well I will tell you what isn't so good on the savage body and thats pavement at 45 mph on its roof. Backflips are to easy. I have the HPI wheelie bar, and that helps a lot, watching it ride a wheelie on the one rear wheel is cool.
I will be working on a new frame too, one that will hold the truggy setup, aluminum and carbon fiber versions.

Is this based on a recent discussion with Dan? I noticed the release date hasn't changed (atleast) yet.

One thing I forgot to ask about the Kershaw tranny when I ordered it was that does the motor fit on it's place with stock radio box? Or have I got it completely wrong as I'm assuming that motor will be located at front side of the transmission?

the discussion on the flux tranny sounds very interesting, larger everything it sounds like.
I must say after Janezki helping me the locked 2 speed seems the the way to go, so far no probs with gears. Like Janezki had said some time back make sure to take the time and shim the center tranny gears cause they have tons of side to side play, I also put some stuff from the bicycle world on my gears called white lightening, its for chains and like a non sticky wax.
Curious to see how these kershaw trannies are gonna work as well.

The spur gear will be facing forward in the truck. Not sure if it will hit the radio box or not. Should move the motor more forward in the chassis which is a good thing.

Oh - spur forward!? Hmmm.. well, I guess it's ok. I had the impression it would be the other way around so there would be even more weight towards the front.

I do think it might be possible to turn the tranny around in the frame so that the spur is fcing the other way, not sure how that will work out for drive shaft lenght. I might try both ways just for fun. (thats what she said)

I was thinking about the same thing - have to check it out when I got my hands on it... :intello:

I also ordered the direct drive gearbox. After about 50 emails back and forth between me and dan, this is where I am at: The gearbox is designed to be a drop in repalcement, with the spur forward, while accommodating the stock electronics box. However, I want the spur to the rear, with the motor in the front, so I can put the batteries in the back (I have an extended FLM chassis). According to dan, in order to put it in backwards, you have to change the output shafts, so if he hasn't shipped it yet, I would shoot him an email if you want to mount the tranny backwards.

http://204.186.93.64/Savage-DirectDrive.htm
Updated pics of the Kershaw gearbox.
Might be able to test drive this coming week.

Yes! I got an e-mail that Dan has shipped me my transmission on friday. :yipi:

http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/r...l/SANY0668.jpg
http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/r...l/SANY0670.jpg
http://i480.photobucket.com/albums/r...l/SANY0673.jpg
Here are some pics of my brushless XL. I purchased another 3 speed so that I could play until Kershaw's direct drive shows up. I'm not sure which way I'm going to mount the direct drive at this moment. I want to keep my lipo inside the frame with plans of going to 6s this spring. The road rash on the body is from backflips at high speed. The wheelie bar helped some but not enough.
I did shim all the play out of this current 3 speed, minus the shifting gears. I'm not sure I could. Seems odd that the shifting gears have so much wobble to them on the clutches.

I too converted a Savage XL to brushless. In fact I kept the 3 speed transmission and installed reverse. I expected the weak link to be the reverse. Using Mechanical brakes I can do a stoppie on the truck. I am running it on 6S with MMM and 1515 1Y. I ordered Dan's Direct Drive gearbox 6 weeks ago and he has informed that he just shipped it to the UK. Not sure if I am going to take the current setup apart until it breaks. I will post a video of the truck and maybe some pictures. I scratched my pristine stock body so many times by flipping the truck over. If you hold the throttle while the truck is accelerating during gear change it will lunge and flip over. I have now learnt to ease the throttle slightly during gear change.

The battery has been temporalily fastened on top of the frames. I intend to mount to battery trays on the side frames.

http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/r...e/IMG_0215.jpg

[IMG]http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/r...e/IMG_0217.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/r...e/IMG_0219.jpg[/IMG]

I dont know if you guys have run the numbers yet, but if you want to keep your gear ratio the same when you go to the direct drive you will have to gear up. The stock savage 3speed when in high gear is about 1.5 to 1, the direct drive internal gear ratio is 2.5 to 1 (45 tooth bottom gear and 18 tooth center gear). I current run the stock 52 spur with a 16 tooth pinion with the 3 speed, when I get the DD I will be upgrading to a 23 tooth pinion to stay at the same overall gear ratio.
Mohanjude, looks like you are using the Kershaw Motor plate, you should pick up the Kershaw battery boxes for your XL, the fancy ones that have the aluminum bottoms and velcro across the top, they look really cool.

Doo540- How long is your battery? What is the max length that can fit in the XL TVPs?

Lipo 8400mah 35C 4S2P 14.8 Battery Pack is my current lipo.
45mm X 138mm X 50mm (?) I'm not sure on the height at the moment. I can check tonight. I think I can get a lipo about 158mm long in there if I move the battery tray closer to the spur gear. BL_RVO if you want I can remove one of the TVP's so that you can look right inside the truck.