And then... Wendigo.

[DrIsotope]

Man is this thing a handful. I built mine from the kit form, and completed assembly as per the manual (ride height, oils, link positions, etc.) It is something else.
Torque twist like I've never experienced, WAYYYY too much brake for the stock suspension setup, and the roll steer... ohhhh, the roll steer. :shock:

I also managed to break an internal part in about half a pack of running. The pin that retains the small gear in the transfer case was kit correct
(I measured it) but seemed about 2mm too short for the slot in the gear-- so within about 10 minutes of smashing around, the truck made that
"my pinion has fallen off" noise. Nope. The pin turned the inside of that gear smooth.

But I think I like a project even more than I like a build, so I dove right in. Suspension is where I like to tinker, and as I was lucky enough to buy a sack
(I wanna say 30 pairs?) of Losi 8ight springs many moons ago on eBay for about $10, I either just convert trucks over to 8ight shocks, or make spring hats.
As a check showed 8ight shock sets going for $80-100, and this whole truck was $250, hats it is!

Overcompensating for the crawler-soft stock springs, I initially went way too stiff (2.3" grey in the front and 3.1" green in the rear) which had the truck
pogo-ing around like I had replaced the wheels with Superballs. Dropped two rates all around, 2.3" black in the front and 3.1" red in the rear. MUCH better.
Still have to mess with oil. They're significantly better, but now feel over-damped.

I've come to the conclusion that at this point in my life, I don't really like painting bodies. It's fiddly, it's time-consuming, and the bodies invariably end
up getting demolished. So I looked at what paints I still had on hand (some of the cans involved are pre-2010) grabbed two rolls of masking tape, and
went for a Frankenstrat-inspired, "it's supposed to look kinda messy" quick job. I'm completely okay with it. It ain't great, but it ain't terrible either.

Gonna be fun to see where this build ends up.

 

[durok]

Paint actually looks pretty nifty - like a three-way between Keith Haring, Eddie Van Halen (RIP), and the camouflage you see on prototype vehicles... "thumbsup"

I've always thought the Wendigo was a looker, and with some work I'll bet you get it performing a lot better than stock!

 

[DrIsotope]

My first foray into double live axles that go fast, so this is a whole new ballgame for me. The axle/pinion angle is one thing, the way the panhard bar effects travel and steering is another.

The torque steer is just massive-- a tight right turn is no problem, while a tight left almost invariably puts the truck on it's roof because the torque is trying to lift the left rear and drive the right front through the earth's crust.

Might be my first build with a front sway bar (as I was an exclusively 2wd guy up until just a few years ago.)

 

[ferp420]

the gen8 has that gear issue also the fix if i remeber was.to shim the shaft on the outside of the gear box.betweent the shaft and the bearing to hold the pin tight in the gear or go to the metal gears or both
good luck with that

 

[DrIsotope]

Yeah, there's a fair amount of fore-aft play in that output shaft, which already now has a steel gear on it. Not since my old-timey Tamiya days can I recall putting a plastic gear inside a gearbox, so I was wary from the get-go. Nice that the gears have big chunky Mod 1 teeth, but not exactly a benefit when spinning that gear with a M2x6.8 shaft. With that divorced T-case design, the entire drivetrain is relying on that tiny pin. I'm putting in an aluminum transfer case as soon as it arrives, so I'll be re-shimming the whole drivetrain during the install. I might still have some 2mm titanium rod left over from repairing sooooo many Traxxas 2.27 layshafts in my time, so I might re-pin as well.

 

[DrIsotope]

Just because you could, doesn't mean you should

The Wendigo is just a mess. Equal parts hot mess and spicy disaster. I've no take on the Gen8, as I've never even driven much less owned one. But I can say that it is a vehicle never intended to go fast. Because the Wendigo, ostensibly "designed" to go fast, absolutely cannot.

It's a 1960's muscle car, sitting atop waist-high tires. In stock form, it is unquestionably the worst handling vehicle I've ever encountered. The delightful combination of absolutely massive torque steer, combined with apparently uncorrectable roll steer turns any surface into a suspension testing facility. The Wendigo can flip over while traveling in a straight line on a level surface. It's like nothing I've ever seen before.

I've watched videos and read articles which are mostly raves... and I absolutely don't get it. Beyond the borked suspension geometry, the transfer case was never built for this. It gets nearly as hot as the motor-- I thought I had built it wrong, so I took it apart and rebuilt it (again-- after the rebuild for the wrecked gear) and there's not much to do wrong: it's two shafts, two pins, two gears, and four bearings. It just gets HOT.

Making things worse, the T-case isn't alone. The pinion angles entering the axle housings, also NOT for high speed. The metal universals get HOT. Really hot. Even on 3S, the motor barely touches 120º with the 17T pinion, ESC is generally ~100º. The T-case can hit 100º, and the universal joints are up in the 90s by the time I get the temp gun on them-- meaning they were MUCH hotter at peak.

...so I guess the easiest route-- and by easiest I mean least added stress on my already fragile psyche-- will be do drop in a 1080WP and a high-turn brushed motor and treat it like a big, overly long and wide Gen8. Should do fine as a crawler. It is AWFUL as a go-fast rig.

 

[OSRC]

Yes sir, I never even tried to go fast with it. Awfully tough at this scale to make a solid axle rig a decent go-fast runner, and the smaller front shocks/longer rears with most of the weight up front just exacerbate the handling issues. Then locking the diffs....well, just makes for a big old bowl of hot mess soup.

I turned mine into a crawler right out of the box, and with some mods (better steering, lower gearing being the 2 main changes) its fantastic. Totally redeems itself.

 

[ferp420]

i feel the windego is just a test platform for there new axles the rest of the rig is just a gen8 with a deadbolt body

 

[DrIsotope]

Yes sir, I never even tried to go fast with it. Awfully tough at this scale to make a solid axle rig a decent go-fast runner, and the smaller front shocks/longer rears with most of the weight up front just exacerbate the handling issues. Then locking the diffs....well, just makes for a big old bowl of hot mess soup.

I turned mine into a crawler right out of the box, and with some mods (better steering, lower gearing being the 2 main changes) its fantastic. Totally redeems itself.

Mind if I ask what you did to get more steering angle? Because I can't imagine trying to crawl this thing as it sits now. I'm also thinking something quite high turn for the motor based on the gearing-- in the 40+ turn range.

 

[OSRC]

Swapped axles with my SMT10. Worked out well, the 'digo axles are very strong, and I didn't need that much steering on the SMT. Need a servo mount to finish the SMT, but the AR60's are doing great under the 'digo.

There's a couple of ways to get a few more degrees out of the stock axles. Worth a read if you're thinking of going crawler, mods start on post 26: http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/redcat-crawlers/619963-oss-wendigo-kit.html

 

[DrIsotope]

Yes, the bump steer is horrific and apparently not correctable without major surgery. Oh, and the steering is absolutely awful. Both of those aren't
remotely as bad as the torque steer, which is so monumental as to make even that adjective inadequate.

But it is now driveable, and if anything it's a skill-building tool.

Hobbywing Fusion 1200kv and a 9T pinion... still kinda punchy. That is some high gearing in there. Though I'm sure the Showdowns at nearly 6" tall aren't
helping either. Could absolutely benefit from some weights in the front, weighted hexes maybe? Not a whole lot of options out there for Wendigo, and I
dunno what for the Gen8 will bolt on knuckle-wise. It spends as much time on 3 wheels as any vehicle I've ever encountered. It's just ridiculous.

More than anything I've crawled in my admittedly limited experience, this beast could REALLY benefit from a dig. I find myself using little blips of reverse
to settle the front end, as the Wendigo in high-traction spends it's time up on it's hind legs like a scared horse. If a standalone dig unit is a thing, this rig
could absolutely use it. Also going to have to fabricate some kind of brace to help support the trans when I pull the battery tray, as it will absolutely not be
used at any time in the future. The tiny 1500 pack strapped to the servo works great.

Yeah, I really hoped for something that would go fast (like I don't have enough-- I mean, I have an AE SC8.2e) but always look to the positive, I reckon.
The failure of this thing as a go-fast saw the donation of the ESC/motor and Swampers go to a pile of parts bin goodness, so I cobbled together... a really
long Rustler, I guess? It's like the opposite of the Wendigo. It goes really fast, and is really difficult to flip over. It's great. And aside
from the sunk costs, $0.

 

[ferp420]

Yes, the bump steer is horrific and apparently not correctable without major surgery. Oh, and the steering is absolutely awful. Both of those aren't
remotely as bad as the torque steer, which is so monumental as to make even that adjective inadequate.

But it is now driveable, and if anything it's a skill-building tool.


dunno what for the Gen8 will bolt on knuckle-wise. It spends as much time on 3 wheels as any vehicle I've ever encountered. It's just ridiculous.

the torque twist can be toned down alot with sway bars even on the gen 8 it helps alot

the bump steer should be fixable with out to much work we fixed the bump steer on the gen8 i havent gotten far.enuff along on the wendi build.yet to know how to fix the bumpsteer but when i get.to that point of the.build.ill share my fix.then someone will undoutably post up a better solution after that lol

it might be posable to mount the gen8 knuckles and portal boxes to the wendi axles it looks like the same atachment system ill check it out today when i get to the shop the problem as i see it would be the shafts wont fit the gen8 shafts are to short and the wendi axles shafts wont work with the portal boxes

ill check it out though there might be more cross compatabuility than we.think

i wonder what rig handles worse the yeti xl "the original 3 wheel wonder "or the wendigo lol