Wide G6-01 Kong Head

[Andyrt200 201]

 

 

I think it probably looks better with the standard width suspension, but I decided to build it wide from new. 

I got a Blackfoot Xtream as my first new car after after a long time away from the hobby when my boy was still to small to drive. Since then we have (besides quite a few other classics from eBay) had a CC-01, GF-01 & CR-01 he has built with me. The Rock Socker is very good at what it does but the low top speed gets annoying after a while. 

Soon after getting the Xtream I was thinking of adding a gear box to the front, but decided to just get a Clod instead! That is good but the twin motors are a pain when it comes to tuning with front motor direction & ESCs. So I was looking for something with a single motor & gearing for big wheels, that was the main reason for getting the GF-01 but its so unstable with just a torque tuned motor it, it spends more time on its roof than anything else. The Xtreme is by far the most stable of all the cars, so I was keen to replicate that with the G6. 

My son was very keen to get a 6x6 but really wasn't sure about the Kongheads styling, I think its one you learn to love! (I will look at getting another Blackfoot body or two & trying to make them fit.)

Having broken the Xtream & GF-01 both very quickly on their initial runs this G6 is built having learnt from them & has the alloy front plate (I had spare from years ago but assume would still be available on eBay) to tie the front upper suspension mounts together as the longer suspension arms put much more strain on those when crashing, the Xtreams got ripped off, that allows fitting of 95mm shocks too. Then 75mm shocks on the rear, having 4 shocks on the back means it needs only the thinest spacers on the springs so they are softer than the heavily spaced 2 on the back of the Xtream. 

The GF caused us lots of grief trying to run a normal servo & stock saver, I'm not sure why really as the Xtreme had the same servo saver & has been fine for a good 5 years. But the GF & G6 are both running a high torque servo & saver now. (I was interested to see the CR-01 came with a high torque servo saver). I think maybe the Xtremes servo mounts are more flexible than the GFs so add to the protection of the servo, though not the accuracy of the steering! 

Then the most recent mod I leaned of thanks to this forum is diff putty to give highly effective limited slip diffs, so all three are packed with 45 grade Ride diff putty. It works as well as locked diffs for driving over obstacles but means it won't flip sideways when turning & hopefully won't keep breaking drive shafts as the Xtreme did with a locked diff. At least I know it has that effect on the Xtream the G6 has only been driven with it in but the only time it rolls over is when it drives vertically up a tree! Its not running the 4 wheel steering but seems fine with just the front. If you try turning at full speed it just under steers, but back off a touch & it digs in fine then turns nice & sharply. 

(I did add the rear steering to the CR-01 as the fully locked diffs in that made turning difficult)

To make the most of the almost locked diffs to climb stuff its got the Wild Dagger front skid bumper, it comes on the wide axle parts tree. 

As its more than wide enough now I also swapped the long wheel axels 50808 to the normal short wheel axels 50823. The GF01 snapped one of its long wheel axels, in many years of bashing I've never snapped a regular short one! 

 

One last nerdy point I can't figure out is why the G6 has part 19804996 for the front wheels & 50808 for the rears (they look identical in terms of dimensions) when the GF has the 50808 front & rear, maybe harder metal, but it was a rear I snapped on the GF anyway! 

 

 

 

[novicelad 787]

What did you use to make it wider?

 

[TurnipJF 9190]

The chassis looks great in that configuration IMO. Time for a nice customised shell in place of the stock one perhaps?

[Juggular 4961]

8 hours ago, novicelad said:

What did you use to make it wider?

 

Blackfoot Extreme, Wild Dagger, WT-01 chassis have longer A-arms and dog bones that are compatible, as Konghead evolved from them.  I didn't think much of it when people widened Wild Willy 2 with Wid Dagger parts.  But Konghead looks good with a widened stance.  Nicely done. 

 

[Nitomor 2122]

I think that looks great in widetrack. I must admit I considered it but am still at early stages with mine. Thanks for putting pics up, at least it shows us what its like. If I find it lacks stability once built I may find myself doing the same! Bodyshell looks great btw.

cheers

Nito

[Andyrt200 201]

4 hours ago, Juggular said:

Blackfoot Extreme, Wild Dagger, WT-01 chassis have longer A-arms and dog bones that are compatible, as Konghead evolved from them.  I didn't think much of it when people widened Wild Willy 2 with Wid Dagger parts.  But Konghead looks good with a widened stance.  Nicely done. 

 

Thanks, yes I went wide on just the back of the GF01 after breaking one of its longer wheel axels as I had the parts here to do it. It looked stupid but drives so much better, still rolls back or forward too easily though!

Sorry I ment to put up my shopping list with all the part numbers, hopefully they will show ok? It actually ended up costing as much as the CR-01 but I have got a lot of unused new parts I could sell I guess. 

The only thing I think you don't need off my list is the wide willy steering, the shafts in that need cutting down. The WT-01 shafts 9805583 are a perfect fit so we just nicked the Xtremes & will get some more of those. Obviously you would need two sets to have 4 wheel steering, but as the long arms parts tree 0005688 has both front & rear arms on it you need 4 regardless of the steering set up so have just about all the parts to choose that later. That 5688 has the short skid bumper we used on too.

The aluminium front suspension mount isn't essential but again I had it & found it was needed on the Xtream.  

The wheels are actually wider than the WT-01 wheels so it ended up being the widest car we have besides the clod of course!

[Andyrt200 201]

12 hours ago, TurnipJF said:

The chassis looks great in that configuration IMO. Time for a nice customised shell in place of the stock one perhaps?

Yes as I said I was hoping to get a Blackfoot body to fit but the 18/1 scale kills that idea. 

the rear arch cut outs would come haft way into the cab door. All the 10/1 scale truck  bodys I've got have the front arch to back of front door dimension the same as my old classic in the picture. 

The Clods body is long enough to not need extending but would still look silly really. 

https://1drv.ms/i/s!AjQ5GILcmbx1l0N3U1lF-WkYWxwm

(I used to be able to get these pictures to embed but can't make it work anymore, Microsoft changed something so I can't get the same link I could before  )

 

[TurnipJF 9190]

How about a shorter wheelbase shell? A wheelie Pajero with an extended bed perhaps? Maybe a Pumpkin?

[njmlondon 570]

I nromally think most Tamiya's look better left alone, but in this case the wider stance really makes it work. Big fan. 

[Baddon 860]

I really like the shell you have on it. 

I take it you have lost the 4 wheel steer (or is that an option)

[Andyrt200 201]

5 hours ago, TurnipJF said:

How about a shorter wheelbase shell? A wheelie Pajero with an extended bed perhaps? Maybe a Pumpkin?

That's a good idea! I'll have to keep an eye out for one of those shells.

Kind of got used to the one its got for now though it's something of a grower. I'm not sure how long the exhaust stacks will last though before they rip off the body so it may need a new shell eventually. The wide stance does make it hard to tip over, but its meant for driving up slopes, so that always going to go wrong.

It's very good at jumping, which is great as it was a reason for getting it, but that too will go badly wrong at some point too! 

[Andyrt200 201]

4 hours ago, Baddon said:

I really like the shell you have on it. 

I take it you have lost the 4 wheel steer (or is that an option)

Yes the green was my boys choice, he thought it would go well with the yellow of the decals, I think he got it spot on. We would have gone stock blue or red, but quite a few of our other cars are those colours already. 

No, 4 wheel steering is still very much an option. As I said above the wide axle C parts 0005688 have both front & rear suspension arms on them. You have to buy 4 of those as you get one front & one rear on each C parts. The spare front steering parts supplied in the kit fit onto the second set of long front arms you have. The only extra thing you need is a second set of longer steering arms. 

[max69vk 708]

12 hours ago, Juggular said:

I didn't think much of it when people widened Wild Willy 2 with Wid Dagger parts.  But Konghead looks good with a widened stance.

 

100% this!

[dogdaysindurham 0]

Great looking Kong Head! That is good to know that the longer suspension travel works for the G6-01. 

Have you ever looked at these aluminum long travel suspension arms from Yeah Racing?  Yeah Racing Long Arm Suspension Kit for GF-01 I have these on my GF-01 and it really stabilized it at least when going in a straight line.  It also added some heft and lowered the center of gravity of bit.  So while I will still roll over (but only if I suddenly stop going forward or backward), I tend to not roll over side to side as much.  They also make a nice wheelie bar that is a bit more stable than the stock single wheel version. http://www.yeahracing.com/catalog/tawr007bu-aluminum-shock-absorb-wheelie-shock-gear-damper-tamiya-wr02-wr02g-gf01-p-3760.html  

You mentioned you locked your differentials, how did you do that?

 

[Andyrt200 201]

2 hours ago, dogdaysindurham said:

Great looking Kong Head! That is good to know that the longer suspension travel works for the G6-01. 

Have you ever looked at these aluminum long travel suspension arms from Yeah Racing?  Yeah Racing Long Arm Suspension Kit for GF-01 I have these on my GF-01 and it really stabilized it at least when going in a straight line.  It also added some heft and lowered the center of gravity of bit.  So while I will still roll over (but only if I suddenly stop going forward or backward), I tend to not roll over side to side as much.  They also make a nice wheelie bar that is a bit more stable than the stock single wheel version. http://www.yeahracing.com/catalog/tawr007bu-aluminum-shock-absorb-wheelie-shock-gear-damper-tamiya-wr02-wr02g-gf01-p-3760.html  

You mentioned you locked your differentials, how did you do that?

 

Thanks, the diffs are LSDs now rather than locked, using diff putty https://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?/topic/84553-silicone-diff-oil/&tab=comments#comment-692441 that I found out about in that thread. 

The yeah bits look nice, but I personally prefer to stick to plastic as it flexes when you crash & absorbs a lot of the impact (hopefully) with out breaking anything. I put ally uprights on the Blackfoot Xtream but I found the joints on the ally wore out much quicker than the ones in plastic, resulting in excessive wheel wobble. The joints on those yeah ones may be better, mine use the normal Tamiya screw pins.