Mike M's brushless XL truggy thingy

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4X4FABGUY

4X4FABGUY

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15
Alright guys here I go, I will start from the beginning. I found this on craigslist and traded it for a th350 chevy trans. The guy had attempted to convert it to brushless. The first pic is the fine jewel of a motor mount he had in the truck. Yeah thats a 2x4 block of wood. He never mentioned that in the add, go figure. He had the three speed trans in there too which I learned here is a bad idea. There were no brakes in the truck either so thats why I started fab work but, I may have gotten out of hand. I really wanted to just drive the thing but I considered undrivable the way it was so I took it apart and started building a new flat chassis from a chunk of 6061 aluminum. Heres a pic of the chunk with a few holes drilled. I never do to much to make it look good till I am done, I have learned in the past by making stuff look real good only to ruin it on the final machining process. Or have a hole drilled just far enough off to have to trash the thing. So now I do not do any finish work untill all the holes are drilled and machine work done and if every thing fits then its bling time. So heres a couple pics for now, not much yet but I have lots more done now I just have to take more pics. More coming soon. Thanks for looking. Mike M
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These pics have a bit more to see. These are all the aluminum bits I have made so far, None are finished yet. I am working on the upper deck now. I got the center diff from my truggy parts box, Its a hot bodies lightning stadium pro, 50 tooth. I got 9,10 and 11 tooth pinions for it and I hope it puts me where I want to be gear ratio wise. I plan to run a mamba monster controller and a mamba 1515 2200kv motor on 4s. Mike M
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Hi Guys, I don't have anything else to show for now, I am sitting here tapping threads into parts so I thought I would show you guys the inspiration for the truggy conversion. Heres the track in my backyard. I had fun driving my last savage around it but it did not corner well at all, I hope this version will make it around the track a lil better than a stock one. But what its really about is big air! I want to hit the big berm at the end of the straight and carry enough speed to hit my double double section and turn it into a real big quad. Thats about 50ft+ air time. And I have a terrible urge to run the straight wide open and not turn, just launch off of that big berm in the last pic. Its 7ft tall. I have had savage owners show up and hit that over and over again and soon I will too. I think theres potential for lots of big freestyle air on my track I was just scared to bust my race trucks. I can't wait to give this thing a good thrashing. Mike M
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WOW!! thats a heck of a"mount" right there!!! lmao but that track looks awsome,thanks for sharing......
 
I wish I had a bulldozer and property like that. I would make the track so big you wouldn't be able to see your car.

I love the track, and I am also interested in middle dif setup. I wish I had my other laptop but I found a place that makes a single speed idler setup to drop in for the trans.
 
Awesome track Mike!!! :rock1: Will be watching for more pics of your build!!
 
Thats one heck of a custom motor mount, lmao.

Interested in seeing how this comes together.
Nice track you got yourself there. I gotta drive 45 min to the lhs, and its not nearly as nice.
 
Thanks alot guys. I wish you all lived close enough to come drive here. Its been lots of work to build the track but worth it to me just to have it. I don't make a dime with it, I let people drive here for free. But I may hand you a rake or a shovel from time to time, lol. I got a bit more done tonight so I thought I would show you the progress. Here it is with the top deck on. I still need to make my servo mount and countersink all the bottom chassis holes. And find some places to lighten it up a bit, its getting heavy. I made the wheelbase right at 17 inches. I hope to test drive it next weekend. I also need to go look at body threads and see what kind of body to put on a truck this long. Thanks guys. Mike
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Hi guys, I made some more progress, I got the parts the fasten the upper deck to the bulkheads done, and the servo mounts, I also counter sunk the bottom chassis holes. Heres some pics with some components mounted. Thanks for looking. Mike.
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WOW I'm liken this....keep up the pics
 
Hi guys, Thanks for The comments. I am glad you like it. Last night I was trying to figure out how to lighten up my upper deck plate and I decided to make one from carbon fiber instead. Its much lighter but it flexes more then I wanted. I think I will add a brace to it and see how it feels. I may also do a carbon cover over the aluminum after I cut it to lighten it? Not to sure yet but I want it to be very sturdy. Heres what the carbon deck looks like. Thanks for looking. Mike
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Wowzers, looks good and using this idea you can make the nitro savage a bump start as well.
 
Hey guys I got this thing together. I have been busy doing the boring stuff like cleaning bearings and filling diffs. Its not done yet but I could not take it anymore and I had to do some testing. Man this has exceeded my expectations by a great deal. I have never driven an 1/8 scale brushless before and I am sure impressed by the power it has. Actually blown away by the power. I am only on 4s but wow it spanks. I put 100000wt oil in the center diff. 7000 up front and 5000 in the rear and it seems to work great. I thrashed this truck and it was awesome, With some steering mods and suspension work this will turn lap times almost as fast as my race truck. I caught some huge air and was laughing like a mad man watching this fly across terrain that would crash my other trucks. I now fully understand why you guys love these trucks. What a blast. I did have some breakage but I kinda expected to the way I was driving, gotta find the weak links ya know. I broke a shock shaft and a rear hub where the tie rod attaches. So who makes the strongest shocks? Thanks for looking, I will keep posting updates as I get more done. Mike M
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This is awesome! Love it!!! i wanted to do something similar!

Big Bore shocks from a flux are very strong! definitely try them out..

Remove the rear tie rods by running integy rear tie rod delete hubs. Only decent product integy make!
 
Thanks J1A1H, I will add those parts to my list of stuff. Well I went for the ultimate test and ran the thing on 6s. WOW, insane. Even with the center diff and 17 inch wheelbase it wheelies wildly, I even have the mamba torque setting at 90%. The front end comes up and the tires get the size of diner plates instantly. I see now 4s is plenty but I had to try 6s one time. Vulgar display of power. I broke a rear hub carrier after an unreal amount of tumbling, still drives though just cracked. One more reason to get the integy deletes. Thanks for looking. Mike M
 
Hi, Thanks guys, Miller, I did not have a 5s to try but I could see how it would be the way to go, 6s is a bit much. Fluxinator, cornering was my main reason for lowering the cg like I did, My first savage did not handle the corners on my track well at all, It would just traction roll. This one is on rails. With the XL terra pin tires it corners very well, far better than a stock savage, I do not have a traction roll problem at all but just for fun I put on my HPI dirt bones and I bet I could turn lap times almost as fast as my hot bodies truggy. The 17 inch wheelbase lets me slide the back end around the corners without spinning out. I wish I had the brake bias adjustment the truggy has but o well. I would like to try a sway bar kit now and see if that helps. Anybody run them?
 
Hi Shark, The truck came with a black proline gmc topkick body, I run that for now. I have been looking for something better but the choices for a truck this long are pretty slim. It looks like theres only two choices I have found so far the one I have and the stock one. And even those don't fit right. Maybe I will make a rail type outer tube cage for it and not run a body. I like working with the metal tubing. I have some pratice building crawler cages. Maybe a bigger version of this chassis cage I made but less crawler looking and more desert race buggy like. I think that might look good.
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that crawler look is awesome--- crawler looking savage flux would be killer!

your truck is awesome and i too would like to see some video. +rep
 
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