Heh, cute buggy Travis, mine flies better though. :p

But mine's lighter :). You also got yours tuned by some pros!

Bah, who needs light weight? That just means I'd have a better chance at surviving a crash, because as a 70's luxury car ad once said: "Bigger is safer." Just change that to heavier, I guess. :L:

In case anyone is curious what is going on, here we go.
Right now I am making a chassis out of 1/8" 6061-T6 aluminum. So far I just have some holes drilled. This chassis will be an electric-only chassis. I have been inspired by starscream to finally make it.
One thing I am thinking of doing (after some research) would be to use a pushrod (Revo) suspension up front, like the Predator X-10. The custom mounts (if I do this) would go onto the custom chassis.
As discussed in another thread, I want to make a slipper-diff. It would be a diff with a built-on slipper clutch (to save gears). I will probably be using a Savage diff because of low cost Ebay parts, but I might end up using a LST diff if the Savage one doesn't work out.

Sounds really ambitious Travis. I'm looking forward to the end result!

Of course I am! I enjoy to read about projects.

Yours sounds very interesting. I wonder how your front end will look. Thought about the room the shocks would need?

Keep it up!

If you make a custom plate, why not machining some battery slots into it? Like a Gorilla chassis.

Dafni, the front end will look weird! The reason I said I would do some research on this is because I have no idea which parts I will end up using. But I am thinking of using Revo shocks, and maybe Revo rockers, but we will have to see. I know the shock mounting will have to be custom. For now, I just want to get the lower plate finished so I can at least run standard front suspension. The only problem with that is that I don't have a controller to use! (both of mine are in for repair)

I could put in some battery slots, but since I use a scroll saw (unfortunately not a mill), I have cut each individual slot out, removing the blade and putting it back on after each slot. Besides, who needs battery slots when they run Lipo ;).

I got an update on the chassis already :). I got the front and rear ends mounted, along with the steering bellcrank, and even got the front kick-up in. The chassis is only roughly cut once it gets away from the front/rear ends, because I wanted to allow maximum space for mounting things on the chassis.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...r/IMG_0863.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...r/IMG_0865.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...r/IMG_0866.jpg

Did the stock XTM chassis have kick up? I gotta say it looks great, just put some junk on it already! :D

The stock chassis did have the front kickup. I actually had to do that because the plate that goes from the differential case to the bellcrank has a bend in it. Besides, kickup is actually a good thing :).

I have marked out the holes to mount the servo plate, so I will do that next. Now I am thinking about the pushrod suspension. I may not be able to do it because it could interfere with body mounting.

You mentioned the custom chassis is 6" wide, how big was the stocker? Also, just to clear something up, you only widened it, not lengthened it, right?

The stock chassis is about 5 3/4" (5" of flat space) wide at the widest pint (at the back), but then it tapers to 4 1/4" (3 1/2" flat) at the bellcrank. What I mean by flat space is that 1/4" on each edge is taken up by the bent edges (to increase strength). Then, the mud guards make the outer edges of the chassis parallel with the center line (and the body). So basically, there is no secure space for battery mounting on the stock chassis, which is the main reason why I made a new one :).
This chassis gives the same exact wheelbase as stock. I kind of wish I had remember to make the wheelbase about 1/2" longer, but it is fine.

Nice work!

Did you get your controller back yet?

I would recommend mounting the controller on its side and off the chassis. I used a thin piece of angled aluminum and zipped tied my controller to it. This allowed the controller to sit off the chassis and not take a direct hit or impact. You can use other materials to cushon the controller but they don't help disipate the heat. Mounting it on its side seems to be more space efficient in those close quarters.

I'd like to see it when you have it rtr

Lookin Good

I don't have any controllers right now :(. Mike has my 9918 (seeing if he can fix it), and my MGM 120amp (old version) is in the Czech Republic right now (although MGM won't tell me that it is).
The 9918 was mounted to the rock guard with velcro inbetween the rock guard and the controller. There were also zip ties securing the controller. The rock guards allowed some give (as plastic is flexible), but I guess it just bottomed out too hard. With the new chassis, I will probably be mounting the controller on the front left part of the chassis. That seems to be the only spot for it.

Got an update :). I have the lower plate cut and put together (all holes drilled), and I have a new motor mount/tranny mount.

Chassis - This chassis now has 2 aluminum angle pieces. These serve 2 purposes: they strengthen the chassis (since I couldn't angle up the edges of the chassis) and they are for battery mounting. The clear (1/8") pieces you see next to the angle pieces act as raised platforms for the batteries to sit on. With this new mount, I can fit up to 7 NiMh cells per side! The widest battery I can mount on each side is 50mm (about 2"), which is wider than what is usually used. I plan on cutting holes from the chassis once it is finished to reduce the weight. These holes will be strategically place so that the chassis will be lighter but still maintain good strength.

Motor mount/tranny mount - This design is new for me. When I first built a vertical mount, it was from 1/8" thick aluminum, and it bent very easily. This one is cut from 1/4" aluminum (like the last mount), and is very strong. Between the front bearing support (for the slipper clutch) and the motor plate, the spur gear spins freely, which took me about an hour extra to finally get to work. Both the front piece and the motor mount will have screws that will attach to the angle pieces on the chassis, which will give extra strength to keep the whole unit together. The top plate should keep the motor plate from wobbling and bending. If you look closely at the upper plate, you will see 2 rear-facing holes. These are there so that sometime down the road I can add a motor brace to keep the rear endbell from popping off.

Here are the pics:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...r/IMG_0898.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...r/IMG_0903.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...r/IMG_0895.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...r/IMG_0901.jpg