Arct1k- yeah, I think I will be requiring your services as those braces will cost $76 to replace (ouch), so some smuggling will be required I think to avoid imort taxes once again. PM sent.
Maxxfreak- I was concentrating on the truck so hard I didnt see the steps that I smashed into at about 20-25mph. No other damage though, truck still ran fine pretty much until the tranny conked out on me. I will post up a video of highlights a bit later.
Okay, so we did a little experimenting with my banged up truck today. After the collision and subsiquent straightening out, I couldnt fit the front center driveshaft without it getting bound up due to the slightly manlged X-braces, so I left it out and made the truck RWD only. Well, this had an interesting effect on the handling, to say the least. Even more violent lurching, a few spin outs, and some even madder tire ballooning than normal (I cant find any jumbo sized foams, help?), but I was able to control the truck still, more or less. The lipos however are going onto ebay, as they didnt like the freshly cut damp grass (the guy was just finishing up when I arrived thankfully), and the lack of punch and power was rather dissapointing compared to the A123s.
So, the A123s then, they performed brilliantly, and I had enough power to ride infinite wheelies thanks to the RWD and drag-bar (see: mother of all wheelie bars thread). Im definately sticking to 5s lipo voltages for all my future setups, and some zippies will be on the shopping list after xmas; I will finish paying off my credit card in november, so that gives me an extra $130 or so each month to play with- mo batteries baby!
Last experiment was an accidental one, but I can safely say it went well. Due to the lovely weather recently, there were some big puddles of muddy water on the field, and I accidently drove through them three times, each time sending huge rooster tails of mud, grass and water into the air and onto the truck. MMM didnt even flinch, nor did anything else, which is rather impressive since the fan on the MMM was stalled the whole 2 hours due to being clogged with damp grass. Thats right, the fan was running but stalled, and the BEC didnt go pop or anything else, the esc just kept running and did so without breaking a sweat. When you get a good MMM, its the best esc ever.
No video this time, I wanted to concentrate on driving and enjoying myself- here are some pictures I took when I got home; after I cleaned off most of the dirt...
Nice update Neil, looks like that truck took a fair beating. Good to see your MMM is going strong as well!! Can't wait to see what you have in store for those slightly mangled X-braces
With handy grass collection feature. That said, I really do wish the guys who use the ride-on mowers to cut the grass where I bash to would use the grass collection boxes on the back of the mower or something, its just taken me nearly two hours to strip and clean the truck.
Oh yes, I forgot to mention- I had to stop my bash yesterday after 2 hours due to the slipper clutch melting. The plate which bolts to the spur (3.3 spec) cracked, so it couldnt apply much pressure when tightened up, and so now I have a partially melted brand new 72tooth spur (I made it fit the new style slipper quite easily)- not happy. It also looks like the pot metal plate has melted and bits of it are stuck to the friction plate thingy- I'll have to post pics tonight, its a total mess.
Im so pissed off that Im actually going to revert back to the old style slipper, and lock it up like before just using an extra bushing thing (with the hex in the middle) instead of the spring- never had issues with that setup, the newer style one is a pain in the anus.
More damage discovered. Thankfully it was only a small bend, so my good friend Mr. hammer helped me out and got it nice and flat again
Got my new X-braces today, so the truck got rebuilt good as new, shame I cant say the same for the slipper though- toast. I have down-graded it back to 3906 spec, and its perfectly solid. Locked ofcourse, since any degree of slip as I found equals melted spurs and scorched bearings... (traxxas engineers = epic fail).
On that slipper - did you grind down the backside of the plate when you first installed it (to decrease the spur offset)? Just curious - I'm going to start mine tonight, and since my Neu has such a long shaft, I was considering not doing that part.
Losi 8T 1.0, Savage Flux - XL style, LST XXL, Muggy, 3.3 E-Revo Conversion and sitting outside 425hp, 831 Tq Dodge Ram Turbo Diesel. It SMOKES
I paid TDC57 to make me the conversion 'kit', and the fins are ground off on the rear slipper disc yeah. He also cross drilled the new input shaft so that the pin (and therefore slipper assembly as a whole) could be placed nearer to the tranny- if you have a motor with a long shaft, I wouldnt worry too much, you can just flip the pinion around so that the teeth line up with the spur as required.
Dang, that is one hell of a truck. I love it, its so low and wide . How much $$$ you have spend in it ? What kind of battery setup are you using, A123?
I've finished spending money on this thing now, apart from the 70mm medusa which is yet to be released, so I think I've spent somewhere in the $3200 range, havent calculated it precisely, nor do I want to...
I currently use 2 pairs of 6s A123 packs for a 6s2p each run, works very well and gives pretty good runtime. I also recently purchased some nice new lipos, which will unveiled shortly after their maiden run on video
Nope, Im happy being a one-truck guy really. I plan to save up and get a real car (or trike) next, and do my driving lessons and test obviously. I would like an RC boat though, just got to research more into that for a while before making any purchases.