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schlabinski

Michigan Ice Monster - a lowered Clod build

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I originally painted up this lexan body as a runner shell to protect my Clod hardbody...

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As time went on, I found myself wanting two differently built trucks.  The hardbody Clod will stay relatively stock-looking, but with some upgrades for steering and suspension to make it more enjoyable to drive.  For the Ice Monster, I was inspired by @Buggyjam's lowered Clod project and began cutting up the stock chassis for more suspension up travel.

Front...

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Rear...

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Then I made four chassis braces to help compensate for the material that was removed...

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Then I put all of the electronics in the bottom of the chassis.  You can't see it here, but I also added the CPE external chassis brace.

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I decided to try some unknown eBay battery tray.  Even though the battery doesn't sit as low as it does in the stock location, I wanted to try having it inside the chassis instead of sticking out the sides, which also allowed me to mount the body slightly lower.

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For dampers, I went with 8 of the Traxxas Big Bores.  Knowing that I would need really light damping and springs, I modified the pistons to 4 x 1.3mm holes...

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And used some very soft Losi 2.75" springs which are a perfect fit...

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Things were coming together really nicely.  I don't have a lot of pictures of this first running version, but I liked the ride height and how the axles could tuck further up into the chassis without interference.

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I wanted to make it work with the stock ladder bars, but eventually decided that I wasn't happy with it.  The main reasons are the caster that is introduced when lowering the ride height (which only gets worse as the suspension compresses), reduced steering angle (my knuckles are upside-down in order to get the servo and rod angles the way I wanted, but then the knuckles bump into the ladder bars), and the uneven resistance that is introduced by the anti-rotation bracket at these angles (it feels like a built in spring on one side when cycling the suspension, even without shocks).

So next up is trying to four link this thing...

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Neat looking project so far, looking forward to seeing this one evolve 🙂

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On 3/4/2021 at 1:39 AM, Nikko85 said:

That looks great. How much will it be lowered by?

Thanks!  Ha, not sure...I'm totally winging it.  I would guess not much in reality, somewhere between a centimeter or two?  I think most of the benefit will be the gain in suspension up-travel.

On 3/4/2021 at 6:14 AM, kwkenuf said:

@schlabinski,  based on the truck's scheme, are you located in Michigan?

No, I'm in Oregon.  I picked the Ice Monster purely because I was drawn to the stickers while perusing the MCI monster truck offerings.  I like monster trucks, but I know very little about them having never attended a show and I wasn't allowed to watch them on TV growing up.

7 hours ago, Mad Ax said:

Neat looking project so far, looking forward to seeing this one evolve 🙂

Thank you!

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Dang!  I am in West Michigan.  I grew up following monster trucks, and have never heard of the MI Ice Monster.

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40 minutes ago, kwkenuf said:

Dang!  I am in West Michigan.  I grew up following monster trucks, and have never heard of the MI Ice Monster.

I grew up and still live in the Chicago area and knew of that truck.  That said, it was in one of the monster truck VHS videos I had growing up in the 80’s😅

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On 3/5/2021 at 3:09 PM, BJoe76 said:

I grew up and still live in the Chicago area and knew of that truck.  That said, it was in one of the monster truck VHS videos I had growing up in the 80’s😅

Awesome!  One of my friends remembered it too.

On 3/5/2021 at 8:37 PM, Smokeylocc420 said:

Nice can you post more pics of The MI Ice Monster inside on a table to show off the lowered stance?

For sure.  I think I have the four link pretty well sorted and will work on the shocks next.  The Traxxas Big Bores are too long for the mounts I made, so I'm digging through my bins to see what I can come up with that's more like 90mm.  Stay tuned.

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On 3/5/2021 at 5:09 PM, BJoe76 said:

I grew up and still live in the Chicago area and knew of that truck.  That said, it was in one of the monster truck VHS videos I had growing up in the 80’s😅

Same here.. I remember going to Rosemont Horizon ( Now Allstate Arena) for  a Monster Truck Jam .. 

 

I remember the Michigan Ice Monster as well as many of the others I have seen built on here

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I made some stuff over the weekend...

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As with any four link project for me, it's a bunch of trial and error to get the link lengths dialed.  I'm pretty happy with where these are now, but may need a little fine tuning once I get the shocks on.  As I mentioned previously, the Traxxas Big Bores are too long for the mounts I made.  I found two pairs of Tamiya DT-02 rear shocks that I think will work well.  Bonus that they're blue!

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I like your shock mount solution - simple, effective, attractive :) 

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13 hours ago, Mad Ax said:

I like your shock mount solution - simple, effective, attractive :) 

Thank you very much!

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Nice work, truck looks great.  If you want to dress up the links a bit you can cut some automotive brake/fuel line and slip it over top of the all-thread so they look like solid links. 

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1 hour ago, 87lc2 said:

Nice work, truck looks great.  If you want to dress up the links a bit you can cut some automotive brake/fuel line and slip it over top of the all-thread so they look like solid links. 

Thank you!  With all of your Clod and monster truck building experience, I'm happy to hear that I haven't made any glaring mistakes so far.  I will absolutely sleeve all the links and steering rods once the truck is past the mock up phase.

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That's the best thing about RC monster trucks, can't really make any mistakes.  As long as it works well it doesn't really matter how you got there!  In this case your custom work is exceptional and looks really clean, can't wait to see it finished.  I cut the chassis out where you did on most of my stockish Clods and it does make a big difference, especially with the axle mounted servos as they always end up hitting the chassis unless you have a lift kit which is counterintuitive to lowering the COG.  This truck should perform really well with what you've done. 

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Love this build! And I really love the Michigan Ice Monster body... Where did you get your decals from?

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On 3/12/2021 at 10:54 AM, 87lc2 said:

That's the best thing about RC monster trucks, can't really make any mistakes.  As long as it works well it doesn't really matter how you got there!  In this case your custom work is exceptional and looks really clean, can't wait to see it finished.  I cut the chassis out where you did on most of my stockish Clods and it does make a big difference, especially with the axle mounted servos as they always end up hitting the chassis unless you have a lift kit which is counterintuitive to lowering the COG.  This truck should perform really well with what you've done. 

Thank you very much, I appreciate it!  I did get it out for a little test drive this weekend.  Like just about everything it will need some tuning, but I'm very pleased with it so far.  The four link was worth it and it has addressed the issues that I had with the stock ladder bars.

On 3/12/2021 at 12:50 PM, paullyjay said:

Love this build! And I really love the Michigan Ice Monster body... Where did you get your decals from?

Thanks!  These came from MCI Racing.

On 3/14/2021 at 1:07 PM, Smokeylocc420 said:

Real nice, can I ask where you got them blue anodized knuckles/uprights?

Haha, sort of funny story about those.  I won those in a prize drawing at the Montana Scale Nationals competition in either 2009 or 2010 and they've been in a box of parts since.  I figured this would be the appropriate way to put them to use.  The package didn't come with a header card, but I believe they are GPM.  So far, I actually haven't been super impressed.  They are designed such that if you tighten the kingpin screws until they're snug, then there's too much friction between the knuckle and the axle C.  I need to investigate, but I'm used to the kingpin screw bottoming out on the knuckle before it pinches down on the axle C part.  Hope that makes sense.  I'll update with my findings.

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The dampers I ended up using are from the DF-02 aluminum damper set (53701).  I originally bought two sets many years ago and used the four front dampers for a CC01 build.  This was before Tamiya released the CC01 damper sets, so it was an expensive way to get nice Tamiya CC01 dampers, but at least now I found a good use for the left over longer rear dampers.  For starters, I built them with a 3mm internal spacer, modified 4 x 1.3mm pistons, Losi 15wt oil, and stock yellow springs from the damper set.

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I took it out for a quick spin and my initial impressions are positive.  As expected, I still have some tuning to do.  I like how active the suspension is for jump landing and such, but it's pretty soft side-to-side and I can see body roll in turns and notice the axle steer sometimes.  I'll play with the typical preload, springs, and oil viscosity, but I also don't want to make it too stiff for jump landing.  I might even experiment with sway bars.

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Looks fantastic, I really like the lower stance.  How do you like that Ofna servo saver?  I mainly use the Kimbrough 124's, but have seen those used quite a bit.  

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Since I first stumbled on your build thread I googled the original Michigan Ice Monster and have found some pics and YouTube clips of it running.

I really like your custom work and your stance on this thing.

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This is great, I really like the lowered look and I love the colours

Def one of the nicest looking Clod's I've seen,

 

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