Duratrax raze buggy conversion

Originally Posted by Raze ST Truggy

Aluminum chassis braces are a must. I've got the bent dog bones to prove it. Right now on my nitro Raze ST Truggy the rear dogbone is so bent that it can't turn a full rotation. Thats from hitting a parked car tire at around 25mph. I bought a set from summit last year then they had that big sale on Raze parts.

-Brian

Sounds like user error to me Just bugging you. Probably a good upgrade for sure. The funny thing is, the braces will be almost as much as I paid for the buggy itself!

Originally Posted by lincpimp

I like your corr truck idea. I too am not that fond or truggies. I have had at least 6 of them so far and sold them all. I just prefer MT, and 1/8 buggies.

Looks like you have a fair amount of work ahead! I always buy used stuff, the cleaning time is well spent as you get to learn the vehicle while taking it apart. It is like building a kit, only much cheaper, and much dirtier. I usually do the work by hand with a bucket of water and a selection of small scrub brushess, but I think I will step up to the steam cleaner next time to get the bulk of the grime off...

My wife was already scolding me for cleaning out the center diffs in the kitchen earlier. I had paper towel handy! As I travel a lot for work, I tend to take advantage of the fact that I can clean up parts in a hotel room bathtub and not worry too much about anyone yelling at me (no, I don't use their towels, etc., just not something I'd be able to get away with at home!).

I agree, I love building or stripping down rc's. I always want to see what makes them tick. I've never been a big fan of rtr!

Originally Posted by phildogg

Hey before I saw your post I made one in the brushless forum. I'm getting a st. looking to convert it also. what gearing you looking at going with?

Haven't gotten that far yet. If I recall correctly, I think a general gearing recommendation for buggies is about 44/14. Don't know what the spur gear is on either truck yet, but the buggy is definitely smaller, and not much room in there for a bigger spur gear.

After cleaning out the center diffs, it was easy to tell that the vehicles were well maintained, despite the dirt/dried up nitro fuel. Bevel and spider gears were in good shape and the bearings looked and felt brand new with a bit of cleaning.

Running at 4S using 2350 KV brushless

Looks good!

Made some progress on the buggy. Completely tore it down, cleaned everything, rebuilt the diffs and shocks and built it all back up. Only damage (other than a few stripped screw heads) was one bent front dogbone.



Removing the anodizing proved to be a complete pain. Usually I hit parts with the yellow-cap easy off and a few minutes later, presto. I did the same thing this time, waited a couple minutes, nothing, waited a couple minutes more, still nothing. After about 15 minutes, there was a tiny bit of anodizing gone. Not sure why, but I'm stuck with the blue for now until it warms up enough outside that I can hit it with some draino gel.

Motor mount is sitting in customs right now, so I should have it by early next week.