Honcho 2.0 With Gmade Leaf Springs in Rear

[DadCanyoufix?]

Haven't officially made a build thread for this little guy yet as I got it out of state and originally thought I would leave it stockish :roll:. Instead of starting a thread for aftermarket wheels, tires, bumpers, shocks and such, I figured it could lay low. I had a blast with the thing at AxialFest 2018, ran it over 1000 gates with no issues at all. After AxialFest I figured it would best serve me as a guinea pig for new ideas or new to me ideas that I might implement to other builds. I'll still list on the basics of how it started.

GDS Wheels
Scalerfab Front Bumper
Goodyear A/T Tires Purchased at AF18
Light Buckets from old honcho body set
Pro-Line Classic Interior
Samix Panhard Bar and Tie Rod
Axial Universal Shafts
Aluminum Servo Horn
Savox 1230SG
Warrior Armor Sliders
Came with Metal Gears in Trans
Gmade 93mm XD Shocks from Parts Bin
Hot Racing Overdrive Gears in Front

On to the title of this thread, Leaf Springs. I had done a few searches here and there as I want to put Leaf Springs in the rear of my Ram to further mimic my daily driver and now I want to make a dingo 2.0 fully leafed for my wife and daughter to join in on the fun. So, guinea pig, you're up. Ordered a full Leaf Spring kit by G-Made(they have the U-Bolts, I like that) and figured I could test it out on the honcho. To work out the kinks as far as fitment goes, see what parts I can find and or fabricate and test spring fade and durability.

I found everything was pretty much in the kit except the perches for the springs to sit on. While I have been told a few companies make them, none of the products I saw fit what I envisioned working best and fitting my desire to have both dampening shocks inside the leaf springs and on alternat sides of the axle, one forward, one aft. Soooo, I made my own. Did a little sanding on the springs, put some spacers in the rear of the chassis, and drilled some holes for the forward hangers. Boom, was right where I wanted to be. Couldn't believe how well everything worked out in 2 days(few hours each day).

First, a few pictures of the set up focusing on the spacing out in the rear of the chassis, then on to the initial test on the curb outside my front door. This weekend I plan to take the truck to a creek I was clued in on by an old friend. Have been using it to test suspension travel and link stability/durability as it has varying obstacles and a ton of big transition rocks to get all those sweet Leaf Spring flex shots ;-).











Opinions Welcome! If all else fails, hopefully this will add to the leaf spring search results for others so they can grab more ideas when thinking about joining the Leaf Spring club. Pretty fun so far!



I'm not really sure how much flex/articulation I should be getting from a leafed rear and linked front, but in my opinion, if the springs fade a little and yield just a little more in time, I would be pretty happy with the results as it would be pretty close to the stock linked set up. If they do not fade, I have options as I am currently running all 3 leafs that G-Made includes per corner. I feel I'm well aware flex isn't everything, I have a couple trucks that get a little less than a tire's height of travel before I float a tire. I just want to maximize performance before implementing this to my Ram's rear and starting a Dingo fully leafed build.

 

[OSRC]

That looks great! Nice work.

I run front links/rear leafs on my Sawback and have been very happy with how it drives.

 

[DadCanyoufix?]

That looks great! Nice work.

I run front links/rear leafs on my Sawback and have been very happy with how it drives.

How long have you run that set up? Have you noticed your rear leafs fading at all?

 

[DadCanyoufix?]

So, this past Sunday, I went out to a local hot spot to see how my new leaf springs would fair. I usually drop new to me rigs about 10-30' on 70* or more rock faces here(it can be a rough playground for tiny trucks). While I did bend the springs a little, they faired quite well. I am okay tearing the first set up and heating them to reshape them or just running them as long as they will go before breaking. Kind of like a stress test to see where my trucks new limits are. Wrapping the axle under throttle happened very little with very little to no lasting effects on the springs. Not surprised as my scx builds run on 3s brushed. I really was harder on it than I should have been, but I wanted to see what these things are capable of so I can respect their limits in the future.

Articulation is fine, "flex" increased as time went on and I feel I can leverage the truck to flex how I think it should now. "thumbsup" The truck seems very stable on steep inclines with little to no torque twist. What I did not like, was the new wheel base. The Honcho cage extends past the chassis nearly 1.5'', this coupled with a newly shortened wheel base was too much and I cursed the cage length a few times in certain spots that would unload the rear tires causing the truck to slip out of line on transitions. On to the pics.

 

[DadCanyoufix?]

To solve the issue I have with the cage, I did some searching and planning(bumper from scalerfab on the way). I ended up bobbing the bed. I started on it as I was tired of reading through threads in the search results found in the OG scx10 section to find no actual results. After completion, I went ahead and finished reading through the results to see if I saw anything at all that sparked any good ideas. I found someone has done this before long ago, Hopefully, now we should have a result for a bobbed honcho bed in both sections. You can find the other thread <A HREF="http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/axial-scx-10/419061-honcho-progress-upgrades.html">here</A> .

I took a little over one and a quarter inch of the back of the cage. Here are the results. I thought about doing a flat bed with some diamond plate for more space down there but ended up liking the stock lexan bed and decided to keep it since I don't have any current clearance issues.








Still debating in my head on bedsides or leave it alone a while and just wait and see what other ideas, that might be a little more original, come to mind.

 

[OSRC]

How long have you run that set up? Have you noticed your rear leafs fading at all?

No fade yet. I do run an anti-wrap bar to keep the axle from rotating. That helps I guess.

 

[2mtech]

You did a great job on that! My Sawback alleviates my need for leafy springyness, but this is definitely unique.

I think the best fabricated mods are the ones that don't appear to be fabricated mods at all, and this one certainly attains that. "thumbsup"

 

[DadCanyoufix?]

You did a great job on that! My Sawback alleviates my need for leafy springyness, but this is definitely unique.

I think the best fabricated mods are the ones that don't appear to be fabricated mods at all, and this one certainly attains that. "thumbsup"

Thank you, nice to hear I don’t have builder’s goggles on and the truck actually looks good. I’m pretty sure that keeping the stock ish look of the truck is what pretty much halted any further mods on the truck for now.

 

[soze]

Looking great!

 

[rickrob]

When I added leafs to mine I used the shape ways ones and had the shocks mounted on the inside like yours, I even used the same gmade set up as yours.

 

[DadCanyoufix?]

When I added leafs to mine I used the shape ways ones and had the shocks mounted on the inside like yours, I even used the same gmade set up as yours.

I saw some shapeways designs, but the big thing I wanted was alternate sides of the housing as well. Like my 1:1. Do the mounts you have put one shock on each side of the axle? Driver’s side behind the housing and passenger side in front of the housing.

I’ve found this actually limits wrap in a not so scale way but I’m not gonna complain about a positive nobody will likely see. When the axle tries to wrap, the rod end at the end of the shock shaft hits the housing. Since one is on both sides, it works that way in both forward and reverse.

 

[Teng]

Impressive setup. Always wanted rear leaf springs on my comp rig. May I know what springs work best? I have heard RC4WD red springs are among the softest one?

 

[DadCanyoufix?]

Impressive setup. Always wanted rear leaf springs on my comp rig. May I know what springs work best? I have heard RC4WD red springs are among the softest one?

I do not know 100% what leaf spring choice is best but can tell you the G-Made springs are very good. I am running all three leaf springs on each side and after one day of abuse, the truck seems to be articulating very well with respect to this type of set up. Maybe some of the more experienced leaf spring guys might be around to tell us their experiences. My main focus was the U-bolts, figured I would just make it work from there.

 

[rickrob]

I saw some shapeways designs, but the big thing I wanted was alternate sides of the housing as well. Like my 1:1. Do the mounts you have put one shock on each side of the axle? Driver’s side behind the housing and passenger side in front of the housing.

I’ve found this actually limits wrap in a not so scale way but I’m not gonna complain about a positive nobody will likely see. When the axle tries to wrap, the rod end at the end of the shock shaft hits the housing. Since one is on both sides, it works that way in both forward and reverse.

No both sides have the shocks on the same side

 

[DadCanyoufix?]

No both sides have the shocks on the same side

This is why I made my own. I could not find any the way I wanted them.

 

[Bananaclip]

I would like more pics and reports on this.... Thank you for the detailed report....

 

[DadCanyoufix?]

I would like more pics and reports on this.... Thank you for the detailed report....

I can get more pics if needed but I suspect an explanation will suffice. I used aluminum angle from my local Lowes that I bought a while ago, have been cutting it up and welding pieces together to make mounts and even sliders for my deadbolt. Made some cardboard templates from a empty 12 pack box and transferred the lay out to the angle. Then broke out the dremel and the drill. For the bends over the housing, I used a small butane lighter to heat the aluminum at the joint before forming it. They have a small hole in the top so the G-Made leaf brackets can seat properly and stay secure. On the drivers side, the L of the angle is on the back side, using the dremel to make clearance for the screws and tool. The brackets themselves bolt up like the shapeways stuff, right where the stock link/shock mounts were. I'll add one of the original pics posted so you can see the shock location from the top.





On the Ram that I plan to implement this on, I will make another bracket that will mount the shocks lower and some 70mm's or smaller will be used. Either way, I want to keep the shocks semi Vertical as on my 1:1, the shocks do not mount in the center of the frame rails. I would like to keep that aesthetic for my own naïve scale purposes.

 

[ralf226991]

I am so doing this!! I wasn't sure if the u-bolts would work but they do thanks again for this.

Sent from my SM-J700T1 using Tapatalk

 

[DadCanyoufix?]

I am so doing this!! I wasn't sure if the u-bolts would work but they do thanks again for this.

Sent from my SM-J700T1 using Tapatalk

If you run into any issues, feel free to send me a Pm!

Other than spacing out the chassis and working with the wheelbase, everything worked out pretty well. One could also drill a small hole in the top of the housing and mount leaf springs just inside the stock link/shock mounts(only if you have a multipiece housing). This might help avoid adding a bunch of spacers to get the frame rails to line up and you can mount your shocks to their stock location after removing springs.