another kit build

[tdc]

i wasn't gonna bother making a build thread for my 10ii as there are a bunch of them already, but since each of us have have different ideas and take our builds in different directions, i figured it couldn't hurt to add another.

originally i was looking to pick up a vaterra ascender, not because i think it to be a better rig, but because my brother has the ascender rtr bronco and it was my first and only 1:10 crawler experience. plus we live together and i figured for part compatibility it would probably be a good idea to get the same brand as him.

however, i'm pretty thin on expendable income and my options were limited; i either had to save for a few months to buy an ascender kit, which was my initial plan, or head over to tower hobbies and take advantage of the payment plan thing they do. tower doesn't carry the ascender, however, so scx10ii it was. i'm not bummed, i love this thing.

btw, tower is pretty awesome, my body showed up with some of the over spray film tore up and a couple scratches in the body itself. not a big deal, i mean it's a crawler, but i shot them an email anyway and they sent me a new body, free of charge. totally unexpected and awesome.

i didn't get any pictures of the actual build, but we've all seen what that looks like anyway. it went quick and easy. i really didn't want to glue the tires to the stock wheels, especially knowing i would be getting metal bead lockers sooner than later, so i went to ebay to try to find a set of cheap used budget 1.9 lockers to hold me over until i found some that i really liked. however, i came across these new yeah racing wheels for $40 for the set, buy it now with free shipping. probably not the wheels i would have picked, but they are super nice and i'm stoked i got them so cheap.

you'll have to excuse the quality of some of these pictures. i broke the lens cover on my phone camera like a year ago and still haven't gotten around to fixing it.

i had never painted a lexan body before and i made the total noob mistake of using regular spray paint. i was after a particular color because i wanted to make the body look like the xj a friend of mine loaned me when i got stuck in sacramento for a week a couple months ago, and i didn't take the flexible lexan into consideration. i even went as far as to mask off the body lines and paint them black to try and give it a little more of a scale look.

it turned out pretty ok for a first try!

here's my friends jeep that i tried to emulate

she was pretty stoked on the tribute, haha.

i'll put up the electronics and things i used in the next post.

i was starting to get overwhelmed by all the different options when it came to what motor, esc, servo, and transmitter/receiver to use, so i went with what i knew. which isn't much of anything really, just what came stock in my brother's ascender rtr.

ended up with a dynamite 35t 540 brushed motor and a dynamite s2210 esc (motor - https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00WUKNYF6 and esc - https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00M1SB35U)

for the radio stuff, i did a bunch of reading around (mostly on rccrawler) and landed on the flysky gt3b - https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HNJNXVY

the servo was pretty much the best i could do for the money i had to spend on one (i think). i ended up with a savox sc-0251mg that came with a free fancy aluminum horn (Savox SC-0251MG Standard High Torque Metal Gear Servo w/Free Alum Arm/Horn - Nitro Hobbies Inc.)

i may have been able to find better parts at better deals if i had done more researching and looking around, but i really wanted to get rolling and getting the same parts as what my brother was running appealed to me for whatever reason. i was running a 2s battery my brother loaned me until i got my hands on a 3s that i picked up at our local hobby shop, the 3s really woke this thing up.

after a few runs, i noticed the motor was getting a little warm to the touch. i picked up a vanquish aluminum motor plate to help absorb some of the heat and it actually worked super well. the motor now hardly gets warm, but that plate can get toasty. i think i'm going to pick up some aluminum transmission mounts as well to help transfer the heat into the frame rails.
https://www.amainhobbies.com/vanqui...nsmission-motor-plate-silver-vps08101/p541705

i also noticed that the servo mount was flexing bad enough that the horn would hit the frame rail. this was probably mostly happening when the front tires were bound up and the servo was putting the torque down, but i still wasn't really that cool with it. i could have shaved the horn down to stop the contact, but i would rather remove the flex so i picked up a cheapo aluminum ebay special servo mount and it worked perfectly. zero flex now!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/132219788901

if you look closely in that last picture, you can see where the horn had rubbed away the paint on the frame rail.

i took the truck out to the local rc shop, they have a pretty fun (though extreme) crawler course set up inside. first time out i flaked off a ton of paint, snapped the rear bumper right off at the mount, and got hung on that shovel front bumper a billion times. it was a total blast!

i forgot to get pictures while we were there, but my brother grabbed this one -

it's pretty crappy and only shows off the most boring part of their course. i'll try to find/get more of the place, it's awesome.

i didn't want to run with no rear bumper at all, so i took both the broken rear and the stock front to the bench grinder. i wanted to get the rear bumper back on the truck, and to suck that front bumper up in as much as i could. the way the rear bumper standoffs are shaped, it took some doing to get it so it would go back into the mount, and now it's a tad too short for the xj body. the corners being tucked make it so the body corners hang out over the bumper too, which resulted in me ripping the tail light out of the driver side.

here's the shortened front and rear bumpers (and some random wheel weights stuffed in various places)

the front approach angle still isn't the best, but it's a million times better than what it was, whereas the rear is all kinds of messed up right now, but will do until i build or buy a new rear bumper.

and check out that flaking paint job! i bought some elo to strip out the wrong paint and i plan on trying again with some proper stuff. i might just do it in black and get a skin for this body and then redo this paint job (only with the correct paint) on my 2nd xj body i mentioned in the last post.

i'm also starting to put some money into the axles. those keen of eye may have noticed the c hubs were replaced in one or two of the above pictures, i went with the brass st racing concepts c hubs (https://www.amainhobbies.com/st-rac...rass-front-chub-black-2-sptsta31382br/p724228), but to be honest i'm not really sure why. the samix hubs weigh slightly more and are $10 cheaper, i have no idea why i didn't go with those. my only thought is that i must not have seen them on the amain website when i made the order. these st hubs are nice and will do the trick, so i'm not too bummed about it.

while i was at it, i picked up a single vanquish spool (https://www.amainhobbies.com/vanquish-products-axial-scx10-ii-spool-vps08070/p523466) to put in the front as it had a lot more axle slop than the rear and at $11, i figured i'd check it out - compare it to the rear over time. i've beat the truck up some since installing and the front is so much tighter than the rear that i plan on picking another spool up soon.

i have more parts on the way as i type this, but i'll wait until they get here to start talking about them. i've already done two huge posts in one day, i should save some for later.

if you've made it this far, thanks for reading! this is a fun hobby i accidentally got myself into, i'm looking forward to more of it!

 

[Crawler Cads]

Good tip on the motor plate, I'd never even considered dissipating the heat[emoji106]

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

 

[tdc]

it works really well as a heatsink! it's a substantial chunk of alloy so it makes sense that it would, but i was surprised that it works as well as it does. i think switching to alloy mounts would help even more, and allow the heat to dissipate into the frame rails. i realize i could always get an actual heatsink for the motor, but i like the idea of dealing with the heat in this way better, plus it keeps everything a lower profile for an interior if i decided to put one in at some point.

i got an email that a package arrived today, so hopefully i'll have more parts waiting for me when i get home from work!

 

[NitroDarwin]

My only idea that cooling fins would cool better, the brushed are where the heat is generated. And cooling fins could be mounted closer and wouldnt allow the magnets to get as hot

 

[tdc]

that is all definitely true, and i agree a finned heat sink on the can would likely work much more efficiently and would be something i'd consider if the motor was still getting hot, but so far it's hardly getting warm any more. the plate itself gets pretty dang warm after a good hard run, but the motor isn't even close to as hot as it was before i added the plate. since alloy is a much better conductor of heat than the steel the motor can is made from, that plate just soaks it all up like a sponge. when i bought the plate i figured it would help for sure, but still thought i'd probably want to get a finned heat sink at one point, but now it doesn't seem i'll need to.

 

[triggerhapy]

The non-rebuildable motors tend to run warm. A decent rebuildable 35t will run much cooler without the need to dissipate heat. I run a Tekin 35t HD brushed motor for hours on end and it barely gets warm. Its an 8 pound rig.

 

[tdc]

new parts!

so my goal with this truck is to be able to conquer my local rc shop's gnarly crawler course, and one thing this crawly boi needs (as most do), is more weight down low. those brass c hubs helped a bit with that, but i want more. enter ssd diamond axle housings:

they came properly packaged, i just totally forgot to get a picture of them before i opened everything up. my local shop and none of the places i regularly hit up had them in stock, so i went to ssd's website and started clicking on all of the shops on their where-to-buy page until i found them in stock. i found them at rpp hobby (http://www.rpphobby.com/product_p/ssd00211.htm).

originally, i was going to go with beef tube housings, even though they are expensive and not the heaviest choice, because i want something that will slide easily on nasty rocks. the heavy alloy and steel housings out there were very tempting due to their weight, but i feared they would hang up too much, especially the aluminum alloy housings. i felt like ssd's diamond axles were a great compromise for what i was after, with their slide friendly angular shaped pumpkin made from slippery plastic and the heavy steel axle tubes, plus they weigh more and cost half as much as the beef tubes.

in the pictures i've seen of the housings on trucks, the pumpkins seemed bigger than the stock ar44 pumpkins, which i was a bit worried about, but they aren't at all.

i did the rear first and it went together super easy, though one of the axle tube's middle screw hole wasn't lined up with the hole in the pumpkin properly, but it was a minor issue and i was able to fix it.

the front was more of a pain in the butt, but only due to all the linkages and floppy wheels. this wouldn't have been as annoying had i removed the wheels and took the knuckles apart, but i didn't want to do the extra work.

one of the things that always kinda bothered me about the stock axle housings was that the stock kit version tie rod link would hit the diff cover when locking the wheels left and right. it was robbing me of a tiny bit of steer angle. after swapping everything over to the new housing, i checked the link against the housing and you can see daylight in both directions!

i may have trouble with it hitting again later down the road when i purchase the samix high clearance knuckles, but that'll just be an excuse to buy a stainless link kit with a high clearance drag link haha. i'm still a little limited by the servo horn hitting the panhard mount on the frame when i turn left, but i filing the mount a bit should fix that.

after fighting with the c hubs to get them indexed where they belong, the rest went together super easy.

and that was that! i'm excited to go beat on them this weekend. here's a bunch of obligatory poser flexing pics with my beat up body in place.

i'm starting to think about painting up my other body, but i think i want to fix this one first. the tail light popped out last time i took it out to the sandy rocks at a local beach, it tore perfectly around the molded plastic lens, haha. i'm going to attempt to strip the spray paint from inside the body, repaint it black (this time with the proper paint), put the tail light back in using shoe goo and sheetrock tape, and then pick up a freqeskinz primer series skin for it (Primer Series Axial Cherokee sKinz - FreqEsKinz.com).
if i can pull all of that off ok, i feel like it'll look good again and i can save the new body for later.

oh, i got a better picture of the servo mount i mentioned further up the page while i had the front axle off. you can see where servo horn was rubbing the frame rail, which is totally eliminated now.

depending on weather and things, hopefully i can get some pictures of me beating it up this weekend to post up.

 

[tdc]

my brother and i went and hit up the beach today, even took my nephew along so he could play with his exceed maxstone. this is probably my favorite place to go crawl, it's a little different each time depending on how wet it is.

again, sorry for the bad pictures. i finally got everything i need to repair my phone's camera, i just haven't done it yet.

i didn't get a ton of photos, but here's a few i did get.

the new upgrades are amazing. axle housings and c hubs don't weigh a lot, but they weigh a lot more than the stock parts and the truck felt much more planted. sidehilling was a lot easier and predictable, and i didn't tumble bumper over bumper once. i can't wait to get even more weight down low.

really want to make or get some fender wells for this thing, cleaning it would definitely be a lot easier. maybe i'll do that this week while i'm stripping the paint from the body.

as for the next upgrades, i'm pretty set on doing the link ends, the play in them is obnoxious, especially the rear.
i also split one of the mounting points for the left side rear shock tower. not really sure how that happened, unless a nasty spill impacted it just right to cause it to split. i suppose i could have over tightened it too, but i don't think so. i never did really care for countersunk screws in plastic, seems like you're asking the plastic to split. i super lowballed a "make offer" auction on ebay and accidentally won some aluminum rear shock towers, so i'll be swapping those out in a month or however long it'll take for them to show up from china. wasn't really looking to add any more weight on the chassis, but the stock shock towers are super flexy, and now one's broken, so i'm ok with it.
i'm also going to clearance the panhard mount on the front shock tower, as my servo horn hits it when i'm turning left.

depending on what my budget looks like, i may be picking up the samix high clearance knuckles too (https://www.amainhobbies.com/samix-...ering-knuckle-2-black-samscx2-6012-bk/p578229). hopefully, when paired with the strc brass c hubs i'm running, they should eliminate the play the stock knuckles have, and they will allow me to mount the samix knuckle weights (https://www.amainhobbies.com/samix-scx10-ii-brass-steering-knuckle-weight-2-samscx2-4012/p578221) when i'm ready.

it was a fun day in the sun! my brother took some pictures, i'll try and get those from him to post up too.

here's the two photos my brother grabbed

 

[tdc]

more new parts!

i wanted more weight up front, so i was going with the samix high clearance knuckles with the bolt on weights. kinda regretting it now because i've since decided i kinda wanna stick to sorrca c2 rules, but i don't see myself competing in quite a while anyway. i've already bought the samix knuckles (no weights yet), i'll just continue with my original plan and maybe pick up some brass heavy knuckles later on.

the samix knucks are pretty awesome. much smaller than the plastic originals

they went on without a hitch. i'm going to need a bearing kit soon, i think. a couple my axle bearings were seized up, but i was able to get them to free up by popping off the shields and attacking them with a zoom spout oiler. i packed them with grease as best as i could (not super easy cos of how small they are) and popped the shields back on. should be fine until i can get some new bearings.

the turn angle was pretty awesome with the stock scx10 ii, now it's just ridiculous

this is with the stock knuckles on the ssd diamond pro axles, which is a bit better than stock as the steering linkage hit the stock housing

and here's with a samix high clearance knuckle installed

the tie rod is hitting the axle housing again, so to get more angle i'll need a bent link

but even with the tie rod limiting my steering angle, this thing's pretty nutty with these samix knuckles

i also got the aluminum transmission mounts i was talking about in a previous post. the motor plate gets pretty hot when running on the gnarly rocks at the rc shop indoor course, and i liked the idea of using metal mounts to help dissipate the heat into the frame rails, plus these were pretty cheap, so i went for it. i only replaced the two mounts that bolt to the metal motor plate for now, as i didn't want to fully remove the motor/transmission from the chassis. next time i do, i'll replace the 3rd mount as well.

i also did a bunch of stuff to the stock suspension to see if i like it any better. i flipped the rear shock mounts left to right and moved them further forward to keep the body posts in the same position and put the shocks in the forward most holes. i swapped the springs from the front shocks on to the rear as well. in the front, i used the dual rate springs from a stock scx10 setup that my brother's coworker gave him. haven't had a chance to run it with this setup yet, but i hope to this weekend sometime.

not pictured, but i also replaced the rear stock lockout with a vanquish locker to match the front. while i was at it, fully rebuilt both axles and used a ton more grease this time. originally, i was only running this on my local shop's indoor course, and their one water hazard is more just to get your tires a little wet than anything, but since finding the sandy rock area out at the beach with all that salt water to blast through, i wanted to make sure the axles were somewhat water resistant.

while typing this up, the mail came and my new boom racing link ends showed up, so i'll probably be posting about those after i get them on in a little while.

i love this stupid toy!

 

[tdc]

got my boom racing link ends installed! got them from dixieland imports and rc via their facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/Dixielandrc/).

i went with these because it's a full kit with exact replacement correctly angled ends with stainless balls and they were $18 shipped. i only did the 4 link in the rear and 3 in the front so far, as i'm going to see about picking up some high clearance steering links locally before replacing the ends on those.

the suspension is so much tighter now, it's great!

 

[tdc]

i haven't updated this thing in a while because my camera's battery died and i have no idea where the charger is. ugh.

i did replace the camera in my phone though, so i can start using it again.

since my last post, i broke a rear shock hoop, and so have replaced both the rears with some kyx ebay specials straight from china. they are super nice for $20 though, with a lot of shock mounting options.

i also hacked on some trx4 $12 fender wells, also from ebay, but the fit is pretty meh and i'm not all that happy with them. i had to hack them up a bunch in the rear since i've flipped my shock hoops from side to side, and i made some ugly duct tape filler panels since i had huge gaps between the body and wells. it works great and all, but looks like garbage. i'll do something different later on.

i have a bunch more to update as well, but i'm at work atm and doing these from my phone on break is the worst. so yeah, more later.

 

[saddlesore]

nice build....curious though. did you put a front SSD Diamond Axle in the rear as well? I noticed you have the stock lockouts in the rear.

 

[tdc]

i did, i was originally planning on using the samix lockouts with the option to bolt on weights but since those aren't sorrca legal now, i decided against it. i may pick up the rear axle tubes to replace them with at some point.

 

[tdc]

it's been a while! i've had to put the scx aside for a bit while we got the house ready to sell, plus i picked up a 3d printer kit to start making my own parts and that took some playing with to get going.

one of many many reasons i wanted my own printer was to make parts i want, but don't want to buy. for example, my biggest gripe about this kit is that front bumper overhang. it's fine for a trail truck, but horrible if you're trying to do any kind of crawling, even after trimming it up and pushing it back as far as it would go. so i fired up fusion360 and drew up a super simple, low profile bumper, and printed it out. here it is!

loving that approach angle!

i've got some front inner fenders printing right now, and since the taillights and tailgate fell off, i'm working on some rear end parts to make it a little more comp-crawler-esque and increase my departure angle. more on that later.

i also ordered up another ssd axle housing. the front diamond housing i've been running has stripped out at the 6 super short bolts that hold the axle tubes to the pumpkin. not sure what happened there, i never over tightened them and was running blue loctite, but oh well. i picked up the non-diamond style housing for the rear and will move the housing i'm currently running back there to the front. i don't really see it as a waste though; i'm collecting parts for a 2nd scratch built crawler and will fix the stripped axle housing to use on it.

i'll post up the front inner fenders once i've got them installed. in the meantime, a poser flex pic with my really sad xj body! it was so pretty in the first few posts! ugh

 

[tdc]

front inner fenders are on! had to trim them up some in the front to clear my bumper, but otherwise they fit great. i can see why the ones you buy come with the little red locker things that go behind the shock hoop to lock the inner fenders to the frame, there's nothing holding them down back there. i'll have to come up with something.

the cat approves

oh, and i forgot to mention last post, i gotta motor upgrade! went with the holmes hobbies crawlmaster expert 540.

i'm currently printing some bits for the rear of the truck, but i feel like this is gonna take some prototyping to get where i want. it's gonna take some body cutting, i hope i don't goof it up. worst case, i still have a brand new xj body in a bag that i can start all over with!

 

[retro77]

Were you going for the gun metal pearl, like I was:

Nice truck!

 

[tdc]

i was, but used whatever i could find locally that was "close enough". as i was laying down the paint, i was recalling something from when i dabbled in rc years ago about how you have to use special paint on lexan bodies or it'll flake off, but i was already committed at that point. i bought this stuff for stripping paint from lexan bodies and i plan to fix it all once i'm done with modifying things. i'm thinking i'll just go with black next time though.

and thanks!

 

[tdc]

i totally forgot to include the thingiverse links for the 3d printed stuff, in case anyone else has access to a printer or wants to have something printed up.

my bumper is here - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2814121
and i'm using the front inner fenders from here - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2788889