SCX10 G6 - Jeep Cherokee Rebody

[Mad Ax]

The TRF springs are very slightly larger diameter than the Axials, so they don't sit perfectly on the spring guide, but they work.

Extended:

Compressed:

Note that due to the large limiters installed on the shock shaft, the springs never get fully compressed.

I refilled with 40wt HPI oil, which I hope it slightly harder than the Axial 30wt installed as standard.

Fitted on the truck - right is the new spring, left is old.  There's an obvious lean to the left.

New springs now installed both sides

I had to add quite a bit of preload to the left spring, which is strange as the spare tyre is mounted very slightly to the right.  The only extra thing on the left is the driver figure, I guess he's heavier than I though (well, he is a bit of a beefcake).

[Mad Ax]

I also found a remote winch control thing which must have come with another winch a while ago, that I forgot about.  I hooked it up to the rear winch and it works perfectly from a little remote fob thing.  It saves me having to hook up a 4th channel on the receiver, which I don't want to do until my Arduino controller software is ready.

[Mad Ax]

I figured it was time to drag this truck out again for a quick check-over before the Scaler Nationals.  I was already well into the whole scaler thing having worked on the BOM and the CFX-W, and I had a few extra bits to throw on the G6 while I was at it.

It started off looking like this.

I started off with a quick test-run on the scale mountain, and discovered there was no drive to the rear axle.  At first I though it was something wrong with the Element Enduro overdrive transmission that I'd thrown in a few weeks ago, so I ran it back up the garden.  Suddenly it came to a complete stop and the motor wouldn't turn at all.  I thought maybe it was an electrical gremlin, but fortunately I didn't give it too much throttle to try to free it up.  It turns out a drive pin was missing from the prop joint into the rear axle, part of the prop had escaped and the remaining tube had locked up the transmission.  That could have been an easy burnt out motor or destroyed gears.

With the prop fixed, I added some more scale parts.  A scale bedroll from Overland RC, and a wire tow strap that I've ziptied in place - I don't think I'll ever need to use it as I have winches front and rear.  The ground anchor will be secured in place later, hopefully in a manner that it will be easy to remove on the trail but won't keep falling off.

Then I figured I needed a new kinetic strap.  I don't know why I figured this, but I had some spare tow hooks and some shock chord that my wife bought so I could fix the broken tent poles.

I soldered up some rings and used some more copper wire to secure them into the shock chord.

And that's pretty much it!  My rigs may not be 100% perfect, but they're all functional, they all succeeded in climbing my 1:10 scale mountain, and I don't see why they won't at least make the start line a week Saturday.  Whether they all make it to the finish is another story, but that's partly why I take 3 rigs.  In theory, I can have all three rigs fail but still have enough parts to build one working one to get me to the end of the event.

[GeeWings]

Great stuff!

Good luck with the start line and even more good luck to you to reach the finish. Have fun whatever the result!

[Mad Ax]

The Scaler Nationals is always good fun, I've never had a bad time there.  I don't think my usual buddy is coming this time, but it's so easy to make trail buddies, I'm sure it will be great.  With three solid trucks plus a truescale, I'm sure I'll make it around with something.

That said, there are 4x 100 gate courses plus a huge 500 gate perimeter trail, I'm guessing I should make sure my rucksack is loaded with food, drink and battery packs for that one  

Out of interest, I'll be running Strava in walking mode all day to see how many miles I do.

[Mad Ax]

Just thought I'd do a quick update on this thread, as I'll be taking this rig out in September to the Southern Scale Trail, and it hasn't been looked at since the Scaler Nationals last October.

Still on my to-do list was to add some weight into the wheels.  This is a cheap, simple mod that makes a massive difference to performance over the tougher climbs, so it's rude not to, really.  This rig might be seriously old now, but it can still keep up on the trails with the newest stuff in my fleet.

Having removed a wheel to start the laborious task of removing 40 miniature screws (plus the 8 screws that secure the hub cover in place), I noticed my wheel hex wasn't in great shape.  Looks like this one has been spinning around a little...

And slipping on the pin, too.

The old hexes were 10mm.  I bought these new 12mm hexes, ostensibly for the SRB, but I ended up not using them.  I like that they have a screw-fitting pin that goes right through, so they can't fall off.

Unfortunately, that huge lip makes it impossible to get them onto the axle.  The only way it would fit was to file the lip right off.

[Mad Ax]

I think these hexes might be designed speffically for the SRB, or something like it, since it has a non-fattening centre that is even lower in calories than a conventional hex, and it won't sit flush on the axle.

They come with a set of barrel nuts, which you would think would be a snug fit inside the hex, but no, they're not.

The only way to make it all fit snug was to sleeve it with some brass rod.

I cut the rod down, slipped it into place, and drilled through it.

[Mad Ax]

But there is another problem.  The screw pin on the new hexes is 2.5mm, the hole in the axle is 2mm.  Well, that's lame!

Guess I'll have to drill out the axle, then...

And finally, let's fit it all together!

Well, that looks great!  So, let's just...  Oh.  It doesn't spin.  It's bound up solid.

Aah.

Well, something isn't clearing something else, somewhere.  The SXC10 axle does have rather a big boss around the bearing, which might be catching the shoulder of the hex, but we don't have this problem with plastic hexes.  Rather, I think the pin hole is too far from the end of the hex - but, because it's a 2.5mm pin with an M3 head, it's about as close to the edge as it can get before the thread blows through.  Now, I could probably make it fit if I kept filing and filing and filing on the end, but if that thread blows out it will be useless.

So - apologies for those of you who read this thread expecting a happy ending, but sometimes we don't get one.  In this instance I ended up better off than when I started, because I fitted another plastic 10mm hex.  Hopefully it will last

 

[Mad Ax]

A little update on this one.  I decided that the SCX10 should be the tow rig for the new trailer, so I needed to fit the hitch for it.

This is the plate that mounts under the back of the body, which locates the rear winch and the body posts and attaches the whole thing to the body swivel.  This is the best place to mount the hitch.

A bit of L-section and some holes drilled, and we have a hitch

[Mad Ax]

Needs a cut-out under the bumper

Updates to follow in the next couple of days, including some photos of the trailer attached over on the trailer thread

[Mad Ax]

Quick update to this one.  If you followed the SST thread you'll have noticed that the wheel came off this rig while I was driving around with the trailer.  This has long been a problem with these wheels - the smooth, flat-faced alloy offers no purchase for a nut to tighten against, and the supplied centre caps (while admittedly very attractive) have a recess that is too low for locking nuts and too narrow for flange nuts.  This means I can only run conventional nuts, and they inevitably back off on the trails.  To compound this problem, the centre caps have 8 tiny little machine screws holding them in place, so a trail repair means getting my knees in the mud for 20 minutes and risking losing the screws while I take the caps of to tighten everything up.

However, last year I acquired a set of 7 used wheels for the Big 6 project, and I was surprised to find they are exactly the same design as these ones, only black.  But, they came without centre caps.  So I set about designing and printing my own, in resin.  After a little trail and error, I got some neat designs - the front centre cap is big and bold and has a locker detail embedded, and rear is smaller and loosely based on an old 70s Ford design, but with the SS logo from my SCRAPSpeed fake brand.

As it was, I printed a few spare caps for Big 6, so I had enough left over to retrofit them to the Cherokee.  They were printed in black, but in this photo they had been primed in grey and then coated in Tamiya silver (I think I used a PS colour because it was conveniently available).

In case I didn't explain the issue properly, here is a visual explanation:

[Mad Ax]

Wheel refitted with nice big safe not-coming-off type knurled flange nut

Locker cap fitted up front.  Colour match isn't perfect but with a bit of trail dirt on there nobody will notice.

heck yeah

The rears didn't go quite as well - the recesses for the screw heads are very slightly not quite the right size, and the caps cracked, but tbh that will be fine until they have to come off again.

[Mad Ax]

Both sides done

After that, I turned my attention to the trailer wiring.  The F150 trailer has now got lights in (update to follow in trailer thread soon), so I had to splice in another power wire to run them.

TBH the entire wiring on this rig needs ripping out and starting again - there are literally wires everywhere where I've added bits here and there, it would be nice to use some of the spare space to mount a proper circuit board with some mounted switches like I have with the BOM.

Wire mounted with enough free play for the flopsical rear end

Trailer light pics to follow on the trailer thread soon!

[Mad Ax]

Updates!  Long time no post!

I haven't driven this truck for a while, and when I have, it's been perfectly reliable.  I have some newer, more capable crawlers that get the bulk of the duties at scale events, and the Cherokee has been relegated mostly to the trailer-towing role, since it's the only truck with a towbar and light hookup.

However, I thought I'd take it to the local Southern Scale Trail Pay & Play Day as a quick shakedown before I take it to the UK Scale Nationals in a month.  I was giving it a nice gentle crawl around the woods with the trailer attached when it suddenly started having trouble getting over a log.  I noticed the front wheel was slipping, and I thought it was a worn hex - it still has 10mm plastic hexes, and the wheel nuts tend to come loose easily, so they slip and round off.

But then I noticed it wasn't just one wheel, and I flipped it over to see the front propshaft was slipping.  Oh well, it had been on there for years, so it was long overdue for replacement.  I carried on driving on 2.3 wheel drive, until suddenly it jammed up completely.

Turns out it wasn't slipping - the grub screw had some loose!  If I'd actually stopped to check properly, I might have been able to save it - but alas, I didn't notice until the sleeve dropped right off and the hex part bound up and stalled the motor.  Fortunately I was sensible enough to stop, and not try to power through and fry the motor.  However I hadn't been sensible enough to bring any tools with me on what was supposed to be a light jaunt through the woods, so I had to carry truck and trailer back to the van.  Which wasn't fun.

Back in the workshop, it was time to inspect the damage.

Sleeve completely missing.

I'm not sure if these might be the original Axial shafts?  The cheap Chinese ones don't usually have proper UJs.

I've got a few spare Chinese sleeves, but they have a hex receiver and the Axial UJ is round.

Some careful drilling, and they are ready to receive one another.

Fixed

[Mad Ax]

Shortened to fit

Installed

Looks like this ancient rig will live to fight another day