SVT923, Thank you For explaining all the details here. Good read.
I try and succeed overwhelmingly.
Thanks. Good info.
1. What new parts does the Honcho have?
3. $30 universals? I can't say I've ever seen them that low.
4. So does it have metal gears?
1. The one piece axle housings, one piece ring gear/spool, and transmission case were the new parts I was interested in. I was curious about the new plastic links as well.
3. The Hot Racing universals I used on this build were $33.
4. This truck did have metal gears. I don't know how many people have actually gotten the plastic gears, pretty much everyone I have read about have gotten the metal ones.
We apologize that question #2 was regrettably unable to attend due to a scheduling conflict and therefore will not be present tonight ;-)
He will be missed.
Maybe he has high friends in low places...... :lmao:
They are $39.99 on fleaBay.
Well, it was just 4/20. They may be coming back down to reality in a gutter somewhere.
You don't have to look too hard or wait too long for another sale to pop up where you get 15-20% off. You don't even need my incredible connections for those deals.
Both the Honcho and Deadbolt are listed as having plastic transmission gears, however some new Honcho owners have said they've received metal gears.
Only awesome Honcho owners got the metal gears, Axial totally knew who would end up getting them when they were shipped off to assorted hobby shops around the world.
And finally, the moment everyone has been waiting for:
Stage #3 of the SVT Honcho budget build!
We start this week with some money, I forget how much. It doesn't really matter anyway because I have some fun DIY projects for you wonderful people.
How about some inner fenders?
Well, too bad. I'm making some dammit.
Is there anything worse than staring straight through the front fenders of a scale truck? I mean besides war, famine, human trafficking, terminal diseases, pollution, and genocide. Ok, so not having inner fenders isn't that bad but it is somewhere between cheating on your spouse and jaywalking.
So what is the standard go-to for making inner fenders? Storage containers, right? Cheap, ubiquitous, easy to cut, cheap; a fine medium for this craft project. Of course, as you should know by now, I can't just do that. Why not? It bothers me an irrational amount seeing "Ziploc" stamped into the wheel wells of a truck. I want my inner fenders to hide the electronics and keep dirt out of my chassis, not tell me they are recyclable with the milk jugs. Thus an exhaustive search began for appropriate containers.
After much failure in my search, the answer appeared to me in my own kitchen. A quick measurement occurred then I informed my wife we now have 2 less containers and started cutting.
This was the easy part.
I really didn't want to mess up the holes on these because there was only one shot to get in right. I made a chassis template to ensure everything was in the right place. I'm so smart.
Much cutting, test fitting, more cutting, sanding, more test fitting, more cutting, more sanding, another test fitting, more cutting, more sanding, some painting, and boom. Easy as pie: the world's most elaborate and time consuming pie.
Damn those are fine inner fenders.
I drilled a hole behind the shock towers on both sides of the chassis to simplify mounting. These are made from much thicker plastic than the cheap disposable containers. Kinda like the TRX4 inner fenders.
Would you look at that?
Nice and smooth, no brand logos, no recycling information, no weird texture pattern that is impossible to get clean. That is how you inner fender.
Notice anything else about that last picture?
Did anyone say tire foams?
If you did, you are wrong. So wrong that a tidal wave of shame should be washing over your soul right now. I really can't overstate how dumb you should be feeling.
The answer is the front bumper.
I came up with this handy little mod to significantly pull the bumper in. If you thought of it before, I don't really care. I put it on the internet in a more amusing fashion so it is mine.
Now that is settled, you can try this on your own Honcho. First, take your front bumper mount off and trim it like this:
Now, turn it around and reinstall it on the chassis.
Next trim the back of your bumper to take advantage of the new mounting point. I did this hack job with a pair of side cutters. Feel free to have more pride in your own work and clean it up.
Now you can reinstall the bumper on the mount.
Congratulations, you now have a not terrible approach angle.
Does it make a difference? You tell me.
Actually, I'll tell you but not right now. There is even more ground to cover on mods this week.
The front springs on the Honcho are too stiff for it's light weight. There have been mods where you swap front and rear springs then swap the rear shock towers left to right so the rear shocks get angled forward to soften their feel. Know what is way easier? Buy softer front springs. Brilliant? That is not for me to decide but yes.
I picked up a set of green Axial springs which are slightly firmer than the rear springs but much softer than the stock front springs. Seems like a good compromise.
We know how to put on springs right? That isn't beyond anyone's level of expertise is it? Fantastic.
Now for the total spend for this stage:
$6.99
That is all. The shock springs were the only thing I bought while making inner fenders, improving approach angle, and softening the suspension. That is a lot of ground to cover for so little money. Hell, I'll even say I spent $15 for the paint and tupperware so let's officially book this week as $21.99.
Since I actually went back and looked, we can now put together our phase #4 budget.
Phase #4 - $78 + ($50 - $21.99) = $106.01
Now that is some baller money: champagne and strippers for everyone!
Later.
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