Portals vs straight axles.

[WickedFog]

If round one was the build than the straight axle was easy to set up. Just more options with links and shock length. But the portals once set up and AR45 had the differential on the left side. The trans output is also on the left side so the driveshaft is straight and the movement of the axle is good.

But it was a little tricky to set up.
Round 2 is the first nice dry day to shoot the entire corse. Just send both and see what happens.
Portals killed it. Totally bulldozed my back yard corse. The straight axle did great but honestly the power was its problem. But I am surprised. Not the result I was suspecting.much more to come but the AR45 rig is in more aggressive.

Man, the guys at that hobby shop are gonna flip out when you start bringing your fleet in there to do some course testing.

 

[Iowa crawler]

They have some awesome stuff. My biggest fear is they are moving to a location across the street from a race track called Hawkeye Downs. They do R/C top speed trials on the track. The guy in the hobby’s shop has a Felony that went 120 mph. I can’t even look at it.

 

[Iowa crawler]

I got this chest mount to hold the go pro. I guess it’s a dork cam. Anyhow I can’t figure any better way to film and drive at the same time. This is a quick test that took an hour because I just kept doing stupid stuff with the camera like photo rather than video or pointing at my hands. I have learned a lot so this video is my back yard test track with the straight axle Toyota hard body. It no gates no rules just hitting all the climbs and trying to film it.

 

[Tunedfrog]

Looks awesome.

 

[Doom!]

When I can remember to charge the battery I put the gopro on a hat mount. Takes a little practice aiming it.

 

[Iowa crawler]

I have a clip for the hat mount but I am easily distracted like ..SQUIRREL!!!!..

 

[Iowa crawler]

Here is a run on the portal rig. Eddie does a couple photo bombs.
The portals did great . The rig is surprisingly settled. The rock on the end is called the moon rock. It looks simple but if you rush it you can fall off easy . The gravel at the base gets displaced so it’s just one point to do a gravel sweep. Or for a comp that would get swept before the event and not touched till after.

 

[Doom!]

You make your rigs any more capable and your going to have to revamp your course! Lookin' good, tell Eddie we said hi.

 

[Iowa crawler]

Thanks for the kind words.
I think the next thing to do is add gates and a timer and count reverse and rollover. I want to start a competition between each rig as I build them or make changes. But the corse is just for tuning. The big rocks are the real test.

 

[Iowa crawler]

Took the purple nerpel out to the big rocks and installed some patina. Actually the rig did fantastic. It actually did much better than I expected and even though I slammed the body hard a couple times the only damage was some paint chips.

 

[Iowa crawler]

So far I have spent about two weeks driving the straight axle rig. Hard body or not the rig works, and does just about everything. Couple ridiculous things it has trouble with but for the most part it’s great. I drove it and made some minor adjustments as I drove it. I also changed the power to a brushless set up to give wheel speed . After that I drove it with the comp club and at my favorite crawl spots again.
Now I’m going to do the same thing with the portal rig. I have been running it around a little. Just minor tuning. But for the next few weeks I’m going to drive it and upgrade to brushless later. That should give me a pretty clear picture of the difference between the rigs.

 

[Iowa crawler]

Today I was just fooling around with the portal axle rig. I have not driven it for a couple weeks while I have been running the straight axle rig. I immediately notice how much smoother the portal rig is. It just seems to drive over everything. Its faster also, like it just smooths out the trail. Going to be fun to see how it does on the big rocks.

 

[Doom!]

Looking forward to seeing how she does.

 

[Iowa crawler]

While I’m driving and getting to know the portal axle rig I want to mess around with the straight axle rig.
I have a busted Capra axle set I can use parts from and was thinking about converting from the AR44 to AR45. The ground clearance is better with pumpkin on the left side. I would need to rotate the transmission 180 degrees so the drive shaft is going in a straight line. I can see how the portals actually can get closer to the frame. I just need a set of SCX10 iii straight axles. I don’t want the plastic kit because I don’t need shocks and all the other stuff. Just a set of metal Early Bronco axle housings.
One huge drawback is the cost of replacement front universal joints. Gotta look around for a while.

 

[Iowa crawler]

O snap. Went to my favorite hobby shop to look at axle options. And of corse monkeys love shiny.

 

[Doom!]

Curious to see how those hold up.

 

[Iowa crawler]

They are machined from 7075 aluminum. Not cast. I suspect they will be OK. First the pinion bearing are are oversize. Next they are one piece. So lighter and much less erector set construction. My old axles are all screwed together cast parts.

 

[Doom!]

Didn't know they were machined aluminum, makes sense though.

 

[Iowa crawler]

Got the front axle set up. I had to drill a new hole to lower the pan hard mount. (This metal is super tough). That allowed the axle to move all the way up. This is better for the CG and this allows the shocks to mount more vertical and still give full articulation. They also move through the full shock stroke.
I got the rear axle assembled. It’s 1 gram lighter. I’ll take it.
I like how the drive shaft is straight.

 

[Iowa crawler]

I gotta a set of links from Hard.Core RC stainless steel hiclearance links for the AR45. I just love the way the AR45 packs down. All the links just collapse and everything goes all the way down to the frame very smoothly. I set thinks up with an old pair of axial shocks. I remove the springs and just use them as I adjust the links to get the wheelbase even on both sides and full travel with out binding. Also the straight drive shaft is a bonus.