Home made BL truck

[mikeylama]

Hello everyone, I'm Norbert, and this is my very first post here on RC-Monster, and I figured, I share my latest "innovation" in RC modeling :D You tell me, what was born under my hands. so, the base was two model, Hotbodies Lightning 2RR sport, and HB lightning sport stadium). So, what I did: Ditched the suspension of the stadium, and fitted the narrower buggy suspension, and wheels, along whit the main spur gear. I also grabbed my ready-to-dispose Savage body, cut into 4 pieces, and make it fit to the chassis. This is what I came out finally(besides the two bags of spares:D)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opRs_QLktzM
The diffs are need some tweaking and adjusting, bit it'll do the job. So, what does everyone's opinion? I can post some pics of the chassis, if interested. This was a pretty easy conversion, all the components were interchangeable.

So, what do you guess?

[bruce750i]

Yes! More pictures please. Your custom body chop is interesting. Looks like lowered short course truck. Thanks for sharing.

[mikeylama]

Okay, will post more pics, but BE WARNED! The pics of the body could be disturbed to certain viewers, Not for the weak and the fainthearted! I would not called it "custom":D it is rather more of cardboard and duct tape, than a normal body:D You'll see in the pics:

http://i617.photobucket.com/albums/t...ama/IMG346.jpg
http://i617.photobucket.com/albums/t...ama/IMG345.jpg
http://i617.photobucket.com/albums/t...ama/IMG344.jpg
http://i617.photobucket.com/albums/t...ama/IMG343.jpg
http://i617.photobucket.com/albums/t...ama/IMG342.jpg

The aim was a kind of a Short Course Truck, but the lack of the exact measures of a SC body makes it imposible to find one, that fit. This is approx 330mm wide, widest than most of the available truck.

One more thing(actually two) In the video, there are only 4 cell LiPo instead of 6, as in the pictures, and different motor.

[x-y]

nice car ...... ¿motor/esc/lipos/voltaje? ¿weight rtr? ;)

[mikeylama]

The setup was on the cheap side(as you can see from the body also), it was a 150A HK ESC, a noname(really no idea what brand is it, was cheap, bouht from a felow model enthusiast here in Hungary) 3660 2350 KV 2 pole motor, and 4S LiPo. Weight is 4202 gramm exactly on RTR(with onroad wheels) whith 5000 mAh batteries. maybe could bump it down to 4000 gramms whith some weight loosing(cables, etc). I guess, this is not match for he Slashs, and other 1/10 SCT, bu rather for the 1/8 cars(slayer, ofna 1/8 sct, and so on)

[simplechamp]

You could turn that thing into an on-road GT car pretty easily. The Kyosho Inferno GT2 is basically the same thing: truggy chassis with buggy suspension. The bodies would be the right size. Guess it depends on if you are into that, but I just built one and it's a blast.

I think the motor is an Align 600L or 600XL heli motor. Are you sure it's 2350kv? All the listings I see for the Align are 1650kv.

[Overdriven]

The motor in the pics looks like a Align, but he said the motor in the video is different than the one in the pics. Cool RC man. Its a little different, and we like that. Whatever it takes to have fun right?

I haven't checked the measurements, but an Associated SC8 body should be about right in the width and wheelbase department for the short course look. And as Simplechamp said, since the chassis is a truggy, Kyosho GT2 bodies (GT and Ofna GTP bodies are shorter) should be about right too. But beating the snot out of a RC and only having to duct tape the body back together is more fun than scuffing up a new body! So go do some more beating

[mikeylama]

Yep, thanks for the cheering words.
@simplechamp: yes, you are absolutely right, on the pictures, that is an Align 1650 KV motor, but since it was overheating like crazy, I swapped it. Now I'm thinking on a 3674 size motor, somwhere in the 200-3000 KV rating. What do you guys think?

@Overdriven: I dig the GT2 class cars, however this chassis is a tad(about half inch) shorter, tried on a Kyosho body, and that was particular longer. I'd prefer a rally body, but did not found one.

[Overdriven]

I know you used the truggy chassis because it's longer, but the buggy chassis should be perfect for the rally bodies. The longer chassis should be a little more stable and easier to control of you like driving sideways (drifting) though. All depends what you want though.

As for the motor. Personally I'd stay more towards 2000kv for the motor. It'll give you more gearing options to tune your speed and temps without having to resort to really small pinions. Especially if youre thinking about a 2 pole feigao or similar motor. I actually run a cc1518 (1800kv) on 5s, geared 18/51 (about 50mph) in my buggy. BrianG has a speed calculator you should play with to crunch some numbers to see what will work for you. Sorry I'm on my phone, no link, I know it's a sticky somewhere onsite though.

[mikeylama]

Overdriven,
Thanks a lot, than I guess I'll stick around the 2200 kv area, that should be ok. I really'd like to get one SC body, because that thing is a blast IMO, but the rally cars are hell of a lot funs as well. If I'm going to move up on the ladder of LiPo cell count, that will be the 6s5000 configuration. What do you recon, should I hook up to the 3660 motor to 6S LiPo? Will it survive?

[Overdriven]

If it's a 2 pole 3660 motor like a feigao, it probably won't survive depending on it's Kv. Those type of motors generally only stay cool if kept under 35k rpm, 2350kv on 6s is probably going to heat up pretty quick. A heatsink with fan and keeping the speed under 45mph will help, but I'd keep a close eye on temps if you're going to try it. And if you're new motor is going to be a 3674 2 pole run on 6s I'd get a Kv of 1700 or less to keep the Rpms and temps down. You can always slap a bigger pinion on it if everything is within safe limits. http://scriptasylum.com/rc_speed/top_speed.html is the link to the speed calculator, you can play with different Kv, voltage, and gearing to figure out speed and Rpms. Check out the rest of the site for other help deciding on motor size and Kv as well.

[mikeylama]

Overdriven, thank you for the useful advices. This motor would turn above 39K, and that is a lot more, than you suggested for safe zone(in this setup, the temperature goes up to 50-55° celsius, so I guess I drop the 6s LiPo). I've made another conversion-actually two more- but both of them are in experimental phase, I have to find out the weakness in them. One of it is a savage x, the other is a Serpent 720 '08. Both of them are in working order, but I want to throw on them everything to smooth out the rough edges :)