one more pic...ready for the dirt!!!

Am I looking at it wrong or are the chassis rails facing the wrong way?

For more rigidity you could extend the rear skid to connect with the centre. Didn't you pick up a hot racing chassis? you could run that current set up with a similarly low cog. Or is that a an XXL chassis in the mock up?

They could be facing the wrong direction. I questioned that when I first modeled them up, and never did get around to double checking that. Its easy enough to flip them around and move the cutouts.

No, I didnt get the HR chassis. Looked at it a bit, then just decided to get the XXL.

Anyone see any issues with reducing the ground clearance in the center with the dropped center? I personally dont think it will be that much of an issue.

Just jack up the suspension a little to improve ground clearance, I doubt it'll make much difference concidering the design of things like the gorillamaxx and muggy ( + all truggy ) chassis by comparison. Looks quite cool with the motor secreted partially between the upper and lower plates, definately gives a cleaner look & more deck space. :)

looks great JT, I want to see that new chassis done.

Mine will have a lower center skid also and from experience with my E-Revo when it had the kershaw chassis, it didn't cause any issues. As long as the first things to hit the ground are the front and rear skids, it should be fine. If you happen to be so unlucky as to land the center skid directly on a rock from 15 feet or more well, that's just bad luck :smile: I'm sure it'll be fine. This design looks great.

Just a small update: I finally got around to starting some of the assembly.
Got the Diff's rebuilt and installed in new aluminum cups. Used Muggy ring and pinion in them to get the ratio down a bit more to help with spur/pinion choices later on. One thing I noticed is that the gear mesh (ring/pinion)changes rather significantly as I spun the gear. I've never experienced this with the Traxxas and Savage diff's that I have rebuilt.

Installed the diff's into the Hot Racing Aluminum bulks and rear bulk support. Also used Hardcore Racing titanium upper plate, and hinge pin retainers. And of course the Lunsford Ti hinge pins. One of the bulks did not get the holes tapped very well - every one of the fasteners on it was damn tight - even the hinge pins took some extra work to get in. The other side was fine. Also installed the Ti Arms and Dynamite carriers, and the Losi hardened skid plate.

Remember - I'm converting an original LST, so I wasn't prepared for the carrier pins to be too short. Luckily I had two new Muggy A-arms sets, and stole the pins out of those. But after installing them - it looks like they are too long. I used all the shims they gave me, but looks like there should still be more. I'm also not certain that I installed them correctly - should the shims be used on the inside, or the outside? I also did very little shimming on the hinge pins. Should these be kinda loose, or nice and snug (but still allowing the arms to rotate freely)??
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Those Flextek's sure look nice. Will be interesting to see how the hold up to heavy bashing.
I'm putting this part together so I can get more measurements for the design part - gonna need to get some custom shafts made. Anyone know if mike can do shafts that will mount to the LST style center drive cups?

Gotta order some additional carrier pins for the front, and some XXL carrier bearings. Just about done spending bucks on this thing - I'd hate to add up all that I've spent on it so far - gotta be over a grand so far. Kinda wondering why I even bought the roller in the first place - I think I'll only end up using the shock towers, bumpers, and a couple bearings off it!!!

Couple more pics...

With regards to the knuckle shim thingies, I'd say put them on the inside, to remove any side to side movement of the knuckle itself. Any left over shims can go on the outside to stop the pin moving side to side- I'd figure thats less critcal though really ( a few bits of fuel tubing shoudl do the trick there ).

I here you on the roller thing though, sometimes you gotta spend alot more money than you want to just to get a few parts that you couldnt find seperately ( TXT-1 roller vs axles for example :sarcastic: ). Never mind eh?...

I was thinking the same thing on the spacers.

There is a gentlemens club called Deja Vu. I think you should have Team Three-Six paint you up a shell for your TXT with a Deje Vu theme to it. Their logo is "100 beautiful women, and three ugly ones..."!

.....umm, who's little fantasy is that?:sarcastic:

Getting a roller does seem a waste after you start building but it's easier than ordering parts from a manual. Further to that you don't get to see it in front of you and is harder to work out how to better it. I quite enjoy building and reverse engineering but don't make enough time to make it all happen. Keep up the good work JT.

We have a Dejavu 20miles from home here. Checked it out a couple yrs ago and what a waste of money it was. The 3 ugly ones were working that day for sure ? $20.00 to walk in the door and most of the broads had tatoos all over themselves, real classy :whistle:

I ran into the same thing when I put the Dynamite knuckles and carriers on my LST project. The best thing I found were some plastic washers at my local hardware store.

On a side note with the pins, I once saw some that didn't use the e-clips. They were like a shoulder screw and used a nyloc nut. I haven't had any luck finding them again though.

-JB

I saw that once too - but can't remember where at.
I actually looked through our shoulder bolts here at work, and none of them in that diameter were long enough.