59592 Rock Socker Build

[Axeboy]

Hi Guys

Im not the most detailed nor do I have great patience but I thought I would do a simple build thread for the Rock Socker.

I ordered mine from Stella and it came in at around £185 inc postage and I was lucky enough to avoid customers. Seems Stella are a good choice for avoiding it and no offense to Banzai but I always get stung by customers with them, and more than I should in some cases.

I ordered a CR01 bearing set from RCbearings as well. I had conflicting info on what bearings were included but it turns out its roughly a 50/50 split of bearings and metal bushes.

The box was heavy but a decent size which is why Stella could sell it at a decent overall price, they actually refunded me £15 on shipping costs which was nice of them.

It arrived well packed and the box is like:

On opening the box its the usual Tamiya setup of late:

[Axeboy]

Steps 1 to 4 cover the basic ladder frame.

Step 1 starts on the link mounts and it doesnt take long to get into it even though the instructions look more complex than they actually are. I notice early on the use of thread lock which is good to see, and turns out its used throughout the build.

Step 2 attached the link mounts to the two metal ladder frame sides

Step 3 adds the 3 main plastic parts to the "Mechanism Deck" which is basically the battery tray plus plenty of space for the RX and ESC

Step 4 is putting the ladder frame together by combining the above.

It really didn't take long and in the end we have a nice solid base. I note that the plastic quality feels better on this kit to me, maybe its the same and its in my head, but it just feels less brittle.

[Axeboy]

The ladder above is a really solid bit of kit, very impressed but I've not had any other larger/more expensive tamiya models to compare to.

Step 5 is building the two diffs. Not much to say here, the whole price is metal and im sure its all been used before from the tamiya parts bin. Again, seems solid.

[Axeboy]

Moving on to step 6 its time to build the drive shafts. Use of E clips as per other kits was a little fiddly but patience pays here

[Axeboy]

Step 7 is the Axel Housing x 2

The bevel gears are added to each housing in preparation for the drive shafts:

And then of course the shafts nicely slotted into the housing. Was a nice simple fit with the washers and bearings, no issues:

[Axeboy]

Step 8 added the suspension mounts to the two housings

And swiftly onto Step 9 brought the Coil Spring mounts, all of these steps of course quite simple.

[Axeboy]

Now it started getting a little more difficult, but not that bad, just needed to be careful on which parts to use as some were 15 degrees and other 25 degrees.

Step 10 was to attach the front uprights, set at 15 degrees you can tell the difference between the rears. The uprights parts J1 and J2 also came in A and B format. Make sure you use the right ones, each is marked A and B if needed. I did do one wrong at the start but quickly realised.

Step 11 was the rears, same comments as above but set at 25 degrees.

My photos are crap but heres a side view of the difference. Easy enough to see.

[Axeboy]

Steps 11, 12 and 13 were all about the Servo. I actually had an aluminium servo bed from 3racings I think, so I decided to use it.

At this point you have the option of also using a second servo for rear wheel steering but you need "51000 Hi Torque Servo Saver" which I didnt have handy. All the other parts are there though including the arms, servo bed etc to have 4ws.

I decided just to use a cheap Hobbyking servo for the moment, so got it centred and proceeded through steps 11 to 13.

Step 14 added the servo bed to the front Axle housing:

And here is the servo on the bed, note the major mistake I made which I'll come to at the end!

[Axeboy]

Step 15 covered the rear servo bed (without servo) and the steering setup is primarily the same as the front bar the fact one of the arms is fixed down.

[Axeboy]

Step 16 fixes the axle housings to the ladder frame. At this point you have to make 16 little arms to make 8 link shafts:

[Axeboy]

Continuing on Step 16 once the links were attached between the ladder and the axle's its starting to take shape:

[Axeboy]

Steps 17 & 18 covered the usual building of the oil dampers. Im sure many of you have seen these a million times

[Axeboy]

Step 19 was the attaching of the coil springs. The kit is supplied with medium (yellow) for the front and hard (blue) for the rear.

Attached was simple done by pushing the bottom and top rung of each coil into the housings and then screwing plastic U prices to hold them in place:

[Axeboy]

Step 20 added the dampers to the chassis including the arms between the dampers and the link mounts:

[Axeboy]

So, after Step 20 the chassis looks as it does below. Overall a solid build so far. I'll do more in a little while.

[zomboided]

I don't wanna derail, but how does this configuration of shocks and springs improve on more conventional designs?

Great build thread, thanks.

[Axeboy]

I have no idea

Seems to work well enough but i dont see the difference myself. Some of the more experienced chaps might be able to advise

[Axeboy]

Onto Step 21 which was easy enough, the propeller shafts. The kit has some spare which might be handy as these are plastic. Note that you have to bend the shaft out to allow the cross joint in, pliers worked fine.

[Axeboy]

22 was the planetary gear which is all plastic. Went together fine and seems strong enough for the job.

[Axeboy]

Step 23 was to attach the planetary gear to the gearbox...

And prep the motor for use. Box silvercan for this one:

[Axeboy]

The last part of Step 24 was to mount the motor to the gearbox. I had a 3racing motor heatsink but the box heatsink is almost identical.

[Axeboy]

Moving onto Step 25 I had to attach the propshafts to the gearbox. Nice and simple, used screw pins to keep them in place.

The motor is attached loose at the start then adjusted when fitted to the gearbox. I had another little upgrade by way of a 3racing gearbox window:

[Axeboy]

Step 26 gets a little more exciting as its time to attached the box to the chassis itself.

It was a bit fiddly as you need to tape down 4 screws which get upturned, I advise you use a little bit of tape. I used too much and now its a fixed part of the build, not that its seen

So now we're almost there:

[Axeboy]

Step 27 see's the electrics added.

Ive stuck with the silvercan of course, but also decided to use one of those super cheap Hobbyking ESC's. I added a new GT3b receiver and the on/off switch is just taped down. I'd rather it was fixed but im sure that can be done.

Lots of space for hiding wires and loads of extra room.

[Axeboy]

Step 28 is the front and rear body mounts. Trimming of the posts to the exact height, I just used pliers and it just it nice and cleanly.

Lots of opportunity to adjust these to whatever you need, plus the cut off excess can be used again.