Much waiting and anticipation for this release..... I waited patiently at the window
Alas my parcel arrived and I was a exited as a young JRH
I got to work and came up with this
Just like the Venture it has behind the axle steering which I really like
Holmes Hobbies Puller 500 Team 16T, 14T pinion
Castle Creations Mamba X
Castle Creations 10 amp BEC (waterproofed with conformal coating)
Savox 2290
RC4WD MT/R's
Sendero bronze wheels
Bronze shock bodies, black caps and extra springs
All of the hard plastic parts except the knuckle and C-hub
KNK Brass wheel hex up front Aluminum in the rear (maybe I'm smart? maybe I messed up my order?)
Crawler Innovations 4.5" Lil Nova dual stage foams (cut down in width)
Spektrum 5 ch receiver, the new models aren't waterproof so I used conformal coating on this as well.
The instruction manual is lacking in a few details for the shock tower and link locations but I figured it out in the end by looking at the RTR.
The shocks feel really smooth and the soft green and white springs I've installed are really soft almost too soft but it still drives good so I'll stick with these for a little longer. I used 30wt shock oil.
The Hard plastic parts are a fair bit stiffer and when the chassis is assembled it seems pretty rigid much more than a SCX10.2. I weighed a few of the hard parts to compare them to the stock plastic and they were actually a touch heavier, pretty much the same weight but a tiny bit heavier which is unfortunate I thought that was part of the goal of the different plastic. Not to worry though its still a light rig.
I really didn't notice this until I had everything together but the outputs for the transfer case sit really high and also put the driveshaft at a fairly steep angle, seems close to being maxed out up front. I think this might be due to Element wanting to hit the Axial bolt pattern on top of the larger than usual gears at the outputs. Most other outputs sit right on the skid notched in while the Enduro's is up about 20mm higher than typical. I think this tranny can likely be lowered with some creative mounting and trimming but I'll revisit that later.
Worth noting the bearing going into the piece on the right needs to be pressed on with quite a lot of force, find a clamp or vice to use. Keep in mind the bearing will still stick out a bit when fully seated.
Also worth noting the pinion to spur gear alignment was a bit tricky due to the spur gear being a bit closer than usual. Though this will vary as some motors have longer shafts than other. If I flipped the pinion like they show in the manual the spur gear would ride on the portion of the pinion without fully cut teeth. So I had to hunt down a pinion with the teeth cut all the way through the gear as opposed to having a flat step.
The Enduro chassis sits a lot higher than most of my other 1.9 rigs with non portal axles, they're pretty much at the same height as my TRX-4 & Gen 8. So I think there's some more performance on the table there with some new shock hoops to lower the chassis, also for later me to worry about.
I ended up installing my servo out of order, I didn't pay enough attention and mounted it from above and I had the drag link on top of the knuckle instead of the bottom. This made for tons of bump steer, about 5-10 degrees when I compressed one side at a time. I was worried for a second that it was just a bad design causing it, Luckily it was as easy as fixing my stupid mistake.
It was a bit eye opening how moving these drag link mount points had such a huge effect. To me the link looked like it was just right, nice and parallel but it really wasn't.
It weighs in at 5 lbs even with a battery and no body
and another 10 oz for an Acsender K10 placeholder body
Really not bad at all especially considering how heavy the included machined idler gears are, its a 1lb tranny all assembled.
More on the shocks, I heard some say they leak so I took measurement on the O-rings and spacer. I could make a thicker spacer to get a better seal potentially. So far I haven't noticed any leaking but I've only driven it once so far.
They put an O-ring in the preload adjuster which is a nice touch.
First mod was to cut up the battery tray to drop it down 10-12mm
Its basically sitting on the frame rails now.
What I did was notch the stock battery tray for the chassis rails. I used the ridges next to the holes as a guide of where to cut and the battery strap notch for the other cuts, and the angle I did freehand with a razor. The other cuts were made with a fine toothed hand saw.
Flip the battery tray mount point/crossmember upside down so its offset downwards instead of up.
Notch the battery tray to clear the driveshaft.
Removed the ridge that runs between these holes so the battery tray could sit on the mount (this is probably not needed as I did shim this up a bit after)
With all that the tray now sits like so, with the chassis rails sticking up a few mm.
I printed up some spacers to lift the tray up 2.3mm
Put them in these holes
and that raises the battery tray up so its now flush with the chassis rails. Stock screws can be re-used.
I though about designing a new tray to 3D print but hey why not re-use what I already have.
EDIT: Shinchu brought it to my attention the inner fenders will probably interfere which they do so I may design a new battery tray to print after all.
The body I picked up is the MST Jimny and since its getting cut in half it will be know as Jim. The lexan seems to be a little bit on the thin side, not paper thin but not thick but it does have good detail and plastic molded parts, its a nice body.
Cut in half, I still need to reshape the rear a tiny bit so I can glue it back in, the angle of the roof needs to be changed a bit
Its got some poke and the tires should be the first thing to hit, plenty of clearance to the body.
I cut down the rock sliders and electronics/side trays to fit the width of Jim.
I used the various holes on the rock sliders as a guide to drill new mounting holes passing 2 m3 screws though both rock sliders to keep them aligned.
(I cut off the ends of these which had the holes I used)
As I mentioned I cut off the ends of the slider so I could bring them inwards.
I drilled out a hunk of 3/4" plywood so I could mount the side trays and be able to run it through a saw.
Ran it though the table saw and took off about 12mm on each. It cuts fine no melting or cracking
Mounted
More to come "thumbsup"
Alas my parcel arrived and I was a exited as a young JRH
I got to work and came up with this
Just like the Venture it has behind the axle steering which I really like
Holmes Hobbies Puller 500 Team 16T, 14T pinion
Castle Creations Mamba X
Castle Creations 10 amp BEC (waterproofed with conformal coating)
Savox 2290
RC4WD MT/R's
Sendero bronze wheels
Bronze shock bodies, black caps and extra springs
All of the hard plastic parts except the knuckle and C-hub
KNK Brass wheel hex up front Aluminum in the rear (maybe I'm smart? maybe I messed up my order?)
Crawler Innovations 4.5" Lil Nova dual stage foams (cut down in width)
Spektrum 5 ch receiver, the new models aren't waterproof so I used conformal coating on this as well.
The instruction manual is lacking in a few details for the shock tower and link locations but I figured it out in the end by looking at the RTR.
The shocks feel really smooth and the soft green and white springs I've installed are really soft almost too soft but it still drives good so I'll stick with these for a little longer. I used 30wt shock oil.
The Hard plastic parts are a fair bit stiffer and when the chassis is assembled it seems pretty rigid much more than a SCX10.2. I weighed a few of the hard parts to compare them to the stock plastic and they were actually a touch heavier, pretty much the same weight but a tiny bit heavier which is unfortunate I thought that was part of the goal of the different plastic. Not to worry though its still a light rig.
I really didn't notice this until I had everything together but the outputs for the transfer case sit really high and also put the driveshaft at a fairly steep angle, seems close to being maxed out up front. I think this might be due to Element wanting to hit the Axial bolt pattern on top of the larger than usual gears at the outputs. Most other outputs sit right on the skid notched in while the Enduro's is up about 20mm higher than typical. I think this tranny can likely be lowered with some creative mounting and trimming but I'll revisit that later.
Worth noting the bearing going into the piece on the right needs to be pressed on with quite a lot of force, find a clamp or vice to use. Keep in mind the bearing will still stick out a bit when fully seated.
Also worth noting the pinion to spur gear alignment was a bit tricky due to the spur gear being a bit closer than usual. Though this will vary as some motors have longer shafts than other. If I flipped the pinion like they show in the manual the spur gear would ride on the portion of the pinion without fully cut teeth. So I had to hunt down a pinion with the teeth cut all the way through the gear as opposed to having a flat step.
The Enduro chassis sits a lot higher than most of my other 1.9 rigs with non portal axles, they're pretty much at the same height as my TRX-4 & Gen 8. So I think there's some more performance on the table there with some new shock hoops to lower the chassis, also for later me to worry about.
I ended up installing my servo out of order, I didn't pay enough attention and mounted it from above and I had the drag link on top of the knuckle instead of the bottom. This made for tons of bump steer, about 5-10 degrees when I compressed one side at a time. I was worried for a second that it was just a bad design causing it, Luckily it was as easy as fixing my stupid mistake.
It was a bit eye opening how moving these drag link mount points had such a huge effect. To me the link looked like it was just right, nice and parallel but it really wasn't.
It weighs in at 5 lbs even with a battery and no body
and another 10 oz for an Acsender K10 placeholder body
Really not bad at all especially considering how heavy the included machined idler gears are, its a 1lb tranny all assembled.
More on the shocks, I heard some say they leak so I took measurement on the O-rings and spacer. I could make a thicker spacer to get a better seal potentially. So far I haven't noticed any leaking but I've only driven it once so far.
They put an O-ring in the preload adjuster which is a nice touch.
First mod was to cut up the battery tray to drop it down 10-12mm
Its basically sitting on the frame rails now.
What I did was notch the stock battery tray for the chassis rails. I used the ridges next to the holes as a guide of where to cut and the battery strap notch for the other cuts, and the angle I did freehand with a razor. The other cuts were made with a fine toothed hand saw.
Flip the battery tray mount point/crossmember upside down so its offset downwards instead of up.
Notch the battery tray to clear the driveshaft.
Removed the ridge that runs between these holes so the battery tray could sit on the mount (this is probably not needed as I did shim this up a bit after)
With all that the tray now sits like so, with the chassis rails sticking up a few mm.
I printed up some spacers to lift the tray up 2.3mm
Put them in these holes
and that raises the battery tray up so its now flush with the chassis rails. Stock screws can be re-used.
I though about designing a new tray to 3D print but hey why not re-use what I already have.
EDIT: Shinchu brought it to my attention the inner fenders will probably interfere which they do so I may design a new battery tray to print after all.
The body I picked up is the MST Jimny and since its getting cut in half it will be know as Jim. The lexan seems to be a little bit on the thin side, not paper thin but not thick but it does have good detail and plastic molded parts, its a nice body.
Cut in half, I still need to reshape the rear a tiny bit so I can glue it back in, the angle of the roof needs to be changed a bit
Its got some poke and the tires should be the first thing to hit, plenty of clearance to the body.
I cut down the rock sliders and electronics/side trays to fit the width of Jim.
I used the various holes on the rock sliders as a guide to drill new mounting holes passing 2 m3 screws though both rock sliders to keep them aligned.
(I cut off the ends of these which had the holes I used)
As I mentioned I cut off the ends of the slider so I could bring them inwards.
I drilled out a hunk of 3/4" plywood so I could mount the side trays and be able to run it through a saw.
Ran it though the table saw and took off about 12mm on each. It cuts fine no melting or cracking
Mounted
More to come "thumbsup"
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