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schlabinski

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Everything posted by schlabinski

  1. This one is pretty much done, so figured I'd better add a photo to this thread.
  2. If you find the high pitched noise at low throttle on your HobbyWing Quicrun WP 1080 or 880 ESC annoying, try bumping the PWM Frequency setting up to 16K. Unless you have hearing like a bat, it'll be nice and quiet.
  3. Bummer. Sorry to hear about the premature breakage. Thanks for the info on the square stock from CPE. I was actually already eyeing their machined sway bar arms, which appears to come with a section of that square rod, so I've got those on the way now. It could be a waste of time, but I'm excited to try to make it work.
  4. I really enjoy your build threads! I appreciate all the pictures and narrating that you include. It's fun to follow along and also learn some tricks at the same time. Thank you. I look forward to seeing how this one comes together.
  5. That looks really great! I know so little about the different versions of these trucks, let alone monster trucks in general really, but I agree that the black chassis is sharp. For me, maybe because it's less distracting from the cool imagery on the body. Also, I'm sure I'm not catching all the little things you do to make these look so good, but I'm sure there are many. I like the paint details on the wheels, and links and sway bar arms painted black. Now that I want to add sway bars to my stockish Ice Monster Clod, I'm really curious about the rod and arm style. I'm tempted to see if I can make something like that work, although I'm pretty sure the rod on anything I buy will be too short to pass through the width of a stock Clod chassis. I hope I'm wrong, but if I'm right, do you happen to know if it's possible to buy square rod? So far I haven't found anything small enough. I suppose I could use round piano wire and just hope that I grind the flat spots for the set screws at the same angle.
  6. Thank you! This is the first time I've used one of these Ofna servo savers. I usually use the Kimbrough #124 as well, but figured I'd try the blue on this truck. The Ofna appears to be better quality...the plastic is nicer and there's a bit of metal in the center section (but still plastic underneath as well as the typical plastic spline adapter). I'm not sure how to accurately compare stiffness to the Kimbrough, but I'd guess they are similar. Awesome! Thank you. I'll admit I didn't try very hard to make it look super close to the real Ice Monster as I'd rather be having fun with it. But I sure appreciate those folks that really go all out making them look just like the real thing. Thank you very much, I appreciate the feedback!
  7. Adding some outdoor pictures. I really need to track down a big construction site for proper photo backgrounds.
  8. The dampers I ended up using are from the DF-02 aluminum damper set (53701). I originally bought two sets many years ago and used the four front dampers for a CC01 build. This was before Tamiya released the CC01 damper sets, so it was an expensive way to get nice Tamiya CC01 dampers, but at least now I found a good use for the left over longer rear dampers. For starters, I built them with a 3mm internal spacer, modified 4 x 1.3mm pistons, Losi 15wt oil, and stock yellow springs from the damper set. I took it out for a quick spin and my initial impressions are positive. As expected, I still have some tuning to do. I like how active the suspension is for jump landing and such, but it's pretty soft side-to-side and I can see body roll in turns and notice the axle steer sometimes. I'll play with the typical preload, springs, and oil viscosity, but I also don't want to make it too stiff for jump landing. I might even experiment with sway bars.
  9. Thank you very much, I appreciate it! I did get it out for a little test drive this weekend. Like just about everything it will need some tuning, but I'm very pleased with it so far. The four link was worth it and it has addressed the issues that I had with the stock ladder bars. Thanks! These came from MCI Racing. Haha, sort of funny story about those. I won those in a prize drawing at the Montana Scale Nationals competition in either 2009 or 2010 and they've been in a box of parts since. I figured this would be the appropriate way to put them to use. The package didn't come with a header card, but I believe they are GPM. So far, I actually haven't been super impressed. They are designed such that if you tighten the kingpin screws until they're snug, then there's too much friction between the knuckle and the axle C. I need to investigate, but I'm used to the kingpin screw bottoming out on the knuckle before it pinches down on the axle C part. Hope that makes sense. I'll update with my findings.
  10. Thank you! With all of your Clod and monster truck building experience, I'm happy to hear that I haven't made any glaring mistakes so far. I will absolutely sleeve all the links and steering rods once the truck is past the mock up phase.
  11. I recently posted an HPI build in the "Other makes" sub-forum, and that seemed to go just fine. I look forward to seeing what you're putting together!
  12. Good to know, thank you for sharing. I love learning tips like this. Now I just have to remember it! How does your dryer smell?
  13. I made some stuff over the weekend... As with any four link project for me, it's a bunch of trial and error to get the link lengths dialed. I'm pretty happy with where these are now, but may need a little fine tuning once I get the shocks on. As I mentioned previously, the Traxxas Big Bores are too long for the mounts I made. I found two pairs of Tamiya DT-02 rear shocks that I think will work well. Bonus that they're blue!
  14. Thank you. I agree, it is amazing that the entire chassis is full of gears. The G601 has a healthy dose of that Tamiya quirkiness that I adore. And so far I am really enjoying driving it...very fun.
  15. Awesome! One of my friends remembered it too. For sure. I think I have the four link pretty well sorted and will work on the shocks next. The Traxxas Big Bores are too long for the mounts I made, so I'm digging through my bins to see what I can come up with that's more like 90mm. Stay tuned.
  16. Thanks! Ha, not sure...I'm totally winging it. I would guess not much in reality, somewhere between a centimeter or two? I think most of the benefit will be the gain in suspension up-travel. No, I'm in Oregon. I picked the Ice Monster purely because I was drawn to the stickers while perusing the MCI monster truck offerings. I like monster trucks, but I know very little about them having never attended a show and I wasn't allowed to watch them on TV growing up. Thank you!
  17. Things were coming together really nicely. I don't have a lot of pictures of this first running version, but I liked the ride height and how the axles could tuck further up into the chassis without interference. I wanted to make it work with the stock ladder bars, but eventually decided that I wasn't happy with it. The main reasons are the caster that is introduced when lowering the ride height (which only gets worse as the suspension compresses), reduced steering angle (my knuckles are upside-down in order to get the servo and rod angles the way I wanted, but then the knuckles bump into the ladder bars), and the uneven resistance that is introduced by the anti-rotation bracket at these angles (it feels like a built in spring on one side when cycling the suspension, even without shocks). So next up is trying to four link this thing...
  18. Then I put all of the electronics in the bottom of the chassis. You can't see it here, but I also added the CPE external chassis brace. I decided to try some unknown eBay battery tray. Even though the battery doesn't sit as low as it does in the stock location, I wanted to try having it inside the chassis instead of sticking out the sides, which also allowed me to mount the body slightly lower. For dampers, I went with 8 of the Traxxas Big Bores. Knowing that I would need really light damping and springs, I modified the pistons to 4 x 1.3mm holes... And used some very soft Losi 2.75" springs which are a perfect fit...
  19. I originally painted up this lexan body as a runner shell to protect my Clod hardbody... As time went on, I found myself wanting two differently built trucks. The hardbody Clod will stay relatively stock-looking, but with some upgrades for steering and suspension to make it more enjoyable to drive. For the Ice Monster, I was inspired by @Buggyjam's lowered Clod project and began cutting up the stock chassis for more suspension up travel. Front... Rear... Then I made four chassis braces to help compensate for the material that was removed...
  20. Oh yes, the addition already has a firm grip and has for years. I did get that one through Tower, hard to resist. Now I'm resisting a Dynahead, so hopefully you don't post too many pictures of your build or else I'll be in trouble! It would be neat to try to find some linear actuators to replace those grey cylinders, but I haven't looked into that much yet.
  21. Stickers! Overall, I'd say these went on very well. By far the most challenging were the grey ones at the outer lip of the wheel wells with compound curves. If the body wasn't pre-painted, I would've opted to paint those. Does anyone else see a resemblance to a cartoon animal in the head-on picture? Rhinoceros maybe? Thanks for following along. I hope to get some outside pictures soon. All other pictures here: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmUkRMFH
  22. Thank you very much! Thank you, and great idea about sharing that second set of dampers. My only hesitation is that I'm liking the G601 so much that I already picked up a King Yellow kit and will likely use them. Sorry mate!
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