muggy build-up from scratch?
 

i will do a muggy,
what is my best option?
i want to change alot of the stock truck to hop-ups.
i can only get the muggy completly rtr, dont know who i could sell the nitro stuff to and electronics i dont need.
i would basicly only need the frame and drivetrain. all tuned up.
if i bought the rtr i'd ditch the A-arms, most of the shocks, chassis, nitro equipement,...

what to do?
i could get an empty lst2 tough?!?

buy an RTR lst2, it has got beefy shocks over the mugge (aluminum vs plastic) the RTR comes with a sexy remote/servo's.. no need to upgrade.

The drivetrain is fair good as well. aluminum where it's needed (diffhousings) sexy dishwheels..

building up a truck from scratch takes ages..

Well, you could "get rid" of all the Nitro-specific stuff on eBay. You'd be taking somewhat of a loss, but at least helps to recoup some of the funds...

i'm kinda liking the fact that i can easily get an "empty" lst2,
i would upgrade electronics anyway, even if they are decent.
just, i'm sick of medium grade electronics.
i'ma get me a nice radio first tough.
what about the tranny?
install FOC and keep 2 speed? and mech brakes?
or try to shoehorn in a diff? or even better slipper-diff?
thank, mike.

I would go Muggy....

i was thinking about a center diff in an lst2 yesterday,
that's what serum and my lhs sugested, but it seems darn difficult for a beginning drawer and builder.:013:
so i'll go with my first choice, the muggy.:004:
i dont mind that it is a little lower spec then the lst2.
one can always tune it a bit.:028:
but as it is rtr, it will come with a jr xr2i i think, would that radio even work with BL? as it is AM modulation i think.:032:

sorry to double post again but,
i'll just get an rtr, any one want a mach 427?
and an exhaust?
thanks.

I thought the Muggy came with an FM radio?

its an jr xr2i, is that fm?

No... they are old school.... still has an 8 track and AM radio.

:005:

lol. Too funny!

My Revo has a full fledged stereo complete with amplifier! Seriously. Pics will be posted sometime soon...

hahahaha, that's funny.
anyway, does AM work with brushless? i tought it didnt?!?

Yeah, np.

wont it glitch?

Nope.

sweet, thanks again guys.

I just did a Muggy conversion yesterday. It took me a few hours to do. It was really simple. What made me go with the Muggy was the fact that it had a conventional 1/8 scale layout, with the center diff.

I used the optional aluminum center diff mount to mount the motor mount to. It's a very rigid setup and very straight forward. If you do go with the Muggy, this first thing I had to do was get rid of the dual steering servo setup. I went with a JR Z9000T. The next thing I did was to replace the bushing in the steering with bearings. Then I replaced the grease in the diffs with diff fluid and changed the shock oil to 40 weight.

I like it, so far. It handles very well for such a heavy vehicle. In fact, it handle better than my buggy does. I think the buggy's gonna be on the shelf for a while.

you will have to post pics now lol.
i actually found a roller with a heap of spare's locally, i'll get that one.

jolly,

My pic host account came due, and I don't know if I'll renew it. If you want, you could PM me with your email and I'll send you some. I may even still have the first mount that I did, to give you an idea, although I may have cut that one for the plastic diff mount. Believe it or not, the aluminum diff mounts are a bit longer (taller) and the mount made for the plastick diff mount doesn't quite fit the aluminum mount.

How about Photobucket for hosting your pics?

What? Is photobucket free? If it is, I didn't know that. I'll check it out.

Yup,photobucket is free.You can just attach files to your post on this forum anyway.

http://www.photobucket.com
That's where all of my pics are hosted (for free) :).

MetalMan, thanks for the photobucket tip.

OK,...here are some pics. Keep in mind that I just got the truck two days ago, so it might be a little rough and things are likely to change, but this is how I'm running it right now.

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/DSC02508.jpg

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/DSC02507.jpg

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/DSC02506.jpg

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/DSC02505.jpg

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/DSC02503.jpg

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/DSC02502.jpg

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/DSC02501.jpg

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s...r/DSC02499.jpg

I tried to get shots from the most pertinent angles. If you need anything else, let me know.

looks like a steel spur. does it hold up?
wich battery you running? i assume 4s lipo?
thanks.

jollyjumper,

That is a metal spur in there right now and the spur doesn't last long. You could go with the hardened steel pinions, but from what I hear, they don't last long either. I usually run a Kyosho plastic spur, but a rock fried my last one yesterday.

I'm running 4S Lipo. I have a couple of Kokam 4800mAh packs on the way, because the truck handles better with the light batteries. I usually run a 4S2P 8000mAh pack for runtime in the 30 minute range.

how much Kv is the motor? and how are you geared?
thank you.

I have to correct what I said above. The pinion does't last long when used with a steel spur gear.

The motor is a 7XL. It's about a 2150kv motor. My gearing with the stock tires is 12/46. On 14/46 it was just too stupid on the track.

I did run it on the track yesterday, and I made a few observations. The first is that the steering sucks. I replaced the ackerman arm (the thingy that connects the right to the left) with a tie rod ball end setup and it tightened things up a bit, but it's still not great. The second is that I was having a problem eating spurs. I went through four last night. The problem is one of two things. It is either a lack of rock guards and things are flying up into the gears or the chassis flex is somehow causing the gears to mash. I don't know how the chassis flex could be affecting it because my motor mount is mounted to the center diff mount, but I'm not ruling it out. I'm going to install some rock guards and see what happens. The thing is that I haven't actually found anything stuck in the gears. Just to play it safe, I ordered the heavy duty chassis.

The last thing I noticed is that the stock tires suck too. They are fine for bashing, but leave a lot to be desired on the track. I have some holeshots and bow ties coming in and will convert to 17mm hexes.

On the positive side, I think that the truggy will wind up handling better than a buggy. It takes turns at higher speeds and is more forgiving when you don't hit the turns or jumps quite right.

Yeah, a "normal" pinion won't last long at all on a steel spur. For one thing, the teeth are shaped different. For another, mesh has to be rock solid. At the minimum, I'd use a hardened steel pinion as the teeth are shaped right and are meant to use with steel spurs (most usually are modded clutchbells).

You can read this thread about this topic.

Nice truck
What did you use for motor mount? On this truggy is it mod1 pitch?

The motor mount is home made. It isn't anything special; it's the same principal used my many. It simply bolts to the center diff mount and has slots cut into it to accommodate the motor.

The gear pitch is module 1 (mod1).

I did make aluminum rock guards for it last night. I used T6-6061 1" wide and 1/8" thick aluminum bar. Now there is less chance of something flying up under the body and the chassis in much more rigid, with only the slightest flex. I'm going to order some carbon fiber and remake the parts to cut down on weight.

With the battery, the truck weighs over 12lbs, although you wouldn't know it if you see it run.

That is a very nice muggy. It sure is better than when it was nitro. :027:

Have fun with it.

Oh, it is better than it was in nitro form. I took it over to my lhs for a little show and tell. Everyone freaked out. At first everyone was giving me grief because it was so heavy, but after they saw it run, they kept teasing me about ways to go about keeping the front end on the ground.

If I'm going to race this thing, I'm going to have to find a much milder motor. Maybe a 9XL, geared.

so 4s lipo is def. enough for this heavy beast?
do you have data logger?
i would love to see how many amps he (muggy) pulls.
cant wait to get mine.:dft012:

I don't have a data logger. The only ones that I can afford, or are willing to spend money on, will only do up to 100A spec (120A real life), so I figured that there was no sense in getting one.

The 4S is enough for the bigish truck. I won't say that 5S or 6S wouldn't be better for more efficiency and less heat, but the 4S does fine. Considering the cost of lipo packs, I like to keep my battery configurations simple. Besides, I haven't yet found a controller that I like as much as the Mamba Max, and all that can comfortably do is 4S so that's what I run.

Keep in mind, if you are going to do one of these Muggys, there was work that NEEDED to be done. Not as a matter of preference, but really needed to be done. The stock steering is really sloppy and the chassis flexes A LOT. It think that's why I was flattening so many spur gears. I've been running the same spur in my buggy since I converted it about 6 weeks ago. I just did the Muggy and I'm on my 4th spur. I haven't had to change it since reinforcing the chassis.

I think I found out one of the reasons that I am eating so many spur gears. I hadn't noticed it before, but I was clowning around with my son and I floored my Muggy and it cogged really badly. So bad, in fact, that it ate up the spur. I saw this happen. Perhaps it wasn't the chassis after all.

i know about sloppy steering and chassis flex, easy fixes. innovative-rc chassis, hahaha. sloppy steering: use adjustable ackerman link.
lol, its gonna takes me long to do it tough.
i dont care so much for doing a conversion quickly so i can run, i care for doing it really nicely. maybe i'll even sell the muggy as soon as it works. i dont know. i dont even have it yet. haha.:D

I just used a 6-32 tie rod with rod ends and balls to make a new link. There's almost no play in the steering now. As for the chassis, I used a couple of pieces of 1/8 aluminum to make rock guards and used the existing holes to mount them. It's very rigid now. Almost no flex at all.

i want to do a muggy soon!

The muggy is a nice basher, but I'm not sure that it will do well on a track in a crowd. I'll have to run it in a race to see.