Grasshopper (DT0)3 - Adventures in getting back into RC - Now with Proline truck shell

[Man1c M0nk3y 508]

8 hours ago, ThunderDragonCy said:

Well fitting the carbon tower was a wrestle! The holes were about 4mm out on the mountings. Seems running without a brace on the tower has slowly bent the mounting uprights. After much faffing and trying the old plastic mounts (same) I loosened the aluminium ones a little until the tower was bolted up tight, then did the screws back up. 

Next hurdle was that the shocks didn't fit! Despite the instructions showing the front end with top wishbones it has the ball nuts screwing directly to the tower. This caused my springs to seriously foul the wishbones. Ended up using the large shock spacers to get it sorted. Anyone else have this trouble? Or is the front of my chassis battered?

Hope it doesn't stress the mount too much. Might have to put the turnbuckles back on. Still, back up and running, with more shock tuning options to play with.

Nice. 

Had no issues fitting mine, but, I’ve got the turnbuckles fitted. I notice however that you set the shock at the most outer point. I’m set in the middle like instructions at present. Would that not shift the spring away from the upper arm slightly for the time being or are you dead set on the outer mount hole?

[ThunderDragonCy 6917]

39 minutes ago, Man1c M0nk3y said:

Nice. 

Had no issues fitting mine, but, I’ve got the turnbuckles fitted. I notice however that you set the shock at the most outer point. I’m set in the middle like instructions at present. Would that not shift the spring away from the upper arm slightly for the time being or are you dead set on the outer mount hole?

I want to try the outer hole but that wasn't the problem. When bolted up the way the manual suggests the spring cafch on the front inner edge of the wishbone. I needed the spacer to get them into the centre of the hole in the wishbone fore-aft

[Man1c M0nk3y 508]

1 hour ago, ThunderDragonCy said:

I want to try the outer hole but that wasn't the problem. When bolted up the way the manual suggests the spring cafch on the front inner edge of the wishbone. I needed the spacer to get them into the centre of the hole in the wishbone fore-aft

Ah right. Misread/understood. Looked at picture and was thinking the outer/hub edge was the issue. 

The turnbuckles might stay truer now you’ve a full tower anyway. IIRC you had issues previously chasing camber etc 

[ThunderDragonCy 6917]

Ran at the track for the first time yesterday. Robin Hood Raceway indoor. So much fun. But some setup changed were needed for the flat astro tight technical track compared to my usual grass.

I ran all my bodies (brilliantly I found a quick trim got my GH2 bodies under the front carbon tower) and the truck and buggy wheels. Immediately needed to put the kit soft springs in for front grip and I eventually went the low ride height at the rear. Front minipins and rear CAT blocks on the buggy wheels and it was really good. Azarashi body was surprisingly and noticebly easier to handle. I guess the weight makes a big difference on the track. Was a lot of fun.

[Man1c M0nk3y 508]

19 minutes ago, ThunderDragonCy said:

Ran at the track for the first time yesterday. Robin Hood Raceway indoor. So much fun. But some setup changed were needed for the flat astro tight technical track compared to my usual grass.

I ran all my bodies (brilliantly I found a quick trim got my GH2 bodies under the front carbon tower) and the truck and buggy wheels. Immediately needed to put the kit soft springs in for front grip and I eventually went the low ride height at the rear. Front minipins and rear CAT blocks on the buggy wheels and it was really good. Azarashi body was surprisingly and noticebly easier to handle. I guess the weight makes a big difference on the track. Was a lot of fun.

Sounds like a fun and interesting (from set up/tweaking perspective) day. 

 

[ThunderDragonCy 6917]

Update. Car has barely run since the track day. It's been a right saga. 3300 mAh nimh battery now has quite short run times with the 8.5 motor. Decided to dip my toe in the lipo pond. Got that and immediately fried the hobbywing copy eBay special ESC. *****s! Got a refund though which is good. Bought sensorless ESC because I'm an idiot. Finally got a Quicrun bl120 sensored ESC which the lovely people at modelsport put some wires and a plug on for me. Hooked it all up today and plugged in the lipo. No fires! That's a start. Quick run in the garden. Wheelies! Lipo really is quite a step from nimh.

Popped to local park and low and behold freshly mowed with piles of dry cut grass all over. Cue hilarious spraying of grass cuttings everywhere and general hooning about. Lovely.

 

[ThunderDragonCy 6917]

Quick bit of maintenance. After over a year of (ab)use my DT03 diff bevels gave up last week. Worn down and clicking. These arrived from Sir Tony of Tamiya over the weekend and have just gone in the gearbox to get the Grasshopper3 back up and running

 

Decided to switch to splined outdrives now I am running a silly motor. All went together lovely. Test tomorrow.

Only other change recently was going back to 17t pinion to try and keep motor temps in check and drilling some holes in the motor area for the same reason. Will post pics soon.

Also the car is back permanently being the Grasshopper3. My lovely Azarashi shell now has a permant home on my recently acquired DN01 buggy. Some interesting comparisons going on with that.

[ThunderDragonCy 6917]

It's been a while since I updated on this, but the Grasshopper3 has been slightly retired recently. My lovely DN01 has rather overtaken it in my affections, and when I accidentally won a DB01R in June off ebay, that seems like a more sensible home for the 4400kV motor and 120A ESC, that in all honesty were a bit much for the DT03 chassis. Not that it didn't handle well with the power, but I did see a marked increase in things breaking a wearing out. So, after a bit of juggling of kit it's back on a TBLE02S and 13.5/3300kV, and I've left the 17t pinion in to keep the acceleration good. It's still running the custom 8.4V hump pack, but the Lipo I bought for the DN01 also fits nicely so that's an option for a bit more pep and run time. It certainly helped at the track last month to give it enough punch to clear the jump. However, one thing on setup that I didn't mention that you DT03 runners might find useful.....When I went to fit my carbon front tower the other month I really struggled to get it to fit the GPM aluminium mounts that I have. Once I bent them back out enough to fit the new tower I noticed the front ride height had raised fairly significantly. Also the handling got a lot more understeery! Seems that by cutting the centre bridge out of my original tower to clear the body eventually resulted in the front aluminum mount bending slightly and reducing the front ride height, which improved the handing! The front arms used to be parallel to the ground with the kit springs in, now they were angled down. So, I thought I would try and replacate my previous accidental setup and I stripped the shocks and put the small spacer from the piston sprue underneath the piston. This reduces the shock length from 70mm to 67mm. Suddenly my handling was back on point! So, if you have the CVA shocks or similar 70mm shocks, might be worth adding a spacer or a couple of o rings inside and seeing how you get on. Ride height might get a bit marginal on buggy wheels (I haven't tried it), but on truck wheels it's ace. Here she is today after some lovely drifty dry grass hoonery at the local park:

And here's what my front end looks like at ride height:

 

[Juls1 1555]

My dt03 got relegated to beach duties, proline 1/16 summit paddles out back, stock up front, 4000kv sensorless. Very fun! What’s surprised me is how well the plastic bones are holding up, since it’s beach duties now I’ll probably leave it like that. 

Use my dn01 for everything else.

[ThunderDragonCy 6917]

Few more things going on recently. Firstly - dampers! I got my first ever set of aeration dampers on my DB01R and even with light oil they are so much more heavily damped than the CVA with 3 hole pistons. I switched to the 1 hole pistons, 400wt rear, 500wt front. Handling is still good and for grass running it's still got plenty of grip. Big difference is the "drop" test. When I last ran at the track, even on truck wheels the car very obviously slapped the track landing jumps. With the 1 hole pistons the drop test works lovely. The car doesn't slap the floor when dropped from each end. Much better. Feels much more like the posh dampers too. 

Another thing I had a go at for giggles was putting the buggy wheels back on. Immediately found it was too low at the front, so sorry about the above post about shortening the front dampers to 67mm. That only works with truck wheels. Redid the front dampers to full length and had another go. Fun to drive but definitely harder to drive. I think I still prefer the truck wheels on balance. 

[borderlord 8]

Hi Cy

Just read my way through this thread. Monumental job of work, well done.
Have to say I don't get the opportunity to try as many different surfaces as you do, and my driving ability (or lack of) doesn't allow me to tell the difference between individual set ups, but it's still my go-to source when I need help.
Meanwhile, quick question.
A while back I broke the front shock tower, so I replaced it with a cf one. This went in without any issues.
In your post on April 25 you showed a picture with your carbon tower in place and you had to fit some spacers to prevent the springs fouling the wishbones.
Later on, May 22, these spacers seem to have disappeared. What have you done different?

Meanwhile, this is the club I belong to:

http://www.edenparkraceway.com/about-us/

Can't say I actually race there, the other guys are phenomenally fast, but I do get to use the track on my own during the week, and occasionally mix it with the others when they're only practising.

Waiting for bits for my DT03, but this does allow me to indulge my other passion (obssession):

Definitely got too many hobbies

Jeff

[ThunderDragonCy 6917]

Hi Jeff. Glad you found it useful. It's quite a beast now this thread. 

First and foremost I don't think you have to be an awesome driver to appreciate differences in your cars handling. I'm certainly not brilliant. This is a bit of a go to resource when I am puzzling

http://www.rcscrapyard.net/uk/tips.html

As for the spacers, it turns out that my original setup with the cut front tower resulted in the mounts bending. This made fitting the CF tower hard but then I figured out what as going on, straightened the tower mounts and sorted the fitting with the stock parts. I tried the front shocks in a few different positions and found the outermost the nicest to drive.

 

[Yalson 511]

On 4/20/2018 at 10:01 PM, ThunderDragonCy said:

I am sure the big air dam is good for racing but I just wanted it to look good!

Ooh, don't get me started...

[ThunderDragonCy 6917]

Ran at the track last weekend and left the buggy wheels on. The 1 hole dampers made a big difference. Compared to last time i ran at the track it was much more planted, jumped and landed better and was just nice to drive

I was running Schumacher mini spike2 yellow rear tyres and 4wd cut stagger fronts, both with yellow inserts. Wheels are Schumacher 2.2 rear and tamiya dish fronts. The fronts are wider than the kit Racing Fighter wheels I have. They must be for slim tyres. I definitely like having the wider front tyres for a bit more grip.

I also went back to the 19t pinion after my first run, which was noticeably faster and better suited to the 13.5t motor now it's running on the smaller buggy wheels. 

 

[gizard 132]

Hi Cy,

Just doing some work to my similarly modified DT-03T (as previously inspired by this thread of yours). 

I am looking to get both 54395 & 53301 Tamiya suspension shafts. But I also have lost a GPM king pin from the C-Hub - what part numbers did you replace these with - mentioned on page 1??

 

cheers

 

G.

[ThunderDragonCy 6917]

1 hour ago, gizard said:

Hi Cy,

Just doing some work to my similarly modified DT-03T (as previously inspired by this thread of yours). 

I am looking to get both 54395 & 53301 Tamiya suspension shafts. But I also have lost a GPM king pin from the C-Hub - what part numbers did you replace these with - mentioned on page 1??

 

cheers

 

G.

Hi there. The 25.3 shafts are from the 53479 set. Tge 48mm shafts in that set will work on the inner armsof your dt03. 

[gizard 132]

3 hours ago, ThunderDragonCy said:

Hi there. The 25.3 shafts are from the 53479 set. Tge 48mm shafts in that set will work on the inner armsof your dt03. 

Cool thanks ordered some.

 

[ThunderDragonCy 6917]

New body! Got a Proline Ford F150 Raptor 2017 double cab. Its a 1/10 monster truck shell but has 273mm wheelbase and 150mm width. I hoped it would fit and it does! I trimmed it today and got the body mounts sorted

My original DT03 kit was the Racing Fighter so it came with the TL01 body mounting set. To get this body to work it needed the straight mounts rear and the large L shaped mounts front, threaded between shock and tower to pick up on the bonnet 

 

 I'll post up more progress so you can see how it fits

Edited June 16, 2019 by ThunderDragonCy
Flickr hosting of photos sorted

[jupitertwo 1481]

Looking forward to seeing how this body turns out. I’m not a fan of the Aqroshot/Vajra body, but these raptor trucks do look cool

[ThunderDragonCy 6917]

Worked from home today and it was warm and not raining, so I got the painting done! As usual it took some planning and masking, especially as I wanted to use up some paint I still had rather than getting a load of new cans. Seems so wasteful doing that. Anyway, here she is!

Some of the masking around the headlights didn't work quite right, and the paint is a little thin and blotchy on the orange close up because I didn't have much left, but I'm happy with it, and the stickers hide quite a bit of the worst of it. I went for the orange sides and bottom panels as a nod to the Blackfoot.

I did have some trouble with the paint picking up the lines where the masking tape over lapped which I have never had before. Bit annoying, and not sure what I could have done to prevent it. Unless the edges were dirty maybe?

All the most of the black (everything except the door uprights and sunroof) i did in a new way to me. I saw on a youtube how to paint video a guy doing a truck body who painted the black on the outside so it would give a slightly matte finish similar to the textured plastics which make up the truck bed and bumpers. I really liked the idea, and it also made the masking considerably easier! Basically once you have the colour on the inside, you get a new hobby knife blade, and cut the overspray film and pull it off in the areas to be black and leave the rest as masking. Worked like a charm, so I got the Raptor plastic arch extenders and bonnet vents as per the real vehicle. I also did the grill, lower bumper, tailgate and flat bed. Really happy with how it came out, and did really make things much easier. 

Going to let the paint harden for a couple more days and hopefully give it a run later in the week if it dries up a bit.

 

[jupitertwo 1481]

Looks good to me, the first bash will add some ‘detailing’ to the body to take your mind of it!

is it just the tl01 c parts tree I’d need to make a shell like this sit on a dt03? I have a spare set of Blitzer wheels already, and a DT03 Neo Fighter in need of some rejuvenation after some speed run efforts years ago. [Thinking about it, I’d need some larger/longer front ‘white bits’ to connect the larger wheels? A quick search of this thread reveals these things are called uprights, and I need the Blitzer ones ]

[ThunderDragonCy 6917]

@jupitertwoYes you only need the TL01 body posts. To fit the Blitzer wheels the cheapest way to get the uprights is the Mad Bull steering parts. Its cheaper than buying separately oddly. Part number 9415376. 

 

 

[Man1c M0nk3y 508]

Looks great Cy and nice to see it still getting love  DF03 shocks next?!

Great looking body and one I had on the short list. Makes me want to revisit the shell I got for the 03 but I’ll resist for now as I still haven’t got round to painting the Aqroshot 😔

Have you had any issues with the front wheels binding on the shell on full lock or compression?

The Schumacher Vee’s I have fitted caught unless I had the body pretty high which ruined the look. Trimming off the inside row of spikes would solve it but ended up changing shell (for other reasons than the tyres).

Just curious. 

[ThunderDragonCy 6917]

8 hours ago, Man1c M0nk3y said:

Looks great Cy and nice to see it still getting love  DF03 shocks next?!

Great looking body and one I had on the short list. Makes me want to revisit the shell I got for the 03 but I’ll resist for now as I still haven’t got round to painting the Aqroshot 😔

Have you had any issues with the front wheels binding on the shell on full lock or compression?

The Schumacher Vee’s I have fitted caught unless I had the body pretty high which ruined the look. Trimming off the inside row of spikes would solve it but ended up changing shell (for other reasons than the tyres).

Just curious. 

I haven't checked fully or run it so i will find out and get back to you. Certainly full compression causes no trouble. I do have 12mm axle extenders (effectively a 12mm thick hex) on the rear though, so the rear wheels are 5-6mm per side fully out than the kit. But mine also has my 3 deg toe in rear uprights so the leading edge of the rear wheels is closer than it would be. 

[gizard 132]

I am wondering if this body would work well as a basher on my Tundra. Can you advise what the centre wheel arch to centre wheel arch distance is please?