Andy-Roo

ALT’s in my Ruptures..

I have ALT Foams in my Ruptures. They come in various weights…soft, super soft etc and are tyre specific-the ones in my Ruptures fit perfectly. They’re a German company and their website is in German, unfortunately, but if you go to their Facebook page they’ll answer questions in English and help with any orders. I’ve not finished the build I’m using them on yet, so can’t say if they’re any good performance wise, but they have a nice density and are well made. I found out about them on the Hardcore RC group page, and our American cousins that use them really rate them. I also have a set of SL3D Squids to fit the Ruptures and they feel really nice too. The only thing with them is that they don’t come in different weights, so not sure if they’d suit a heavy truck like the TRX4. You could always email Neal and ask his opinion…he’s very helpful.

Love the look of that.

@m4inbrain I may actually add to the overall axle weight with brass front portal covers-adding to the bias-so I’m not looking to save an ounce there. Whereas less rotational mass could be a big benefit. I fitted Punks CF wheels on my 10 Pro and saved nearly 10oz in rotational mass and overall weight. I wouldn’t get the same savings over the Boomracing wheels as they aren’t that heavy, but it’s something that might happen as a future upgrade. CF wheels do look damn sexy though 😎

Thanks bud 👍

CF wheels have much less rotational mass to move, resulting is less strain on the small motor and driveline-and possibly less power consumption of the battery. That last part I made up but it makes sense in my head 😂 So light wheels makes perfect sense to me. I think less is more when it comes to comp rigs, and as Colin Chapman once said “simplify and add lightness”. He also said “Adding power makes you faster on the straights. Subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere”. And while this second quote is less relevant to comp crawlers, the logic is still sound.

Morning chaps.. There’s been a slight delay with this update because I’ve been pondering on the electrics, or mores to the point…where the hell am I gonna squeeze them in! There are several options for each component but keeping them low in the chassis, and neat enough so wiring doesn’t bind or effect articulation has been the main concern. So after hours of looking and then trial and error I settled on a layout I’m happy with. I was hoping this would be the final instalment of the chassis build, but I’m having issues with programming the Reefs 888 servo I got for this rig. Yesterday late afternoon was spent on the laptop trying to program the 888 but it wouldn’t show on the Reefs software. I thought it was me being a technophobe or because I’d cut down the control wire and it somehow didn’t like that, but it turns out that 4s capable 888 runs a different board and v1 link software is a bit hit or miss with said board. I’ve been in contact with Gareth at GCRC and he said that there’s a v2 link on the way so for the time being I’ll take the 777 out of my Interceptor and put in the T3 while I’m waiting for the new v2 link to become available. But it works, I’ve had it running….its alive! 😎 (just with wonky steering) 😂 Hmmm.. how am I gonna do this.. Maybe this way round 🤔 I decided to make use of this CF battery tray that’s for SCX10 Pro to mount the HH CM mini v3. And mount the RX on the axle battery mount. Got mounted about as low as it’ll go without fouling on the outrunner. I got a couple of these itty bitty 420mAh lipos that are really light and fit on a skid. She’s a roller 😍 I went with Boomracing Pro build wheels with scale hardware in gold. I did look for CF rims but couldn’t find any I liked that fit over portals. Tyres are Ruptures with ALT foams inserts - Super soft in front and soft out back. I also just acquired a set of SL3D RC Squid inserts that fit the Ruptures, so will compare both. It’s coming together now. I cut down the servo wires to save on mess and a little space but decided to leave the motor leads, because it worked out they only needed to be 20mm or so shorter and I could lose that at the side of the tray, so I didn’t bother. So this is the final layout. Maybe 😂 There’s still a printed chassis brace/body mount to be fitted but that’ll go in later when the body goes on. I put it on the corner weight scales and it’s looking really good with no adjustment. I still might add some brass to the front portal covers to get that front bias to nearer 65%. But at 4lb 10 without the body (there won’t be much of that body anyhow) it’s right on the money. So there’s light at the end of the tunnel now and the next instalment should see that servo sorted and the body mounted 🤞 Thats it for now folks 😎

That is a legitimate concern.

In this build, space is the number one concern, so a small motor is a huge benefit. You could use a bigger spacer to lift the transmission higher, creating more space but you’d also be raising the CoG with it. For comp builds the Outrunner makes a lot of sense, but for trailing where CoG and weight aren’t really a concern, I’d stick to a normal style of motor.

Some really cool skins there. The SBG one for the H10 is particularly nice.

That does look cool 👌

I’m going to try a ‘marble’ affect with two, or maybe three colours. I’ll do a few practice spray outs first before I risk ruining the body, but I’m looking forward to trying something new.

I got the washers from here https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175485523831?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=J9GXJBcVSSq&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=-6Iol3f7T9u&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY The idea is that it’ll all tie in with body colour I’m planning and the scale hardware on the wheels. But it does involve a painting technique that I’ve never tried before, so it could all go horribly wrong 😆

@steephill Thanks mate! It’s been an enjoyable build so far-even the tricky bits haven’t been that bad. But there’s still enough of it left to kick me in the arse 😆

Morning gents, I have made some more progress on the T3, in fact it would have been a roller but for ‘two’ weird issues that I’ll come back too. So after I started this thread I posted some pics on the Poiz’d FB group page, just to confirm I’d got it right so far. Travis Rake, Mr Poiz’d himself, commented that having the front links parallel to the ground with the rig fully compressed, is the ideal setup. Mine were running upwards from the skid to the axle. Now, this is where I took two steps forward and three steps back! 🤣 I thought I could circle back to sorting out the setup at the tuning phase but for now I wanted to crack on with the next step-fitting the transmission. I was expecting this to be quite tricky because there isn’t much room for error, but I soon realised that the motor was fouling on the upper link rod-end. Hmmm, to get the clearance needed I was going to have to tune the front end now, rather than later. I thought (stupidly) that if I moved the shock top mount to a lower mounting point on the chassis I’d get the ride height needed to get the links parallel. Nope. It wasn’t going to be that easy. The offset caps needed to come off and swapped for the normal caps, which ment topping up the oil and reseating the bladders etc etc… Now I had the extra shock length I needed to adjust the links, and combined with a slight adjustment of the rear shock mounts…one hole backwards at a time, I got the front links parallel at full compression. At bloody last! This took way more time than expected but now I could go ahead and fit the motor & transmission. The transmission comes with a small spacer for clearance but the motor needed a tiny bit more to clear the link rod-end. I could have used the Dremel to take off part of said rod-end but decided to make a new spacer instead. So now the transmission and motor were fitted I moved on the the cut to length front drive shaft. I’d not used one of these before but it was easy enough to work out-measure 37 times and cut once! Next up was the rear drive shafts. I used Axial Wild-Bores for two reasons; cost and weight. These were an easy fit, they just needed a little bit of trimming and the jobs a good ‘un. It’s at this point where I came across a weird issue with the rear stub axles. I bought the used donor axles about 6 or 7 months ago but didn’t notice the stub axles on the rear were a larger diameter than the fronts-probably because they didn’t come with wheel nuts so I didn’t see the difference. So the rear wheel nuts are 8mm, not 7mm. Weird right? I found the original Axial parts needed in stock at Alliance so they should be with me this week. So you would have been seeing this as a roller had it not been for this issue, but you’ll just have to wait for the next instalment, unfortunately. Apologies for the long, drawn out update and hope I've not bored you all to tears, but this was always going to be the most technical part of the build and in real time took around 5.5 hours of head scratching, with a odd bit of swearing thrown in for good measure! 🤬😂 Working out transmission placement Not much room between the drive shaft and rod-end (tighter then an Otters pocket) Drilled and counter sunk but there’s trouble ahead 🤣 You know when you’re getting old when you have to take a picture so you can zoom in and see if you got is right 😂 Difficult to see from this angle but this is where I go backwards to move forward Fabrication And after a lot of messing about with one thing or another, the front links are now parallel Getting there You can see from this angle how tight for space it is between the drive shaft, rod-end and motor Cheap and cheerful Light at the end of the tunnel Axle mounted battery tray Well that’s it for this instalment, I’m hoping to get more done this week and get this beast on its wheels 😎

If you want cheap then Aliexpress is your friend. I think they do the Rhino out runners, but @steephill is the man to talk to, he’s bought some cool kit from them.

You’ve got to make that happen, a vid of that could break YouTube 😂

Were those squirrels auditioning for the next Mission impossible film (you have to hum the theme tune while reading that) 😂 Bloody good work mate, that course is nothing short of MEGA! What’s the plan for it now?

@m4inbrain That’s good news and yes, I’d split the shipping with you. How many sets are after?

The VRD was on my ‘want’ list, in fact I spoke with @steephill about it and said I’d get one once they were available on MS. But then they released the H10 Optic, which kinda interests me. I think one of those could be really cool and is earmarked for a future build (so many builds swirling about in my head) but I really should finish the ones I already have-the trouble is….they are never really finished, are they? I get ideas and inspiration from almost every build I see, so passing that on is all part of the journey 👌

@m4inbrain Here’s that vid. Well worth watching, as are a lot of his vids.

@m4inbrain The Squids are meant to very good from what I’ve seen on Logan’s WDW channel, he loves them paired with ProLine Krawler G8’s. They were on my list too but SL3D RC don’t ship to the UK. I did check on AMain to see if they stocked them but had no luck. As for upside down shocks…in theory heavy part down is sound, it makes total sense. However, RC shocks aren’t heavy and Dravs are very light indeed. So running them upside down make little to no difference. This subject has come up on the Poiz’d FB page and the consensus seems to be “run whatever you feel works best for you”. Lance, the owner of HCRC runs his Dravs the right way up and sees no benefit in running them upside down. There’s a good vid I saw about this-I’ll try to find it. I’ve got 27% OD in the front portals at the moment but that may change once I’ve run it, as might the brass on the front. People seem to run quite a lot of weight on the axles but I’ll see how she handles before I order more than the brass portal boxes I have already fitted. I’m shooting for 60/40 or possibly a 65/35 front bias.

Thanks mate! 👍 The axles are pure RC p*rn 😍

No, I built two in full droop with 20wt oil but didn’t think they are that smooth tbh. As I said, maybe it was how I built them but they went back in their box and in the parts bin. PM me if you want to take them off my hands.

Building Dravs is a bit fiddly and without the right circlip pliers can be a real headache, so I don’t blame you for getting them pre-built. I ordered two sets so saving a few quid and building them myself was the better option for me-plus I already had the circlip pliers. As for the tyre/insert conundrum; Tyre wise I’ve gone for the tried and tested Ruptures (1.9). Inserts weren’t as easy though. I wanted to go for BAMF two stage printed but the shipping costs were crazy, so after a bit research I opted for ALT foams-ultra soft fronts and soft rears. I’ve got them built up on the wheels and they feel okay, but that’s all I can say about them until I try them out. The ALT website is in German but they’ll answer questions on their Facebook page in English and help with regard to ordering. I have a set of printed inserts on my SCX10 Pro from Small and Sound. The ones I have are tyre specific (Tusks in my case) and they seem good too-the lateral stiffness is very good but, again, I’ve not had time to test them out as yet…time is rarely on my side, life gets in the way! 😕