Stretched e-Muggy (Baja-style) Build Thread
 

I wanted to do something a little bigger than 1/8 scale, although I love my BL Muggy. So I decided on this.

It’s based on the Muggy/LST2 platform but I’m using a 5” Aluminum channel for the chassis (.15” thick with .25” thick rails cut down to just under an inch high). I’m making a motor mount now and will get that installed attached to an 8ight CD assembly. I have Baja 5b wheels/tires and rollcage to use on it. Other than that, it will be Muggy/LST2 parts and my own (poorly-made) parts. I have the chassis cut to approximagely 5b length, but I may make it a little shorter – I’ll see how everything fits and what I think looks best before finishing the front end.

More details to follow, but I wanted to get this thread started.

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y..._4281Small.jpg

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y..._4282Small.jpg

Looking great so far!

you bastard! you beat me to it


looks good so far

Thanks for the (mostly) kind words.


Here is the Aluminum channel I started with:

6061-Aluminum-Assoc-Channel-15-x-2-25-x-5-x-48

(If you check the purchase history, I'm the only one who has bought one - back in December, when I started planning this project)

And here are the wheel extenders I'm using:

Pro-Line-23mm-Hex-Adapters

I got around to making some progress on this today - but can't post pics yet because my wife took the camera for the day. :no:

The motor mount is finished and installed, along with the CD w/100k diff fluid. Also the rear brace.

I put the rear wheels/tires on to see how it looks and it's about 19.5" wide. Not bad.

Pics will follow, I promise :yes:

Pics of progress:

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y..._4296Small.jpg

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y..._4297Small.jpg

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y..._4303Small.jpg

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y..._4304Small.jpg

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y..._4307Small.jpg

I used 1/4" Al angle for the motor mount. I'm mounting the motor as low as possible, mainly for clearance of the brake post.

I'm going to use the mechanical brakes, so I wasn't able to attach the motor mount to the CD assembly as securely as on my Muggy. I just put one small screw through the CD support near the bottom into the motor mount. But all it needs to do is hold everything in place when I tighten the mount down to the chassis.

I didn't use the Muggy rear brace, because I had no room for it - so I used the Al angle from the top of the motor mount.

I raised the CD assembly up 1/4" with spacers for gear clearance.


Here it is next to my Muggy for size comparison:

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y..._4301Small.jpg

Looking good! I'm thinking about converting my LST2 over to a Muggy to get rid of the trans. What are you going to run for a body?

-JB

No body - just a Baja 5b rollcage. (I'm terrible at painting bodies, so that makes this option especially attractive to me)

Why did you decide to go with mechanical brakes, and not the ESC/Motor brakes?

My original plan was to run 6s with a MMM or RX8. So I planned on using the mechanical brakes just to take the load off of the ESC, since this is going to be a relatively heavy truck (I'm guessing around 17-18lbs rtr).

But now I'm planning on running 8s (or 10s) with a boat controller that has no brakes - so mechanical brakes it is.

Some progress.

Motor mount completed with additional piece from this (based on the suggestions in mistercrash's thread):

http://www.hpiracing.com/products/en/103661/

Braking servo installed. Also connectors soldered on ESC and motor. I'm using CC 6.5 bullets on motor/ESC and Neu 6mm bullets on the ESC/batteries. I have some 2s batteries and a 4s that I'll be running in series to get 8s, so I wanted to change to bullets to make series connections easier. I still have to solder connectors to batteries. I'll also change my Muggy ESC to the 6mm connectors, since I use these batteries in it too.

Pics:

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y..._4342Small.jpg

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y..._4341Small.jpg

As I build this from back to front, I'm still undecided as to the length. If I leave the chassis the length it now is, it will have a 22" wheel-base (baja 5b is 22.5"). I laid everything out on the chassis today, and I could probably cut almost 2" off. I'm not planning on using a 5b body (just the rollcage), and I'm not trying to make this look exactly like a 5b, so I have no need of the length.

I'm guessing it will handle as well or better with a 20" wheelbase than with the longer wheelbase, so I'm inclined to cut it shorter.

Any thoughts?

What I could have done to get an idea what this would look like with a 20" wheel base was some high-tech computer modeling. Instead what I did was print out the following picture:

http://i779.photobucket.com/albums/y...aja5bSmall.jpg

and, since what I'm talking about is eliminating most of the gap between the front of the roll cage and the supports connected to the front shock tower, I folded the paper over to eliminate that part of the picture. When I do that, I like what I see.

I think it looks great shortened. I'm not sure how the width of the LST suspension compares to the 5B but a bit shorter might eliminate the need for wheel extenders to keep proportions. The TCS Savage conversion, for example, looks too long and skinny. It might just be me.


-JB

Here it is even shorter...

http://pics.offroadextremes.com/rc/swb_baja5b.jpg

Edit: I made a hidden change to the image, the first person to notice it gets a prize (a real prize, I just have to think of one)!