Father of Dragons(Bakugan Dragonoid monster truck replica)

[p0ndo]

Painted! Took most of the day to do the rest of the masking and painting, but next time should be much easier. Still have a lot of work to do with decals and lighting, but it's getting there.

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That is literally the coolest F%$#ing thing I've ever seen

 

[johnnydmd]

oh man... this build just keeps getting better and better even when i didnt think it was possible it could! as always, amazing work!

Thanks man! I keep thinking it's done. It's never done. I'm hoping to get the link mounts done soon, right now trying to get my 3d printer to work correctly with ABS test collar pieces, but keeps messing up. Going to eventually farm them out to get CNC'd, but it's 260 dollars for the four of them, so need to be 100% sure they are the right size.

I was planning on racing it later this month at Diggers Dungeon, even had a trailer lined up to rent to camp there, but other circumstances have sadly gotten in the way. I will be racing in two weeks at a local event though.

 

[johnnydmd]

While practicing for the local event (and not even sure this would be the truck I would run, as it's more of a Revo/TMaxx/Savage suited course), had a pretty catastrophic wreck. At about 30 mph or so, hit a major bump that make the rear kick up, and sent it cartwheeling like one of those bad wrecks on Street Outlaws Well it sure felt that way anyway. When the dust settled, the truck was right side up(which Mad Force's with aluminum axles are very good at doing because of the weight distrib), but the body was clearly detached. Further examination indicated that 2 of the posts had their plastic pieces pulled out (clearly I didn't have them in the tubes deep enough), and the rear of the body was damaged, from the tabs just ripping completely off. So that was something I really had to rethink.

Redid the body post inserts, and what I really needed to do was lower the body by shortening the straps, it sat entirely too high, and this also got the inserts deeper into the tubes so they wouldn't pop out. As for the rear mounting area, I decided the best solution would to be to print out an insert that would fit inside the tail section, and mount a .060 strip of lexan to that for mounting to the posts. This would not only strengthen and keep the main body preserved better, but also make it easier to swap out the mounting piece.

Mounting posts compressed deeper, lowering the body . Added foam protection for the body where it will contact the bumper on impact.

Body mounted, much more snug to chassis - also note in the rear at the tail, the black area near the body mounts is now 3d printed insert inside the body, exposed a bit from where the original tabs tore off some of the tail. I would have made a new body, but this is my "beater" one, and it's still pretty solid overall. The body now has rubber grommets in the holes, and held on with thumbnuts. The grommets keep them from backing off.

I worked on making the new link mounts, and grew frustrated with the trial and error aspects. So I ordered a 3018 CNC router, and designed new ones in CAD. This will be a two piece, aluminum and CF similar to my original concept, but much lighter and cleaner.

Body now fits much more tightly to chassis.

The other issue was that after the crash, saw that the front driveshaft had come out of the brake cup. We were a little baffled how it could have, as there was no way to get it back in without taking the links off. In retrospect, I realized it probably was that the chassis flexed some, being CF. I *could* add some more bracing, but I think that a wreck like that isn't the norm, and that a little flex probably saved the links from bending.

 

[johnnydmd]

On another note, with all of these changes, I weighed the truck - it's at 13.5 lbs, which for what it is, I think is pretty light. I also noted that the Renegades gave me vastly better traction than the Firestorms on a loose, but somewhat sticky dirt track. Any stickier of a track, and I'd have put the Firestorms back on for cornering, as the Renegades definitely didn't give it the drifting ability around turns.

I was racing with a couple of guys running brushless 1/10 trucks - A Maxx and a Granite. On launch they were obviously quicker to around 20 ft, but by 30ft this thing was running over top of them , as it got into it's powerband.

 

[p0ndo]

On another note, with all of these changes, I weighed the truck - it's at 13.5 lbs, which for what it is, I think is pretty light. I also noted that the Renegades gave me vastly better traction than the Firestorms on a loose, but somewhat sticky dirt track. Any stickier of a track, and I'd have put the Firestorms back on for cornering, as the Renegades definitely didn't give it the drifting ability around turns.

I was racing with a couple of guys running brushless 1/10 trucks - A Maxx and a Granite. On launch they were obviously quicker to around 20 ft, but by 30ft this thing was running over top of them , as it got into it's powerband.

Not to brag, but my slash could beat it lol. But good job.

 

[johnnydmd]

Not to brag, but my slash could beat it lol. But good job.

Too bad you're all the way in AZ, we could drop some cash on that bet

 

[p0ndo]

Too bad you're all the way in AZ, we could drop some cash on that bet

I'd be willing. I need cash anyways. Spent money on a Teton, which was an awesome purchase, but I do need more.

 

[D3MON]

man if i crashed that truck like that it probably would have about brought me to tears! awesome that overall it came out of it with minimal damage comparatively and gave new ideas to update the truck to be more durable. love the new updates, does look better with the body slightly lower as well! them tires just look mean!

 

[johnnydmd]

Figured out my 3018, and cut the CF link mounts. The collars I 3D printed, I do have some aluminum, but I'm scared, I think that it's better to send them off to be milled if I want them aluminum. For now the 3d printed collars are quite strong, I cannot see these breaking.

Anyway, I love how they came out, and now I'll be able to better mount my rear shocks. That extra hole you're seeing is for the sides where the panhard bar mounts - a section of CF gets bolted together to make a 5mm piece at the end, which got drilled and threaded for the 3m bolt, as below.

I'm pretty close to finishing these, and that *should* wrap up the project, unless I think of something else of course. Who knows, I could probably replace some of the last bits with CF now that I have the 3018 router.

That being said, I have pretty much a whole truck in a box that is the remains of the original. Much like I did with my T-Maxx, I'm building a second "practice" truck from those parts. Had to order a few things, and might make some CF parts for that one too. It's going mirror this one mostly, but a different color scheme (black, green, purple).

 

[johnnydmd]

My "practice" truck is nearly there Just waiting on one more gear and drive cup, and it should be ready to run. For the moment it's configured a little differently, and also because it's center of gravity is higher, it's going to handle differently for sure. But, that was kind of the idea anyway, to be able to test the turning limits more of various tracks/surfaces, with a less forgiving machine.

This is using my SH .28 p3, and it's geared using the 14t bell rather than a 16t. Probably a bit slower overall than the other one. I haven't weighed it yet, feels very slightly lighter mainly due to the plastic axles vs aluminum, but the other one is using a lot of CF to make up for that. Basically I just have to install the brakes and finish the drive shafts/chain, and it's done.

 

[Tunedfrog]

Looks incredible..

 

[johnnydmd]

I scrambled to finish my second Dragonoid before the race this past weekend at the Versus Monster Trucks show in East Waterford, PA, and got it done so that I could enter the "twins". This also meant that I had zero time to get any practice in, and dial in either truck, or test the new one much other than "it moves". It turned out to be both good and bad. Good that I got the second truck done. Bad that I didn't get to test and practice.

The race day was amazing. Kyle Taylor did a great job organizing and running the event, and we had a pretty good crowd watching us from the grandstands. A couple of races the PA announcer from the full sized truck event called them. There was a full bracket of trucks thanks to some of the guys bringing a bunch to enter. Everyone was extremely nice, helpful, and I think all had a great time...despite it being...HOT out. I was greatly appreciative of Kyle allowing me to enter despite being nitro powered and his club being all-electric. I would love to see more races that allow nitro in the pro mod classes - especially with the new nitro Kyosho USA-1 coming out soon. There was certainly some interest and fascination with my trucks(especially from the kiddos in the grandstands who love Bakugan Dragonoid).

The track was the pit area between the grandstands and full sized truck track, isolated by concrete road barriers. Really a cool, great idea to have it run there. It was however, rather rough, dry, and loose. Early on we got a few practice hits in, and it was clear that one, getting around the track was key, and two, there were going to be a lot of broken trucks. Mine included! At some point during warmups, my main truck lost a pin in it's front driveshaft's cv joint. Tiny e-clip broke or fell off. Probably from a flip on a jump, but not really sure. Either way, instead of getting my steering dialed in, and some time behind the wheel of both, I spent most of the morning trying to fix that shaft. Unfortunately I used my spare shaft on the new truck, lol. In the end I took a 1.5mm metal rod, bent the ends to make a little pin. Certainly not ideal, and I was gonna have to baby that thing some, but I figured it was better than running in 2WD.

In the qualifying rounds, I had a horrendous showing. The main truck's run ended instantly in a DQ when I missed the first ramp completely. My wife took video, which I analyzed, and I had the ramp lined up perfectly on approach, and as I gave it some gas, the truck veers sharply to the left. I didn't realize what happened, but closer inspection indicated that my front steering was somehow completely out of alignment, so it looks like it was a combo of me letting off the wheel after it was lined, and when giving it gas getting huge torque steer/slippage. My second truck fared only slightly better. Video showed on takeoff that the rear kicked out to the left in the loose dirt, and I overcorrected and got pretty far out of line with the ramp, got it back lined, but then wrecked on the jump. Not a good showing for me, or nitro! (I did zip around a little after wrecking so the kids in the stands could see their favorite truck fly around, lol).

The elimination round didn't start off much better. I did my best to fix the steering on the main truck, but it still wasn't right, and the truck was all over the place due to that and traction loss. The Firestorms just didn't have enough bite on this surface. I was down to my last chance, now with my backup truck, which incidentally, is setup with no rear steer, and was clearly not dialed in yet. My luck was about to change though. This time, I got a really good, straight launch, hit the ramps and corners clean, and got around the track for the win. Monkey off back. The next round I had another good run, and that got me into the quarter finals. Unfortunately here I got a little too throttle happy, got all over the track, and while I did manage to get around, I hit pretty much every turn marker, and had a flip on one of the ramps(though it landed back on it's feet). My racing day was done, but man that was a thrill, and I was happy to make it as far as I did.

Other than the driveshaft and the steering problem, I had no mechanical failures despite numerous crashes and the rough track. Given the number of broken trucks this day, that in and of itself was a minor victory, and a testament to the strength and durability of these chassis. Judging by some of the conversations I was having, I think Kyosho is gonna sell quite a few of these USA-1's next month The steering issue btw, turned out to be a rod end that got stripped. I also realized that my steering bell crank mounts were still too sloppy, they really got exposed on this track. So it was time to come up with something else.

First idea was to try axle mounted servos. Because it's a 5-link suspension with a panhard bar, they would have to mount with the arm facing towards the inside, and realistically I just couldn't see any good way to do this. I really want to keep this 5 link setup. It's unique, and precise, very little slop at all. So I saw a guy that had modeled and 3d printed a pretty heavy duty looking steering crank mount, and decided to give that a try with some modifications. First, his version had a very long bar, and I wanted to shorten this up some. I also wanted to use 8x5mm bearings for the bell crank to pivot on. So I made my changes, printed them out. I also CNC'd a CF bell crank.

I put it together, and got it set up on the front (Note, I need a longer M5 bolt yet for the crank pivot).

This bell crank is really tight with no slop of any kind, no flex, should be a big improvement. Also my custom bell crank has four mounting points so that I can adjust steering travel very easily mechanically. That should really help with increasing or decreasing rear steer depending on the track I'm running on. I still may at some point add a second servo for rear steer and control it with a potentiometer even more easily and precisely, but mainly I wanted those bell cranks and mounts to have no slop and no flex.

Eventually I will slowly upgrade the second truck, and mostly likely change it's color/body to something else, kinda don't like having two of the same, plus I want to have proper spare stuff for the Dragonoid. [edit] I had considered using a Predator body, but it's just too small, so going to stick with the Dragonoid, but do it in an "ice" theme.

 

[johnnydmd]

Finished up the steering! This *really* works well, what a huge improvement. I was able to dial back the amount of rear steer and the truck was much easier to track, but still had big cornering ability compared to non rear steer. One day I'll likely add a second servo and use a pot to adjust/switch off/on but for now I'm loving how this came out. The steering is vastly tighter and more precise.

I also spent a lot of time working on the "Ice" dragonoid.

The chassis is "done" - with the exception of the upper front links, waiting on 60mm to replace the 50mm that required a spacer. It got a lot of the same treatment as the "Fire" dragonoid, with the notable exception of aluminum axles, carbon fiber, and rear steer. It's also running a four shock setup, that is *very* squishy, and no sway bars. It's definitely a more top heavy truck than the "Fire", but it's going to utilize the Firestorms instead of the Renegades. Hoping the roll will put a bit more pressure on the rather slick-by-comparison Firestorms outer tires in turns. You can also see that there are some clear body parts waiting to be cut and painted Going with a new paint scheme that will match the chassis. This truck is lighter and geared lower than the Fire, so it's pretty snappy on shorter courses. We'll see if it can corner like the Fire, and how it is jumping with the spongy suspension.

 

[johnnydmd]

Body assembled and fitted. Tail mount and cage insert getting printed as I type. Next will mask it, paint it in a light blue/dark blue/silver/white scheme.

 

[Greywolf74]

Man, thats some good stuff right there. Sucks that you had so much trouble at the meet. Next time I'm sure you'll get em np!

 

[WickedFog]

What a cool project! Learning a lot reading through this. I have always been interested in vacuum forming ever since I watched that show Face Off, where they turned movie makeup into a competition show. Really wish they didn't cancel lots of creative ideas there.

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to share all this great info! Awesome, awesome work!

 

[johnnydmd]

Freshly painted, window masks still on, no horn yet (it will be silver), should be wrapping this thing up pretty soon! Have some decals and stuff yet to do as well. A little hard to tell from the photo, but the wing meshes and claws are a chrome.

 

[WickedFog]

Freshly painted, window masks still on, no horn yet (it will be silver), should be wrapping this thing up pretty soon! Have some decals and stuff yet to do as well. A little hard to tell from the photo, but the wing meshes and claws are a chrome.

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Amazing work man! Some of the coolest stuff I have seen in RC. Have you shared these pics with the owners of the real truck? I am sure they would absolutely love to see them. They surely have a FB page.

 

[johnnydmd]

Amazing work man! Some of the coolest stuff I have seen in RC. Have you shared these pics with the owners of the real truck? I am sure they would absolutely love to see them. They surely have a FB page.

The driver of the truck, Camden Murphy has seen it, and I actually made him one. Not sure if he ever got around to buying an RC truck to put it on though.

 

[Greywolf74]

awesome Ice version