that's really cool, nice job ! It looks like it can do some serious climbing like an Eddie Bauer edition RC

Came out great, nice job! :yes:

Looks good
 

Yea that looks good. I have to admit I was a little worried when you posted the first photo. That was not looking so great, but it actually turned out nice. Hey JayJay long time no see. Nice to see you posting again.

Yeh, the finishing touch's have made a real difference. Another nicely done project Brian:yes: What does it handle like with that big body?

I guess I have to drive it first to answer that. Maybe this weekend I'll take it out for its maiden voyage.

(On the other hand, it looks so nice and clean, I don't want to get it too dirty :oops: )

I took this out for its first shake-down run and everything looked good. I ran it for 5 or so minutes - lots of power from the esc/motor combo on 6s. :yes:


Here is the set-up I'm running:

Castle xo-1 1717 motor (1650kv)
EZrun 150a Pro esc
2x6s Gens Ace 4000mAh 25c in parallel
Hostile MX fronts all around
Muggy gearing (45/11)
50t spur/14t pinion

Here is the top speed estimator:
I hope to get it out for a longer run this weekend and check temps with this gearing.

It must have felt so good to finally pull the trigger on this bad boy!:yes:

It looks awesome, congratulations on a great build.:yipi:

Get that thing dirty:intello:

Yes it did! Thanks Harold.

Any videos:whistle:

The car came out great, I hope it drives as good as it looks:yipi:

Thomas G

Another test run - I need to tune the suspension a bit - I'll start with some thicker shock oil to try to make it less "bouncy" with the stiff 5ive-T springs. I probably have a bit too much toe-in as well. But here's a quick video so you can see how it looks:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Umu7kPsWJbs" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

(and thanks to Daniel, my 7-year old, for taking the video)

You got a good camera man there, especially for his age!

I was reading back through the thread and I noticed the lexan you put on top of the shock piston for the variable damping. I like the idea and will experiment with it on my build. It probably helped alot when using LST springs on a fairly heavy rig as it adds compression damping without effecting rebound much. But I wonder if now the springs are strong enough to not require that added compression damping and placing them under the piston to add rebound damping. I'm sure you probably had this thought and obviously more testing would be required before coming to any definite conclusions.

Just something in head. Thanks for the update, love the build and I'm really curious as to how the springs/damping part works out.

Great camera work from the little one!
And I guess the truck isn't half bad either... :whistle:

Thanks for the kind words - and I'll pass them along to Daniel.

That's exactly why I modified the piston - because even the RC-raven springs were not strong enough for these larger trucks. So, I may just get rid of the lexan pieces if I'm not happy with the suspension (I hadn't considered your idea of putting them underneath to add rebound damping - but I'll keep it in mind) . I put thicker oil in the shocks yesterday and like the way it feels just sitting here pushing on it - but I'll have to get it out again and test it.

I guess it's been a while since I've done anything with this truck (busy couple of months - I'm starting a new job, will soon be moving, etc.).

Anyway, I put thicker shock oil (30wt) in the shocks and it handles much better. I might even go thicker.

The electric brakes on the HW esc are very strong - I did a front flip when I slammed the brakes on today (I think I have them programmed to 50%, but I'll have to check). But this truck is running pretty well.

I think its more so the 1717 having an immense amount of braking power.

Haven't checked back on this thread in a loong time, gotta say it finished very nicely !
Great work Brian.

That might be the reason - All I know is that these brakes are much stronger than the mechanical brakes I was using on my other large-scale build.

Thanks Bondo - I must admit I haven't driven this too much - so I haven't had anything to add in a while.

i gotta agree with bondo there brian....nice work on the fabbed parts.
a great looking truck :intello:
chris

Thanks Chris - just wish I had more time to drive/tune this thing.

I do think the 1717 is a great motor for something this size - I still can't believe they released the HPI 5SC Flux without it!

I hope Castle doesn't get beat up on 2200kv and/or ESC issues from HPI under motoring that thing ?

BTW Brian, Have you seen all the fab work I've done on my build ? I think you'd appreciate it since you like to make from scratch like myself.

That was my thought when they announced it was going to use the 2200kv - with all the bad press Castle has received over the XL, they don't need more because of idiots who think they can gear that thing any way they like and not bother to check temps.

Yes, I've looked through it quickly a couple of times - and you've been working overtime on that build - really nice. When I get some time I'll look through it carefully and maybe get some ideas for my next build - I have some crawler/scaler parts that I bought recently, and hope to do something with them sooner or later.

I had this out again today and it ran well - I'll post a couple videos in a bit. My only concern is that this truck tends to roll over much more easily than my other large-scale build. This has a slightly narrower width, it's center of gravity is a bit higher due to the body, and it has better tires (more grip in the grass) - all of these I'm sure contribute to it rolling over more, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do. The major advantage of this truck over my buggy-style build is that this has more room for batteries.

I could easily make the truck wider by using the full extended wheel hexes (instead of the cut-down hexes I have on this). I'm sure that would help, but I don't know if I'd like how it looked.

Or I could run it w/o the body (but I know some people didn't like how it looked under the body).

If you have any other ideas, let me know.

Videos:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/xaTKW48EcUU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>



I had some better jumps off the lip of the infield than we got on this video - but here it is anyway:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/jyAyqV_qamo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


Edit:
Temps (outside 85F) after approximately 15min run:
Motor (Castle XO-1 1717) - 160F
ESC (EZrun 150A pro) - 145F
Batteries (2x Gens Ace 6s 25c 4000mAh in parallel) - 99F
Center diff - 135F

The batteries were not completely drained (probably 3000mAh used in each). This esc/motor combo on 6s has plenty of power and seems like the perfect size for this truck.