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M04 Based 2wd Dakar Buggy Development Thread

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Well my nice shiny new wheel set arrived from fusionhobbies on wednesday so time for another rolling chassis update.

They are carson ones from the madfighter and have I think the ideal pattern and size with regards the scale.

Unfortinately they are both preglued so putting an insert in the rear will be hard and also only the black ones where instock with silver ones needing a special order from germany at 3 weeks. So I chose black to get up and running as soon as possible.

However due to there 2wd origins the front wheels dont have a hub, Instead they have like a circle which takes a 1150 bearing and will therefore mean that as I do my wheel up so the wheel will compress on the hub as there is no pin to stop them touching and the wheel will be locked up.

1-frontwheelslackahexhub.jpg

So I decided to cut down a normal hub in order to fit. not the most accurate job with the faithful craft knife but good enough for testing and hopefully a more permanent solution soon.

2-needtocutdwnahexhubtofit.jpg

3-snugfit.jpg

Once the cut down hexes where fitted in the wheels it was just a matter of attaching the wheels onto the axles, that I have replaced with the normal stock TB01/TL01 axles. this was down by turning the wheels onto full lock and holding the axle with a driveshaft whilst the wheel was done up, It isnt a perfect setup and the left front wheel does have a distinct wobble that i will need to sort out before doing any major testing and performance searching.

Next up was the rear wheels, which as Im pretty sure u can see are fairly wide at 40mm each - should help the grip considerbly even if they have no inserts at the moment. In order to fit them on without them brushing on the shock mounting I needed to change to the wide axles from my bits box which gives an overall rear width from the outside of one wheel to the outside of the other wheel of 198mm to compliment the front width of 190mm which I might well increase with the addition of wide axles at the front as well, tho that creates a new headache with the hubs :angry:

8-widereartyresneededlongaxles.jpg

Finally some chassis pictures, Present ground clearance is around 23/24mm with a slight slope from front the rear, I will be adding an underguard from thin polycarbonate around 1mm along the centre length of the chassis to help protect from damage and also cover up the centre hole which would be a problem on lose terrain and sand getting up and into the servo or weighing the chassis dwn as it smashes through the sand not going over it.

7-overallchassispicture-verylight.jpg

6-groundclearanceisgoodthowillproba.jpg

4-rollingchassisreadyfortestradioge.jpg

And last but by no means least, thanks to Igbandy for some free threaded rod that has allowed me to finish the steering rods so that Im ready to go test running :D

Cheers M8

5-frontsteeringsetup.jpg

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Your very welcome Ryck, I am always interested in off road projects so its nice if I can help a little. I do hope that you had no problem threading the ball ends on :angry:

The Chassis is looking good mate, love those wheels looking very phat on the rear :D

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That chassis looks like it was built by a right tamiya craftsman. And the bits you have done look alright too.

just kidding, looking good ryck! So when you going to get us some body shots?

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Cheers guys, Yeah I think the rear wheels are ideal and should provide plenty of grip, espically once I have sorted out the rear diff for a limited slip one and also got the carbon drive shafts in.

As for the body well i av just ordered a hpi clk gtr bodyshell which will form the centre of the buggy as its prety much to scale.

w_7046_01.jpg

2003schlesser7.jpg

As you can see the centre is similar and the rear end can be bulked up with plasticard and the front end solved with a metal sump guard for the lower regions and some good cutting for the top half, maybe some plasticet to make some small detail parts.

Cheers

Ryck

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Right ok had its first test run today. Using 27mhz acoms radio gear and a TEU-101BK esc to get it going with a half charged 3600mhz venom battery pack.

The test area was simply my road along with my graveled front garden to see some of the off roading and just give it a good work out on fresh tarmac.

And I must say that the early testing results are very pleasing, its not short of top end poke or acceleration depsite the big rear wheels which u can clearly hear working on the tarmac, I think that with the addition of the carbon hollow shafts along with fully ball racing the rear end as tamiya dont do the whole gearbox then it will be very rapid even with the stock 540 motor that I think I will change for the dirt tuned or GT tuned to keep up with the now very rapid toerag.

On the handling department what struct me first was the very tight turning circle and accurate turn in even at speed depsite putting all the wheels espically the front to 0 cambre before the run It turned really crisp and accurately whilst remaining very planted the super wide rear tyres preventing any hint of slip and sliding/spining out under acceleration from a corner. the breaking also impressed me and despite a few occasional spins under heavy breaking it was straight and true which was of great encouragement as I was expecting it to be all over the place with regards the breaking.

Onto the gravel and a few current weaknesses begin to show,

1.) The lack of a ball/greased diff means that u need to keep the speed up, as when one wheel is off the ground at the back you are effectively out of it.

2.) The stiffness and lack of stroke for the suspension that whilst giving it really accuracy on the tarmac means that it doesnt work with the bumps to keep the two key rear wheels in constant contact with the changing gravel terrain. This was greatly shown when the front shock came loose on its upper mounting and I removed it thinking I could still run on three shocks just to see how the other shocks coped with it and reset the car. The result was constant wheel slip even from standing as there was no flex in the shocks to adjust, So I think I will get some CVA shocks and build them with maximum stroke and softer springs to solve this issue.

But overall a very encouraging run that clearly shows a lot of promise for a car that still in its early development. Comments and questions as ever welcome along with ideas, I brought the above hpi merc clk gtr shell yesterday from the states so hopefully that will be here shortly to get to work on some bodywork.

Cheers

Ryck

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Right an update,

Ran really well at Reading, Hardly got stuck even in the bog and managed to get very good speed up and stability, Run time was also very impressive due to its light weight.

my CLK GTR shell has also arrived and tho it will need some work its more than up for a schlesser shell.

Tho to cut a long story short Im thinking about selling this one on in order to get together some funds in order to finish some old projects that have been hanging around for too long. Offers welcome I would like around 80 for this one, there will only a servo included on the electrics front. It would also make an ideal base for a Lancia stratos or 037 rally car.

Best Wishes

Ryck

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Had time today to do a small amount of bodywork getting the shell cut roughly along the lines of a dakar buggy - I dont think its going to be 100% or even 70% like a schlesser front end but should be recogniseable as a dakar buggy and I might do the blue gauloises colour scheme.

Its a Hpi CLK GTR bodyshell brought from the hobby guy on ebay from the states (very recormended) cost me 18 shipped which isnt to shabby :lol:

Its pretty much the perfect width overall.

I have cut the front end very high and will be making the bottom half out of a mixture of alloy in the sump gaurd and plastic off cuts in order to make sure that it works and looks the part along with giving a good front approach angle.

shot1.jpg

The rear end sees a another very high cut and much larger arches than the shell would otherwise have, I have tried to loose the characteristics mercedes rear end from this era of CLK, E class and C class and it will be further disguised with the addition of rear mudflaps on the outside of the shell on each corner made from the same material as used on our defender and Pajero T3. The rear wing is a mixture of the CLK GTR bottom wing which came with the hpi kit as a piece of moulded lexan and a modified top half of the 2003 Subaru Impreza rear wing from which I removed the middle fins as well as rounded the front off consistently, I will repaint the wing even if I make the car blue overall just because of the colour lines on the underside because of removing the fins.

shot2.jpg

I had a slight issue with the bodymounts eventually settling on these as the previous ones where just a little two short to use the fronter holes and made the rear of the body sit down ******* first. Which didnt look at all scale.

shot3.jpg

shot4.jpg

This shot above shows the overall look of the car from the front I will probably add something to the rear region where the rear window would be in order to make a more pronounced cockpit area as the hpi shell unlike the tamiya one is more rounded for aerodynamics rather than real life scale modelling. You can also see the damage from reading roles caused to the front shock mount which I will need to straighten out as despite it not affecting stroke for the suspension it will be affecting the rates of the compression on each side.

Also shown in the final picture is an undergaurd that I added before reading to protect both the chassis from impacts as well as filling up with dirt, water and other unwanted weight. Overall it worked well and is mounted by slotting into the front end and with double sided servo tape in several blocks along it length with two tie wraps at the far end mounted on to the chassis, One of these have been lost on the run it appears.

shot5-undergaurd.jpg

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wow, very interesting project. I think the GTR looks pretty good and when all the proper light decals and paint scheme are on it will look pretty darn good for a LMP body.

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Cheers, I think it is going to come out ok, I have got some tamiya PS30 brilliant blue spray and Im thinking if I should do a white stripe over the middle, - thourghts?

I have also got all the parts ready for some rear mudflaps and ideas on how I am going to put the front ones in.

so updates hopefully coming over this weekend.

Cheers

Ryck

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Again, looking good ryck! Dont think i could cut a brand new body shell up like that!

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Again, looking good ryck! Dont think i could cut a brand new body shell up like that!

cheers, too so much tho to cut up a Merc :D but think the result is good and its was only a 15 shell even from the US :D

Still the question remains, to stripe or not to stripe :L

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Well I have done some bodywork now and also purchased the silver chrome wheels so that they stand out unlike the drab black ones which didnt look at all right.

The paint is PS-30 Brilliant Blue backed lightly with a pactra racing silver that is a great a cover and has just added a little depth to the Blue which did border on toy like in its single tho brilliant colour finish. I have decided to go with ford as my engine supplier as I they are a prominant supplier in the Dakar not only to the schlesser team but also to other independant/semi works buggy teams.

I have also found some dakar number's from an assorted decal set I brought a while back and the number 306 is also about right meaning a finish last year of around 6/7th place depending upon who else is stil competing from last year.

I still need to get some large white decals in order to do the roof numbers as I have the black numbers just not the white decal square. I am also going to sort out a back section where the window decal is, perhaps a grill to symbol heat extraction over the engine bay as most buggys are rear/mid engined. I also have some rear mudflaps to put on as well as plans for some front ones in order to add to the overall realism along with a single window wiper and also a pair of wing mirrors.

Front end needs to be sort out with a sump guard and bumper section.

shot1-1.jpg

My favorite shot.

shot2-1.jpg

Aerial shot from the race chopper.

shot3-1.jpg

Rear mudflaps will be on the back of the shell like my T3 pajero.

shot4-1.jpg

The only major thing that I havent decided yet is the major title sponsor, I would love gauloises but dont think I will get any of those decals ;) so Im making it open to ideas and preferibly offers of decals that will work from your decals boxes ^_^ (paypal standing by)

Best Wishes

Ryck

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sweet! but....

body posts!

Dont give me technicalities, Still what about the title sponsor?????

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look for a local sign or banner shop. they have auto-cad vinyl cutting equipment and can make you some 'gauloises' vinyl lettering that is ready to apply for virtually nothing. it can be in any color, size or scale that you want. i've done this before for some of my projects, but i've since moved away and no longer have any access to the equipment or supplies or i would do it for you for nothing.

most of the sign guys are cool folks and they are all frustrated artists in one way or another, so if you show them your project and make friends with them, i'm sure they would help you out just to see the final result. they love their toys too. give it a try.

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esso, gulf, ann summers...

haha no comments on who has being doing there shopping there now is there blakeatron ....

@ taliesin - yeah that could well be an option. I think i will go and check that out tho first of all I want to enter it into the TC photo competition so I have I think some calsonic ones which are of a similar length/width and also white so I think i shall add them, also calsonic have an american branch which makes a link with Ford my engine sponsor.

Cheers

Ryck

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Wrc action....well....as you have noticed...i've been way out of it.

been reading when i have time and it looks like this came out a real winner.

after the few runs....and the talk about having to keep the speed up dues to not having a ball diff.....how do you rate the durability of the chassis for off road use?

i'm still thinking about using an M04, to make a chassis for an 037, but really can't bring myself to buy the plastic shell and take it for a proper off road drive. ugg...too painful to think about a crash.

anyway, it looks great and the shell looks very good as well.

can't wait to see what other ideas you've got to work on.

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Yes indeed, Awol I think perhaps, still good to have you back someone else to talk rallying with.

Your lucky as today I did a load more work to finish a fair proportition of the car. with sponsor decals, rear wings, front sump gaurd and bumper as well as some rear mudflaps its really taken shape.

A few pics to wet your appetite.

shot3-main.jpg

extra6.jpg

The full article and spec can be found here

http://tamiyaclub.com/showroom_model.asp?c...26&sid=8468

It is something you need to be aware off having not only a bevel gear diff but also the lack of overall traction in putting the power down compared to a 4wd model does mean that you need to keep the speed up, however due to its lightweight and plenty of traction from the very capable tyres it is more than possible to do this successfully.

As for durability I havent had any issues so far. And I dont expect to see to many major issues as the suspension is already proven on the TB01 and TL01 and the gearbox also has components we have seen in the past. The chassis also shares a similar construction style to that of the MO3 which people already rally with great success. The only issues I could see are the lower arm mounts which are encorporated into the chassis sections. However unlike the TL01 the chassis is in several distinct sections making the replacement part a small job to replace and also cheaper. further due to the chassis light weight any impact will be of a lower impluse as the mass of the car is considerably less therefore its momentum upon impact will be much reduced.

For your 037 I think it would be a very suitable chassis and there are infact lexan 037 shells from I think chevron that whilst not as detailed as the tamiya hard bodies would be tougher and cheaper. I think there are some in the TC showrooms so might be worth a look.

Regards

Ryck

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Guest joelvardy
Update picture the item for joel today that was going to be your second clue.

Hope it was all OK

Also the car looks GREAT worthy entry to win the compo

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Yeah it was Joel - still havent added those little turnbuckles tho I think they are to small for this now :L

cheers, I have entered and we shall just av to seo how to voting goes, Hope it does repectibly eitherway.

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Yeah it was Joel - still havent added those little turnbuckles tho I think they are to small for this now :L

cheers, I have entered and we shall just av to seo how to voting goes, Hope it does repectibly eitherway.

looking good now ryck - still think ann summers would of looked good.....

So you going to get on with the support truck now - as i am tempted to do one myself, but would rather learn from your mistakes ;)

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lol I bet you would.

Yeah I need to wrap that up now with the bodywork situation. It all runs tho just need to refine the shift mechanism and my LRP unlimited Esc should arrive mid week from tipsy allowing me to get in some proper testing. Just need to go and buy another couple of hundred screws to finish off the bodywork and all my paneling.

The only problem is that due to the layout the "support" area is full of the gearbox and radio gear not leaving me much "support" space to carry the spares :L

Still suppose thats an excuse for a 6x6 version :L wat style where u thinking of doing? and with what base?

Cheers

Ryck

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But would you ever really need spares??

I was thinking a 6x6 - but using the merc box lorry as a base. A long way off yet, still not finished the dually, landrover, clod, jeep, jeep, pajero, scania, hilux...

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Cool, I have looked at making a merc box truck into a 6x6 and it shouldn't give to many headaches overall, tho I think it might be a little on the short side and look like its been sawn off with regards its tails.

LoL your list is even longer than mine, Come on lets see some building, I have just sorted out the shift on my support truck so its now perfect ;) yourself?

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