As the Rampant consumer of things that I am I pre-ordered the RTR Yeti all those years ago when it looked like the most exciting thing to hit this branch of the hobby since... Well the last thing that did that.
FFWD to now and the rig has been discontinued and everyone kind of hates it, me included. The steering was crap and it was slung so low you couldn't really crawl with it (axial never said you could, but they called it a fawkin' rock racer ffs) and it looked like a confused ATV. Actually I'm not going to list everything I thought was wrong with it, the yeti has had its fair share of hate, time to try and end the yeti chapter and build mine into one I actually like.
Lots of staring at it in side views to get the proportions right, I looked at the Miller chassis for a lot of the inspiration
Alot of drawing, cutting, mitering and brazing later:
This rig will have more of a bias towards rock crawling than the base yeti, so gearing, suspension and weight distribution will all have to change. One of the benefits of IFS in the rocks is front diff clearance, the stock yeti doesn't have much of this and without extensively modifying hubs and testing out different manufacturers universal joints the drive line angles cant be reliably altered much. However I found boomracing UJ's swing around a lot more happily than other brands, meaning I could do something about that clearance, inverting the lower wishbones also helps.
To help the steering actually work, a gnats ball bag can be dremelled off the hub carriers to allow the vanquish steering rack to reach a bit further and Incision underdrive gears in the rear also give that rolling dig effect to help the front change direction faster. All good in theory :ror:
Also stripped and polished the black VP Methods
treated the workbench to a tidy and used some CAD (cardboard aided design) to make some bodywork.
Attic space race shop :ror:
CAD transferred to Alu. Bonnet/hood still to come
Brief spec: trans is 1st gen AX10 unit with SSD internals, Robinson Racing output Super Shafty main shaft with Robinson Racing spur and pinion.
Holmes Hobbies was the only choice for Motor + ESC 8)
More to come.
FFWD to now and the rig has been discontinued and everyone kind of hates it, me included. The steering was crap and it was slung so low you couldn't really crawl with it (axial never said you could, but they called it a fawkin' rock racer ffs) and it looked like a confused ATV. Actually I'm not going to list everything I thought was wrong with it, the yeti has had its fair share of hate, time to try and end the yeti chapter and build mine into one I actually like.
Lots of staring at it in side views to get the proportions right, I looked at the Miller chassis for a lot of the inspiration
Alot of drawing, cutting, mitering and brazing later:
This rig will have more of a bias towards rock crawling than the base yeti, so gearing, suspension and weight distribution will all have to change. One of the benefits of IFS in the rocks is front diff clearance, the stock yeti doesn't have much of this and without extensively modifying hubs and testing out different manufacturers universal joints the drive line angles cant be reliably altered much. However I found boomracing UJ's swing around a lot more happily than other brands, meaning I could do something about that clearance, inverting the lower wishbones also helps.
To help the steering actually work, a gnats ball bag can be dremelled off the hub carriers to allow the vanquish steering rack to reach a bit further and Incision underdrive gears in the rear also give that rolling dig effect to help the front change direction faster. All good in theory :ror:
Also stripped and polished the black VP Methods
treated the workbench to a tidy and used some CAD (cardboard aided design) to make some bodywork.
Attic space race shop :ror:
CAD transferred to Alu. Bonnet/hood still to come
Brief spec: trans is 1st gen AX10 unit with SSD internals, Robinson Racing output Super Shafty main shaft with Robinson Racing spur and pinion.
Holmes Hobbies was the only choice for Motor + ESC 8)
More to come.
