HG-P407 "Bruiser Clone" Arrived Today!

[Dadio]

Just found the sweet spot for gearing and the Absima 55t motor , I went back up from 16 tooth pinion to the stock 19 tooth and now in high gear its faster than my walking pace and in low it crawled nicely , that's good enough for trailing and crawling , I'm very tempted to do the full time 4x4 mod now , what I really wish I could do is have 4x4 low ,4x4 high and 2wd high , I have no real use for 2wd low , I may have to have a look inside the gearbox and scratch my bald head for a while .

[Dadio]

I'm such a big kid , I've just been out in the dark playing with my toy truck with lights on , even the wife smiled !

[Dadio]

More on the rubbish shocks , I had a good look at what is inhibiting axle articulation and found two more things .
1 The coil springs fully compress and limit the travel a lot , they just have to go if you want good articulation .
2 The bottom shock mount binds up badly , the stepped steel sleeve through the hole in the cap just can't allow much angle of twist.
The second issue can be vastly improved with a bit of Dremmel work , I basically rounded out the holes to a more conical shape on both sides leaving only the very centre of the hole the same size , this allows the stepped steel sleeve to be able to pivot in the hole , really its designed wrong , if the bottom of the shock were mounted at 90 degrees it would pivot correctly . Bellow are pictures (not good) that show the increased angle the screw and sleeve can pivot , its actually more than shown but was a pig to photograph .
Modified one on the left .

Modified one at bottom .

[Basher67]

Great tip here. I just did it to the front end and it did make a difference. I'm about to do the rear.

[Dadio]

After sorting the motor and getting a bit more articulation I thought I'd set up some obstacles to try some crawling , firstly I realised that I needed to lock up the front diff to get any where , while I was there I ground the ends of the leaf springs for grater flex , so after those mods I was back out and that's when the whole steering thing just really let it down so .......
I did my own take on the front servo mod , moved the front shocks behind the axle at the bottom and top , for the top mount I used the front screw hole for the gearbox mount cross member and there is a hole for the old steering pivot assembly that just needed elongating a little to line up , strangely the hole for the steering pivot is on the other chassis rail as well ? So that just needed elongating a little as well the bottom already has a mount for the shock behind the axle .
Then I moved the L section steering arm from the left facing back to the front on the right knuckle .
The front cross member already has two threaded holes in the top of it so I used them to mount an L section piece of aluminium on top and over the back for mounting the servo , this mod only requires two holes in the chassis rails to be elongated to fit the top shock mounts otherwise its already there , all you have to make is the servo mount and a track rod , the rest is just nuts and bolts .
I'll post pictures tomorrow .





I got even luckier with the servo lead , I thought I'd have to extend it but because of the Y harness for the lighting system I had just enough length
On a different subject now that I have the 55t motor the drag brake on the RTR ESC is really good , with the stock motor I didn't even notice it had a drasg brake .
A couple of shots of the lights as well

[Dadio]

I just found the specs on the stock servo , 6kg , I just ordered a JX High torque servo with 20kg torque , I though the one I fitted was a high torque but its just slow and only 9kg after all .

[mikem65d]

can you say "Slipper clutch?"
This guy really thinks and goes to the point of no return in his efforts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i154S2cjJWk&feature=push-fr&attr_tag=4U3CDt5d0uryuV3L%3A6

I will cut the corner nubs off instead of grinding out the slider.

[Basher67]

I switched steering servos also. I'm now running a Savox 1258 TG which has 277oz of torque and titanium gears. Steering is no longer a problem of any kind. I decided how to fix the shocks---replace them. I grew tired of trying to make a silk purse from a sows ear. We had our local track rc swap meet on Sat. and through some wheeling and dealing, I ended up with 2 sets of these shocks for free along with an RC Screws stainless screw kit for the axial wraith for $10. I have never heard of "air shocks" for an rc before but these are pretty cool. They use an internal spring and instead of being filled with oil, they use just a few drops of oil to seal the piston and the resulting dampening action is surprisingly smooth. I had a couple axial adjustable shock mounts laying around that I used to set up one corner of the truck to see if it would all work. The results look very positive. Compared to the stock shocks, this setup has a much wider range of motion. The suspension compresses lower and lifts higher due to the new shocks being 100 vs 90 mm along with a higher top mounting point. Tire clearance is close and I have to wait until the new tires arrive to be sure. I ordered a full set of the adjustable shock mounts for a little over $10, so when they arrive along with the new tires, I'll get it all installed and let you know if it all works out.

[XLR8]

Those look great Basher. You always seem to find the best deals.
I'm running air shocks as well -- all the oil has leaked out so there's nothing left but air.

[Dadio]

I've finally got my shocks working but I'm still tempted by those they look nice .
Something has been bugging me , then you know that moment when you feel like slapping yourself for being so stupid , I just could not understand why with the same leaf springs and shocks the front articulates really well but the rear is more resistant to twist , then it dawned on me that the springs are mounted much further in at the front giving the axle far more leverage to twist but at the back the springs are way out near the wheels where the axle has much less leverage , I just measured it and the outside edges of the front leaves are 82mm apart but the back are 122mm apart , that's a huge 40mm difference ! Now I'm starting the think "can I move the rear springs in further ? " . the problem is the radio box , I think I could move inboard about 5mm each side without modification to the box , 10mm a side with a little carving and that would give a useful 20mm movement , not as narrow as the front but probably enough to make a difference .

[Basher67]

If you go to all the trouble of moving the rear springs, you should throw a front axle in the rear and have 4 wheel steering.

[Dadio]

I did think about it in order to reduce the track not for steering though.

[Basher67]

TamiyaDan had mentioned doing the 4ws mod using a front axle in the rear. I thought it was a cool idea for sure. I had considered it for while, but decided against it.

[Dadio]

On balance its a lot of work and cost and I'm never going to try any sort of competitive crawling so I'll just probably leave it be , I've gone for a scale look and 4ws is going a different route really .

[Basher67]

I agree. 4ws is more of a monster truck thing.