My Savage 5B conversion by Alza Racing.

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

pietrOmertaBMC

Active Member
Messages
108
:stupidcoffee: it all began with that and a fast clicking finger on the internet to order lol :)

Since i saw a friend of mine drive his baja i wanted something big too but i don't like the sound of gas/nitro engines anymore so i started looking for a conversion.

I knew the tcs conversion and the one from kershaw but the Alza conversion just made me drewl lol So i clicked away and about 1 week later it arrived at my doorsteps.

Again with some coffee i unpacked it and here we go!

The chassis: Flux 5b Conversion KIT - Alza-Racing

1555hn4.jpg


comparison with a Gcm DB 17 chassis (meer info: -> GCM Racing WebStore - DesertBoy Flux Chassis Kits ) :

33epon8.jpg


Alza dogbones vs stock ;)

2qvw9so.jpg


Alza racing 3mm bulkhead plates

316nuw7.jpg


Bulkhead Brace conversion kit (for the lower hinge pins hinge pins) Bulkhead Brace conversion kit - Alza-Racing

23iukw3.jpg


29443e9.jpg


33mbm6h.jpg


kew20m.jpg


2a6sh7b.jpg


16jsqs.jpg


alza racing jumbo servo plate:

15f20kz.jpg


A conversion like this needs a big servo so i added my Rhino 4 and it performs great!


2wgaw4z.jpg


5efqfq.jpg


everything is measured perfectly so it's just drop in and screw tight, very easy to do.

Wanted to upgrade my steering parts also so i bought the Golden horizon steering upgrade: Golden Horizon - High quality CNC machined aluminum RC car option, hop up parts and accessories.
Added and greased all new bearings and its smooootthhhh now...

2zrpch5.jpg


erzbfa.jpg


n17c5l.jpg


Alu steering knuckles/C-hubs (Golden horizon - Golden Horizon - High quality CNC machined aluminum RC car option, hop up parts and accessories. & Golden Horizon - High quality CNC machined aluminum RC car option, hop up parts and accessories. ) , hpi XL axles (HPI 86249 - Super Heavy Duty Wide Axle 8x11x59mm Savage XL (2Pcs) ) a 17mm hex conversion set by losi (http://www.mbs-racing.nl/shop/index.php?action=article&aid=53536&group_id=20000262⟨=NL ).

28vq4pk.jpg


sg34f7.jpg


integy rear hub carriers coz they kick butt! ( HD Rear Hub Carrier for Savage XL, Flux & X 4.6 RTR for R/C or RC - Team Integy )

28mikxl.jpg


flux diff + motormount/plate van alza racing.
I knew when i bought this conversion i wouldn't stop at the tvps so i bought the jumbo motor plate for future plans ;)

9irdoy.jpg


2uqenfq.jpg


I recycled the standard bulkhead plate to mount the esc and radiobox.
Radiobox is from my Robitrobtronic mantis wich has plenty of room for cables, easy to open and i could fit the on-off swith from my esc in it!

5mhhk.jpg



2uraywj.jpg


in the chassis:

2zzunfa.jpg



to cool the engine a bit i bought 2 yeah racing fans (Yeah Racing Fan - Yeahracing - Yeah Racing Tornado High Speed Cooling Fan 30 x 30mm for Motor Heat Sink )

attached to the chassis and plugged into the esc for the moment (plan to connect them to a small LiPo) coz they loose speed when i steer.

vzyomf.jpg


33yi8es.jpg


2n0ndw4.jpg


28bw67m.jpg



I removed the front bumper and added something bigger, a worx baja bumper. because of that the front hinge pins could slip out to easy so i made these little buggers to hold them in place. link to the worx bumper --> ( RC Tuning Raalte ) .

2irag0k.jpg


j742ns.jpg


w1isp.jpg


the body (fg monster beetle) will probably be fitted with these bodyposts:

4ihgzo.jpg


some pics of the finished monster :)

2me98bb.jpg


256d8vd.jpg


I ordered some LST shocks and the body will arrive soon but i like the looks of it allready!

all electronics are standard, only the servo is upgraded.
the beast runs on: 44/18 gearing, 6cell 5000mah 40c LiPo's and i drink coffee and beer lol :)

here's a small clip of the first testrun.

[YOUTUBE]G9XiwR-zeu0[/YOUTUBE]

hope you like it!
 
allmost forgot, I also did this mod to the wheel hexes and rims, hope this will prevent most chances to stripping but never say never of course...

I bought some steel wiring in the same diameter as the pins and just cut them off in the size i wanted.
Then i had to dremel a little bit in the rims, they're axial rims and you can see the little recesses in the rim. Those recesses i just dremeled them enough so the pin drops in with allmost no movement possible.

This is how it looks

2ufyru1.jpg


xg0gp4.jpg


2ildngg.jpg



think this will hold up but time will tell for sure.
 
I'm happy with the big joes, maybe if everything gets stripped but i still have 3 sets of tires left so it can take a while lol
 
sounds like a great idea. Don't see why it wouldn't work
 
I ordered a new motor for my conversion, a 1717 from Castle :) It's bigger and meaner lol
It also has the 6mm shaft so i had to mod all my pinions to 6mm. Fortunately the guy from the rc shop knew somebody who could do it for 7euro per pinion (took 30minutes per pinion lol!) so i can still use all my different pinions so it's actually pretty cheap :)

this is the motor compared to the old one.

el5lc1.jpg


it's a heli version though so it had some holes in the back and front but since collecting dust isn't a good idea i did this small mod to the engine. It should be pretty dust/dirt proof now.

for the frontside i cut out a piece of plexy and just attached it with 4 screws, pretty simple....

auf6oo.jpg


2z3xmo0.jpg


for the endbell i cut out the same piece in plexy, drilled holes for the shaft and the 3 motorwires and covered the hole for the shaft with an extra piece of plexy. The end of the shaft peeps out a bit and otherwise the plexy plate wouldn't rest on the backplate.

55gu8l.jpg


motorwires through the holes.

mmymo2.jpg


everything fits nicely :)

jsgbbo.jpg


then i glued it with rubberglue for tires

315lwdx.jpg


and i finished it off with some silicone

qy8e8l.jpg

this should be pretty dust and dirtproof i hope.

can't wait to test it out!
 
saw nothing special since i only ran for 5-10 minutes lol, i'll take her for a spin in the morning.

some updates:

I tested the new motor, all i can say is....TORQUE!!! on 6 cells and with 20/44 gearing it just flips the truck (7,8kg) like its nothing, it's pretty over the top to say the least. That being said after i ran it for 5-10 minutes my complete tranny just exploded lol internally ofcourse, all gears where broken the only gear still intact was the HD gear...

here are some pics:

30kzmh0.jpg


jh3r40.jpg


HD gear still looks like a virgin :)

spdxjl.jpg


I have rebuild the gearbox and changed the gearing to 47/17 but i don't know if this will help a bit....
Switching to 4 or 5 cells is not an option since I don't have money for different batteries so running on 6 cells is my only option. If somebody has any good tips on saving my tranny a bit feel free to post them ;)
for the moment I'll try to take it easy with the trigger and hope for the best :)

this is how the truck looks with the different bodies:


30k98up.jpg


6drbso.jpg


n148pc.jpg


monsterbuggy version ;)

2utlohd.jpg


aac8q0.jpg


2vj28lt.jpg


Also added a shockguard to the front to keep the shocks safe from crashes, my shockcaps allready got busted in 5 minutes of running so hope this helps.

2pph2wz.jpg


2ufvbqc.jpg


2w3azjo.jpg


i'll take her for a spin in the morning so hopefully everything goes well.
 
Hello hello, been a while but haven't got much time for driving my rc's but i made some vids of the conversion.

first one is just testing it a bit.
[YOUTUBE]G9XiwR-zeu0[/YOUTUBE]

second one is with the new 1717 heli engine, still no bashing but i don't know if i will do that with this thing :)
[YOUTUBE]4DO1viaj9bU[/YOUTUBE]

now it's being rebuild, alu bulkheads, custom skidplates and bumpers,...

the center diff is allready installed, i'll post some pics of it below.
Its not a thing of beauty but its solid as a rock so i think it will hold up well against the abuse :) Inspiration for this was Jayhays project!

here are the pics.
turned the motormount sideways against the chassis and all 4 screws are still free so its still fully adjustable.
2vah9pt.jpg


center diff mounted

ayvr46.jpg


2hqqnva.jpg


29n6txe.jpg


together :)

28jpqh.jpg


2vipbo7.jpg


m953du.jpg


2hi8rjs.jpg


sideview

2ppfocg.jpg


between the tvp's

ot0qqe.jpg


vy6zuu.jpg


now i'm waiting for my custom dogbones but i cant wait to drive it now! :)

any tips on what kind of weights i should use front rear center?
 
I finally finished my beefy nylon front/back skidplates with bumpers piccogirl

some pics before heating it up and flexing it to the wanted shape :)
vv0ig.jpg


og98qx.jpg

and after :)
6ql8ww.jpg


like the originals i dremeled excess material to accept the diffs

2ue0hvm.jpg


rear skidplate/bumper
30w12ky.jpg



front, rear and center still in alu but i will make the center skid in the same material.

24vmlnc.jpg


icli08.jpg



next stop is the center skid, rebuilding the diffs, installing them and thinking of other shocktowers.... Maybe i'll make them in the same stuff coz it surely is tough and better than the integy crap i have :)
 
shocktowers are ready, made some spares also...

here we go:
1st testing if everything fits with the lst conversion.

front

m9vtc5.jpg


sideview

icn0oi.jpg


back

k2elhc.jpg


then removing the sharp edges and other excess material

33k7q77.jpg


sexytime :D

zilfzo.jpg


2rlyhz9.jpg

2va1la9.jpg


front and back shocktower:cool:

2v0ir2p.jpg


2qc03na.jpg


mounted with the front bumper, sexytime pt. 2! :D

124ttht.jpg


awxmcw.jpg


in the meantime i prevented the upper hinge pins from flying away lol
I just drilled a whole and tapped thread? or something like that in english :) also dremeled the hinge pin where the screw is positioned when tightened for zero movement.

10nxsuv.jpg


2uijd79.jpg


et voila!

next step will be a wing/shocktowerprotection thing :)
 
this is a SWEET build man i love it!!!
 
Thank you very much Dejan, appreciate it!

Its really fun to make custom parts eventhough i haven't got any special tools but a hacksaw, drill, benchscrew, vacuumcleaner and not enough patience lol

Really hope the material holds up well but i think it will, testing will reveal the flaws i guess...
The idea came from a baja 5B bumper from Worx i installed on the conversion but it was to flexible for me so i searched for something stiffer and ended up with this material.

if it really holds up to alot of abuse, i don't know where the limit will be lol maybe extended arms,....
 
Oner of the best threads I've seen in some time. Cool - Is your bumper really from worx? I bought one for the baja and thought it was a bullet proof front bumper. Love the build.
 
yes it was this one from worx

Worx%20Chassis%20Bumper.jpg


Let me be clear it's an awesome bumper and worth every penny if you have a baja but because of the way i had to mount it on the savage skidplate it had way to much flex. It flexed so much my brace mount screws left markings in it lol

This bumper is especially made to be mounted on the savage skidplate without those silly hinge pin stopper things and still has enough flex to absorb impacts. Dropped the car several times and it bounces nice but it's still harder than the worx bumper.

we'll see how it holds up as soon as i get her up and running :FarleyParty:
 
little update: some troubles with the diffs, seems i ordered the wrong alu bulkheads from flm... the hd cups don't go through the holes so now i'm waiting on some vorza cups and rebuild them... :s

still alot to do but the next thing will be extended a-arms !

just ordered this little baby

28092.jpg


can't wait to get busy with it lol

finally i can cut shocktowers, bumpers, arms,.... :)
 
been a while, been much to lazy but i made something today hehehe, more in the making, like the a-arms and stuff but it just takes ages to hear from dogbone manufacturers and.....

Anywayz i bought some new shocks and they are BIG so i wanted beefy shocktowers that wont bend under the pressure and rollovers so i made these.... The shocks are from a Carson Gas devil.

compared to the other ones i made:
nyzrqu.jpg


thickness :)
sq1j0h.jpg


made it look a bit buggy alike.

2rr299t.jpg


with shocks to show the free movement

2agosud.jpg


kdsnlg.jpg


stil ALOT of cleaning up work to do and to maker them fit my bulkheads but this is what they will look like.
 
I just finished the shocktowers, the edges remain rough, i tried sanding them, heating and slicing off the rough sides but this is the best result i ended up with. The edges where cut with a stanley knife.
They aren't 100% identical to each other coz i cut them out with a handsaw lol but they match 90% or more so that's pretty good i guess :)

pics mounted on my flm bulkheads

16m2eqb.jpg


v7bhoy.jpg


then cut out some bushings for my shocks, pretty simple also, 2 rods fitted them in each other and cutted them out to the length i wanted. 8mm outer and 4 mm inner diameter.

then mounted the shocks for show :smiliejam:

34edagl.jpg


next thing will be making some extended arms but it all takes alot of time but i'll post pics/progress asap ;)
 
Made some more progress with the shocktowers :)
Somebody told me i was going to have trouble with the screwheads and the hmpe and had the idea of a plate to hold/press the shocktower against the bulkhead... This way securing the shocktower much better and ensuring the screwheads don't damage the material instead of using washers so this is what i made with his idea in mind.

fcs6si.jpg


2zp4585.jpg


just need to drill the rest of the holes (4) for the bulkhead.

still lots of wooorrrkkk to be done but this is FUN, really enjoying it!

all tips are welcome coz sometimes you just don't see thing/problems anymore when you're busy lolz
 
I'm cutting the arms as we speak, just taking a short break coz the handsaw is killing me but it will be DIY all the way :FarleyParty:

this is a drawing of how they will look like, can't draw in 3d lol so ,its oldschool with mm paper and a pencil and then scanned it and coloured it :)

2md5ovs.jpg


shocks will be mounted truggy/buggy style with the shock end in the first cavity with a 4mm screw throughout both cavities, the bolt will be tightened in the second cavity.
Rear arms are slightly different where the hubs are you see the rears are thicker that's because i use the integy HD hub carriers so no need for those silly spacers anymore! 8)

Upper arms will be made when i finish these coz i cant draw them before i tested the lower arms with the shocks then i'll try some designs opf the uppers.

and off we go again!

danoo
 
after alot of cutting and sweating i finished the rough versions of the lower arms :D

just going to post pics, these are just the rough ones that will be moulded and then finished and then moulded again...

picture time!

cutting with the fretsaw

l9u6x.jpg


s2785h.jpg


5mh9gl.jpg


finally got to mount them.... after 1 hour of cutting per arm and 30 minutes of drilling holes lolzzzz

2elf1ip.jpg


o0ile.jpg


nprhj6.jpg


compared to the stockers with lst shocks.... 8)

34yqjj5.jpg


34nmb07.jpg


11t3gr4.jpg


2vnp0xx.jpg


upper arm pencil style! :lol:

2prs4ti.jpg


1f8vpx.jpg


tomorrow the upper arms and hopefully i get my resins and stuff this week so i can start making molds of these chunkey monkeys! :)
 
nice build man. Looks great. Poor guy, hes updating this thread, and barely anyone is replying. just shows how much that shoutbox made this forum, a lonely place to post, and make threads.
 
id love to get those arms for my baja. looks like those ones for 100 bucks. how much is that material? lol
 

Latest posts

Members online

Back
Top