wookie_racer

My Feedback: (8)

you couuld have just drilled out more holes in the back plate to mount the tranny(see pic). this is what i did to my Pede back in the day. you could go back further and just not use the two little screw(i didnt). that way you get the wb with out having to cut the chassis.

john01374

Wookie - That is a good idea and one that I considered as I did recall seeing someone stretch a Pede that way...Only problem is I couldn't get the amount of stretch I needed to make this body look right. This mod was super easy and took all of about 30 mins.

The plus side is the Chassis is actually Stiffer now than before I cut it up. And it added a little weight to the rear where its needed on these trucks so this thing really hooks up and goes now..

wookie_racer

My Feedback: (8)

here is that tread from when i did it...way back on 06 lol. http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_38..._1/key_/tm.htm

not dissing your work or anything btw. lol. i do really like this idea. some paddles in the back and some blades up front and it would be sick. or maybe some scale tires from rc4wd, that would be awesome as well.

SlashBasher

My Feedback: (8)

wow this is a great looking build! cant wait to see it finished![sm=thumbs_up.gif]

studysession

Nice work - keep it up.

john01374

It's been a while since I posted anything on this project. After getting screwed over by Tower on wheels and tires TWICE I gave up on it and just decided to run some old Switchs and beadlocks. I have to admit that as much as I hate beadlocks they do look really good on this project.

Updates since the last photos.

Beadlocks and switchs.
S-600 motor
Blue XL5 ESC
2075 Servo
1/4 spacer on outside of front shocks. This prevents the tires from hitting the body. If you build one of these yourself extend the chassis an extra 1/2 inch to prevent tire rub.
modded a slash battery hold down for the battery.
rebuilt shocks with 45wt front and 40 wt rear.

Over all handling is now very neutral with just a mild push in tight corners. It handle much like a slash with LCG. It's also 10 oz lighter than a slash so it seems a little faster. One thing I did notice is that I need to add a piece of alum under the chassis to cover the gap in the chassis. A bad landing on a double put a nice dent in one of my lipos. To prevent that from happening again i'll be making a plate that runs under the chassis in the very near future.

Things to do
Need adjustable rear links. I'm planning to go with adjustable links in the future to give me some tuning capabilities but for now the rear is pretty well planted as is. I might need the adjustments on a looser track.

Lose the heavy bead locks. They're heavy and unreliable even with JUST a the S-600. I do like the Switchs on this bug. Can't get them to hook up on a slash but they have performed well on this thing. Go figure.....

Plate under the chassis as mentioned above.

Slash front bumper. RPM rear bumper.

Enough talking.. Here's some pics.

lordtec

My Feedback: (44)

now all u need is a pair of sand paddles in the rear and edge ( i think thats what there called) tires in the front and yer good for sand or snow lol

rebuilder

looks nice................i like the wheel/tire combo myself...................

Lars from Norway

I have to say thank you very much John for this thread!I just started the stretching of my Rustler today,but i am going to stretch it on the trannyplate,i have made a bracket which will make the wheelbase the same as the Slash making the chassi 49 mm (almost 2 inches) longer.I am also going to use the Baja Bug body,going to paint it something like the Tamiya Sand Scorcher in blue and white.The body on your car is very nice by the way!

evlwevl

My Feedback: (6)

Looks good, im curious to see how this turns out. The bug body scaling issue is what drove me to build a sand scorcher, but it will never run as nice as a modern car

john01374

Thanks for the compliments guys. This build is actually complete and tested. I need to post up a couple of Pics of the underside of the chassis. The only changes from what you see in the final pics are a stock set of Slash shocks and springs and a 1/16 thick sheet of Alum that runs under the chassis to cover the gap.

The completed truck weights 7 oz less than a stock Slash even with the ridiculously heavy beadlocks and switches. Ditching them will lose at least 6 more oz but more importantly it will be rotating mass so the bug will accelerate and brake faster.

Since this thing uses a Slash bug body and Slash wheels and tires I use my Spec slash as a benchmark for performance. In track testing this bug is around 1 second faster around the track than my slash even will a less powerful S-600 motor. I'm still tweaking the suspension but so far it handles great, flies level and it's easy to drive.

Overall I'm very happy with the build. My intention when building this was to have a beach buggy with paddles etc but it kind of took a detour. This spring I still plan to get to the beach but until then it'll be my track toy. I just need to find a class.

pastimesteve

Great work John! I've been following this thread for a while. So, is it not possible to run 2.2 wheels when using the Bandit arms? I was thinking of using 2.2 RPM Revolver wheels for a similar Baja Bug project, but I guess I could always use the Slash-type wheels and SCT tires instead...

Also, when you post updated pictures, would you mind posting pictures of your modified battery hold down?

Thanks again,
Steve

evlwevl

My Feedback: (6)

Im turning my 4x4 slash into a part time beach buggy as well. I wanted to build one of those rc4wd rail buggys but thought the 4x4 chassis would be more versitle when im not at the beach. I just bought one of those manx style buggy bodies from Parma that is similar in size to the slash truck body, its a complete different scale then the Proline 1/10 scale bug bodies so its going to look huge. I also got some split six, mohawks and slingshots to round out the look. Are those proline beadlocks heavy? I have a set on order, hopefully their not. My Sand Scorcher was really fun in the sand but as soon as you left the hardpacked stuff, it was digging and having trouble. I think you'll have a blast with that.

john01374

Pastime - You are correct. You cannot run 2.2 wheels on the front. The problem is there is not enough room for the front wheels to turn before the rim makes contact with the arm limiting the steering angle. If you want I can post a pic. Using Slash rims or traxxas 2.8's work great. I will take a couple of pics of the battery hold down and post them.

Evl - I'm looking forward to seeing your build. I saw that Manx body in the mag and it looks cool. I want to see one on a truck so please post up some pics when you can. To answer your question. The Proline BeadLocks feel HEAVY. I don't know the exact weight difference between them and the stockers but I will toss them on the scale tonight and post the weights. I've also had a real problem keeping the tires on the rims even with the mild S-600. I have the Epics pictured and a set of Split sixes. Don't let the hype fool you. The Split sixes don't hold any better than the old Epics. With VXL power you're going to be using some colorful four letter words I have a set of one piece wheels coming. I would rather glue the tire on than have to undo the screws to fix the flipping tire every run. One question.. Why the Mohawks on a 4x4 truck? I know the "look" would be right but paddles on all four corners would work better.

Lars from Norway

A lot of useful info you are sitting on John.I will maybe make my own thread of the stretching job,going to snap some pics of the brackets i am making for the car soon.

evlwevl

My Feedback: (6)

In an attempt to not hijack this post, I'll post about my Slash buggy in a new post when I finish it, but to answer the question here,
Im choosing the mohawks for several different reasons, one, the look of a 2wd buggy on the sand that can still be run as a 4wd truck in the dirt. I also read from some that paddles up front reduce steering response, although I have not verified this for myself. After running my 4wd tmaxx with semi paddle style tires, I notice a lot more sand getting thrown onto the chassis and drive train primarily from the front tires. I didn't notice as much sand build up on my 2wd sand scorcher with ribbed front tires, so Im hoping the front of the slash will just float over the surface and behave more like a 2wd, but when its time to 4X again, a quick wheel change will be all it takes. For anyone who hasn't seen this new buggy body, here it is and its big, much bigger in scale to Proline bug bodies

john01374

I hear ya on the sand getting in the chassis and the Mohawks do make sense now.

That is one sick Scorcher you have there. I had one of the originals back when I was a kid. It never looked anywhere near that good and I was too young to know what I had.

Looking forward to your build.

john01374

EVL - I didn't have a chance to snap pics yesterday as the batteries in the Camera need to be charged (left it on I guess) but I did have a chance to weight the beadlocks on the bug.

a Proline Epic with full tread Switch tires installed weighs. .3004lbs

A stock Slash wheel with slash tire installed weights .2094lbs

As you can see the beadlocks are considerably heavier than the stock wheels. When you consider the fact that the truck has to spin and stop those wheels it just makes matters that much worse.

evlwevl

My Feedback: (6)

I will have to see how those weights will compare with the Split Six beadlocks with mohawks and slingshots which I should be getting today. The only thing I didnt care for with the proline beads were the fact that you have to use their tire/wheel exclusively. I found some really light beadlocks on KRCK website but the only paddles/smoothies out there that have the same OD and ID are from Panther that Iv'e found. Its hard to find something that works and once you do, its expensive. I'll give these a try, and see what happens. Thanks for the info

studysession

Nice pics.

pasan

Sorry to awaken a sleepy thread, but I just wanted to give appropriate props for the build. I too built a similar Baja Bug last summer, based on a Rusty chassis, but back then only the MT sized Baja bodies were available from Pro-Line (they had just licensed the design, and Losi were in the process of pulling all their unlicensed copies off the shelves). To increase the wheelbase I flipped the front suspension (revsered A-arms, wheels now in front of the shocks). However, not only was this setup still short of the required wheelbase, it messed up the steering geometry greatly, so the project was more or less shelved. I recently dusted it off and decided to mount the body on my E-Revo instead (one of the trucks the body is designed for), and spent the entire day trying to figure out what to do with the deviant chassis, till I came across your build thread. Thanks for the pictures, and the novel idea of extended the chassis length, I'll be implementing the same soon.

Dongskie

Inspring!!

thehuntingterminator

sweet build! but i highly recommend an RPM bumper to protect that amazing new body. i noticed how the bigger body sticks out past the little-bitty thing Traxxas calls a bumper. haha.

Dongskie

Here's my Bandit with Baja Body.

Kitsune

My Feedback: (7)

Terrific job on this build! I actually started my own Bandit to Bug before I discovered yours, and it's helped quite a bit to figure out the length I need to stretch the chassis.