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BuggyDad

Element Enduro Builders kits: mini build thread

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23 minutes ago, Busdriver said:

Often with a white roof. Looking good so far. Is the rear frame a kit item or did you buy it separately?

White roof is a lovely idea. Farm standard issue, although was it specific to older series? I have other weird ideas too and I'm not sure it'll go, so I'll throw them all in the mixing pot and see what comes out. 

It's an Injora rear frame. Designed for another chassis (Axial maybe?) and bought really because cheap and convenient to order with all the other bits n bobs. However rear bracket only really depends on ladder width anyway, which seems to be the same. Front fitment I'll make up as I go along. 

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40 minutes ago, BuggyDad said:

White roof is a lovely idea. Farm standard issue, although was it specific to older series? I have other weird ideas too and I'm not sure it'll go, so I'll throw them all in the mixing pot and see what comes out. 

It's an Injora rear frame. Designed for another chassis (Axial maybe?) and bought really because cheap and convenient to order with all the other bits n bobs. However rear bracket only really depends on ladder width anyway, which seems to be the same. Front fitment I'll make up as I go along. 

Do you mind me asking where you got the frame from. And do you have its dimensions  width and length most importantly??

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5 hours ago, Busdriver said:

Do you mind me asking where you got the frame from. And do you have its dimensions  width and length most importantly??

Cage is this one:

https://www.injora.com/collections/traxxas-parts/products/313-324mm-wheelbase-cherokee-body-cab-with-back-half-cage-for-1-10-rc-crawler

It measures total 200mm (L) x  207mm (W) x 140mm (H). Rear bracket runs in fore/aft 60mm slots, so there's masses of room for adjustment in that direction. 

20230107_174457

Edit: looking at the link all the dims are in the pics, and the part name suggests made to fit Traxxas, so you may be in luck there, but it doesn't much matter. 

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So we fitted our body shells, bumpers etc. 

20230107_160142 20230107_160204

 

20230107_160844

... But we were itching for a run so we took them out unpainted. Despite the fact it's been raining for days and we live on clay. 

We have a mound of soil that's very steep in places and has become grass covered over a few years undisturbed, so it gave us a nice challenge and the trucks found various ways up and down, with a few rolls along the way. Seems they can climb up pretty much anything you can keep them from going all the way over backwards on. I love how you can feather the throttle to such a crazy low wheel speed. 

20230107_170139

Fun!

Magnet mounts popped off on about half of rolls, but there are only 2 on there, and having raised them up the body is not at the moment seated against any other part of the chassis. And although the wheels can hit the defender arches they don't do it badly very often. 

The bad news is my transmitter steering spring has gone. I'll open it up to have a look later and see if there's anything I can do. It's an Absima CR3P. Kind of low end stuff so maybe not all that hopeful. 

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47 minutes ago, BuggyDad said:

we were itching for a run so we took them out unpainted.

20230107_170139

 

Just like BITD. The reason why my original Grasshopper is still unpainted as I couldn't wait for paint to apply the decals.

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1 hour ago, BuggyDad said:

It's an Absima CR3P. Kind of low end stuff so maybe not all that hopeful. 

Forgive me, Absima, I take it all back. Cracked it open while cooking dinner. Snapped spring. Bent a new end and we're away again. And you can get new springs from Modelsport so that can go in my basket for next time I shop. 

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4 hours ago, BuggyDad said:

 

Cage is this one:

https://www.injora.com/collections/traxxas-parts/products/313-324mm-wheelbase-cherokee-body-cab-with-back-half-cage-for-1-10-rc-crawler

It measures total 200mm (L) x  207mm (W) x 140mm (H). Rear bracket runs in fore/aft 60mm slots, so there's masses of room for adjustment in that direction. 

20230107_174457

Edit: looking at the link all the dims are in the pics, and the part name suggests made to fit Traxxas, so you may be in luck there, but it doesn't much matter. 

Thanks is for something completely different 🥸

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I grew up on a farm. In my experience of Land Rovers, they get a hard life. **** happens, they get filled with animal feed, straw bales, shovels and oily spanners, nudged by a loader, bitten by cows. They fall off the road and you have straighten the bent bits with your big hammer. And sometimes you have to find a replacement chunk of landrover, probably the driver's door because it was designed with tolerances of 2" and the breaking strain of a kitkat, then gets a lot of use, swings back, breaks its restraining strap thingy, bends around the window and falls off its hinges. But despite all this, not being able to see out of the windows and the seat that gives you terrible back ache, they're still great. So down the scrappy you pop for a new door, and on the Landy goes. Inevitably, that door is not the right colour. No one cares about that of course, because soon the headlining will fall on your head and the play in the gearstick will stretch all the way to the passenger door. 

So that's what happened with this one. It got a new door, provenance unknown but something to do with Tamiya. Maybe off some race marshal truck that came to an early end? 

20230111_182554 20230111_182536 20230111_182440

Result - this truck is a fraction of 1% Tamiya, so my RC fleet is nudged back over 50% Tamiya. I am a good boy once more.

Still a bit to do - I could/should do some brush painting on the grille but I may not - I could go lights instead. I also really need to find a way to add rear magnet mounts - front only is nowhere near enough - but I haven't yet worked out how (anyone mounted them on the vertical? Bottom of the doors could be an option). Oh, and I have glass for the windows, and quite fancy a bit of checker plate atop the wings. 

PS thanks for all the advice on my noob painting thread. I mostly followed it, slightly adjusted for my reduced levels of ability, patience and ambition on this one! 

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Both front shocks on this have leaked maybe 20% out the top. I think I had not done the caps up tight enough (tend to be wary of over tightening especially a plastic thread). It seems you have to do these up pretty tight. Will leave them lying flat overnight to see if that's solved it. 

Which gives me another look at the pivot ball joint there. On further examination the shock top cap has in it a straight 6mm bore hole (which is as @sosidge alluded to). The pivot balls are about 5.6mm diameter. So it's both loose and would not be captive even if the ball matched the hole. I'm not criticising the design, just not yet understanding it. Might see what happens if I pop a couple of o-rings in

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Crawlers got a run on drier ground than last time. 9 year old got up a rooty step I couldn't. 

https://giphy.com/gifs/GY20rsLFKTYeQ3JeWz

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Cut short for a dodgy solder joint (DAD!) and knocked out a bumper light.

And later we painted his shell to his exacting specifications. PS-16 Metallic Blue is lovely. Really bright, strong metallic effect and great coverage. Yellow is PS-6 which doesn't really go with the metallic blue but should work a treat with another non-metallic colour. 

20230128_204440

Overspray film shows up a few pre-painting tumbles! 

Decals tomorrow, hopefully. Mainly just grille and stuff, maybe wheel arches. 

A bit of blue bleed under the tape in the nooks and crannies but not too bad for this runner, and practice for my Dino plans. 

And it looks fast (which it most certainly isn't)! 

 

 

 

How do you embed a gif? 

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9yo son stuck the decals on this morning. I showed him the way of the soapy water and hairdryer and with only a little help he got them pretty much bang on I reckon. Amusingly he decided Element was cooler than Traxxas so stuck his kit stickers over the Traxxas branding on the shell. 

20230129_124441 20230129_124542

TRX windscreen is one big clear sticker, and pretty horrible water marks are visible behind. I might cut the clear middle out and leave just the trim and wipers, although might be easier said than done. Traxxas stickers much thicker than Tamiya and not at all malleable. Element ones are as per Tamiya. 

My masking for the yellow was poor on the back there but I know what I got wrong and how to fix it thanks to excellent post on here yesterday by @OoALEJOoO. And anyway, this one is very much an everyday runner. 

Jury's out as to whether we blacken the wheel arches and if so whether it's with paint or decals. 

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Good run today after these haven't been used in a while. Bumped into a friend of my lad's in the woods so the two of them ran around giggling after the crawlers for a pack. So rolls galore and no breakages, which it seems to me is a big crawler win. 

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Anyone else get a lot of steering play? Like really a lot. Its just the amplification of play across so many ball joints and pivots as you go from servo through offset horn through first link, across steering knuckle, back across the other link. It just is a lot of links and each ball adds some play. I mean, it might not be a functional concern at these low speeds but it plays havoc with my OCD. Would steel balls solve it? Only if they're of a slightly bigger diameter from the off I guess - it's not wear, it's always been like this. 

And I'd like to move mine on to lexan and body clips. Magnets aren't really doing it for me. Maybe they would on a full length shell, or if I fit a second pair on the doors, but not with just two on a cab only, at the traditional front mounting points. I have a lexan Chevy K10 shell which is two piece, not sure if cab only and two clips is a good idea or a recipe for stress on the shell. My lad's pickup shell seems nice and tough with four mounting points. I could have the K10 as a direct cab only replacement or use it in its entirety. Functionally I'm sure using the whole thing is better. Stronger and lighter. But I kinda like my rear cage. 

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3 hours ago, BuggyDad said:

Magnets aren't really doing it for me. Maybe they would on a full length shell,

Problem with magnets is they generally work in one direction, that is to say they are very strong if you try and pull them apart but they are quite weak if they slide which is what happens when you roll a crawler. I’ve gone back to posts and clips on most of my crawlers. 

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1 hour ago, Busdriver said:

Problem with magnets is they generally work in one direction, that is to say they are very strong if you try and pull them apart but they are quite weak if they slide which is what happens when you roll a crawler. I’ve gone back to posts and clips on most of my crawlers. 

Yeah that may be what I'm experiencing. I think perhaps if the posts came up through the chassis magnet into the hole in the body one as a locator they'd have to be pulled apart rather than sheared to remove, and mine don't do this at all, they have effectively a flush top. Overall, I think using magnets has the potential to be a good solution, but the implementation of it that I have is mediocre. The above described solution would be an easy 3d print but I probably won't do it, because I'd also prefer lexan to ABS, and then I'd have the issue of gluing magnets to paint. So clips it will be, and they only require kit bits. Everything's a compromise and clips aren't perfect but they might be the best solution for me.

These trucks are, for us, all about challenging ourselves with what we can get them up. So rolls aplenty there will be. 

Another thing I love about them is the cleaning. It's all there in the open, it's all pretty water resistant. So hose it is, only a few seconds required. Maybe this is a terrible idea, and it may not help wheel bearing longevity, but they're greased and are often in water anyway, so I doubt a quick hose off causes much additional harm.

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18 hours ago, BuggyDad said:

Anyone else get a lot of steering play?

Yes there is quite a lot of steering play in these. It's mostly the balls, and the "hard" white plastic ones are worse than the original black plastic ones. An upgrade to steel balls will help, the ball ends don't wear that much in comparison. But I wouldn't worry about it. The size of the wheels relative to the pivot points will always make it seem bad. 

I also prefer body clips. I fitted magnet mounts on day one, and even after an upgrade to the magnets the body still came off. Pins are proven. Magnets are for show trucks, not runners.

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59 minutes ago, sosidge said:

Yes there is quite a lot of steering play in these. It's mostly the balls, and the "hard" white plastic ones are worse than the original black plastic ones. An upgrade to steel balls will help, the ball ends don't wear that much in comparison. But I wouldn't worry about it. The size of the wheels relative to the pivot points will always make it seem bad. 

I also prefer body clips. I fitted magnet mounts on day one, and even after an upgrade to the magnets the body still came off. Pins are proven. Magnets are for show trucks, not runners.

Interesting. Thank you. Ours came with the white balls, not black. Maybe one day I'll upgrade but, as you say, it appears worse than its functional effect, I think. Good point about how wheel diameter makes it seem worse. 

These are most definitely not show trucks!

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Love the Sport body on there, I did the same. It's a great looking body imo and looks fantastic with the IFS kit. I hope you don't mind a pic..  

20230105-103712-SM.jpg

All of my kits use the steel pivot balls. My steering is nice and tight on all three - it does make a difference for sure. I've never tried the plastic ones but experience with Axial kits shows the plastic balls wear out very quickly. After just one run, all of my links were loose. 

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2 hours ago, OldSchoolRC1 said:

Love the Sport body on there, I did the same. It's a great looking body imo and looks fantastic with the IFS kit. I hope you don't mind a pic..  

20230105-103712-SM.jpg

All of my kits use the steel pivot balls. My steering is nice and tight on all three - it does make a difference for sure. I've never tried the plastic ones but experience with Axial kits shows the plastic balls wear out very quickly. After just one run, all of my links were loose. 

Tell me more about these bumpers, I want the exact same for my Hilux... are those 80$ piece? First when I saw the price I thought it's a real 1:1 bumper :o:D

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It's an old Axial Honcho bumper, it fits the body perfectly. They are kinda hard to find though nowadays. 

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You could try a Vanquish bumper from Amain (or similar) very cheap, shown here on my TRX4:

D0668EEF-099F-4D0E-A95D-21A80CB52E2F.thumb.jpeg.9f955d510fc40786e1bc029a53e757e0.jpeg

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On 3/12/2023 at 10:05 PM, BuggyDad said:

Another thing I love about them is the cleaning. It's all there in the open, it's all pretty water resistant. So hose it is, only a few seconds required. Maybe this is a terrible idea, and it may not help wheel bearing longevity, but they're greased and are often in water anyway, so I doubt a quick hose off causes much additional harm.

You could always swap to greased bushes? Given the speeds these things travel it, do bearing really help that much? I can't remember which recent RTR truck that was reviewed by SBG came with bushes at standard.

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They do. Some of these trucks have pretty complicated drivelines, and bearings can indeed make a difference. Not so much in performance, but in runtime. I've taken apart my TRX4's, unsealed the somewhat stiff bearings, cleaned out the heavy grease and re-lubed with light oil - the difference in driveline drag is astounding. I can definitely tell from behind the trigger - it's a bit more responsive.  May not apply to the Element per-se as it has a somewhat simple driveline but I've found in can make a difference depending on the truck. 

Having said that, If you do a lot of water or mud running, oilite bushings do have an advantage though: they won't rust, turn gritty, or fail like a bearing might. Several guys in our club who like water and mud generally run them in the axles. Not a bad way to go at all. 

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33 minutes ago, OldSchoolRC1 said:

oilite bushings

Exactly what I run in my CC-01 Unimog. It won't win any contests but is great for trailing and most will be amazed at what it is capable of. I love the low maintenance after a water/mud run 😁

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