Gatekeeper on AR60's

[OSRC]

Never really warmed to the Element Gatekeeper. My Sendero is a terrific performer....the Gatekeeper? Not so much. I found it floppy and living in the middle of rollover city.

So I sold it....then bought another for some reason....then ditched the cage for the much lighter Ecto shell when it came out. drove it a few times and it was still fairly tippy but worlds better then it was with that cage up top. In the suburbs of Rollover City now I guess and living under the name EctoKeeper.

Driving impressions from the last time out: Drive Them All! A Year Long Project

As is stands.... or stood. Really good looking truck, just wasn't doing anything for me.

I ripped up another truck to steal the chassis from it, and it had some pretty nice AR60's on it. Hmm...the cutouts are pretty big on the chassis and it is a bit tippy... wider axles? Sure, why not?

Took a little finagling to get it all in there, but I made it work. Swapped over to a standard SCX 3-gear as it's a bit smaller. It's a Kung Fu trans with outputs rotating in opposite directions. Doesn't seem to make a difference to me, but it had a center rear output which worked out nice. Driveshafts are super tight, but *just* clear all around.

Rear was a drop in. The axles were set up for 4WS originally, I converted back to a standard axle. Nothing fancy, just UD gears and brass inserts.

The front was a little more tricky. Removed the CMS and mount for the SOA to clear and it just fits.

I had to tinker with the steering links a bit to get it all to clear, but it does nicely. Front axle has brass knuckles, inserts, and OD gears.

Bolt on some 2.2's and we got a roller! I like it. A lot. Can't tuck the wheels in any further, but it doesn't look too bad right where they are.

Just need to sort out some electronics and it's off for a test drive.

 

[SteveB1]

Interesting..... I'm gonna follow this close.

 

[cooper_xl]

agressive stance!

 

[themountain]

Front shocks one hole down and you good to go ...looks fun

 

[JatoTheRipper]

Looks great. That steering clearance is TIGHT!

 

[OSRC]

Got the WREcto all buttoned up!

I made a new battery tray, the small stock one was a bit too big for my 1500 packs, so I bent one up out of aluminum to fit the pack and mounted it as low as I could get it.

Got the electronics all stuffed onto the sliders.

I like it. Everything is pretty low. I've got the shock collars all the way up so it's drooped down quite a bit. I think it fits the 2.2's pretty nicely overall. Not sure how that soft suspension is going to work out, just going to have to test run it and see.

Axles are wide, but not grossly so. The longer WB helps balance it all out. Can't see it but I notched the rear frame a bit to clear the axle under full articulation. It just hit - trimmed a little C on the bottom of the chassis and now it swings clear. Overall this was a pretty clean swap,

Body trimmed a little and lowered down. Love the stance, hoping to test run it this weekend.

 

[hnoroian]

Good looking! How well is the SOA clearance when flexed?

 

[OSRC]

It all clears fine. I removed the steering servo mount that braces the chassis for clearance.

 

[OSRC]

Couldn't get out to my local crawl spot, so I did a shakedown run just crawling around the backyard. First thing that struck me is how smooth and quiet this truck sounds. Even with the cheap Wang Chung weird counter-rotating transmission that may or may not have grease in it, extreme angle driveshafts, and old worn out AR60's it just purrs along.

So far it seems stupid capable. Took some pretty tough climbs and made them look easy.

Wide axles gives it a ton of side stability.

I have a 35t 3-pole in it at the moment, and it's pretty dang zippy on 3S. Enough to kick up a decent little roost. With the wide axles and swaybar out back, it handled pretty decent at speed. I never really thought about going fast with this but it's got potential. As it is, I've got a 5 pole 16t on order for more control down low.

Took it back inside after testing and made a few tweaks on the links to clean up the pinion angle, dropped to a 14t pinion and threw a few decals at it. Love how the WRecto came out.

 

[ferp420]

ha ha ha wrecto
nice

 

[JatoTheRipper]

Wrecked 'Em? Nearly killed 'em! Ha! Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Very cool rig.

 

[OSRC]

Finally got out for a proper run. After running my Optic which was surprisingly noisy, this almost seemed eerily silent.

As good as any of my comp trucks, this truck just stuck, clung, clawed and rolled over anything I pointed it at. I'm thinking of swapping over tires to some 5.5 PL Swampers and the front driveshaft needs a bit of work, but all in all it's a hell of a runner.

Very few of my trucks can make this gap. The Optic with it's long WB made it up, and this one followed right along. Impressive.