Carbon Fiber

Well I began work on my chassis plates and motor mount for the wheely king crawler. I am really beginning to appreciate the carbon fiber parts I've seen available, this stuff is not easy to work with. I kind of happy it is so difficult to work with because in a way that suggests how tough carbon fiber really is, so it will be able to handle the abuse it will go through. But all in all things are comming together, I need to file down the cuttouts on the chassis and mark and drill holes for the braces and all the mounting holes. So by the time I have it ready my new 30 degree bend lower links should have arrived. There is nothing really to take a picture of lately, it is in a million pieces at the moment. Snow is melting outside and I can't wait to have this rock king up and running and putting to the real test out at the lake.

Also just a side note, thanks to my amazing wife for my new banner, she did a really great job!

My first eBay win!

Well I've just won my first eBay item. I have purchased items using "buy it now" which is a lot easier and it takes all the guess work out of it. But for the last couple of days I've had the top bid on a Traxxas Stampede package. The bidding closed this afternoon, and I almost lost it in the final minutes, but I bumped up my bid and I secured it. I still feel like I got a great deal. So now I will have a slightly used Stampede to run all summer, it comes with 3 batteries (1 7 cell and 2 6 cell) and a very good quality charger.

So I think I now how my complete inventory, I can honestly say I am not "wishing" to own any other rc. I am going to focus on custom making chassis and other parts from carbon fibre, to strengthen and ligthen parts.

I'm still thinking I might sell my XTM Mammoth St. I just am not as fond of the nitro as electric. I used to be the other way around until I got a bunch of batteries, now I like the quiet of running electric.

I'll let you know when the Stampede arrives, and I'll put up picks soon of my crawler king progress, its getting exciting!

Custom Custom Custom!

So I am continuing my custom work on my wheely king, and it is getting further and further from stock. I've done my first irreversible change, and changed the setup of the transmission and motor mount. I used a cuttoff wheel to shave off some mounting brackets, in order to rotate the motor 90 degrees. I've made a template out of cardboard, it seems to work well, the "footprint" is much narrower and the center of gravity will be perfect. I'm now looking at getting my lower aluminum links bent with a 30 degree bend to help with ground clearance. I am having so much work experimenting and building this crawler, It is a long way from where I began.

On another note, I'm trying to find deals on ebay for a used Traxxas Stampede XL-5 for hopefully a great deal, so that I can have some birthday money left over for possibly more crawler mods. I know what your thinking, my birthday is not for another 1.5 months but for Nat and I we usually can't wait, "thats just how we ro''. ........"yeah!"......haha

Crawler King!!

Work is progressing on the HPI Wheely King Crawler custom chassis. I am playing with chassis layouts using SteelTec (Mechano clone) It has served very useful. I feel I have the geometry very close to where it needs to be, maybe just a few more tweaks then I'll dive into carbon fibre. I'll post pics soon, the articulation is unbelievable right now, the trick seems to be the balance between articulation, center of gravity, and ground clearance.

Monday Nights

Every Monday night i get together with a group of guys at Church of the Rock in Winnipeg. We meet in the lobby of the church, setup the track felt, and get drifting!

I've focused all winter on electric rc's, to tell you the truth I've lost a bit of excitement for the gas powered. But I think its just due to the long winter. So I've taken out my Mammoth St and started pulling it apart, my goal is to shine it up and get it primed and ready for spring. I'm sure once i get a fresh tank of fuel in it i'll love it again.