Project: Savage Flux 5T
 

Started to convert my Savage XL into a Savage Flux. Posting a gallery here.

Planning on using the TCS Crawlers 5T conversion kit powered by a MMM with a 1518 or 1518 Neu-Castle on 6s.

However, as I noted in another thread, I'm not completely satisified by the TVP layout from TCS since the motor/gearbox was kept in stock position rather than being moved forward for a bit more balance. We'll see though, may elect to keep it or get some custom TVPs made either for the gearbox or potentially a center diff.

Here's some measurements and weights:

Wheelbase...

22.4" TSC Crawlers Baja 5T
15.74" HPI Savage XL
13.6" HPI Savage X

Chassis (TVP)...
535mm TSC Crawlers Baja 5T
372mm HPI Savage XL
314mm HPI Savage X

Chassis (TVP) Thickness...
5mm TSC Crawlers Baja 5T
3mm HPI Savage XL
2.5mm HPI Savage X

Chassis (TVP) Weights...

17 5/8 oz TSC Crawlers Baja 5T
4 1/8 oz HPI Savage XL
2 5/8 oz HPI Savage X

Wow 2 to 17 oz!!!!

Yeah! I updated the info to show the thickness, and the others are beefy at 5mm. But they also contain a lot of unneeded material, especially in the form of the "rollcage" or whatever you want to call it.

And everyone seems to think the 5t sized savvy will be sooo close to a regular savage weight... You got an extra pound in tvps... Depending on tire and body choice you could easily be looking at 3+ lbs. Lower gearing and good lipos will be a must for the flux setup, and forget 4s...

I agree, When I start building mine I'm gonna go with FLM towers and bulks the rest will be plastic. If I can shave some weight by drilling or removing some material weight via the TVP's I will.
For what it's worth the Savage XL wheel and tire combo is faily light for as large as they are, much lighter than say Moabs for sure.

Well, if its within 2 or 3 lbs, thats not too bad. However I think the TCS Crawler stuff is unnecessarily heavy. 4mm probably would have sufficed; maybe even 3.5mm.

Since I'm not real happy with the TCS Crawlers TVPs, and the other source for TVPs I know of is 'still' beta, I'm thinking about mocking up some of my own. Plan would be to use 4mm thickness using carbide blades cut them out with a table saw and a router. Then use a table drill press to do up all the screw holes.

Anyone have recommendations on good place to get some 2'x2' or so sheets of aluminum?

I've bought a lot of aluminum sheet and various angle & box off ebay, was cheap too.

online metals are a pretty good place to get material. I have also used ebay before, not sure who I used but it was a store on there that only did metal. Get 6061 at least, that is what I used for my stretched tvps. Not sure on the thickness but it was thicker than the stock flux tvps.

Ok, thanks. The stock flux I think are only 2.5mm. The XLs are 3mm, but they are kinda flexible by hand. The TCS Crawlers stuff, by hand without alot of torque, are pretty unflexible but they weigh a lot which is why I think I'll try 4mm as a happy medium.

I had thought about talking to Mike, but he had previously told me his machines wouldn't do a stretch (7.5") RC8T truggy chassis; not to mention another query about custom work to bore out a flux motor mount has gone unanswered. :(

FLM45100 seems to have the tranny moved a bit forward, but not sure on this. I know FLM49000 does this since I have that kit myself. Balance seems to be good but didn't jump it yet (stupid weather). The downside is that 6S will be nearly impossible to fit with the stock Flux Blur, a 1518 is even a tad I guess so that would be mission impossible.

You could opt for the GCM Desert Boy conversion.

Thanks, I'd seen that, but the chassis isn't long enough. I'm looking for a 5T conversion which means a 22.4" wheelbase. Nor is the DesertBoy17 which is only 17.6".

I did contact GCM and they have a couple of 5T length DesertBoy chassis, however just like the TCS Crawler's the motor/gearbox is in the standard Flux location. They wanted 400+ for custom TVPs.

that's wrong about the desertboy being same motor location as the tcs one. the desertboy motor is in the front and not the back best i can tell

Desert Boy chassis has motor/ESC in front, Batterys in rear. I just got done looking at the DB chassis, I do like it but the TCS is much larger !

Er I guess it is!! Still, for what I was looking for its just the inverse instead of being more centered. Want the batteries, being 6s+, up front as far as possible to keep weight over the front end too.

Oyeah sorry, lost track of the ''5T'' and that you meant the TCS 5T conversion in stead of the XL lenght TVP's! My bad :whistle:

Just a pic showing the size of the 5T chassis... should get a pic of it with a battery and the XL chassis to really show the difference.

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_dcy74CG15Qk/S3...0/IMG_4767.JPG

Whats this ??

<points to the Savage Flux 5T> topic title.... its the TCS Crawler 5T conversion chassis for the Savage Flux.

Sorry, I guess the picture I reposted with the crude arrow pointing at the home made battery/electronics gear "tray" wasn't enough ?

I'll try again with a Larger RED ARROW

Oh doh!! :)

That is just as you called it, a home made tray. This was actually a Savage XL that I had done a mid-tank mod to, so that's the tray for the Ofna 250cc fuel tank. Was probably just going to leave it rather than use the bulky plastic radio/battery/servo box of the Savage.

I hear ya, sounds good.

But, can't the front section be used for a battery tray easy enough ? Curious because this will be my next project .

The "roll bar" part of the TVPs looks rounded over on the edges ?

You mean where I have the "receiver tray"? I thought of that, but discarded it because the CoG would be very high for the batteries, and its not quite long enough either.

I was planning on creating a battery tray that would sit just behind the 'receiver' tray but down as low as I could go and still leave room for the drive shaft. Also looking at trimming off about 2cm of the receiver tray, which requires drilling new holes in the TVP, in order to move the batteries forward some more.

The "roll bar" part isn't no. I want to run a Baja 5T body (actually one of the Proline versions), the whole point of this project for me, so depending on how it sits I may at least lop at least the rear section or even the entire thing.

Still also considering cutting my own chassis, but need to get a few extra tools (small table drill press and router.. .cheapo versions so that if they get ruined by all the metal shavings its no big deal).

Just a pic of the conversion partially put together. I really dislike the Flux design because it makes swapping pinions really hard since you need to remove the ESC stand, then basically undo the backend as one of the screws for the motor mount is hidden by the bottom plate.

Am going to start mocking up with wood some TVPs for a center diff version.

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_dcy74CG15Qk/S3...0/IMG_4810.JPG

All the motor mount holes are accesible at the bottom. There's a hole in the skidplate. (atleast on stock TVPs)

Ok, well thanks for letting me know that one of the holes in the skidplate lines up. I double checked all the part #s and they are the same, so its very possible I have something put back together incorrectly!

Still don't really like the design, but oh well.

Question;
I have yet to own a Savage anything so this is all kinda new to me, If one had the capability to make their own center shafts could the transmission be turned around so the motor will be in the middle more and have the Lipo forward of that ????
I realize some other mods would be nessasary to the motor mount plate ETC but is this a possibilty if the motror and trans were to spin in the direction needed ?

You could I suppose, gearbox spins both ways so not sure I see a reason why you couldn't. However, you'd have to do extensive mods to the chassis to flip it around.

Basically you'd need to cut out the red portion on both sides to allow the motor plate to fit in. Also at least on these you'd need to do a bit of work in bracing the motor plate as there is no material where the motor plate mouns would be.

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_dcy74CG15Qk/S3...024/Image1.jpg

OK, what about fabbing a new motor plate that would not need to butch up the chassis and use a motor mount like Mikes for the 3.3Revo convert ?

I'm not trying to drive you crazy just trying to help and weigh options for myself for when I start my own. Thanks for your time.

That might work. Got a link to the 3.3revo convert? Or is that the one that has the engine above the center diff?

No problem, more than happy to discuss project or something similiar! :)

@ Bondo.

I looked at this when I converted my Sav XL. Specifically using an old RCM N-Revo mount, or making somethign similar. The trouble is that the TVPs are only 74mm wide, and the spur gear is centered. Therefore, for 44mm+ diameter motors like Neus, you don't have a lot of gearing options and still be able to fit in the TVPs.

IOW, from the center of the Spur to the TVP is only 37mm. Smallest spur avail is 43T (45mm) where OEM gearing for flux is 44/20. A 20T Pinion is 22mm.

The motor is located below and offset from the tranny, but not so much that you have much room to move the motor and have many gearing options. The lower you can mount the motor and minimize spur and pinion gear sizes, the better.

Heres some pics of mine
http://www.rc-monster.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24072

As the all-mighty Finn has noted, this idea will not allow a wide selection of gearing ?
Maybe the trans can be offset by a 1/4-3/8" by trimming TVP to allow this ???

Well the stock Flux doesn't allow for wide range of gearing either. :) According to the gearing app here, the standard 44/20 might be overgeared.

Anyways, thats why I planned on going with my own tvps (if possible) that use a center diff in a truggy layout. It'd basically have a whole in the middle of the tvp in which a larger motor plate would reside.

I totally agree, A CD would def be best but can't help to think about options.

I hope to try a CD arrangment first just for simplicity, a losi 8 CD should be great starting point since they are so readily availible. Just would rather have Aluminum supports for the CD. But the 3.3 Revo mount can still be used for the application via a custom made plate for these parts to reside.
And again to quote the "Mr. Finn" the Lower the better.

So, are you going to be useing the flux front and rear bulks and assemblys or are you going for somthing a little more exotic via FLM bulks ETC ?

EDIT, Heres an idea. Since the ground clearance is high and the TVP's are so tall, what about mounting a CD and running the Motor upsidedown . Low COG ???

Its worth noting too that there are two different idler gears for the flux tranny, and the new BP diffs lower the GR from the old diffs.
I'm not quite sure you mean by offsetting the tranny, as it entirely spans the TVPs and also serves as a brace. Two notches are cut in the TVPs for two nubs on the side of the trans case to rest on the TVP notches for support. Its pretty much locked in place.

Note, I'm not saying its not possible, just care has to be taken in gear and motor selection, and some planning in the mounting the motor mount so it sits low vs the tranny so more lateral movement is possible. I don't think anything larger than a 15 series can be used w/ the tranny and have any hope of fitting inside the TVPs.
Mike's new universal CD mount would work great on this app, and just ditch the heavy ass tranny all together.

LOL @ Bondo :) I know what my wife thinks about my "all-knowingness" and thinks I'm mostly "all-full-of-it".

I repeated a bit of what you guys said while I was typing.

Do you have any idea of the FDR needed on a 5T Flux?

The other problem I saw when I was looking at my Sav conversion was loosing the gear reduction of the tranny when going to a CD. The tranny has a ~2.2:1 reduction.

The bulletproof diffs are lower GR than the originals as well. 3.22 vs 3.42. With only a 3.22 reduction and no tranny, you need a big ass spur and small pinion to make a decent FDR. Of course, big ass spurs want to hang low out the bottom....

This is where I'm at a disadvantage because I've never owned a Savy, So I'm stabbing in the dark with my ideas.

Well I pretty much agree w/the wifey. I'm just being repsectfull sir. :mdr:

Sorry FDR ?? I'm a little slow sometimes.

Mmms.. you have a point there. Truggies are running a 4.3 reduction.

Agree, did not compute in my pathetic brain until quoted.

Edit, Pardon me for not thinking this through prior to posting.
What about a 1527/1500KV motor on say 8s with a CD, the gearing will still be ugly high for the application ?