1/16 Mini E-Revo - Top Speed Build

[kazuaki]

Next up was a motor mount. The Tenbol mount was way too high for me, especially now that I had a longer chassis and rear shock interference was not an issue. I designed this mount to be strong and as low as possible. This was not done in CAD or cut on a waterjet. This part was all manual (drill press, hacksaw, files, etc.)

Here we have the transmission plate, motor plate, and a rear brace, all 1/8" 6061-T6 aluminum.




Here are the parts assembled on the chassis. The rear brace was put there so that the pivoting motor plate is in a "double shear" connection. It also takes all of the load off of the transmission case that normally is presented by the weight of the motor.







The Mini Revo rear transmission mounts are below the top of the chassis, so I had to make these little mounting tabs that bolt to the chassis and hold the rear of the transmission.




More to come...

[kazuaki]

The next pics are the rolling chassis. The front and rear diffs bolted in with no issues. The "arms" of the bulkheads that reach towards the middle of the truck needed to have small spacers between them and the underside of the chassis. I made small blocks of aluminum to serve as mounts/spacers for the shocks. The servo dropped straight in. You can't see it in the pics, but I made a thin sheetmetal cover for the top of the rear diff. In earlier pictures, you could see the chassis had to be cut out to clear the rear ring gear. This left it exposed, so I made the thin cover to bolt to the top of the chassis to seal it up. I used standoffs to move the rear body mounts forward some. Everything else is stock Mini Revo stuff. I was able to pull the front and rear suspension/differential assemblies from my stock truck and bolt them right on to this chassis.




The Tekno Neu 1512/2D/F mounted up.






As you can see, there is plenty of motor space now. In fact, this chassis can accomodate a motor up to 3.3 (84mm) in length. So, I guess anything up to a Neu 1521 should bolt up to it.

[kazuaki]

Due to the extended chassis and the location of the standoffs, my battery "compartments" are 142mm long and 44mm wide. The height of the compartments is determined by the length of the standoffs used to seperate the chassis plates, in this case 20mm. I chose these batteries, Zippy Rhino 3S 2550mah 40C/50C.




I made covers that bolt onto the chassis to hold the batteries in place securely and provide a bunch of surface area to mount electronics to. They are made from thin aluminum sheetmetal and weight pretty much nothing.





Almost done

[kazuaki]

OK, so here are some pics that get you caught up to the current state of things. I'm using a Pro-Line Slipstream body that I did some creative trimming on. The idea is to keep it aerodynamic. Not really sure if I achieved that, but it looks cool. The suspension is "tied down" to keep the chassis low. There is still another 1/2" to 3/4" of travel left.

With HPI Super Nitro belted slicks on Super Star wheels...





Here are a few with some custom made foams on stock wheels...

[kazuaki]

I weighed things as I went through this build. My friend's bone stock Mini E-Revo is sitting here and it weighs 2.95 pounds with 2 stock nimh battery packs. The completed truck in the pics above weighs 3.95 pounds with the big packs pictured, a Ko Propo receiver and EZRUN ESC installed. I will not be using the EZRUN, but itis all I had to get the weight. So, it is 1 pound heavier. The vast majority of that weight is the batteries and motor though. The chassis itself is only 100 grams (3.5 ounces) heavier than the stock chassis/receiver box/skidplate combo. If I were to go to thinner metal (likely 0.100") I could shave another 2 ounces or so. I'm hoping the weight won't be too much of an issue for top speed with the powerplant I am running.

BTW, the ESC I plan to run is the Mamba Max Pro that I am waiting on. I'll be running it on 6S.

Another thing you cannot see in the pics. I have made a flat spot on the tranny input shaft. I am using an RCM 4mm/5mm sleeve to run a pinion gear on there. So, I will be running pinion gears on the motor and the tranny. This was the only way I was able to get the gearing options I want in the space provided. I have tested this pinion-on-pinion arrangement in a stock chassis and it seems to work OK. Not sure if it will present any issues or not. Opinions on that?