Yes, I know it is our first build off series of the Talk Your Face Off livestream series. Yes, I know it's lame that we couldn't make the deadline of our kickoff event. Yes...it is Pablo's fault–100%! You may know him as RC Amigos...either way...his fault.
I kid, I kid! There were some extenuating circumstances with Pablo's build, but I also wanted to have more time to really have test runs and rag on each other about how slow the other person's build is. In the future, we'll know that 4 weeks is pretty tough when we have jobs, families, and other priorities that come up.
THE NEW DEADLINE IS: MARCH 27 by 11:59pm PDT
THAT SAID, it has been a really fun process and hilarious to banter back and forth with Pablo. He's extremely talented and it terrifies me to think about what crazy idea he may come up with to crush me. I specialize in hack jobs. Like the machine pictured below.
If this concoction of a mini Element Enduro24 crawler turned RC drag car does well, it has nothing to do with engineering and everything to do with gumption and sheer luck. I just started pulling things apart and screwing them in with the hopes of making it sit lower and stretch the wheelbase longer. I started by moving the rear shock hoops forward which lays the shocks down and helps to lower the backend. I did have to do some chassis bending to get the shocks to work. That could come back to haunt me if things aren't "true".
The second thing I did was install the Furitek Stellar Transmission onto their Element RC skid plate. My goal was to run a Carisma 12,000kv brushless motor that is the same size as a Surpass Rocket. Because of the low frame, I was able to use the Mofo RC motor plate for to mount it and the 14t press-on .5 mod pinion.
Third, I decided that the stock chassis was going to be too short. I had purchased the ECB 3D Printing Gasser conversion parts and wheels in case I needed an "easy button". While looking at his pictures, I realized it wasn't much longer than stock, so I decided to put my own spin on ECB's parts. I screwed his front axle, servo, lower link section to the end of the stock chassis. This one part allowed me to get rid of the front axle and just mount the knuckles, and steering links from the stock axle to it. The servo mount right to it and some simple heat allowed me to twist the top steering arm to work with the new layout.
I did a couple test runs with the stock wheels and tires, but it was hard to control. I put on the ECB wheels with HPI tires and O-rings. This had better control, but less speed because of the smaller diameter. I've ordered larger pinions, but also plan to try running it on 3s LiPo to see what extra speed boost it will give me.
I realized that none of my passes would count because I didn't have a body on during my tests, so I decided not to push the RC too hard yet. I came back in and started designing a rear bed for my Atlas body I have to put on the build. The extra length meant that my body wasn't technically long enough, so I had to extend it. I have a 3d printer and a vacuum former, so it should be possible right? I jumped on YouTube to watch a video on how to use Tinkercad. 10 minutes later I was off to the races. In about an hour I had a design and started printing. 6 hours later I had the 3D printed truck bed made and ready for my vacuum former.
The next step will be to paint the Atlas and the bed, screw them together, and get them mounted. Each step of this takes time and that's what we we hadn't really planned very well. From getting the parts in the mail (some from overseas) to creating one-off parts, these builds take extra time. Throw in the other videos and RC projects we're also working on outside this competition, paired with budgets, family, and our jobs...it get's tough.
The goal of these competitions is to have fun and enjoy the competitive spirit. The next builds will probably have longer time frames to allow this to happen. If you were done with your build, keep building and pushing for more speed. Thanks for understanding.
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