My 3906 Mutation
 

About 3 years ago I inherited a 3906 from around 2000, an oldie. It broke often, shock towers, bulkheads etc. and the drive to my LHS (one hour each way) was getting old.

So I decided to use the drivetrain and suspension and start from scratch. My overall goal was lowering the C.O.G. and roll momentum without losing any useable clearance, and had to be built like a brick sh-thouse...

:mdr:

It's a perpetual work in progress with many non-final parts but here it is.....

Is your avatar the only picture? :wink:

Ok let's try that again...

wow! its a brick! i love it!

WOW, that looks gnarly

I thought Brian was going to hit you with the "this thread is useless without pics" line.:lol:

Sorry guys I'm havin some trouble with this uploading...

The lowdown:

1/8" aluminum and lexan construction
Maximizer beadlocks, Zombie Max tires
Bigbore shocks, 8.5# Trinity springs single hole pistons and 45W silicone
3906 trans, still 2 speed with UE idlers
Full CVD and RPM carriers
Revo front diff, TMaxx spool & Integy aluminum case
Original short Emaxx A-arms
Spektrum DX3.0, Feigao 9XL, Mamba Max, 2x2S MA6000 & 2x2S FP 4900

Will post more pics, and a simple mod for beefing the shift linkage

Unique! I like to see real innovation like that!

First the shift linkage, all of you who had the double-spring overthrow linkage know that it's gonna get sticky, and one mis-shift is all it takes to wipe out the dog and whatever else, so all I did was figure my exact throw needed (with the TQ radio, which doesn't have throw adjustment) and used a piece with a slight bend for some give, but you will get positive shifts everytime, which is just peace of mind now that it has some @ss lol.

Some guts pics

Forgot to mention it's 14.5 lbs, driving this thing does take some finesse, but it has a real presence lol.

Now that you have some pics, it IS very nice. Sturdy and pretty too! :smile:

Although, you need to get rid of those pesky fans. :wink:

Thanks for the comments guys!

Brian, the fans are out of necessity because there is little airflow inside, and I like things to run nice and cool, so far MM temps are no higher than 110F, 9XL stays around 140 and the fans kick on 8.4. With the 6000's I can get well over an hour, the fans and led's consumption is very minor with 12 aH in battery lol. I definetely notice more punch with the FP packs, but the MA packs are like bottomless, I don't think I've gotten them below 7.2v. It's geared 20/64, which I thought would be tall, and it is good for 35, but I am underworking everything, which is working out very well, and I could go to 26/64 no problem, The Losi Zombie Max's stand it up in wet grass, I love the hook, but they balloon at relatively low speed and they balloon funny because there's no breather holes in the rims, and i'm not sure I want to. The truck 3 wheel steers, so I can get away with posi rear end, it really does handle remarkably well, it is not roll prone, but it is cool to see the inner rear pick off lol.

OMG this is one sick mutation....thanks for sharing

Awesome! It looks like a sci-fi moon buggy... :wink:

Love the custom work on that one!! Looks like it belongs in "Robocop".

These are some before brushless shots from early 06, did yellow for visibility, never really happy with the look overall tho... I don't remember how many stick packs I burned up trying to feed those damn Titans, and I don't think it ever broke 20 mph. 2 speed was a necessity then, first gear is useless now unless I go way taller- I like that kind of evolution ;)

Nice e-maxx! Ive got to say, you made a 3906 look awsome and that is something to be proud of.

truely awesome :)

I have a bunch of emaxxs and have to say that I like yours better than all of mine!!!! Wanna make me a chassis like that:whistle::wink:

Linc, you have too many emaxx's already, you should sell me the race bomb chassis to free up space.......:yipi::diablo:

I wouldnt mind some underside shots, and some more of the shock towers- how exactly are they attached to the bulks?

Nice custom creation, never seen one quite like that before....

Ugh!
 

I don't know what the deal is, I peck out a post, hit submit and it bumps me back to the "you are not logged in page" same as happened yesterday and MANY times before, so bear with me I have to be sure it;s gonna go thru....

Wow, awesome truck, VERY custom

Ok, here's how it looked in Oct. '05, I was finally satisfied with the chassis itself, 2nd revision (I built an entire chassis before this one that was even more brickish) but now I have this butt ugly chunk of ???, it has no character, just like an uncooked slab of steak lol. So what now?

I have an RC pet peeve... body clips. I hate them and always have. My first hobby grade RC was a Tamiya Subaru Brat, that was about 1985, and I remember thinking "this is the stupidest &%$#@ way to hold a body on!

And not to sound like an arrogant ass, I love these bodies you guys come up with, they just ain't my style, I wanted something permanently attached, self contained and what not. Even if it was a little boxy looking hehe.

So I set out on the trim work, lightening up unneccessary material and deciding on some kind of layout, and I came up with the yellow rendition, which I was calling Madd Maxx, it should have been called Sunny cuz it din't have the look to fit the name....

I don't like the body clips or the relative flimsiness of your typical lexan body, but the way I land from jumps and cartwheels, I'm glad I didn't spend a lot of time making a body because it would most definitely get wrecked fast.

As such, I don't spend a lot of time painting and trimming them. Most of my work goes to making things durable and pretty on the inside. :smile:

Thanks for all the compliments so far guys :)

Linc, I could reproduce it in its entirety, but it would take 2- months and I'd have to charge an arm and both legs lol.

Neil, 1-1/4", 1/8" wall box section was used primarily, with other pieces using 1-3/4", both bandsawed into channel, angle and combinations thereof. Once I had a rough blueprint for the a-arm pivot blocks, I milled them out of the same plastic I'm now using for the tower uprights, I don't know what it is, (it's some nylon variant) and is extremely tough, yet it machines like butter.

The new shock mount pieces (alum) are temporary, as are the wing and wing mounts. Just 'proving" parts before I settle on material. I had to make new 'T' sleeves for the bigbores because the Trinity spings are FAT and were almost going over the stock T washers, those are delrin.

...And onto the underside shots

And the under-underside

The steering layout was a tough one, and not very pretty. I remade the draglink from .132" stainless, also the lower tie-in bracket is .075" SS. There's stainless scattered throughout, the motor mount is also .132" SS, the 'windows' are .030 mirrored SS, and there is .012 sandwiched between the center backbone and the outrigger channel (battery cradles) to provide alignment for the round diff output moldings, and for assembly. Also for simplicity I only used 3 fastener sizes, M3, SAE 6-32 and SAE 10-32, all stainless. The skidplate is another unknown plastic, it's waxy, and very easy to work with, and the front bumper is for a Nitro 4Tec, and is also temporary. Originally I had used 1/4" smoked lexan that was actually cut out of a Pioneer bandpass sub box lol. And all of the other material was free ;)

Thats some clever fabrication going on in there- like a volvo; boxxie, but safe...

:yes:

So, how easy is it to get to a broken diff, or whatever needs servicing?

Ah yes I know what you mean Brian, my roof was pristine until last night when I put it on it's lid and skated it about 40 feet on the pavement..... ouch!

Dang, that is one crazy E-Maxx. It looks like it can handle a whole lot of abuse!

Brian, the diffs are buried, that is a downside. Easily 1/2 hour to get to them, which is another reason I am using a spool. I only need to worry about bearings in the rear, and with the spool there's no axial distortion to put side loads on the bearings.

Thye front was just upgraded to the Revo diff, and I did a simple mod, just drilled the 4 existing screw holes in the diff cup and tapped them 4-40, which is only slightly larger than 2mm, but has much more thread depth, and they are the full length of the holes. I am using standard bearing grease in the trans and pumpkins, and the front cup.

The upside is.... everything else is very quickly serviceable. The trans is out in less than 5 mins, and just by pulling the skidplate I can lube or remove the centerdrives.

It is in some ways like working on a 1:1, there is a very specific sequence, and one forgotten item may take an hour to re-install, so I don't do that lol.

Old thread but after you posted for the Al carriers and I saw your Avatar I had to go looking. Major props that is one sick build!

Thank you sir.

You guys are real hobby professionals, so I take the compliments here in the highest regard!

Hey now, I remember this one too! That is some fine work you've done. I wish I had the tools to do the same. I think when I get aroud to building a crawler I'm gonna do something like that for the body instead of the standard roll cage w/polycarbonate thing.

WOW!!! That's one heck of a truck! Some real nice custom mods on it!

P.S. I'd like to see it race lol just run everyone over.

Very very nice. Looks very "yar."