Newbie Crawler w/ ??'s /comments

[Crusty Old Shellback]

Crustys Newbie Crawler Build w/ ??'s /comments

Hi All,
New guy here to crawling. I'll start by saying that i haven't had a RC in about 25 years and I can see a lot of things have changed since then. One of the reasons I wound up getting the K5 was due to the Boss, I mean Wife. I own a '87 K5 and so why not have a mini me of it, so I got one.

I can say I am throughly impressed with the K5 and had a lot of fun building it. I've built several 1:1 cars/trucks/bikes and this was just a smuch fun, but on a smaller scale.

So let's start with my full size K5. It's basically stock right now with 35" tires.



And my mini me so far.



I did the build according to the instructions. The only thing I did different was I installed my servo running sid eto side rather than fore/aft. I currently do not plan on a winch so no big deal there. I'm running a metal gear servo and a 25 turn brushed motor. I'm using a 2s 4400 mah Lipo at 50C discharge.

Now for my questions.

1. Does it really matter where the drag link mounts? I notice that in the stock position, I can not get a full ock to lock as it hits on the diff cover. Or did I install it wrong? If i move it on top, will it hit the panhard bar and limit my flex?



I did start a thread about the shocks so I won't go into it here but I'm still working on it. But on the trail, it does have some good flex.



I've seen the comments about torque flex and have to agree. I noticed it was really bad on mine when I was running it around this past weekend.

Other than that, I'm very happy with the truck. Seems I had more fun crawling up and down and riding the ridge of the large dirt mound in the picture than I did running my Traxxas Slash 4X4 out on the flats. I let the wife play with that one.

My one last question has to do with paint. I'm trying to decide do I paint it to match my K5, peeled paint and all, or do I paint it like something I'd like mine to maybe be one day? I'm not sure I'll ever paint my K5 as I'm building it to run around down in Baja when I go down for camping/pitting for the SCORE Baja races.

 

[mgputer]

I would have to look when I get home but I am pretty sure you put the front end together right. I know mine doesnt hit and turns lock to lock.

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

I figured out what my issue is with my steering. It's not that the drag link is hitting the diff cover but that the steering link is too long and there for wound up being off set on the servo and I didn't catch it. I measured that I needed to remove about .400" total to align the steering link properly. So I removed .100" off of each ball end and .100" off of each end of the center aluminum link. Now I have full lock to lock on my steering with no issues other than now I can't move the servo back to the fore/aft mounting as in the instructions. But I'm fine with that.

One other comment I have about the K5, why doesn't it come with body washers for the pins? Other RC's come with them.

I'm still thinking about my paint scheme. I', leaning towards something similar in color as my full size K5 but not faded and peeling.

One other thing I'm looking into is possibly making some inner fender wells. Seems that when I was out climbing the dirt mound in the picture, when I started spinning the wheels, they just filled up the inside of the truck with dirt. So maybe putting in fender wells may help alleviate some of that.

 

[mgputer]

inner fenders are nice. They have a function plus they add to the scale look. The cheapo throw away ziploc containers or similar brands work good for making inner fenders. Cut to size paint black and they look great.

 

[Reaxion911]

The packs that burnable cds work really nice and are a bit more rigid than the ziplocks allowing paint s better chance to stay on. (Ive used both)


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[Crusty Old Shellback]

Thanks for the info. I'll round up some of these parts and see what I can come up with. One question that I have as I'm not sure. Do you build them to mount to the frame? Or do you glue them to the inside of the body? I was thinking mount to the frame.

Also if you have a link as to what has been done, that would really help. Pictures are worth a bunch.

 

[mgputer]

Usually to the frame and shock towers. I have seen them mounted to the body but that is only on hardbodies.

I don't have any body off pics but on this truck I used zip ties and zip tied it to the frame and put a screw on the back side of the tower. then cut everything to fit around the body and frame. Sorry I don't have any better pics at the moment.

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

Thanks. That's perfect. Gives me a better idea of how to go about it. Now to do some designing, cutting and fitting.

 

[Reaxion911]

I used the two holes that mount the shock tower to the frame and one where the top of the shock mounts.


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[Crusty Old Shellback]

OK, here's my shot at making some inner fenders. I went cheap as I was just trying things out. I picked up some cheap plastic bowls at the dollar store. 6 for 2 bucks aint bad.



Did some cutting and trimming. On the front, I cut a hole for the top of the shock to fit thru so that they were not sticking way up inside the body.



Here it is with full compression.



And the rear. For the rear, I kept the shock inside and used the shock mounting hole as one of my mounts.



And full compression.



I did a little crawling around on some big rocks in the back yard. The only issue is with full turn to the lock and full compression, the front of the front tire grabs some. I'm going to see if I can figure out a way to fix that. For the rears, I actually cut the inner fender in half and overlapped it about 1/2 inch as they didn't need to have as much clearance as the fronts.

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

OK, got a little more "crawling" time in with the K5. Seems that I've stuffed the tries a time or two as well as dragged the "wheel wells" a few times and have now noticed that one of them is cracked.

So even though they do work and were a great cheap learning experience, it's time to upgrade. I'm either going to go with some thicker Tupperware style containers or buy some styrene and build my own as was posted by GCM. I'm also thinking of spraying them with some flex seal to help make them more durable.

I also changed the title as this has kind of turned into my build thread I guess.

I finally got my body painted and will post up pictures soon.

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

OK, here's the painted body. I used some weathered black to paint the "rubber gaskets" around the windows. My '87 K5 doesn't have any chrome trim around the windows other than the ones on the top so that is what I was coping.
For the color, I was trying to mimic the color of my '05 Harley, a black cherry pearl/black pearl two tone paint. I used faskolors to paint it. I took their burgundy color and mixed in some faspearl white and Faspearl Charcoal. For the top/stripe, I used faspearl Charcoal. I'm not putting on the "chrome Silverado" stuff as my K5 is not a Silverado and so doesn't have it. You can see that depending on the angle of the light, the color changes some due to the pearl. I did put the "tint on after I took the pictures so I'll try and get a good shot of them later.

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

OK I have a question for those looking. How low did you mount your body? I've seen a lot of the trucks have the sliders up around the doors but as you can see, mine are around the bottom of the cab. I only trimed off the bottom of the body along the cut line. I was thinking maybe cut some "groves" in the body to sit lower on the frame and bring the grill down to the top of the bumper. Anyone done this?

 

[joe122]

Hope this helps address your issue, I slotted the area below the grill, almost to the bottom of the chrome. I had a condition slightly different than most due to the cage and interior. This allowed me to lower the body so it fit the best. I know the posts have quite a bit of flexibility and adjustment as well.

<a href="http://s764.photobucket.com/user/slmljm/media/IMG_7557_zps6f8234b1.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i764.photobucket.com/albums/xx284/slmljm/IMG_7557_zps6f8234b1.jpg" border="0" alt="Vaterra Ascender photo IMG_7557_zps6f8234b1.jpg"/></a>

<a href="http://s764.photobucket.com/user/slmljm/media/IMG_7558_zps6f1497c4.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i764.photobucket.com/albums/xx284/slmljm/IMG_7558_zps6f1497c4.jpg" border="0" alt="Vatterra Ascender photo IMG_7558_zps6f1497c4.jpg"/></a>

 

[mgputer]

Paint job came out great! I had similar issues with the containers cracking if they were the cheaper ones. Its sure turning out great though!

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

Thanks Mg, Yep they crack easy. I'm looking into a different/better way to do them.

Thanks Joe, your's looks good. I went out last night and took a good look at my '87 K5 sitting in the driveway. Yep, I was right. The hinges for the tailgate sit just above the bumper and the front grill is the same, just above the bumper. So I did like you and adjusted my body by "channeling" it over the frame some. I dropped it about 1/4" in the rear and 3/8" in the front. The rear body doesn't really stick out from under the bumper so I left it along. But I did trim the front body a little so it didn't stick out. My only issue I can see now is tire rub on the body, mainly the back of the front tires and the front of the back tires. may have to do some custom body mods on the fender openings. I also need to put in some body washers under the body so that should bring it up to the right height that I want.

Profile shot












And a little action shot before I trimmed it.

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

I'm also thinking of at least narrowing the front axle, maybe both, to clear the body. Seems the fronts stick out more than the rears. OK, just looked at the thread for shortening the axles. 6mm is just shy of 1/4" which is what I figured I needed to take off of the front to tuck them in. But I'm worried about rubbing on the inside.

 

[mgputer]

I think narrowing it will help a bit in the back but I am going to bet the front will still rub. I myself like the tires to stick out a bit. When you throw a set of 48's on a blazer they are going to stick out a bit. Maybe run a slightly smaller tire? Maybe a Proline TSL sx swampers? They are 4.3" tall instead of 4.65". Might be enough clearance. Or check out RC4WD or RPP for some other tires that may better fit what you would like.

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

OK I think I've come up with a few options here for the rubbing issue. When crawling on my makeshift little course in the back yard, I get quite a bit of rubbing both going forward and backwards.





So my thoughts are:
Option 1: Go with a smaller tire. I have some smaller tires that came on my Slash 4X4 that fit. They are wider than the K5 tires but the rim is set in more, less back spacing than the K5 so they tuck in. But I'm not sure I like the look of the smaller tire.



Option 2: duck tape the inside of the body where the tires rub and hope for the best.

Option 3: Change rims to some with less backspacing and hope they don't rub. But I've already glued these tires on.

Option 4: Cut the body up and make the openings bigger. But I don't like the look.

Option 5: Narrow the axles and hope for the best. But I'm worried about how will it handle/crawl with narrowed axles. Will it still rub on the body or maybe rub on the frame.

I'm still trying to decide on how I'm going to go about it.

 

[Crusty Old Shellback]

On another note, I sheared my front drive shaft while crawling around my course. The front tires got a bit stuck I guess on some of the wood and it just spun the end of off the shaft where it connects to the CV going into the transfercase. For some reason, there was a spare shaft in my kit so I just replaced the shaft and was back on the trail. I glue dup the old one to keep as a backup spare.





You can see in these pic's that I do a lot of dragging/scraping when crawling across the rocks and such.



Another picture of the course.