SuperShafty Leftover (kinda) Parts Toyota Farm Truck

[mjderstine]

I picked up one of the MST CFX-W chassis kits that Brian, exclusiveRC.com, helped me source.

Took me about 4-5 hour to build the chassis, but was taking my time, snapping pics, and admiring a lot of what i have never seen before in a kit like this.

First off, Transmission. well before that, packaging. They packaging in the kit was the best i have seen. It was shame to even cut open some of the well sorted little bags.












ok now the trans. its a planetary setup. lots of little gears, which would give me reason to worry, but they have such a tight tolerance on all the milling,all the plastic is tight fitting, even has some aspects to the trans i have never seen before. I wouldnt call it bombproof, but it is probably pretty close.

I packed it with the supplied "black grease" and added some of my own green marine grease.

the spur gear is small, but has a slipper, and the spur gear is mounted with a double shear motor plate. hard to explain, but really cool.

only issue is setting the gear mesh with the motor. you can't see the mesh and have to set it all by fell. which sucked. but can be done.










cool little shackles on a parts tree. probably break first time you use them, but still cool
and the shocks, nothing special 70mm-ish, plastic. non threaded bodies, but when built and filling with oil feel better than axial. don't use the kit 10wt oil. JUNK. i put in some 30wt.

 

[mjderstine]

but wait, theres more...

the axles, with portals! very awesome!

first the ring and pinion. another area i am always leary (damn sure leary is a word) of. they are small, single piece spool/ring gear (BAD) and straight cut (not the best idea). but again MST thought it out. they supply shims for the pinion to make sure the mesh is always perfect. there is ZERO play in the pinion gear,and it feels good when built. would have loved to see a two piece spool and ring gear, but lets see how this holds up.

got to thinking when building they look a lot like scx10-II axles. and guess what, besides the portals, they are. you can see i put a stock lockout on the CFX axle. with some master level homebrewing, you could probably swap parts around rather easily.

the portals take a minute to install, and i had an issue with one of the 4 axle stubshafts. It was about .01 to big for the bearing to fit over it, so just chucked it in the drill press and used some 220 to take some material off.





and that is about it. it was a reallyfun build for the kit. the plastic is very high quality. rivals tamiya TRF style carbon reinforced stuff. its tough, so get a small power driver if you don't have one.

also, this thing should be called "Symetry". the assumption that everything from front to rear and left to right can be swapped it purely a manufacturing savings thing. but makes the truck easy to assemble. but also makes the knuckles look clunky

also, steering is not as much as ascender or scx10-II, but should be more than adequate.

and stock tires dont feel too bad. they look like butt, so are only used in this build to mock it up.

 

[mjderstine]

and some more.

on to the look.

started a spawn...

nope. didnt want that. drving lexan just makes it feel more like a toy to me.




pulled this out of a box. was given to me at a comp. the body was pinched, and needs some love. body was melted, which sucks, but meh. its a farm truck.

re-positioned the rear shocks for a flat bed. wasnt too hard at all.






repairing the hood holes and the passenger side pinch had come apart.







No farm truck is complete with out a homemade wooden bed. I used some old barn boards and cut them down to 1/4" strips. Some glue and some 2mm bolts, which look like tiny lags, and are functionally holding this thing together, look great.








that's it for now. just gotta get the body fixed, mounted and repaint and add a patina.

 

[BigSki]

Love the wood bed, it looks the part ! "thumbsup"

 

[LSXGMC]

Had this detailed writeup been done a month ago, I'd probably have a CFX instead of my 10 II. Looks great, nice packaging, no parts trees. Wow!

 

[mjderstine]

Had this detailed writeup been done a month ago, I'd probably have a CFX instead of my 10 II. Looks great, nice packaging, no parts trees. Wow!

ill make sure to put it up on the blog. I was gonna have it sooner, but had to wait til i saw exclusiverc again.

Love the wood bed, it looks the part ! "thumbsup"

thanks man! you working for allen yet?

 

[joeyf]

Looks good, The portals being a stock part is bad ass. You may won't to be prepared to change the rear shock set up. I did that once and it made them really soft, even with stiff springs. On the esc, how many cells can it take.