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El Gecko

The ongoing saga of the Sludgehammer

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sludge (noun): thick, soft, wet mud or a similar viscous mixture of liquid and solid components, especially the product of an industrial or refining process

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kludge (noun): an ill-assorted collection of parts assembled to fulfill a particular purpose

Well that's the nickname explained. It will make even more sense when you see the body shell :ph34r:

The truck is a vintage Traxxas Sledgehammer (white chassis, gold aluminum) that I've been trying to keep running since my cousin gave it to me in the late 90s. It started out mostly stock, but the brittle white plastic has succumbed to age in many places, which has given me license to get creative with my repairs. I'm still trying to figure out which of the new part numbers will interchange with the old simple planetary gearbox/diff, so if anyone knows please post up, thanks. I think the output shafts from the 2382 set will fit in the old planetary gear, allowing me to upgrade to 4628R or 4628X u-joint yokes? I realize this is a Tamiya forum but there's a lot of crossover in vintage RC so perhaps one of you knows.

The stock yokes are white plastic and easy to break, just like everything else on the truck. But it turns out, if you break all the plastic off the end of the shaft, there's a pin that can be pulled, leaving a hole big enough to drill out (or even better, tap) for a 2mm screw.

This was my very first attempt using a piece of aluminum tubing from my spares box. The concept seems sound, maybe the 4628 yokes will fit these outdrives with a little modification? In the meantime I'm working up an improved V2. I ruined V1 below with an errant slip of the pliers :wacko:

outdrive_01.jpg

outdrive_02.jpg

outdrive_03.jpg

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Success! V2 is actually on the truck and doing its job!

V2 is a larger diameter piece of pipe, with a smaller diameter piece inside it as a sleeve. (V1 in the pic below at the top left)

It actually works!!! :D (still looking for a more permanent solution though)

outdrive_05.jpg

outdrive_06.jpg

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Happy to report that the first test drive on the lawn was a success--it's a blast with the new setup! The new U-joint held up despite my terrible leadfoot, the "experimental" axle carriers survived, and the new suspension setup was perfectly balanced as well.

The last wreck tore the rear wheel completely off, so it needed new axle carriers and turnbuckle ends. Amazon (via Google) had part 3752 listed as a replacement for the old axle carriers, but as you can see, they're not quite right. The lower mounting point is in the wrong place compared to the old carrier, so I've fabricated some aluminum plates to get them lined up correctly, otherwise the half shafts bind at full compression and it throws the suspension geometry all out of whack.

There are plastic spacers between the plates when they're installed, and the whole axle carrier assemblies are actually quite rigid! We'll see how they hold up over time, but for $6 and a little creativity I'm certainly not complaining. There are OEM replacements on Ebay for when I feel like doing it the right way, but for now if the plates fail (they're the weak point) I can just crank out a few more.

In the pic above you can also see the replacement black ball end connectors which turned out to be WAY too long, so I cut 1/4" off the end and drilled all the way through to the ball so the turnbuckles could be the right length.

With all this modification, and an additional strengthening plate on the other side of the gearbox, the whole rear end is more taut and solid feeling than it's ever been (and it tracks straight for once in its life!). The new shock setup helped too and it drives like a dream now. All it took was a few zip ties to give the front springs some extra pep, and finally rebuilding the resurrected Blackfoot shocks the right way on the rear, with aluminum ball connectors and stronger springs.

The last pic is what's left of the original body (on lowered/broken mounts) and why it's called "sludge". The rear bumper on the front body mount keeps the front of the windshield from drooping, and there's a metal strut bolted to the bottom of the rollbar that keeps the middle from sagging. Crude but still kicking!

axle_carriers_01.jpg

chassis_01.jpg

sludge_01.jpg

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Nice, I love a beater truck ^_^

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The Sledgehammer seemed like quite the 2wd contender BITD. Monster Beetle style tires, twin oil filled shocks per wheel originally and slider driveshafts all seemed to put it above the standard Blackfoot/Big Brute fare of the time. You can see the old Taxxas Bullet-esque design language of the era but also the roots of the Stampede to come. I miss old Traxxas. 

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6 hours ago, Saito2 said:

The Sledgehammer seemed like quite the 2wd contender BITD. Monster Beetle style tires, twin oil filled shocks per wheel originally and slider driveshafts all seemed to put it above the standard Blackfoot/Big Brute fare of the time. You can see the old Taxxas Bullet-esque design language of the era but also the roots of the Stampede to come. I miss old Traxxas. 

Yep, it's night and day compared to a Blackfoot. A well-prepped Blackfoot might have the edge on a smoother, longer track where you can run more wide open and not test the limits of the suspension, but the Sledge is great anywhere (or can be tuned for it). The weak spot on both trucks is the drivetrain. On the BF, it's more internal, like having the diff explode, and on the Sledge it's external because the plastic U-joint yokes/half shafts and axle carriers tend to snap.

The front and rear suspension and gearbox is actually taken straight from the Rad and Hawk models, which all have lower wishbones with turnbuckles from the factory, so it does have some racing engineering behind it. The chassis tub on those models is low-slung and aligned with the bottom of the gearbox, but on the Sledge the tub sits on top of both suspension bulkheads, which gives it way more ground clearance in general than a Blackfoot. It'll get places the BF can't, and it can actually jump things in a controlled way.

Also, the motor mount allows for any pinion from 10T all the way up to maybe 20T on the stock spur gear.

I could never understand why they put 8 shocks on it. WAY too bouncy!

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1 hour ago, El Gecko said:

I could never understand why they put 8 shocks on it. WAY too bouncy!

Because he Clod had 8. 
some of the Kyosho trucks had 8 ( or at least 4 and 4 dummies ) 
“Gosh dang it our truck is gonna have 8.“ 

It was the late 80s early 90s I’m sure that conversation actually happened 

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Good job hand fabricating repairs and going out of your way to preserve as much original as you can.

At this point my 1994 Stampede has a Ship of Theseus thing going for it . It’s got an original chassis tub, bulkhead supports transmission case, and front A arms.

The gears inside the Transmission are modern Brushless ready metal ones . The hub carriers upgraded to hold 5x11 bearings . Wheels, body and electronics are all new(er) 

At what point does it stop being a 1994 Traxxas Stampede? 

 

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19 hours ago, Dakratfink said:

Good job hand fabricating repairs and going out of your way to preserve as much original as you can.

At this point my 1994 Stampede has a Ship of Theseus thing going for it . It’s got an original chassis tub, bulkhead supports transmission case, and front A arms.

The gears inside the Transmission are modern Brushless ready metal ones . The hub carriers upgraded to hold 5x11 bearings . Wheels, body and electronics are all new(er) 

At what point does it stop being a 1994 Traxxas Stampede? 

 

Right! I always try to keep as much original as possible, but it's difficult or impossible to fix some of the plastic parts, so replacements are unfortunately necessary. Luckily I don't think I'll ever break those beautiful gold skid plates, so at least that part of it will live on!

@Saito2 I was thinking more about Sledgehammer vs. Blackfoot, and a good comparison for handling differences would be Frog vs. RC10 due to the suspension layout. Obviously the Sledge doesn't handle exactly like an RC10, but neither does a BF handle exactly like a Frog, however in terms of relative improvements in handling and adjustability, the Sledge has the same edge over the BF as the RC10 does over the Frog.

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Took a chance on a cheap motor... not sure if it will be better or worse than the old Twisters/Yokomo? At the very least it appears to have dual ball bearings B)

new_motor_01.jpg

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The saga continues...

Been doing some experimentation with stronger diff outdrives, as much for this truck as for the two Hawks I have with the same transmissions. I should have counted the teeth in the Amazon picture. Even though the 2382 sun gears/output shafts are listed as a direct fit for this model, and they do indeed fit inside the diff no problem, they do NOT engage with the teeth on the planet gears :(

diff_experiment_01.jpg

diff_experiment_02.jpg

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I didn't want to permanently alter the outer ring gear or the diff side plates yet--maybe in the future if I truly run out of options--so I refocused on the original outdrives. After drilling out the old shafts even further, and then grinding them down to fit in the 4628R yoke (and then shaving a bit from the bottom of the yoke), I finally have some good solid outdrives that work with the original diff setup and aren't completely off center or loose :lol:

And I can use the same technique for the Hawks too!

outdrive_07.jpg

outdrive_08.jpg

outdrive_09.jpg

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Snapped a turnbuckle end the other day, so I decided to just replace all 4 of the ball ends on the front turnbuckles at once. The black ones on the inside allow more off-axis movement, so the front suspension gained about 1/2" of articulation on both wheels! It's no wonder the old ones snapped... they were taking the full impact of the biggest hits, as if they were bumpstops. The new ones allow the shocks to bottom out before anything else, hopefully improving the reliability and taking some strain off some of the weaker parts.

turnbuckle_update.jpg

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4 hours ago, Aerobert said:

What is that?

A scrap of composite latticework from when my parents reworked their front porch

It's actually too soft and will get replaced when it eventually fails again. You can see how much the screw heads sunk in, even with washers behind them to spread the load

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El Gecko,

I restored a Sledgehammer a year or two ago and have a good chunk of spares that are just collecting dust. Send me a PM with your email or phone number and I'll send ya pics of what I have. Not really looking to sell them, just to do a good deed if you know what I mean.

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3 hours ago, Unknown Driver said:

El Gecko,

I restored a Sledgehammer a year or two ago and have a good chunk of spares that are just collecting dust. Send me a PM with your email or phone number and I'll send ya pics of what I have. Not really looking to sell them, just to do a good deed if you know what I mean.

Wow, that's an incredibly generous offer! You have a PM :D

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Been awhile since my last update and thanks to @Unknown Driver the truck is running better than ever and has a brand new TBG body! Unfortunately that body isn't painted or ready yet, so I've still been driving it around a bunch with the old body. I've been a little embarrassed lately with all the duct tape, but when I tried to remove it, half the hood came with it!

 So I hacked up another apple juice jug and made a new front clip. The decals are waterslide, so I'm not expecting them to last long, but the paint matched up pretty well for a quick job, especially considering it has 30 years of patina to catch up to and I have no idea how they did it in the first place. It remains a separate piece from the main body and uses the same front body posts. The very front of it rests on the bulkhead under the Crisco decal, and it actually helps to stiffen/stabilize the rest of the body. Managed to keep the Novak and original Sledge decals for now as well!

The new steel bumper/skid plate is a super strong little piece from an old computer, which matches the silver rear bumper and gives it kind of a stadium super truck vibe. I also took 1/8" off the spring spacers all around, so it should drive more like one now, too :D

newfrontclip_01.jpg

newfrontclip_02.jpg

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That's great - kinda reminds me of a mud bog truck now.  I love how you're keeping this old thing going without blowing a fortune on NOS parts or 3D prints

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It's awesome seeing there are people in the hobby like this. For those unfamiliar, lookup the Motortrend show "Roadkill" - it's essentially about 2 guys that save otherwise dying cars and road trip them. Their motto is: "don't get it right, get it running".

I'd say this captures that spirit :)

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11 hours ago, Mad Ax said:

That's great - kinda reminds me of a mud bog truck now.  I love how you're keeping this old thing going without blowing a fortune on NOS parts or 3D prints

Thanks, I had the "mud truck" thought as well. I don't have the money for NOS and 3D parts, so I just make my own out of whatever random junk I have laying around, or buy cheap stuff and modify it. The garden lattice suspension arm fix recently failed, so I made a new piece out of a garden hose reel. It's substantially stronger plastic and it's not green so it doesn't clash with the chassis anymore :lol:

 

7 hours ago, Unknown Driver said:

It's awesome seeing there are people in the hobby like this. For those unfamiliar, lookup the Motortrend show "Roadkill" - it's essentially about 2 guys that save otherwise dying cars and road trip them. Their motto is: "don't get it right, get it running".

I'd say this captures that spirit :)

Thanks, I love that show! And Dirt Every Day. I've basically been doing that all summer with the Sledge. It has gone all over the place with me and driven in some pretty cool spots, despite being held together with duct tape and dreams.

The elevator pitch for my RC Roadkill show: "We're not affiliated with Motortrend, Hot Rod Magazine, Roadkill, or Dirt Every Day in any way, we're just huge fans. And this is a show just like that, but on a smaller scale."

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12 hours ago, El Gecko said:

Thanks, I love that show! And Dirt Every Day.

 

20 hours ago, Unknown Driver said:

lookup the Motortrend show "Roadkill"

The saddest day of my life was when they went behind a paywall.  Actually I paid for Motor Trend On Demand for a while just so I could watch Roadkill and Dirt Everyday, but a lot of the other content is region-restricted and not available over here so it wasn't as good a deal as it could be.  Now I've cleared a bit of debt, maybe I'll sign up again and get a proxy.

In the meantime, Finnigan's Garage is still worth watching, and Vice Grip Garage is great (he even looks like a dollar store version of Finnigan), and I had Drag Week on live while I was working last week.

Pre-pandemic, I was seriously considering setting up a Roadkill-style Youtube channel where we set daft challenges and try to complete when with zero budget, but couldn't find anyone local to get involved.

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Hah, great minds think alike I guess!

Personally, I'd rather give my money to Motortrend than watch lame commercials on youtube - but I know it's not the same overseas as it is in the US. I love watching Finnegan, and even Cleetus McFarland is entertaining *most* of the time. Though, as with most shows, I feel like Roadkill and Cleetus lost some of the magic once they got "bigger and better".

Last year a buddy and I tried doing our own youtube channel. We featured our personal vehicles, went racing, and were going to build a motor together, but he was WAY to much of a control freak and I was sick of doing all the work behind the scenes so he could be "famous". lol. 

I have thought of restarting doing RC only content though. I think I see a gap that I could fill, but we'll see. It's still a lot of work putting out a 1/2 way decent product.

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