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OS's Element Thread

OSRC

I wanna be Dave
Joined
Sep 1, 2011
Messages
4,396
Location
Douglassville, PA
Never made an Element thread, which is odd since I have a bunch of them. Or maybe I did and don't remember. Anyway, I figured I'd make one thread to ramble about all of them.

Let's meet the players: First, I've got the Sendero. Started as a builders kit and picked up the body set. The most modded of the bunch, this is my best performing scale truck, hands down.
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Then there's the IFS Sport... maybe a sin to put a TRX body on the Element, but it fit the IFS front well. Still running the IFS1 setup, haven't really seen the need to upgrade to the IFS2 yet.
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Then there's the Wrecto, which does have its own thread since it's a bit unique.
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And finally, I picked up a Bushido over the winter. I had planned to take off all the body parts and swap them over to the Enduro, but I didn't have the heart to tear down my best runner. I had some nice axles left over from swapping the AR60's over to the Ecto, so I put them on here, dropped in my electronics, swapped out the wheels and took it for a spin.

Starting at the test rock... it was not meant to be! Couldn't even get up the side. Though most of my truck make this look pretty easy, even a stock TRX4 has a tough time. New tires, temps in the mid 40's... we'll give it a pass for now. But I'll be back..
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Tons of torque twist...
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And gobs of butter smooth suspension travel. It all made for a somewhat rollicking ride going down the trail. But it looked cool doing it.
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Common theme of the day. Short WB and a heavy, tall body meant the roof already got a workout.
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Still, I liked wheeling it. Super agile and love the look. So I came home and started tearing down trucks. Basically it's what I meant to do in the first place. Decided to swap the Bushido body and all it's assorted parts over the Sendero chassis, and rebuild the original Bushido chassis back to stock. I'll put the Sendero body on it and hopefully sell it off. No sane person needs 4 Elements.
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After a day of wrenching and watching the Phoenix race (Christopher Bell again, really?? About as exciting as warm mayonnaise) I was left with a super modded Bushido, and 1.5 sets of very nice Element axles.
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I bought these wheels and tires for the Optic, but they looked a bit small to me. They match perfectly the color of the Bushido. I think it looks pretty badass! Going to go back and open a can on that test rock next time. I hope. I think I'll put some of the decals on too, it looks a bit plain.

Oh, and I should probably glue the wipers... they were all over the place. :)
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Great looking rigs! I recently shortened the wheelbase of my Sendero and put a Newbright Bronco hardbody on it. I'm worried it's going to be super tippy, so I'll need to be conscious of that when I take that truck out.

"No one needs 4 Elements" ....pffffft
 
Got the new and improved Bushido out for some testing...

Love the look of this truck, glad I swapped it over. The previous Sendero body was nice, but this body looks super cool.
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...and adding all my performance goodies brought the performance level up quite a bit. Couldn't make this rock before, now it just walks right up it.
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Went back to a huge rock I found Creekside and did some tire break in. These Injora S3 tires are pretty good. I have some heavier single stage foams in them and while they worked ok, I think there's still more performance to be had.
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After a while I decided to remove the rear spare tire. Huge difference, this truck was absolutely on point after that. It's got a lot of soft suspension so there's a lot of body roll, but it rarely tips over - there's enough brass down low to keep it stable. Plus it's got fantastic approach angles and it's very nimble with the sort WB. Tons of fun to wheel.
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Went up and found the dam. Pretty cool, and it was almost hot enough to wade in!
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And the old railroad bridge... The Reading Railroad came through here to pick up granite slabs and iron ore IIRC. Lots of my trail takes place around the old roadbed, and there's artifacts everywhere. Abandoned in the mid 60's I think, nature is slowly reclaiming it all.
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The Reading Railroad! Makes me think of the Monopoly board game. Turns out it exists in PA, shoulda known.

Your terrain resembles the stuff I crawl just north east of here in the woods. I may have to try out the Injora s3 in a 1.9 size.

Anyway, bushido looks great. Looks like it should be a short WB but iirc it is actually 12.3?
 
The Reading Railroad! Makes me think of the Monopoly board game. Turns out it exists in PA, shoulda known.

Your terrain resembles the stuff I crawl just north east of here in the woods. I may have to try out the Injora s3 in a 1.9 size.

Anyway, bushido looks great. Looks like it should be a short WB but iirc it is actually 12.3?
Wheelbase: 299mm (11.77in) per Element RC... ;)(y)
 
The Reading Railroad! Makes me think of the Monopoly board game. Turns out it exists in PA, shoulda known.
Well ... used to exist. Went bankrupt in the seventies and was absorbed into Conrail. As were the B&O and Pennsylvania as well.

That will conclude today's history lesson
:)
 
These pics are making me want to get out there to run, especially with my brand spanking new Optic. Just have to build my strength up first. Lying in a hospital bed for weeks completely de-muscled my bird legs.

The Bushido is cool and the Wrecto is awesome.
 
Made a few changes to the Bushido

First off, I fixed the lights. Painted the buckets silver and put in some warm LED's. Looks way better imo. Also fixed the taillights. The front and rear lights were on separate leads and I only had one output so I could only run front or rear. I combined them into one lead now so they both work at the same time. Leaving off the spare, not sure what I want to do with the holes yet.
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Added some of the factory graphics and switched over to 4.5" Pitbulls on SSD wheels. I think they fit the truck better size-wise.
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Wanted to run my V1 IFS truck for a bit... I just swapped in an old OG Novak Crawler brushless system for overland duty. Still running good - or so I thought. About 10 minutes into the run, I smacked the ground pretty hard and had all kinds of issues. Lights on the ESC but the truck was basically dead. I packed it up and headed back to the truck to swap rigs. Later at home I checked it out and the ESC has an external radio wire and it just popped off the ESC. PITA, I glued it on since it was a bit loose and it's fine again. Ready to go!
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