DT-03T Aqroshot

[Effigy3 1267]

Once you have built the car you will instantly notice the centre of balance is so far rearward it is ridiculous. I have jammed 45 grams of lead in the front of mine just to get some sort of front end bite.

Ah! Yeah, I can totally see that. I'm going to leave it as is and if my buddy wants to even up the weight distribution down the line I'll help him out with that. Certainly something to keep in mind.

[Effigy3 1267]

Grease and putty will mix it to paste that will be like thick sticky grease. Should have a limited slip effect but do not volunteer to clean it out when the effect starts to ware off

Yep, that's exactly what happened in my sons DT-02! Live and learn I suppose.

[Effigy3 1267]

The receiver switch goes inside a protective rubber cover and then screws into a mount on top of the gearbox extension jobber. The tongue on this extension piece will eventually slide into the chassis.

There are a couple of spacers that fit onto the shelf on the rear of the chassis. They must go on just so, so pay close attention to their orientation.

Mate the gearbox on top of the shelf and slide the tonuge into the chassis. Two screws secure the upper part of the gearbox in the chassis.

Four countersunk screws hold the gearbgox in from below.

Now the gearbox and rear suspension are part of the rolling chassis. Of course, the ESC is just sort of flopping around at this point but you can see here where it will be mounted to the chassis.

[Effigy3 1267]

The manual doesn't call for the ESC or receiver to be mounted yet but I couldn't deal with the ESC flopping about so I installed the electronics at this point. Servo tape does the job. I cleaned the chassis and ESC with alcohol first to ensure a strong connection.

The same goes for the receiver.

This FlySky unit is a TINY receiver, and good thing too...

Tidying up the wires, which is pretty much a necessity if you're going to use the receiver box.

I like a neat build, and receiver boxes go a long way toward that goal so I use them whenever I can. This receiver box certainly isn't waterproof. The leading edge has an opening where it extends a few millimeters beyond the shelf and it only clicks onto the electronics shelf with three tabs. I'm not convinced that it'll keep dust off the receiver housed within to be honest but it will keep large deris from smacking into it, so I call it a win. There is even a wire channel on both sides of the chassis to route the steering servo wire. Pretty trick.

[Effigy3 1267]

The manual lists friction dampers but the kit shipped with the DT-03 CVA damper kit which is really nice. I don't think I could gift a friction damped car to a friend.
Given the weight of the rear end I toyed with the idea of using Tamiya Hard (Blue) springs and/or Tamiya Medium (Green) damper oil. In the end I went with stock springs and medium oil. I think that was a good choice.



O-rings soaking in some damper oil before going into the shocks.



Two o-rings per shock. Take care that they stack neatly and square to each other otherwise leaks will be the result. The oil makes them like to pop up a bit before I could get the cap on.



The shock shafts for the front dampers were nice and smooth, shiny silver. As you can see, the rear shock shafts were pretty dismal. They were coated in a rough, black something. Residue maybe but more likely oxidization. So I used some Simichrome polish and a few make-up applicator pads to polish them up.



A side-by-side shot: After and Before.



I used to loathe building CVAs but two tools have made it an easy-peasy job: a pair of proper shock shaft pliers and a shock stand. When threading the lower mounting eyelet I hold the pliers flush with the end of the threads like so.



Then I thread it on until it's flush with the face of the pliers. This way I know exactly when to stop. Plus, the pliers hold the shaft snug with no scoring or slipping. Best - investment - evah!



Using this handy shock stand, I can easily fill up the reservoirs flush with the top. I used Yellow (Soft - 400) oil in the fronts and Green (Medium - 500) oil in the rears. I slowly worked the pistons to get out any stray bubbles. I've found that if I pour the oil into the reservoirs in one long, continious stream I get next to no bubbles that have to be worked out.



Once the bubbles are out, the bladders go on. Green in front and red in back. If you've filled the reservoirs properly, there will be some spillage of oil as the bladder pushes down when seated. I just wipe up the small spill with a paper towel.



Once all the bladders are on and the caps are tight, put the springs on the body of the damper.



Then, compress the spring with one hand while you place the lower collar onto the shock shaft with the other hand.



All 4 dampers are done. This was by far the easiest build up of CVAs I have done yet.
As you can see, I used stock springs on all 4. I used the thickest spacer on the rear dampers and the middle spacer on the fronts.

(Edit: Once the truck was fully built I swapped out the middle spacer on the front damper to the thinnest spacer. I think looking back on it now, I would recommend using Red (Soft - 200) oil in the front. The Green (Medium - 500) oil in the rear appears to be just about perfect.)

[Effigy3 1267]

Mounting the dampers up to the stay is just a matter of a couple of screw pins.

Damper stay mounts to the front of the chassis with 4 screws.

The damper connects to the lower arm with a screw pin but you need to insert a brass tube to protect the plastic from all the movement. It's a bit of a pain to insert without it falling out.

[Effigy3 1267]

The rear damper stay is much like the front. It uses 2 screws to attach to the bracket that the receiver switch is mounted to.

The damper connects to the lower suspension arm with a screw pin sans copper tube. I'm not keen on how much play the damper has on these screw pins. Ball connectors would be much better IMHO.

The manual calls for the motor wires to pass under the rear damper stay, behind the damper. As it turns out, that rediculous mass of motor wires was way, way too much. I tried to find a tidy place to bundle it but it was like colorful spaghetti spilling out all over the place. I finally gave up. I clipped the bullet connectors off the ESC and hard soldered the wires to the motor. There is still plenty of play left to remove the motor if need be. It turns out the 150mm sensor wire is too short buy a few mm so I ordered up a 200mm wire.

The rear and front body mount posts screw easily onto the chassis with a single screw. They are keyed with a square recession so the angle is always perfect.

One more unplanned hop-up. I used metal hexes instead of the kit supplied plastic jobbers. I just happened to have them on hand so I figured why not?

The battery bar is different. It's actually triangular and the bar only goes in one way. It's held in place with a body clip. I added a nice rubber tab from Pro-Line to make removal that much easier. Once in place the rubber tab simply rotates around on the body pin to tuck neatly out of the way.

The TBLS-02S doesn't have a low voltage cutoff for LiPo batteries so I need to include a battery alarm. I decided to use Velcro to attach it. Fuzzy half on the alarm.

Hook half on the steering servo. It's the perfect location!

Viola, the balance plug easily reaches, the LEDs are visible when it's affixed, and the alarm even faces forward like a horn.

[Effigy3 1267]

The chasis is mostly done. I'm still waiting for the sensor cable to come in. I also need to glue the tires onto the rims. Of course the body needs painting and decals applied but the weather will need to cooperate.

In this image the front looks to have a wider stance than the rear. I measured them center to center at 9 1/2 inches on both ends.

Also, the rear rims are slightly wider than the front so the tires sit on them differently. The front look "normal" but the rears have a slight trapezoidal aspect to them. The tread is more narrow than the rims themselves. You can tell by the white line visible on the rears that isn't visbile on the fronts.

So the truck is done but I'll post pics of the body when it's painted as well as pics of the truck with the body on the chassis.

[Effigy3 1267]

Between paint coats I thought it best to test the battery and charger. Sure they're new but you never know. I'm glad I did because as it turns out, the battery has a bad cell. I've contacted Horizon Hobby and I should get a replacement but the CSR was having trouble getting a ticket created for me. We'll see how it goes.

This is the bad one:

[loco_oso 108]

Looking sweet! Love the Dirt Hawg tires - they give it a great look. Thanks for putting up this build - I've enjoyed following the process!

[Effigy3 1267]

Looking sweet! Love the Dirt Hawg tires - they give it a great look. Thanks for putting up this build - I've enjoyed following the process!

Thank you for the kind words. I never know if these will be valuable posts. I certainly am not up to the same standard as many here so it's good to know that some people find my build threads useful.

[Effigy3 1267]

The body is painted. I had planned to do the windows in smoke but honestly I think it looks good clear. The upside to clear windows is that you can peek in on stuff. It's nice not to have to remove the body just to check on something.

I left the rear fin unpainted. I felt that it would hold up over time better that way. I obviously need to bolt it onto the body and apply the decals. We're in the home stretch now!

[Nobbi1977 1793]

Looks great, how did you do the "blobs" on the front?

[XV Pilot 1936]

A great alternative paint scheme. Nice job!

[werewolf 72]

Great build Effigy!

Since you now have experience with both the DT-02 and DT-03 chassis, I have a question for you (and anyone else who might have the answer, off course ): how many of the parts (and which ones) would you say are interchangeable between the DT-02 and DT-03? Reason for this question is that we are going to have a vintage race in a couple of months, and one of the new classes will be a DT-02 race (limited to Holiday Buggy and Sand Rover) where only a limited amount of hop-ups are allowed. One such hop-up is a 540 silvercan and another one is oil-filled shocks. Now I was browsing the Tamico website and it seems that the oil-filled shocks of the Neo Fighter Buggy fit the DT-02 and that even the A-arms and gears are the same. So I thought: instead of buying hop-up parts 50519 and 50520 (shocks for the DT-02) for a total of €42, why not buy a Neo Fighter Buggy for €60 and get the shocks, together with a bunch of usable spare parts and a ESC and Torque Tuned motor as extra's? Would that be a good plan?

Any tips and advice is greatly appreciated!

Hans

[Effigy3 1267]

Looks great, how did you do the "blobs" on the front?

Thanks Nobbi, the paint scheme is really easy to do. I use vinyl masks from Canadian outfit XXX Main (be careful Googling that!) but other companies make them too. They have a ton of patterns available. I've used this paint drip pattern as well as their flames and pro flames pattern in the past.

[Effigy3 1267]

Great build Effigy!

Since you now have experience with both the DT-02 and DT-03 chassis, I have a question for you (and anyone else who might have the answer, off course ): how many of the parts (and which ones) would you say are interchangeable between the DT-02 and DT-03? Reason for this question is that we are going to have a vintage race in a couple of months, and one of the new classes will be a DT-02 race (limited to Holiday Buggy and Sand Rover) where only a limited amount of hop-ups are allowed. One such hop-up is a 540 silvercan and another one is oil-filled shocks. Now I was browsing the Tamico website and it seems that the oil-filled shocks of the Neo Fighter Buggy fit the DT-02 and that even the A-arms and gears are the same. So I thought: instead of buying hop-up parts 50519 and 50520 (shocks for the DT-02) for a total of €42, why not buy a Neo Fighter Buggy for €60 and get the shocks, together with a bunch of usable spare parts and a ESC and Torque Tuned motor as extra's? Would that be a good plan?

Any tips and advice is greatly appreciated!

Hans

That's acautally not a bad idea you have there. The front suspension arms and turn buckles match the DT-02 as does pretty much the entire rear end/gear box. Of course the ESC will work on anything and the CVA shocks will work assuming they're built to the appropriate length. These dampers don't have exchangable pistons. They're solid metal pistons. You could always part out the remaining bits on eBay to recoup some of your cash.

[super gripper 419]

werewolf, pm'd you

[super gripper 419]

Nice paint chap, good to see another non box art one. Shame you are not over here as we will be having a DT03T class next year at Kidderminster.

The plan is to run a Tamiya truck race meeting.

[Nobbi1977 1793]

I run DT-03 shocks on my DT-02. They seem to work well but I am not a great driver or a racer

[werewolf 72]

Thanks for the reply, Nobbi! Are they the same length as the DT-02 friction shocks?

[Effigy3 1267]

Last night I applied the decals and installed the Du-Bro Body Klip retainers. This rig is pretty much done. I'm still waiting for the replacement battery to arrive from Horizon Hobby. The CA glue just arrived night before last so I can glue the tires to the rims this weekend. That's all there is left. I'm really happy with how this build turned out. I think it's going to be an excellent general purpose basher for my buddy. The only concern I have is in order to get the teeth of the Robinson Racing pinion to best align with the spur gear, the grub screw is right on the edge of the motor shaft. I'm talking RIGHT on the end. I've torqued it down and it seems secure. I'm 80% sure it'll be totally fine but that last 20% is an earworm in my head. The steel Tamiya 17T pinion hasn't arrived from the UK yet. If it arrives before I mail this truck out to my buddy in Cali there's a good chance I'll swap the motor out just so I can be 100% sure on the motor. I hope you have enjoyed my build thread. I learn a lot when I do them so thanks to everyone who posted comments and suggestions both in open forum as well as PMs.

[super gripper 419]

Looks fantastic chap, a very nice paint job with a limited amount of stickers shows the body off to it's full glory.

[loco_oso 108]

Awesome! Body shell looks great!

[Effigy3 1267]

The Tamiya 17T Steel Pinion gear arrived from the UK today so I went ahead and swapped out the Atomik 550 size motor for the 21T 540 size Leopard motor. Here you can see why I was concerned about the reliability of the 550 motor. The motor shaft was simply too short to work in this gear box. If I flipped the pinion around so the collar was on the inside, the gear teeth didn't mesh well.

This is what's going in instead:

I do wish it were a faster motor but it's what I have. I suppose this'll give him plenty of room to grow. Slower crashes do less damage anyway. This really was the smart choice. He can always get himself a 13.5T motor in the future if he feels the need for more speed.

Now THAT looks a lot better!

All setup and ready to be shipped.