Looking for local SCX6 to take on outdated Clodbuster

[WRXronald]

And I have one secret mod in store (I hold for reveal to be sure its legit and feasible first, could take a while for me to make them not sure).

Should help in the snow crawl and will be intended to enhance the scale look for EXTREME TERRAIN handling and compliment the copper wheels all at the same time!!!

muhahahhaha lol :lmao:

 

[ferp420]

i think it needs some inner fenders lol and maybe another front bumper

can't wait for a video of it asking for belly rubs

 

[WRXronald]

i think it needs some inner fenders lol and maybe another front bumper

can't wait for a video of it asking for belly rubs

Yeah the front bumper lights are not looking so great i might just extend down another alum plate like the one their already - double wide, and remove the plastic light bar, keeping the chassis mounted bar bumper underneath.

Fenders were on my mind, thought of trying to construct them of something but not 100% sure what exactly. Hmm do they make Honcho fenders maybe thats the route to go?

You do mean inner fronts yes? Or you wanting to see with some sort of flatbed fenders as well? I also though of alumi-welding a few strips to make a rear fender just below the bed walls - heck might even be able to just bend a few strips for mock up see how it looks.nnn

Thanks for feedback - rock vids soon -- tomorrow hopefully :mrgreen:

Got the new widenders on today (Not pictured below) only got another ~1 inch exxtension overall, i was wrong on the current wideners they were 15mms, upped to 30mm's today - fit was very nice and snug so i think it will work just fine total width about 15.75inches -- much more balanced left to right now! :ror:


With the R34 and almost full articulated suspension --- quick 15 seconds vid.
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[WRXronald]

Well well

it'll be awhile before she's doing any serious belly scratching. Just took her out in the wet and dark and hit some basic rock challenges.

Tackled them all much better than prior shorter wheelbases for sure! Especially that i had tires aired up 110% HARD as heck.

Learned a few things - i deplore r/c sometimes. LMAO!


PROBLEMS ALREADY:

1. Still need better servo mount supports - especially rear end, the ball link support tore the ball out the end of the cheap aluminum 3mm link -- thats the 1/10 servo at 40kg torque! Front 1/5th mount held up but both are flexing like heck still Needs some sort of alum tig welded braces --- no ideas here really w/out tearing apart both axles down to the tubes and braces so i can take extreme MAPP gas heat to the aluminum bits and get them braced fug.

2. shocks too soft, need more springs, stiffer springs, or just gonna actually need those big bad SCX6 alloy shocks i ordered - also nabbed 60 weight, thinking that should be heavy enough?

3. Major issue with rear end motor / esc function --- when transitioning from Sine wave up to regular throttle at about 25% stick, occassionally the rear end is getting ODD jolts of insane power that is sounding like its shredding my trans gears back there -- very odd. All i did was extend motor wires 4.5 inches (possible culprit they are alot longer than the fronts with both esc's all the way up front). Or my spaghetti wiring got pinched on signal wire maybe to that ESC in process of mods..... Or water in there somewheres but i did polyurethane every connection. Front is fine. So i need to track this down and means i will have to tear apart rear end potentailly up to the ESC and rats nest up front. FUG.

Some complex issues to sort that won't all take care of themselves tomorrow.

i did video some of the night crawl, i'm sure footage is terrible as all i had was a head lamp and 1 free hand. Will post it on the tube tomorrow for what its worth anyways.

8)

 

[diezel666]

3. Major issue with rear end motor / esc function --- when transitioning from Sine wave up to regular throttle at about 25% stick, occassionally the rear end is getting ODD jolts of insane power that is sounding like its shredding my trans gears back there -- very odd. All i did was extend motor wires 4.5 inches (possible culprit they are alot longer than the fronts with both esc's all the way up front). Or my spaghetti wiring got pinched on signal wire maybe to that ESC in process of mods..... Or water in there somewheres but i did polyurethane every connection. Front is fine. So i need to track this down and means i will have to tear apart rear end potentailly up to the ESC and rats nest up front. FUG.

This to me sounds like the ESC is struggling to read the back EMF of the motor. If it were I as a test to rule that out. Move the rear ESC closer to the motor and shorten the leads from ESC to motor (with the attempt of making the wires from the rear ESC to motor as close to the same length as the front ESC to motor).

 

[WRXronald]

Got the front 1/5th scale servo brace completed. Not pretty, but functional and effective; used scrap from building the chassis extension and shock tower and flatbed mounts.

Heck in a hand bag working in such a tiny space and trying to take as little apart as possible.

Also go the motor issued worked out, sort of. Not sure what exactly is going on some strange feedback is happening, a short perhaps, i dont know exactly and am tired of chasing it.

So far, alot of laptop tuning seems to have sorted down the jerky and strange behaving rear end motor -- BUT i had to exit SINE MODE usage. Every since i stepped up from 10t pinion to 16t pinion SINE mode seems really mad at the rear end. When i turn it off, the rear end behaves mostly fine; also had to reduce startup power (its still absurd though even on low settings it won't stall out easily at all).

Now down to a weird feedbcak into the rear motor when i jerk the front steering servo back/forth quickly. If i control it normally like steering in real life, no issues to the rear end or odd behavior at all.

W/out SINE Mode, it still goes nicely slow and crawls just fine, don't forget we're on 350kv motors here so they are close enough to their own effective SINE mode they are so slow yet torque-a-liscious with 14 pole thats alot of magnets to pass the torch around the fire w/out fail.

I got tired and will fix up the rear end tomrrow - new 1/5th servo plate mount and new brace system to hold it all tight and still under mad load.

My 170kg 1/5th scale servo showed up today (10-12.6v power - 3s baby!). Except not.

Went to all the trouble of wiring it up and NOPE... Either DOA or its not getting the right pulse range somehows. My other 60kg same brand 1/5th scale servo works just fine --- very odd. I wired up a 3s lipo, soldered signal wire to Rx that was signaling the other 1/5th scale servo and NOPE... notta nothing. really bummed.... maybe its a little message and would have been too much and busted other crap.... idk. over with now and 60kg 8.4v bad boy is back in ready to go.

SCX6 shocks on order should get in a week so no need to add stiffer springs to existing setup -- its maxxed out with all that lipo weight up front.... basically rides full droop at mid-spring setting (not a bad thing at all really for crawling thats best - 24.5inch wheelbase when its drooped).

Honcho fenders on order -- no need to reinvent this wheel -- thx ferp good idea!

What else, ripped off half my pinky finger nail simply screwing thorch nozzly on a mapp gas bottle.... no clue even. F'ing ouch.


I love R/C :lmao: Actually very pleased to get servo braced - even 4 wheel steer still worked pretty decent with all that wobble mixed in --- now that it will be gone, steering should really come alive and with a 1/5th scale servo in the rear -- it should do better at holding straight when running in front wheel steer mode.


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[WRXronald]

Ok it won't be long now (famous last words)

Next stop is somewhere decent with rocks, mud, snow and/or challenging trails terrain.

I have both 1/5th scale servos installed front/rear and braced/bracketed so they don't flex anymoe and running on high voltage --- steering has never been better!!

Got sine mode back up and running and sorted, i upgraded extension from esc to rear motor 14gauge to bigger thicker 12 gauge; all soldered of course no bullet connector junk or anything (not that thats really junky or anything you but you get the idea)

She's smooth and brakes are wonderful... found out i need max "Running Brake power" and not "Stopped Brake Power"... didn't make alot of sense to me (even as a quad flyer) but whatever it behaves real proper and controlled backing down the hills now.

Upgraded most of M3 hardware either to 12.9 CARBON STEEL cap screw versions if not drilled out where possible to M4 same carbon steel stuff. The M6, 8's, and 10's holding chassis together in various locations on the ladder bars are not all cabron steel but beefy enough -- i dont have M6 in carbon that are going in on those locations soon. The difference is noticeable for sure both in rigidity of the longer screw needs in things like steering linkages and also shock standoffs and also in the abililty to REALLY crank tight on nuts/allens w/out stripping and/or use loc tite w/out pre-heating to release every dam time.

Anyways, aside from my rear end now not sounding as fine as it used to i think due to all the SLAM JAM jerkiness of my wiring issues the other day (i drove too much trying to figure it out sctratching my head) and now theres just a tiny bit of "bite" sound in the gears when i turn by hand and there's more loose play before engagement especially on the left than on the right -- but neither is stripped at all. Thsi tells me the brass coupler in the spool tracgear locker is stripping a tiny bit more (was already damaged from insufficient shimming allowing the coupler to back out and diminish the amount of contact area inside the trac gear locker, leadsing to rounding of the hex hole - - my fault and i repaired it and shimmed it proper and it still had a good amount of non-rounded countact hex onto the brass coupler. I suspect this will be the next point of failure. Its lasted a LONG TIME. I've thrased these specific Trac-Gear Lockers from RC4WD (6061 T6 billet) since 2006 in varous rock crawler versions. (stick chassis, comp chassis, etc etc).

SPARES - I have a basaZZ pair of 7075 aluminum forged and anodized Trac-Gear locker spools and i don't think those will ever fail but i havent needed them yet. Wish someone would just go ahead and produce all the internal gears (spur and counter gear) in 7075 as well. I have them at least in the 6061 w/out issue so far!

I have 4 spare axle tubes, 1 spare of each spur and counter gear, and 3 full sets of the so far have been BULLET PROOF axle upgrades - - TTR/RC4WD XVD's with 8mm output shafts to the tires and riding on big 8x15x5mm inner and outer bearings inside the Hot Racing HD Knuckles.

If it can't stand up to some fun loving (i don't intend to bash it hard other than in snow or mud) rock crawling then golly i give up.

Some either warm weather.... or CRAZY SNOW would be great right about now lol.

I really do want to see if i can push thru more than 9inches of snow now with even bigger tires, longer wheelbase.

vids in action soon, will at least test on rocks at the house tomorrow if its cold out!

 

[ferp420]

I run the same aluminum gears in my clod they are holding up ok
ya know your talking a lot but I don't see any picture

with out pics you know THAT story lol

would love to see that rig on some real rocks not playing turtle

 

[WRXronald]

Got the shock situation figured out since the SCX6 shocks aren't coming till month's end. Took a set of stiff 1/8th scale springs and swapped out the softer ones ---- has just about right spring loan now if i take the shocks down 1/2 in front and 1/3 in rear -- at full soft setting it still droops a fair amount but at the 1/2 and 1/3rd it returns almost to full right height. I hope the SCX6 aren't too stiff but either way this setup will be solid now if it has too.


Quick 60 second Youtube short of the undercarriage, chassis, axles, and flexing the suspension a little bit on the springs..... return to center is much better than it was, droop is eliminated.

https://youtube.com/shorts/zs2Qp4u_1hY?feature=share

 

[WRXronald]

I run the same aluminum gears in my clod they are holding up ok
ya know your talking a lot but I don't see any picture

with out pics you know THAT story lol

would love to see that rig on some real rocks not playing turtle

I know I know but every time i got outside with it....it breaks. I think its finally gonna hold up for a solid run as long as i don't roll it down any big rock hills!! So many hours into it.... i am enjoying its presece for a hot minute as a truck that actually works.

The talk alot is for my own edification --- the fact even YOU are still listening is amazing to me. "thumbsup" Thank you -- but will understand entirely if you get bored with the thread and need to vacate!!

:lmao:

 

[WRXronald]

And still i have one last blab of excuses why there will not be a serious rock video just yet....

I brainstormed a bit on the rear axle and why it doesn't seem nearly as smooth anymore (or sound) as the front axle.

When i tore it apart and replaced the counter gear bearing and properly shimmed the brass coupler-to-TracGear Locker spool a month or so ago --- I had both axles PACKED TIGHT with Mobil1 Marine grease. I mean jammed solid every bare inch of the inside.

I parts washed everything with alcohol and it was HELLISH job but i had to in order to find and remove every tiny bearing ball from the failed bearing.

When i re-assembled i was annoyed at the need to parts wash and extract SO much grease -- i thought i don't konw need all this grease its dumb excess. I went ahead and liberally greased each gear but that was it. No packing solid.

I took the motor out the front and it seems to turn same as rear -- BUT the front axles are MUCH SMOOTHER (and take more pressure) to rotate. I think its actually helping to smooth out motor angagements.

So that said --- one or two more nights --- going to tear down the rear one more time --- pack that mother with marine grease like the front again (inspect gears too may as well while i'm there, possibly upgrade from the 6061 to the 7075 spool) and go for it.

Few more days!!! Warm weather soon too i'm sure!!

:mrgreen:

 

[ferp420]

i read almost every post on the forum sometimes I even um um um

 

[WRXronald]

And... its greased!

Well the gears are damaged for sure, bent a tad but not obliterated by any stretch.

For what i was doing to it -- i'm shocked it didn't grenate. I accidentally armed it at 100% throttle stick once so it went from 0 to full power in an instant.... i also hammered at those stairs over and over and over with the rear jammed up and i did it without packing tight grease -- big mistake.

What happens is the small counter gear bearing 5x8x2.5 iirc fails and spits the balls out inside your trans -- the trans actually continued operating for a good stint as it easy and grinds down the tiny balls -- then w/out the bearing the gears are able to move a little and so they begin to eat into and have loose/lashing that causes them to bend a little under severe load. It didn't sound pretty but it still spun up fine even at full throttle.

I packed it full of grease tight (Mobil1 synthetic marine red) and put the SAME DAMAGED gear back in lol i have no idea why i did that i have a perfectly good set of replacements sitting here and even a spool in 7075. I guess i just can't throw away gears that worked even if they aren't 100% still.

I feel more confident tearing down the axle now that all hardware is over to Carbon Steel. SO much easier to tear into it w/out stripping or heating to release loctite every dam fasterner -- so much fsater!

Aside from the grease-saster i was in and out quick.

I suspect the extra grease when packing the trans tight catches the balls from the failed bearing and allows everything i think to last a bit longer - not come out so damaged. Also reduces how hard the motor hits -- i can't ever rotate the axle by hand with wheels off when its packed tight. with just grease on gears, no pack, i can spin it easily. BIG difference in how the motor likes to feel some of that resistence it seems -- the drive is SO smooth now yet the trans sounds EVEN WORSE back together (i replaced the bearing so now you can hear how bad the spool and counter gear are at points) but so what it all runs up to 100% throttle no problem and crawls around the garage and driveway ok.

ROCKS next. If it fails (or i should say when) then upgrade to new gears set and the 7075 spool.

How do we get these peops making the spool in 7075 to upgrade the countergear and spur gear too?

60second short of the open gear box packed with grease....

https://youtube.com/shorts/O-MCVtnKHbg?feature=share

 

[Gula]

You packing the gear boxes full of any grease will put tremendous strain on your motor.

I put a light coat of the ceramic tamiya grease in all the needed areas and call it good. Haven't had any failures. If you're submerging them in water all the time it's probably more cost efficient to keep the bushings in and sealing the edges of the case and axle tubes only, with grease.

 

[WRXronald]

You packing the gear boxes full of any grease will put tremendous strain on your motor.

I put a light coat of the ceramic tamiya grease in all the needed areas and call it good. Haven't had any failures. If you're submerging them in water all the time it's probably more cost efficient to keep the bushings in and sealing the edges of the case and axle tubes only, with grease.

No dis-respect and I"m glad your process works for you, but in real life the Rig basically told me I NEED go back to packed grease and so i gave it back what makes it perform best. Removing it was a bad idea and i'm sure thats why my gears are bent when i did all the same stuff to it before when it was packed with grease but no bent gears resulted, just a failed counter-gear bearing. Its very much happier now is all i can say based on sheer perforamnce characteristics. I was indeed concerned about the same thing and thought "oh no i've over-filled it beyond a reasonable level of tightness what a waste and now annoyingly need to remove some" (fact that I can't even rotate it by hand holding onto 17mm hex drives seemed like a BAD sign to me), but i was tempted to at least put the motor in and spin by hand, i could easily rotate the can so that was a good sign. Then wired it up and under load seemed like no issue and was smooooooth. I rolled with it.

And alas, the motors LOVE LOVE LOVED IT!!! No issues on the Amp meter at all, barely draws 20 more watts total than prior with LOOSE transmission. I think once its spinning its less of an issue, its start up.

don't forget i'm running 1000watt a piece - 350kv Brushless outrunner 14 pole motors -- they are 4250 sized big bad boys and the torque they make is just insane nothing anyone has put into a CLODBUSTER before i'm sure of that.

on 6s nonethless.

But again, they just don't eat power all that bad --- the real load comes from rotating 2lb tires (rock crushers with inner tubes + 12oz wheels) thats alot of rotating mass!!!!

Anyways the motors don't even get warm even thrashing under hard load high speed and most of what i do is slow speed rock crawling. High speed is in the snow when there's plenty fo cooling to go around.

Maxxed out its pulling 400 watts at 18amps on 6s (23volts-ish). Per Watt-meter and thats measuring the whole system at once BOTH motors so split the wattage each motor is essentially outputting 200watts of power from 6s lipo running at 9amps.... Thats about 18% of max amperage rating 48-50amps per motor. I will video a test and put it on the tube for you all.

The motors are each capable of 1000watts (and rated to 5s/50amps) but since i only run 200watts per motor i think 6s is more than fair for them at such low kv and rpm. The temps they show support my theory - not even running hot -- and SINE MODE will heat motors when you strain them too hard.

But hey, i appreciate the warning and will be sure to keep an eye on the rear closely for signs of dislike on the packing -- it also oozes it the excess thru the other side of the motor hole (i run it up before putting the cover on) so excess pressure/grease is bled off -- this may relieve some of what you're thinking is going to put all that big strain on the system. Still its very hard to turn by hand if at all when wheels are not on (by the axle hex that is, of course when rotating the motor can is VERY easy to rotate by hand - and smooooooth!). Jut breaking the "suction" hold of the grease i think is hard to do by hand when you dno't have a hold of much of a large object - 17mm hex isn't really very big to hold and rotate in your hand/fingers)

It also improves the braking capabilty QUITE a bit from what i notice, and i already have both brakes set back at 10 full power (driving and stopping brake). A 25lb+ rig will roll easily w/out alot of breaking power even on a 20-25degree incline.

I'm not trying to go 15mph keep in mind. This is rock crawling.... 7mph is BLISTERING!!! I only need speed for the deep snow and on 6s 100% throttle top speed is about 8mph per the cell phone gps.

Also to coninue the rant --- if the motor was that strained - what would occur most likley is SINE mode would be over-whelmed and it would stall out the rear motor or prevent it from starting in perfect sync with the front motor. But i'm seeing no signs of that --- they are both spot on together.

VIDS on ROCKS tomorrow and uploaded by tomorrow night if life doesn't get too much in the way lol !!! "thumbsup"

Also - Gula - thanks for showing up to the party lol - - three's company

 

[WRXronald]

You packing the gear boxes full of any grease will put tremendous strain on your motor.

I put a light coat of the ceramic tamiya grease in all the needed areas and call it good. Haven't had any failures. If you're submerging them in water all the time it's probably more cost efficient to keep the bushings in and sealing the edges of the case and axle tubes only, with grease.

And really, maybe in a simpler way i'm just saying the motor can handle the strain - its nowhere near the weak point in the setup so anything that slows its impact down a little and softens its startup and braking function is desirable for trans gear longevity (and the small bearing the counter gear rides on).

really we dont just need someone to make the countergear and spur gear in 7075 alum, we also need a modified Countergear that ups the size of the smaller bearing from 5x6x2.5 to something like 5x8x2.5 or even better sink the hole deeper and mkae it a 5x8x3mm so 1/2mm deeper bearing so the balls can be that much larger in diameter giving he bearing more strength when its pushed on hard.. in 7075 from the looks of it the gear itself is large enough to upsize and bore out to 8mm outer diameter bearing simiilar to whats in the other side (6x8x3mm) and yes to avoid confusion the counter gear shaft steps up in diameter size from 5mm on the side that meets the spool locker to 6mm on the side that meets the spur gear. :shock:

 

[ferp420]

I seem to remember something about big tires and high voltage breaking parts
there's only so big you can go with 10th scale parts I spent a lot of money to learn that the hard way

 

[WRXronald]

I seem to remember something about big tires and high voltage breaking parts
there's only so big you can go with 10th scale parts I spent a lot of money to learn that the hard way

LOL me too! But its the EXACT same with 1/6th scale parts.

Watch the guy's video on "After 5hrs driving my SCX6".

Its osunds like a 25yr old Jeep on the trial lol creaking and cracking and the transmission won't shift hardly anymore from low to high.......

Things don't last forever. thats' 5hrs on trail, not all on rock for the guy and that equates to about $120 per drive or something stupid before broekn parts occurred that required a substantial tear down of the somewhat complex (his vid said it was above his pay grade lol, a rc car trans?.... ok well he's still learning i guess)

Anyways -- every things i ever thrashed has broken. Try flying FPV for a hot minute.... specially if you want to become a PRO EXPERT at micro soldering.

I can now pull a 64 pin mocro chip gyro with a heat gun from a circuit board and swap it over to another Flight Controller --- out with bad in with new got tired of buying $60 flight controllers for 1 bad gyro.

Live and Learn.

I love rock crawlers right now.

To the rocks today!! Going to the Chgrain River hope for some water, incline up the banks, rocks, mud, who knows etc.

Working on muy own bearing upgarde too for the counter gear. From there -- what breaks next.

Muy bid is on the SPLINE of the TTR CVD's... I already see some wear on it -- but hey its 14yrs of use was WELL WORTH IT!!!! $$$

"thumbsup"

Short of the bearing upgrade project:
https://youtube.com/shorts/2AAQTXHRpPE?feature=share

Short of well.... me just throwin' shade at AXial SCX6 because I can now (only cuz i wish i had one but can't justify spedning that $ on one all at once when i have the CLOD!)
https://youtube.com/shorts/3-odsGAovYY?feature=share :lmao:


If all goes well and my vid turns out ok.... maybe i go back to hiding under my rock for a good stint and will just enjoy the rig for a bit. Making vids is for the birds sometimes. Have to ahsare a little greatness sometimes... but not too much as i'm sure ya all know.

 

[ferp420]

personally I would down size that clod go back to 8th scale lol take that scx6 body and build from scratch
that's why my build i taking so long so far the only axial parts on my rig are the skid and the body everything is aftermarket

and ya everything breaks but why break unobtanium parts when you can make them last a life time if ya use them for what there made for
the scx6 parts are readily available right now and the parts your starting with are huge and upgrades are even huger lol

don't kill the clod build a scx6 mod really all ya need are axles and a skid and some driveshafts you have everything else

 

[WRXronald]

No chance!! Clodbuster till the bitter end if for no other reason than not to have the same rig setup as everyone else other trail!

Well I shot a vid and im.an idiot and the entire thing g is sideways. no clue how. No matter a I got a little good footage and then my narrowed axial plastic wheels fails due to a bad glue job. Lol CA doesn't stand up to water much. My Aluminum wheels were JB Welded and then water proof over top with urethane. These plastic wheels I may try metal bond oni have a tube and its water proof and I found it to be insanely strong stuff on the roof and in the elements!! Rear end sounds worse even still than when I stayed today bit its holding strong and rotates mostly ok so I'm not swapping it even if I get the counter gear bearing mod worked out. I'm not upgrading the rear (pr front) until this rear end is chewing and spitting all kinds of metal bits on the ground and I have to carry it out kn my shoulders.

Haters gonna hate.

Every SCX6 driver is loving me as I roll by with 2ft wheelbase, 16 inch track width, and 8.5 inch tall tires.

Lol SCX6 is dwarfed* in comparison can't imagine why I'd switch over and downgrade to that?

I can upload the 10min run but it's freaking all sideways not sure unreal when I rotate it 90 degrees then it still co.es up wrong on the tube even in shorts.

Here was after loading back in the car...

https://youtube.com/shorts/RevjSTwyu0I?si=laSQ9NVlCmVm1Uel