Zack, Hyperions are way out of my budget... so, I going 'cheap' :lol:... The turnbuckles are great... the rod ends are real big and robust... never had to re-tune them... I have had the truck cartwheel down a
hill and none of them have came lose... I have been considering the 3.3 knuckles though... my friend has been bugging me to get a set... so I'll look at them a little closer.

Alien

Cool, cool. "real big and robust", aren't you using 3906 rod ends? The dubro's are real big and robust. But seem to be doing fine!

Get THESE and really surprise him.

The turnbuckles are made from titanium and are designed by UE.... The rod ends appear to be OFNA (1/8 stuff)... the threads are really tight and does require some effort to turn them.
Those are some cool looking knuckles... how long do you think the bearing seats will last? my friend's have gone wobbly, and he has been shimming them to keep the bearings as tight as possible.

Alien

OH! I'm sorry, carry on! lol You see my logic however as I thought they were stock 3906.

Your friends 3905 knuckles have wobbly bearing seats? Yeah I don't know. I have the RPM Truetrack knuckles(awesome, has no turnbuckles its much like rear racerX but much cheaper) in the rear and the platinum knuckles in the front. They are lasting a long time. when they go out I will buy the tekno's. I'm loving the thought of the included 8mm stub axles but I can't tell if it'll work with my TRX steel cvds. EDIT: yeah the 8mm stub axles won't work with trx CVDs. oh well I've bent one or two 5mm stubs in the past but now since I've become a better driver I haven't bent another.

Made for the 3905 by RPM... and I think those knuckles have done their days... I rather to go with aluminum knuckles just for the sake of having them lasting a little longer... not saying the alloys
won't have their own issues, I just believe they'll work a little better (and look cooler too)... Can you imagine what the teknos would like if they were done over in aluminum? So I will keep
my eyes open for stuff I can grab... I'm going to need a set of CVDs soon too... Cartwheels are pretty hard on them apparently... I would love to have a set of UE 8mm ones, but that's not
going to happen... cost too damn much.

Alien

Yeah that makes sense. Who makes your aluminum knuckles? Yeah its hard to get these Maxxes just right. By no means am I done with mine yet. I've done some work recently though... I need to update...

I have seen a few, mostly on ebay though... I'll need to find some time to read about them later.

A few:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ALUMINUM-STEERIN...item58852cc64f

http://cgi.ebay.com/RDLogics-T-Maxx-...item2c52632869

Others

Not so sure about the quality of these, so I can't even decide for myself which to get.

A small update... I got a little impatient, so I mounted the 1520 (firmly) and slapped together the electrics for a small test... rolled the truck around the house for a few moments
and realized that this thing needed to stretched it's 'legs'... there is a significant difference with torque in comparison to the Hacker... I saw no cogging from roll offs or while crawling...
the magnets are very strong in the CC 1520, there will be no need for 'drag brakes' (well I have no real need for it)... the moment I am off the power, the magnets will start slowing the truck.

Well, I took it out (1:00 a.m.) and did some slow rolls just too how 'smooth' the power would come on... man, this motor is impressive (it's my first 4 pole)... Oh, I know some people won't
like this, but I had no choice, so I made the test with NIMHs... I am sure they did not provide the required punch... there is no doubt that this motor has got some serious power...
grabbing the throttle can get a little violent... with the Nimh powered hacker I did not see wheelies off the line... but they were pretty much effortless with 1520... the damn even pulled
the front wheels of the ground while rolling... acceleration was sweet (gearing:15/51)... having all this fun made me forget that this was a test... so I stop to check the temps... the motor was
'cool' and Quark was just a little warmer (no heatsink and no fans). I was a little uncomfortable being outside so late... so I packed it in... I'll try again tomorrow and see if I can get some more
full throttle runs.


Pics of the 'setup':


http://lh3.ggpht.com/_4vPm5E8J5HA/Sz...0/DSC_1667.jpg



http://lh6.ggpht.com/_4vPm5E8J5HA/Sz...0/DSC_1669.jpg



http://lh6.ggpht.com/_4vPm5E8J5HA/Sz...0/DSC_1670.jpg



http://lh6.ggpht.com/_4vPm5E8J5HA/Sz...0/DSC_1671.jpg



http://lh4.ggpht.com/_4vPm5E8J5HA/Sz...0/DSC_1672.jpg

Just for the record I am very very happy with the CC 1520...

Alien

Very nice! With the length of this huge motor is there not enough room to mount the esc with fans, hitsinks, and all that like you had it? 4 poles rule! EEK NIMHS

Yep... I have two options... horizontaly with the fans facing downward and horizontaly with the fans facing the motor (this one will allow more air flow over the heatsink)...
with new motor mount i think it will allow me to mount the esc inline with the motor again, but it's going to be a tight fit.

Ok... I made another 'test' run today with two packs... the first was not fully charged, but it had enough get the motor turning well. It's quick and smooth on power... breaking was excellent...
stopping was noticeably easier with the 1520... temps on the motor went up to 120° F and the esc 122° F (no heatsink)... I think I got about 5 minutes of WOT run time with this set of batteries...
with the 'fully' charged packs I got 10 mins WOT... I pushed a lot harder with these cells and saw that this truck will be a handful when I finally get some lipos for it... I was a little aggressive with
the throttle and brakes just to see how hard it could be pushed... the temps of course were a little different... 137° F for the motor and 135° F (still not heatsink).

Here's the setup:

Differential Ratio: 4.3
Transmission Ratio: 1
Other Ratio: 1
Spur Tooth Count: 51
Pinion Tooth Count: 15
Total Voltage: 18.5
Motor KV: 1600
Tire Diameter (inches): 5.65
Tire Ballooning (inches): 0
Motor Current Draw: 0
Motor Coil Resistance: 0
Spur/Pinion Ratio: 3.4 : 1
Total Ratio: 14.62 : 1
Tire Circumference (inches): 17.75 inches (450.85 mm)
Rollout: 1.21:1
Total Motor Speed: 29600 RPM
Vehicle Speed: 34.03 mph (54.67 km/h)
Effective KV Value: 1600
KT constant: 0.85 oz-in/A

I think when I finally put all back together, i should be able to gear up a tooth or two. The temps on esc were really good and I was quite impressed it had no thermals running without a heatsink.

Alien

Continuing with the experiments... I was getting a little concerned again about the temps and them getting higher when I eventually switch over to lipos.... so I decided to make some changes
with ESC setup and pinion to see if I would get better results... and I did... I remembered when I was first testing the hacker, the 'Torque Selection' was change from 'Soft' to Dynamic Initial Torque'...
So I went back through the Quark programming and changed the initial torque to 'Normal 1', one step above 'soft'... I swapped the 15t pinion for a 18t just too see what would happen... this motor
had so much torque I assumed it could handle the gear up... I was not wrong about this, The motor showed off what it could really do with it's power and pulled the truck just as hard when it was fitted with the
15 tooth... Very impressive to say the least... the temps were also surprising... the esc only got to 112° F :surprised: (well it had some help from the heatsink)... I thought it would have been much higher with the
larger pinion... the motor stayed in the high 120s :mdr:

The setup:

Differential Ratio: 4.3
Transmission Ratio: 1
Other Ratio: 1
Spur Tooth Count: 51
Pinion Tooth Count: 18
Total Voltage: 18.5
Motor KV: 1600
Tire Diameter (inches): 5.65
Tire Ballooning (inches): 0
Motor Current Draw: 0
Motor Coil Resistance: 0
Spur/Pinion Ratio: 2.83 : 1
Total Ratio: 12.18333 : 1
Tire Circumference (inches): 17.75 inches (450.85 mm)
Rollout: 1.46:1
Total Motor Speed: 29600 RPM
Vehicle Speed: 40.84 mph (65.6 km/h)
Effective KV Value: 1600
KT constant: 0.85 oz-in/A


http://lh4.ggpht.com/_4vPm5E8J5HA/Sz...0/DSC_1681.jpg



http://lh6.ggpht.com/_4vPm5E8J5HA/Sz...0/DSC_1682.jpg

CC 1520 with a 18t pinion

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_4vPm5E8J5HA/Sz...0/DSC_1683.jpg


I'm going to run it on 5s tomorrow and see it goes... going to also try and get some vids done too (good quality I hope).

Alien

How hard was the CF to cut and shape?

Not very... it took about 15 minutes for the CNC to get through all the shapes... removing the shapes with a dremel cutoff wheel is pretty easy... sanding and finishing didn't take
that long at all... when handling this stuff though, it's always good to be mindful of the dangers... I prefer to cut and sand it when it's wet to reduce the amount of dust floating
around and getting into your longs... wear a dust mask and goggles when working with it.


Alien

what center shafts do you use with your CD? ordinary emaxx shafts?is it the same length?

I used Savage XL center drive shafts/dogbones... a perfect fit with the CD and cheap too...

Alien

Wow I am late on this one... great job!

This should be in Project X ... or maybe I should look at the FLM forum more often!

Big thumbz up :yes:

Thanks man... :yipi:

Torque, torque, torque!!!!!
 

Well, I went out on Sunday to have a little fun with new motor... Still geared 18/51 and running it on polyquest packs (5s), the truck was a handful... torque, torque, torque, torque and more torque!!!:yipi:
When front wheels finally settled to the ground, it ran beautifully... ballooning was the major issue for the day. I think most of the oil in the center diff has leaked out, therefore allowing majority off the torque
to be quickly transferred the front tyres... this made them balloon wildly (they're not taped)... so much in fact they came off the rims (even after re-gluing them on site)... the tyres didn't last very long with
the abuse they suffered and after two packs, the tyres had little grip left on them... there was still quite a bit of torque going to the rears... enough to have the truck doing wheel stands whenever I squeezed
the throttle aggressively... it made it a little challenging to get the truck off the line in drag races with my friend's G4... I lost two races because the truck could not keep all fours on the asphalt...:whip:


The temps were real good... the motor saw high 120s to 130°F and the esc peaked at 122°F... all in all... the truck was a whole lot of fun...



http://lh5.ggpht.com/_4vPm5E8J5HA/S0...2/DSC_1794.jpg



http://lh4.ggpht.com/_4vPm5E8J5HA/S0...2/DSC_1797.jpg



http://lh3.ggpht.com/_4vPm5E8J5HA/S0...2/DSC_1801.jpg

An example of what the front tyres suffered on Sunday



I'm still messing with the orientation options for the esc... the fan is now facing downward... didn't do any test runs yet to find out if it made any difference with cooling...


http://lh5.ggpht.com/_4vPm5E8J5HA/S0...2/DSC_1803.jpg



http://lh3.ggpht.com/_4vPm5E8J5HA/S0...2/DSC_1804.jpg

The motor wires will be shortened as soon as I'm settle with the layout

Alien

You document so well that I don't have any questions! LOL

Stay off the Asphalt!!

I have recently installed my UE knukleheads, they are great! I will still use my FLMs occassionally because they will allow the truck to be more slammed due to the additional shock mounts. I'm telling you this because I'm thinking of trying a wing. FLM's has a wing mount mount holes built in. Where other than Ebay can I find a Knucklehead wing mount? Would you feel safe landing on the wing? Do you ever jump?

Why don't you use a shorter screw on the shocks and take off the unused standoff? That is what I've done. Its just unnessisary weight.

EDIT scratch that first thing I said about no questions. But the excellent documentation statement still stands. LOL now what weight oil do you have in the CD?

But I love the asphalt!!! :lol: I have only seen the UE wing stay mounts on ebay... not sure who else would be stocking those now. I haven't really jumped the truck yet...
but i have landed the truck on the wing several times with no issues... the standoffs are ok, I don't think they're upsetting the weight of the truck that much... I'm using
50k wt in the CD... it's going to be out of commission pretty soon... so, it won't be an issue any longer.

Alien

Get a touring car! :lol:

Yeah IDK why I asked but I'm not even sure who originally made them. Who was it?

I will get a wing before its all over. The mounts that fit the VBS dont fit Knuckleheads right?

But if you've got shorter screws...

I'm sorry about the leaking, unloading and what not. How did you like the action when it wasn't leaked?

Hey Zack... I'm actually thinking about a TC3 or TC4... I believe the mounts were actually made by UE (anyone else reading this that may have a difference in opinion, please jump in)...
VBS and Knuckleheads are two completely different designs and thus will require their own mounts... I did a quick search on ebay and only found the VBS versions... send a mail to
Robin at UE and ask him if it was really his design, and if it is, does he still have them in stock.

The CD would transfer a little more to the rears when it was full of oil... turn ins would be a little tighter under power... the aluminum i ordered for my new motor/CD mount is now in the
island, so I will have the Spider in there soon to fix the problem.

Alien

You could run some of those premounted foam tires like Rivermaxx used on his speedrun Maxx. They're cheaper than another RC... and you could still jump and bash :yes:

No ballooning is a beautiful thing!

That sounds like a plan... where can get these?

The mount was actually made by a forum member on the UE site.. Ever seen them referred to as DD wing mounts? Thats short for Diemaker Dave... People have been makin their own to fit though... Some careful measuring and the actual tower and mount u wanna use in hand and u should be ok... His mount mainly worked with the MBX5 and 5T wing mounts but some others might fit the pattern...

River had those tires special made to fit some rims he modded himself... Cost a purty penny if I recall...

Right!!! there you go... thanks vader!! I remember now... I did come across 'DD wing-mounts' when I was first researching them... is he still producing these?


Oh... I think I'll stick with the pro-line stuff then... I'll tape the tyres before mounting them when I get replacements.

Alien

Yeah vader is right. I had forgotten they weren't off-the-shelf items... duh disregard :lol:

But do tape! That will also prevent them coming off the rims.

Yep... I'll definitely do it.

I was looking at getting some foam tires too. http://www.rc-monster.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23752 ATS makes some for ~$50. I spoke with Kershaw Designs and ATS had some sort of a problem with shipping. I havent contacted ATS yet but info@atsmodel.com is their email if you are interested.

Zeen... thanks man... that's another option I'll look into.

[QUOTE=ANGRY-ALIEN;342889]Right!!! there you go... thanks vader!! I remember now... I did come across 'DD wing-mounts' when I was first researching them... is he still producing these?



As far as I know he hasnt produced any in years... Your best bet is eBay...
Contact a seller by the name of Billytrucks123... He has a LOT of parts and some he doesnt list to kinda hold on to them... Just do a search for Supermaxx parts and he sells the ones with a green background... :yes: Good luck in your search but if you have the fab skills I would just make one out of either 6061 or 7075 aluminum... Then you can make it exactly like you want...

I just sent them a email, I will let you know what I hear. I almost forgot...:oops: That is one bad ass truck you have there! :intello:

[QUOTE=vader2728;342943]I see... Well, Billy is my go too guy for 'supermaxx' related parts... Zack... now you know where to look... send him mail... as Vader said he might have them even though
they're not listed... billytrucks@msn.com (Scott)... regarding building your own... I think there's a thread on the traxxas forum that has the template for the knucklehead
mounts in circulation... just another option.

Alien

Nice... keep me posted on the tyres... thanks for the complement man :yipi:... still have some more improvements coming... stay tuned :lol:

Where did you get the carbon-fiber that you used for this project, because the quality of it is very poor. I mean absolutely no disrespect, but it was the extremely poor quality of the carbon-fiber that caused it to shred and bur like that when cut by the CNC machine...if it had been higher-quality carbon-fiber, the cuts, holes, and counter-sinks would have been perfectly smooth, and both sides of the carbon-fiber would have been perfectly flat and shiny, not dull and rough/bumpy like what you used.

My personal opinion is, sell the current CF pieces to someone else to build a project out of, and cut new pieces out of high-quality carbon-fiber. What you need is 3k weave, bi-directional, glossy on both sides carbon-fiber. GraphiteGirl on eBay is the best place to buy CF...they lay-up their own sheets and do it the correct way, as well as have the best prices!

I got it from ebay... yeah... the quality is low... but it's what I could afford at the time (advertised single sided scraps)... I only recently found a CNC operator here,
so maybe when I do decide to change it, I'll look for a higher quality. Thanks for the advise..

Alien

No problem...I work with carbon-fiber A LOT, so if you ever need any help or have any questions, feel free to ask.

I will say, though, now is the time to invest in some carbide cutting tools...carbide is the only thing that will cut carbon-fiber without wearing out. Sure, carbide tools will eventually wear out, but they last for a VERY LONG time!

I would grab a carbide M3 tap, carbide M4 tap, carbide ¼" 90° countersink bit, carbide ¼" 82° countersink bit, a couple different carbide jig-saw blades, a decent set of carbide drill bits, and maybe a carbide 1/8" end-mill bit. Carbide tools are a little expensive at first, but you will save a ton of money in the long run because you will never have to replace them, where-as you would have to replace standard tools pretty much after every couple hours or so of use.

And don't waste your money on titanium-nitride coated tools, they are decent for wood and soft metals like cheap aluminum, but they wear out fast on 6061 & 7075 aluminum, and they barely even work once on carbon-fiber before they are completely dull.

Noted :yes: