You dropped a BOM on me

[new2rocks]

Cue the opening music:
https://youtu.be/17lkdqoLt44

As you've probably figured out, I got one of these:


Why, you ask? Well...I've never built a GMade kit before (my R1 Frankenstein doesn't count since it uses all Axial running gear), and this seemed a good place to start. Plus, Roo decided he was bored with building CMAXs after assembling his 3rd (true story...he refused to help with the F350 build), and I needed something else to keep him entertained. This seemed like a good excuse to try something different.

The box is rather bossy:


"Assemble kit." Already it's trying to tell me what to do. I don't like taking orders, so I ldelegated:


Roo noticed right off the bat that the axle housings were on a tree:


He wondered why they couldn't mold them without a tree like everyone else seems to do these days. Tough audience.

Tires are fun:


E-clips aren't:


When was the last time you built a kit that had more e-clips than M3 lock nuts? I'm guessing never (unless you just happened to finish a BOM in the past week or so). One of them tried to escape for greener pastures (Roo's words, not mine) by jumping off the table. But we managed.

The tranny has an interesting design. The top section has 3 gears with an open bottom:




There are two other gears with shafts that rest in the skid:


The tranny then rests on the skid, turning these two shafts:


This makes the front and rear driveshafts rotate in the opposite direction, presumably to help eliminate torque twist. Unfortunately, the rear suspension design is very (very) conducive to torque twist, so it will take some tweaking to get things working the way I'd like.

There's one other peculiarity with the tranny. Instead of using a conventional spring to keep pressure on the twin-plate clipper clutch, the BOM uses conical spring washers:




There's another oddity. The instructions call for assembling the two lower output shafts, with loose bearings on the end of each shaft, but not installing them right away:


Instead, the instructions call for assembling (but not installing) the links before installing the tranny and output shafts on the skid. I chose to switch that around, installing the tranny on the skid first and then assembling the links:


Roo did not take kindly to my act of rebellion. There's nothing like getting lectured by your 9 year-old for not following the rules. More updates to come...

 

[bilinvic]

I'm looking forward to your guys take on the newest crawler in town.

 

[Jeepy84]

Roo did not take kindly to my act of rebellion. There's nothing like getting lectured by your 9 year-old for not following the rules. More updates to come...

Sounds like it's time for a roadtrip to Lexington and Concord

Thats a very interesting transmission for sure. I presume the axles are unique front and rear or have reversible ring gears (like an ar60)?

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[JatoTheRipper]

Great thread title!

Also, sweet E46 in the background! Is that an M3 or a standard 3 series? "thumbsup"

I don't think I've seen axles on the tree since the OG SCX10. Minor gripe except for a child. Then it's a major annoyance. Ah to be a kid again! :ror:

I saw your Facebook post about this truck. Very interesting. I won't give that spoiler though.

The input shaft housing on the axle looks almost 3D printed with all the striations.

 

[soze]

Awesome, another build! I finally started mine last night as well. Will be watching your build too.

 

[new2rocks]

I'm looking forward to your guys take on the newest crawler in town.

Thanks! I wasn't sure what to expect, and there are a few idiosyncrasies (as you've discovered). But it's really growing on me.

Sounds like it's time for a roadtrip to Lexington and Concord

Now there's an idea for a field trip... He's seen Bennett Memorial (site of 2nd largest troop surrender at the end of the Civil War) a block from my office.

Thats a very interesting transmission for sure. I presume the axles are unique front and rear or have reversible ring gears (like an ar60)?

F & R axles are definitely unique, and the front has an offset pumpkin (which is great). I'll post some pix below.

Great thread title!

Also, sweet E46 in the background! Is that an M3 or a standard 3 series? "thumbsup"

I don't think I've seen axles on the tree since the OG SCX10. Minor gripe except for a child. Then it's a major annoyance. Ah to be a kid again! :ror:

I saw your Facebook post about this truck. Very interesting. I won't give that spoiler though.

The input shaft housing on the axle looks almost 3D printed with all the striations.

-- Glad you like the title. Watch the video. You'll be laughing for days.
-- Re the car, in the words of my wife after we test drove both, "You gotta get the M." one of many reasons I love her as much as I do.
-- Kids are great, and Roo is a trip and a half.
-- I'll do the spoiling in a bit, lol.
-- Those lines in the input shaft housing are just on the inside, probably from the machining of the mold. There aren't any visible lines like that on the outside of any of the molded parts.

Awesome, another build! I finally started mine last night as well. Will be watching your build too.

This is a fun truck. I hope you enjoy yours.

Let's get back to the build, with apologies in advance for skipping around a bit.

The battery tray and servo mount combo looks familiar:


If imitation is the highest form of flattery, Axial should be flattered. Unfortunately, the GMade version is every bit as rubbery as the Axial version:




We have an easy fix for that (more on that later).

Here's a neat little feature. GMade included an extra little receiver box that mounts underneath the battery tray. Before:


After:


I can't recall any other scale platforms that utilize that space. It's a nice touch, though one I won't need on this build.

Roo wasn't pleased that I took on some of the assembly, so he sprung back into action:


The aluminum bodied shocks went together very nicely and are what I've come to expect from GMade (silky smooth and unlikely to leak):


Next up was the cantilever rear suspension. I had heard reports of significant torque twist on this truck. With 3:1 gear reduction in the axles and counter-rotating front and rear driveshafts, the most logical culprit was suspension geometry, and it didn't take long to figure out why. Here are a few pix of the assembly:








The narrow mounting position of the cantilever struts at the axle (to the inside of the lower link mounts) and the acute angle between the strut and rocker make for a very wobbly rear end. A quick test drive in the yard confirmed that it was comically wobbly (it rolls over faster than my pooch looking for a belly rub), but I already had an idea for a simple fix. More on that later, as well. (Or if you can't wait, go check out my post in the GMade BOM group on FB.) :mrgreen:

 

[Old n ratty]

Saw your FB mods, copied them. Waiting on parts from Junfac, which will iprove things again. Out tomorrow most of th day with it, should hopefully see an improvement.

 

[new2rocks]

Saw your FB mods, copied them. Waiting on parts from Junfac, which will iprove things again. Out tomorrow most of th day with it, should hopefully see an improvement.

Let me know what you think. "thumbsup"

Time for more of this:
https://youtu.be/a3HemKGDavw

More on the theme of borrowing...note the general similarity in the bottom of the BOM's skid vs. a TRX-4 skid:


But GMade's is better in part because it is smoother and tucked closer to the chassis rails.

Even the receiver box (with "ESC" puzzlingly molded into the underside of the lid even though no proper ESC could fit in there) is similar in concept to the Traxxas designs:


At this point, the guys at Vaterra are probably starting to feel like the red-headed step-child seeing how many ideas GMade borrowed from Axial and Traxxas. Don't worry...Gmade borrowed from you, too, Vaterra:



I like GMade's captured input shaft better than Vaterra's because it's more compact and you can put a Junfac shaft on it with no mods. But if you really want to run something else, Gmade/Junfac has already released a universal diff input shaft set for a whopping $7, so no griping about that one, please.

What they didn't borrow from any of the mass market scale platforms is the off-centered front pumpkin:


Hooray!

Now you're probably wondering how we fixed the floppy steering servo mount and battery tray. I'm glad you asked. On a whim, I decided to try our HD Battery Tray + Servo & Bumper Mount for SCX10 seeing as how the stock tray and servo mount looked so much like those from the 10.2.

As it turns out, the front of the BOM's chassis rails is identical to the front of the SCX10 rails (the rear is different). So it was a direct, bolt-on fit with no mods needed:




No more crazy chassis flex when trying to turn. And that's now officially our easiest ever product release.

After adding a Holmes Hobbies Crawlmaster Pro 16T (one of my all-time faves), a set of Pit Bull 1.9 Rock Beast XLs mounted on Super Shafty Upper Halfty wheels, and the rear cage, it looked like this:






At that point, is was time to take on the body. Normally, bodies take me forever and half. I wasn't expecting to think much of this one, so I decided to do a quick and dirty. Based on what I've shared about the rest of the truck, you shouldn't be surprised that the body has some interesting surprises (in which case are they really surprises?), some more welcome than others.

Let's start with a bit of cleverness. GMade decided to mold a chrome grille as a separate piece while still using the lexan from the body for headlight covers:




I would have preferred a clear lens tree, but it comes out looking surprisingly good...much better in person than in pictures. Plus, I have to keep reminding myself that the price point for this truck is really good, so what's a little nit here and there.

The chrome grille, on the other hand, is a revelation:


Are you paying attention, RC4WD (not to mention Axial and Vaterra)? No Dremel required. I want to hug the person at GMade responsible for that decision!

But I'm not going to hug the person that decided to leave 4 very pronounced plug holes in the side view mirrors (not to mention have them attached to the tree on a visible side of the housing instead of the back side of the housing:




Wipers would have been nice, but again, I'm picking nits. More on the body and the cantilever setup in a minute...

 

[new2rocks]

The mirror situation was an easy fix:




Roo helped with some of the other details:


Stickers, of course:


And since this was a quick and dirty job, I messed up plenty:






But when all was said and done, I ended up liking the body a lot more than I was expecting:


Maybe even enough to keep it, but we'll see how that goes.

Let's get back to the cantilever setup. My very first test run in the yard confirmed that the stock setup was as unstable as a drunk guy riding a unicycle blindfolded (that's pretty unstable, in case you were wondering). It's worth noting that the kit includes rear shock towers, so going to a traditional upright shock setup in the rear is an option if you a body other than the truggy (the cage of this truggy would get in the way of shock towers). Since I was committed to the truggy body, I needed another option.

As I began contemplating different ways to fix the rear suspension, I decided to try the first and simplest fix I thought of. Pictures will tell the story:






You'll note in the last picture that I added M4 lock nuts as spacers on the lower links to maintain the WB with the wider spacing of the links.

A few test runs confirmed that this setup is much, much better than stock, because the suspension now has proper leverage to resist the twisting of the axle and body. It seems good enough so far that I might not even make any more changes.

One more item to note about the suspension - I added a shock tower strut to give the towers some rigidity and allow the shocks to do their job:


Here are a couple of quick pix I was able to sneak in while Roo and I tested it out between Florence's rain showers today:




As for my overall impressions, I really, really like this truck. It drives very well and, with the simple rear suspension mod, can easily hold its own with stock versions of the 10.2, TRX-4 and Ascender. And most importantly, it puts a smile on my face when I drive it. I'll try to get a video up this weekend. In the meantime, thanks for following along.

 

[OSRC]

Nice write up as always. I really like the look of the body - something different from all the Jeeps, Yotas and Chevy's. Very Ranger-esque.

Mine comes today - very excited!!

 

[TrailDawg362]

I agree, OSRC. Something different was a good enough reason to get one for myself. I just started assembly this morning. "thumbsup"

 

[2mtech]

As I began contemplating different ways to fix the rear suspension, I decided to try the first and simplest fix I thought of. Pictures will tell the story:

You'll note in the last picture that I added M4 lock nuts as spacers on the lower links to maintain the WB with the wider spacing of the links.

I haven't gotten to this phase of the build yet, and I have to admit to being somewhat obtuse. Is there a difference between the two pics above that I'm missing? What did you change from stock?

 

[M1tch]

I think he has shown the same photo twice. An earlier post has the plastic links to the rockers on the inside of the link mounts and the links to the centre of the link mounts, which i guess is the stock way.

Thinking of getting one of these BOM's, but will be waiting a while yet.. Still loving my Ascender's.

 

[2mtech]

I think he has shown the same photo twice. An earlier post has the plastic links to the rockers on the inside of the link mounts and the links to the centre of the link mounts, which i guess is the stock way.

Thinking of getting one of these BOM's, but will be waiting a while yet.. Still loving my Ascender's.

Oh, I see now. Should've figured new2rocks was just screwing with me to see if I was paying attention. "thumbsup"

 

[new2rocks]

I think he has shown the same photo twice. An earlier post has the plastic links to the rockers on the inside of the link mounts and the links to the centre of the link mounts, which i guess is the stock way.

Oh, I see now. Should've figured new2rocks was just screwing with me to see if I was paying attention. "thumbsup"

Yes and yes. “Screwing with you...” :lmao:

Thinking of getting one of these BOM's, but will be waiting a while yet..

To paraphrase Yoda: “Do. Or do not. There is no think.”
https://youtu.be/BQ4yd2W50No

 

[new2rocks]

Here’s a quick video I put together showing the difference in performance between the stock cantilever setup and the relocated setup:

https://youtu.be/5GR7iH8bFKU



It's such an easy mod, and the difference is night and day (as you can see). "thumbsup"

 

[2mtech]

Thanks for posting that! Pretty obviously superior. I'll be incorporating that into the build. "thumbsup"

 

[Old n ratty]

Here’s a quick video I put together showing the difference in performance between the stock cantilever setup and the relocated setup:

https://youtu.be/5GR7iH8bFKU



It's such an easy mod, and the difference is night and day (as you can see). "thumbsup"

Yep, have done this to mine- thanks for the heads up! Miles better now "thumbsup"
Also interested in the battery mount, wondering if there is enough space to run a front mounted servo- already got a mount and still run 3s with where the motor is mounted....

 

[2mtech]

Here's an in-process perspective shot of David's suspension change. Appropriate here since I submit it be dubbed the N2RS mod (new2rocks spread) "thumbsup". I added the spacers because stability and I had some.

 

[soze]

Here's an in-process perspective shot of David's suspension change. Appropriate here since I submit it be dubbed the N2RS mod (new2rocks spread) "thumbsup". I added the spacers because stability and I had some.

Attachment didn't work for some reason.