Kershaw Design 2.1 chassis update
 

My Kershaw chassis failed miserably today. The front portion is bent in a weird way. There is so little material where the bend is that I doubt I will be able to bend it back without the aluminum cracking. Very disappointing and I will contact Dan from Kershaw Design to see if he is willing to help me with this.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...kershaw1-1.jpg

Wow, I surely will NOT BUY one of those. I'd bend it the first run.
Sorry to see this happen to you MC.

That does suck.Sorry to see this.

Well let's not make any decisions right away. I have the 2.1 version. The new 2.2 version is supposed to be different. It doesn't show in the pic from the Kershaw website yet but it is supposed to be different. And let's also see what happens with Dan and what he is willing to do to help me out.

That sucks indeed.

The whole desing of the erevo/ revo bulks doesnt help though really- its only attached the the chassis from above, no underside bracing as such- needs to be a much thicker chassis plate really, like 5mm in the front area atleast.

To be honest I never really thought a aluminum chassis was needed besides bling factor. So any price is too much for the bashing I do regardless, Just my 2cents.

Still sorry for the pickle your in, hopefully Dan sends another out and it'll hold up for you ? Despite all that work swapping everything over and then to cringe at the next big jump ?

Yea, that does suck, but Dan is an awesome guy, and I am positive he will send you a v2.2 replacement chassis free of charge, as long as you send the old chassis in for him to analyze.

My attention was to the front at first but I went back to the garage and looked at the ERBE more thoroughly and found that the rear end suffered some damage too. I guess taking big jumps and landing on four wheels doesn't work well. Maybe I should land on the lid :lol:

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...h_kershaw2.jpg

Holy shizzle... That sucks.
Hope he sorts it out for you.

I would be surprised if that happened. I am not sure you should assume that Dan is going to bend over backwards to make me happy. Do you know him that well to say that? Is he your buddy or neighbor? Whatever happens will happen and I will report back and tell everyone all about it. Talks have already started via emails with Dan. I am waiting for more answers on his behalf.

+1 lol

Dan has gone out of his way in the past to make sure the customer was happy if something wasn't right or went wrong, and he is that way with all of his customers, so I am just sure he will do whatever needs to be done to make you happy.

Dan is an awesome guy, he really is, and his service is 2nd to none! He wants to make sure everyone is happy, and that his products are as good as they can be, no matter what.

He may not replace your chassis for free, I just have this feeling he will.

He won't. The only thing he is willing to do is send me another top plate at his cost of $41. I still don't know if that includes shipping.

Hm that sucks. Has anyone actually had a bent chassis on that location before with the stock revo 3.3 chassis?

Damn, that sucks, MC.

jasje, my Vantage Racing carbon-fiber chassis on my highly modified brushless Revo 3.3 is bomb-proof, but I also never had a single problem when I was running the stock 3.3 aluminum chassis.

I am a bit upset, I really thought this chassis was good, especially with the new towers and bottom plate I made. I mean there was no problems with the middle part of the chassis where those parts are. It's the front and rear part where the bulkheads attach to. It is just a flat plate of aluminum with a lot of material removed in the middle to save on weight. When I look at the nitro Revo aluminum chassis, I appreciate the engineering that went into it. That hump all along the middle, the bent edges that go downward all along the sides and the numerous curves all come together to make a very solid chassis. It looks simple but it isn't. The Kershaw chassis is simple. Maybe too simple. The top plate of the Kershaw chassis is just a flat sheet of aluminum. I may order that new top plate from Dan, it is supposed to be a revised version of the revised version. A 2.3 version :mdr: But it will still be a flat sheet of aluminum, easily bendable. If I get it, we'll see if it is better.

In the meantime, I bent back the plate I have now to where it should be and am working to incorporate parts of the nitro Revo chassis into the assembly of the Kershaw chassis to try to strengthen the front and rear portions.

One hyphenated word, "Carbon-Fiber!"

One great thing about carbon fiber, it doesn't bend, it snaps! :P

Nah, I've never tried alu or carbon fiber chassis, I don't bash THAT hard.

finaly killed my last 2.5 chassis :sad:
time to drop in the 3.3 chassis so longer wheelbase i hear improves jumping.

have also just fitted a Losi Smart diff to the center, just take out the XXL diff casing and drop in the smart diff. lets see if these things are all they are cracked up to be.

would this mean that i AM the first to EVER put a smart diff in a revo? :gasp: :mdr:

"I put my math homework in front of the diff and nothing got done. Smart diff my ass." :lol:
so look out new season! here i come!

current specs...
revo 3.3 nitro conversion
E-maxx 3905 tranny w/ modded LST diff (now smart diff)
stock E-revo diffs
MMM + 2200kv combo
5-6s zippy/turnigy lipo 30C
18/56 gearing spur pinion
RC8 wing

The good thing about carbon-fiber is, it is so much stronger than aluminum, that by the time the CF snaps the aluminum would have already become wadded up aluminum foil...heh!

You're the first one to tell us about it in this thread that's for sure. :lol:

I'm working on putting a SD in the front of my Revo, but was mixed on whether it'd help in the center. Let us know how it goes, Shaun.

I paid the $41 to Dan and ordered the new top plate. While I'm waiting for that plate to get here, I had to do something to fix my ERBE and still be able to play with my son Gabriel. So like I said, I bent back the twisted plate the best I could and took parts of an old nitro Revo chassis I had. (I actually had two lying around) The truck is all fixed and ready to go. I am anxious to see if those pieces of nitro Revo chassis will help. Here are a few pics.

First, a very old 3.3 chassis on the left, in the middle, the parts I cut out and on the right, the Kershaw top plate with cuts I had to make to the front and the back.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...rsham_mod1.jpg

The piece of 3.3 chassis on the front bulkheads. The rear is the same idea, the rear piece of 3.3 chassis on the bulkheads. And then the Kershaw top plate will go over the 3.3 chassis pieces.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...rsham_mod2.jpg

The front and rear bulkheads assembled with the Kershaw top plate with the 3.3 chassis pieces sandwiched between them.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...rsham_mod3.jpg

The truck all finished and a pic of the front, you can see part of the 3.3 chassis piece just under the shock and in front of the steering servo. (that is exactly where the Kershaw top plate twisted and bent in a weird way) That is what I hope will make the front and rear stiffer, the aluminum that bends down from the 3.3 chassis.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...rsham_mod4.jpg

A pic of the rear

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...rsham_mod5.jpg

More bashing this weekend to see if it will work.

As always, very nice!

i drove the smart diff once to see if there were any issues.
acceleration feels better but i cant give you a proper opinion until i get on the track since i also changed the chassis in the one go so makes it a bit hard.
the diff dosent totally lock up like i assumed it would.

I couldn't wait for the weekend to test the repairs I did to the chassis. So I jumped it higher and ran the truck faster than I did last time. I even braked while in the air to land on the nose, jumped all croocked and landed on the side. And the results are.......












drum roll........rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr







A broken front bumper mount, the front of the chassis is bent again (not as much as before but still bent) and the front bulkhead is shatered in 5 pieces. :no: This sucks.

Just sell it and get a buggy or truggy. Or better yet..............................

























Drive better :na::na::intello::intello:

Seriously, I'm planning to sell my converted revo because my son broke so many parts everytime he drives it. He has since improved his driving so I bought him a Jammin buggy and converted it to brushless. He's running a Castle/Neu 2200Kv motor on 5S and likes to show off to his classmates :intello:.

I am telling you man, just buy and run a Vantage Racing Carbon-Fiber chassis, and your troubles wil be over...FOR GOOD! And since you will be running the E-Revo transmission with the motor mounted to it, you will be able to run a battery pack on each side of the chassis, just like the E-Revo & KD chassis.

All I do is jump and do jump-tricks (which I don't always land well), and my chassis has been bomb-proof, without a single break, crack, or anything even close...and I beat the living crap out of my truck, SERIOUSLY!

I don't run the V-Armor that Vantage offers, because I don't think it is needed...I currently run a Hardcore Racing Full-Length Titanium Skidplate, but it isn't needed either, since I ran without it for a while and never damaged the chassis. My skid is for the Revo 2.5, which is too short for the 3.3 chassis, so I had to cut it to make it fit, and it fits and works beautifully now! The skids are hard to find, but I have a brand-new blue 2mm one if you go this route and need one. They come in 2mm & 3mm, and I run the 2mm version for lightness.

Chassis Only: $69.99
http://www.vantageracing.com/site/v2...ges/RE0303.jpg

i run the vantage too.the vantage guys really did there homework cause it works beatifully,it stiff enough to help responsivness but can take one hell of a curb shot that i threw at it--josh

I have one of those vantage chassis with a RCM motor mount, Tekno batter tray and RX box. I was going to use it to convert my nitro revo to electric but ended up getting an E-Revo chassis. They're pretty nice. I still need to get rid of it at some point (more batteries!) but for now it rests quietly in my basement. They are pretty freaking stiff though, I added a thicker chassis brace too.I was impressed with the quality.

Yea, best chassis out right now, for nitro or brushless (either RCM motor-mount, E-Revo transmission, or E-Maxx transmission).

I like conversions as much as BrianG likes fans :lol: I just sent another email to Vantage begging them to make a chassis for the E-Revo with low CG and two spaces of 170 mm X 54 mm X 50 mm for lipos. And I asked them to do it now :whip: And send me the first one for testing :mdr:

With one battery per side, I think your CG will be plenty low enough, because with both batteries on one side of my truck (balanced by all other electronics being on the opposite side) it is well balanced and I never have to worry about traction-rolling or anything else associated with high CG.

Vantage Chassis...
 

MC,

I think I had posted to you on revo-world, but I had inquired of Vantage a long time ago to get a prototype run. When I checked in with them in May, this was the status:

Hi George,


The CAD is still in the work. We will try to come up with a plan on this and post it on our website and send out emails when it's up. Thank you for your participation.


Vantage Racing Inc.

They needed a deposit up front and 100 orders within a month to be viable; unfortunately, I couldn't get enough funding/interest for it, and when I last checked with them last fall, this is what they said:

Hi George,


Unfortunately we did not accumulate enough demand for these to put it into production. However, we will have a new brushless Electric 1/10 truck out before Christmas, please check back on our website often. Thank you.


Vantage Racing

Obviously, they didn't do this either, so I'd be awfully curious if they would consider another go at the chassis. You get enough hits on your two threads that it may be viable...

Thanks g3, I know quite a few people tried to convince them to come up with something for the E-revo. Not just enough for Vantage to feel happy and fuzzy inside I guess. I don't know about the impact that the view count of my threads could generate, there's also the one on Traxxas with 169 000+ views, but it might be the same 5 people that came back over 33 000 times :mdr:

I'm thinking of hacking the stock chassis like a few people did to enlarge the battery compartments, but do it at the bottom to lower CG. I will look around for 2'' carbon fiber angles.

I was also thinking of getting those front, middle and rear aluminum skid plates, install them on the ERBE and take the truck to a welder to have the three skids welded as one single unit that goes from front to back. The added weight at the lowest part of the truck would also lower CG.

I may look like I'm obsessed with this CG thing but there is stuff I could do with my ERBE and Kershaw chassis that I could not do with the stock chassis. The stock chassis did not traction roll very often but it did happen a few times. As many times as I tried to traction roll the Kershaw chassis, I couldn't.

Vantage racing has a sense of humour
 

They were quick in responding to my second inquiry about an E-revo chassis.

''Hi Ray,

Because we will have our own truck release soon, we are directing all our resources towards that truck at the moment. It will be called an E-ST 4x4. We can, however consider doing the E-Revo chassis as a co-op if you can find someone to willing to invest for the molding ($4000) and we will do the designing and production afterward. We can even call it a Raymond Duchesne version and split the profit with you every chassis we sell. Let us know how you think and we can work from there.

Vantage Racing''

Anybody have $4000 to spare? :intello: The E-Revo ''Raymond Duchesne'' carbon fiber chassis. :lol: I don't know if I should laugh or be insulted :oops: But this new E-ST 4X4 truck they're working on sounds interesting.

Were they being wise-asses?:whip:
Split the profits with you on every chassis? That would be nice:smile:

Maybe they were being wise asses, doesn't matter to me. Here's what I got in the mail this morning. I'm going to try this out. It looks and feels good. It fits perfectly and ties the bottom of the bulkheads together much better than the stock plastic skid plates.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...kid_plate1.jpg http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...kid_plate2.jpg http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...kid_plate3.jpg

Of course I couldn't leave it stock so I made a steel protective plate for it like the one I use for the rear skid.

http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...kid_plate4.jpg

Have you ever been fed up with something? After fixing my ERBE and getting out in a sunny 9 degree Fahrenheit day for some bashing, I bring the truck back in after two sets of 4S Turnigys and what do I find. Broken bulkheads front and rear. And a front A arm and the front bumper. I don't mind the A arm and bumper too much but the bulkhead thing is getting ridiculous. So I come to this conclusion, no jumping in cold weather, if you insist in running your E-Revo in very cold weather, run it very slowly on a level surface because plastic turns to crystal in the winter.

I am ordering a brand new Traxxas chassis and will go back to that and see what happens when I run the truck in the same manner I have been doing. Someone better hope that I still break bulkheads :whip: If not then I will be selling some chassis stuff, but I suspect that anyone who reads this thread won't buy it :lol:

Hahaha, stock ftw! I think the Kershaw is a good design, but its not cold weather friendly...