Elements: An Enduro kit build by SVT

[durok]

I agree completely, nice wheel and tire setup - I have the newer-version (same appearance) steelies from them with a set of Choodoos about to go on my TRX-4 Defender - white roof to match the wheels.

 

[JatoTheRipper]

Wheels and tires are pretty perfect for this truck. And that shade of maroon looks great.

 

[meatmonkey]

Yes it's a marvelous mix up of various manufacturers parts that has a stunning effect as a whole. But the real question is... how does it drive? And when do we get the dirty pics?

 

[svt923]

According to my schedule, we are looking at sometime in March for a proper shakedown run. Drives splendidly over kid's toys on the floor though.

 

[antigacho]

the front body mounts are really clever

I wonder if you could share the .STL file for 3d printing

 

[meatmonkey]

Was that last march or this coming?

 

[svt923]

Was that last march or this coming?

I split the difference and brought it out to Beat the Creek in KY this past September. Unfortunately, I’m an awful thread updater and forgot about taking pictures, posting an update, or any of that type stuff.

In short, the Enduromog is delightful to drive but the MMP sucks as a speed controller by modern standards. Not sure if I have been spoiled by every other ESC or what but driving with the MMP felt like mechanical speed controller level crap. How we ever thought that was a good crawler ESC is beyond me. It has been replaced by a HW Fusion and life is much better.

Maybe I’ll have actual updates and pictures by this March.

 

[thehangarrc]

I am SO glad I came upon this forum post. I have a Gatekeeper kit and want to shorten the wheelbase as much as possible (also to fit a short body). Can you give me additional details about how and what parts you used. I think I am going to need to shorten (cut) the frame as well.
Thanks

Hello everyone.

How are you doing?

Wonderful!

Are we ready to continue our journey through the exciting world of the Enduro kit and chemistry puns?

Fantastic, I knew you would be!

Things are way more fun and engaging when it seems like I'm actually talking to you, the noble (gas) and likely bored reader. I'm waaaay less captivating and interesting in real life, if you ever actually encounter me at an event (such as the Pit Bull Off-Road Jamboree at Uwharrie on October 19-20, mark your calendars!). Never meet your heroes, kids.

Anyway, in the course of this sloppy, shoddy production, some kinda important things got skipped. Alloy me to fill those in.

Shock bodies: aluminum (symbol AL, atomic number - 13, atomic mass - 26.982), threaded, shiny.

Unfortunately, one of mine looked like a squirrel was gnawing on it up by part that separates the cap and spring adjuster. Only a cosmetic flaw, so I press on.

While installing the pistons on the shock shafts, I noticed the pistons had a lot of movement on the shaft. This is not what I remember from my last set of Associated shocks so a 3x5x.1 shim was added under each piston.

Much closer to what I expected the fit to be like.

The seal setup is pretty standard stuff but executed better than most.

With great might and the help of some pliers, I was able to squeeze enough of the last drops of Green Slime out of the tube to get the seals coated.

The lower cap was installed.

Then it came time for one of the worst parts of RC: filling and bleeding shocks. You need to fill these with copious amounts of silicone shock oil as they have a larger bore than most scale shocks.

Fun fact time: silicone is often confused with silicon. Silicon is a hard and brittle crystalline solid and the second most abundant element in the Earth's crust while silicone is a synthetic polymer made up of silicon, oxygen and other elements, most typically carbon and hydrogen. Silicone is generally a liquid or a flexible, rubberlike plastic.

And you thought chemistry puns would be all you get.

There they are all filled. The stock oil is 300cst which is somewhere between 25 and 30wt, I generally prefer a slower shock on a scale truck so I picked 45wt as a starting point. With the valve size on these pistons, 45wt ended up being way too heavy so things were backed down to 37.5wt. Seems good now.

For a change of pace, I decided to listen to the manual this time and set the preload collars 5 mm from the top.

Since measuring is for chumps, I tossed this 5 mm preload clip on for super fast, no-brainer even preload setting.

And we are done.

The pretty aluminum lower spring cups were a pain to press on all the way but I'm fairly confident they aren't coming off accidentally.

On a non-shock topic, I needed to shorten the wheelbase of my truck to fit the body I am planning on running. The Enduro kit gives you links for 12.3, 12, and 11.8 inch wheelbases, none of which were short enough for me. So here is what happened.

All of the suspension links Element gives you are the same so the 96 mm links that serve as the uppers for the 11.8 inch wheelbase became the new lower links but I was on my own for upper links. After much internet searching, I found a solution from the Associated family.

These worked out pretty well though a tad long, 88 mm turnbuckles would have been perfect.

Here we are sitting at about an 11.5 inch wheelbase.

Unsurprisingly, the stock rear driveshaft for a 12.3 inch wheelbase truck doesn't fit so well when you remove nearly an inch from the wheelbase. I picked up a second driveshaft end set and put together a rear driveshaft that is the same as the front.

I don't know why Element can't throw in an extra set of driveshaft parts to make a better fitting driveshaft at shorter wheelbases. Seems like a no brainer if you want it to actually be adjustable wheelbase.

So what body am I going with for all this effort?

As caesium says to water: Boom!

You see alkali metals such as caseium react violently with water and... right, the body. It's an Axial UMG10 because I exist at the intersection of "want a UMG10" and "don't need another SCXII". This was essentially predetermined from the day the Enduro kit was revealed.

How does it fit? Better than I could have imagined.

First, the cage's hinge mount lines up perfectly with the last hole in the chassis.

I trimmed a little off the back of the chassis rail to let the cage hinge further back. Also, a rear brace was designed and printed to replace the stock rear bumper mount.

The bed area required some trimming around the shock towers but nothing major.

It's alright but a tad unfinished looking. 3D printing to the rescue again!

Yes, I printed a spare tire because I'm either a genius that is saving the weight of an actual spare tire or a deeply strange man.

This is the secret of how it fits over the shock towers.

The cab is not secured to the cage at this point but I wanted to see how the 11.4 inch wheelbase body lines up with the slightly longer wheelbase. So some spare wheels were tossed on and....

Yes indeed, that will work. The front wheels line up spot on and the rear wheels are just slightly behind center of the fender. Not far off enough to bother me and I'm an obsessive weirdo.

That is where we sit as of now. I have about 8000 screws to install on the body and 40 parts to paint before this is a real truck. The UMG10 requires more cutting of lexan than anything I have ever experienced, my hands are still sore. Sorry this one was light on element puns, I was too busy cramming in the actual good information. I'll work in more next time come helium or high water.