The Fixxer's "Identity Crisis"

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TheFixxer

TheFixxer

100% Addict..There is no hope
Messages
348
Location
Menasha, WI
Anybody wanna guess what this is? I'm calling the build Identity Crisis. Why? Because this is a nitro rusty but won't end that way. Picked the rig up for $25. All works, engine ran great. As the truck was sitting on my workbench my 10 year old daughter asked when she was getting a truck. I thought about it 15 seconds and said.....right now.

The Identity Crisis project was born. This is getting converted to a brushless electric. She's too young and impatient to learn the finessing of nitro...and I got the parts for the conversion.

This is after about 20 minutes of tear down with she did mostly herself.

 
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Seems you got your daughter hooked on the hobby Fixxer. Sign of a good dad right there as far as I'm concerned. Glad to see shes wrenchin on it herself too.

What's the details on the brushless setup going in?
 
Yessir....got my son into it a couple years ago and he built the Blue Ice project. I believe in keeping my kids constructively involved in something lest they turn into hooligans. Meant to post this pic in the thread starter and forgot...but proof she is wrenching herself.



Electronics we are going with a Tactic X240 Rx and Tx combo. Novak Edge esc, and Gens Ace 5000mAH 60c 2S. Have not picked out a motor yet. Transmission will be a reverse mounted 2wd Traxxas Slash VXL with Avid bearings and steal output yokes and HD 4wd shafts. Steering servo switched to a Futaba S3303s.

Dear old Dad will handle the couple fabrication parts we need to make for the battery plate and transmission but the goal is every screw and nut gets turned by her.
 
Cool Project for a youngster, both my boys have built their own kits and things since they were little guys too......
 
Best part of getting my kids involved is its a little easier to justify the ridiculous amount of $ I have into the hobby. It's for the kids ;)

Daughter is already chomping at the bit to get started today so when I get home from work we'll hit the shop and finish tear down and get everything we are saving cleaned up and sorted. I got her looking through the rustler manual to get an idea how everything goes together...a little homework.
 
Big update tonight. Identity Crisis has lost it's former nitro awareness altogether.

First steps to today's work log was to finish tear down.







Cleaned up the chassis



Next up we gotta build a transmission. Elected to re-employ an old traxxas stampede 2wd transmission and brought it up to brushless standards. This was all polished before putting it back together. Differential up first.





Putting the transmission guts in the housing.



Next we we got the transmission mounted backwards on the chassis plate. Installed steel output yokes and will be using slash 4x4 HD half shafts. The rest of the rear end will be nitro rustler parts.



Modified the upper deck to accommodate room on the chassis plate for battery and electronics. Basically the fuel tank box was removed and the upper deck bolted on the chassis in the factory location.









Next we mocked up some electronics to get a feel of where things will go.



At a stand still for the night. I gotta come up an idea for a battery plate and box and a radio box. The youtube video we watched used a ghetto method for the battery plate and box so I am going to come up with a better idea. I'm leaning towards lexan plate and aluminum c channel for the box. Another idea I had is maybe the center of a stampede chassis which is designed specifically to hold a battery. Pretty happy with the turn out so far.
 
Well we worked the last couple hours getting the rear end ship shape. Rebuilt the shocks and got the rear end pretty much done. It's basically the stock nitro rear end behind the Stampede transmission. No modifications. I did have to make a shim to go under the transmission because I noticed it wasn't sitting flush to the aluminum plate and would have put the control arms at a weird angle. Lexan fixed it right up.





There are pictures leading up to this point from where we stopped last night but its really a pretty straight forward assembly so I didn't post them. Tonight we work on the front end and battery box.
 
Nice to see the kids doing stuff like this. Its good for their development. Much better than tv. Nice job dad.
 
Right on fz1dave. She is so excited about the project I can't keep her out of the shop. She is planning her days now around my schedule just to squeeze a few minutes here and there.
 
rcnut14 said:
awesome build. cant wait to see it done.
Click to expand...

Thanks nut. There isn't a whole lot of really good how-to on this particular truck model so it's been a "let's see if this works" kind of thing. We have watched a couple youtube vids and browsed through a few work logs and just took a little bit from each one.
 
Well, managed to work some HPI into this build. Found a perfect solution for securing the battery. These are the battery "boxes" for the Vorza Flux. will keep the weight down and allow an ides I have to beef up the middle of the chassis plate with some 3/8" aluminum C channel.



I think the radio box from a 1/10 HPI Blitz will work into the mix too. Both items on ebay pretty cheap but I will swing by the LHS and see if they have em in stock.
 
Well the youngster doesn't have patience for and eBay order to arrive and the LHS didn't have the vortex part ibwas hoping for so I picked up the 2wd Stampede chassis and will go with our 1st idea to mount the battery. Also picked up the radio box for the build which will be from a duratrax something or other.

Updates later tonight.
 
Wrapped up most of the project tonight. Just need to pick a motor out that will match nice with the Novak Edge.
Working on the front end.





Rebuilding the shocks.



Final assembly on the front end.







Battery box solution was a Stampede chassis trimmed down to just the battery box.







Electrics mounted up and wheels put on. How bout that smile!!?? She did a good 95% of this build herself. Just need a motor and a new lid. No doubt she will want it pink or purple.
 
Looks like well thought out placement/ mounting of that battery. How's the balance on the chassis? Make sure you get some video of her taking it out for the first run!
 
It is balanced well from side to side and front to back. Obviously lighter than its former nitro self. Mounting the battery the we did kept the weight pretty much dead center so I don't expect any chassis roll.

The one thing we noticed is the rear end when sitting still has no upward travel/ downward sag. Little concerned how that will handle cornering and bumps if the shocks run fully extended under throttle. My suspicion is the nitro weight isn't there anymore so it's not allowing any rear end sag with a lighter rear end and nitro springs. We will have to see how it handles but I think a softer spring will be the answer. She used 35w in all the shocks so I think that will be ok.

She made a comment last night about not liking the front tire/rim options. Traxxas nitro front ends don't use a hex hub and all I had on hand were the stock rally rims/tires. I am pretty sure the stampede/slash front hub carriers will fit in the nitro arms so she can use the matching HPI 2.2 MT rims and proline holeshot II tires up front that we put on the rear.

Ordered an unpainted electric rustler body this morning for her. Much my surprise she chose two tone purple and white scallops. Wants a green metal flake in the purple.

Still tossing around ideas on the motor so we don't have a 1st run scheduled yet. But it's going to be on a big open baseball diamond so she can get use to brushless and how this rig will handle. I have a feeling its going to be different than a true electric version and way different than its former nitro self.
 
Motor picked out. Got a good deal on a used VXL Velineon motor and VXL-3S esc. Saving the novak for another project. Had her run my son's Stampede today with the same set up in training mode, 50% fwd - 50% rvs - 100% brake. Just to have her get a feel for the BL. I plan on letting her run 2S LiPo but will keep the esc in training mode for awhile. Gotta remember, this truck is light. Even this BL set up is gonna turn her truck into a rocket.

Anyways, going to pick it up in the morning and get it all wired up and bolted in for her.
 
Well, tomorrow the youngster turns 11 and I would really like to get this puppy ready to run for her so I snook off to the shop and worked on the last few details for her. Found the VXL-32 esc to be too big to fit in the space in front of the radio box so had to get creative.

If you are not familiar with trx parts this is the front skid for a 2wd stampede.


Whack off the x brace and you have a flat plate. A couple ofna spacers and button head screws.....


and boom...you have a mounting plate.






Put all the pretties on and it's almost ready to roll....Had to switch to a venom battery cuz the gens ace was a little to thick




Now, in my jacked up on mountain dew brain storm for this build I forgot that mounting the stampede transmission backwards would also make the throttle reversed...now where is that dumb traxxas radio manual.....?
 
Final day of the build. Since we took off all the nitro parts that supported the chassis there was a lot of flex in the middle.

Corrected with some 3/8" x 1/4" aluminum c channel. Used the existed chassis screw mounts in the front and rear then drilled a hole through the chassis and c channel and put a bit and bolt to suck everything up tight.





New body is on the way so the old rusty body will do for now.



It might be a hidge podge of parts and ideas bu all together it will work for a youngster just starting. It taught her to problem solve if anything.
 
Couple vids of her first run. She was scared of the full throttle and you can tell. Mostly just drove it around in circles and back and forth. You can tell where dad took the radio and opened it up. Not too shabby of a little car if I say so. Happy with the performance considering its parts from 3 different models.

http://vid1351.photobucket.com/albums/p788/thefixxer1973/VID_20150730_193633444_zpsmazaaash.mp4

http://vid1351.photobucket.com/albums/p788/thefixxer1973/VID_20150730_194450108_zpsvgmcfiaf.mp4

sorry one of those is sideways. let my kid video while i was trying to start the losi. didnt realize that til i had it uploaded
 
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