Project: Flux XL

[Jahay]

it does look great finished!!! thanks for sharing the pics. glad to hear the slipperential isnt causing any more problems... maybe if you ran a smaller spur and pinion then you wont have the rock issues???

[_dV]

Rebuilt the slipper with the mod 1 46t spur. Using a 13t pinion which doesn't leave much clearance at all between the motor mount and the slipper output. Gearing gives about 73km\hr which is close to what i had with the mod 0.8 setup. Definitely can't go to a smaller pinion without changing the motor mount.

Enlarged the cutout in the diff mount to accomodate the adjustment ring. Also thought i would try a cutout in the skid plate.



Schemed up a method to weigh it. Used my 2kg scale under each wheel with supports the same height as the scale under the other wheels. Weighed it with stock wheels and everything except battery and body. Total weight was 4922gms. I know the stock wheels are usually a touch over 300gms each so without wheels its about 3722gms. This seems about right compared to Nard's weigh in here as it doesnt use a gearbox like the FLM tranny forward.

[_dV]

The revised diff mount and skid plate seem to have worked. Have done a couple of short runs in fairly rocky areas without a single issue so hopefully problem solved.

Finally got around to gluing up the new tires today.

Stock vs new mounted on inner bead. Gluing on the inner bead is difficult but having two ppl makes it easier.


Balanced the wheels by taking out a dogbone and counter balancing where the bottom of the wheel rested.


I was going to stick on these downhill racer weights to do the balancing but they were difficult to break apart and very hard. I would have had to dremel each one to the desired weight.


I ended up just using blutack as i have done in the past. It never moves and makes balancing a breeze, just break off what is needed to balance and stick on, done. If only it came in black

Wheels with blutack balancing


I'm going out for a drive tomorrow and my camera woman is coming with me. So hopefully i can post a vid soon.

[Jahay]

hmmm i may consider trying the blu tac balancing method and see whether it helps at all....

[_dV]

I definitely recommend doing it. It's easy to do, cheap, doesn't take very long and will make a big difference to how smooth your vehicle runs if it's wheels are out of balance.

If you hold your truck by the roll bar and spin the wheels up to a decent speed you should see and feel the vibration if the wheels are out of balance.

[_dV]

Broke my last Pro-Line Pro-Pull on the weekend. The clips that come with them are nice but the pulls themselves are way too soft and the ends tear out after not much use. So i had an idea to make body clip pulls out of some spare HPI antenna tube that i had. Worked out well. Small and slim enough not to get caught up when the truck is sliding and stiff enuff in short lengths that you can pull clips out easily when the antenna tube is vertical. Punched the hole in it by flattening the end with some pliers and using a metal center punch. The tube seems tough enough that the end won't pull out of it either.

[Nard Cox]

Weight seems to be good indeed.

Balancing wheels is awesome! It's very noticeable, especially onroad. I'm considering buying a wheel balancer instead of just balancing on my arms with the dogbones taken out.

As far as bodyclips go, you can always try this if your antenna tube isn't holding up:


ps. it's not mine, and I don't know the original poster.

[_dV]

I've made those before but the square'ish ends on the zip ties tended to grab and the pins would pullout.

i use a little bit of fishing wire, and a small hole on the body, tie it on and you never loose another body clip, and their nice and easy to remove :)

[_dV]

First vid. Meant to get more footage but i hadn't loctited the pinion due to still experimenting with different options and it came loose. Wasn't much of a bashing spot either, I was investigating another area near where i had bashed before.

Suspension is way too hard. The shock tower supports + lighter truck have made more difference than i expected. You can see the truck bouncing around in the vid because of it.

The Flux stock tires have a bit more traction when low profiled and taped but still not as much as i would like. Might eventually go back to some badlands and\or stock XL tires. Maybe suspension re-tuning will help out.

You can see me messing around testing out the slipperential a fair bit. The slip part seems ok now with the 3 springs but the front wheels get too much power when they are off the ground with 100K fluid. Traxxas make a 500K fluid, that might do.

[YOUTUBE]xRIWxwDdErM[/YOUTUBE]

looking good :)

centre diff seems to help keep the front wheels down a bit...

surely you may as well have a spool with the 500,000wt oil... as its locked?

[_dV]

Could be i end up with something like that though it would be nice to keep a slipper clutch somehow. Something like the inline slipper the new'ish HPI Bullet Flux has is interesting.

[Bmr4life]

That's a great build. Thanks for sharing.

Also, I really like the radio box. Looks like its from a stampede. To get the antenna to stick out of the side, did you just drill a hole and glue it in?

just lock up the slipperential... fill it with lock fluid :) or cold weld... but that would be irreversible :S...

really heavy oil would do it for you :) or a torsin diff...

[_dV]

Bmr4life: This is the radio box and yes i did just drill a hole and CA glue it in. Nps with it coming out so far.

Bazzokajoe: I only discovered torque sensing style diffs a little over a week ago. Look interesting but expensive. I'd rather try an 'inline' slipperclutch.
500K fluid could be nice in that it might absorb some drivetrain shock like landing rear wheels under power whereas a solid lock would make that rather harsh.