DesertBoy 17 Brushless Build (big pics inside)

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candre23

candre23

Active Member
Messages
101
I've only recently been sucked into this hobby, but it didn't take long for me to get bored with the cheap 1/10 2WD stuff I started out with. I wanted a big 4WD monster truck, and I wanted to build it from scratch. My research said the Savage was the only way to go, both for its durability and the plethora of mods and hopups for the platform. So I poked around the internet, asked questions, laid out my plan, and sold off my airsoft collection to pay for it all.

I started with this, a frankensteinish Savage X roller that I bought off Crash for the very reasonable sum of $135. It even came with the extra bits you see in the pic.
rollera.jpg



I started by tearing everything to bits, taking absolutely no notice of what went where. This will probably bite me in the butt before I'm done.
dirtyparts.jpg



Tonight I spent a couple hours with a bucket of simple green and a toothbrush giving everything a good once over. It's not exactly clean, but it's cleanish. Cleaner than before, at least. Threw everything in a box to dry while I cleaned off my work table.
cleanparts.jpg



Tomorrow the real fun starts. Here is about $1100 worth of nice new parts that I'm going to somehow combine with the box of old parts and hopefully end up with a truck.
newparts.jpg



I know I could have bought a nice Savage Flux for half of what I've already spent on this project. I know I would have been driving it for the last week, instead of still having a week or two worth of work ahead of me before this is even ready to run. But I've never built something this complex before, and it's really more about the experience than just having a nice truck. I also wanted something that would be bigger and badder than stock. Something that would stand out. Between the DB17 chassis, the wide axles and the full-offset SPI rims, This should be an impressive beast.

I will update this thread as the truck comes together. I'm sure it's nothing you guys haven't seen a dozen times, but I'd like to document it for my own personal satisfaction.
 
wow looks like all my parts when i did my build... YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE FUN!

but i am going to point out something that i bet you didnt notice or maybe you will do something different.

If you are using a savage transmission, and i see your using a kershaw motor mount...

I bet you didnt think of this, because of the arches on the tvps which add support to the chassis are raised considerably. When you forward mount the tranny and somehow fit the kershaw mount. The motor will be protruding outwards from the chassis. This means the motor will be hitting on the archers, let alone the kershaw mount fitting. And if you are not using a stock motor plate then you need some braces to fill the space as to not lose any structural integrity

Do a test fit quickly and see if this happens... If it does, you may need to buy a stock motor plate and fit it normally, which i suggest you do anyway because it will be better for your LCG and piece of mind knowing your expensive motor isnt hanging by a couple of screws (the extra length of the tvps, when cartwheeling puts a lot more force on the internals etc... But thats just me i guess.... I like to build with as much piece of mind as possible considering all the horror stories with Brushless...

As you are using XL axles and the full offset rims like myself, be prepared to buy a lot of bearings. I change my wheel bearings every 8-10 runs now as the offset just kills them.

Get some gorilla tape for those badlands... they balloon uncontrollably so gorilla tape fixes that problem...

Another thing i would recommend.. is having a whole load of shims. I noticed that the xxl length of the chassis finds weak spots in the build and can have an annoying effect on handling (considering with the xxl chassis we can actually put the power down compared to stock and xl lengths)... so shim out your axles, your diffs, get rid of any unwanted movement...

Keep us posted
 
great start

cant wait to see your new bl
 
J1A1H said:
Do a test fit quickly and see if this happens... If it does, you may need to buy a stock motor plate and fit it normally, which i suggest you do anyway because it will be better for your LCG and piece of mind knowing your expensive motor isnt hanging by a couple of screws
Click to expand...
Whether I can fit the kershaw motor mount or not, the stock motor mount is a no-go. It's made for a 40mm diameter motor, and the feigao is 45mm. There's no way the clamps will fit.
 
oh yea i remember you mentioning that, and remember you saying you don't want to do the work yourself dremelling it out...

If thats the case, GCM (the people you got your tvps from) will hapily mill your stock motor mounts out to 45mm for you!!!
 
Damn, you're right about the kershaw mount. I stock the TVPs on the tranny to see if I could get things to line up, and it's a definite no-go. The only place it fits is not properly positioned for the motor to connect with the tranny.

The stock clamps are definitely not an option. You know what you had to go through to grind off 1.8mm? I would have to grind off 5mm. There would hardly be any mount left. I definitely need an endbell mount like the kershaw, but with the mounting holes in different places. I wonder if I could get GCM to make something that would work? Anybody know how much they charge for custom work? I'm sure it ain't cheap...
 
custom work is not cheap by GCM... IMO you should sell the motor and get a better castle neu motor which is an appropriate size. You got that motor from kershaw and as i said before, it is just a rebranded motor from hong kong. Others on this forum know about dan from kershaws reputation. This is my opinion and i think many others would agree, especially on RC Monster.

You should definitely consider this option as i do can not think of any other ideas as the size of the can will not work with a motor plate mounting position and will not work with a kershaw mount similar to yours.

What do you think your best bet is? You can still get a refund for the motor you bought from kershaw cant you?
 
If I swap out the feigao motor, I still don't have a good bolt-on option. The neu 1520 that you have still requires a lot of grinding. The 1717 would be better still, but it's even larger than the feigao that I have now. I'd have to downgrade to the stock flux motor to use the mounts.

There is one option. Kershaw makes a replacement gearbox that would definitely work with my TVPs and my motor. It's $100 though, and it just doesn't look all that durable.

I'll send kershaw an email telling him that his mount doesn't fit with my TVPs and ask what my options are for returning/exchanging the mount and the motor for something that will work.
 
I had a look at that direct drive unit. Some others here have tested it with good feedback, but not many alltogether have because if gears go wrong, there is only one place you can get them.
Stick with the stock tranny for your ease and benefit. The 1717 i will tell you now may not fit as its a very long can. I would definitely recommend getting my motor! as i said, GCM will sell you some motor mounts milled out perfectly as they offered them to me, but i said no as i would give it a go myself.

I think this is probably your only and best option. The direct drive will require more custom drive shafts as well...
 
Geeze, didn't even think of the driveshafts. It would a lot easier if kershaw sold the 1520 and I could just do an exchange and pay the difference. He does sell a 2200kv motor/esc combo (1 1515, I think?), so maybe I could trade for that.
 
I know, i know, i learnt the hard way. No one had done the db-17 conversion and knew the info before i did it, so had to learn the hard way...

2200kv seems adequate, but you have to take a few things into consideration...THe extra length and the extra weight at the front of the truck will change the handling compared to a stock flux. I think you would be better going with a motor of 1800kv or less. This means more torque, less heat, more efficient and better run times.
I have seen plenty use the stock torq 2200kv... but then i would just run it on 5-6s and gear the pinion a little lower to put less stress on the motor and give you some nice torque too.

Its all on you now, and you definitely learnt the hard way... but it happens. Just stick with the stock tranny and work back from there.
 
Still poking around the internet while I wait to hear back from Dan. Perhaps the FLM motor mount would be an option? I'm not sure what it mounts to though. There are no holes in the sides, so it obviously doesn't screw into the TVPs itself. Is it supposed to attach to the flux motor plate?
 
yees you would have to make your own holes in the motor plate to attatch to it, but you hit the nail right on the head. It appears it will be too high to sit under the spur on the tranny or too low to sit above the spur.
I looked at that mount but wasnt even possible to find in stock...
I wish you luck with Dan...
What ideas have you got with your motor choice...??? thinking about the 2200kv? or a little lower???

What helped me work out what motor i was going to run and how many cells i was going to run was calculating what sort of speeds i wanted to achieve and work out the appropriate gearing that will not cause too much stress for the motor, and allow me to run it for as long as i want without causing too much stress for the ESC either. Use this RC Calculator if you haven't used it yet...
http://scriptasylum.com/rc_speed/_top_speed.html
 
sorry just reading the post back and it was a terrible explanation... its quite late and was disrupted 3 times taking me 3 hours to type... will type a better explanation in the morning...
 
another option is to contact GCM (or Dan Kershaw) and have them make you a custom mount.

its worth an email to GCM caz he would be most familiar with your goals and might give you a good price where you bought his tvps. :dunno:
 
Stay away from tne integy mount... also i wouldnt use your nitro motor mount, if i am correct and maybe frddy can chime in, but the nitro mount is 2.5mm thick and the flux motor plate is 3mm. I have a feeling the nitro mount will twist or flex and cause mesh problems. You are looking at some powerful motors after all.

Definitely contact GCM... A motor mount may not be hard to fabricate as he knows his own chassis.
I think you easiest and quickest option would be to return the motor you have, get a similar motor to mine, and get gcm to mill out the stock motor mounts.
This way you will have a better motor than the one dan supplied you and strong reliable motor mounts which dan can get to you within a week.

Or even easier, get the stock torq 2200 motor and place that in the stock mounts. Depends how desperate you are to get running...

keep us posted
 
Dan from Kershaw says he can make me a suitable motor mount for the DB17. Still waiting to hear back from him with the details.

I know feigao doesn't have a stellar reputation compared to castle, but this is a newer and much larger motor than the feigao cans that most people are familiar with. I'm willing to give it a shot if he can get me a mount that will let me use it. If the motor is crap or the mount doesn't hold up, well, I can always cross that bridge when I come to it. Right now, nobody makes a "generic" motor mount for the flux that will take a larger-than-stock motor. Grinding down the stock clamps is an inelegant solution, and still limited to cans that are only slightly oversized. I'm hoping Dan will see this as an opportunity to fill a gap in the market and come up with something good.

Meanwhile, I'm working on the other parts that don't require the motor. Got tranny converted to single-speed, the diffs upgraded with bulletproof kits and the bulks/towers assembled. Now to try to get the steering/suspension together.
 
gd luck with that... looking forward to seeing this as it will be a first. haven't seen anyone mount the motor above the tranny on the db-17 conversion.

Keep us posted!
 
I'm really hoping it won't be above the tranny. I'm hoping he will come up with something that will fit down where the stock motor sits. I even thought up with an easy way to secure the back end of the motor as well.In fact, I think I'll shoot him another email with my ideas. Couldn't hurt.

If things don't work out with kershaw, I'll try GCM. They're closed this week, so no point in contacting them now. Maybe, hopefully, if I can convince them that this would be a viable aftermarket part to stock, they can make something up and charge me a reasonable price for it instead of a one-off custom price. I have to think that there are other people who want bigger motors in their flux or flux conversions.
 
another heads up... i ran into probs even with my smaller motor compared to yours.

You will need to cut a part of the tvp out in order to fit the motor correctly... well i had to anyway. Place the motor in straight, with a pinion on the end of the motor shaft and see if it can fit.

Oh yea... GCM said they were away. Chris there is great, he managed to make and send my custom rear shaft in 2 days. Legend!
 
No mechanical brakes. They're 40c rated, so they should hold up OK. HK was all out of 5k 6s packs when I was placing orders.
 
J1A1H said:
another heads up... i ran into probs even with my smaller motor compared to yours.

You will need to cut a part of the tvp out in order to fit the motor correctly... well i had to anyway. Place the motor in straight, with a pinion on the end of the motor shaft and see if it can fit.
Click to expand...

I did this when I was trying to get the kershaw mount to work. It fits fine, though it does stick out the side of the TVP. The one side has a pretty big opening, so as long as the mount puts the motor in the right place, it shouldn't be a problem.
 
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