Another Gmaxx is born

[suicideneil]

They are indeed sling swivel studs- a bit fatter than the body posts are but no issues fitting the body clips.

Im using an 80mm Medusa, so it will be a bit longer than a 1515 or ccneu, only about 5-6mm but its enough to make the power wires coming from the esc almost touch the motor with no wiggle room as such.

Curry is probably one of the nations favourite foods, either home cooked (Uncle ben's stuff from a jar + easy cook rice = made of win ) or from a takeaway is lush, I like the milder korma or tikka masala myself, not a fan of spicy food.

[Rivermaxx]

Hey neil I noticed my front plate my steering servo is on flexes quite a bit when , have you noticed it also?

[suicideneil]

Yeah, its quite noticeable on mine too since I run the dual steering servos. Nothing to worry about though, just another quirk of the GorillaMaxx design....

[Chadworkz]

I wonder why they chose to use such thin material, especially since the aluminum is only 6061...the G-Maxx is a perfect candidate for titanium upper and lower plates, 7075 aluminum upper and lower plates, and definitely a candidate for me to make new carbon-fiber upper and lower plates. If I decide to make some CF plates, let me know if either of you would be interested, and I will make a few extra sets.

[suicideneil]

Hmm.

7075 would have made more sense, but I do know they used thicker plates on the G3 compared to the G2, but I doubt its quite strong enough still. Ti would be awesome, but price would be an issue, especially for 2-3mm thick stuff?

Thanks for the CF plate offer though, If I manage to write the truck off next time out I may well need some new ones...

[Rivermaxx]

I think carbon fiber will flex just as bad unless it was 5mm+ 7075 I believe is too hard(brittle) to bend for a lower chassis plate. I have a .100 thick peice of titanium plate that would work perfect but have no way of cutting it with out breaking out the jigsaw and diegrinder. Chad do you know of anybody that can cut this stuff with a cnc laser or something? Btw I have a good source for this stuff its 7 7/8" x 11 1/2" for $30 shipped more quanity 10+ = better price.

[Chadworkz]

Yea, one of my best friends just happens to be Alan Johnson of Johnson's Hot-Rod Shop (7-time hot-rod builder of the year), and he has every type and kind of CNC machinery you can think of, and all I have to do is pay for materials. Problem is, all of the machines are always running, so finding time to cut my parts is difficult. I am buying my own small CNC machine soon (vertical mill converted to full 4-axis CNC), though, so I will be able to cut my own parts very soon.

I think 3.2mm CF would be pretty flex-free, because I have a hard time flexing my 2mm CF when in the proportions we will be needing for the G-Maxx parts.

Titanium can be bent with no problems, and won't weaken it any, it just needs to be bent cold. The process Hardcore, GA, and other companies use for bending Ti skids is doing it after the Ti has been brought down to below-freezing temps, sometimes using dry ice, but any household sub-zero freezer will work, maybe even a standard freezer like in your fridge.

[Rivermaxx]

I made a chassis out of good expensive 3mm carbon fiber and it flex a little too much for my likeing. Its strong stuff but when the servo moves the sterring the aluminum plate flexes a little I am sure the 3mm cf will do the same. I never realized they bent titanium when it was cold. Seems like it would be more brittle like steel or any other material when it is cold.

[Chadworkz]

I thought the same thing about Ti, but I was wrong, heh!

[suicideneil]

.100 = 2.54mm, that would be a very strong chassis indeed if made from Ti...

[Chadworkz]

My Hardcore Racing Mutant Maxx truggy conversions are titanium, 2.5mm lower plates, 2mm upper plates, and 2mm center-diff plates, and you can not flex them at all when assembled! Plus, they are very light, and look awesome! I have one that's brand-new, and one that's slightly used, but 100% complete.

[suicideneil]

Holy monkies....

So, not to be outdone by the Candyman I took the Gmaxx out today for a thorough bash session, and boy, did I bash that poor truck.

Damage report:

destroyed wheelie bar
destroyed rear-left drive shaft
bent Ti front skidplate
crippled slipper clutch
dented both 5s lipos
slightly bent whole front end of truck 1-2 degrees to one side
destroyed digital camera

The wheelie bar is great so long as you dont get to lively with the steering under power, the result of which is cartwheels that extert alot of leverage onto it. End result of some wicked-nasty large jumps was a wheeliebar bent upwards at 45 degrees, and 2 sheered screw heads holding the braces onto the bar.

Rear left driveshaft was on its way out as noted earlier, but I finally ripped it apart at the yolk. On the upside, this allowed me to experience what having a dodgey center diff must be like- no power to the rear wheels and massively ballooning front tyres. And I do mean massive, as in about 10inches diameter at full throttle, made an incredible sight and sound too, almost like a pulse jet-type grumble as the truck roared along trying desperately to get traction. No vid of that as the camera was dead by then saddly.

Whilst doing those large jumps and and down a 6-8" tall hill, I misjudged a jump and sent the truck straight into a little ledge, only about 2" high, but it hit hard enough to bend the skid right back- no damage to the chassis thankfully, just need to bend the skid back into shape.

Slipper clutch also decided it didnt want to be locked anymore, so I had to tighten that a couple times during each set of batteries. The last time it came loose I couldnt get it tight again, so had to call it a day- needs a bit of CA glue and a 2nd nyloc nut I reckon to hold it tight.

Lipo damage was annoying more than anything, seems they shifted forwards during one of my little bumps, causing the rear edge of servo plate to dig in a little bit; just made a little dent about 15mm wide and 5mm deep in the upper two cells in each pack. They still work fine.

The bad damage, slight as it is, came when I misjudged a turn and clipped the corner of a little metal framed dugout thing at the side of the rugby pitch, hit the metal pole just hard enough to bend the entire front end to one side. I think its damage to the FLM bulkheads rather than the chassis, just stretched or compressed on side a bit. Have hammer & vice, will fix

Saddly my old digital camera which was serving as the action-cam wasnt so lucky. During one big jump, the whole improvised mount it was bolted to flexed enough to allow the telescopic lens to smack against the top of the esc. Result is that it killed the little drive motor for the lens, and I just get a 'lens error' notice when I turn it on, and shuts itself off again. Even more annoying is that the video I was shooting when it died didnt get saved to the memory card , otherwise that would have made for an excellent end to the vid (grass-sky-grass-sky-grass-grass-grass-dead).

Performance:

Motor temps averaged around 130*F for most of the session, although I did reach 180*F on the last run using the A123s (forgot to stop for a break half way through the run to check temps).

Esc temps were hard to get as usual, but the highest I managed to record were 100-110*F around the caps & base of the battery and motor wires. Didnt help stuffing the fan full of dried grass like I normally do, so I will add a fine mesh over the fan grill before the next run.

Lipo temps were exellent, barely above ambient at 90-100*F, A123s temps were a bit higher, kinda nice to hold on a cool evening actually :lol, so around the 110*F mark.

Im very pleased at how well the truck stood up to the abuse, but Im thinking if I want to jump it like I was doing, then a much cheaper purpose built beater-truck will be in order, like those cheap chinese ebay items you see around, I cant justify trashing the Gmaxx for when Im in one of those 'f*ck it, lets go for it!' kind of moods- that was fine when I had the madbull that was made of rubbery plastic that would-not-break, but its not fine for an all metal 13lb truck.

So, a new project shall be beginning soon.... *dun dun dun*













Video will be uploaded once its been edited.

[emaxxnitro]

ouch neil! that looks like it took a beating.

[Bondonutz]

Sorry to hear you suffered such a loss,cameras ain't cheap. I like the looks of the large beefy tires on your Maxx even though they might be part of the cause of the axle failure ?
Nice to have a excuse to start anew !

[Rivermaxx]

Looks like you had fun though and we all know you did this because your bored and like to work on it just as much drive it lol. Try droping the camera again maybe it will fix itself. As far as the axle givin up the ghost it was bound to happen with that amount of power and those big ass tires. I had those same tires on my kids t-maxx because I didnt want him to break anything. Those tire just bounced off everthing without a scratch lol. I am really surprised you havent striped a hex yet, those are 14mm right?