After building my Rat Rod https://www.rctalk.com/forum/threads/new-build-project-rat-rod-rustler.137088/ I was impressed on how easy it is to stretch a Bandit chassis.
Having a TON of Traxxas parts in the bin, I decided to build an extended chassis mid-motor "thing" just to see how well it runs.
Only "real" Traxxas parts used are the chassis pan, turnbuckles, upper deck, front bumper, rear A arms and some Anaconda 4wd wheels.
Rest of the parts used:
RPM Front bumper (moved to the rear), Gearbox, and soon to be added wide front A arms.
Integy shocks
Chineseium shock towers, front bulkhead, steering blocks and hub carriers
Innovateking 120A esc and 3650 3900kv motor
DumboRC X6 TX/RX with gyro
Gearing is 90/23, that is just a starting point. I also have a few other assorted KV motors to play with.
Extending the chassis was pretty simple, one 24" x 2" x 1/8" aluminium bar from Lowes ($15) and a bunch of attachment hardware.
Because of the weird bump on the bottom of the gearbox, I decided to cut off the motor mount section of a spare Slash chassis and use that as both a spacer to level the bottom of the gearbox and provide secure mounting points for the rear shock tower. This makes reversing the gearbox easy, and with the RPM gearbox separate A arm mounts I was able to keep a 3 deg. toe-in.
I decided on a 16" (406mm) wheelbase in case I ever want to use a 1:7 scale body in the future (think Aarma Limitless). I cut and drilled the bottom aluminium piece to run from the aluminum front bulkhead all the way back to the motor mounts. I fabbed an upper deck from the same aluminium bar and attached it to the rear shock tower and to the center of the Traxxas chassis pan. Overall it's really rigid and not really that heavy (I'll weigh it later). I left about an extra inch on the rear of both aluminium bars for future expansion.
One of the reasons I stretched it and reversed the gearbox was to move the CG forward. CG is now just about 50/50, and the RX gyro sits directly on the CG (see pic with clothespin attached to current CG) and centerline. From what I understand, this will provide the best performance.
I still have to add some more reinforcement bolts between the chassis pan and aluminium bottom bar and do some cleanup, but besides adding the RPM wide front A arms it's finished.
Not having a Bandit body, I used a New Bright toy grade body from the thrift store and added a "batwing" made from a piece of 1/8" nylon sheet.
So far it runs really stable (limited to the road length in front of my house) and this week I'll take it to a bigger parking lot and really wring it out. The 16" wheelbase and 13" track width really help.
If anyone has any questions or suggestions, fire away. I've examined many Bandit conversions and I think this method is pretty elegant and easy.
BTW, those ARE crutch rubber tips on the front shock towers. I had some extras from my walker
Having a TON of Traxxas parts in the bin, I decided to build an extended chassis mid-motor "thing" just to see how well it runs.
Only "real" Traxxas parts used are the chassis pan, turnbuckles, upper deck, front bumper, rear A arms and some Anaconda 4wd wheels.
Rest of the parts used:
RPM Front bumper (moved to the rear), Gearbox, and soon to be added wide front A arms.
Integy shocks
Chineseium shock towers, front bulkhead, steering blocks and hub carriers
Innovateking 120A esc and 3650 3900kv motor
DumboRC X6 TX/RX with gyro
Gearing is 90/23, that is just a starting point. I also have a few other assorted KV motors to play with.
Extending the chassis was pretty simple, one 24" x 2" x 1/8" aluminium bar from Lowes ($15) and a bunch of attachment hardware.
Because of the weird bump on the bottom of the gearbox, I decided to cut off the motor mount section of a spare Slash chassis and use that as both a spacer to level the bottom of the gearbox and provide secure mounting points for the rear shock tower. This makes reversing the gearbox easy, and with the RPM gearbox separate A arm mounts I was able to keep a 3 deg. toe-in.
I decided on a 16" (406mm) wheelbase in case I ever want to use a 1:7 scale body in the future (think Aarma Limitless). I cut and drilled the bottom aluminium piece to run from the aluminum front bulkhead all the way back to the motor mounts. I fabbed an upper deck from the same aluminium bar and attached it to the rear shock tower and to the center of the Traxxas chassis pan. Overall it's really rigid and not really that heavy (I'll weigh it later). I left about an extra inch on the rear of both aluminium bars for future expansion.
One of the reasons I stretched it and reversed the gearbox was to move the CG forward. CG is now just about 50/50, and the RX gyro sits directly on the CG (see pic with clothespin attached to current CG) and centerline. From what I understand, this will provide the best performance.
I still have to add some more reinforcement bolts between the chassis pan and aluminium bottom bar and do some cleanup, but besides adding the RPM wide front A arms it's finished.
Not having a Bandit body, I used a New Bright toy grade body from the thrift store and added a "batwing" made from a piece of 1/8" nylon sheet.
So far it runs really stable (limited to the road length in front of my house) and this week I'll take it to a bigger parking lot and really wring it out. The 16" wheelbase and 13" track width really help.
If anyone has any questions or suggestions, fire away. I've examined many Bandit conversions and I think this method is pretty elegant and easy.
BTW, those ARE crutch rubber tips on the front shock towers. I had some extras from my walker