Bruiser - My way, with some help

[sirandy 7]

Hey all,

I have had a re-re Bruiser sitting in the cupboard for ages, and decided to build it up recently. I was going to keep in it its box, but got a re-re Mounty that will probably server NIB duty, until I decide to build it.

Having built the Bruiser, I am in the tedious process of getting the body sprayed up, and am doing box art, but I am not a fan of the sleeper section, so may leave that off. I am also going to leave some of the decals off, and go for a more 'scale' look. I ordered up the RC4WD Bruiseruptor axles, and scale yota axle, and as much as I like them, I also like the idea of the open front diff, rather than locked. This thing drives around the field behind my house, and we all know it is not a crawler like an SCX10 or similar, so I am looking for options.

Its only when you build these things, that you see what could make them better, and quite frankly I am not a fan of the 'monster truck' gig, I prefer something a little more scale. Here is what I don't like.

Body height is too high for me. Will need modding. Will need to cut down the mechanism box top-hatch and lower front mount. Not too difficult, will require some cutting. I just want the body to 'touch the rails. Anything more will require some drastic cutting to the frame, no deal.

Ride height is too high. Some mods done, more to come. I am running just the main spring and the small helper spring. Makes the ride a little softer, and after some riding, it has sagged a little bit. I put spacers under the front gearbox mounts to lift it a little, and it provides more space for travel on the front suspension. By 'clocking' the front axle a little, it also frees up some space and makes the prop shaft angle a little better. Cannot do it too much or the castor on the hubs will cause some steering issues. I would like to lift the rear of the gearbox a little, but it will foul on the mechanism box. If I do need to do it, I will grind some of the mechanism box away. If the suspension lowers, the gearbox will be the first place to foul. I looked at the difference between the hangers and the shackles of the Bruiser vs the Hilux, and it is clear that the hangers and shackles are very different. The hangers can easily have another hole drilled higher up on the hanger, and this will provide around 3mm of upward movement of the spring. The shackles also have place to move up a hole, but it means some grinding of the shackle so as not to foul.

Don't like the rear axle width. Looking for some inspiration, and will probably do the YSS mod, as per here http://www.ys-solutions.co.jp/ysscrawlers/index.php?main_page=document_general_info&products_id=2787&language=en

Don't like that I cannot run 12mm hubs, above will remedy that.

Don't like the wheels and tires. Once the above is done,  I am going to look at options for wheel/tire combo's. I like the RC4WD stamped wheels but you have to get a special hub so that they can fit on the hexes, I suppose if it is the only way, then so be it. Alternatives include the Axial 8-hole wheels, and I think they are plastic apart from the bead rings, so it will keep the unspring mass lower than the rc4wd option. Not sure whether to go with 1.9 or 2.2 wheel/tire. I need to get the size down, and the only option there is the RC4WD Dune A/T tires. The are 110mm OD, as opposed to the bruiser tires which are around 126mm. They are a lot narrower (49mm as opposed to 64) and with the lowered suspension, will fit nicer than under the wheel arches. Alternatively, 1.9 wheels with the RC4WD dirt grabbers which may be a little small at 98mm, or the Mil-spec 2.2's which may be nicer at 106mm OD.

Anyway, I don't have any pics, as I am just brainstorming. There are few lowered bruiser threads out there, but nothing new. I recall seeing someone on TC had done a great job with one in baby-blue sort of colour, but I cannot for the life of me find it anyay. I wonder if it didn't get lost when the server changeover happened a few years ago.

Feel free to comment where you think you may have some feedback.

 

Andy

[Nitomor 2122]

I'm very interested to see how you end up. I was considering a while back how I could drop the shell on mine for a more scale runner and as you've said, you need to cut down the electrics box and lower the front mount.

I tried all of these wheels/tyres on mine...

in the end, these ended up the best for me, not the most scale looking but it reduced the monster look to an almost plausible high lift kit and with some suspension or shell height mods could have looked good. These retain the width/offsets and can support the weight well of the Bruiser so would make good runners.

Using some RC channel 6 bolt hubs, I also tried these gmade 1.9 wheels and tyres;

These look great from the side, especially with some mods to reduce the air between the tyres and arches. However as crawler tyres, they are much narrower and I'm not sure how well they would support the rig weight for actual running. Here is the rear pic where you can see they stick out as far as the Bruiser rims, but they don't really come inboard at all. These were hex wheels with the hex cut out and the beadlock wheels fixed through the beadlocks and directly in the six bolt hubs.

It's the much larger Proline Mashers on the r/h side in photo above so the difference is compounded.

from above.. the hex's were cut out on the rear to reduce mounting depth but left on front to equal out the offset on the 1.9 wheels.

Mounting hubs...

alternative look to sleeper cab?...

[sirandy 7]

Nito,

 

You certainly have tried some options!

I like the Geolanders, but there is something to 'square' about them. They just look like they don't resemble 'real tires' on mine,  yours seems to look a little different.

 

Ok, so I was doing some looking, standing back, looking again....rinse/repeat... and I came to the conclusion that any tire that is under 95mm is probably going to look a little odd. The reason for this is that even if I lower the body, at some point it is going to hit the chassis at the front and the back. the back is not a problem as the rear sub-assembly can come off, the bumper is nowhere scale anyway. The front is the problem and I don't want to hack up the grille to get that right. The only other way to do it is to bring the wheels up by removing as much 'lift as possible. One way to do it is to shift the attach points of the leaf springs up, and by doing that, you remove travel before it starts hitting things. At the front, it will hit the steering bellcrank, which will ultimately come out in favour of a front mounted servo. This is an advantage as it will remove steering slop that is inherent in the orginal system. At the back though, bringing the axle up will cause the radius arms to foul on the front spring mount. It is possible to grind those down a bit and once I have drilled and measured, I will be able to see how much I can grind off.

I have ordered 1.9 wheels and 1.9 dirt grabbers from rc4wd, as well as the hex conversion. I will chop the rear axles down at the rear to bring the wheels under the body.

Baby is taking up too much of my time, so might consider selling him for RD funds and freeing up some time.....lol. Ok, that was a joke.

[Nitomor 2122]

You're correct, they are indeed HPI Yoko Geolandars. Personally I think they are the sweet spot compromise. Some more pics on that setup...

Since you don't like the sleeper cab...here's a pure one...

Found another pic comparing the Geolandars to the Gmade 1.9's

I don't think the Hex adapters are the way forward if the ones you got are anything like these;

They look nice...

But...

Nuff said, I will say the WT wheels there have a very shallow offset but nevertheless it pushes the wheel out further.

HTH

Nito

[sirandy 7]

Yeah, I went for the RC4WD hex kit, its quite different to that lot you got. Is that the ebay specials I have seen floating about?

I posted that link earlier on how to narrow the bruiser rear, but it doesn't seem to be working, just google "YSS narrow bruiser" and you will see the difference. I am going to do similar to his idea, but with some changes on the way the hub is held on. I will grind a flat on the shaft rather than drill a new hole, and then turn new threads.

The Geolanders are only 5mm taller than the Dirt Grabbers, and by the time I have lowered the body, and brought up the suspension, I should be around the sweet spot.

Here is a pic of the guy who did the conversion. I am looking for this sort of result, but lower.....I take no credit for the pic, the work belongs to Yoshiaki Kataoka alone. I don't have his permission to use it, and will remove if necessary.

 

[sirandy 7]

BTW, I like the look without anything on the bed, but I think the fact that mine will be painted like a bruiser, I will probably end up putting the sleeper section on anyway. Will see how it goes. Your paintwork looks great, I wish I could paint like that...The side on, clean pic of yours shows that removing the rear subframe and bumper are likely to make it look better, the rear view with that big bumper is what I want to get away from (not saying YOURS is ugly, its the design and edge towards the monster truck thing, that I don't care for). Have a look at the rear of that pic I posted....

If the body can sit down a few mm, and the suspension come up a little, we might be getting to sweet apple pie, hmmm....lol

[Nitomor 2122]

Thanks, painting the body is a whole other story. I still haven't quite completed it, those pics were in the early days, it's had a fair few more applications of clear, the decals then more clear. A couple more successful coats of clear should do it!

I've seen those axle reduction instructions before but thanks for the link, I couldn't bring myself to cut the axles and I actually really like the Bruiser hop up wheels, if only they did a 1.9 compatible wheel. I bought some vintage Hilux rims originally but the three bolt fitment is a different pcd so doesn't fit on the Bruiser! RC channel also did some beautiful axle kits too, but pricey.

Lower one is RC Channel axle, I'd love a set of these.

Link here:

http://www.rcchannel.com.tw/product_info.php?cPath=25&products_id=317

If they could be fitted up with their 4 link parts and this front mount servo I'd be there, but this hasn't been tried yet so I don't know if it would fit the Bruiser...

 

[sirandy 7]

Nito,

I followed your build thread, and was impressed with the paintwork, I have no doubt mine will not look as good as that, but hey, it will be a runner. The mounty I have in the box, that's a different story, and I might even stump up the cash for someone to do it for me..

I like the RC Channel stuff. I had a set of those axles, but on a CR-01, they were VERY good, and made for a good scale build. It ran well too, and I sold it a few years ago, with some regret to this day. I really wanted to see what I could do with as much of the kit stuff as possible. I don't mind grinding and hacking, as long as I can restore it to original, if things don't work out.. Getting RC Channel axles would have defeated that purpose a little.I even got a set of spare Tamiya wheels to see if I could chop them to fit thinner tires, but its not really possible. The RC Channel axles also made the whole thing sit a little higher (the previous versions did, not sure about the newer ones, and I need things lowered.

I recall you had some problems with the decals on yours, but got it sorted.

I will put some pics up in the next day or so, to show you where I am at with things.

 

 

[Nitomor 2122]

Yeah, the kit supplied decals were too short, all the decals were smaller. The replacement set was better. Took a bit of effort for Tamiya to stump up with it but they came good in the end and they all went on ok. I have a few decals left from the old sheet like the Hog which I'll use on a runner shell, when I get to job #132 on my list /jk !!

I was really tempted with a CR01 but knew I'd go wild and want all that RC channel stuff so best not have any more temptations. That Bruiser is going to be a shelfer keeping a Mountain Rider company but I do have a runner Bruiser waiting to be built which will have various hop ups fitted and ultimately I'd love to go for those RC channel axles, they're a thing of beauty, really scale looking and actually make the Tamiya items look skimpy! 

 

 

[sirandy 7]

I'm an old Tamiya-whore by nature, but if I had to drop some coin on something to just have fun with, I would do an Axial SCX10 or Vaterra Ascender, no need to upgrade much, just go out and run it. You will be smiling from ear to ear when you see what they can do. CR-01 is all about the build, but it pales in comparison to functionality of one of those two....and they are fairly scale too. I realise it is all about the customising and whatnot, but those things are just pure fun, for the cost of RC Channel axles...LOL

[sirandy 7]

OK, so I got the drill out, and did the front right. I moved the mounting point of the front spring, up by about 3-4mm. You can see on the frontal view that the left side is sagging compared to the right. Its only a few mm, but it will help. I don't think it will be possible to mount the rear of that spring higher on the shackle, as it will interfere with the chassis frame.

One negative, which could have been avoided, is that the lower bumper mount now has nowhere to be mounted, but I am pretty sure I will remove the front bumper anyway, it is quite 'bulky'...