bilinvic's R1 Build

[bilinvic]

There's something about the G Made R1 that intrigues me and I have been wanting one for a while. I've done lots of research on this machine and it seems to get a mixed bag of reviews, which to me means I can make this R1 work for me; that's the plan hopefully!
My passion is crawling and I have other RC's that are incredibly capable crawlers so the R1 has to prove it can play with the "big boys"!!!!

I was ready to order a new R1 with all the G Made options, but as it turned out, an old co-worker of mine was selling his (I didn't know he had one) so I scooped it off of him for a bargain, and it came with many of the option parts. The only problem was, it was never maintained. This is the first used RC I have bought and I thought it would be fun to do a full restoration/rebuild to my specifications.

The challenges for this build is the limited amount of room for electronics and battery and I want to avoid having the battery mounted on the front axle because it takes away from the scale appearance. I can live with the servo as there's no other option.

The R1 will be fully waterproof in preparation for our rainy winter season. I may eventually go 4 wheel steering but I want to prove the machine's capabilities first.

Here's the list of option parts the R1 came with:

G Made Hardened Carbon Steel Universal Shafts
G Made Adjustable Aluminum Link Mount (Front and Rear)
G Made Aluminum C-Hub Carrier 7 Degree
G Made High Clearance Links
G Made Aluminum Shock Braces
G Made Adjustable Upper Link Mount (Front and Rear)
G Made One Piece Knuckle Arm
G Made LED Lightbar with Connector (Two Lights)
G Made LED Lightbar with Connector (Three Lights)
G Made Axle Skid Plate (Front and Rear)
G Made R1 Delrin Skid Plate

And here's the list of parts I have ordered from RPP to rebuild:

Axial Aluminum Hex Hub 12mm Black (4)
G Made Aluminum Straight Axle Adapter (2) for Rear Axle
G Made Heavy Duty Front Steering Rods
G Made Low CG Battery & Servo Plate for Front Axle
G Made 3x10mm Step Screw (4)
G Made R1 Bevel Gear Set (32T/17T) (Front and Rear)
G Made R1 Front Drive CVA Kit for R1 Axle (2)
G Made R1 Front Portal Gear Set
G Made R1 Rear Portal Gear Set
JunFac Universal Shaft 5mm Replacement Parts (To Rebuild the Driveshafts)
Team Fast Eddy G Made R1 Rubber Sealed Bearing Kit
Team KNK G Made R1 Stainless Hardware Kit

Other parts being used:

RC4WD King Off-Road Short Course Racing Shocks (Slash Rear) (110mm)
Vanquish Products Wraith 3/16 Diameter Titanium Upper Links
Traxxas Rod Ends/Hollow Balls (12ea): Jato
Traxxas Sealed Receiver Box Rustler,Stampede,Crawlers
Mamba Max Pro (Waterproofed)
CC 10 amp BEC
Spektrum SR410 4 ch RX
HiTec 7955TG Servo w/ Axial Clamping Servo Arm


The wheel base was extended; the stock WB is 12.2" and now it's 13.5". This was accomplished replacing the lower links with Vanquish Wraith titanium upper links combined with the longer Traxxas Jato link ends. The stock G Made upper aluminum links were lengthened by also using Traxxas Jato link ends. The one nice feature of the R1 is the number of link mounting points that are available for tuning the suspension.

The R1 transmission doesn't have parts that are upgradeable....and this doesn't work for me. A beefed up Wraith Transmission is now mounted to the Delrin skid plate. The transmission sits on 1/8" spacers in order to clear the lower link ends that mount to the skid plate. The JunFac divehshafts will be rebuilt with new parts....although, I may have to order some alternate JunFac driveshafts if the lengths I have on hand are not sufficient.

A major priority is having batteries that are located within the caged chassis, situated as low and forward as possible and with as much mAh as possible. Let me tell you, that is a tall order for this particular machine! Normally, I run 3S in all my crawlers with brushless sensored motors, but for now, I am going to go with 2S for the R1 with a Holmes Hobbies 35t Torque Master Pro 540. Luckily I have a pair of Traxxas 2S 2200 mAh LIPO batteries from my son's Mini E-Revo that I can use for test fitting. It took a number of hours of testing out multiple configurations, but I finally got it down to where I can mount both batteries and run them in parallel for a combined 4400 mAh of run time, which I estimate will be approximately 2.5 hours. They are as forward and as low as possible without having interference issues with the front upper links in full compression. They are also very easy to swap out for fresh batteries out on the trail.

The Traxxas RX box and MMP will sit on the rear custom "shelf" and will be covered and protected by a custom vented roof panel.

Enough words...here's some pics. The first four is how the R1 was from the day I took possession of it.

 

[bilinvic]

...and how the R1 looks now awaiting for the RPP order to arrive. Everything is in the mock-up phase, therefore a mix of nuts and bolts are used and wiring is not routed properly.

 

[bilinvic]

Here's a comparison shot with my Wraith. Note: this Wraith's wheelbase has been extended to 14 5/8" compared to 13.9" in stock form. In comparison, the R1's CoG is quite a bit lower, including the battery location.

 

[Terrible1]

Looks like another great build thread for me to follow! I've been toying with the idea of an R1 as well. I'm sure I'll draw some inspiration from yours! Looking forward to seeing more.

 

[goatz]

Nice looks good, I used to have one, Just so you know you can make a sawback gearset fit in the front so you can have a overdrive front, Got it from a thread on here.
http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/g-made-crawlers/494709-underdrive-r1-finally.html

 

[bilinvic]

Thanxs gaotz....I just might do that (Underdrive "rear" I'm sure you meant) as well as the "poor mans locker"!!!

 

[goatz]

Yea thats what I meant! lol I did both it worked great. There is also a guy on here that makes an adapter to put wraith c-hubs and knuckles on too
http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/g-ma...ech-presents-sneak-peak-gmade-r1-wrapter.html

 

[bilinvic]

I saw those adapters whilst researching. I'll try the billet parts first and see how I like them.

 

[Cr4sH]

Subbed..looking forward to how this turns out

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[bilinvic]

Some more progress....I fabricated a roof & hood panels from aluminum sheet and covered it with Camo Gorilla Tape. I'm not a huge fan of Real Tree camo and I'm still undecided whether I like it or not. What do you guys think?

 

[spookyseven]

I saw those adapters whilst researching. I'll try the billet parts first and see how I like them.

From my experience the c-hub or knuckle isn't the weak point, it's the the short drive shaft between the portal gears and the wheel. The wrapter solves this by allowing you to run axial universals. There are other options with more modifications like MIP or RC4wd but if I were to do it again I'd try the wrapter. You might get away with g-made cvas since you are running 2s but my fatty rig on 3s made short work of them.

 

[bilinvic]

Are folks having issues with the optional CVA axles as well?

http://www.junfac.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=10&products_id=574&zenid=89667a361e8d8fb955bc4fd14d1506bf

 

[spookyseven]

I broke 3 out of the 4 axles that I bought so I went with something else. The metal is too soft and the joint isn't a big enough diameter to make it strong enough. There is a thread in this section that quite a few other people broke them too.

 

[bilinvic]

One of my fellow group members on our local FB crawling page mentioned the blue shocks doesn't go with the camo theme....so I changed it up and he's right, it looks much better now. "thumbsup"

 

[kranswall]

Very nice clean looking R1! Imo I'd loose the camo and paint the panels or get a wrap.


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[bilinvic]

What about the "British Invasion" version?

 

[bilinvic]

Yahooooooo....parts from RPP. Now I can get this R1 rebuilt."thumbsup"

 

[Alexander_0_1]

The British invasion livery looks like it needs an Austin Powers action figure...

 

[bilinvic]

Groooovy Baby!

 

[bilinvic]

The re-build is complete. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the mechanicals of the R1 but of course, the real test will be out on the rocks.

Couple of build notes:

1. The differential pinion gears are too loose on the output shaft causing a bad mesh with ring gear. There's wiggle room between the end of the pinion gear and the e-clip. This was rectified by adding a Traxxas PTFE coated shim (5x8x0.5mm, part # 1985) under the e-clip....no more slop and the mesh was satisfactory.



2. I ended up doing the "poor man's" locker mod by drilling and tapping grub screws into the ring gear axle housings. It helps a bit, but there's still driveline slop from the portal gears.