ECX Temper rock crawler

I'm curious how your lower skid plate ball studs are holding in. I lost one. Epoxied it in and thought they (rears) were solid. Nope. Popped one again. Wasn't even solid rock. Most lose pebbly over hard dirt and old street pavement mounts. Trying to locate a Himoto or other similar brand aluminum skid plate. I still have some aluminum plate that I am going to attempt to wrap the bottom side up around the edges as far in as the tranny and tap holes for the ball studs. If it works I can forget about ordering one.
 
Mine were fine until last night - lost a stud on my newly stacked indoor rockpile (By the way, I can climb the brick now, but not straight-on yet - it still needs one back tire to climb first due to torque-twist and/or not enough weight in front). This is also after I had ground down the extra threads. Pretty sure it's the same one I made the mistake of trying to cut-off while still mounted (heated plastic, etc.). I'll see if my repair holds. I've already started thinking about making my own skid plate out of cheap plastic cutting board material. Thicker than stock, but it will allow me to put the lower studs exactly where I want them, and maybe leave a little to cover the frame ends (I find where the aluminum hits the rock, it doesn't slide well) - I'll see if I can work up a drawing so you can get an idea what I'm aiming for. I still need to get my top-link parts too. I think I'll make a video of what I've got so far, if I can keep my brother's 1/10th scale crawler out of the way.
 
Fixed the one link, then the one next to it pulled out. Put that end back to stock (the front, steering limited again). I got a cheap plastic cutting board to make my new lower skid out of - time to get to cutting it up and poking holes in it...
 
Juanmarteen said:
Fixed the one link, then the one next to it pulled out. Put that end back to stock (the front, steering limited again). I got a cheap plastic cutting board to make my new lower skid out of - time to get to cutting it up and poking holes in it...
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That sounds like a good idea. Makes me want to try and make one out of a chunk of Teflon. Only problem is I don't have chunks, only 1"x3/8"x10ft strips. I've thought about bonding a couple pieces by the spine with some loctite stuff made for it and carving one out that way.
I also thought about doing this with a piece of aluminum since it might be a little easier.
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At any rate I have to do something soon. Ive been busy flashing roms to this phone and i dont enjoy doing that stuff amymore. I just want my phone to work right. I miss driving our Temper Tantrum!
 
Very similar to what I'm thinking, but with the thicker plastic, I'm going to try to put the lower balls sideways near the center (pointing towards each-other, maybe at a slight angle, with a big enough gap between to install the arm end), which should restore some of my wheelbase (I'll lose some break-over angle unless I can find some appropriate bent links). I also want to have it hang down a couple mm to cover the aluminum rails just under where it bolts to the rail (extend the skid plate to cover bottom of lowest point on frame).
 
Juanmarteen said:
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I can't wait to see how it comes out. I really like your idea and I think its gonna work/look great. Im gonna try flipping some tabs up so I can mount the ball studs in a similar fashion.

I do want to try Teflon using your design. I was dragging a rock across a piece and man it just glides off like butter. We use it on chain guides around a radius for curved conveyor belts. We have wear strips that have size 60 chains riding on them 18 hours a day, every single day for over 10 years that are just now reaching end of life. I know its overkill for a toy but hey, why not?
 
r8derhed5150 said:
I do want to try Teflon using your design. I was dragging a rock across a piece and man it just glides off like butter. We use it on chain guides around a radius for curved conveyor belts. We have wear strips that have size 60 chains riding on them 18 hours a day, every single day for over 10 years that are just now reaching end of life. I know its overkill for a toy but hey, why not?
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No such thing as overkill with hobbies. :D Pushing the boundries is part of the fun!
 
Juanmarteen said:
Parking pose shot (drove there) after gluing my balls back on :cool:
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Nice pile. Glad to hear you got your balls back. Mine are still on sitting on the cutting board waiting for medical attention. Just been too busy preparing for a new contractor to take over at work and its taking up all my work time play time. The nerve!

I like your pile. I have a pick up. I should probably collect some old sidewalk chunks and river rock somewhere and stack them in the garage out of the reach of this El Nino were supposed to get hit with this year.

We should have two crawlers going by then. Ordering dads Gmade sawback next week. It will be nice to see my dad at the kitchen table with his hobby spread again. Its been quite a while now since he's done that and it was practically an every day site when in was a kid. I mean when I was a school kid.
 
Got my balls back. This is just temporary. We missed driving it this weekend so I had to do a quick fix so we can get a nice Sunday rock session in.

It's just a cap for the stock plate and I tapped the holes in the plate to use as a nut for the ball studs. The larger holes are only for access since its a pain to thread the studs withe the tranny in the way. This allows me to do install the cap and studs prior to the tranny. I'll grind the excess threads down tomorrow before we leave.
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Juanmarteen said:
View attachment 132 Like this:
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How thick is this stuff you plan on using? One thought that came to mind is if its too thick and the it raises the tranny, I fear it will increase the drive shaft angle significantly and then... you just might encounter binding of the u-joints like I initially did when my wheelbase ended up getting shorter from my 4 link mod.

You think you might have to chisel out a cavity to sink the tranny?
 
It's about 1/4" thick. I was thinking I'd need to shave down the Trans mount area and maybe make sure there's a relief for the driveshafts. How much will depend on how low I mount it too.
 
I'm obsessed with this lower link mount darn it! This just popped into mind:
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Forgot to draw second nuts in the middle to "lock" it.

Still mind grinding on the axle strut for the upper triangulation. Got a couple ideas im gonna try this week. I'm thinking all-thread and using this two holes on the top of the axle to span across and under the servo plate. Cut out the old one eye monster ball mount for clearance. Bend the all-tread into shape and figure out how to anchor it there. :eek::confused:
 
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That's a damn good idea. It would locate the links a little closer to stock height and they would probably be less likely to bind against each other or the ball itself.

I've seen those "bolt-on" link/shock mounts for the Axial axles - might be able to make those work as well if we've got enough material in the axle... I like your thinking though - I'm assuming a similar style mount to what you described up above, but located on the axle instead.
 
I've got 4 blanks cut for my new skid/link-mount (popped another ball loose last night). I'll get some pics taken tonight or tomorrow of the build. I'm still trying to decide the way I want to mount the trans - I may just mount it flat (no dig-out) to see what binds. Also collected up my top link parts, but I'll wait on those until I gt the replacement skid done.
 
Juanmarteen said:
I've got 4 blanks cut for my new skid/link-mount (popped another ball loose last night). I'll get some pics taken tonight or tomorrow of the build. I'm still trying to decide the way I want to mount the trans - I may just mount it flat (no dig-out) to see what binds. Also collected up my top link parts, but I'll wait on those until I gt the replacement skid done.
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I can't wait to see it! So far, so good with my skidplate nut. I did a lot of wall climbs to stress those lower rears and nothing but solidness. I'm going to try and work on those uppers and see what kind of strut I can come up with.

My current uppers is what's stopping now from considering Large tires since the stocks almost touch on full articulation and turn lock.
 

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