Bullhead steering

[Wooders28]

Managed to get out and give my newly purchased bullhead a run this afternoon.

Runs great, but, is the steering meant to be as bad? It's got a turning circle an oil tanker would laugh at and when trying to go in a straight line, front and rear steering is,best described as flapping! 

Without weight on the steering,both front and rear work fine, but looks to be hit or miss if it's the front or rear doing the steering when running.

I had a quick look at the servo saver spring tension, and looks wound in enough.

Is this a loveable attribute (?) of this chassis or do I need to investigate further? 

(Also, do I need to glue the shocks at the top?, had to clip a couple back together a few times)

[wolfdogstinkus]

Did somebody tell you those trucks had  steering?

Nope that's it I think, unless you mount a servo on the axle.

[Wooders28]

I did wonder, before I started ripping the thing to bits! 😀

Thinking of a couple more turns on the servo saver, I've plenty of standard servos so....

The last car I drove was racing my K1 on carpet, so just slight handling difference! 

[Hobbimaster]

I had a Bullhead, now a Clod (same chassis) both turned about as well as a sailboat without any wind. You can try to add more EPA adjustment to the radio for more servo throw, but thats about it. Yes, it does look as if the front does not turn when at speed and trying to turn, and maybe the front does stay straight, but it will eventually turn around. Just the design of the day I suppose.

[Wooders28]

No EPA on the radio, it's a base model.Could swap out the rx for my other radio and give that a try, but if it's part of its charm, then I'll live with it!

[Prescient]

There is a very simple servo horn mod you can do on the Clod Buster, Super Clod Buster and Bullhead.

This is a must do really if you want functional steering.

There is no need to put a servo on each axle with this or change the servo sweep, set up right it gives you steering that is really sharp and at the limits of how far the wheels can turn.

Most servos come with the large star horn shown in the pic below. Use this on your servo. Attach the ball ends/link rod to the furthest outer holes opposite each other.

The increased leaverage is monumental. You can use the stock steering rods too. 

[Wooders28]

Thanks for the tip!

I'm sure I've got loads of those kicking about somewhere.

While its in out, I may upgrade to a metal geared, higher torque servo too.

[Prescient]

Ah yes high torque is a must but anything over 3-4kg is sufficient. 

[Wooders28]

Found this as, what's been said, plus moving arm.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6cKUdmUaenA

[Saito2]

Some very good suggestions here. The reason Clods/Bulls seem to rear steer only is because its physically easier for the trailing wheels to turn (the huge tires amplify this tendency). I found a big dual sided Kimbrough servo saver similar to Prescient's suggestion. Because it was also a servo saver in itself, I was able to lock down the spring loaded savers on the axles. This alone not only increased leverage, but reduced sloppiness.

[Prescient]

7 hours ago, Wooders28 said:

Found this as, what's been said, plus moving arm.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6cKUdmUaenA

That's a good upgrade, never seen that before.

His servo horn was quite a small increase in outer diameter though. Some of the star horns are bigger. Pretty sure mine turns tighter than that. Can't double check unfortunately as it's in the loft at the moment.

[Buggyjam]

On 14/03/2017 at 10:48 PM, Wooders28 said:

Managed to get out and give my newly purchased bullhead a run this afternoon.

Runs great, but, is the steering meant to be as bad? It's got a turning circle an oil tanker would laugh at and when trying to go in a straight line, front and rear steering is,best described as flapping! 

Without weight on the steering,both front and rear work fine, but looks to be hit or miss if it's the front or rear doing the steering when running.

I had a quick look at the servo saver spring tension, and looks wound in enough.

Is this a loveable attribute (?) of this chassis or do I need to investigate further? 

(Also, do I need to glue the shocks at the top?, had to clip a couple back together a few times)

Hey wooders

I believe the bullhead is same as the Clod? Stock steering is a terrible design ha. You can improve it without dual servos but I preferred a "servo-on-axle" conversion to really sort it.

 

Crawford Performance Engineering make servo on axle kits. I think there's some others out there too.  It's a metal plate that bolts to the trans. You then need the links. Obviously you need 2 servos. You need a Y lead with a reverser fitted to one of the outputs, easy to find.

 

steering is now actually very direct and turns tighter than my neo scorcher buggy. If anything I could use a little less rear steer now so I may adjust the link position.

 

 

[Wooders28]

Cheers for the tip, I'll look into it.

I've ordered a high torque servo (and a new esc 🙄) so going to try the greater leverage approach first, plus maybe stiffer springs in the servo savers.

[Buggyjam]

4 hours ago, Wooders28 said:

Cheers for the tip, I'll look into it.

I've ordered a high torque servo (and a new esc 🙄) so going to try the greater leverage approach first, plus maybe stiffer springs in the servo savers.

Good idea as that'll be far cheaper, plus if you did go twin servo you already have 1 high torque servo.

 

One thing with the stock setup is, no matter how strong the servo, or what angles the rods are set it will always be a bit flappy prone. The rods are too thin, the steering operates through far too many long links and weak joints in my opinion where movement gets lost. You could move the wheels and the servo end wouldn't even see it. 

 

Oh forgot to mention one down side if you did ever do the servo on axle thing (apart from expense and extra weight),  I don't think you can  run the stock bumper cages with it, which may bother some people looking to keep a more stock look. ( I think the servo gets in the way)

[Wooders28]

Certainly looks beefed up enough!

I'm using it to teach my 2yr old atm (but bought the lipo compatible esc so daddy can have fun with 3S 😀), so I'm needing the cages.

[Buggyjam]

47 minutes ago, Wooders28 said:

Certainly looks beefed up enough!

I'm using it to teach my 2yr old atm (but bought the lipo compatible esc so daddy can have fun with 3S 😀), so I'm needing the cages.

Yeah it's pretty solid lol

 

Yeah of course, good point. I guess those cages would protect the axles, plus the servo and links are a bit vulnerable at the front if it were to stove into something like a kerb corner.