--- The Crawler Innovations Water Skippin' FOFFer Build ---

[Nova's Ark]

New video for the FOFFer"thumbsup"

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[JeremyH]

Congrats on the Bounty climb Eddie!

After watching that video, I have the sudden urge to bust out the Back to the Future videos....:lol:

 

[Hacksaw707]

Cool"thumbsup"

looks like your getting it dialed:ror::twisted:

 

[Nova's Ark]

Congrats on the Bounty climb Eddie!

After watching that video, I have the sudden urge to bust out the Back to the Future videos....:lol:

Thank you sir"thumbsup".

For a little back ground, I attended the RECON G6 Challenge - "The Superlift Southern Showdown G6" & "Outlaw Terra-X" in Hot Springs, Arkansas last weekend. Vanquish Products put up a $500 bounty for anyone who could complete the hill climb. My wraith got close to the top, but not over. The FOFFer completed the climb on it's second attempt.

Cool"thumbsup"

looks like your getting it dialed:ror::twisted:

Slowly but surely and thank you for your compliment"thumbsup"

 

[stelerzman]

Congrats on the bounty climb, did anyone get video? That would be cool to see. Great video's, keep'em cuming. How did you WP the esc? "thumbsup"

 

[Nova's Ark]

Congrats on the bounty climb, did anyone get video? That would be cool to see. Great video's, keep'em cuming. How did you WP the esc? "thumbsup"

Nobody got any video of the G6 Bounty Hill Climb. It was already dark by that time and any video would have been difficult to capture.

I water proofed my electronics by soaking them in Corrosion X.

 

[Nova's Ark]

It's been a while since I updated this thread. Our pond went dry this summer but thankfully we have been receiving some good rainfall this winter and it's slowly filling up. After a good rain storm came through, the water level arose to a point that it made for great entry and exists at speed. I have a lot of video footage from that day. As I get time I will edit them and post them. In the mean time, here's a short point of view video courtesy of a GoPro Hero2 video camera that is mounted to the windshield of the Ford Bronco body.

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[Nova's Ark]

My son and I went to a local park that has a small sand area. We were hoping to get some great sand action videos. From the get go the FOFFer didn't sound right and within a few minutes it was over. The spur gear was toast and it was clear there was more destruction in the drive train:twisted:. It's amazing how hard the water is on parts. I hadn't been through the transmission in months and it showed. All 6 trans bearings were bad along with the Traxxas spur.

 

[ROLANDROCKSHOP]

ummm sand's bad for gear's ...umm kay...:mrgreen:




dang eddie..
clean that dude out every once in awhile..:ror:

 

[Hacksaw707]

Cool video"thumbsup"

The trans bearings do take a beating on theses things. Along with everything else.

 

[Nova's Ark]

ummm sand's bad for gear's ...umm kay...:mrgreen:




dang eddie..
clean that dude out every once in awhile..:ror:

I usually spray it down with the water hose and it's good enough:mrgreen: and yeah, sand is bad to.

Cool video"thumbsup"

The trans bearings do take a beating on theses things. Along with everything else.

Thank you.

Your right about that. This FOFFer has been the most part hungry Axial I've built.

 

[Nova's Ark]

I put the FOFFer back together, only to snap the rear axle case.:x I acquired a matching aluminum case for the rear axle from a RCC forum member. In the process of rebuilding the transmission, I wanted to experiement with gearing.

C.I. is now a dealer for Kimbrough products and I am slowly building up a stock of parts geared for the FOFF market. The Kimbrough spur gears fit the Axial transmission correctly, unlike the Traxxas 32P spur gears. I was previously using 50 Spur / 20 Pin = 2.50 gearing. I decided to try a 48 Spur / 21 Spur = 2.28 gearing:

The 2.28 gearing is no good. Noticeable loss in torque and power. I even jumped up to a 4S Lipo to compensate for the gearing and all it did was puff the pack. So I'm going to change the gearing.

The addition of an aluminum axle case added to the weight of the FOFFer. RTR weight with a 3S lipo is: 6 pounds 5 pounces

With the recent rain in my area, a lot of local parks and ponds are filling up. I'm hoping to get this tuned so that I can make some long distance water crossings on video.

 

[Nova's Ark]

There is so much to update on this truck I could write a several page post. Let's just say that keeping it running has been proving difficult. The bigger issue to me was getting it to cross water. It wasn't.

I called Holmes Hobbies and talked with John to pick his brain for ideas. John had several great ones. New batteries and taller foams for the paddles. Those two changes along with a change in weight bias by using 1/8 scale buggy paddle tires in the rear to reduce weight added up to it's longest water crossing to date and it was all captured on film. Thank you to JRH for the helpful ideas and my family for putting up with me on this quest to drive a rc car on water

Below is the latest video for this little rig and it was filmed in HD;

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[shwng1973]

That video is so cool.
Congrats on getting to walk on water...lol

 

[JohnRobHolmes]

Wow, that is some smooth sailing!


VERY glad that I could help you troubleshoot the system and give some ideas on tuning. I have zero experience in this sort of rig, but your excellent description of the problems gave me some ideas.


The back story is that Eddie was having trouble keeping the rig on top of the water after tweaking it. He changed out the rear axle housing to aluminum for strength, and just didn't have any luck keeping it on plane. He described it as "hopping" more than it used to, thus not getting enough traction to keep speed. Once it would sink, the power went south. He tried all sorts of gearing changes and motor changes, and still couldn't keep it digging smooth. I made a few wild ass guesses. #1, battery is getting tired. #2, weight bias got changed. #3, tire patch not sufficient for the extra weight. From the feedback Eddie gave me today, the fresh battery really pepped the system back up. The weight bias was also a key part to keeping the rig planed and digging properly. Changing the rear tires to a lighter set got it back to normal. I suggested taller or taller and wider foams to keep the contact patch square and keep the rig on top of the water, may have helped, may have been mostly weight bias that helped.


Super cool to see what the rig can do, I would never imagine it was possible!

 

[rangercat23]

Congratulations!! Looks like the truck is finally performing like you intended "thumbsup"

 

[stelerzman]

Hell yea, WAY TO FREAKIN COOL."thumbsup"

 

[Nova's Ark]

New shoes for the front...
2" wide aluminum, glue on style.
It stretches the paddle much wider than my 1" SLW with 1/4" C.I. Widener:




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[stelerzman]

Those wheels look killer."thumbsup" How much do they weigh & what is your new track width?
Can't wait to see new video.:twisted:

 

[Nova's Ark]

Picked up some new parts for this build. I'm hoping the 8* king pin inclination will help steering on the water at speed.


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