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The long-term solution to the winch clearance problem is to make some spacers to lift the winch up from the chassis, however for now I just added some extra nuts to act as spacers.  It's ugly but it works.

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Nice shiny shocks visible under dirty old truck

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Ground clearance now just under 70mm (with medium springs adjusted for a bit of sag)

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It definitely looks better like this, I think

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There was an issue with the tyres rubbing on the arches, however.  The CFX-W body can't easily be lifted, as it's fitted on a hinge at the back, and I think it looks right where it is anyway.  I don't want to cut the arches on such a good-looking body, so the solution is to put some spacers in the shocks to reduce the articulation.

Articulation isn't everything in crawling.  Sometimes a rig that will twist too much will fall over.  And IMO crawling is all about scale - a trucks performance should be in line with its appearance.

Here's the static sag at present:

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under compression, the wheel is OK when straight but not when turned

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After a bit of experimentation, I went with 7mm rubber spacers cut from some Tamiya spacer tube

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now there's a smidge of clearance where it counts

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I took the rig out for a quick drive, and still found it very capable over my personal 1:10 scale mountain.  No issues with lack of ground clearance and the lack of articulation wasn't a problem.

It's 5 days until the Southern Scale Trail, which is a multi-course gated event just 30 minutes drive from home, that'll be a good chance to test it properly :) 

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I ran this truck at the Southern Scale Trail open day at the quarry a few weeks back - full thread with loads of pics here

Performance was much better with the 70mm shocks installed.  The difference isn't huge, but lower CoG makes for less rollovers and more stable driving.  It could probably do with a slightly thicker oil, maybe even a stiffer spring, but it was good fun to drive.

I'm not sure if I'll get to any big crawler events this year - SST's main event is on the same weekend as the Iconic Revival, and with fuel prices going up the Scaler Nationals is way north of £100 just in fuel, which is a big commitment after a summer of events.  But I've not missed one yet, so fingers crossed I'll get there, just maybe without the hotel and all-you-can-eat breakfast!

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I had to do a few updates to this truck at the weekend, to get ready for the Scaler Nats in just over a week.  This is probably my most capable rig, but it's also had the least attention since it was built.  It's had lower shocks, and it briefly had an interior (before it fell out), but otherwise it's remained mostly stock.

Now's the time to change all that, with some updates and a few scaley bits to make this truck ready for the trails.

I started by popping the body off the cage and drilling some holes into the cage wall.

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I borrowed this wire / ribbon / string / thread / whatever it is from my wife's stash pile.  I figured it kinda looks a bit like a small bungee strap, although it's not easy to work with.

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Tied in place

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There's something to sleep on out on the trails this weekend

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I decided I'd throw a scale chain over the back of the cage, just because.  I don't really know why.  I'll probably get annoyed with it falling off on the trails and take it off.

Also I tried to secure the ground anchor inside the other scale ropey things, but these things do have a tendency to fall out.  I'd make some little bungy straps if I knew how.

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My next problem was at the front end.  The stock shackle mounts are only thin plastic, and I'm surprised they lasted as long as they did before one of them cracked off.  I figured I should replace both of these, since I don't want to be sans shackle at the Scaler Nationals.

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The front bumper is a hard plastic item that bolts onto the front crossmember.  This is a subtly different arrangement to other scale trucks, which have those kinda double-hole mounts so bumpers can be quickly swapped.  The tricky thing here is the mount needs to come off the chassis before the bumper comes off the mount.

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To make some new shackles, I started with some offcuts of L-section.  This isn't the strongest aluminium in the world, but it works.

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To get a slot from which the new shackle can protrude, I drilled some 2mm holes then spent a little (long) while with a very fine needle file.  I really need some more aggressive files for this.

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Once the hole was mostly there, I heated up the alu with a MAPP torch and melted it the rest of the way from the outside

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I had intended to have the shorter end of the L-section poking through the bumper, but it was too short (the bumper is quite thick), so I flipped it around and poked the long part through

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At this point I had to call it a day and go roast a chicken for the family, but I came back super-early the following morning to get straight on with this project.

I drilled some holes to attach the shackles, and filed off the ends to make them look neat.

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I didn't want to leave the original plastic shackle mount in place, so it was time to cut that off

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then get busy with the MAPP torch again

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New shackle mounts now pushed into place.  It's important that these are a tight fit, so they don't want to twist.

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From behind the bumper, the other side of the angle pushes up against the plastic.  It's possible I could bend a mount on the trails but I doubt I'll ever pull one through the bumper.

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I screwed the front crossmember / bumper mount in with longer screws, to account for the extra depth of the new shackles.  This pushes the bumper a little further forward but locks the shackle mounts securely in place

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finished product:

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There's still more to do on this rig.  Firstly, I'd completely forgotten that I wanted to add some stiffer springs and thicker oil, so I'll try to do that at the weekend, or maybe one night in the week, if there's time.  I also want to make an interior, similar to that in the BOM.  Basically a plate over the transfer case and electrics to give a flat mount on which to secure the driver.  I'll hopefully have time to do that on Sunday.

The electrics are pretty messy here too, even though this is a fairly simple installation.  I've considered moving the battery to the centre, but there's not a lot of space with the transfer case and propshaft, so although it would bring the weight forward, it won't necessarily keep the CoG down low, where it needs to be.

So - those are my jobs lined up for Sunday :) 

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No, wait, this isn't a 1:10 scale ghost that I've been making for Halloween, it's the end of an old sock.  It's nearly October, the autumnal chill is setting in, and Trail Jesus needs to stay warm at the Nationals this weekend.

One semi-circular snip for the head...

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two more for the arms...

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Try that on, bro

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it fits!

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I also made him a sleeveless jacket out of an old T-shirt.  We can't have Trail Jesus getting too cold.

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Trail Jesus is now officially sponsored by Dell's Racing Products:

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The main plan for Sunday was to build a proper interior to keep Trail Jesus safe.  I'd previously made a very rough interior from some bent steel wire hot-glued to the body, but it came off at a previous scaler event, so I figured it was time to build something in the same style as that which I made for the BOM.  In fact, I thought I'd make it better.

Here's the mess that I need to hide:

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I started by cutting some pieces of plastic.  If in doubt, start with some pieces of plastic.

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I then glued on some more pieces of plastic

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This will form the upright sides of the interior, like so

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glued on even more bits

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is there any end to the bits I will glue on..?

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These bits grip snuggly around the stock floory bits

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then I glued those bits to this big huge bit.  This is 3mm A3-size sheet left over from my big rig race trailer build, it glues very well and is very rigid, especially with a bit of box-section for support

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like a modern minimalist coffee table

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like a modern minimalist Toyota interior

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The fit wasn't actually perfect - the Toyota body is narrower at the front, and the sides were catching on the interior a little, so I went for maximum overkill and used the bench grinder to round it off, then tidied it up with some abrasive paper

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Trail Jesus seems to sit about the right height, so I don't need to add a seat base

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Carefully and accurately, using a precision marking tool, I specified the areas where Trail Jesus was going to sit, and where he would need his seat back to be

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This is the seat support under construction.  Made to full spec for safety on the trails.

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aaah!  it's another g.. g.. g... gho.... no, wait, it's a seat back

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IMSA gonna be calling me for the specs on these safety seats

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welded onto the interior

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it's a g... g...  no, it's still a seat back

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Safety harness trial installation

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I gave it a quick wipe-over with some IPA, then sprayed the whole thing in peelable satin black (I didn't really intend to paint it in peelable paint, it was just the only satin black I had), then masked up the seat area

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Then, with incredible patience, with at least no wet-sanding between coats, and waiting for bare minimum of 20 seconds (of hairdryer) between coats, I applied some bright red.  I then allowed the paint to fully cure for 2 minutes while I ate a fun-size Milky Way before removing the mask.  When it comes to painting and getting that pro finish, prep-work and patience is everything.

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I also drilled some more holes to fit this coolbox.  Now Trail Jesus really can feed the masses when they stop out on the trails for lunch.

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Got him properly strapped in now.  Can't have him falling out on the trails.

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Romans 12:12: Rejoice in lipo, be patient on the trails, be constant in power.

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At this point, I decided to turn the whole truck upside down and shake it.  Because I wanted to see if the interior would stay put, you understand, and not just because I felt like it.

The interior started to fall out, which isn't good.  We can't have Trail Jesus rattling around inside the Land Cruiser.

So I added these body posts to pre-existing holes in the stock floor plates:

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Trail Jesus is pretty much ready for the Scaler Nationals now.  Wish us both luck!

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My little trip to the coast last week involved a stop off for a play at Ham Hill in Somerset on the way back on Wednesday.  Ham Hill is a fantastic place - easy to reach just off the A303, with fabulous views and plenty of trails and lots of large earth mounts and close-cropped grass.  It was here where I attended my first ever unofficial Tamiyaclub meet back in November 2011, where I met such former members as Lemming, RichyTAnimal, Hillman666, DJDirk, RabiedMushroom, BigwheelsInc, BagOfBadgers and probably others whose names I can't remember.  It's still a great place to visit, and popular now with the crawling crowd for the range of trails it offers and generally relaxed atmosphere.

I'd brought the CFX-W and the BOM with me, but it was the CFX-W that came out for a play on the trails.  As always, the CFX-W was faultless and took everything in its stride, although none of the trails are particularly taxing and as I was solo I opted to avoid the Wall of Death, which is a very high and steep muddy bank that has claimed a few trucks in its time.

The clouds were low, so I decided not to bother too much with full colour photos and instead went for some atmospheric shots and a grainy film filter for that arty look.  Here's the best of the bunch.

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There's some proper tyre squish in that last photo! That really is a good looking truck (not only does it look good, it looks capable :D).

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On 12/5/2022 at 2:46 PM, Badcrumble said:

There's some proper tyre squish in that last photo! That really is a good looking truck (not only does it look good, it looks capable :D).

Yeah, it's really quite good.  The stock shocks make it too high, so it wants to roll over a lot, and the stock tyres are terrible on rock, but with some Hyraxes and the 10mm shorter shock kit, it's really good.  The portals give it extra clearance, at the cost of a higher CoG, so there's a trade-off.  It will clear stuff that hangs up the BOM or the SCX10, but it will fall over before the SCX10 does, which technically is a worse problem than getting hung up.  The motor over the front axle is a nice scale feature and probably helps the climb angle, but again, it raises the CoG, so there's that trade-off.

A lot of people don't like the high camber angle, which is built into the axles, but it's supposed to help with side-hilling, which is one area where other modern trucks seem to really struggle.

I recently added some weight to the front wheels, so there's more squish in the tyres.  Arguably a little too much now - I'm using the stock Proline foams, it probably wants a stiffer foam now but I can't be bothered to spend extra money just yet

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This truck looks good. I was thinking of Getting one. Those shocks worked out really good. The RTR have small shocks. The kit version look like they sit up good, but with after market tires you probably need this shocks.

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