Fun!

What brushless is all about

 
 

Brushless Wildcat

 
 
This was a balls up from start to finish, the excessive power was a bridge too far for the puny wildcat, despite repairs with nails, wood screws and sticky tape. The video is brief but funny.
 
   
 

Brushless Rustler

 
 

Not happy with the wildcat unpleasantness I decided to utilize a slightly less shite chassis to harness the mighty brushless Pletenberg.

Rustler video- 6.1mb


Not happy with this the Rusty has taken a lot more punishment recently with very little in the way of a breakage. A novak brushless setup was in there for a time, but soon switched back to to faithful 9x3 as we awaited an even stronger Feigao motor. As you can imagine trying to break the big floppy rubbery rustler is no easy task and so much sitting around and drinking of tea was required to brainstorm new and interesting ideas for power and jumps. After some debate over gearing we finally decided on a 19t pinion for the 9x3, initial speed tests were good. However after 4 minutes of abuse it was more than a little warm, smoke quickly followed and before we knew where we were the motor was toast.

Rustler, 9x3 - 4.5mb

 
Some serious steering issues in this video, in fact no steering at all towards the end. Some language in this vid too.

STILL waiting on the speedo, getting a bit boring now, back to brushed power, a 11x3 has taken up the challenge. After some gearing issues (20/78 instead of 10/78) we are well on our way again.... until the diff broke.

Some araldite later and it back in the action, albeit with a locked diff. The next run was going fine, except my motor plate didnt last 5 minutes. Then we managed to break both diff outdrive yokes at the same time, a drastic solution was called for and I think I have addressed that need. A solid steel bar with some steel UJ's from a truck are now in place, these are going nowhere!

   
Just a quick video to show the handling hasn't improved any.

aaaaahhhh the trial and tribulations of running the rusty, after constructing a mahoosive jump in the carpark we were catching some serious air time. So much so that on a particularly heavy landing it blew an o-ring out the shock and all the oil promptly fell out. This made subsequent landings rather hard, net result of this was the cells kept falling out and also the receiver fell out, unknown to us (it was a bit dark) we only realized after steering was lost, this was due to the receiver being dragged a foot behind the truck only connected via the receiver plug from the speedo! So in true belt and braces fashion ive added my own "quad shock" conversion to the rear. Oh yeh and we lunched a spur gear too, so ive upped the ante with 32 pitch gears, shame the gear cover doesn't fit over them.


Same Rustler, different night, the quad shock setup has stiffened the rear a little too much, controlling it is not harder than usual. Apart from that all is well except the little lights keep falling off.

Rustler - July 06 - 53mb


Brushless has finally arrived, the warrior I was waiting on has been canceled and an Mtronikc Genesis Pro is now in charge of things in the little rustler. Initial testing went well, geared conservatory, topping out at 37mph and lasting for aaaaaaages. Managed to break a front hub! one of the first things I couldt (be bothered) to fix so £3 was invested in a new pair.

Rustler Brushless - August 06 - 44mb

Im running out of webspace so its down to google video to host it now!


Ok, its broke, the idler gear is no more. A metal one has been added at the cost of about £8, shocking i know.

Rustler Brushless 2- August 06 - 12.7mb


Is the rustler destined to be entirely held together with cable ties? I think so, managed to break a rear wishbone tonight but we didn't let that stop us. Remember we are professional idiots on private ground, so dont try this at home.

Rustler Brushless 3- August 06 - 38mb


I fear the nights are drawing in, soon winter will be upon us and the rustling will have to stop. For now though we must press on, some random pics, including a very rare shot of Tony running!

Another night, another idea. It seems that breakage's are more frequent now due to the increased speed the rustler is crashing at so a solution was called for. We put a pile of boxes where we thought the rustler would land to cushion the blow. However aiming for this was harder than it looked so after some thought we decided to stick the box on the rustler then it would always have a box to land in/on. The increase in stability when driving the truck we can only attribute to the downforce and the extra weight giving us some extra traction. The breakage was a major one, the uj is still intact however TONY managed to separate the axle from the UJ, I thought these were a sealed unit......... obviously not, oh yeh and he poped the UJ on the other side too!

Rustler Brushless (cardboard box) - August 06 - 24mb

 


In true bodge fashion rather than buy another Rustler axle I had a rummage through my stuff and found some rear hubs and axles from a Losi XXT. After some hacking I got them fitted and attached the all metal axle to the slider shaft. I had to make a turnbuckle too as the stock plastic top link was the wrong length.


Well the next weakest link turned out to be the driveshaft, the plastic slider snapping in two. I found some Juggernaut 2 propshaft parts and set about making some replacements.

These seem to be holding up ok, a wheel bearing disintegrated but I think it was a bit dodgy anyway.

Rustler Brushless - August 06


Boy did it take a beating tonight, so much so that one driveshaft made a bid for freedom, i have rebuilt them stronger than ever now.


Maxx Rear Shaft and Hub Conversion

After constantly breaking the driveshafts I decided enough was enough, the traxxas sliders are very strong but a little too small on the rustler, the logical step up is the T-maxx stuff, much stronger but not a straight swap because of the Maxx using 6mm shafts rather than 5mm, this was a 4 hour job but quite happy now its done.


Just about had enough now

The Rusty is to be decommissioned, the time has come, its at the point where as much time driving it is spent fixing it. Sadly the driving is also lacking now as it doesn't go where you point it anymore, too much power and the chassis is too far gone, still it served its purpose. For this final installment we upped the power form 8 cells to 10!

Video