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With the seat glued in place, it was time to tighten up the cro... the le...  the middle buckles.  'scuse me, miss.

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There, that's better...  er...  In all seriousness, the main problem here is in the moulding.  No, not that bit.  You see, Dakota has a severe arch to her lower spine, which affects how she sits in the seat.  She's probably been over-extending on those squats, and that's going to give her some serious problems in a few years if she doesn't sort that technique.  Unfortunately there's not much I can do about it besides heating her up until she's soft enough to bend, and that was likely to end in disaster, so I didn't bother, I'll just have to go buy a physio figure for when she gets back from the trails.  Although for safety's sake it might be advisable to add an additional strap across the che...  the middle, if she has an accident with the belts like that she could lose an arm.

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She fits well enough, but she needs a dashboard, it kinda looks like someone stole her newspaper and she hasn't noticed yet

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Fortunately she eats a lot of baked beans.  They're full of protein, plus they keep you warm when you're camping on the trails.

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Glued onto a strip of plasticard and painted satin black

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secured in place under the body with silage tape and hot glue

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I hope she's got the heaters on in there, it's the middle of October

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This is my 1:10 scale holly tree

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And here are 3 good friends, about to this the trails in just under a week's time for some serious off road action

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You are using exactly the same seatbeltmethod that i use.

Quick and Dirty.

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6 hours ago, whahooo said:

Quick and Dirty.

And effective, and visually pleasing.  They look as much like real seatbelts as anything else, and they actually work :) 

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Not a lot to add on this project - I haven't really touched it since I hosed it off after the SST day back in December.  However I went off to the local woods with my daughter this weekend and figured we should take some trucks along so she can get some practice in.  I keep reminding her that if she gets good enough at driving she can have a scale rig all of her own, and can come with me when I go off to national events. Once I reminded her she didn't have to pick it up and put it down again every time she wanted to change direction, she started to get the hang of it.

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However she seems to have the attention span of a gnat, as evidenced by a house full of half-drawn drawings, half-painted ceramics and half-eaten food.  Plus over the last couple of months I have seen the first half of a dozen Disney films and have no idea how they end.

So I finished the day by trying to drive my SCX10 Cherokee with a wheel controller in one hand and the BOM with a stick controller slung around my neck with the other.  It would help if I had bigger hands.

:) 

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I don't know what's worse. With my son it is a lot of "Now, just small inputs on the wheel, be gentle. No, don't wrench it, small movements. Just be gentle..."

"...gently..."

"I said GENTLE!!!!"

At least you have the spark of interest, it will turn to flame in time, I'm sure.

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Couple of minor updates on this rig, as I prepare for the Scaler Nationals in just over a week's time.

Firstly, I wanted to change the ends on this kinetic strap.  I think this came from Overland RC, who make a lot of cool scale parts.

https://www.overlandrc.co.uk/

The strap itself is awesome, but I don't like those lobster claws.  They're awkward to get on and off when you're on a trail with wet or frozen hands.  A proper hook end is better.  About 6 months ago I ordered half a dozen scale tow chains and tow ropes from Ebay just so I could get the scale hooks.  They are one of those parts I haven't worked out how to make myself yet.

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To secure my new tow hooks, I need some solid loops.  The hooks come with tiny little spiral rings, but they won't last 2 minutes on a trail course.  Instead I used some copper wire that I pulled from a household mains wire.  I also bent a small offcut of aluminium to protect the kinetic strap from the heat of the blowtorch.

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My gas soldering iron has a blowtorch attachment, which is perfect for stuff like this, as it's hot enough to get the solder to flow onto the wire, but with a tight enough flame that it doesn't burn stuff nearby.  I also dropped some water onto the end of the kinetic strap to keep the rubber and sheath cool.

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Done.  Much stronger than a spiral ring.  These hooks aren't perfect, as the mouth is a little small, but if people prepare properly and fit a good shackle to their rig, I'll be able to tow them.  Otherwise, it can go around a tow bar and loop back onto the kinetic strap.

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The other thing I'd never done on this rig was decal the fuel tank.  I think this is a great looking rig, possibly one of the best looking rigs in production right now, but they have been getting steadily more popular and they all look mostly the same, so I figured I had to do a little stickerbombing on my fuel tank to make it stand out.  I still haven't decided if I should add some decals on the body.

Stock fuel tank, painted with automotive paint:

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Now with added trail cool

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Also, I wanted some way to secure the kinetic strap where

a) it won't fall off every time the rig falls over, because having to put it back on every time gets real tiresome

b) it can be quickly removed to hook onto cars behind, and hooked back on again

c) it won't get caught around the axles

I actually spent a good 20 minutes deliberating how to do this, trying various different ways of tying it onto the cage, around the roof rack, or even not bothering at all, before I realised there was a screw hole in the cage in exactly the right place.  I could have just put a long bolt through it, but I figured it wouldn't look right.  Then I remembered - a King Hauler comes with a wire antenna holder that fits over a threaded screw, and I have part of a King Hauler in the box.  Specifically, I still had the antenna and threaded screw.

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And here we are - all ready to hit the trails at the Scaler Nationals!

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Cap Kota might well be dress well enough for the wrestling ring, but it's nearly October here in the UK, and it's going to be a cold weekend, with a weather front blowing in from Iceland.  As if it wasn't bad enough that a middle-aged pot-bellied weak-chested white male has already been caught on record mansplaining to a world-class athlete about her lifting form, he's now going to tell her how she should dress appropriately on the trails.

I mean, driving around the Derbyshire hills in a stretch-fit crop top and some little purple pants isn't really appropriate.

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I originally tried to solve this problem by cutting up an old pair of jeans to make a denim jacket, but the stitches didn't hold and it fell apart when I tried to test-fit it.  Instead, I decided I was best off painting a better outfit on.

My original plan was just to add a bit of white skin tone here and there and do the new outfit with coloured paint, but then I figured I was going to have trouble with various colour lines showing through, so I would be better off painting the entire figure in a single white skin tone to form a solid base.  For reasons that I'm sure I don't have to explain, I decided not to photograph this part.

Once the skin tone was dry, I added some red for a much more suitable T-shirt and some blue for a nice hard-wearing pair of jeans.

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she reads the articles, mkay..?

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The re-paint looks good.  

I've found short sections of paracord (with the inner strands removed) slide nicely over zip ties making for some nice textured seatbelts/seatbelt pads.

You can sorta see here:

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Just a quick update on this one, as I've had a quiet evening in trying to keep myself busy and get through some of these little jobs.

It was pointed out to me at the Scaler Nats the other week that my rigs would perform much better if they had some weight in the wheels.  This is one of those prep jobs that I'd completely overlooked, so with a little bit of spare cash this month I ordered a huge box of self adhesive wheel weights from Amazon.

I wasn't sure how much weight to add, but earlier this year I bought a set of 7 wheels and tyres for the 6x6 project, and I was told some were weighted and some weren't.  I hefted them by hand to find the weighted and unweighted wheels, then stuck them on the kitchen scales to find the difference.  The result - 80 grams :o 

That was a lot more than I expected, but hey, if that's what it takes to stop a BOM from flopping over as soon as it sees a slope, I'm all for it.

This isn't a pic-heavy update, as you don't really want to see me covered in statically-charged bits of blue backing film (this was pretty much the height of excitement for this job), but here's a photo of the somewhat battered-looking rig before I started.

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I decided I'd go for scale realism in this job, so I dug out one of the axle stands I made a few years ago.  It was only ever supposed to be for display - it's only made from Plastruct pieces glued together, but it's way stronger than it has any right to be.  It held up every corner of this rig while I did the entire job wheel-by-wheel, including surviving the +80g wheels being mounted and tightened down.

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Fitting the weights was easy enough.  Spaced evenly around the centre of the ring, they stuck on with no problems.  The foams will keep them pressed neatly in place when fitted back in the tires.

I didn't bother to photo the reassembly, since you can't see the weights anyway.  There's no appreciable difference in the foam rate, but overall the truck feels heavier.

It's too late to go out for a test drive now (the truck has lights but the neighbour's bedroom overlooks the 1:10 scale mountain) but I'll take it out in the next day or two and see how it runs.

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On 10/18/2022 at 10:24 PM, Mad Ax said:

That was a lot more than I expected, but hey, if that's what it takes to stop a BOM from flopping over as soon as it sees a slope, I'm all for it.

Good luck with your changes. I'd be surprised if it makes enough difference. I just rebuilt my GS02F as it's original BOM form after converting it to a conventional rear suspension Komodo last year.

It's lost loads of performance. Was getting stuck trying to climb obstacles that my small-tyred truck gets up with ease. Rolls over at small sidehill angles. The BOM cantilever system just doesn't work properly, gentle trail use only.

The Gmade shocks are terrible (no damping effect, too little oil capacity and they leak), and the spring rates are much too stiff. When you run the truck with conventional suspension, you can fit the springs from an Element Enduro and solve the spring issue, which makes the rubbish dampers less of a problem. Can't do that with the short cantilever shocks though.

It's a great looking truck, and I like the extra details you've added to yours - I'm going to start adding a few more to mine now as it's never going to be a performance rig!

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I should add that I think the GS02F is a good platform overall. However the BOM is just for looks - go for one of the other models if you want a truck that performs well on challenging terrain.

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18 hours ago, sosidge said:

The BOM cantilever system just doesn't work properly, gentle trail use only.

It's definitely a strange beast, in terms of handling.  When it comes to tricky sections, it's almost as good as my CFX-W, although that also had a tendency to fall over easily, something I improved with the hop-up shorter shock set.  But when just driving between sections the BOM will randomly fall over.

My SCX10 G6 Edition, which is fairly ancient, can do pretty much everything the CFX-W and BOM can do, although it struggle with a lack of steering angle.  I'm hoping to replace the axles on it soon, which will probably move it back to the top of the pile in terms of performance.

It seems to me that the BOM cantilevers put too much leverage over the rear shocks.  The springs are incredibly stiff, but once the axles are on they feel far too soft.  Turning up the preload just overloads the shock's capacity to damp.  My ultimate plan is to make some new cantilevers to stiffen up the back end and reduce travel a little.  It may never be as good as the SCX10 due to its weight distribution, but if I can reduce the frustration a little, it'll be more fun to use.

I tested it out on my 1:10 scale mountain last week and the weights definitely improved its ability to get up on the steep entry section.  It wasn't a night-and-day improvement, but there was far less frustration involved.

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Another little job I managed to tick off this weekend was sorting out the fairlead on the front of the BOM.  I'd been using a roller type that came attached to a cheap scale winch a long time ago, but it bit the rocks at the Scaler Nationals and acquired some damage.

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This new fairlead by SSD arrived in the week.

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Hole spacing seems the same, so it looks like this will be a quick fix

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Installed, with longer screws from my parts tub

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Job jobbed, ready for some trail action again!  Although I'm pretty sure the splines stripped on the drum at the Nationals, so that's another quick job that needs doing...

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After the propshaft drive pin had gone missing from the 6x6 Element Enduro, I decided it was time to let my wobbly BOM get some fresh air.  I always enjoy getting my BOM out in front of a bunch of other middle-aged men in a remote quarry on an overcast and soggy winters day, and I figured it would be a great opportunity to get some photos, too.

I think my BOM is very photogenic

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This would have been hugely impressive, had I stayed on this ledge

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alas...  there was a 6 foot drop off this ledge (the camera is underneath the BOM, but I was standing full upright at this point)

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I climbed to the top and attached the winch to my bootlace to secure the rig before I tried to get back on the ledge, but I probably should have gone via the roof rack, as the winch managed to pull the back end around and throw the whole truck off the ledge.  The winch saved it from barrel rolling all the way to the road.

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A picture of my wobbly red BOM in the woods

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Overlooking the "bashing area", now probably better called the "boating lake".  Ahead of the BOM is a sheer cliff.  This is where I don't want to accidentally hit the throttle lever.  Bonus points for spotting the 10:1 scale Land Rover blending into the scenery.

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My BOM got all muddy

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I think this subject could be a slippery slope...

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...but my BOM can take it, no problem

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And remember, it's quite OK to take pictures of your own BOM, provided they are tasteful and artistic.  Better add some filters, then :) 

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Friday's crawl around the quarry had reminded me just how bad the BOM's back end is, and so with a full New Year's Day ahead of me and nothing to do but wrench on cars, I decided I'd have a crack at fixing it.

This is what we have to work with:

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And here's a big empty space that could be used to house, ooh, I dunno, some shocks, maybe?

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If in doubt, start with a piece of metal.  This particular metal is aluminium, and it's 3mm thick, for extra stiffness.

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Expertly clamped to the chassis rails with state-of-the-art equipment, for precision drilling.  If I don't get this right, I'll end up with a lop-sided BOM.

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With the panel drilled and screwed into place, I lifted the axles to full extension (standard cantilever rear shocks still installed at this point) and used my new shocks at full extension to scribe an arc.  This represents the possible mounting points.

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I also used a slightly shorter shock to scribe a slightly smaller arc, just in case the long ones don't work right, or I need a little more preload.

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With the middle part of the cage removed, the new shock plate fits nicely mounted inboard of the chassis rails.

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It's hard to see as the score line is faint, but I scored the line where the middle part of the cage will go.

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Then I cut it to size

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cage installed, everything fits perfectly

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Drilled a starter hole for the shock top mount

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Lower mount needed to be spaced inwards so the spring would clear the plate

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It fits nicely, and takes the weight of the truck.

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Full articulation now causes the wheel to bind on the cage - that didn't happen before.  I may have to restrict travel by putting some rubber tube over the damper rod, depending on where the final installation goes.

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Now to drill out a range of holes, clean up the plate and make another for the other side

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Installed

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Fitting inboard shocks required removal of the crossmember, so I added a brace to the top of the towers to reduce any flex.

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The installed package is neat and tidy, and the rear end feels very solid

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Dayum, that's a nice BOM

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