Mike01

From the guy that brought you a better way to lock the TLT-1 axle diffs....

A really quick way to raise the TLT-1 to about 1.5 inches of ground clearance (from 1 or 1.1 stock), or just enough to barely not be able to fit a 540 size motor under the chassis. Another tenth of an inch and that puppy would go right under.

The answer is simple...the cantilever links...the ones that connect the axle to the shock lever.

Just make them longer by unscrewing the ball cups (be sure to make them even and don't unscrew too much or the ball cup will come off). I used the little gold wrench that came with the kit as a guide. The end of the wrench that has two slots on it should barely squeeze between the two plastic ball cups. This is just about optimal length. [that's about 1.35cm between the plastic parts]

Then, take the thicker shock spacers from the spare parts (hope you didn't throw those away) and put them on the shock shaft. This will give you about .3 to .4 inches of ground clearance. May not sound like much, but it makes a hell of a difference. It's like getting an 8 inch lift on a real truck. Combine that with 2.2 inch tires, and you'll have almost 2 inches of ground clearance (or more).

If you open the links up as much as I described above, you will get some very minor dog bone bind on the outdrives until the suspension settles down. [added later: binding is there in stock form as well....see below for fix]

The extra ground clearance, even though it doesn't seem like a lot, works wonders. For starters, the truck no longer looks stupid. Those that have the stock one know what I mean.

Enjoy.

Mike

AddictedtoRC

very nice, I tried it this morning, works pretty good, and i still say that your diff locking method is genious

Mike01

Thanks!

By the way, the "binding" went away completely after a couple of runs. The metal must have been worn away just enough...though I can't see any difference. It was very minor to begin with, so I'd image a couple of microns worth of wear would fix it.

btw...you don't really get any additional travel this way (nor do you lose any), but for someone who builds the stock kit and looks at the just about one inch under the chassis and says to himself "I should have gotten a mini giant", this simple fix will transform the truck.

Before I did it, I used to glare at the low chassis with frustration, now I'm very pleased with the ground clearance.

cummins driver

My Feedback: (31)

Any pictures of before and after? I would really like to see the difference. I really want a TLT-1, cause there awesome trucks, so maybe ill get one soon.

Eric

Mike01

I'll try to take pics tommorrow.

But to get an idea, the ground clearance you get after the mod is a 1/10 of an inch less than a 540 size motor...meaning you can almost get a motor to fit under the chassis.

That's fairly impressive, considering that the stock ground clearance is ridiculously bad.

I honestly don't understand why tamiya has you build the kit with short upper links when there is no harmful effect to making them longer (the slight binding is only if you make them as long as I described above AND use the fattest shock spacer...you can get almost the same height without binding of any kind) and it really transforms the truck from an "what a neat truck, too bad the clearance is so bad" to "what an awesome truck" without having to spend a dime on upgrades.

shortbusjeep

i just bought a tlt and was wondering what that dose to the flex when you modify it like that?

is this a good modification to do for crawling or dose it make it top heavy?

studysession

Cool info -

Mike01

The flex, or articulation, remains the same. As for top heaviness, the difference is negligible. Unless you plan to do some serious suspension mods, this is the best thing you can do to improve the crawling performance of your stock TLT.

The other biggies are, lock at least the rear diff (see my post about diff locking, a better way, to learn how to do that with all stock parts and make it 100% locked and 100% undoable), and to switch to 4 cells. If you have a max climber, putting the 4 cells in the mittdle of the truck will make a big difference in its climbing ability. If it's the Rockbuster, it will just help a little. The power is still there, but not the top end (for crawling, who cares).

And, last but not least, go with a smaller pinion gear. I'm using a 16 tooth 48 metric pitch which I found in an old hobby store. I don't know if they sell metric pitch anywhere, but you can get a regular 48 pitch spur and pinion set. Don't go too small in the pinion unless you increase the size of the spur...I, for instance, could not fit anything smaller than 16 teeth to the stock spur gear...there's no room to move the motor any closer.

cummins driver

My Feedback: (31)

Im really hoping to get a TLT-1 soon and you can bet ill be doing this when i put it together probably, or the day after. The stock truck looks way to low for me. That was part of the reason i dont have one yet, but now that ive seen its not hard to get more clearance, and a longer wheelbase, i cant wait to get one, but it may be longer than i want. Ill just have to get my Butt in gear, and sell that T-Maxx as soon as i can.

Eric

Mike01

Here are the pics:

Before:


After:


In the before shot, I pushed it down to what I measured (with a ruler) before I did the upgrade.

They may look similar at first, but look at the angle of the lower links. The difference is almost half an inch.

btw...the "binding" I heard was actually present in the stock configuration as well...I just never realized it. There are a lot of poorly designed elements in this kit...the position of the center diff (why there is one I will never know) in relation to the axle outdrives is one of them.

My next modification will be to rotate the axle so that the outdrive is facing up slightly, eliminating the bind, extending runtime and increasing performance.

studysession

Like the silver. Looks better. I did Tamiya Red and did not relize that Tamiya paints are not as easy to scratch off when it bleeds under tha paint masks I made for the windows. LOL

Mike01

Yet another stock parts mod...

This mod gets rid of dog bone binding, which is present to a minor degree in the stock configuration (as well as the raised configuration describe above). This mod also increase axle articulation enough that you can lift the front wheel onto a soda can (as opposed to a small spray paint can or slightly crushed soda can in stock form).

Here are the pics:





Here's what you need: small ruler with millimeters. Some foam. About a half hour of spare time.

Increase the length of the following suspension components as listed:

(measured between the plastic end pieces...just measure the metal) [ADDED LATER - my ruler says mm, but it's actually centimeters....sorry for the confusion]
lower links: 4.5cm
upper links: 3.4cm
cantilever shock links: 1.35cm

Put the spacers (collars) on the shocks as described above.

When disassembling the links, remove the dog bones and stuff foam into both the center diff outdrive and the axle outdrive, with more foam going into the center diff outdrive. If you don't do this, the dog bone will fall out. If you do it correctly, the dog bone will be completely secure. You cannot have too much foam (well maybe you can if you go nuts) so err on the side of overkill if in doubt.

The result: increase ground clearance to 1.5 inches, increase axle articulation almost an inch, and remove all dog bone binding.

The upper links control the angle of the axle relative to the chassis...what this mod does is slightly turn the axle outdrive up to face the center diff outdrive, removing binding.

Enjoy!

Mike

studysession

A lot of good info - thanks! When my ESC comes in the mail - will be messing with my TLT-1 again.

Mike01

Thought I'd mention...

The key to the above mod is the foam. You have to position the dog bone properly. If you position it wrong (too much foam on one side, not enough on the other, etc.), then it may fall out. After much testing, it turned out one of my dog bones was improperly positioned and fell out. After I repositioned it (with some more foam), it was very secure and did not fall out again.

Longer dog bones would take care of this, of course, but that would defeat the "all stock" theme.

studysession

I think it is great you are keeping it all stock. I want to keep mine stock unless I make the parts myself. So I think this is a great idea and you are showing others that they can have a better crawler without spending a lot on mods. So that is good too.

Mike01

That's the idea. Thanks.

I only wonder why Tamiya didn't do all this to begin with. The truck got mixed reviews because of its ridiculous ground clearance. Tamiya could have addressed all of these issues without a single change to parts (except maybe to include a couple of pieces of foam). They would have sold a lot more units.

I almost bought a mini giant instead, because of its superior clearance (scale wise). Had I only known how easy this truck was to modify, it would have saved me a lot of grief.

studysession

I have the A-tech Leo-X // Mini-Monster which is same as VMG and I have the TLT-1 MaxClimber. Not done much with the TLT-1 yet because the electronics I have are not very good.

But over all I like both trucks. Play with the Mini-Monster a lot. The is better for indoors and still good for outdoors. The size makes it where you can stack up some pillows and blankets and crawl all day inside and stay sitting on the couch. It does flip easy though.

Mike01

I just ran the truck through three packs and no problems with dog bones or longer links. The truck is a lot more capable now, though of course 95% is still up to the driver.

It's teaching me a lot about real off roading.

studysession

Couple of questions:
What motor and ESC are you using? Will you post a pic showing the electronics? What runtimes are you getting?

Thanks!

Mike01

I'm running an HPI Saturn 20 turn motor and ESC (came with a friend's Losi XXX-S RTR). I get about 40 minutes, I think, but have never tested. I have yet to actually run out of juice before I had to stop for other reasons. I'm using a 4 cell pack and a 16 tooth pinion. It's slow and strong, just how I like it.

I'm using the Saturn motor because it doesn't have replaceable brushes and isn't a fast or high maintenance as some stock motors.

Mike01

Anyone that's tried to build this has noticed that I switched the measurements from mm to cm back to mm. The confusion (I apologize) stems from the fact that my ruler says MM. Someone pointed out that it was more likely centimeters, so I went and changed it, but the saw the ruler, and went and changed it back. Now I actually used common sense and put the centimeter back up there.

The above measurements are in centimeters, and measured between the ball ends (measure exposed metal rod only).

Again, sorry for any confusion.

Also, if you have slightly longer rods to use for cantilever links (or Losi mini-t shocks...thanks garynjr), you can raise the ground clearance to two inches...you will just have to adjust the length of the upper link relative to the lower link to change the outdrive angle to avoid dropping the dog bones.

studysession

I changed some of my linkages. Not to be exact like you did, but it did give me ideas. Now I get longer run times and it drives better.

jimsip1071

This may sound stupid but what kind of foam are you talking about. I ordered my TLT the othr day and I want to use your Ideas when I build it.
thanks

Mike01

Any kind of foam. Packing foam, etc. The idea is that the foam acts as a spring and pushes the bones out.

I wrote an article detailing most of my mods...it's in the how to section of RCU Magazine.

studysession

Link to article:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/magazine/a...article_id=482