Mitrab36 Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 (edited) So I decided to get into the world of crawlers. Bashing tricked up brushless buggy's is great fun, but a major dent in the finances when the bashing gets out of control After spending a fortune on my buggy recently, splashing out on a Axial kit right after Xmas would of probably seen divorce proceeding instigated by the misses. So hunting around I stumbled on a nearly new (bought Nov) Maverick Scout on Ebay locally. I've been over to radshape many times in the last year and seem plenty of these scrabbling over their course and they seemed quite compertant. So the deal was done and home came a nice standard Scout. As you can see from the pic's its had very little use, about 4 visits to Radshape and a couple of runs in the garden is all its seen. The weather was rubbish so I amused myself finding things to drive over around the house. After a couple of hours of this, the tinkering and modding bug became an itch that desperately needed scratching! It already had some weights fitted to the wheels, but after a bit of research, the consensus was between 200g-400g in the fronts and 100g-200g in the rears. i pulled the tyres off and found about 130g in the front and 50g in the rear. Off to the nearest tyre fitters and bought some more stick on weights. I upped the front to 275g and the rear to 150g, while they were apart I also cut some wedges out of the standard foams to create a more star shaped profile to help the tyres deform more. These 2 simple and cheap mods made a massive difference. Before it was very top heavy and prone to rolling over to easily, now it sticks to steeper climbs like a limpet The major bug bear though is the styling...... the shell is far to small and sits up high like a fairy on a christmas tree. Nothing was going to improve this so I set about looking for a new body. I settled on the Axial Dingo, fairly well detailed but not so much as to be too scale perfect, so it still leaves scope to play around a bit with the fitting of it to the scout chassis. I still wanted to maintain the good articulation and ability of the scout so the look will always be crawler not scaler. I stripped the scout down to the bare bones while waiting for the shell to arrive from RcBitz. After offering the shell up, when the suspension is fully compressed the wheelbase extends and was about 25-30mm too long. I could of left it like this but I think I would of ended up trimming the shell a lot in the end. Time to make up some new links and adjust the wheelbase to fit better. I'll update this once I've got the links fitted and played about with the travel a bit. Hope you enjoy! Edited February 13, 2015 by Mitrab36 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nr73 Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Superb mate. It's impossible to not modify a scout! I'd suggest also reversing the front outside links so the bend is closer to the middle, and bend the rear ones to match. Also lowering the ride height by adding fuel tube around the shock shaft is worthwhile. Mine can now sideslope quite well. Another massive improvement can be had by running a low weight lipo instead of the nimh. I run 1800mah lipo behind the servo which cost Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitrab36 Posted January 12, 2015 Author Share Posted January 12, 2015 Superb mate. It's impossible to not modify a scout! I'd suggest also reversing the front outside links so the bend is closer to the middle, and bend the rear ones to match. Also lowering the ride height by adding fuel tube around the shock shaft is worthwhile. Mine can now sideslope quite well. Another massive improvement can be had by running a low weight lipo instead of the nimh. I run 1800mah lipo behind the servo which cost Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nr73 Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Here you go. The Proline body I fitted turned out to be a bit short so I had to mount it up high or cut loads of the arches away for clearance. It does have a top heavy look but that's not the case, it sideslopes really well. The tray is inverted and the ESC mounted underneath it alongside the tranny. I ditched the glitchy maverick TX and replaced with a Flysky GT3B. Also moved the inner links to most inboard position, cut the lugs off the diffs and packed the diffs with grease because they were bone dry when new. Also reversed the tread direction because they seem to grip better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitrab36 Posted January 12, 2015 Author Share Posted January 12, 2015 Nice scout Neil Like you say, looks top heavy, but its only air and about 30g of lexan up high ! lol I've had a very productive time. Stripped it down completly and drew up some plans for the links and the chassis rail extensions. Luckily both the the scout chassis and the dingo body are both symetrical front to rear (ish). So for the purposes of chassis rail extensions, 1 template would do all 4. More on the extension rails later. Back to the suspension links. Nipped off to Keatley Metals and got myself some 6061 T6, 6mm bar. A quick measure up and a few sketches later, I settled on 12mm shorter bottom links and 10mm shorter top links. I machined down an old link for a test fit before chopping up the new metal and all was good. After the first trial fit the shocks were just touching the upper links on full articulation, so I decided to remake them 2mm longer and add some bends to them for better clearance. I refitted all the links the links to axles and chassis and bearing in mind the ride height is still to be set with the new shorter shocks, I'm quite happy with the overall setup so far. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nr73 Posted January 12, 2015 Share Posted January 12, 2015 Wow, looking good. you're much more methodical than me with your mods. I just eyeball something, stick it in the vice and start bending or cutting! Are you not finding it gets hung up all the time with those bumpers still on it? I junked those within an hour of running it then cut the lugs off. Big difference. How will you be cutting those chassis extensions out? Do you have a laser cutter or something? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitrab36 Posted January 13, 2015 Author Share Posted January 13, 2015 I've not driven it enough to worry about the diff guards. But as everyone removes them, its definantly on the list to be done. lol... a lazer cutter! I wish !!! lol No mate, nothing so glamourous. It will be good old hand tools, a jigsaw, a grinder and a router. This will not be a big budget build, throwing every high priced billet alloy trinket at it. The majority will be like yours, made by hand 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitrab36 Posted January 14, 2015 Author Share Posted January 14, 2015 I got some spare time today so tackled the chassis rail extensions. I drew up a template and mounted it on some 6mm MDF. Then mounted that to 4 strips of 3mm aluminium. The pics tell the story better... All that left to do was de-burr and tidy up the edges. They all fitted up nicely so I'm then played about with various link and shock mounting points. Next job will be to start on the chassis braces to stiffen everything up 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nr73 Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 Looking good! Great job on those extension plates. Makes my body mount 'tabs' seem a bit shabby in comparison. I've been wanting to move those links inboard for a while but not sure how to modify the plastic plate that holds the motor. Let us know how you manage that one as the build progresses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy20xe Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 i would be interested in a set of them extensions for my scout if you fancied making some more!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PraetoR Posted January 15, 2015 Share Posted January 15, 2015 That's a lot nicer than the way I did my crawler/scaler conversion! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitrab36 Posted January 17, 2015 Author Share Posted January 17, 2015 Thanks for all the replies lads. Neil, I moved the bottom links inboard but didn't re-use the original mounting holes. I drilled new ones that suited the new link / wheelbase setup better. The reason I didn't use the old holes and modify the scout plastic motor mount is explained below.... The plastic motor mount is a bit weak and flexes a lot. I think I've solved that along with adding a few grams as low as possible to the center of gravity. Some nice 5mm, 6061 alloy plate will work great. The standard plate is fixed with 4 M3 bolts and 4 plastic locating lugs. The new one will be held in with 8 M3 bolts I also replaced the 4 button head bolts that hold the gearbox on with 4 countersunk bolts and recessed the heads into the plate. Something else that won't get hung up on obsticles now. There's a few other bits a pieces completed today, I'll try and get the pic's uploaded soon ! Thanks. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitrab36 Posted January 20, 2015 Author Share Posted January 20, 2015 As promised here are a few more bits I've got finished. First up is another servo mount. As the scout comes with two steering axles as standard it would be a shame not to give it a go and see how it improves the steering ability. Nice and simple to do, all I done was used the original as a template and used some of the same 3mm plate as the chassis rails. The pedastal's to mount the servo's onto were a bit more of a challenge as there pretty small. I had some old 8mm x 18mm bar left over from something else, so I cut 4 x 15mm pieces and began the fiddly process of getting them made. Once I've set the steering up and made any adjustments I can tidy them up. I plan to set the rear axle steering arms up identical to the front and use an inline signal reverser to the rear servo. Has anyone else tried a scout with 4 wheel steering? What did you think of it and did it help with the turning circle much? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitrab36 Posted January 20, 2015 Author Share Posted January 20, 2015 I also had a go at making a front bumper. Once again off to Keatley metals for some 15mm x 10mm C channel, some 6mm x 18mm bar and some more 6mm rod. first off I made a full scale drawing of the front of the dingo shell. Over this I drew up a bumper to suit boxy shape of the shell. Then I set about cutting, shaping, bending, drilling and threading all the parts. Doesn't look much but it was a bout 4hrs start to finish ! All assembled just need to make up some mounts for it now...... What do you think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PraetoR Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Looking good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nr73 Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Superb! Keep the build thread going. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitrab36 Posted January 22, 2015 Author Share Posted January 22, 2015 Thanks Praet + Neil ! Has anyone tried a 4 wheel steer set up on a scout? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nr73 Posted January 22, 2015 Share Posted January 22, 2015 Thanks Praet + Neil ! Has anyone tried a 4 wheel steer set up on a scout? It's pretty easy to do apparently. You need the steering links, another servo on channel 3 and the mount. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitrab36 Posted January 23, 2015 Author Share Posted January 23, 2015 I have all the kit to do the conversion bud, the last piece arrived today a 6v 10a BEC for powering both servos. I was just wondering if anyone else had done it and was it worthwhile? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theodore Bagwell Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 I have one with and one without,tbh I don't use it much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nr73 Posted January 23, 2015 Share Posted January 23, 2015 I think johninderby did it on his - you could PM him or search his old posts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitrab36 Posted January 26, 2015 Author Share Posted January 26, 2015 Will do Neil. I've had a very productive weekend. I got all the last bits and pieces made and fitted. What started off a s a simple project to fit a Axial Dingo shell on a Scout chassis has snowballed a bit ! Here are some pics of the parts from the weekend. A simple mount for the ESC. This sits it nice and low just above the center diff output housing and prop shaft. After making the front bumper I had to make a matching rear or it would have looked a bit out of place. These are two chassis braces to fit the front and rear bumpers to. And also some side rock sliders ! I finally got the battery tray finished. I prefer to use a long lasting battery. I hate having to do a battery swap in the middle of having fun, especially when everything is covered in mud and cack. As I already have a few decent 5600 hard packs I decided to fit one of these over the front axle and as low as possible. Once the suspension is fully compressed, the top of the servo is only 4mm from the bottom of the tray. In comparrison to the original NiMh, This lipo is only 25g lighter, but is going to last forever between charges ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nr73 Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 5600mah??!! Yee gods man, I get 50 minutes out of an 1800mah so that will last you all day I reckon. Great work on those parts, do you have a bandsaw or something for the cuts? Presumably you're drilling and tapping most of these parts, I always have mixed results tapping stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitrab36 Posted January 26, 2015 Author Share Posted January 26, 2015 Hi Neil. There the lipo's I have spare so plenty of play time! That and if another parcel turns up with more rc kit in it for me......... well....... I can easily pack the tray with some sponge pads when I'm allowed to buy some smaller lipo's No band saw mate. Hacksaw + grinder to cut most things. I do have a small hobby lathe but that's only good for doing round things ! lol. All drilled with a cheap Aldi pillar drill and tapped by hand.Tapping is very easy, just don't rush it, make sure your 110% aligned before you wind it in, any resistance then wind it back half a turn. A little lube helps a lot too. Oh and don't buy cheap Chinese taps, they cut crap, are p*ss poor for size and snap when most difficult to remove ! A good set of taps will last many, many years. I've just been loosely assembling everything again to make sure there's no clearance probs. And 1 pic with the body close to its final position! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaz! Posted January 26, 2015 Share Posted January 26, 2015 Excellent work on the custom bits, looks really great 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.