The Brushless Schumacher Menace 4X4X21 Project

The Brushless Schumacher Menace 4X4X21 Project
By Tony Arnold – StampedeProject.com

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I ended up with a Schumacher Menace for an article for RC Car with the intention of doing a complete overhaul. The problem was that there weren't any problems, everything worked perfectly...ahh what to do for the article. The result for that article was I added a 3rd channel triggered Nitrous Oxide kit to help the Menace actually reach it's claimed speed of "70+MPH". It did work and was just stupid fast, but required extensive retuning each run to get the engine to run rich enough to take advantage of the Nitrous hit at top speed. A great conversation piece, but not the most practical thing and pretty much a giant pain in the ass for very nice car. The nitrous system was removed, however over time the engine became more of a pain, the stock servos sucked, and I started to get ticked off every time I pulled it out because I seemed to spend 30 minutes attempting to get it to run right.

At some point I decided I wanted a brushless 1/10th scale 4WD truck/buggy and even came dangerously close to selling the perfectly capable Menace for something much more plasticy. That point came when I started harvesting the electrics to get it ready to sell and I realized the belt drive was not just something Schumacher cooked up, but a real 1/2" wide 3M Arimid Fiber belt - wow this thing was a real belt made to take some serious stress. As far as 1/10th scale 4WD trucks go, the Schumacher is lighter and a higher quality aluminum and carbon fiber construction rig versus the nearly total plastic 1/10th scale nitro buggies hitting the market such as the Kyosho DBX ReadySets (a nice RTR but why trade down).

Converting to brushless was surprisingly easy once I figured everything out. The biggest pain of the install was drilling a new hole for the slipper clutch pin in the hardened steel shaft. The slipper is from a standard old style Traxxas Stampede with diff balls installed in the 66T Kimbrough 32P spur with a couple extra bearing added to take up the extra length. At some point I should swap those bearings for an actual spring, but it works for now. The Motor mount is a simple fabricated 1/8" aluminum plate that allows from a 12T to 20T pinion to be installed. The 12T seems about right for the harvested Traxxas Velineon VXL-3S system pulled from a VXL Bandit. The plate bolts right to four stock transmission housing holes and it plenty secure. That part could not have been easier.

The space available for the battery was perfect for a standard length battery so there was little sense in making a battery tray to accommodate a larger oversized (wider) pack. I used some scrape 3/32" aluminum and made a battery tray with simple wings. I cut slots with my Proxxon Mini-Mill (man I love that thing) and then bent the wings to form the tray. I can still stuff a 12,000Mh MaxAmps 7.2V pack in the tray. The tray was super easy to mount. I was thinking I would need to screw it down, but after initially sticking it in place with two 1"X5" strips of 3M heavy duty double stick tape, it wasn't going anywhere. I have taken some nasty spills and it hasn't budged - time will tell.

The rest of the equipment was harvested from the Traxxas VXL Bandit including the RX/TXand high torque 120oz/in. digital 2070 servo. The servo was relocated to the left side of the chassis with a couple fabricated Derlin mounts. The receiver was mounted with more 3M double sided tape (damn that stuff is strong). The rear ESC mount was another 1/8" aluminum fabrication job that covered where the stock carbon fiber brace was located. I extended that piece a little more to allow room for the VXL ESC to mount up and screw down. I later modified the stock CF front to rear brace to cover the front little gap area in front of the steering linkage.

The only other change was to add Mugen 12mm screw-on hexs instead of the stock 14mm hexs so I could fit some of the half worn tires I have sitting around like the Pro-Line Dirt Paw (whatever they are called) I have bolted up on for the pics. In reality this thing has soooo much more power and speed than the nitro version that it is a serious tire burner. On 3S it had so much power it wheelied and flipped at over 50 MPH - 2S is plenty powerful.

I was a little worried that the VXL brushless system would be stressed pushing around a 4WD system, however the belt drive on the Menace is so smooth and efficient and the chassis is so light that I really haven't had any problems other than I think for safety sake I will add a fan on the ESC.

This thing rips. Although it's clearly a basher and does a donut every time it smash the throttle, it's a blast and just what I was wanting in a brushless 1/10th scale truck. Convenient, quite, super durable, and stupid fast and a pretty damn unique.

Long-Term Update
Overall the Menace has been a blast and has become an RC that is permanently in my truck so I can have a little bashing fun over lunch. I have dropped in a 3S pack here and there, but it seems every time I do, I end up doing something stupid and breaking something due to the stupid insane speed the 3S pack generates.

Overall the menace is a very durable vehicle and and handles front end hits, jumps, and forward end-over-end tumbles, however I always flinch when I see it cartwheeling. Hard side impacts and cartwheels seem to break parts like any other smaller 1/10th scale vehicle. Only my short aspect Ultra-Pede with a wheelbase as long as it was wide seems to handle these types of spills unscathed. 2S power has proved to be plenty fast and I have found a great home for my two 7.2V 10,000Mh MaxAmps packs that net almost two hours of run time between them. Originally, I had thought I would have had to swap to a more substantial ESC and motor, however the VXL system with integrated Lipo protection just keep slugging along without a glitch or an issue and a chimp could even remember the programming sequences.

I did go back to the original stock shock springs as the Havok springs were just way too stiff for anything other than super high speed on road runs. Swapping over to the much more forgiving springs turned the brushless Menace into something slightly more drivable around the track instead of a donut machine and drifter.

The pictured tires were burnt off to a state of being completely bald. The new Pro-Line 60 Series Dirt Hawgs I bolted on will hopefully be a little more durable and still useable if I happen to throw it on the track. I think my next body will be one of those Slash spec looking Hardcore or Desert Rat bodies from Pro-Line with their Switch tires and Epic Beadlocks to make it look more scale. If I can figure it out I might add on Slash or Savage bumpers for a little extra protection.

Overall I am very happy with the setup and I get looks and questions everywhere I go with it. The only thing I am a little concerned with is parts availability from Schumacher. Given the power the Menace is kicking out now in brushless form, the arms, hubs, and casters, could use an aluminum upgrade. For the moment I am still working through an ebay'ed parts lots so I can still keep my little buddy here running.