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InsaneJim69

My CEN Solid axle Project Truck.

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Home from work and white done, a few decals added and painted the kickplates. 

Still to do - paint the window surrounds, and back windows black. Add the separate front Polycarbonate light panel. Along with some detail decals (don't want to clutter it up) And maybe add a home made cockpit set and driver bust. 👍. It's going to be a hard runner so I am not looking for perfection here. 

Oh and I wish I had finished those copper lines into the grille instead of above it now 🤦‍♂️🙄

vMHhWrd.jpeg

James.

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Looks great!  Love the green.  Forget painting the window surrounds, just cut them out.  Real monster trucks dont have windows :)  At least side windows...

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16 minutes ago, 87lc2 said:

Looks great!  Love the green.  Forget painting the window surrounds, just cut them out.  Real monster trucks dont have windows :)  At least side windows...

That's a good point actually. 🤔 Myself and my 3 young boys do love our Monster Jam even if we are all here in not so sunny Aberdeen, Scotland 😂👍

James.

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On 1/15/2022 at 4:25 AM, InsaneJim69 said:

Home from work and white done, a few decals added and painted the kickplates. 

Still to do - paint the window surrounds, and back windows black. Add the separate front Polycarbonate light panel. Along with some detail decals (don't want to clutter it up) And maybe add a home made cockpit set and driver bust. 👍. It's going to be a hard runner so I am not looking for perfection here. 

Oh and I wish I had finished those copper lines into the grille instead of above it now 🤦‍♂️🙄

vMHhWrd.jpeg

James.

Love this colour scheme. It’s really classy and old skool. As I have often said less is more and this is a perfect example.

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Thanks guys. 👍

So I cut the back doors off, Monster Jam style, surprisingly the body is still pretty rigid. Also added a few more small detail decals. 

gDD5lgY.jpeg

James.

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The body looks awsome!

 

How does that Model handle? I would love to have a 2nd solid alxle Monstertruck. My clodbuster isn't the fastest Model and i do not find affordable Motors that are not timed.

The Axial or Losi ones are too expensive for me.

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That looks fab!

I'm not familiar with the CEN, but I find myself intrigued too, there's no such thing as too many solid axle monster trucks

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4 hours ago, Mad Ax said:

That looks fab!

I'm not familiar with the CEN, but I find myself intrigued too, there's no such thing as too many solid axle monster trucks

I agree with Mad Ax both on how fab the truck looks and how one can never have too many sold axle MTs.

The CEN does look like a great platform for the price.

I currently have the Axial Grave Digger and HPI Wheely King. 
I’d love to drive CEN just to try it out. 

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Thanks guys. I was eyeing one up for a while and at £279 RTR is seemed a good deal, then one came up on eBay starting bids at £125 and £12 postage bnib. I bid and I was the only bidder 😀👍. So grabbed a bargain there as I had planned on buying a new 2.4ghz radio for my son. So the radio and receiver this came with went to him. And I had my first solid axle monster truck 😁👍

Out of the box is alot of fun but far far too bouncy. I have removed 1 spring from each corner which has helped alot. Along with adding thinner sway bar tensioners to make the sway bars softer. The wheels and tyres are 2.2's and of good soft quality rubber, no inserts. I have drilled 2 extra holes inside the wheel rims to help with landing jumps, just to stop that bouncy nature. Again out of the box the steering as a bit iffy and vague due to the servo being mounted up high and having to through a few tie bars to get down to the steering. However keeping the servo up high in kit form means you can add the optional 4ws system if you wanted to. The gearbox is all metal gears, apart from the spur gear which is hard plastic (but seems good quality) stock motor is a 550 which is nice, not too fast and plenty of torque to pull wheelies and stoppies very easily. 

My next mod will def be a good set of softer shocks, maybe a set of 4 big bores in place of the kit stock 8 standard oil filled shocks at 100mm in total length. I mean the standard shocks are good enough quality but the springs just seem like generic springs found anywhere and just seem to make it bounce about a bit too much for my liking, pity they never released a spring tuning kit or something. 🤔

James.

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Did you try flipping the internal gears from “torque “ to “speed” 

I believe the CEN trucks are set up so you can do that 

 

“. The gearbox is all metal gears, apart from the spur gear which is hard plastic (but seems good quality) stock motor is a 550 which is nice, not too fast and plenty of torque to pull wheelies and stoppies very easily. 

1 hour ago, InsaneJim69 said:

 

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Yeah tried that but for some reason once flipped mines makes the gearbox clicky as if something is sticking somewhere, only once for every rotation. So turned it back and it works fine. It's still fast enough on 2s. 👍

James.

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Finished work for a long weekend 👍 yay. Anyways, got onto this thing for a wee while and decided to extend the wheelbase. Tad more. Successfully got it from 12 inches upto 12.5 inches. I tell ya that half an inch has made a big difference to the stance imo. Used temp hardware, plastic bushes and a load of nuts (all the same width) . So once I am happy I can take measurements and order some threaded steel tubing or actual alloy M3 spacers for a more permanent and secured fitment for the 4 links. 👍

DLYKgEb.jpeg

ooTUJId.jpeg

Also cut the wheelarches a little bigger as clearance was an issue. And took a few snaps, it is 6.30am after all. (Please excuse the poor lighting). I have ordered a selection of 106mm and 109mm driveshafts to compensate for the extra wheelbase adjustments, so the driveshafts are removed for now. 👍 

2u23pvb.jpeg

 

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Also excuse the crudely drawn panel lines. My eldest son really wanted to help and tbh he did not bad, I might actually keep them like this as it is a runner. 🤔

I also messed with the damper placement, as I have ordered 4 big bore dual rate dampers which are anodised a nice gold colour. Hopefully be here next week. So hoping to fit those but maybe add 4 of the original dampers along side them (minus springs) anyone know of anyway to remove anodising if I plan this? As not a fan of the red damper caps tbh. 

Anyways, I am happy with the stance ATM, the new dampers might raise it a few mm which will be perfect. Also ordered Tamiya Reinforced 5mm adjusters for the anti roll bar links. Love them as they look big and heavy duty. 

Hope you all like, and will update as the new parts arrive. This has gone from a "ah I will just run it how it arrived to me RTR" to a "really need to make it look and run like a real monster jam truck" so hopefully the new dampers are soft enough and get rid of that horrible bouncy feel it has at times. It's not quite stock clod buster bad mind you 😂😂👍

James.

 

 

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Front and rear same increasement, also for each links upper lower? 

There are aluminum, steel and brass pivot balls on amainhobbies, only +1 usd for brass. 

On 15t brushed, stock setup no wheelie. Replacing 24t to 17t pinion maybe helps. (MST MTX-1)

Good luck,

Barış

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Thanks, no the front is slightly less than the rear. Only about 4-5mm difference. The rear will need the 109mm propshaft with a foam spacer and the front will need the 106mm propshaft.

James.

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Came out great!  The extended wheelbase looks nice and should drive much better.  To remove the anodizing use the yello heavy duty oven cleaner, let them sit for a bit and it should wipe right off.  

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Thanks, got some oven cleaner in the shed actually. 

Well the dampers arrived and they are certainly not what I thought they were going to be ☹️🙄 so a little disappointed. Might sell them on, see if someone can do something with them maybe. It's a shame as they look really nice.

James.

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Ok so got some decent day light today. And got some quick pics before the kids got involved. 😂👍

rwvJIX6.jpeg

eRBnkeN.jpeg

bTmoMI4.jpeg

James.

 

 

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Nice!  Looks like a fun truck.  I'll have to look into these, have never actually seen one in person.  Did you put the tires on backwards intentionally?  I'll do that for running in mud occasionally, but 90% of the time run them with the tread facing forwards. 

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Haha yeah the tyres are on that way just waiting for the drive shafts. Then I will put the wheels on the right way. 👍

James.

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Just now, InsaneJim69 said:

Haha yeah the tyres are on that way just waiting for the drive shafts. Then I will put the wheels on the right way. 👍

James.

Haha, OK.  Was curious if you did it for a reason.  They actually do work better in the mud when backwards.   Truck looks awesome, that paint job and the extended wheelbase came out great.  How big is this truck sompare to a Clod or smiliar?  Is it 1/10 scale or 1/12?  

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Yeah it's 1/10 scale but with 2.2 tyres. I think 2.6's would look better. Burnout more strain on the gearbox etc.👍

James.

 

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So these arrived today ......

cTCk58O.jpeg

Nice chunky Tamiya Reinforced Adjusters for my anti roll bar links......

RMdanW4.jpeg

And then I started to think, it looks a bit bare with just the 4 shocks.......

3Zb2oCL.jpeg

So decided that since the 4 shocks are just about right and I have got rid of the bouncy feeling. I emptied the oil out of the other 4 shocks and kept the springs removed. Then tried to come up with someway to fit then and the anti roll bar links at the same point. 🤔 .....

wALgFOn.jpeg

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Also my 109mm rear prop shaft arrived and yup it's one of those chunky 1/8 scale ones. 🤦‍♂️ Arrgghhhhh ...... 😂😂 Thank god I have ordered some new Dremel grinding discs. 

Anyways happy with how it looks now with the 8 dampers now on. Even if only 4 have springs and oil in them. The other 4 are mainly for the looks. 

NRqSaKT.jpeg

Much better. Oh and I turned the tyres 😂👍

James.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Haven't done much over the last few days 😢. Waiting on Dremel grinding discs arriving so I can buff down the 1/8 driveshafts to fit the drive cups. I did however use one of the old damper springs as a propshaft guard just like the real monster trucks, albeit mine sis just for the looks as it will spin with the prop. You can hardly see it being black, so might paint it silver then yellow to match the writing on the sides of the body 🤔 not sure yet. But if it doesn't work when I run it I will just take them back off, can't see why it won't work though.

Bu9SnP4.jpeg

spR8uNz.jpeg

Hopefully the Dremel discs arrive tomorrow and I can get the other prop shaft done and take it for a run and grab some videos of it 👍

James.

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