OSRC
I wanna be Dave
It's almost 2025, so lets build a .... TLT? 
This is the one that started the scale/crawler scene for me, as I'm sure it did a lot of the old timers. I've had these axles for a long, long time, and they've seen countless builds. They're still kicking and have been in a box for years along with the latest body and chassis configuration. I came across it while redoing the workbench and made sure I piled them on top so I wouldn't forget again. Build season is here, and other than the two Tamiyas I snagged from Tamiya USA's blowout sale there's just not much on the radar at the moment. So I took down the TLT and decided to dig in.
But first, a trip down memory lane. Here's the truck back in 2004-ish (when I was still single and had money and hair) Carbon chassis, traxxas links, 'pede body and some big 2.2 scale-ish tires. Went out and crawled up and over some rocks and was instantly hooked.
Fast Forward 14 or so years... I dug in my pics until I found a few of the latest build. 2018 gave it a new chassis and driveline. I was thinking "CMX Killer" but it never quite got there. Lots of good ideas on this chassis, just never got it sorted out. An HPI trans and RC4WD t-case did the driveline work.
And out in the wild. It did ok, it just needed some fine tuning.
Biggest issue I had was the chassis was just too low for the body and breakover was terrible. It was fine when designing it, but the way the body had to go on the chassis it had to sit a bit higher than I wanted so it was always a bit off. Can see it hanging down in this testing shot. I didn't initially think it would be a problem but it was pretty annoying out on the trail. Plus the gearing was way off and it had some wacky suspension.
And this is how I found it in the box, collecting dust for the last 6 or so years. I pulled it apart to see what my options were for changing around the chassis - I think I was just going to make a new one and got sidetracked on something else. It happens a lot.
I haven't had these axles open in forever, I have no idea how worn they are inside but the MIP's are still going strong and they spin fine, so not tempting fate and leaving them as-is. Thankfully my Dremel skills have improved over the years... yikes!
Pieced the chassis back together, it's been so long I wanted to get a feel for it again. Thankfully everything was still in the box.
Pulled apart the HPI unit and it looks perfect inside. Just gave it a good clean and a Red and Tacky bath and bolted it back together. How old is that Integy motor? Lord only knows. Holmes is my go-to usually, but I picked up a few Ruddog 5 pole motors to try out a while back when Amain was blowing them out for $7.99, and I swapped one in while I had everything apart. Should help a ton with low end smoothness which this truck never really had due to the gearing.
Put back together with the RC4WD t-case, though I had swapped it for a converted Axial 3 gear t-case somewhere along the way. Gear ratio with the RC4WD case was 29:1 - way higher than I like, and even with the smallish tires it was way too zippy. With the Axial t-case I had a much better 53:1 ratio (it was a bit too low IIRC, but way better than too high) but the case was so tall I had to limit rear suspension or the driveshaft would bind due to the short WB. Just to get it rolling and see what's what, I went back to the RC4WD case.
Rear driveshaft angle is tight, even with the smaller t-case. Works with 80mm shocks, but anything taller is a problem. It's only a 252mm wheelbase, so things are pretty tight.
Up front, I wanted the motor as low as possible, and I got there but uptravel for the axle was a problem. So basically I had limited uptravel in the front and limited downtravel in the rear. As I recall it made for some funky driving..
------//------
So, after refreshing my memory on what the issues were, now time to get to fixing them. I debated on cutting a new chassis, but looking at my stock of aluminum, I was running pretty low so I just stuck with what I had. Tore it all back down and zipped about 10mm off the bottom of the chassis. Drilled some holes closer in so I could run some longer links and trimmed off the rest. I gave it a quick sand to get the burrs off and it gave the edges a kind of re-machined look. I liked it, so I just left it that way. I may paint it later, who knows.
And finally the t-case. I needed to get it lower in the chassis somehow so the rear driveshaft wouldn't bind anymore, and I just hacked off 10mm of the bottom of the chassis which would make it worse, so I had to go another route. I found this stacked 70mm wide t-case in my stash and it's a Christmas miracle. The input is up high so I can raise the motor up a bit, and the outputs are much lower than anything I was running before. I don't even really need a skid, just bolted it right to the chassis rails. Even better, It's got a 2.17 ratio, so I'll be at about 41:1 FDR which is pretty much right where I want to be! So even though I lopped 10mm off the bottom of the chassis, the driveshaft outputs are actually a bit lower than they were before. Win on so many levels!
This is the one that started the scale/crawler scene for me, as I'm sure it did a lot of the old timers. I've had these axles for a long, long time, and they've seen countless builds. They're still kicking and have been in a box for years along with the latest body and chassis configuration. I came across it while redoing the workbench and made sure I piled them on top so I wouldn't forget again. Build season is here, and other than the two Tamiyas I snagged from Tamiya USA's blowout sale there's just not much on the radar at the moment. So I took down the TLT and decided to dig in.
But first, a trip down memory lane. Here's the truck back in 2004-ish (when I was still single and had money and hair) Carbon chassis, traxxas links, 'pede body and some big 2.2 scale-ish tires. Went out and crawled up and over some rocks and was instantly hooked.
Fast Forward 14 or so years... I dug in my pics until I found a few of the latest build. 2018 gave it a new chassis and driveline. I was thinking "CMX Killer" but it never quite got there. Lots of good ideas on this chassis, just never got it sorted out. An HPI trans and RC4WD t-case did the driveline work.
And out in the wild. It did ok, it just needed some fine tuning.
Biggest issue I had was the chassis was just too low for the body and breakover was terrible. It was fine when designing it, but the way the body had to go on the chassis it had to sit a bit higher than I wanted so it was always a bit off. Can see it hanging down in this testing shot. I didn't initially think it would be a problem but it was pretty annoying out on the trail. Plus the gearing was way off and it had some wacky suspension.
And this is how I found it in the box, collecting dust for the last 6 or so years. I pulled it apart to see what my options were for changing around the chassis - I think I was just going to make a new one and got sidetracked on something else. It happens a lot.
I haven't had these axles open in forever, I have no idea how worn they are inside but the MIP's are still going strong and they spin fine, so not tempting fate and leaving them as-is. Thankfully my Dremel skills have improved over the years... yikes!
Pieced the chassis back together, it's been so long I wanted to get a feel for it again. Thankfully everything was still in the box.
Pulled apart the HPI unit and it looks perfect inside. Just gave it a good clean and a Red and Tacky bath and bolted it back together. How old is that Integy motor? Lord only knows. Holmes is my go-to usually, but I picked up a few Ruddog 5 pole motors to try out a while back when Amain was blowing them out for $7.99, and I swapped one in while I had everything apart. Should help a ton with low end smoothness which this truck never really had due to the gearing.
Put back together with the RC4WD t-case, though I had swapped it for a converted Axial 3 gear t-case somewhere along the way. Gear ratio with the RC4WD case was 29:1 - way higher than I like, and even with the smallish tires it was way too zippy. With the Axial t-case I had a much better 53:1 ratio (it was a bit too low IIRC, but way better than too high) but the case was so tall I had to limit rear suspension or the driveshaft would bind due to the short WB. Just to get it rolling and see what's what, I went back to the RC4WD case.
Rear driveshaft angle is tight, even with the smaller t-case. Works with 80mm shocks, but anything taller is a problem. It's only a 252mm wheelbase, so things are pretty tight.
Up front, I wanted the motor as low as possible, and I got there but uptravel for the axle was a problem. So basically I had limited uptravel in the front and limited downtravel in the rear. As I recall it made for some funky driving..
------//------
So, after refreshing my memory on what the issues were, now time to get to fixing them. I debated on cutting a new chassis, but looking at my stock of aluminum, I was running pretty low so I just stuck with what I had. Tore it all back down and zipped about 10mm off the bottom of the chassis. Drilled some holes closer in so I could run some longer links and trimmed off the rest. I gave it a quick sand to get the burrs off and it gave the edges a kind of re-machined look. I liked it, so I just left it that way. I may paint it later, who knows.
And finally the t-case. I needed to get it lower in the chassis somehow so the rear driveshaft wouldn't bind anymore, and I just hacked off 10mm of the bottom of the chassis which would make it worse, so I had to go another route. I found this stacked 70mm wide t-case in my stash and it's a Christmas miracle. The input is up high so I can raise the motor up a bit, and the outputs are much lower than anything I was running before. I don't even really need a skid, just bolted it right to the chassis rails. Even better, It's got a 2.17 ratio, so I'll be at about 41:1 FDR which is pretty much right where I want to be! So even though I lopped 10mm off the bottom of the chassis, the driveshaft outputs are actually a bit lower than they were before. Win on so many levels!
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