Vintage Clodbuster racer

[MelvinsArmy]

Very nice but I better not catch you running it with those Tecnacrafts on it.

You know I'm gonna! Very carefully of course. I'll try to get some Tecna-action shots when it warms up a bit. The white wheels and body are for when it's time to get down and have some real fun.

[scr8p]

i love the hawaiian punch paint job. looks great.

[m2fit4u2]

That is one nice and clean vintage clod. Although it does not appear you are running wheel wideners, not sure if that would be legal or not to run in that class.

[MelvinsArmy]

That is one nice and clean vintage clod. Although it does not appear you are running wheel wideners, not sure if that would be legal or not to run in that class.

If it had wheel wideners it wouldn't be a vintage Clod.

[m2fit4u2]

I was not aware that wheel wideners were something recent. I thought they have been around for some time now

[MelvinsArmy]

They've been around for quite a while. I was going for an early 90's Clod. Basically using the old Sassy and building a truck that might have been one of the first with a 4-link suspension. I believe the Clodzilla 2 was the first mass produced aftermarket chassis with a 4-link. My idea was to take the ESP 4-link kit and match it up to the old Sassy, which is my favorite old school Clod chassis. I think it was still a few years before wheel wideners became widely available, like late 90's maybe? There may have been wheel wideners available before that, but I don't think any of the big companies were making them, at least none that I know of. I remember when I got back into r/c heavily again back in 99-2000 (turn of the century ) wheel wideners were available, but really not the standard for monster trucks. They were all over race trucks (which I suppose this truck is) but hadn't really caught on with other monsters. Anyway, I'm rambling now. I guess I'm just saying that if they were available in say, 1993, they were an extremely rare part.

[m2fit4u2]

I personally would rather not even run wideners on my clods, but I have noticed with my 4 link kits that if I do not run them, the tires will rub against the 4 links. Then you have to put substantial amounts of limiting on the controller causing a poor turning radius unless you use 4 wheel steering that most people avoid in racing. I run a stock chassis clod with 4WS (dual servos & 14 cells), and a Powers 4 link race clod with the rear locked out for high speed stability. Either way you have a sweet ride there I like to ramble about clods too.

[MelvinsArmy]

Thanks man. I'm in the same boat as you, I don't like wheel wideners. I've broken too many of them. The perfect solution I've found is TTR CVDs up front and TTR solid rear axles. They are slightly wider than stock, I want to say 1/8" or 1/4" on each side, so they widen just a little bit, enough to clear the 4 links. They also give the truck a nice stance, not too wide, not too narrow. No extra parts to break and the wheels bolt on just like with the stock hexes. No TTR parts on this truck though, they're new school.

I've had problems with the tires rubbing the links on Clods without wideners too. Look closely at the body-off pic of this truck. I bent the front outer links slightly, the tires now clear the links with no problems. I just mocked the truck up, figured about where the tire hits the link, marked it, put that mark under the leg of my chair and bent the link up. It's crude, but it works great.

[m2fit4u2]

I have never broken any of the wideners themselves, I have both the Thundertech black plastic ones and I have a set of aluminum as well. What happens often is that the barrel nut will come loose and then you end up stripping off the 5 plastic protrusions on the inside of the wheel that hold the widener in place. I have thought about the TTR set up but do not want locked in the rear on my race chassis do to it causes more push in turns. I do have my 4WS locked in the rear, better in the snow I am planning on going with the newer type wideners were you end up drilling 5 holes in the rim. CPE, Tweaked and RC mayhem build these. My friend that races for Tweaked says that he has never had a problem with this setup. How many Clods do you have and are there any pictures of them in this forum?

[vintage racer]

When you guys say you race these things is that like normal off road?Ive had one before and have just bought another one[stock] to play with and cant imagine racing one around a modern track.

[m2fit4u2]

Allot of Clodbuster type racing is done indoors on carpet, although they do have outdoor/offroad events as well. This link here shows the basic type of track layout. Generally, they try to make it realistic to the Monster Jams.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvvawxjZWzo&feature=related

[MelvinsArmy]

Current organized Clod racing is pretty boring really. They shoot up a straight, jump a few things, make a u-turn, shoot back and that's it. Not very exciting at all.

[youtube]GvvawxjZWzo[/youtube]


The racing I'm talking about is for the vintage off road nationals in CT. That's a regular indoor off road track for buggies, stadium trucks, etc. This Clod would be for the heavy metal class.

[MelvinsArmy]

Allot of Clodbuster type racing is done indoors on carpet, although they do have outdoor/offroad events as well. This link here shows the basic type of track layout. Generally, they try to make it realistic to the Monster Jams.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvvawxjZWzo&feature=related

Quit reading my mind!

[vintage racer]

I must be a real nerd cause that looks pritty cool.You guys are so lucky with the amount of different RC racing available.In Australia its either on road or off road supercross style where you break you car every 1 or 2 laps.We have to build our own tracks that are suitable for the old buggies and trucks.

[m2fit4u2]

To funny.

I dunno if you read my last post (MelvinsArmy), had a couple questions in there for ya.