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a.w.k.

a.w.k.'s crawlers

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My son and me started running crawlers last year when our club decided to have a new crawler section and have a outside crawling area which was built up last year. This year we have a local crawler competition that consists of 6 runs over the year. You can start in two classes, Scale (hardbody) and Semiscale (polycarbonate body). For last weeks first round we built up this MST CMX Subaru Brat. The rules for the scale class demand for a cockpit and driver figure, so as Tamiya fans we used the Hilux interior that fitted as if it was made for the Brat. As much as i like the original Brat, this is what i would wish from Tamiya in the future , a real 4WD Subaru Brat on a updated Tamiya crawler chassis. By the way my son came in 2nd, i took 1st. RIMG3536.JPG.c04321f1ddfdb1bd35730b0b1a1574f7.JPG

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That MST CMX is a very capable crawler, we run it totally stock (with ball bearings), for ESC we use the 1080 Hobbywing, RC4WD steel beadlocks and Rock Creepers.

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The fender flares are a strip of polycarbonate screwed into pieces of plastic pipe that were glued behind the wheel arches.

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that looks really great esp with the weller wheels and i really like what you have done with the arch extenders.

i think matteo is doing a mst chassis up atm in one of his videos

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This is a modified MF-01X

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Body was finished according to the manual with additional led.

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For interior i used a beat up Wild Willy body that was beyond repair. It fits as if it was made for the Mercedes G.

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Kit front shock position is too much inclined, therefore the dampers and springs are too stiff for a crawler. I made a new shocktower from aluminium to gain a more upright shock position.
Also made a battery tray out of aluminium that is screwed to the shock tower to locate the battery above the front gearbox to help with weight distribution. Brass bars on the kit battery holders for the same reason.
Springs are very soft, i found them in my spares box, unfortunately i don't know to what car they belonged originally.

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The suspension arms are TL-01LA arms to get as long span suspension as possible. This mod alone took the performance to higher level. The rear wheel carriers are also TL-01 LA epoxied to the kit carrier extensions, but the left one is on the right side and vise versa. This is to help with the turn radius, the outside wheel in a turn carries more weight than the inner, so i thought it is a good idea to have rear axle toe-out, i call it passive 4WS. The speeds are not that high with crawlers so no need to have rear axle toe-in.

Motor is a M-chassis acto tuned plus a RC4WD reduction gearbox 4:1.

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The universals are the unis for the WR-02 form YEAH plus the wide aluminium hexes to get more width and stop the front tires from rubbing against the shocks.

The underside of the chassis was completely modified with a saw to get more ground clearance.The steering servo is now completely exposed, therefore got a aluminium servo horn for more durability.

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Electronic boxes from TT-02, front one for the esc, rear one for receiver and auxiliary switch for lights.

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Love what you did on that Brat.

My first RC was a hand-me-down Subaru Brat in the 80s. I loved it but eventually converted it to a Frog because I wanted to race with the buggies. The Brat just kept on fish tailing because it has no differential and flipping on sharp corners because it was too high. So I eventually changed a lot of parts including dampers, body shell, body posts, differential, motor, ESC, ball bearings, etc. The standard kit came with a 380 motor only by the way.

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Neat job on the MF01X, your repurposing the WW cabin is inspired!

Both diffs locked?

 

I should so go get my MF moving :( 

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5 hours ago, WillyChang said:

Both diffs locked?

Yes, diffs locked with an additional 4th Spidergear between the others. Works like a charm.
This modded MF-01X is a very capable crawler, my son and me already won some contests with it against Axials & Co.
Here's a little video from a contest:

 

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As the Subaru Brat worked ok for me for the MST CMX i put also a Brat body on a MST CFX. For the next competition the CMX will be run by my son and the CFX will be run by me, cause the CFX is a little bit more tippy then the CMX by reason of its higher C.G.

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The body of the CMX is a rerelease, while this body for the CFX is a restored original Mud Blaster shell,  paint was removed with brake fluid, the splits glued and then covered in new paint. Bruiser interior and driver figure.

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On 3/18/2019 at 4:14 AM, a.w.k. said:

Kit front shock position is too much inclined, therefore the dampers and springs are too stiff for a crawler. I made a new shocktower from aluminium to gain a more upright shock position.
Also made a battery tray out of aluminium that is screwed to the shock tower to locate the battery above the front gearbox to help with weight distribution. Brass bars on the kit battery holders for the same reason.
Springs are very soft, i found them in my spares box, unfortunately i don't know to what car they belonged originally.

Standing up the shocks stiffens and reduces suspension stroke. Laying them down makes the suspension softer and gives more stroke - for the same stroke of the suspension arm the shock isn't compressed as much because some of the motion of the suspension arm just pivots the shock instead of compressing it. Imagine the most extreme scenario of the shock mounted fully laid down, with the 'upper' shock mounting point at the same spot as the lower suspension arm mounting point on the chassis (ignore the fact that in reality it is probably too long to actually do this) - now the shock won't compress at all when the suspension moves, it'll just pivot and the suspension arm flops around freely as if there were no shock at all.

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8 hours ago, nbTMM said:

Standing up the shocks stiffens and reduces suspension stroke.

Yes you are right. I did built the car some time ago, and forgot that i did put in the softer springs prior to making the shocks more upright. To get the same behavior of the front shocks as the rear shocks with the same springs they had to be nearly the same angle as in the rear.

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