Guido: Scale TTC Bronco 2015 Scale Nats Updates

[Waiting Dragon]

Thank you Sir it was great to meet you as well!

 

[Mighty1]

Sitting here in the Portland airport waiting to go home.

Thank you all for the good words. Guido was well received at NWSC and I was just overwhelmed with compliments. I thank everyone for taking the time to look at him and talk to me. I really enjoyed meeting some new people at this event and Lucia Falls is a beautiful place to crawl with some great terrain. Tim, John, Norm, and everyone else that put on this event did a great job.

I was really nervous about the Concourse awards this year. I knew Norm's FOJV buggy was going to give Guido a run for the money and there were several other top notch builds. I made my votes, not voting for Guido as usual, and hoped for the best. Guido placed:
2nd for Best Interior
1st for Most Unique Scale Item
1st Best of Show in Class 3

My thanks to everyone that voted and voted for Guido and I was so happy to take home the Best of Class.

The TTC was a great event! These were the most brutal courses I've ever seen. Guido was a bit outmatched for this but I went out with the plan to have fun and just do the best I could.
Frame Twister: The 4ws, width, and wheelbase worked well and we got through this with no real struggles with a good time.

Obstacle Course: The jumps looked very intimidating on this and I was first up. There was a mudhole with a sharp left hand turn into an immediate STEEP hillclimb shortly into the course. I made a couple easy tries at the climb and was going to winch when someone (SuperDave I think) said to hit it harder than that. Well, being caught up in the moment I hit the gas; Guido made it about halfway up before the front tires lifted and ended up in the mud hole upside down. I tried to winch but timed out halfway up the hill.

Hill Climb: This course started out great as the Pitbulls gripped well up the first two rises. The course then went back downhill where it snaked along the ridge going up and down the hill. I got about halfway through the course when I made a sharp right hand, downhill corner with a bit too much speed and Guido flopped over and landed on the boundary marker.

Mud Bog: I was near last in this event so I was worried about the mud getting really rutted and dug out, but it turned out that it stayed pretty even for everyone. The first trucks had to plow through some mud near the start of the course; the later trucks didn't have to deal with that but had to get through the really deep hole that got dug out at the end of the course. I hit the gas off the start to let the Pro4 eat and Guido clipped a boundary marker about 2 feet from the start. I was so bummed....Once everyone was done running I lined up again; I put that Pro4 in there and traveled a long way to throw some rooster tails and by god I was gonna get a run in that pit even if it was just for giggles. :ror: I eased into the gas this time, the Pro4 wound up, the Pitbulls were chewing up mud and spitting it out and Guido blasted through the first part of the course. Near the end the mud was over the hood and Guido sank, I worked the 4ws to find some traction, found some grip and shot out the end. WOW, that was a blast!! It would have been a good time if it counted, but it put a smile on my face just the same.

Truck Pull: This is usually Guido's go-to event. The underweighted sled was no problem as most competitors had a full pull. Tim and Dave added a bunch of railroad spikes and made the sled much heavier. The Pro4 and Pitbulls again had no problem as Guido ripped down the track. They decided to base the results on time since there were so many full pulls again and I think Guido's time was pretty competitive.

Mini Rubicon: I knew this would be Guido's weak point. Too much weight up too high and a tough rock course on an off-camber slope was just asking too much. Guido made it through a couple gates then fell off as the rear steer unsettled the weight on an off-camber rock turn. I finished right behind Difuser and made it a bit further than Norm.

Tank Trap: This thing was a sight to behold. I have never seen such a display of evil in all my days. It was so long I was afraid my batteries wouldn't last. The run started out slow as I winched down the rock face and around the first corner. I wanted to play it safe and not roll into a boundary marker, no way I was going out that easy because I know Guido has a hard time on stuff like that. After that there were two mudholes that each dropped off a waterfall, I tried to go down the carefully but rolled on the lid on each one. After that I was making good time through the course, prolly because the judge said I had 51 seconds left :ror:, I blasted through mud holes and climbed logs really well. The long wheelbase and 4ws were working great and the Pro4 was smooth and reliable. I went as far as I could until I tried to bounce over a log, the tires grabbed a rock, and the Pitbulls launched Guido over the rock and off course. Much respect to those competitors who finished the whole course, this was a tough one.

Overall I am happy with Guido's performance, the changes worked just as planned and I had no electrical or mechanical malfunctions through the whole TTC. Guido is still a very heavy rig with a pretty high CG and given that, he works pretty good and drives very similar to a 1:1. I appreciate everyone who voted him in and apologize for finishing last. Ty was very happy with the pics he was getting (except for the black paint that doesn't photograph well :ror so maybe we will see a pic in an article in RC Driver.

Dude youve helped me out alot in the past. I took a break the last year and now Im back and the first place I went aside from the Sales section was to Guido and Herra!(and not forgot about PEPE either)
The reason I quoted this is because this is why Guido is so great, because the guy that built him is right here with him, with an attitude so positive it makes everyone say "Hell Ya".
Keep it up man! I love that you know the more "like a 1:1" they are the harder to drive and in reality almost less competitive in todays RC's, but you keep than son gun goin just the same! Way to go bud! Good read as always ^
Mighty

 

[kenworthit]

Awesome rig each build ..."thumbsup"I loved this rig in the Scale Nats 2010DVD that Brett made I have a peek all the time....;-)
Well done man...."thumbsup"

 

[Rockcrawler]

Let me know what you think of the new look.

Years later........I still hate you.

Awesome work Chris.



Sent from my Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk 2

 

[roktoy]

Still a work of art!
Awesome!
Jay

 

[Grizzly4x4]

Thank you guys for the kind words. It's been a blast getting to know so many people through the life of Guido. 8)

That said, there's a TTC coming up put on by The Crawl Space so it's time for some small changes. Nothing major, some paint changes and some tweaks.....

 

[eric113]

Did you ever finish up your axles ? I know you got the front, but ran out time on rear.

 

[Grizzly4x4]

Did you ever finish up your axles ? I know you got the front, but ran out time on rear.

No, I never did.
I kept running the AXR10 rear end through the winter until I blew up the pinion bearing and then I parked it.
After the Vanquish Currie axles came out I was waiting for XR10 tubes to come out.
As I was doing this teardown for paint I realized that I really should build a rear end. :ror:

That will be a project for SW Scale Champs in May. "thumbsup"

 

[Mighty1]

So u going to show pics of paint or what?

 

[XSRCdesign]

I see green!!

 

[Grizzly4x4]

I just never liked how paint turned out on this last rebuild. I finally decided to do a teardown and paint the chassis "Metallic Mica". I like this ALOT better. It brings back the evil in the front end.
Only problem was that now it was so dark I don't think pictures would turn out worth a crap. Time to bring back the green. "thumbsup" The paint is still evolving so we will have to see what happens.

Last night I put all the electronics back in and plugged in a battery. A huge plume of smoke came out from under the floorboards. OH CRAP!! Afer a quick unplug and some analysis, I determined that everything is ok except for one thing. I will have to route power to the front steering servo directly to one of the BECs now.
I must have damaged something in the RX because with the servo pulling power from the BEC through the RX, the RX now shuts down. Not bad considering how bad it could have been.

I also spent most of last night trying to get the front steering and suspension right. Holy crap, this Wraith knuckle setup is an absolute pain in the ass to get to work right with the coil springs and panhard. :evil:
The tie rod is ALWAYS either hitting the frame side track bar mount, the diff cover, or the pitman arm. I can't get full steering with full suspension travel no matter what I do; making one work always means sacrificing the other. I fought this before NWSC and ended up sacrificing steering because I figured the rear steer would make up for it, but that is not always true.

I am so fed up with this setup right now.......
I am going to get rid of the coil springs in the rear for this weekend's TTC to see if it helps with handling. I don't want to but I'm about ready to get rid of the coil springs up front also....even though that would be the easy way out. :x

 

[adamargue]

Coil overs on Guido!

hopefully you csn get everythibg sorted out.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Grizzly4x4]

Coil overs on Guido!

hopefully you csn get everythibg sorted out.

I know huh. Bleah.

I fear that the wheelbase, rear steer, and tire size have all gone beyond the capabilities of the very hard to adjust coil spring suspension design.
I feel like I've painted myself into a corner where I need to lose some scale to get the rig to work well or give up on the hope of making him perform better.

I may just try it for this weekend to see. I don't know.
This same thing happened to me years ago with The Duke as it evolved into The SuperDuke and I ended up getting rid of the front coil springs to make it perform better.

 

[doublej]

Where do you find the coils falling short?
Articulation - rebound - adjustability?

 

[Grizzly4x4]

Where do you find the coils falling short?
Articulation - rebound - adjustability?

With the wider axles and the coil springs where they have always been, the axles have more leverage so the springs can't control body roll and articulation as well. With my limited choices of spring length and rate, if I go to a stiffer spring to control the axle the suspension gets too stiff and bounces.


On the front end it is also limiting how much I can move the axle forward to address the steering linkage interference problem. If I move the axle forward the coil springs hit the chassis panhard mount, if I move the axle back the chassis-side spring mount is not lined up with the axle-mount. I can only make small wheelbase changes without having to re-fab the coil spring mount position on the chassis.
Also, the front coil springs force the axle-side panhard mount to be in a position where it interferes with the drag link in articulation and full steer.

If I move the axle forward until the coils hit the panhard mount it helps the tie rod hitting the pitman arm but that makes the drag link interfere with the axle-side panhard mount more. I can roll the pinion down to help that, but that lifts the tie rod up and brings back the interference with the pitman arm. I can't really move the axle back because the tie rod just ends up hitting the panhard mount rather than the pitman arm.
Going to coilovers on the front might let me move the axle forward enough to get out of the pitman arm/panhard axle-mount circular issue I am stuck in.

I could limit my uptravel even more but then I have almost no travel.
I could raise the ride height with but the rear shocks are already maxed out and even have extended rod ends on them.

 

[Bulldog]

Scale can be a four letter word. Sometimes, something has to give, and that sucks.:evil:

 

[Grizzly4x4]

Scale can be a four letter word. Sometimes, something has to give, and that sucks.:evil:

I spent about 4 hours last night making adjustments that kept leading me back to where I started.
I had a few four letter words and none of them were "scale". :ror:

I've always said I would put scale before performance, but I really want to beat 666 and the EB this weekend in the TTC. I don't think I can without some changes.

 

[Bananaclip]

Grizz, I love this rig man. Im sure you will be able to get your suspension sorted. Oh....... Can you move your panhard mount?

 

[Grizzly4x4]

Grizz, I love this rig man. Im sure you will be able to get your suspension sorted. Oh....... Can you move your panhard mount?

Thanks man. Eventually I'll get what I want, just not by Sunday I think.

Can't move the axle-side mount because of the coil springs.



To move the chassis-side mount I'd have make major changes.

 

[Grizzly4x4]

New wheels are in the mail. I hope they get here before Sunday.
Some paint on the knuckles helps the scale look by blending in better.

Getting the interior back out was a pain, as was having to brush paint the tube work. :ror: The Metallic Mica is nearly the same color the chassis was after the 2010 rebuild.