Custom Wheelie Beast :D

[Mad Ax]

In a flash of inspiration, I grabbed some selotape and quickly fastened

the battery pack onto the tray on the back of the Midnight Pumpkin's

chassis, behind the rear shocks.  Running it with no shell at the

moment (lexan pumpkin shell on order) so there were no clearance

issues.  And does it ever wheelie []

The stock wheelie bar is a bit short, so I will be spending a few

minutes with hacksaw and file to make a longer one out of

aluminium.  Even so, it will power-wheelie off the line and with

careful feeding of the throttle can be made to sustain a wheelie for

quite some distance, even on hard dirt.  Not found any smooth

tarmac to try it on yet, tho...  Over rough gravel it's hilarious,

with the front end bouncing up and down almost constantly.

Handling, obviously, is appalling - but with a steady hand it can be maneouvered around to power back down the straights again.

So, what are the plans for this wheelie beast?

Well, first thing is to make a proper battery holder (rather than

selotape []) and an extended wheelie bar for extra stability

(especially when reversing - currently it just goes upside down if you

try to stop while reversing).

Next plan might possibly be to experiment with adjustable ballast in

the front and on the wheelie bar to see if it can do full-distance

sustained wheelies.  And possibly, if I can raise the money, ideas

and effort, I might rig up a 3rd servo to operate an independant brake

on each rear wheel, to allow for some steering while up on 2 wheels.

Not quite sure how the braking system will work yet, but I'm thinking

the easiest method would be some "shoes" on a cantilever that rub the

inside of the rear wheel hubs, actuated by pull-rods on the servo, much

like a nitro flywheel brake setup.

Anyone done anything similar..?

If I go ahead with this, I'll post up a picture-diary of my progress, but don't expect anything in the next few weeks...

[Bluefoot]

The Pumpkins' chassis tub is almost identical to the earlier Pajero (58044) tub. The Pajero has the battery mounted on the rear tray. The Pajero dampers are different though, and the damper rods don't go right through the chassis where they would hit the battery.

[Mad Ax]

Interesting, might have to look at a Pajero tub / shocks and see how they're mounted - I guess the manual is available on TC to give me ideas []

I did recall from my days of browsing the Tamiya model database here that there was a model with a rear-mounted battery for wheelying...

Main thing is to get the battery mount and wheelie bar made up first, then give it a proper trialling before messing about with ballast and axle brakes.