Defcon Kaklkaklkekl (Wiki)

====== Rustler Offroad 2WD racetruck ====== The Traxxas Rustler is classed as a 1/10 scale 2WD electric stadium truck/truggy. It is directly related to the Bandit (1/10 2WD electric buggy), Stampede (Truck) and Slash (1/10 2WD SCORE), with these cars sharing many components and features. The truck is mainly built using delrin and composite nylon parts. There is not a single E-clip to be found on the truck, hex-bolts are originally used throughout in good Traxxas style. The Rustler I am running is the TRA3708 Rustler VXL, a brushless setup with Traxxas' own Velineon 3500 brushless motor (10 turns, 3500kv, neodymium, high-amp) paired with the Velineon VXL-2 ESC. The single most important feature in my eyes with this ESC is a continuous current rating of 200A, and a fwd/rew/brk peak of 320A! With this monster of an esc running at 11.1V LiPo, this lands a __standard__ rating of 2.2kWatts to the motor! With the 3500-motor running a good hot 650-1100 Watts, this allows for some serious power when coupled with a 5400mAh 20C LiPo .... {{ http://photos.defcon.no/2008-05-29-rustler-unpack/view/101_0096.JPG?450 }} The power and punch of the Velineon power train gives great flexibility in gearing for various performance profiles. Setting the truck up for drag-racing involves lowering and stiffening the suspension, adding on-road, foam or slick tires, and setting the gearbox to 31 tooth pinion gear, 76 tooth spur gear. This sets your truck up for speeds well in excess of 100 km/h. With this setup, I have radar-gunned my own truck at a speed of 97 km/h while running the controls in one hand and the radar-gun in the other ... {{ http://photos.defcon.no/2010-05-08-rustler-body/view/P5080644.JPG?450 }} Keeping the 31T pinion, and swapping to a 83T or 86T spur gives you the bottom-punch you need for control and performance on gravel/dirt off-road track. I run full-travel, medium stiffness on the shocks, Alias front tires and gravel- or basher-tires on the rear for racing. The stock shocks are a pain if you run your truck like I do, read below for my frustration on this part... ===== Upgrades ===== This section contains upgrades and hop-ups that I have done from the stock setup. === Rear Shock Tower === * ST Racing Concepts 6mm Heavy Duty Rear Shock Tower (Silver) * SPTST3638S $23.99 The standard rear shock tower is not a Delrin component, but a composite nylon part. This is one of the parts that take the most beating when running off-road, as this is the mounting point of not only the shocks, but also the rear upper arms. Any sideway force from the rear tires lands directly on the tower, and the anchor points are not really very solid. An aluminuim replacement allows the tower to handle more lateral force, and moves the most significant rear weak point from a part that is quite some work to replace, out to the upper arms and the hub carrier. The rear tower I am using, from STRC, is not a single CNC or cast part, but two CNC milled parts, the tower itself, and the mounting base. The mounting base is normally attached to the tower using standard M3 screws and nuts. This IS a weak point in the construction. I do not reccomend this tower, unless you have the skills to add a weld along the joint-lines between mount and tower. On the other hand, no better alternative exists... === Rear hub carrier === * ST Racing Concepts Oversized Rear Hub Carrier w/Bearings (Silver) * SPTST3652S $17.99 To remove some slack, add precision and durability, and move the weak point by the wheels in to the easily replaced rear upper arms, I have replaced the rear hub carriers with aluminium parts. Prior to upgrading these, I only had a single failure of the nylon ones, but I attribute that to the fact that I was running the nylon shock tower, allowing that to take the forces in place of the carriers. === Caster Blocks === * ST Racing Concepts Caster Blocks (Silver) * SPTST3632S $15.99 The caster blocks take the bigges part of sideways beating up front, and are a pain to replace. So, after only two failures of the casters, I upgraded to aluminium. Note that if you do not use CA-glue (threadlock) on the bolts holding the turnbuckles, you'll have to tighten these back up after every hour run-time. Luckily, this is as simple as tightening up two hex bolts. === LiPo batteries === * Venom Power 3S Li-Poly 20C Battery Pack w/ Traxxas Connector (11.1V/5400mAh) * VNR1581T $64.99 ===== Most frequent replacements ===== This table lists components that have been replaced after normal wear and/or "normal crash", as in, these are parts that are essential to keep in the "parts-box". ^ Part ^ Part number ^ # of times replaced ^ Comment ^ | Spur Gear | TRA4676(76T)/TRA4686(86T) | IIII | Normal wear | | Shock bladder | TRA1765 | IIII | Damn shocks... | | Rear shock tower | TRA3638 | III | Not replaced after upgrade.. | | Caster blocks | TRA3632 | II | Not replaced after upgrade.. | | Rear hub carrier | TRA1952 | I | Not replaced after upgrade.. | | Steering Blocks | TRA3736 | I | | | Rear Stub Axles | TRA2753X | I | | | Half Shafts | TRA1951 | I | | ===== Shocks ===== One of the most annoying things I have experienced with my Rustler VXL, is the tendency of the stock shocks to pop open when running aggressively or hard on track. I have had a hard time figuring out what shocks can be run on the truggy, apart from the factory ones listed in the official parts list, so a summary of the shock specs and possible options is defenitely needed. So, here are the dimensions, and possible shocks as far as I've gathered: * Front shocks: Approximately 87mm long fully extended from mounting hole to mounting hole, 67mm fully compressed, 10mm bore stock. * Traxxas 3760A Ultra Shocks (grey) (long) (complete w/ spring pre-load spacers & springs) * Traxxas 4760 Shocks, long (hard-anodized & Teflon-coated T6 aluminum) w/o springs (front) * Traxxas 2660 Big Bore shocks (long) (hard-anodized & Teflon-coated T6 aluminum) (assembled with TiN shafts) w/o springs (front) * Integy T7963SILVER MSR9 Front Piggyback Shock for Traxxas Stampede, Rustler & Slash * HPI-87251 Firestorm Aluminium Threaded Shocks (67-87mm) - Front - Pair [[http://www.hpieurope.com/piw.php?lang=en&partNo=87251|HPI]] * CPV 58690B Blue Aluminum Shocks w/ Piggyback 90mm 2PCS [[http://www.cpvracing.com/detail.asp?id=14519|CPV Racing]] * CPV 58290S Silver Aluminum Shock Absorbers 2PCS(90mm) [[http://www.cpvracing.com/detail.asp?id=13393|CPV Racing]] * Rear shocks: Approximately 102mm long fully extended from mounting hole to mounting hole, 75mm fully compressed, 10mm bore stock. * Taxxas 4761 Shocks, X-long (hard-anodized & Teflon-coated T6 aluminum) w/o springs (rear) * Taxxas 2662 Big Bore shocks (XX-long) (hard-anodized & Teflon-coated T6 aluminum) (assembled with TiN shafts) w/o springs (rear) * Traxxas 3762A Ultra Shocks (grey) (xx-long) (complete w/ spring pre-load spacers & springs) (rear) * Integy T7964SILVER MSR9 Rear Piggyback Shock for Traxxas Stampede, Rustler & Slash * HPI-87252 Firestorm Aluminium Threaded Shocks (70-103mm) - Rear - Pair [[http://www.hpieurope.com/piw.php?lang=en&partNo=87252|HPI]] * CPV 58705B Blue Aluminum Shocks w/ Piggyback 105mm 2PCS [[http://www.cpvracing.com/detail.asp?id=14537|CPV Racing]] * CPV 58300S Silver Aluminum Shock Absorbers 2PCS(100mm) [[http://www.cpvracing.com/detail.asp?id=13399|CPV Racing]] * Traxxas ans HPI parts are available through most R/C retailers (Recommendations: http://www.amainhobbies.com/ and http://www.towerhobbies.com/). * Integy should be available directly from [[http://www.integy.com/|Integy]], or through Tower Hobbies. * CPV Racing parts are retailed at least through http://www.fuyuanrc.com/en/ Oh, and both the parts list, and the product specs, claim that the Aluminium shock caps for the Big Bore shocks (part # 2662) also fit the plastic Ultra Shocks (the stock ones). This is utter bull, as the threads on the Big Bore caps is nowhere near the same as the threads on the Ultra Shock bodies. ===== Links ===== http://www.amainhobbies.com/ http://www.amainhobbies.com/product_info.php/cPath/1_44_228/products_id/16688 http://www.rc-monster.com/proddetail.php?prod=FLMPEDEKIT&cat=10 http://www.ultimatetoys.com.au/genuine-traxxas-spares-c-57.html http://www.ultimatetraxxas.com/ http://www.rcplanet.com/