Another Gmaxx is born

[JoFreak]

Great, now I'm confused...
They are 40 series? The kind of tire where everyone says they put too much strain on the steering and everything? Yet they are only 4mm wider than my standard size HPI dirtbonz. WTH!?

Originally Posted by suicideneil

Width = 89mm
Height = 144mm

Well that was somewhat unexpected! I thought you Brits still use "cow tail lengths" and "parts of Stonehenge" for measuring things
But I appreciate it man!

As for the KD parts, are you sure there actually are that many people out there who pay 300$ for his parts?
As far as I understand it's not his main business, he just makes them whenever someone orders one.
So it doesn't really matter if he sells 1 or 100 within a year.
Imo big difference to Mike, who makes these parts for a living.

And yes, Mike really needs reinforcements!
A whole company of mini monsters that does all the packaging, shipping and ordering of parts. So the big monster can concentrate on doing the creative and fun stuff!


Btw: Had a chance to form an opinion about that Savöx servo yet?

[suicideneil]

Heh, I use feet & inches or mm & cms depending on what Im measuring & what the original units of measurement were.

Admittedly, it is the traxxas forum noobs who buy the KD chassis, but like I said, if they are willing to spend that much money on a chassis that looks like mechano & is made of sub-standard metal, there has to be a market for better quality chassis at a similar or slightly smaller price point- there definitely is for the erevo though, due to the limited room for batts on the stock chassis. Mike really does need more elves...

I like the savox servo alot- its fast and plenty powerful, centers pretty much perfectly, and the price is great. For something 10lb or less I think it'd make a great servo, though I have turned up alot of similar options for a decent budget servo with metal gears:

http://traxxas.com/forums/showthread...-Now&p=4666998

Several happy customers using some really dirt cheap servos which perform great- beats paying $300 for a hitec at any rate..

[JoFreak]

Ok, I'll keep that in mind next time I have to get a new servo.

And thank's for the link to the axial tire!
I see they have nice beadlock wheels, too.
Another 100€ down the drain I guess...

[suicideneil]

Sit rep:

Took the truck out after work on Saturday afternoon, spent 3 hours having a great time blasting back and forth in the local park; as luck would have it, the grass had been cut a few days previous so that made life easier on the Gmaxx. That said, it still did its grass-collecting routine, so much fun was had de-grassing the chassis and wheels every so often, the esc too ( I need to find some old tights.... ). Lots and lots of people stopped by and asked their usual questions, even a nice posh old lady who commented her Croquet lawn would be perfect as the grass is kept very short ( don't tempt me... :D ), and was very interested when I told her about the r/c trucks similar to mine that are used in theaters of war for detonating IEDs and roadside bombs. I did have to politely turn down a young lad who wanted to steer the truck, seemed to understand the issue with me being 'upset' if something happened when he was driving though which makes a change to the usual whine or grunt / hmph of disappointment.

Damage report:

3 stripped hexes and 2 stripped rims- seems I didn't install some metal 17mm hexes when I bought these new wheels & tires, could have sworn I did. Stripped the left rear, so swapped it with the front left, then stripped it twice more :D

Luckily by the time I ran out of hex adaptors to ruin I has pretty much ran down my last pair of batteries so I called it a day. The 1518 motor behaved excellently, never got over about 130°F, the esc though did reach ~160°F at one point due to being filled with grass and the fan jamming up ( old V1 MMM with the fan that runs constantly ). I just took a cooling down break for 5 minutes every so often and removed all the built-up grass from the esc and chassis, then went back at it for another 10-15 minutes. It was also the hottest day of the year too- I recorded my head at 103°F at one point, didn't help having the sun in my face the whole time ( must bring sun shades in future + cool drink ).

I do have some video to process, but here are a few damage pictures for the time being ( click for full size ):







It's like 'going, going, gone'...

[suicideneil]

Video is up:

[youtube]ksj1z3Pd3uk[/youtube]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksj1z3Pd3uk

I wanted to mount the camera higher up & in the middle of the chassis for a better view, but I was foiled due to lack of mounting points- ended up clipping it to the upper a-arms, hence all the grass flying at the camera...

[suicideneil]

Why, it must be spring- nearly time to come out of hibernation...

[youtube]y-Cd_MJTRzc[/youtube]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-Cd_MJTRzc

As much as I loved my NeuCastle 1518 1800kv motor ( ran ice cold & tons of torque ), I just couldn't get enough speed out of the setup due to the lower kv rating + 1/8 scale differentials with a lower gear ratio + 5s lipo. So, I traded that motor for a NeuCastle 1515 2200kv version; the extra 400kv makes a big difference to the top speed I can achieve with my setup. Geared 28/52, on 5s lipo, I can achieve ~63mph- whether the truck will fly apart is another question, but here is a short video of a quick test I did...

[suicideneil]

*Holy thread revival Batman!*

Well, last year I didn't run my trucks or buggy at all ( the horror.. ) for one reason or another ( constant rain + 9 months unemployment tends to put a downer on ones mood & kills any motivation to do.... anything ), but this year things are a lot better & I certainly intend to use my trucks, and do some more video of course. Now, a while back there was some serious work done at the top of town and a rather large coach car park was built for all the horrid coaches full of tourists that plague the town every year ( or, target practice as I refer to them... ); point being that it's a seriously large area with no obstacles to hit, just a sea of smooth tarmac from one side to the other. This naturally makes for a brilliant running surface for R/Cs as we all know, but as it is I only have one set of on-road tires, those being the rather large and heavy Imex Jumbo ClawDawgs which are currently on Project Mulligan, the Gmaxx having the off-road Axial Terror-izers which would be worn bold/smooth in no time at all if used on-road. So, after a little ebay shopping....





Proline 40 Series Rages, mounted on Axial 8 spoke over sized rims. The tires actually came with some Proline Velocity 6 spoke rims, but those only had 14mm hexes; luckily the tires weren't mounted ( glued ) so I just bought some rims I liked with 17mm hexes and mounted the tires to those instead. You'll have to excuse the messy mounting job, I made the mistake of using some very runny CA glue which dribbled allover the place, but they tires are mounted very solidly so should stay on the rims with this new set up which is just begging for some warmer weather to go and test it....

[SnoopMaxx]

Hey, Neil is back

[Chadworkz]

Welcome back Neil!!! :)

[suicideneil]

*Blows off cobwebs*

Haven't been doing much r/c for a long time, but decided to take out the Gmaxx the other day and let my little nephew drive; 3 year olds aren't subtle on the throttle...


Bent one of shock mounts after an accident with a hedge row...



Straightened out with a vice and pliers.



My original lipos have seen better days, the ends are getting pretty mashed and bashed due to hitting the upper front servo plate under braking ( inertia )- velcro straps around the lipos ( end to end ) don't offer any protection. I devised a solution:





Much larger surface area compared to a 2mm thick ledge which was pressing into the top cell on either side. I think I'll just let the squirt drive the Madbull in future, much less of a handful

[Kcaz25]

It's good to hear that you do still run it albeit rarely.

If there is a bustle in your hedge row, don't be alarmed now, a hammer will come and make a straightening.

[suicideneil]

The weather is sunny, I must prepare...



















TBC

[suicideneil]

I spotted an RC Solutions rollcage on ebay a few weeks back, decided I had to have it since I've always wanted one and they are long discontinued- it's condition was.... 'rough', but I could make it work for me. I didn't like how high it sat so went about chopping bits off, drilled some new holes for mounting and stripped the anodizing with some caustic soda ( sodium hydroxide ). It came out quite well really after being cleaned up and straightened out- I didn't use the bottom plate or the two cross braces, I wanted the cage mainly for cosmetics rather than strength and it actually feels nice and stiff as it is.

Hopefully I will be able to make a new video fairly soon- it has in fact been 4 years since my last one...

[Kcaz25]

Very cool! I'm looking forward to the video!

Good job on the deanodizing.

I remember the RCCA ads showing the owner standing on top of a E-Maxx(?) with one of the roll cages on it. I wanted one too. Your truck should be pretty stout with the Strobes and the cage! lol

-Zack

[ANGRY-ALIEN]

looking good suicideneil... Feeling inspired...

Alien