[lincpimp]

Interesting pic Tim, thanks!

So I scratched my head a bit, and came up with the front driveshaft on the savage 5t must be somewhere near 220mm long. Got that from the 5.6" measurement that would be needed to get the XL chassis up to the 5t bodies wheelbase and added it to the 78mm XL front dogbone....

8.6" long front driveshaft is quite a length... Not sure what the flm tranny forward rear driveshaft length is, but i cannot see it being that long...

Leaves plenty of room for batteries up front, even after you figure maybe 2" for the servo mount.

However, looking at you pic of the xl with the lipos behind the tranny I think I would prefer to use the slightly shorter wheel driveshaft (hpi p/n 86134 123mm) as the rear center driveshaft. That would move the tranny back about 1" compared to the XL, and give a bit more flexibility in the tranny mount area. It will also add almost an 1" to the front driveshaft, which could really do with a carrier bearing or something like that, considering its length.

If I make a carrier bearing I could use a pair of the 84mm driveshafts (hpi p/n 86056) which are the stock X rear center shafts. The carrier bearing assy could be whtever length I want, with a dogbone cup on each end, and be supported with a pair of cutom crossbraces with bearings... I think this is preferable to the one piece front shaft, as it will have to be quite thick to handle the loading along its lenght. And I think the carrier bearing assy will be easier to make and I like the idea of off the shelf shafts, as they tend to be the weak/wear point anyways...