Andy-Roo

Hi Rob, my first thoughts were the gearing and battery. A motor getting hot is usually down to it being over geared, so I’d drop down to a 11 or 12t pinion and see if that helps. As for the battery; I’d always run 3s minimum, especially in big rig like yours. In fact, the only 2s lipo I have is in my TX. I hope that helps.

Thanks mate. It is very satisfying seeing it take shape, a bit like the weathering process. Definitely my favourite parts of this build. Cheers Seb. It’s a lot of fun mate, you should give it a go yourself...I reckon you’d come up with something special 👍

Thanks for the kind words, mate 👍

Hi and welcome to the forum. I’m gonna say sell it and buy a dedicated crawler. The Emaxx is a monster truck, right? It may not even be possible to convert it and if it is, you’d be looking at an expensive build that still probably wouldn’t perform like a dedicated crawler would. Things like axles, a sensored BL system, or a brushed setup along with high CoG would all need addressing, plus a bunch of other things that would cause you headaches. Get yourself a TRX, SCX or whatever suites your budget and jump right into the slow lane, that’s my advice. Good luck!

Thank @DartmoorTrails 👍 I’ve kinda got the bug for it and am looking at possible designs for my next build. My 10.2 is in line for a cosmetic makeover as well, that will include a new, lighter cage along with a new body. So plenty more opportunities to sharpen my brazing skills are on the horizon.

You’ve been Tangoed! Looks great in orange, AJ 👌

Picking up from where I left off.. Next up were the front to rear horizontal braces, made with 3mm bar. These were fairly straightforward to make...once I got the shape of the first one right, I just used that as a template to make a another. A little tweak was needed on the right brace and that squared everything up nicely.. Next came the main braces that connect the front and rear hoops.. I was running low on silver solder, which was 0.7mm wire that was pretty awkward to use. I’d ordered 2m of 1.5mm rod in 250mm sections, that was at a good price, and postman had just delivered them. Result. This was my first joint using the new rods. They had a much higher melting point so took a little getting used to.. Once braced I took it off the chassis for the final pieces to brazed. I’m really happy with how it’s coming together. The horizontal cross bar went in without a hitch.. The diagonal cross brace wasn’t so easy because brazing on top of brazing is tricky. Not pretty but a good solid joint, and I used the Dremmel to grind back the access later on.. The finish line is in sight with just four small braces to go.. Much neater now I’m getting used to these rods.. The last brace.. And there it is, but still plenty of grinding and sanding to do before it’s ready for paint. Fast forward a couple of hours and it’s looking much better.. It was at this point that I decided to have another go at fitting the mounts for the towing shackles. For some reason I didn’t take any pics of this but if zoomed in you’ll see them on the bumper bar. I even fitted one bent sideways so it looks like it’s taken a good hit and was bent. Painted and fitted. I think it’s looks the dogs danglies, but I would, wouldn’t I 😃 Apologies for the pics, I was running out of day light 🙈 The tyres just clear at full flex 💪 So not much left to do on the body now - wipers need fitting and windows need dusting along with a coat or two of flat clear. I’ve got a fire extinguisher that I might fit to the bed or possibly the cage..dunno yet. And then of course I have to paint the interior, and that’s about it. I’m really looking forward to getting it out and seeing how it performs on the rocks 😃 Thats all for now folks 👍

Evening folks.. This week I’ve been fabricating the cage, a job I’ve been really looking forward to! Luckily it’s gone very well and I finished up this evening...just in time for dinner 😃 So lets get into it.. The materials for the job; x2 1m lengths of mild steel bar - one in 4mm and the other in 3mm. 55% Silver solder, flux, a Mapp gas torch and a bunch of steel tabs from Scaler fab and SMS. Conveniently, there’s a mounting point exactly where I need it.. My plan was to use the 4mm for the main hoop..and it’s looking like a perfect fit thus far.. I start off making some measurements and I get right into it.. With the help of my cheap eBay “helping hands”, the first tab is brazed in place. Now I can fix one side in place and work out where the next bend needs to be.. Ive seen people using mini pipe benders for this but I just use a vice and my hands and/or a ring spanner. Seems to work for me.. And that’s the main hoop done. Next is the smaller rear hoop, also made in 4mm. I start off with two larger tabs mounted to the bumper mount, but then see an opportunity to incorporate a rear bumper into the cage assembly itself. If I braze two tabs together I can use some 4mm bar to form a small bumper.. These helping hands were working out great.. The rear hoop is easy to make but brazing this lot together, and keeping it all nice and square could be easier said than done.. I ground two flat spots on the inside of the hoop to get a good surface to braze to. The tricky part was getting it all lined up securely enough so it wouldn’t move at the crucial moment. This is were magnets come in really handy.. The first one went fine, but getting the opposite one lined up in the exact same way and at the correct angle took some time (I may have sworn at it several times). After all the messing about I still got it wrong and had to do it over again. I got there in the end, though.. Nope, a fail.. All good on the second attempt and with the hoop fitted to the chassis, you can see my bumper plan taking shape.. Fluxed ready for brazing.. Sorted.. When I fitted it in place I saw that maybe eyes for towing shackles would look good, but brazing on top of brazing is a bit tricky so gave up on that idea until later on.. I called it a day at this point... TBC

Cocking it’s leg for a pee 😂 Cracking looking rig, it’ll be interesting to hear your thoughts on what it drives like.

Is it finished yet?

You’ll have that up and running by tomorrow! 😁

Thanks! I really like that, maybe one for a future build 👍

Those are great shots! I really like that body, what make is it?

Yes, and wasn’t it doing forward flips because of the drag brake? He’s mad as a hatter - love the way he’s just dumped a bunch of rocks on his lawn and that’s it. No arranging them so they look good...just a big pile of rocks on the grass 😂

Cool looking rig AJ. I’ve seen JH ripping his one about the garden.

Looking forward to seeing those tyres on the rig! I’ve only run my Growlers once but loving them so far.

Gotta love a ‘Mog’ 👍

A great looking truck 👍

Well that quote didn’t go to plan 🤪

I blame the saws 😂

Looks great, I’m a fan of the 110..it looks so right..in my eyes anyway.

Morning all.. A quick update. I’ve painted and weathered the fuel cell, and also modded the interior to allow for the transmission and then built a cover for it. I really should have painted this before I put the chassis together. Next I turned my attention to the interior, that doesn’t fit because of the transmission. The area in for the chop. You can see two V shape cutouts for the nut on the input shaft. Why are there two? Errr...because I cut one in the wrong place. Doh 🙈 The transmission comes through right behind the front seat. In fact it’s so close I had to remove some of the seat back too. I really needed to get this right because there isn’t much material to work with. I’ve mentioned this Tamiya hand saw before, but it’s so good I thought I’d mention it again. A brilliant bit of kit 👌 If only I could cut a straight line 😆 Amazingly, it fits! Test fitting with the interior fitted into the body and then onto the chassis. Next I needed to build some kind of cover, to hide my dodgy looking saw cuts from prying eyes! 😂 I decided to use styrene because it’s light and easy to work with. A couple of light scores and I’ve got the basic shape.. And it fits really well. So far so good.. Next came the side sections.. A bit more scoring.. Some of this to glue the lot together.. Now I have my cover.. And there it is, glued into place and ready for paint. Now the interior fits I’m going to put that one side and circle back to it later - I’m not sure what colour I want it yet. I know black would be the obvious choice but it’s already black so maybe tan would be better...🤔 So that’s where I am right now and the next stage is fabricating the rear cage, which I’ve been looking forward to since the start of this build. With luck it’ll go well and I’ll post the next update fairly soon 🤞 Adios amigos!

Nice fix there AJ, looks great 👍

Evening folks! Okay, yet another update...I clearly have way to much time on my hands right now! So, let’s talk about weathering. I’ve really enjoyed putting the Yota body together and making it my own. Making it look old and beaten has been a lot of fun and adds so much depth and definition to the overall look. I can really see this becoming my favourite part of any build. Anyways, let’s get into it... These are the products I used for this...although I’ve not yet flat cleared it yet, which I’ll come to further on. The first stage of the process was applying the base layer for the rust paint. This takes about an hour to dry and then the activator can be applied, which is left for 12hrs. I’ve found that, if after the 12hrs the rust isn’t heavy enough, you can keep adding more activator until the right effect is reached. This is effect after 12hrs.. I love the way activator has run leaving rusty marks on the paint. Hmmm, I still think I overdid it here but you learn from your mistakes. Loving these rusty streaks! I did go over some areas again with another coat of activator, just to help with the rusty streaks, but overall I’m really happy with how the rust is looking. Next I added some ‘oily hand marks’ on and around the bonnet, using the Tamiya weather master products. Oily hand marks on the doors.. It’s really starting to come together now.. Almost there, just a few more details.. The bumper looks like it needs more work but I decided to just leave it to my driving to give it the beaten look 🙈 When I bought the Yota body with the interior kit I thought I had everything needed to complete it - other than the pickup bed, which I didn’t need, obviously 🙄 But it doesn’t come with the wipers! I’ve had to order another parts tree that comes with a second dash and steering wheel that I don’t need. So that’s why I haven’t flat cleared it yet, because I want to add wiper marks to the screen and ‘dust’ the other windows. Not sure if I’ll cut one or two so they’re open, or not. The jury is still out on that one. Looking tough 💪 Today I’ve been cutting the interior to allow for the transmission and that’s gone surprisingly well, but more about that...next time 👍

Better hurry with those lollies, winter is coming. Sorry, couldn’t resist the GoT reference 😂