Tralfaz'z RC4WD Gelande II FJ40

[Tralfaz Blecht]

I hope this is an ok place to put this. There is no category for RC4WD Gelande II and since the wheel size is subject to change, I've decided to post this here. If any mods feel it needs to be moved, please do so.

Any ways, home from the road this afternoon and I've got a little stack of goodies. This is my first hard body as well as my first kit. After a couple RTR Axial SCX10/2 builds I think I'll be ok with this. The leaf springs worry me a bit but every time I think something looks really difficult it turns out that usually it really isn't.

So far I've ordered:

RC4WD Gelande II Cruiser kit

3 sets of Boom Racing 1.55 Yota Classics (front, rear, and extra rear set for spare) Anyone need one of these for a spare since I only need 5 out of the 6...? I really wish they made a 1.9 set. I'm concerned the 1.55s will look too small on a 1/8 scale rig.

1.55 Pitbull Growlers

RC4WD swing out spare tire mount <<< this one was wrong for the build. I went with a CCHand one from the RC4WD site.

RC4WD Leaf Spring Conversion kit (wish me luck)

Raiden Racing Snorkel

Krawler Konceptz license plates

RC4WD Warn 8274 Winch

RC4WD Steel Punisher Driveshafts

Holmes Hobbies Trailmaster Sport 550 45T

Hobbywing 1080 ESC

RC4WD Inner fenders

DS3218 Metal gear servo (someone here recommended this, not sure of the brand name if any. I already put one in my SCX10II. So far so good).

Castle BEC (for winch controller)

RC4WD Old Man Emu 80mm shocks with boots

Metal exhaust for Gelande II Cruiser

To be continued...

 

[Tralfaz Blecht]

C!

From Krawler Konceptz comes a fancy pants license plate from a T-shirt from one of my most favoritest rock & roll bands - Clutch! Woot. This is too cool, can't wait to get it. It's even scaled up a bit for the 1/8 scale FJ40. Also the previous set I got from them were top-notch quality stuffs that has garnered a heap of compliments.

 

[Tralfaz Blecht]

I opened up the brown shipping box to find this funky cool box inside. It's like... nebular dude.

Note to anyone else who may get one of these:

The packaging is very nice and organized but the skinny side of the box goes up. When I had the side in the image facing up and I opened the box a bunch of chassis parts fell out. My mistake but it seems like the big pretty picture would be on top..?

It's been a long week and I was pretty beat but I did want to tinker a bit. Wheels and tires seemed like an easy task to poke around with whilst having a few tasty beverages. Oh happy Friday. I love everything about the Boom Racing Yota Classics. I think these are the sexiest wheels I've seen so far and the design is brilliant. Also... Valve stems! First ones I've seen so far but I've only been at this since February.

I was worried these wheels would look too small in the tire and that the set-up would be too small since they're only slightly taller than the tires that come with the kit. Turns out that I like the proportions quite a lot.

 

[Natedog]

Congratulations on your first leaf sprung RC, wheels are a natural for this Cruiser, I thought the tires would be plenty big! 1.55 and tiny tires is more scale and challenging to crawl with!

 

[Tralfaz Blecht]

Congratulations on your first leaf sprung RC, wheels are a natural for this Cruiser, I thought the tires would be plenty big! 1.55 and tiny tires is more scale and challenging to crawl with!

Thanks, man. I don't expect this one to be super capable considering, but I do look forward to learning how to get the best out of it. It will be interesting for sure. I'm going to build it as a fresh paint resto-mod and weather it by driving it.

 

[Tralfaz Blecht]

Nothing too exciting here, just an update for myself as I sssssssslowly creep along on this build. I've pretty much received all of the important parts and I've started building the chassis and adding some extra grease in the pre-assembled parts. I'm not really planning on doing a full build thread for every step but I'll post up a few progress pics once it starts to look like something.

There is a little bit of sorting out to do since I bought the leaf spring conversion. The instructions for the kit show what parts to remove to install the leaf springs. I've got to sort out what not to build instead. Hopefully I won't botch it, but this is the first non-Axial chassis I've seen so I'm being careful. Also since I got the inner fenders here now but I need to paint them before I get too far on the chassis.

Anyways, I've got jury duty this week so if it doesn't take up the whole week I'll have a few days off at home to work on it.

 

[Tralfaz Blecht]

I do believe I've about got myself a rolling chassis. Most of it went pretty smooth. I know this thing is going to end up heavy, but the leaf springs do seem really stiff. Of course, they got even more so with the shocks added. I finally had time to make a little progress though so I can't complain about that. The inner fenders are painted intermediate blue so that's the color I'm going with on the body.

 

[JatoTheRipper]

That looks great. It also shows that RC4WD really should have made the wheel opening larger.

 

[OSRC]

Love the wheels....perfect match for that body.

 

[Tralfaz Blecht]

That looks great. It also shows that RC4WD really should have made the wheel opening larger.

I think it looks a bit odd too, but in a side by side comparison it looks right to me. So far mine sits a little higher and I have slightly larger tires than the one in the pic below but other than that it looks the same to me.

The other good thing is that the tire does fit into the wheel well with no rubbing. Now, I can see the need to open the fender up if you were to go with any larger tires or a wider stance. I do think the available fender flares might help it out as far as how it looks too but I haven't made that decision yet.

They are kind of quirky looking in real life and that's part of the charm to me as well as part of the performance challenge I've convinced myself that I'm looking forward too... :mrgreen:

 

[JatoTheRipper]

I think it looks a bit odd too, but in a side by side comparison it looks right to me. So far mine sits a little higher and I have slightly larger tires than the one in the pic below but other than that it looks the same to me.

The other thing is that the tire does fit into the wheel well with no rubbing. Now, I can see the need to open the fender up if you were to go with any larger tires or a wider stance. I do think the available fender flares might help it out as far as how it looks too but I haven't made that decision yet.

They are kind of quirky looking in real life and that's part of the charm to me as well as part of the performance challenge I've convinced myself that I'm looking forward too... :mrgreen:

Funny, after saying how the RC4WD wheel opening was too small I went to Google and found that same photo or something very similar! I still think the RC4WD opening is smaller. Hopefully you can get yours lower to where you are happy with it.

 

[Tralfaz Blecht]

Love the wheels....perfect match for that body.

Thank you. I kind of feel like I'm building the truck around them. They're Boom Racing Yota Classics and they're about the nicest wheels I've bought so far. Ingenious design and super heavy duty. You can do them with or without the hub cabs and the bare steelie look is awesome too. Very realistic. They even have valve stems. "thumbsup"

 

[Tralfaz Blecht]

Funny, after saying how the RC4WD wheel opening was too small I went to Google and found that same photo or something very similar! I still think the RC4WD opening is smaller. Hopefully you can get yours lower to where you are happy with it.

It may very well be I just think it's a perspective thing. Maybe... I'll probably have it running before I get it sitting right. I'm just going to take my time and experiment. I know there are softer springs and I have seen the "Leaf Spring Hack" thread here and some other tips elsewhere. I don't want to hack it to bits until the whole rig is complete and I can make an assessment on what I need to change to get it to my liking.

 

[JatoTheRipper]

It may very well be I just think it's a perspective thing. Maybe... I'll probably have it running before I get it sitting right. I'm just going to take my time and experiment. I know there are softer springs and I have seen the "Leaf Spring Hack" thread here and some other tips elsewhere. I don't want to hack it to bits until the whole rig is complete and I can make an assessment on what I need to change to get it to my liking.

That makes sense to me and it's how I do things. I don't like hacking before a truck is built and tested out on the trail.

And I agree - those wheels are perfect!

 

[Shinchu]

you said the springs are too stiff... have you removed the springs from the shocks? otherwise you are double-spring and yes way too stiff.
VERY nice 40 and looking forward to seeing some pics out in the wild!

 

[Tralfaz Blecht]

you said the springs are too stiff... have you removed the springs from the shocks? otherwise you are double-spring and yes way too stiff.
VERY nice 40 and looking forward to seeing some pics out in the wild!

Thank you!

Yes. They were very stiff before the coil-over shocks. I've mocked up the truck with most of the parts, thus weight. It gets a lot better with the weight. Also, I don't plan to keep the coil-over shocks for long so whatever internal spring set I get can be set up better. Either way, there is hope. I'm really having fun with this one.

 

[Tralfaz Blecht]

I know... I keep foaming over the wheels.

This is the extra I got so I could have a matching spare. With no hubcaps, they're still the coolest steelies I've seen. I'm gonna use the one with no lug-nuts for my spare and I'll just put two in it at 6 and 12 o'clock on my spare tire carrier.

 

[Tralfaz Blecht]

A little progress on the body...

 

[Tralfaz Blecht]

Yarp...

Did some more work on the innards. I did a light brown, medium brown and a very dark brown layer on the upholstery. I really just wanted it to stand out the slightest bit. It's the dark brown color of the dash in the picture, the light is weird on the seat parts. I'm going to fine sand the edges and certain spots on the seats and hopefully achieve a worn leather look.

And then there is another mock-up pic since I love it already. Sorry.

 

[Natedog]

you said the springs are too stiff... have you removed the springs from the shocks? otherwise you are double-spring and yes way too stiff.
VERY nice 40 and looking forward to seeing some pics out in the wild!

X2, these run best without the internal shock springs, just the leaf springs. "thumbsup"

...I've mocked up the truck with most of the parts, thus weight. It gets a lot better with the weight. Also, I don't plan to keep the coil-over shocks for long so whatever internal spring set I get can be set up better. Either way, there is hope. I'm really having fun with this one.

Great to hear that you're having fun with it, leaf springs are so different and fun! Just keep the weight low as possible, looking forward to seeing this on the trail. "thumbsup"

I did a light brown, medium brown and a very dark brown layer on the upholstery. I really just wanted it to stand out the slightest bit. It's the dark brown color of the dash in the picture, the light is weird on the seat parts. I'm going to fine sand the edges and certain spots on the seats and hopefully achieve a worn leather look.

That upholstery trick should look awesome! Don't be sorry, we all love pictures and your interior is very nicely detailed, great color choices too!