Not another Phoenix thread...

[JMo]

...well not exactly.

Like a good number of people apparently, I was amazed to see Vanquish launch a new kit for a far more reasonable $499 - and will admit it's the first time ever I've clicked 'buy-it-now' on the day of release...

I was doubly pleased since I already had a project in mind which I wanted to build around a VS4-10 chassis and VFD transmission - however, not having the budget for some pukka Vanquish aluminium axles, was going to have to make do with some Axle SCX10 III axles, which I just wasn't really inspired by - so when the Phoenix kit was announced, complete with some really nice looking Currie portals, it seems this was the obvious way to go!

However, while I really like the concept of the truck-cab FJ40 'Cruiser body that comes in the kit (I especially like the front end, with the modern Vanquish twist on the traditional grille, similar to what they did with their Scout style body on the previous version/s), and feel the bed cage with removable fender panels is inspired - personally I find the quarter panels behind the doors of the cabin gawky with those little (and I do mean little) extra windows in there... Indeed I'm hoping that at some point we'll see an internal cabin cage from Knight Customs, so you can chop the roof off the stock body and make an open top version in future?

Perhaps more importantly, I already had a body-shell I wanted to use on some sort of 313mm chassis project - one of those Injora JK Wrangler hard-bodies (in this instance the two-door pick-up version)... and after a quick eyeball, it appeared that once the rear portion was removed behind the truck-cab roof, it ought to be the perfect length to replace the lexan kit body... and as it turns out it really seems as if this whole chassis (including the moulded front inner fenders) was designed to accept this particular body as an alternative...

Right, enough waffle, a few photos to show you what I mean:













For those of you who frequent the SBG forum, I've already put together a full detailed build-thread there showing how I modified the original 4-door body tub into a truck-cab (using the rear corners to fill in the gap below the roof section, along with some styrene and a lot of glue and filler) - and essentially the result is a 2-door body which not only fits over the inner front fenders as if they were designed for each other (including space for the headlight buckets), but that the front body mount lines up perfectly [if you flip it] with the inner radiator panel from the body set, while the cage bed is the perfect length to mate with the styrene rear panel I fabricated at the rear of the cab - therefore this alternative body mounts in exactly the same way to the chassis as the kit body does (other than because of the thickness of the Jeep grille panel you lose the ability to flip it up from the front, rather you do need to pull the pivot pin each time).

Due to having a general aversion to lexan body panels in general, rather than utilise the kit bed sides (which I'd admit would make this look very much like a Brute style Jeep pick-up of course), I elected to leave them off for the time being - although they can always be attached using the kit clamps of course - and fabricated my own cage infill panels from aluminium, together with diamond-plate deck between the bulkhead and the rear suspension towers.

I also already had a set of genuine [now discontinued] Vanquish Method Roost aluminium wheels and VXT tyres which immediately found a home, together with a fifth tyre on a very similar Ebay spare wheel.


Inside job

Because of the layout of the electronics and shift-servo on this iteration of the VS4-10 chassis, it was going to prove difficult to incorporate a full depth interior - particularly as the Overdrive shift-servo is on the driver's side of a LHD vehicle... However, with a little more custom styrene work and the assistance of Dr. Dremel, I feel I've managed to hide the battery and also incorporate the key parts of the original Injora Jeep moulded interior - including the top of the cubby/cup-holders, the seat backs and cushion fronts - cut down and attached the battery cover, while the driver figure 'Dustin' was modified to fit around the necessary step in the seat-box... unfortunately he did have to lose his lower right leg.



Fortunately there is enough room in the cabin to retain his full left leg (which helps to hide the servo and shift mechanism when viewed from this side), while the ESC power switch is easily accessed under the front of his seat:



While I have endeavoured to incorporate a number of scale details into this build, it is foremost a trail runner - designed to be used (as the scuffs on the top of the roof already reveal), and together with the versatile selectable transmission and DIG options, I have also incorporated a servo-winch and switchable LED lights - utilising all 6-channels of my GT5 remote in this application.

Test run last weekend, prior to driver installation and a few refinements:





If you have any questions I'd be more than happy to share more info. about what I've done with this build, and trust you appreciate this twist on what is clearly already a very popular kit!

Jenny

 

[soze]

Awesome job. I dig it!

 

[B-MOW71]

Awesome build JMo!"thumbsup""thumbsup"

I really love the twist you put on the Phoenix with the Jeep Wrangler cab! Slick job on the interior! I didn't even notice how you hid the battery tray until I read the description! It all blends nicely in with the seats!

Also digging how the rear cage looks without the panels! It fits well with the cab and looks like it all belongs together!

Umm, I'm saddened to hear that the VP Roost wheels have been discontinued! I did not hear or now that until now! I love them wheels and I'm glad I bought a set of them last year.

I dying to see more of this build! I'll be heading over to SBG to see more!

 

[Panther6834]

I'd say, "Nice job"...but, this goes WAY being just being 'nice' - it's frakkin' awesome.


~ More peace, love, and kindness would make the world a much better place

 

[Topher Builds]

Definitely a cool build. I dig the body and like the little shop towel rolls you have in the crate in the interior. Nice work!

 

[twade984]

Very cool, well done.

What are your thoughts on how it performs?


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[indybama]

Looks good JMo! Great job on the full interior.

How did u set up your gt5? Wats on which ch? Im waitin on my v3 chassis to come in. Wanna do a winch, lights, n still run dig n od.

Seems ch 3 would b best for a light controller. Ch4 for a winch? N use 5 n 6 for dig n od? Thats kinda how it sounds best in my mind, but doesnt mean its the right way lol

 

[JMo]

Very cool, well done.

What are your thoughts on how it performs?

Hi Twade - this is the first chassis I've built/driven with a DIG and front overdrive, and I admit to being very impressed with those additional functions.

I do have another VS4-10 chassis vehicle (with the 3-gear centre style transmission) already, so am familiar with how these 'handle' in general, but again this is the first VFD version I've tried, which I imagine has an slightly lower centre of gravity - it certainly feels very planted.

I really like it - the whole underside is so smooth it slides over anything pretty much, and although I've used pretty budget electronics in this (a Hobbywing 1080 ESC and Holmes Hobbies Crawlmaster 'Sport' 13T 5-slot brushed motor) it is very smooth and controllable. Even the stock tyres are better than I expected, although I'd say they are perhaps the weakest link with regard to grip - I've already fitted softer foams, and hopefully they will soften up even further over time as currently they can spin up on loose surfaces quite easily.

I had the chance to take it out for another run earlier today, and I'm enjoying it more and more - plus learning to drive around any limitations - mainly that it is perhaps rather top heavy, and indeed heavy in general - I weighed it at 8.6lbs this morning with the 2S shorty pack installed.

So in that regard, one thing I've found is while it does crawl at slow speed very well, on really steep climbs it turns out if you try and go too slowly the front can unweight enough so that it ultimately can flip over backwards, whereas if you maintain a little more momentum, it actually walks right up before the front suspension extends sufficiently for the weight to take over... The other thing I've found is that in a couple of scenarios, the 33% front overdrive certainly did make a difference... try as I might with the 6.5% front, and it wouldn't make the climb, whereas that little extra wheel-speed (and fundamentally the difference between front and rear axle speeds) means it was up and over before it had the chance to flip or crab sideways. Nice!

I even managed to conquer the really steep concrete slope which I'd conceded to winch up last weekend - there was a line after all!

Did I say I'm enjoying this?!










With this motor set-up I got a good two+ hours run time with just one battery swap (and the second 3000MAh isn't spent yet), and the chassis once again seems to have performed flawlessly... I can also confirm that you can switch between the front overdrive ratios on the fly and under power should you wish too. Neat!

I'll continue to update this thread as and when any changes are made, and with some more running photos too of course... in the meantime, all this portal-axle cage-back goodness means I've been inspired to carry on with a previous project (based around a Chevy Blazer body I've similarly bobbed) and see if I can't make an even more hardcore sister rig to the Phoenix - complete with 4 wheel steering!

More soon!

Jenny

 

[JMo]

Looks good JMo! Great job on the full interior.

How did u set up your gt5? Wats on which ch? Im waitin on my v3 chassis to come in. Wanna do a winch, lights, n still run dig n od.

Seems ch 3 would b best for a light controller. Ch4 for a winch? N use 5 n 6 for dig n od? Thats kinda how it sounds best in my mind, but doesnt mean its the right way lol

Hi Indy' - yes, as you surmise, that is the way I've got my GT5 set-up for this application:

ch.1 steering
ch.2 throttle
ch.3 lights (switched with a dongle)
ch.4 winch (centre position off, up is line-out and down is line-in)
ch.5 Front Overdrive using the pot control to select: 6.5% / freewheel / 33%
ch.6 DIG, using the pot to select: rear drive / freewheel / DIG locked.

This way I can decide whether to run in RWD only, or FWD with 6.5% or 33% increase in speed - so effectively a 3-speed (albeit 2WD) on road and between trails if you see what I mean?

I suppose if you planned to use the DIG regularly, it might be better to have that on the CH.3 push-button, but then that would preclude you having the option to disengage the rear axle, so you'd really only have RWD or 4WD with [either] overdrive.

note. Another option is to put the DIG on the ch.4 3-position lever switch, and just have the front axle permanently driven with the ch.3 button swapping between either 6.5% or 33% overdrive - effectively giving you two [faster] speeds for 2WD running between trails, just no option of RWD only of course.

for info. I set the shift-servo trims on the ch.5 and ch.6 pots, and marked the corresponding positions with a dab of white paint - this is the general running position (1 o'clock with both pots) - rear axle engaged and 6.5% front overdrive:



... while 3 o'clock is the neutral position for both sides of the transmission (ie. freewheeling front and rear axles), and 5 o'clock is 33% overdrive on the left pot, and rear axle DIG locked on the right pot.

It gets some getting used to, but in practice seems to work very well - with only the DIG being a bit of a fumble to access on and off quickly perhaps (note. this is why I put the DIG on the ch.6/right hand pot, so it's a bit easier to grab and adjust on the fly with your right hand, as I imagine you'd want to use that more frequently than the Overdrive selector).

Hope that helps!

 

[indybama]

Thanks JMo, thats how i had it in my mind as well. Pretty smart idea on ch 5 n 6 with the paint marks. Hopefully my blue cf v3 chassis shows up tomorrow n i can get some more build time in n an update on it.

Good to see n hear yours is performin well.

 

[alexleblanc]

That body looks excellent on there, like it was made for it.

 

[AndrewRC]

Awesome rig. Awesome job building it. You really left no stone unturned.


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[JMo]

Awesome build JMo!"thumbsup""thumbsup"

I really love the twist you put on the Phoenix with the Jeep Wrangler cab! Slick job on the interior! I didn't even notice how you hid the battery tray until I read the description! It all blends nicely in with the seats!

Also digging how the rear cage looks without the panels! It fits well with the cab and looks like it all belongs together!

Umm, I'm saddened to hear that the VP Roost wheels have been discontinued! I did not hear or now that until now! I love them wheels and I'm glad I bought a set of them last year.

I dying to see more of this build! I'll be heading over to SBG to see more!

Thank you for your kind words Brian!

Yes, those genuine Method Roost wheels have been 'out of stock' on the Vanquish website indefinitely it seems... however, there are a couple of ebay sellers which offer something very similar (and for a lot less money) in both 1.9 and 2.2 size if anyone is looking for that style of wheel... you can get them in matt silver and matt black, and it's what I used for the spare wheel on this build - they are surprisingly good quality for the price.