torque, maybe even bump up to the next best servo which off the top of head im not sure...
Tellin ya check the airtronics mt4 one of its aux programs is setup for 4ws to

nice man, those tires will look much better than stock.

wonder how soft they are, let us know!

you are missing a mirror!

Yeah - I have the mirror here... need to glue it back on. and get the tail pipes on also. I am very curious on those tires also. I will be sure to let you know!

yeah, using the taxxas servos was not my first choice because of the plastic gears and the color but I tried my 5645 servo (I think it's just the digital version of the 645) and I didn't have a servo horn of the right length for this application and the traxxas use the futaba spine, so I could re-use horns I had already.. but I tried is anyways and running the 5645 in front with a futaba in the rear the wheels were turning at different speeds.. anyways.. these traxxas servos are pretty nice. They have 125.0 oz-in @ 6v (+0.17 sec/60°) and the 645 is only 133 (+0.20 sec/60°).. not too much different, but I do notice the speed difference.. very non buzzy and glitchy and accurate feeling. I wish they were mg also. eventually I might get another 5645 but this will work for now. If I start breaking gears obviously they will have to be replaced.

on the 4ws.. yeah, I didn't want to use it initially because of tipping over so I am still just experimenting with it really.. I can tone down the mix for better stability and I am not going to be going too fast... but still haven't tried 3rd gear. lol. I might change my mind after that. :p


OHHH mirror mod

http://www.rcsparks.com/forum/scale-bui ... #post57979

me likey ;)

rebuilt the axles last night with sealed bearings throughout... didn't take any pics of that cause my hands were so dirty didn't want to wipe down to take pics. the truck is noticeably quieter with the bearings in the axles instead of bushings. Why tamiya wouldn't include a simple ball bearing set in a $700 kit is beyond me. But oh well. The tranny is still chock full o bushings but I found an unbuilt one on ebay and bought that so I could enjoy the process of building it and have spare parts.. I got a few pics of the build here





"So... you want to build stuff here?? cause I am pretty comfortable."


it's basically done here, the rest is just the covers and the gears on the face to the output shafts and the slipper.






I haven't dropped the new tranny in yet.. I'll hit that next weekend I guess.

I drove the truck outside just a bit ago and it handles pretty well.. it's got some weight in the chassis so I have to be careful while making sharp turns, the body sways like a real truck/car would which is pretty cool. I may tone the rear steer mix down to 40%... still messing with that. With the old futaba s3003 servos the truck wouldn't steer well and the rears wouldn't correct (back to straight) after a sharp turn and then a sprint, the rear would be drifting askew so I would have to bump the steering knob once and it would correct.. pretty weird. None of that with these traxxas servos, whew. It's a fun truck so far, different than the sxc10... I have been reading that the tranny in it's stock spot will hinder crawling a bit but with the right tires/wheels it'll do pretty well... and if you lift the tranny apparently it'll go anywhere a sxc10 will go.. well, one thing at a time. waiting for the new wheels and told the wife what I wanted for my b-day from her... *cough* radio. ;) I got the typical response "just send me a link" lol.

first glamor shot

Nice, tamiya never gives bearings maybe a couple but mostly not....tranny is something else lol. Go get it dirty now

cheap bastages! well... it was a lot of fun building that thing.. yeah, it needs to get dirty now.. I need to get a little box for my radio.. else balloon it. The truck also came with a tamiya TLU-01CR01 light kit. So just thinking about how to wire the lights up. I am going to have to leave the cab on most of the time with all those wires and the fact that the bed is attached to the truck is going to make things interesting.. so I'm going to have to make a longer lead for the ESC to battery connector so I can reach it with the bed flipped up. That's just a good idea anyways.. This truck was designed to have the cab left on pretty much all the time so I reckon I should just do that. I have some yellow LEDs for the front turn signals and the whites that came with the kit fit the front just fine but the reds are too big for the tail light buckets though. So more stuff to hunt down. One cool thing the unit runs off the main battery so no need for a BEC. I do have one though, if needed.

Oh... and this



need to make me a set of these.

OHH.. and this.. here we go again with rc addiction. :p

http://www.rpphobby.com/product_p/scav-sd00007.htm

very cool update man, sounds like you are having a good time with this.

that tranny looks very complicated. have fun man


and your helper is pretty hairy

Yeah - he likes to be very involved with anything I am doing..

I moved the top links on the 4-link down to the next spot on the axle bracket and it tilted my axles so the steering flange is parallel to the ground now, so steering is wayyy better. Only thing I am dealing with now is quite a bit of body roll.. it gets stuck slanting on one side or the other a little while I am moving around on the back patio kind of quick.. so might need some stronger springs on my shocks.. I put 40wt in my fronts and will do the rears like that also just to see if that will help. The steering is so much better with the axles at this angle though I think I can get rid of the 4ws... but I kind of like it now.. the articulation with the 4-link is very good.. just need my new wheel/tire combo to show up.. I am using my 4pole castle motor because I was going to try and send my tekin in to see if something was wrong with it.. it's so loud still.. just doesn't sound right. I do miss the sensored low speed control that motor had. So smooth. Tekin's phone number had a fast busy today. ugh. I'll try them again tomorrow.

Yeah - I guess that might just be how those tekin motors are. there is some play in the shaft on it which might account for the noise.

playing around with the suspension.. the truck has some pretty intense body roll.. I took the 4ws mix down to 1% to rule that out and when I run it flat out in 2nd gear I have to actively steer left against it wanting to roll right to keep it straight. the shocks on it now are the AX10 alum ones with the stock ultra soft (red) spring. I ordered the soft (white) one hoping that'll help. when I get those I will try 40wt in the rear shocks also. These shocks are quite a bit taller than the stock ones because the original owner was having issues with the servos hitting the chassis..

I guess at this point it's a trade off, articulation with cushy suspension is going to be good for what I want to do mostly, but if I do want to drive it around a little fast I don't want to have the chassis kinda flopping around like it is now.

edit: anyone know where to get plastic or rubber shock bushings, the part that goes through the top of the shock cap that the screw to the shock tower goes through? I mangled one of the rubber ones I had for the AX10 shocks trying to get it in my big bores. The big bores are the same length and seem a little more sturdy so I am trying them on the truck. the torque body roll is still there pretty bad.

nm http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wt ... LXBEYF&P=7

not terribly encouraging

http://www.scale4x4rc.org/forums/showthread.php?t=31765

so the junfac 4-link is flawed... the upper links need to be on some kind of a truss otherwise the axles have too much mobility. moving the upper links attachment point on the axle to the lower spot on the bracket made the body roll (torque twist) crazy but it makes the steering perfect. *sigh* even with them in the top spot on the axle brackets I was seeing the body roll but not nearly as bad.

well.. I'm going to keep playing around with it but this is the issue for sure.. maybe some kind of anti-sway bar or having some stiffer springs might help a bit but at the loss of some articulation.. I can go back to the stock setup (leaf + shock) if I want but it's not going to crawl nearly as well.

edit: so this is just torque twist so I need to stiffen the rear up.. the left rear is most important. I see a few people running this junfac kit on their F350s and hilux's and they seem to live with it. I'll try the new springs tomorrow.

edit2: wife says my wheels came in.. and I am stuck at work until midnight. ugh. got tomorrow off though.. woooot

Hmm no expert but hopefully you can get it setup the way you want...The very little I have read about them it was pretty much they dont crawl so well just not that type of rig like say a honcho or whatever so might be one of those have to go ojne way or the other? I dont know tho..

I read a lot about 4-linking these today while stuck at the colo.. they are top heavy so it creates issues. But they can crawl pretty well with the right tires and a 4-link but the then you get the torque twist.. some of the ways to fix is making the upper rear links more of a triangle (meeting at a point near the center of the axle) and stiffening the rear shocks up a bit. Going back to leaf springs is an option if I get too fed up. Right now the rear end is just too soft for the weight of the chassis getting those new springs on is the plan.. I can start cranking down the preload until it gets better I guess. then going to try and hit a trail tomorrow if I can. Just see how she does.

this guy has almost the same truck (same 4-link and steering setup)
http://www.scale4x4rc.org/forums/showthread.php?t=55162

I PM'd him to see how he dealt with his suspension... it's a 2 year old thread so who knows if I will get a response.

Is their any kits or something to address the handling issue? All else fails throw money at it lol. Gonna get up this way soon or what? Lake is filling up so might not be able to hit that spot by time you make it.

I would make a sway bar setup and go back to the leafs, shoot for a scaler. Those F350s' arent known for crawling. Its a trail truck. Maybe trade it off for a crawler or something with a lil more crawl-ability like a AX10 or the like?

lol he just sold his honcho for this

I think what I want is a trail truck more than anything but it would be fun to be able to keep that crawly articulation. I had the day off and wrenched on the truck all day.

high notes:
- got new wheels assembled with new tires
- got the new tranny installed
- rebuilt the axial XR10 shocks following directions on axial's site, 40wt in all 4 corners, much better!
- torque twist is mostly gone

low notes:
- main drive shaft on new tranny was bent - UGHHHH - had to take shaft from old tranny
- new tires are too soft (sidewall just collapses on turns)

I guess that's how these things go. ups and downs. at least I had the whole day off to mess with the truck. I emailed the place I bought the tranny from about the shaft. I doubt they will do anything about it but I have to try. I was so bummed out when I got the truck all together and turn it on and it was making this terrible waaa waaa waa noise. spur gear was bouncing all over from the warped shaft. Well, that shaft is the one part with no bearings on it (has the 3 drive gears) so it was fairly easy to swap the two, with all the gears on them. but a PITA to tear the truck down again and build it back up. I am getting pretty good at rebuilding this thing. ;)

some pics

wheels and tires


the different rings are to suite your aesthetic taste.. I thing plain round black facing out is what I like. The tires look nice but the side walls are too weak for this truck. bummer. I ordered some rock crusher XT 1.9s today for these wheels. So hopefully those will be better. I read those have a pretty strong sidewall and are about 4 inches on the outside, will give the truck a little more height (and a little more axle clearance). I will be selling these tires if anyone is interested.

Not bad for a truck that isn't supposed to be a crawler



did a little dremel work also

I had to trim part of the skid place bracket so the forward universal didn't rub on it. I might end up taking the skid plate off if it gets hung up on things too much. I notice a lot of people end up doing this.

So yeah.. it's handling better with the shocks rebuilt. This truck was made for the leaf setup though and I might go back to that and go all scale / trail only. I'm gonna drive it a bit like this before I do that though. it's a pretty be reconfig to put it back, the 4-link comes off fast but to change the steering back to stock front and back will take a bit. I have all the stuff to do it though when I want to.

looks good man. too bad about those tires though. what about getting some different foams to help the scrunch?

Look at Adam go lol got hooked again didnt ya. Looks slick with them wheels tho, what about the duct tape trick? wrap some around the inside of tire or like MJ said better foam.