Better Bandit-ing with 3D printing?

[nbrophy]

A while ago I picked up my son a Traxxas Slash kit for his birthday to introduce him to a proper hobby build. The build made me reminisce of the Traxxas Hawk 2 and Traxxas TRX-3 I had back in the day, before I stepped away from the hobby years ago.

Not having a car of my own, I picked up two Traxxas rollers off eBay for us to complete and run together. Not willing to leave good enough alone and always a sucker for a project to tinker with, I went down the rabbit hole of the freely available 3D printing parts for the Traxxas 2wd platform. The result are two Bandit buggies modified with a slew of 3d printed parts with the intention of modernizing the aging platform.

Some of the upgraded parts:

Traxxas Bandit 7mm front drop arm https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4934502
Traxxas Rustler/Stampede/Bandit/Slash 25 degree Caster Blocks https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4585006
Traxxas Slash 2WD Modified 3736 Front Steering Blocks (L & R) https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2392471
Traxxas Bandit 7mm rear drop arm https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4934499
Team Associated Rear Wing Mounts B6 B6D https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4081364
Bandit Rustler Nose Brace Servo Mount (design of my own) https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6025831


I can’t claim any significant performance advantage because we never ran the cars in stock form and we have not had a chance to put the cars through their paces. I wanted to share for anyone who may find it interesting.

Nathan

[morrisey0]

I would be interested to see if there are performance differences, and if the differences are worth the trouble. Bandit parts are so cheap and available.

[dldiaz]

What are you using to keep the shorty LiPo in place?

[juicedcoupe]

What are you using to keep the shorty LiPo in place?

It looks like a foam block against the esc.

[nbrophy]

Yes I added foam between the ESC and battery to stop the pack from sliding back. I use the same one-sided weatherseal insulation foam on the bottom side of the battery brace so it clamps down and secures the pack better.

[nbrophy]

I finally got the bodies painted and we ran our Bandits through their paces on our piecemealed low traction loose dirt backyard track.

General Set up:

Front Camber: -2 degrees
Front toe: 0 degrees
Front Shock Oil: 20wt
Front Springs: White ?? Rate
Front Ride Height: 21mm
Front Tires: Traxxas old school 2.1 Front Spikes

Rear Camber: 0 degrees
Rear toe-in: 3 degrees
Rear Shock Oil: 25wt
Rear Springs: White 2.9 Rate
Rear Ride Height: 31mm
Rear Tires: Traxxas old school 2.15 Rear Spikes

Note: We have no experience driving a stock Bandit to compare too and I can’t vouch for how sound our starting setup is.

The cars pushed hard on turn-in at speed, but turn-in is decently off throttle. Under acceleration they were pretty squirrelly and very sensitive. Easily becoming tail happy, with lots of oversteer if there was the slightest over correction (possibly rear too high?). For the jumps the cars seemed well balanced.

As for durability, the main casualty was the rear lower shock mounting screw tore out of the hole of the arm. I anticipated possible issues with the strength of PLA, so I was not too surprised (I printed out several spares). It gives me incentive to finally upgrade my printer to handle composite nylon filament.

My son wants to take the bandits to the local carpet track, where we have run our Mini-Bs a few times. I figure new tires would definitely be in order there. Fun project so far.