Arct1k- yeah, I think I will be requiring your services as those braces will cost $76 to replace (ouch), so some smuggling will be required I think to avoid imort taxes once again. PM sent.

Maxxfreak- I was concentrating on the truck so hard I didnt see the steps that I smashed into at about 20-25mph. No other damage though, truck still ran fine pretty much until the tranny conked out on me. I will post up a video of highlights a bit later.

For your visual and audio enjoyment:

<object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/rfzDlwtLaAU"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/rfzDlwtLaAU" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object>

Only 4 minutes long, and the ending is funny...

Okay, so we did a little experimenting with my banged up truck today. After the collision and subsiquent straightening out, I couldnt fit the front center driveshaft without it getting bound up due to the slightly manlged X-braces, so I left it out and made the truck RWD only. Well, this had an interesting effect on the handling, to say the least. Even more violent lurching, a few spin outs, and some even madder tire ballooning than normal (I cant find any jumbo sized foams, help?), but I was able to control the truck still, more or less. The lipos however are going onto ebay, as they didnt like the freshly cut damp grass (the guy was just finishing up when I arrived thankfully), and the lack of punch and power was rather dissapointing compared to the A123s.
So, the A123s then, they performed brilliantly, and I had enough power to ride infinite wheelies thanks to the RWD and drag-bar (see: mother of all wheelie bars thread). Im definately sticking to 5s lipo voltages for all my future setups, and some zippies will be on the shopping list after xmas; I will finish paying off my credit card in november, so that gives me an extra $130 or so each month to play with- mo batteries baby!

Last experiment was an accidental one, but I can safely say it went well. Due to the lovely weather recently, there were some big puddles of muddy water on the field, and I accidently drove through them three times, each time sending huge rooster tails of mud, grass and water into the air and onto the truck. MMM didnt even flinch, nor did anything else, which is rather impressive since the fan on the MMM was stalled the whole 2 hours due to being clogged with damp grass. Thats right, the fan was running but stalled, and the BEC didnt go pop or anything else, the esc just kept running and did so without breaking a sweat. When you get a good MMM, its the best esc ever.

No video this time, I wanted to concentrate on driving and enjoying myself- here are some pictures I took when I got home; after I cleaned off most of the dirt...

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...laMaxx/120.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...laMaxx/121.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...laMaxx/122.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...laMaxx/123.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...laMaxx/124.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...laMaxx/125.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...laMaxx/126.jpg

Nice update Neil, looks like that truck took a fair beating. Good to see your MMM is going strong as well!! Can't wait to see what you have in store for those slightly mangled X-braces

Are you sure that is not one of the new robotic lawn mowers

With handy grass collection feature. That said, I really do wish the guys who use the ride-on mowers to cut the grass where I bash to would use the grass collection boxes on the back of the mower or something, its just taken me nearly two hours to strip and clean the truck.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention- I had to stop my bash yesterday after 2 hours due to the slipper clutch melting. The plate which bolts to the spur (3.3 spec) cracked, so it couldnt apply much pressure when tightened up, and so now I have a partially melted brand new 72tooth spur (I made it fit the new style slipper quite easily)- not happy. It also looks like the pot metal plate has melted and bits of it are stuck to the friction plate thingy- I'll have to post pics tonight, its a total mess.

Im so pissed off that Im actually going to revert back to the old style slipper, and lock it up like before just using an extra bushing thing (with the hex in the middle) instead of the spring- never had issues with that setup, the newer style one is a pain in the anus.

Its all good fun though....

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...laMaxx/127.jpg

More damage discovered. Thankfully it was only a small bend, so my good friend Mr. hammer helped me out and got it nice and flat again :mdr:

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...laMaxx/128.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...laMaxx/129.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...laMaxx/130.jpg

Got my new X-braces today, so the truck got rebuilt good as new, shame I cant say the same for the slipper though- toast. I have down-graded it back to 3906 spec, and its perfectly solid. Locked ofcourse, since any degree of slip as I found equals melted spurs and scorched bearings... (traxxas engineers = epic fail).

And the Strobe braces arrived:

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...axx/brace2.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...axx/brace3.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...axx/brace4.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...axx/brace5.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...axx/brace6.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...axx/brace7.jpg

Required a little trimming to fit the Gorillamaxx towers, but they look just beautiful.

Now all I need is a 70mm Medusa, and I'll be finished....

On that slipper - did you grind down the backside of the plate when you first installed it (to decrease the spur offset)? Just curious - I'm going to start mine tonight, and since my Neu has such a long shaft, I was considering not doing that part.

I paid TDC57 to make me the conversion 'kit', and the fins are ground off on the rear slipper disc yeah. He also cross drilled the new input shaft so that the pin (and therefore slipper assembly as a whole) could be placed nearer to the tranny- if you have a motor with a long shaft, I wouldnt worry too much, you can just flip the pinion around so that the teeth line up with the spur as required.

Dang, that is one hell of a truck. I love it, its so low and wide :yes:. How much $$$ you have spend in it :whistle:? What kind of battery setup are you using, A123?

I've finished spending money on this thing now, apart from the 70mm medusa which is yet to be released, so I think I've spent somewhere in the $3200 range, havent calculated it precisely, nor do I want to...

I currently use 2 pairs of 6s A123 packs for a 6s2p each run, works very well and gives pretty good runtime. I also recently purchased some nice new lipos, which will unveiled shortly after their maiden run on video :yes:

nice!, I love how those braces look. So what's next, truggy?

Nope, Im happy being a one-truck guy really. I plan to save up and get a real car (or trike) next, and do my driving lessons and test obviously. I would like an RC boat though, just got to research more into that for a while before making any purchases.

Whoa...that's a phenomenal truck Neil! I love those JumboMaxx tyres, too; it's great to see a monster with PROPER meats on it sometimes.:diablo:

Nice job, and I can't wait for the next vid.:yes:

Over 3k omg, yea its better then to not calculate the costs :yes:. So same batt setup as in my g2r, sweet.

Those Strobe braces sure look good :great:

:lol: good joke :lol: There must be thousands more ideas spinning around in that head of yours!

:surprised::surprised::surprised:

$3200!! is that in pounds or USD?

because $3200 pounds is $5,652.80 USD as of the 3rd of october 2008 at07:00:17 UTC

I would assume $3200 USD. $5000+ USD and you'd have a full blown UE Supermaxx plus a box load of spares, (just ask plettenbergs)

$, yeah. I could have several 'good' trucks for that much money, but one awesome truck is more my style (I do have some, I swear).

Anyway, I went to the park today to make a movie, and test my new Zippy H 4000mah 25-35C 5s lipos, but after only 5 minutes this happend:

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...xx/tranny1.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...xx/tranny2.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n...xx/tranny3.jpg

Crap.

Anyone got any spares floating around, or some alloy/Ti/steel versions? I may try seeing if RC4WD will just sell me the single gear I need, rather than a whole kit (2 outputs & 2 idlers), but at least the stockers are cheap to replace.

:gasp: good work Neil, i thought once you had the steel idler in there you would be set, never seen that before.

As for the RC4wd gears, they're aluminium arent they? If they're not hardened steel i don't know how they would hold up against the hardened steel idler. I know the ULTRAMAXXED gears were 7075 aluminium, but used brass (i think it was) idlers

The RC4wd gears are made of 6061T6 aluminum. I have a full set brand new in my spare tranny.

Here's a couple of pics:
http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h...Picture424.jpg

http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/h...Picture425.jpg

Nice. I didnt really think about the effect the steel idler would have on an alloy output gear, but the alloy input gear is doiing just fine, so fingers crossed RC4WD will get back to me on my request.

Well, I got a reply from RC4WD about the gears- they said they can give me $10 off the cost of a full set, but they dont sell them seperately. Guess that'll have to do really, as UltraMaxxed gears are impossible to find, and even the steal rip-offs have vanished from ebay. On the upside, I think I've identified every weak point to the emaxx design now.... :mdr:

i have some stockers i can send you for free i think!...I cant part with my 3 sets of ULTRAMAXXED GEARS!:yes:

Nah, I've already got 2 spare output gears arriving tomorrow hopefully, so no worries. 3 sets of Ultramaxxed gears though, that must have cost a pretty penny I bet...

Haha, "pretty penny", strange poms.

i know the guy that made them!...he gave me a deal on the last 3 new sets in the world!...gen3 version!!

guess you must feel pretty special. Lol

How much might it cost me to pry one set from you?

Ouch..:oh: That’s hurts..:grrrrrr: Sorry Sir..:cry:

Ouch indeed. Got it all fixed up today, and my new HPI Charger shell arrived too; I didnt realise it was so damn huge, or required sticking the tail on as a seperate piece. Good job Im an airfix veteran...

Got any pics of that new body yet Neil :intello:

Not yet- the paint arrived today so I will start working on it over the next week or so. I got me some polycarbonate spray for the main color (black) and some smoke spray to tint the windows. Using paint jars for the detail/design part- going for a blue true-ish fire effect, lol. Hand painting is alot easier as its what Im good at really (watercolors and acrylics). Getting an airbrush kit would just be too expensive, and a whole new thing to have to learn so I decided to pass on that. I may end up selling this shell though as it seems too long for even the extended G2 chassis; hoping Jconcepts will have something for the new emaxx that is a little shorter and doesnt overhang the rear end quite so much.

Et voila:

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n.../newshell1.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n.../newshell2.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n.../newshell3.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n.../newshell4.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n.../newshell5.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n.../newshell6.jpg

http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n.../newshell7.jpg

Didnt turn out anything like the little image I had in my brain, but Im happy enough with it. I kinda made the mistake of thinking these acrylic paints would handle much like normal acrylics, but saddly not (they dry too quickly, and dont seem to have the same covering power). I also kinda screwed up the blending abit- should have bought a jar of black too in order t make the dark blue paint fade away, rather than being a clear divide between the black and dark blue as it tails off.

Overall, an enjoyable experience, but I understand why guys use airbrushes and stencils, and why they charge so much for the more intricate designs.

Omg, creamed my pants... Wanna change that with my g2r :intello:?

true ish fire? where? :neutral:

it looks out of place on the gmaxx.

:wink:

I'll try harder next time.... :oops:

I'm normally not a fan of the car bodies on a truck but I think it looks quite good on your Gmaxx actually :wink: and i think you've just invented the 'true jeans' effect :tongue: :lol:

LOL.

New fad on the RCM boards: paint your shells to look like jeans!

that looks baddass.