Hey folks!
Having had the F100 ascender for a season, and loving the performance on the crawl course, I decided to improve the performance as much as possible, taking the best ideas and parts from different brands, so here is my Frankenterra AsTrx4.
Before this crossbreed, the following changes have been made to the otherwise stock F100:
1. Changed the servo to some 30kg chinese JNX
2. Changed the motor/esc to Xerun Axe 2300kV
3. Changed the wheels to some aluminium beadlocks with better tires and added wheel weights.
4. Added the interior and driver, and some minor details like windows wipers and doorhandles - purely for the looks.
5. Changed the radio for a 6ch Radiolink.
Now for the major build:
1. Bought the TRX4 axles with remote lockers.
2. Bought the wheel hexes - the axles came without them, and the usual/universal hexes don't fit - the TRX4 have 6mm bore instead of usual 5mm.
3. Bought the locker servos bracket.
4. Found some Turnigy 9018MG servos in parts bin.
5. Found some spare links in parts bin.
6. Sourced a pile of spur and pinion gears.
7. Bought universal punisher driveshafts.
8. Bought 34/11t overdrive/underdrive gears for the axles.
The axles fitted without a problem - the rear axle used the stock vaterra links , the front links had to be replaced with some from Scx10, and the steering link from vaterra had to be modified a little - added some shims.
The driveshafts had to be replaced, as the Vaterra uses its own, not like any other. On the gearbox end universal drive shafts fit no problem. Another difficulty was finding the driveshafts that have the thread in all the lenght so they could be shortened. The cheap chinese universal (like punisher) shafts did the job.
Now there was the problem of reduction ratios - the vaterra stock axles have like 2:1 ratio, which means 2 driveshaft revolutions result in one wheel revolution. The TRX4 axles have much larger ratio, so the driveshaft must spin much quicker. Having the Xerun Axe esc and motor, replacing the motor was not an option, as the newer 3300kV motors cost around 150+euros, so I decided to fiddle with different pin/spur gear ratios. Ended up using the largest pin gear - 27t, and the smallest spur gear - 78t. The gearbox is from vaterra. The end result is a bit slower than the stock vaterra, but still ok. Top speed is around 5-6km/h.
I also replaced the gears in axles - stock trx4 are like 33/12 or something like that. I bought one set of 34/11, and replaced the pin gear in one axle, and spur gear in the other, which gave me a small overdrive on the front.
Now for the lockers. I bought the trx4 aluminium servo bracket, and modified it to fit to the vaterra frame. Added the 9g servos, and everything worked... except not quite. The body didn't fit - the rear of the cab sat on the rear servo arm. Ok, relocated the bracket further back, but now the front locker cable was too short. Took the axles apart, and switched the cables - now the long one is in front, and the short in the rear. Now they reached to the servos.
I'm quite happy with the result, as now it has some benefits:
1. Better ground clearance.
2. Much better turning radius, especially with the front unlocked.
3. Some overdrive on the front axle.
Not yet tested it on the trail though.
Having had the F100 ascender for a season, and loving the performance on the crawl course, I decided to improve the performance as much as possible, taking the best ideas and parts from different brands, so here is my Frankenterra AsTrx4.
Before this crossbreed, the following changes have been made to the otherwise stock F100:
1. Changed the servo to some 30kg chinese JNX
2. Changed the motor/esc to Xerun Axe 2300kV
3. Changed the wheels to some aluminium beadlocks with better tires and added wheel weights.
4. Added the interior and driver, and some minor details like windows wipers and doorhandles - purely for the looks.
5. Changed the radio for a 6ch Radiolink.
Now for the major build:
1. Bought the TRX4 axles with remote lockers.
2. Bought the wheel hexes - the axles came without them, and the usual/universal hexes don't fit - the TRX4 have 6mm bore instead of usual 5mm.
3. Bought the locker servos bracket.
4. Found some Turnigy 9018MG servos in parts bin.
5. Found some spare links in parts bin.
6. Sourced a pile of spur and pinion gears.
7. Bought universal punisher driveshafts.
8. Bought 34/11t overdrive/underdrive gears for the axles.
The axles fitted without a problem - the rear axle used the stock vaterra links , the front links had to be replaced with some from Scx10, and the steering link from vaterra had to be modified a little - added some shims.
The driveshafts had to be replaced, as the Vaterra uses its own, not like any other. On the gearbox end universal drive shafts fit no problem. Another difficulty was finding the driveshafts that have the thread in all the lenght so they could be shortened. The cheap chinese universal (like punisher) shafts did the job.
Now there was the problem of reduction ratios - the vaterra stock axles have like 2:1 ratio, which means 2 driveshaft revolutions result in one wheel revolution. The TRX4 axles have much larger ratio, so the driveshaft must spin much quicker. Having the Xerun Axe esc and motor, replacing the motor was not an option, as the newer 3300kV motors cost around 150+euros, so I decided to fiddle with different pin/spur gear ratios. Ended up using the largest pin gear - 27t, and the smallest spur gear - 78t. The gearbox is from vaterra. The end result is a bit slower than the stock vaterra, but still ok. Top speed is around 5-6km/h.
I also replaced the gears in axles - stock trx4 are like 33/12 or something like that. I bought one set of 34/11, and replaced the pin gear in one axle, and spur gear in the other, which gave me a small overdrive on the front.
Now for the lockers. I bought the trx4 aluminium servo bracket, and modified it to fit to the vaterra frame. Added the 9g servos, and everything worked... except not quite. The body didn't fit - the rear of the cab sat on the rear servo arm. Ok, relocated the bracket further back, but now the front locker cable was too short. Took the axles apart, and switched the cables - now the long one is in front, and the short in the rear. Now they reached to the servos.
I'm quite happy with the result, as now it has some benefits:
1. Better ground clearance.
2. Much better turning radius, especially with the front unlocked.
3. Some overdrive on the front axle.
Not yet tested it on the trail though.
