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S-PCS

Snow and the Super Clod Buster

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So it DID snow today. Big deal, has happened before, you say? Well, this time around, I happened to have a brand-new, never run, freshly built Super Clod Buster ready for the event. My first-ever Clod series truck, too.

Another childhood dream come true, and the SCB held up very well. I built this to run, so I limited-slip'd both differentials right from the start - which worked really well - and did some basic changes to the steering setup, like a larger diameter disc on the servo and paralled steering rods, and if you will look at that turning circle, I guess this works really good as well. Oh, and some basic waterproofing for the electronics, which, you guessed it, worked quite well, despite the disclaimer on the SCB's box that told me to never run it in snow. How did they know what I had planned?!

I've read a lot of stuff about the Clod Buster series being basically useless off-road without some serious modding... Can't confirm this at this point, as I have just about $5 worth of mods in this truck, yes, five, and the SCBs performance in dense, wet, heavy snow left nothing to be desired even off-road. Runtime was surprisingly short, shorter than I would have expected even with two 540s, but I guess that can easily be remedied by a larger capacity battery.  

 

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3 hours ago, S-PCS said:

limited-slip'd both differentials right from the start - which worked really well -

Did you use the diff putty or something else? 

Something I've found from taking my clod for a brief swim is to blow out all the muck from the pivot balls on the suspension (I used a compressor and blow gun) , all kinds of gunk got trapped in there which would lead to increased wear if unchecked.

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I'm not sure if the putty would work in a non-enclosed diff like the Clod's. I briefly considered finding out, but quickly realized that the Clod gearboxes do not lend themselves to quick diff changes... so I went with very sticky grease instead. 

I actually ran the SCB all day long without breaking anything. Can't say I've done that before. I'm beginning to see the point of the whole crawler thing... Go slow, break less. 

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Just been to the park with our Superclodbuster, great winter truck. No snow here though.  :( 

Was just inspecting the clod and the rear diff spins freely, but the front diff/axle gets stuck at a certain point each spin.

Bent the axle?, will have to look at the instructions again for possibilities, but I am sure this is a new/ recent problem, and my 7 year old does give it some abuse. 

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On 1/5/2019 at 5:22 PM, wolfdogstinkus said:

Was just inspecting the clod and the rear diff spins freely, but the front diff/axle gets stuck at a certain point each spin.

I have this happen from time to time. In my case, the axle itself didn't bend but the smaller pin pressed into the inner end of the one axle got bent. This pin connects the two axles in the middle, where the diff gear rides. Usually, I'm able to straighten it out with some careful hammer taps.

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You are so lucky! My super clod has been such a pain so far because it is nearly constantly faulty as I am running it on a brushless and 3s lipo setup which is kinda overkill. One blown esc and mangled gear later it seems okay though :D

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On 1/5/2019 at 12:08 PM, S-PCS said:

 

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5 days in and this is on form for being photo of the year for me :)

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5 hours ago, Ashicar said:

You are so lucky! My super clod has been such a pain so far because it is nearly constantly faulty as I am running it on a brushless and 3s lipo setup which is kinda overkill. One blown esc and mangled gear later it seems okay though :D

Uh oh, the power-to-survivability ratio for a stock SCB on 3S LiPo brushless has got to be near zero. And here I was thinking that two Sport Tuneds would be wild :D

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2 hours ago, S-PCS said:

Uh oh, the power-to-survivability ratio for a stock SCB on 3S LiPo brushless has got to be near zero. And here I was thinking that two Sport Tuneds would be wild :D

S-PCS you can't use two sport tuned motors (at least the tamiya ones). In the super clod the motors run in opposite directions so for it to operate properly they have to run at the same speed in both directions and they do not. Your only options are modifiable motors or zero timed ones. Here is a link for a equally good replacement: https://www.modelsport.co.uk/etronix-sport-tuned-modified-brushed-motor-27t/rc-car-products/366354

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Are you sure? The motors in the kit are two stock silver can 540s, with one connected with the wires reversed. If they work, the SportTuneds should, too? I remember reading up on this a long time ago, and seem to recall that the differences in performance were negligible at least with lower-performance brushed motors? 

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Ok, didn't take too long to refresh my memory on this topic. Somehow it never crossed my mind that the cheap Tamiya STs aren't zero timed. That, of course, makes sense. 

I didn't really mean to upgrade the motors on the SCB... But now I'm kinda tempted. Thanks for the link, at that price, I might just give them a try. 

 

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19 minutes ago, S-PCS said:

Are you sure? The motors in the kit are two stock silver can 540s, with one connected with the wires reversed. If they work, the SportTuneds should, too? I remember reading up on this a long time ago, and seem to recall that the differences in performance were negligible at least with lower-performance brushed motors? 

Ashicar is right. One might argue that the Sport Tuned is so mildly timed that it shouldn't make much of a difference, but when one runs in reverse, you'll get the "double difference" of a silver can vs. a Sport Tuned.  Both the motors and (a modern) ESC will probably survive. However, it's roughly comparable to running the gearboxes with pinions 2-3 teeth apart, and for good reasons, it's been considered a firm no-no for 30+ years.

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It's pretty obvious now that I realized the Sport Tuneds aren't zero timed. Weird. Sport Tuneds always were the "I can't afford a real motor upgrade" option when I was a kid, and to this day I've thought of them as no more than slightly hotter silver cans. 

I read yesterday that they have significantly more torque than the silver cans too. Probably need to reevaluate my position towards them. 

It's been a while since I've given this any serious thought, so I just got out a Sport Tuned, and wouldn't you know, there's even a little 540 vs. ST comparison chart on the box.

I guess you could zero the timing on these, even though they're not designed for it. I'll save that idea for a rainy day. 

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