BL Terra Crusher "Electrified Crusher"
 

Hey, I am new here but been browsing this site for months. I recently picked up a terra crusher and nitro evader for an awesome price(traded the evader for a XX4 WE:027: ). They both only needed a few things to get them running. But I really hate nitro so I decided to turn this into a BL monster since I never seen it done w/ a terra crusher. I have an e maxx and this thing is built alot better and should handle better and take wrecks better. Anyways my plan is to sell all the nitro crap to fund this. This is what I'll need to do:
Custom chassis- Any ideas on design and material? must holds 16 cells, fit E maxx tranny, strong/light, use a normal size servo instead of the huge one and have plenty of room for electronics
E maxx tranny-(already have, stole from my maxx)custom mount it to the steel driveshafts that come w/ the crusher, get a G maxx single speed conv. and steel idler and later a strobe slipper.
Suspension- Lower it so the arms are parallel to the ground and dremel away the unneeded material on the arms and what not, possibly get Racerx shocks, proline shocks, or run the four stock shocks w/ thicker oil.
Tires- bowties on velocity rims (already have, stole from emaxx)
Body- Crowd pleazer or Ext F350 painted pearl blue and silver and white accent w/ some kind of lightning designs on it and a Dpp wing mount w/ mugen wing ( I live really close to DPP racing up here in alaska)
LAST but not least the motor and ESC
??? what set up should I run to power this beast? I want something affordable, fast (40+mph, and torquey. Not to powerful where I will be constantly breaking parts want a trusty reliable system. My main idea is to make this a racer and a basher too and just for the shits and giggles. Let me know what you think and the motor and esc recommendations too. This will be one of my first BL projects, I got an FLM pede I am gettin a BL system for soon. This project may take awhile to get done ($$)but it will get done.
Pics:

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Welcome to the forums! Thats a very good truck to start with. It looks as though it will be a very straight forward and simple conversion. As for chassis, with those braces, I would choose carbon fiber. Its light, sweet looking, and out of the ordinary. As for BL setups, I would choose something like a 8 or 9XL and either a Warrior 9920 and a Quark 125 controller. What motor depends on what you want, runtime or speed or both. As for shocks, I think you would like the Powerstroke shocks. With the by-pass shocks, I think it would help dampen it with such a big truck.

that definately looks like a good truck to start with.

i would go with the 9xl because it would give you good runtime and power on 16 cells. it also wont heat up very much if geared properly. Either the 9920 or quark would work well with this setup

Thanks and is carbon fiber pretty easy to work with? What kind of tools do you need to cut it? I got access to a mill and lathe so I was going to do the main chassis in aluminum and make battery holders like on the G maxx chassis, but out of lexan and lower them like on the G maxx (and use the CF G maxx batt straps) so it has a Low COG. But I would really like CF but is it hard to work with? and where online can I buy it? Thanks for the help and I think ill go with the 9920/9XL sounds pretty damn good and its pretty reasonably priced.

Hey, welcome to the family! All the power to you, nitro conversions rock! And this truck looks like a good platform to start with.

One thought: How about, instead of the obvious E tranny route, a buggy centerdiff? From my experience I can tell you that centerdiffs make the sick BL power much more handle-able (if there is such a word?). For racing, I would go centerdiff!

DAF

Exactly how does that work? I never heard of doing this, sounds interesting, so you just use a center diff from a buggy and mount the motor near it and have it turn the spur gear on it? You happen to have a pic and how to or of how this works? Sorry for all the q's but never heard of doing this. EDIT: I found some pics and get how it works now but the thing is w/ this Crusher they use driveshafts and output yokes instead of dog bones and all the center diffs I see run dog bones, There is no way that I can think of to convert the center shafts to dogbones because the center shaft is splined at the end where it goes into the f/r diffs , so I dont see that happening really. Any ideas? Also would a 9L be able to power this decently? Go atleast 40mph? and decent runtimes?

a 9L would not be able to hanlde it to well and would heat up quick.

also a center diff wouldnt be to hard since you can have custom dogbones made for it. a center diff will be much better than a tranny imo.

Actually, a center diff might not be possible because of the splines on the pinion gear in the diff. I have never seen a truck like that. If you have access to a mill and lathe, you can probably make it work though.

Yeah as you can see it is a splined axle so I dont know if anyone can make dogbones like this. I think I'll just do the tranny, I got the output yokes on these drive shafts to fit on the E maxx tranny out put shaft, just needed to drill a slight larger hole in the output shaft.
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That looks like going to make the conversion a little harder. For the size of the truck I would go with a xl motor. If you want a L motor I would go 10L for 12 cells. Should keep the heat down but don't think it is going to get the speed you want. Some of the center diffs had removible cups on them. I got one off ebay. It was for a ofna mbx i think.

Ya I am going w/ the tranny, I see you have one listed on Ebay, I may place a bid on that, its already built and all but one question are the output shafts on that tranny the same length as a normal 2 speed, in otherwords do the output shaft(center shafts connect to it) on that tranny stick out just as far as on a stock tranny? This is important because if the output shafts is shorter than the driveshafts will be to short to reach the tranny. Also will that wanderer 9xl you got listed worked pretty good for this too?

Yup,output shaft is exactly the same as on the 2-speed.

Alright cool, thanks for all the help you guys have given. I am about to tear it completely down and clean it, inspect it and replace broken/worn parts. Get all the nasty nitro gunk off of it, relieve its dirty sins :mad:1

What is good to get that oil gunk from nitro off of the plastic? It don't like to come off. It acts like it is in the pors of the stuff.

I dont know but I got this "Castrol Super Cleaner Degreaser" that I am going to try, I always use it on my quads to get off oil and dirt and gunk off of the engine. I got it all in pieces now, looks like one of my bulkheads snapped. Thinking of gettin aluminum ones but want this to be light.

Heres the parts I am planning on ordering:
Tamiya Factory Racing Pillow Ball Suspension Kit-TNX/Terra Crusher
Powerstroke shocks or Traxxas big bores
Single Speed G maxx tranny
New set of F/R bulkheads (stock, keepin it light)
Sheet of Carbon Fiber for chassis 3mm
Sheet of Lexan probably 3/16" for Battery holder
Round Aluminum stock 3/4" or so in diameter to mount the battery holder to the main chassis
Once I get all that I can get it all built and get er running

I would use AE battery cups and make a LCG chassis like the G-Maxx like what you were talking about.

Ya would those be able to hold 8 cells flat? I was just going to make battery trays like the G maxx LCG chassis w/ the cell cut outs and all and use the G maxx CF battery strap. This looks like an easier and cheaper option if it can hold 8 cells tho. I know i'll run those on my Pede for sure.

You can place them as far apart as you want, you only limitation is area to put them.

Hey thanks man you just saved me like $34 and a bunch of labor

No problem. I'm a pretty big fan of the carbon fiber. I use it every chance I get for my small stuff.

You guys know anywhere to get Carbon Fiber sheets for pretty cheap the cheapest I found was $41 for a 12.6" by 6.5" 3mm which is almost the exact measurements I need for the chassis.

Got pretty much everything I needed ordered for now to get it rolling so you will be seeing more action on this project in the next few weeks:
Traxxas Big Bore shocks $60
Proline 40 series velocity w/ Bowties (yellow rims) $60
TFR TNX Pillow ball suspension kit $50
G Maxx single speed tranny conv. $59
Steel Idler gear $15
TNX F&R Bulkheads and body mounts $20
TNX Hubs, nuts and pins $5
Total= $269
now all I really need to order is some CF.

www.graphiteelegance.com is the cheapest I've found. 6" x 12" x .125" for 18 dollars. It is very good quality for the price.

Thanks but I need a CF sheet that is just over 12.5" and I found some at some site for $41 cause that half inch makes the diff. between a chassis or chassis that is to short and wont screw in the bulkheads. Anyways I got my Pillow ball suspension today, wow its pretty nice, really beefy plastic and looks sick cause its grey. I also got my TNX bulks, hubs, and body mounts in too, alot more beefy than the Terra crusher parts and grey too. Will have pics of it together tonight. My big bore shocks and bowties should be in tomorrow and the single speed tranny conv. and idler gear in by the end of the week. Update later...

New pics:
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They have pieces that are 12" x 24". Looks good btw.

I am actually going to make the chassis in 1/4" Lexan for now and use that as a template so to speak for my CF; get some practice on making a chassis before I butcher up a nice peice of CF..

That is a good idea.

I am also thinking of ditching the LCG chassis design, because I am planning on running lipo and both of the packs together only weigh 1 pound! So honestly I dont think a LCG chassis would really make a difference. And its already going to sit low too, the arms are going to be parallel to the ground.