By Tony Arnold - StampedeProject.com
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This month I tackled to ultimate in a crawler build... a hand made chassis. After a few welding projects to get my metal burning techniques up to a tolerable level with my new easy-to-use Lincoln Electric Power MIG 140C wire feed welder, I thought it was time for a 1/10th scale RC Rock Crawler with a tube style chassis. Let's face it a welder isn't the typical RC tool, but chances are you have or know someone with a welder and as it turns out welding together a tube style chassis is pretty easy.
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Steel cage tube style chassis are typical in the real 1:1 scale Formula One Off Road rock crawler racing that is now growing rapidly across the US. Even in the hobby scale side of RC rock crawling, tube style chassis have become common. The major difference is that they are typically made from 1/4" or smaller steel/aluminum rod to hold up to the stresses of 3-10 foot drops from rocks.
MATERIALS & FABRICATION
For my build I used three readily available 3/16" X 3' steel rods and hand bent the rod. 1/8" rod would be plenty for a next build and MUCH easier to bend by hand.Obviously we can't do a complete How To on a build that took 30 days to complete, but the general run down is pretty straight forward. With a target of having the chassis almost as long as the wheelbase (12.5") and a maximum width of 3", I started by forming the chassis's upper deck, cab, lower body, and front shock mounts. Next up was forming a lower skid plate link mounts and additional cross braces. A little Dremeling to smoothes out the rough parts and the chassis was ready for primer.
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With this custom chassis custom links are needed. For lower and steering links I made all stainless steel links and upper aluminum links... OK OK I'll show you in a future How To article. Shocks were stock E-Maxx shocks.
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STANDARD PARTS
The rest of the build was pretty simple thanks to an Axial transmission and axle set from my RTR and only required lining up the transmission and drilling mounting holes for the transmission. The Tekin 21.5T RS Sensored Brushless system with a small MaxAmps LiPo pack provided power to the Axial Beadlocks and Switch tires all controlled by a Spectrum RX/TX system. Why not build this rig with those cool new 1.9" wheels? Simple the ProLine Switch tires are actually surprising performers... and Pro-Line had not released the 1.9" Flatirons prior to the build.
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EXTRA DETAILS
I have used RCP Crawlers' parts before and their billet aluminum hubs, rear lockouts, and 4-link conversion mount plates uped both the performance and bling factor. Fast Lane Machine fired over their new bulletproof AX10 driveshaft that looked just too durable and scale to not include. You gotta have window netting on a crawler, so I grabbed some latch hook rug matt, dyed it black trimmed and applied iron on biasing - thank you home econ class. Some Lexan was trimmed up for the windshield and thin aluminum was cut to form the rear deck. Templates were made for all the body panels which where made from 1/8" lexan, sprayed red and backed with Scotch Extreme Duct Tape for durability and then stickers were applied including some perfect sized Lincoln Electric Motorsports decals included with my welder.
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TESTING
The big questions are does it crawl and how does it perform? The answer to both is a resounding yes. In fact Brad Dumont aka "Bender" from Axial even got to give it a thrashing and thumbs up in between rounds at the Axial 2.2 Midwest Indoor Challenge. For their wheel size this little crawler can deliver surprising performance all while looking very realistic. Once I bumped up gearing to a 66T spur and 30T pinion the brushless Tekin Sensored system delivered a perfect blend of crawler control and speed for this little crawler and makes this my new favorite RC... not the fastest or the best crawler, but it does everything well and is so durable I haven't yet to break a part.
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CONCLUSION
Obviously, everyone isn't going to pick up a welder and start building a new chassis for your crawler, but the point here is that you could. This hobby isn't only about what you bolt on from a box, sometimes it's about making some custom cool at your closest welder buddy's garage.
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Sources: Lincoln Electric - www.LincolnElectric.com, Tekin Electrics - www.TeamTekin.com, Axial Racing - www.AxialRacing.com, Pro-Line - www.Pro-LineRacing, Spektrum - www.SpektrumRC.com, MaxAmps - www.MaxAmps.com, RCP Crawlers - www.RCPcrawlers.com, Traxxas - www.Traxxas.com
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