Another Rare and Elusive Hilux Truggy..

[joe.bielski]

I've been running my bronco truggy for ever now and really loved it but the lexan body has started to fall apart. So I decided to go with an RC4WD Mojave Cab with a Tamiya Hilux grill. I really wanted a hard body but I still want to keep the rig light.



The base of the truck is an OOOOOOLD TSC X-trail aluminum Chassis with an SCX10 Tranny and Axles.



Tranny:

HR Aluminum Case w/all hardened steel gears and mirrored.



Front Axle:

HD Gears, Grip Fab SS Spool, Beef tubes, Axial High Clearance Knuckles, SSD Pro CHUBS, Axial CVD's.



Rear Axle:

HD Under-Drive Gears, Grip Fab SS Locker, Beef Tubes, STRC Lockouts



Electronics:

Holmes Hobbies Crawlmaster Pro 20T Motor, Castle Sidewinder V3 waterproof ESC, Spektrum S8000 Servo (They are actually waterproof and has 306oz torque), BEC set to 6.0V, 3s 2700mah Battery, Spektrum RX/TX (have switched to a futaba 4PL due to the spectrum glitching).



Wheels and Tires:

Gearhead 1.9 Trail Kings, Pitbull Rock Beasts and C.I. Foams.



RTR Weight: 6Lbs 6oz



Here's a boring shot of the guts...







I had to create a new cage and sliders for the Hilux body. Used the standard 3/16 brake line tubing and 45% Silver solder. Expensive solder but oh so strong!!! I've never had a joint fail using this stuff.



Here I was just test fitting the body onto the chassis with the old cage and stinger still on.







The tube work came together fairly quickly and easily. I wanted to make a new bumper that was wide enough to protect the body and have a wicked approach angle. BUT this means that I don't have space for a winch. I'll have to just use a tow strap in those situations.

 

[War Pig]

Servo winch with a fair lead mounted in the bumper.

Nice start!

 

[Ballistic17]

Looking good

 

[joe.bielski]

Servo winch with a fair lead mounted in the bumper.

Nice start!

That's a good idea. I have a spot on the Jevne battery plate for a servo up there. I'll see if I can find a light servo. Wanna keep the weight low on this rig

Got some painting done yesterday. Primed the body and cage. I'm just using automotive rattle can paint and primer from Canadian Tire. We'll see how it holds up. The cage is getting black appliance epoxy paint.

 

[joe.bielski]

Oh yeah, forgot to add this. With all the running gear including battery, it only weighs 6Lbs and 5.5oz!!!

 

[joe.bielski]

Finished painting the body up this afternoon. I didn't clear coat it but I did polish it for a while with some tamiya polishing paste.
Maybe next time I'll do the clear coat but these hard bodies get beat up pretty fast.









I don't have the lenses or light buckets, so I just painted some lexan yellow and show gooed it in there for now. Still need windows or an interior and all the lenses, mirrors, wipers, etc....

 

[joe.bielski]

Looking at it now, I might have to adjust the wheelbase, at least in the front. It's still the same as it was on my bronco truggy.
The wheelbase is like 315mm right now!!!!

 

[pastimesteve]

Wow, looks fantastic Joe! I love the color you picked for the Toyota body. I think shortening the wheelbase would look better, a little in the front (as you mentioned) and a bit more in the back, but I realize those sorts of things are a personal preference thing.

 

[Ballistic17]

That looks really good. Nice job

 

[joe.bielski]

Just pulled the front axle by 7mm. Lines up really nice with the wheel well. Gotta get some more of the really little black body post clippy thingies.... jeez, brain fart...

 

[joe.bielski]

My wheelbase is about 305mm now and I was surprised at what a difference this made!!! Truck feels really dialed!! Turns on a dime and doesn't get hung up on things as much.
Haven't done any hill climbs yet, but there's a spot in highpark here in Toronto that's got a wicked climb. We'll see how she does then. And I'll bring a camera!!!

 

[joe.bielski]

Just a quick video update. This is High Park in downtown Toronto.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3GrOQBrm27g" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[joe.bielski]

Not much to report on the truck. I did repaint the body and cage. I also added a bit more brake line to support the sliders.
Here's the truck ringing a bonus gate bell at the GCM adventure series comp. Truck handles incredibly well. Not much I'd change right now.
Maybe continue on trying to lighten the truck up. Current RTR weight with a 2700mah battery is 6 LBS 9oz. Not too bad for a hard body with cage.



I wish I could have stayed for the entire event, but this city boy didn't come prepared enough. The rain was pouring until noon and the temp dropped to 3 degrees Celsius before it actually started to snow a bit!!! I was so cold and wet that my fingers stopped working and I couldn't even throttle control.

Needless to say, the event that GCM and Dana put on was AMAZING!!!! The first course alone was about 200 gates plus bonus gates and took about 2 hours to complete. There were 2 more courses after that followed by a dinner and a night run!!!!! Insanity!!!!! If you have a chance to ever check out a GCM adventure series, DO IT!!! And dress warm

 

[joe.bielski]

My friend Kyle took me to a really cool, super secret, maybe we had to climb through a hole in a fence spot!!!! Incredible scenery. Hopefully I can get some pics that Kyle took as he's a pro. These are off my phone, which is a bit better than a potato.

 

[joe.bielski]

Here are the pic's my buddy snapped on his DSLR. It's hard to believe that this spot is in Downtown Toronto.
Kyle really did a great job on his TF2. He won Best weathering and best accessories (I think) at the last GCM adventure series.











In this photo you can kinda see the scale of the location!!! Feels like you're in some kind of tropical lagoon

 

[joe.bielski]

I decided to make my own battery/electronics tray out of lexan sheet. This tray weighs 8 grams, the Jevne racing I was using was 69 grams without hardware.
Yay, I saved about 2oz The truck is now under 6 and a half lbs. This also brough the battery down a bit and the ESC is mounted a little lower on the lower cab wall. Sorry about the pic quality. I'm using a potato as a phone/camera again.

 

[joe.bielski]

Two more comps complete including the G6 up at the wasraw caves here in Ontario and the truck is running perfectly. The only thing I'll be changing is going to a Futaba RX/TX. Tired of having my truck glitch anytime a FlySky radio is around.

I was toyingwith the idea of switching to wide XR-mod axles to get even more steering out of her but the truck turns so well already with the high clearance axial knuckles, Axial CVD's and under drive in the rear that I'm not sure it's gonna be worth it. Don't f*ck with a good thing, right?

Here is my hilux with an awesome Mattzilla Hilux truggy:




photo cred: NextMod RC


photo cred: scale rc photography

 

[joe.bielski]

Here's a couple more pics from the G6 event by the talented Scale RC photography. You can find more of her work on facebook.

 

[joe.bielski]

We had another great meet on the lake shore of Toronto set up by NEXTMOD RC. He really set up a cool course that was just challenging enough. We ran a 20 gate course and I thought it would be a great idea to implement a new rule that if you roll over and have to "HOG" it, you have to restart the entire course......











This is my buddy Mike's Jeep. Thought it was a cool pic..





I was about a minute ahead of everyone and totally kicking butt when this happened...... Needless to say, you can see the disappointment on my face when I rolled my truck 4 feet away from the finish.



All photos were taken by NEXTMOD RC.

 

[joe.bielski]

Not a whole lot to say, just swapped the Futaba rx/tx in. It's great to finally drive the truck and not worry about glitching. Met up with the guys at our usual spot on the lakeshore in Toronto. 2 guys brought some boats! VERY COOL!!!

All photos by NEXTMOD RC again.

That's one of the boats zipping by in the back ground.






Going nowhere




Air time!!