Build Thread The Bar Crawler - Beer’s SCX24

[BustedAw11]

Wait, your a neighbor and into scx24's?

Ahhhhh mannnnn!

I have an scx24 problem..... big problem...

If you've got questions hit me up!

 

[RudyF6]

I have an scx24 problem..... big problem...

Can't be that big...
They're so little!

 

[Beer_Goggles_RC]

Wait, your a neighbor and into scx24's?

Ahhhhh mannnnn!

I have an scx24 problem..... big problem...

If you've got questions hit me up!

We definitely gonna link up for some crawling once this thing gets finished!

Actually I do have a question. This thing has barely any flex. I imagine thats due to the shock stroke length?

I was spoiled with flex by my redcat danchee ridgerock

 

[WickedFog]

So I actually just ordered some 1" injoras with the brass rings, like -4.75 offset. Also got brass knuckles for the front and a brass diff cover for the rear. 56mm injora tires (stocks on this thing are ~52mm) so might need to do a little body trimming.

Thinking either portals or a body will be next. Probably portals

Portals will require some other modifications. If you think about it, you don't really want to lose travel or articulation, or raise your ride height. You just want the axle tube and diff housing to be higher. But there are lots of things that will move upward with the axle tube and diff housing. Your upper shock mounts need to move up and probably angle inboard towards the center of the truck front to back. The servo is going be higher, traveling farther up into the frame rails (which if you look at your truck, is probably already close to hitting everything up there. Your link mounting points on the axle side will move up. And these might run into chassis crossmembers, battery tray, ESC tray, etc. Link lengths might need to change, especially the upper links, to keep your pinion angled correctly.

Compress your suspension on both axles and look at all that stuff and find clearance issues you'll be facing. Your best bet will likely be a comp style LCG chassis.

Look into some of these sites for chassis that might work for ya...
https://mazz-designs.com/

 

[BustedAw11]

Portals will require some other modifications. If you think about it, you don't really want to lose travel or articulation, or raise your ride height. You just want the axle tube and diff housing to be higher. But there are lots of things that will move upward with the axle tube and diff housing. Your upper shock mounts need to move up and probably angle inboard towards the center of the truck front to back. The servo is going be higher, traveling farther up into the frame rails (which if you look at your truck, is probably already close to hitting everything up there. Your link mounting points on the axle side will move up. And these might run into chassis crossmembers, battery tray, ESC tray, etc. Link lengths might need to change, especially the upper links, to keep your pinion angled correctly.

Compress your suspension on both axles and look at all that stuff and find clearance issues you'll be facing. Your best bet will likely be a comp style LCG chassis.

Look into some of these sites for chassis that might work for ya...
https://mazz-designs.com/

Portals keep your axles exactly where they are originally. Thats the point in them. Axle stays in same location and ground clearance is gained by lowering the axle shafts that the wheels are attaching too through gear boxes at the ends of the axles.

There would be zero clearance issues or mounting issues.

 

[WickedFog]

Portals keep your axles exactly where they are originally. Thats the point in them. Axle stays in same location and ground clearance is gained by lowering the axle shafts that the wheels are attaching too through gear boxes at the ends of the axles.

There would be zero clearance issues or mounting issues.

Which portals did you use on what chassis?

 

[BustedAw11]

A fantastic setup would be some Meus isokenetic axles in the "mullet" setup. They sell em that way now so super convenient. What that is is a stock straight axle in the front and a portal axle in the rear. Gives you all the ground clearance where its most important but keeps the front low and stable. They have 52 degrees of steering to boot. Comes with an adjustable servo mount also. Very nice setup!

Id stick with the nylon axles. They are actually known to run slicker over the rocks and it helps keep overall weight down. If you stay brushed you really dont want more then about a 350ish gram truck. It'll get awfully boggy after that.

I've had very good luck with the LGRP Reaper 66t motor in 375g and under trucks. They are cheap to boot.

Meus links are about the best deal right now. You get a whole set of links (that bind much less then injora) for 20$ and they come with the steering links as well.
(Theyre seriously single bend versions of the same links that mazz design sells. I think they come from the same place, just a good bit less $$).

Lots of chassis out there. I've been 3d printing some as of lately. 24yep (scx24 guy on YouTube) has a free version of his chassis out there if you've got a printer.

 

[Beer_Goggles_RC]

A fantastic setup would be some Meus isokenetic axles in the "mullet" setup. They sell em that way now so super convenient. What that is is a stock straight axle in the front and a portal axle in the rear. Gives you all the ground clearance where its most important but keeps the front low and stable. They have 52 degrees of steering to boot. Comes with an adjustable servo mount also. Very nice setup!

Id stick with the nylon axles. They are actually known to run slicker over the rocks and it helps keep overall weight down. If you stay brushed you really dont want more then about a 350ish gram truck. It'll get awfully boggy after that.

I've had very good luck with the LGRP Reaper 66t motor in 375g and under trucks. They are cheap to boot.

Meus links are about the best deal right now. You get a whole set of links (that bind much less then injora) for 20$ and they come with the steering links as well.
(Theyre seriously single bend versions of the same links that mazz design sells. I think they come from the same place, just a good bit less $$).

Lots of chassis out there. I've been 3d printing some as of lately. 24yep (scx24 guy on YouTube) has a free version of his chassis out there if you've got a printer.

Printing your own comp chassis?

 

[BustedAw11]

Printing your own comp chassis?

Here's one I'm Printing for the wifes Basecamp. 24yep file.

 

[WickedFog]

A fantastic setup would be some Meus isokenetic axles in the "mullet" setup. They sell em that way now so super convenient. What that is is a stock straight axle in the front and a portal axle in the rear. Gives you all the ground clearance where its most important but keeps the front low and stable. They have 52 degrees of steering to boot. Comes with an adjustable servo mount also. Very nice setup!

Id stick with the nylon axles. They are actually known to run slicker over the rocks and it helps keep overall weight down. If you stay brushed you really dont want more then about a 350ish gram truck. It'll get awfully boggy after that.

I've had very good luck with the LGRP Reaper 66t motor in 375g and under trucks. They are cheap to boot.

Meus links are about the best deal right now. You get a whole set of links (that bind much less then injora) for 20$ and they come with the steering links as well.
(Theyre seriously single bend versions of the same links that mazz design sells. I think they come from the same place, just a good bit less $$).

Lots of chassis out there. I've been 3d printing some as of lately. 24yep (scx24 guy on YouTube) has a free version of his chassis out there if you've got a printer.

I have the Meus Isokinetic axles. I also believe the 6x6 chassis Doom sent me is made by Meus, because just like on the Isokinetic rear axle, the threads were all F'd up. Their axles are super nice, but their machinists can't tap small holes for chit. They either need to be using form taps on all their aluminum stuff, or they need to hire machinists that know when it's time to swap out a tap.

I also have some LGRP Super 8 axles. Now those are nice. But they rake you over the coals for everything they sell you.

As for a 3d printed chassis... I'll stick to carbon on my little crawlers. If you get an overhang over your front wheels preventing the tires from continuing forward and up, the the rear tires will drive forward and fold your chassis in half lol. A guy on here did it with stock steel rails. As long as you don't get in a bind, they should be ok though.

I designed and printed a number of chassis for various small scalers. One was a WPL monster truck conversion. It worked ok for that, but there isn't much torque there, plus I beefed it up so it was pretty indestructable against 16th scale power.

This was before I fixed the shock mounting points

4 wheel steering to boot.

And this one I would never try to drive it over anything very rough. It's just a shelf queen. 3d printed crawler chassis are ok til they're not.

All this is 3d printed.

 

[BustedAw11]

I have the Meus Isokinetic axles. I also believe the 6x6 chassis Doom sent me is also made by Meus, because just like on the Isokinetic rear axle, the threads were all F'd up. Their axles are super nice, but their machinists can't tap small holes for chit. They either need to be using form taps on all their aluminum stuff, or they need to hire machinists that know when it's time to swap out a tap.

I also have some LGRP Super 8 axles. Now those are nice. But they rake you over the coals for everything they sell you.

As for a 3d printed chassis... I'll stick to carbon on my little crawlers. If you get an overhang over your front wheels preventing the tires from continuing forward and up, the the rear tires will drive forward and fold your chassis in half lol. A guy on here did it with stock steel rails. As long as you don't get in a bind, they should be ok though.

I designed and printed a number of chassis for various small scalers. One was a WPL monster truck conversion. It worked ok for that, but there isn't much torque there, plus I beefed it up so it was pretty indestructable against 16th scale power.
View attachment 254491

This was before I fixed the shock mounting points
View attachment 254492

4 wheel steering to boot.
View attachment 254500

And this one I would never try to drive it over anything very rough. It's just a shelf queen. 3d printed crawler chassis are ok til they're not.
View attachment 254494
All this is 3d printed.
View attachment 254493
View attachment 254497
View attachment 254498

Agree on the 3d printed chassis. Her truck is running stock tires and the stock .30 motor... it'll be okay
Plus, since you've printed them you know how fast it is to print them.

I've gotten a couple iso axles and have yet to have any issues at all with them.

Fun thing about this bobby is we all have our unique experiences

Cool trucks BTW. The top one at a glance gives off clod buster vibes to me. Must just be the stance and those tires. Definitely cool.

 

[WickedFog]

Agree on the 3d printed chassis. Her truck is running stock tires and the stock .30 motor... it'll be okay
Plus, since you've printed them you know how fast it is to print them.

I've gotten a couple iso axles and have yet to have any issues at all with them.

Fun thing about this bobby is we all have our unique experiences

Cool trucks BTW. The top one at a glance gives off clod buster vibes to me. Must just be the stance and those tires. Definitely cool.

Thanks. Those tires are off New Bright 1/16 Moster Jam toy trucks. I bet I bought a dozen of them off ebay. A tad hard, but yeah, they look good. When I get a resin printer I want to redo the wheels. The models were more detailed, but some of the small stuff failed, so I removed it.

Yeah, if you read through this thread, you will see it wasn't just the axles. The upper link mounts on the rear axles both had a stripped hole. The shock mounts on one of the rear axles were both stripped. The transmission housing had a stripped hole in it. And Meus is the only company I know of who design their stuff so only their stuff works on it. Some of their parts won't even fit SCX24 components. Like the servo mount on the Meus Isokinetic axles won't fit anything else. And the fact that the Treal transmission housing does not fit the 6x6 chassis out there... that's gotta be Meus. Their beauty is only skin deep, and I lost a lot of respect for tham after all that.

 

[Beer_Goggles_RC]

So I had mentioned lack of flex previously in the thread. @BustedAw11 DM'd me and provided some insight on how shock inclination can help provide some more travel. I was able to find some spots on the stock chassis that I could use to make some inclination and ended up gaining about .5" of extra flex (thanks homie)
Had to remove the body to make room for the extra travel. The rear shocks will require a shim or two to level out the ride height. Also went ahead and removed the bumpers for more clearance, and factory rock sliders because the tires I have coming wont clear them.

Quite a bit on order
1" injora beadlocks w" brass rings -4.4mm offset
58x24mm injora swamp stoppers
Injora silicone tire inserts
AXSPEED Aluminum high clearance links
Injora IR60 bumper set
Brass steering knuckles (might leave off until brushless conversion)
Brass diff cover for rear or front diff depending on if i run the brass knuckles
6mm brass hex extenders
Comp crawler body (similar to the proline cliffhanger)

I think the new body is going to be the biggest upgrade. The Lexus body is nice, but pretty top heavy and limiting on tire clearance.

Also will probably have to figure out some body mounts. But might just be able to use the goofy hinge system that comes stock. Ideally I would like a classic pin style body mount system.

Did a little research on portals, seems like some guys dont like them because of how they raise the center of gravity. We'll see how the bigger tires do.

 

[BustedAw11]

So I had mentioned lack of flex previously in the thread. @BustedAw11 DM'd me and provided some insight on how shock inclination can help provide some more travel. I was able to find some spots on the stock chassis that I could use to make some inclination and ended up gaining about .5" of extra flex (thanks homie)
Had to remove the body to make room for the extra travel. The rear shocks will require a shim or two to level out the ride height. Also went ahead and removed the bumpers for more clearance, and factory rock sliders because the tires I have coming wont clear them.

Quite a bit on order
1" injora beadlocks w" brass rings -4.4mm offset
58x24mm injora swamp stoppers
Injora silicone tire inserts
AXSPEED Aluminum high clearance links
Injora IR60 bumper set
Brass steering knuckles (might leave off until brushless conversion)
Brass diff cover for rear or front diff depending on if i run the brass knuckles
6mm brass hex extenders
Comp crawler body (similar to the proline cliffhanger)

View attachment 254502

View attachment 254503

I think the new body is going to be the biggest upgrade. The Lexus body is nice, but pretty top heavy and limiting on tire clearance.

Also will probably have to figure out some body mounts. But might just be able to use the goofy hinge system that comes stock. Ideally I would like a classic pin style body mount system.

Did a little research on portals, seems like some guys dont like them because of how they raise the center of gravity. We'll see how the bigger tires do.

The funnest part of these little trucks for me is just messing around and seeing what you can setup differently.

A lot of times just switching stuff around can seriously change the trucks characteristics


You could always give the Lexus body and bumpers a trim and keep those tires clearing. I have to do that even 100% stock on the Basecamps.

 

[Beer_Goggles_RC]

The funnest part of these little trucks for me is just messing around and seeing what you can setup differently.

A lot of times just switching stuff around can seriously change the trucks characteristics


You could always give the Lexus body and bumpers a trim and keep those tires clearing. I have to do that even 100% stock on the Basecamps.

I figure by the time I'm done with this, every original part will have been replaced so I can just reassemble it and start over again but the Lexus body is really nice so I'd hate to cut it up and regret it

 

[Chubaka]

We definitely gonna link up for some crawling once this thing gets finished!

Actually I do have a question. This thing has barely any flex. I imagine thats due to the shock stroke length?

I was spoiled with flex by my redcat danchee ridgerock

To help my scx10ii look more scale i drained the shocks and put a Lil 3in1 to lubricate them. Maybe try thst. It being a mini and lightweight, maybe the fluid is too thick?

 

[Beer_Goggles_RC]

To help my scx10ii look more scale i drained the shocks and put a Lil 3in1 to lubricate them. Maybe try thst. It being a mini and lightweight, maybe the fluid is too thick?

I don't think these little thing have any fluid in them but I could be wrong lol they're just so damn small

 

[BustedAw11]

I don't think these little thing have any fluid in them but I could be wrong lol they're just so damn small

Not only is there no fluid, theres not even pistons. Its just a screw thats smooth except for the end.

Ill point out also that the 43mm double barrels you showed me are also friction shocks. They work fine on these small trucks.

Alot of folks are running the 39mm oil shocks without oil (well more like a single drop for slickness). They just tend to be smoother. More consistent.

 

[Ritz413]

I ran these on my last scx24 crawler build. Grease instead of oil inside to smooth out travel. Adjustable, and came with 3 sets of springs for different spring rate. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0B42729SN?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title
also i used a lower mount on the frame for ride height/articulation.

 

[Doom!]

I use a lightweight oil like sewing machine oil, or gun oil. Just a drop helps keep the shocks from catching when in motion.

Also helps to make sure you don't have too much tension, sometimes adding or subtracting the washers at the connection point can make a big difference in how smooth your shocks work. They give you those washers for a reason.