Just arrived... my first Truggy Conversion...

[bsodmike]

Hi all,

Here's a quick snap of what arrived as 3x UPS boxes running a hefty $500 bill in taxes... :\

I already had the MMM from a previous order. That's the Tekno V4 conversion kit at the back in the bag along with Lunsford turnbuckles. The RCScrew kit is just horrid, so I'm going to order a set from Tony's Screws.

 

[MudSlinger33]

Sweet. Good call on ditching those rc screwz. They are very soft and will strip out in no time.

 

[bsodmike]

@MudSlinger33, yeah...!

I also ordered:

• Castle Creations Neu-Castle 1515 1Y 1/8 Brushless Motor (2200kV) (link)
• Castle Creations Mamba Monster 1/8th Scale Brushless ESC
• Robitronic Machined Aluminum Single Sided Servo Horn (Red) (25T-Futaba/Savox/ACE) (link)
  
  
• Lunsford "Punisher" Hot Bodies D8T Titanium Turnbuckle & Hinge Pin Kit (link)
  
  
• King Headz Team Losi 8ight Rear Chassis Brace, this is not included in the Tekno kit (link)
  
  

I started with the build on Wednesday morning and after a long day I took this snap around 7pm

Couple points for anyone building this for the first time, especially with the Lunsford hingepins - the hingepins are of different length and one should check the details on the product page:

(6) Titanium Turnbuckles:
* (2) 4x101mm Titanium Turnbuckles (Steering)
* (4) 5x85mm Titanium Turnbuckles (Front & Rear Camber)

(8) Titanium Hinge Pins:
* (2) 3x43mm Outer Front
* (2) 3x44mm Outer Rear
* (2) 4x68mm Inner Rear
* (2) 4x71mm Inner Front

Also keep a close eye on the direction when threading the turnbuckles. I also ran into some trouble building the rear diff at around 6 pm, suffice to say I tried to close it up a bit too quickly and the center gear jumped off. Once I'd tightened it down I first found it wouldn't fit inside the diff housing, then I also noticed the diff wouldn't turn at all! I was able to rebuild this and finished for the day by around 9pm.

I would have liked to run 120k, 50k, and 30k but sadly all I've got on hand is 7k and 4k diff oil. For now it's 7k, 7k, 4k (front/centre/rear). I'll also be setting the shocks to 40wt/50wt (front/rear).

---------- Post added at 5:40 PM ---------- Previous post was at 5:37 PM ----------

I pretty much started on Thursday morning with the rear diff/bulkhead at this point.

...about an hour or two later:

Getting the wing-stay on was such a PITA. It's designed for nylon nuts to be inserted into slots and then you thread your screws. The fun part is, if it doesn't thread head on (and this doesn't have to be the case), the nut spins inside the slot. I had to get someone else to come and jam a screwdriver in so I could un-thread and redo it. Easily wasted a good 20+ mins over it.

Hinge Pins
Another note of caution to anyone else building this, the outer hinge pins on both the front and rear arms are supposedly meant to be held in place by button screws. However, the diameter of the head of the button screws just isn't large enough to properly overlap the hingepins. I took the approach of adding M3-washers to each screw, so 8x M3 washes in total. An alternative would be to use 'flanged' metric screws.

I've in fact noticed that HPI have instructed us to go with screw+washer combos on the rear inner hingepins instead of throwing on a flanged screw. Seems a bit tedious if you ask me.

As for the plastic used on this kit, it definitely feels top-notch. Threading metric screws and those Lunsford turnbuckles into the plastic is no easy task.

I finally got to the point where I installed the King Headz rear-brace. Since this wasn't meant to fit the Tekno kit, I had to use a M3-countersunk screw + M3 nylon nut. I didn't bother trying to thread a screw through the rear hole, although there does seem to be clearance.

I decided to tackle the last part of what I'd consider 'tedious' - building the shocks! I went with 40wt shock oil for the front and 50wt for the rear.

I was able to make a bit of progress on the conversion but since it was late I couldn't take any snaps. I'll do that tomorrow plus a proper walk through.

Ended up cleaning up my workspace so that I can focus on soldering the MMM up tomorrow.

---------- Post added at 5:41 PM ---------- Previous post was at 5:40 PM ----------

Tekno RC V4 Conversion Kit

I thought I'd comment on the conversion kit, as I'm sure many are interested in it as well. During the early stages of building the front and rear diff bulk-heads, the only difference was that I'd use the front centre axle and rear shaft that came with the Tekno kit.

Reason is the Tekno kit has its own machined base-plate and they've moved the centre diff all the way to the back which allows us to have the lipos nicely balance out the motor weight towards the front.

I've seen some gorgeous manuals by Kyosho and Mugen; Hot Bodies gets about a 7/10 for their manuals. Tekno's 'manual' is a 2-page print out with horrible images, and you really have to put some effort into figuring things out. Things started to get 'interesting' after I fit the battery tray, which by the way was an absolutely fantastic fit. I'm loving the three-velcro battery harness, in comparison to the harness on my Kyosho.

I'm using a Spektrum DSM Pro SM3001 receiver, which is pretty tiny as far as receivers go.

However, the Tekno guys have done a bang up job in conceiving the smallest radio box, ever. It's an extremely tight squeeze, where my receiver has to sit upright on its side due to the odd shape of the radio box. I may re-evaluate if I want to keep this next to the servo at the front or move it behind the battery tray, although this would complicate wiring some.

Update: Right now I've got the radio box screwed in with a single screw only. Why? My machined servo arm is 'too' big to work with the clearance of the radio box, if it is held down by two screws, as recommended by the manual. As for the placement, I'm going to keep it as is for now.

While Tekno recommends for direct pinion-Spur drive the motor should be mounted towards the rear of the truggy, I've moved it forwards and tightented the pinion at the end of the motor shaft. This is to allow fitting the MMM to the ESC tray and also leaving some room to easily swap out pinions as needed.

Overall, the Tekno conversion is quite good but not as awesome as the conversion kit by Kyosho made for my MP777. I'm really liking how they've moved the centre diff to the rear and balancing the heaviest components. That said, do remember that the centre shafts can wear out and with this kit, one has to buy Tekno replacements. Comparatively, RC Monsters conversion kit uses the HB stuff and it might be cheaper for some.

I've also succumbed to ordering the following from A Main Hobbies:

1 x HBS67215 Hot Bodies Aluminum Front Spindle Carrier Set (10°) $56.99
1 x HBS67216 Hot Bodies Aluminum Front Spindle Set (2) $53.99
1 x HBS68185 Hot Bodies Aluminum Rear Hub Set $45.99
1 x HBS67449 Hot Bodies 60mm Big Bore Shock Spring (Orange - 98Gf) (2) $7.29
1 x KHZ-HBD8-060 King Headz Hot Bodies D8 Front Chassis Brace $21.49
2 x MUGE0814 Mugen Ball Link 7mm: X5T $10.18
1 x PRO1178-11 Pro-Line 3.8" Badlands Tire w/Desperado 17mm 1/2" Offset MT Wheel (Black) (2) $38.99

Plus a couple extra pinions:

1 x NOV5121 Novak 5mm Bore Steel Mod 1 Pinion 3-Pack (12,13,14) $22.49
1 x TKR4172 Tekno RC "M5" Hardened Steel 5mm Bore Mod 1 Pinion Gear (12T) $10.99
1 x TKR4175 Tekno RC "M5" Hardened Steel 5mm Bore Mod 1 Pinion Gear (15T) $10.99

---------- Post added at 5:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 5:41 PM ----------

I work up early on Friday and got working on soldering up a Deans connector onto the MMM little after 5 am. It wasn't long before I ran a 'live' test:

Noticed that I moved the motor back to the rear-position and mounted the MMM farther back to allow changing pinion gears as needed. There isn't one fitted as I'm waiting for these to arrive next week!

I also wanted to solve the cramped nature of the radio tray and the 'far-too-long' servo arm. Interestingly, the lead from the MMM was a bit too short and I ended up trying this with my receiver out of the radio box.

...and it made me try something else, "What if..." ~ ended up finding a better spot for the radio tray.

---------- Post added at 5:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 5:42 PM ----------

I've never painted an RC shell before and this was my first time. I was looking up Parma RC bodies and came across a YouTube video where I was shown the neat trick of removing lexan by using an exacto blade to 'score' the lexan and simple 'crack' sections off. Yes, it's that easy... until the blade slips that is!

Oh well, I knew it wasn't going to be perfect the first time around. I'm aiming for 'half-decent' at this point. I start off with a very light coat, almost a misting

...and gradually adding layers on top.

Once the black section had fully dried, I masked it off to paint the hood in red.

At first It thought it looked rather dull, considering I had no access to any metalic paints. Then I pulled off the over-spray film...!

Using Gundam Paints

I simply could not find any local sources for Polycarbonate paints and since I've painted Gunpla in the past I decided to resort to using the only spray paint I had on hand. I began by using some scrap lexan from the body trimming process and was quite happy with the results.

There was no evidence of 'flaking off' or any of the issues people seem to be reporting when using Tamiya TS paints. Therefore, I made it a point to steer clear of my TS paints. Here's an example of what a 'Gundam' paint can looks like:

I used that same No. 60 Gundam red and No. 80 Gundam Blue. Once I had finished spraying black, red, then blue and it had fully dried, I threw on 2-3 coats of top-coat. Do note, that all these paints are in matt finish including the top-coat. Here's a snap under the shell post drying of the several layers of top-coat, notice how flat-matt it is.

I finished an entire can of black just on the sides and that was my last one, so for now, this body will remain with a multicoloured "bottom". I'm debating if I should 'ruin' it with decals or not at this point.

Will continue with updates once the upgrades and much needed pinion gears arrive next week

---------- Post added at 5:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 5:44 PM ----------

I decided to install the 12T pinion that I have on my Kyosho, it's simple to fit a new pinion on it without adjusting the motor positioning (they are module 1 after all). Ended up doing some cable management and used the hole in the center diff mount that's meant for the mechanical brakes to run a zip-tie through. Also strapped on a 4S 4,500 mAh Turnigy nano-tech lipo

...and I had to see what the body looked like fitted

Keen eyed folks will notice I haven't fitted the hex hubs for the wheels - I'm waiting on an adapter set from Ofna allowing me to mount older 14mm wheels with 1/2" offset so I can run my Bad Joes.

 

[MudSlinger33]

Wow! What a right up. She's coming together very nice.

 

[Greywolf74]

Awesome looking kit...I'm sure it will be a beast!

 

[bsodmike]

Thanks guys

 

[HPIguy]

Nice work, and nice rig!!

 

[Barrymartin]

Great Job, you project is really amazing, I must say that the Color of this rc car make it more demanding, thanks for sharing this

 

[bsodmike]

Well, my MMM ESC erupted into flames and caught fire... I was simply doing a bench test and *boom* it went, and sadly didn't catch it on camera. However, this chap has a [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQT4wxGsb-Y]clip of him battling a similar fire that's a must see[/ame].

Decided to go for a HobbyWing Xerun 150A ESC. I should receive it sometime tomorrow...!

Today I received some much needed bits and pieces, just to name a few (all codes are for A Main Hobbies):

DER-210-HB DE Racing XD "Extreme Duty" Rear Skid Plates (3) (Hot Bodies D8/D8T)

HBS67449 Hot Bodies 60mm Big Bore Shock Spring (Orange - 98Gf) (2) for the front shocks

HBS67456 Hot Bodies 76mm Big Bore Shock Spring (Orange - 74Gf) (2) for the rear shocks

PRO1178-11 Pro-Line 3.8" Badlands Tire w/Desperado 17mm 1/2" Offset MT Wheel (Black) (2) x2 sets

I also got some aluminium upgrades as per @LCM94's advice:

• HBS67215 Hot Bodies Aluminum Front Spindle Carrier Set (10°)
• HBS67216 Hot Bodies Aluminum Front Spindle Set (2)
• Hot Bodies Aluminum Rear Hub Set // these are the 'Hara' hubs, offering a bit more tuning options
• KHZ-HBD8-060 King Headz Hot Bodies D8 Front Chassis Brace
• MUGE0814 Mugen Ball Link 7mm: X5T // as recommended by @Chainsaw

Since the fire, I've ordered some EC5 connectors. Reason being I had a HXT<->Deans(female) cable made with the MMM battery connectors wired to Deans(male).

Due to the poor current handling of Deans, in the case of the discharge that set the MMM on fire, the solder-points on the Deans(female) melted and pooled on the Tekno chassis. By a sheer stroke of luck and the heatshrink I had applied - they didn't fuse together (if that had happened, it would have shorted the 4,500 mAh 4S lipo... and I don't want to think of how that would have ended...).

Today, I ripped the Vortex R8 130A ESC from my Kyosho and performed a complete re-wiring. For the purposes of todays tuning runs, I resorted to 2x Turnigy 2S 4,000 mAh 40-50C lipos in series using the 'stock' Deans harness supplied by Team Orion (which incidentally uses 12AWG wiring).

Also installed 1x DE Racing rear skid plate (it's a three pack, so you have spares...) and switched out the stock springs for the stronger orange springs. I have the stock springs as backups and the upgraded springs help in maintaining a better chassis clearance; plus you want to go for better shock-positioning.

Before running, I first set about adjusting the camber angle on the front wheels (leaning slightly outwards, circa 1.5-2 degrees) and made sure they had a toe-angle of 0-degrees. The rear wheels already have a toe-angle as set by the stock install; I just ensured the rear wheels had a camber angle of 0-degrees. It didn't take as much as 30 mins before disaster struck... I had killed the HPI servo (stock HPI servo that comes with the Savage 25 - yes, it's that old).

It wasn't long before I ripped out the 1-month new Futaba S9350 Digital High Torque Servo (FUTM0235 @ A Main Hobbies). The steering response was incredibly better; this change also removed some wobbling of the front-wheels when reversing at a lick. Suffice to say, my Kyosho is practically a 'converted' roller at this point, apart from the second Castle 1515 motor and a second Spektrum DSM Pro receiver. The lipos went for a re-charge during the servo replacement operation.

On a fresh pack, I took the D8T to my street. Today is a Saturday, so I had to mind the traffic as it built up. I managed to get around 40 mins in two 20 min runs with some downtime for cooling. Compared to my Kyosho, this is the first time I've felt the motor get as 'warm'. I say warm because I can touch it for about 5 seconds, but then I'm inclined to let go Also the lipos were lightly heated. I'm running a 12T pinion and stock 50T spur gear with a diff setup of front/centre/rear 7k/7k/4k with front/rear 40/50wt shock oil.

Got some fantastic high-speed runs (full throttle) plus jumped a speed-bump several times; went all belly up once as well. I'm all prepped for a proper bashing session tomorrow, which will be videoed :mrgreen:

I'll be running the 4S 4,500 mAh 45-90C nano-tech pack so fingers crossed, everything will continue to run smoothly :twisted:

---------- Post added at 4:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 4:34 PM ----------

First Serious Bash!

Videos of our bash are online. Watch it on Vimeo if you cannot see it on YouTube

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_6tiQF4IcY&list=UU2WrSMLWxuFqMFTWreKzYmg&index=1
Also on Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/63100979

Suffice to say, yesterday's bash was absolutely awesome. I would have liked to have gotten more air-time but since I'd run out of double-sided tape, my ESC was only held on via a zip-tie - which broke after that last jump. I managed to run for over 45-min with the ESC hanging by the sheer strength of the 4mm banana plugs. Once I got home, even they had come out, and it was hanging on by their tips!

My friend driving the Savagery was using my set of 'blue' Turnigy lipos 2S at a time; once we hit the dirt construction site, he switched to a new pack. I was driving on less than "half-tank" and at the end I'd reached 85% off a storage charge (each cell down to circa 3.56Vdc)

This morning I did a proper clean which mean't removing the ESC tray, loosening the battery tray to let dirt and tiny pebbles fall out. Due to the grit and grime, I pulled the entire centre diff out for a proper cleanup and decided to do a rebuild. After 'two' runs and the diff fluid was already a dark-grey :O I replaced it with 300,000wt oil. The front/rear diffs will be rebuilt by the end of the week, knock on wood.

Also notice I've added 'boots' to the center drive-cups. Next time, I'll grab some longer boots.

This was the state of the lid post-bash as well

 

[bsodmike]

Yesterday the Xerun ESC arrived and today I strapped it on post-complete clean up after the last bash. The centre diff has 300k oil and the torque was just insanely high. I could tell from the fact that the motor/lipos were warming up after say 4-5 mins of running and there was very very little top-speed. All on a 12T pinion @ 4S.

The torque developed at the wheels is insane, I could easily pull wheelies on stock punch control - thankfully the spoiler acts as a wheelie-bar. There so much torque it's pretty much all over the place on gravel/dirt.

The ESC didn't break a sweat, pretty awesome. Interestingly it comes pre-soldered with 4mm banana sockets for the motor connector and a serial Deans harness on the battery connection end. And it's rated for 150A!

Tomorrow, I'm going switch the centre diff to 50k oil, and up to a 13T pinion. Then I plan to increase the punch control from its current (stock) setting of 5/9, but that's after I restore top-speed performance.

 

[NHB_RC]

A little jealous here, i LOVE Truggies, i have two right now looking to buy another to convert so i have at least have 1 e Truggy..

 

[bsodmike]

Here's a clip from yesterday running the changes I mentioned earlier. Performance is so much better; motor temps are still at the point where I can touch it for a good while. I'll be carrying my IR therm in future for better readings - I may take it for a spin today as well.

YouTube: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvYavwHUK84"]Monster Air Time: Hot Bodies D8T Tekno + Castle 2200Kv Brushless + Xerun ESC @ 4S - YouTube[/ame]

---------- Post added at 12:17 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:09 AM ----------

A little jealous here, i LOVE Truggies, i have two right now looking to buy another to convert so i have at least have 1 e Truggy..

I hadn't considered truggies before as a serious contender against "Monster trucks", that was until I got my D8T running like it has been now! Strap on monster wheels and get your config down to something decent (and drivable) and it's a huge amount of fun!

The longer chassis, and if you can, with a lower centre-of-gravity means you'll have a far better performing RC than say a Savage Flux HP. I prefer not to wheelie, but I suspect once my 2x 3S nano-tech's arrive this week - I will have have the power to do so as I tweak that punch control towards 7/9 - 8/9.

Since changing from (front/centre/rear) 7k/7k/4k to 7k/50k/4k as in the video above, I'm noticing some understeer. I think I'll rebuild the kit to 50k/50k/30k and evaluate then, also try and tighten up that servo saver a tad.

 

[NHB_RC]

Don't get me wrong, i love MT's but i love my truggies even more..

 

[bsodmike]

This was my original plan:

My 2x Turnigy nano-tech 5000mah 3S 45~90C Lipo Packs are *here* @ the PO, so I'm hopefully collecting them tomorrow. I've got to sort out the ride height/droop tomorrow and will be bolting on the aluminium upgrades then; same time I'll get down to finishing all the soldering work:

• Directly solder an EC5(male) plug onto the Xerun's battery terminals.
• Build a serial harness with 2x HXT4mm w/12AWG silicon wire 10cm (ESC side) in series, terminated with an EC5(female) connector.
• Cut the 4mm banana sockets on the Xeruns motor leads and solder 6.5mm Castle Bullets (female) receptacles

The above will clean up the wiring significantly, and will also allow me to use my 4S pack as a backup. I'll be giving up deans in favour of EC5.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBN_yhBD1bs"]High Current Brushless RC: HOWTO Upgrade a Xerun 150A ESC for 6S Power! - YouTube[/ame]

I decided to step things up a bit and stuck to EC5 connectors entirely for the battery side of things. Reason being, the HXT leads have 12AWG wire instead of 10AWG wire, and I didn't want any 'weak links' in there!

Even switched the connectors on my newly arrived 2x 3S nano-tech's to EC5

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQGgFAvai4I"]HOWTO: Soldering EC5 Connectors to Lipo Batteries - YouTube[/ame]

 

[bsodmike]

Quick update and I'll follow up with snaps in the morning. It was quite late in the evening when I decided to give my '6S' setup a spin.

Disaster struck at the bench test - the left wheel was spinning freely... . The front-universal joint's pin-shaft had been cut to half their size, probably from the 'Monster Air Time' jumps. With no spares, I took to my Savage's part box and found a pin that looked like it would work...

Success...! I was able to run it for about 20 mins out in the street. The top-end speed is just incredible; I'm running 2x 3S lipos along with the 'ride' changes suggested by TRiN. Far better front-traction and handling under acceleration.

I need to order these two:

https://www.rcplanet.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=HBS67404 x2

https://www.rcplanet.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=TKR20036 x2 these look awesome. I won't use the flathead screw of the universal joint as advised by Tekno RC on their site ...

 

[bsodmike]

Hi guys...

Got some updates as promised! Here's the complete wiring job post changing over to EC5 and using 10AWG throughout (completely!)

I've done my best to 'eyeball' and adjust the rear-ride height and go for less droop at the front (higher downstop). Here's a snap of the front - since I'm running foams, the bottom snap has me just about lifting the chassis at the point where the wheels are about to leave the floor

Here's the rear droop, note the upward travel in the bottom part of the snap

I'd say the rear sits about 10-20mm above the front, but I don't have any gauges to measure this... yet!

Woke up at 0440 hrs and ran this monster at around 6 am ~ I'm just completely blown away by its sheer power and performance. I'll post thoughts on handling/performance once the video is up.

 

[bsodmike]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X62082Xxyu4"]Hot Bodies D8T Tekno (Castle/Xerun) Brushless Monster: Sprints on 6S Power! - YouTube[/ame]

 

[bsodmike]

Here's a time-lapse video of my re-installing the upgraded Xerun ESC, enjoy!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4FCD16ad-g"]Hot Bodies D8T Tekno-E: HobbyWing Xerun ESC Install (Time-lapse Footage) - YouTube[/ame]