Jon's Baja Bug

[JonHylands]

This thread is about a new 1/10 scale build I'm doing. I'm kind of partial to Baja Bugs, and I've been gathering SCX-10 parts for a "from scratch" build for a few months. I was originally going to do a welded tube chassis, but I decided for now I'd rather have a scale truck build, since my Capra is basically already a tube chassis buggy.

This is a relatively low budget build - the axles & shocks are Injora, and a mix of other discount brands for everything else. The only quasi expensive part in the truck in the beginning will be the motor/esc, which is a Hobbywing Fusion 1800kv.



I have the Pro-Line Baja Bug body, which fits nicely.



The body is hinged in the back using a 3D printed hinge I designed.



If the hinge ends up not being strong enough, I will machine it out of aluminum. The 3D printed parts are all printed in ABS, so they are fairly strong.

I'm currently designing and printing a latch system for the body, so I don't have to worry about losing pins on the trail. The latch will be attached to the body, and to the battery tray, which is also 3D printed.



The Injora axles are portals, although the portals don't provide any gear reduction, but the definitely give a nice ground clearance boost. I'm running an Amazon aluminum 3-gear transmission.

I've set up the Injora internal-spring shocks to run at half-droop (using a pair of SCX24 springs in each shock). Not sure if I will keep them like that, time will tell.

I hope this will end up being a decent trail machine. I ran the bare chassis on an indoor rock crawling course, and it seemed to do pretty well, so I have high hopes.

 

[JonHylands]

I made up a latch to hold the body closed - I don't really like the "normal" body mounts of either pins or magnets.

Here's a link to a quick YouTube video showing the latch in action:

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I basically took a short piece of 1/4" square aluminum bar, and cut it at an angle. I drilled a 1/8" hole in the end, and force-fitted a piece of 1/8" aluminum rod into the end. I fitted a small spring I had in my parts bag onto the rod, and then slid it into a 3D printed fitting that is attached to the front of the battery tray (which is also 3D printed).





Here's a picture of the final parts:



Here I am pushing on the release handle, which slides the aluminum part inside the printed housing:



And this is the latch attached to the body, also 3D printed (in ABS like everything else):



So I'm very happy with how this turned out so far. More to come...

 

[AK KRAWLER]

Awesome looking build and I really like the latch and hinge ideas!!!

 

[smog]

Look great Jon "thumbsup" You came up with a great latch and hinge system.

Look forward to hearing how well the Injora parts perform and hold up.

 

[JonHylands]

So I should have waited until I had the body painted, but I really wanted to see how it does on the rocks. I'm fairly happy with it, although I'm really setting it up as a trail truck and not so much a pure rock crawler. I'll be heading out for its first maiden run this weekend on the trails.

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[JonHylands]

Did an okay job painting the body, will definitely have to replace it at some point, but it will work for now.

 

[JonHylands]

One of the things about my Baja Bug that I don't like is how loud it is. Turns out a lot of the noise comes from the aluminum housing over the spur gear on the transmission. I also don't like how the pinion gear is exposed, especially given that there are wires nearby. One stick shoved up from the underside could easily push one of those wires into the pinion gear, where it could get chewed up.

So, I modeled and 3D printed a cover this morning, and I'm pretty happy with the result. I may end up completely enclosing them both, but I'll see how this one works first.

Here's a pic of the original, aluminum spur gear housing, mounted:



Here are the two housings, the original (red) and the one I designed and 3D printed (black):



And here's the new one, mounted in place:



From running the car on the bench, it definitely seems quieter, but time will tell.

 

[JonHylands]

Added headlights/tail lights, a light bar, and a winch to the bug.



The winch is a Reefs 800:IS (Internal Spool), and I 3D printed a mount that sits just behind the front bumper:



The light bar is mounted on another 3D printed mount, which also has a big slot in the middle for the winch fairlead:



The lightbar, headlights, and tail lights are all controlled by an RC switch (Amazon) that plugs into channel 3 of my Flysky GT5 receiver.

The headlight bezels are also 3D printed, and the "reflecting surface" was ground down with a dremel and painted with a Molotow Liquid Chrome marker:



Once they were mounted, it really changed the character of the front end:



The headlight bezels are glued to the body using E6000 adhesive.

The tail lights are just red LEDs mounted on a 3D printed external holder:



I'm probably going to add some kind of BEC to handle the extra load of all this stuff.

All in all, I have to say that I'm pretty happy with how all this is going...

 

[durok]

Definitely feel that the headlights brought it to life... "thumbsup"

Nice rig!

 

[JonHylands]

So, its been a while since I posted anything, and I've made a few changes to the Baja Bug. The main change is I got tired of the cheap Injora axles, so I pulled the bottom end off my Capra, and installed the axles/links/bottom plate/transmission from the Capra onto the Baja Bug.



Everything worked out reasonable well. I also swapped the Injora shocks for 100mm Desert Lizards, set up for about 75% droop.



I'm really happy with how it all worked out, and how it feels driving it on the trails.



I decided to upgrade a bit as well, so next week I've got a Reefs 422HD v2 steering servo coming, as well as a full set of Vanquish Capra axles plus all their internals.

 

[B-MOW71]

That's a great looking bug! Great job on the 3D print designs!"thumbsup"

The VP Capra axles will really change up the look! Can't wait to see it!

 

[JonHylands]

That's a great looking bug! Great job on the 3D print designs!"thumbsup"

The VP Capra axles will really change up the look! Can't wait to see it!

Thanks! All the 3D printed stuff is custom designed and printed (by me) specifically for this vehicle.

I'm trying to build a bullet-proof trail truck, and I'm hoping the Vanquish parts will help with that.

 

[OSRC]

Coming along great! Bug crawlers are fantastic.

 

[JonHylands]

Coming along great! Bug crawlers are fantastic.

I agree absolutely.

 

[Tossedman]

Nice Bug! Everyone needs a Bug!

 

[JonHylands]

Nice Bug! Everyone needs a Bug!

I agree completely!

Just got this in the mail from my (not so local) LHS:



I'm going to hold off mounting it until I get the new Vanquish axles (hopefully later this week).

 

[JonHylands]

My Vanquish axles and internals showed up at my LHS:



I got them installed, had to flip the desert lizard shocks to get them to fit into the slightly narrower mounts on these axles.



I picked up some Treal brass knuckles from a place out in BC that stocks Treal stuff, along with aluminum covers - I would have prefered aluminum knuckles as well, but they didn't have them in stock.



So, all in all, I'm pretty happy with the new setup. I bought the Vanquish parts because I'm tired of having stuff break on the trail.







The build has changed pretty significantly since I started. I've gone from Injora portals to stock Capra axles to Vanquish Capra axles, added a reefs winch, switched from a cheap Amazon steering servo to a Reefs 422HD v2, and gone from Injora Mountain shocks to Desert Lizard shocks. The HobbyWing Fusion 1800 motor/esc hasn't changed, nor have the Pro-Line Krawler tires in Predator compound. I swapped from one set of Injora beadlocks to a different style of Injora beadlocks.

Total weight and balance is shown below:



With a 61%/39% forward weight bias, it climbs really well. With the plastic Capra axles, it was 59%/41%, so not a huge change. Total weight (including battery) is now 3.44 kg, which for metric-impared people is just over 7.5 lbs.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with where its at right now.

I named it "Cabra":



For those who don't know, "Capra" is Italian for goat. Since this is a Capra bottom mounted on a Baja Bug, I decided to use the Spanish word for goat, Cabra. The black vinyl lettering and goat head were cut out on a Cricut.

 

[JonHylands]

I was out, messing about a creek with some friends on the weekend.



I have a pretty close to fully waterproof radio box for my receiver, and the Hobbywing Fusion claims to be completely waterproof - it is rated at IP67 according to Hobbywing. That means you should be able to put it in one meter (roughly 3 feet) of water for 30 minutes, and it should still work after that.

After playing around in and out of the creek for an hour, the motor just stopped. No response from the power button at all. I've had that happen before, and normally after a day (or even a few hours) drying out, it starts working again. I've had a different Fusion 1800 die like this as well, and it never recovered. This one hasn't recovered either. So I have two dead Fusion 1800's - not impressed. Hobbywing only provides a 90 day warranty, and both my motors are older than that.

So, I talked to a local hobby store near here, and looked at the Spektrum Firma 2 in 1, which is very similar to the Fusion, except it is 2300 Kv instead of 1800. I don't mind getting a little extra wheel speed. The important difference between the two, however, is that Spektrum (who also claims their product is waterproof) offers a full one year warranty. Since they are owned by Horizon Hobby, I know their handling of warranty claims is excellent.

Long story short, I bought one, and have it installed now.



I'll be interested to see how it works out. One change I'm going to make is to mount the ESC switch up high, so its less likely to be submerged in shallow-ish water.

 

[smog]

Sorry to hear the motor crapped-out. Its so fun to play in water, but yeah, ya never can know for sure. Water gets into everything.

Post up how the HW and Spektrum compare. I have yet to try a 2 in 1

 

[B-MOW71]

That's a bummer about the motor. Curious to hear how the Spectrum Firma works out for you.

I have a Fushion 2-in-1 that has never seen water and probably never will now after hearing your sad news.