TCS chassis Savage Flux stretch project

[william g]

This had started as a conversation in Savage03'S thread. It was goofing his thread up so I moved it here.

TCS makes a huge stretch chassis for the Flux to fit (convert to) a baja 5t truck body.

I'm going to hack up the savage body and make it look like a mud drag racer buggy for now. I'll watch e-pay and jump on a HPI 5b buggy body eventually.

I'll cut the front nose off, then split the savage body up the middle and remove the cab greenhouse and bed sections so I'll basicly just use the hood and sides. Attatch with velcro, done.

I want something that'll end up looking like a giant Tamiya wild-one.
I loved that buggy, and still miss it though parts are to hard to find or to expensive to justify running them.

---------------------------------------
Assembly went smooth, everything fit well until I dropped from the stock 20t pinion and tried a 17t.

The 17t pinion came in. So I went to install it and I can't access 2 of the motor screws once I set the smaller pinions gear mesh. Do you realize all the screws you have on a 3 foot long truck to take a side plate off.

Man, that took forever to setup. The TCS chassis is very thick, so sliding the motor over it covers 2 motor mount screws. Even with a ball driver you cannot get at them. Must be 6mm thick, 3 times the stock chassis easy.

So, pinion and gear mesh are now done. Only took an hour plus.
Waiting on more hex hardware to arrive. I could put all the old phillips stuff on, but I want hex so after running it and I need to dismantle it I can. Nothing worse than a dinged up philips screw to remove.

Stiffer spings are here, and I'll change to 60wt oil.
My Savage XL tires arrived as well. HUGE. Me likey.

I just need some quality time to work on it. Oh, a bigger table would be nice too.

.

[Savage03]

Ah that might work then, saw another article few issues back the guy took a slash body and stretched it to fit a savage xl.

[4wdmt]

Now I have the idea where Will is gonna go with his Flux.

[Savage03]

where di you see this? lol
On those screws cant you maybe drill holes to access them? I had to put one hole in the motor plate to get to the servo horn got tired of taking all the off to get to one screw!

Here is the one lipo I was looking at
http://hobbycity.com/hobbyking/store..._40C_Lipo_Pack
-20 in stock lol, place is do popular about every 5000mah lipo I saw was out

[william g]

Originally Posted by Savage03

Oh boy that 5t wanna be see the article in rc driver I think it was? Just that you have to either run no body which I dont like or flip for the outrageously priced baja lids. What eletrics you gonna run? 6s? With the size I would think you need some good lipos. Cant wait to see it tho.

Yea taking me longer to get this done for some reason but the weather isnt helping either so just taking my time.

oh guess what?
There is a 5b knock off, a T1000 truck. Bodies are 89 bucks if I ever decide to try one. (like I have 90 more bucks laying around) Actually if I was to put a ''real body'' on it, I'd save for the ginormous baja bug body. I've seen one on this conversion and it looks HOT.

.

Originally Posted by Savage03

where di you see this? lol
On those screws cant you maybe drill holes to access them? I had to put one hole in the motor plate to get to the servo horn got tired of taking all the off to get to one screw!

Here is the one lipo I was looking at
http://hobbycity.com/hobbyking/store..._40C_Lipo_Pack
-20 in stock lol, place is do popular about every 5000mah lipo I saw was out

Motor mount screws run verticle, the socket head of the screw is ''in'' the chassis machined pocket.

Flux uses a special not your everyday motor. It is larger diameter than a 540 can diam (36mm) you see on most 1/8th motors. Might be 44mm?

This is a picture of somebody elses TCS, I put 2 RED marks where the screws go up into the FLUX motor mount from underneath.

[Savage03]

Yea look at my pics I have the same mount to only a mmm motor and it is 44mm I believe cause the guy at GCM had to mill those 2 mounts to fit my motor as its bigger then the Flux's.
No way to drill up through the skid to get to them? Does the tcs setup come with a skid plate? Think the article said no, mine didnt either but he just came out with one and it took so long he sent me one free! Downside it takes the mail FOREVER to deliver from canada.



Yea they are spendy can be had a litle cheaper off bay tho, I got mine from rcboyz. With ya on integy to I looked at theirs but just couldnt do it lol.
Might wanna invest in the slipper mod Kershaw sells to, it works and its like $8



Awesome! Git er done. We got nothing but rain again today, tired of it already! Definitely better hire a camera man to get the vids on this thing to

[william g]

Originally Posted by Savage03

Yea look at my pics I have the same mount to only a mmm motor and it is 44mm I believe cause the guy at GCM had to mill those 2 mounts to fit my motor as its bigger then the Flux's.
No way to drill up through the skid to get to them? Does the tcs setup come with a skid plate? Think the article said no, mine didnt either but he just came out with one and it took so long he sent me one free! Downside it takes the mail FOREVER to deliver from canada.

no no skid
Ugh, thought putting a bigger spur would be cool moving it over, but look at the price http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXLSU5&P=Z $48.00

Integy makes some for 20.00, but I don't know if I'd try them

Originally Posted by Savage03

Yea they are spendy can be had a litle cheaper off bay tho, I got mine from rcboyz. With ya on integy to I looked at theirs but just couldnt do it lol.
Might wanna invest in the slipper mod Kershaw sells to, it works and its like $8

found a steel hpi one for $29.99 It's from the savage XL and 52 teeth. I really only wanted 49, but could go 16 on the pinion if it's over too far. 44 to 52 in mod1 pitch will be a big diameter change.

I'll run it now 17-44 and if I need to I now know of more $ reasonable options. That said this morning I swapped to stiffer springs, and front 55wt rear 60 wt oils. I thought I had more 60, but ran to low to do 4 big shocks.

Also, the mamba ESC was WAY WAY WAY out of whack when I checked it out on my PC.
I found these things wrong...
Was set to brushed mode
throttle curve went straight up at 10%
brake curve went straight up at 25%
Neutral was 2 clicks more than default
esc arm was over 2 seconds

So it's now all adjusted, and set to my tactic 2.4ghz radio

I'm getting closer and closer to a test run.

.

Originally Posted by Savage03

Awesome! Git er done. We got nothing but rain again today, tired of it already! Definitely better hire a camera man to get the vids on this thing to

yeah, I'll have to get Janet's camera again. I think they fixed the tape jump problem. I wish that they'd buy a new one I could borrow. It's great to have a sister with a good job who likes to shop.

[4wdmt]

I will be waiting here in this secret place. Hope to see some vids and fully done pics when ready.

[William]

ok
here is my project how it sits as of this morning.
There is this large X brace delrin part that is suppsed to be where the windshield is, I removed it and am going to cut it and use it for the ''roof'' instead. I also have some 3/8ths thick nylon material comming to use as a floor or skid. I'll cut it to fit inbetween the rails and also make a smaller piece to use for a reciever shelf in the ''driver'' area.







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[Savage03]

That is a big un aint it. Whats the measurement axle to axle?
Funny last few weeks all of a sudden I started getting email notices which has been a complaint for a few years now lol, got a notice to my thread so I get there and most of it is gone was uh
Good stuff tho really anxious to see it in motion and hear your thoughts

[william g]

I took it out of your thread because I felt like it was infringing on your beast. You are part of the reason I wasn't too worried about buying a savage.

So I'm not to sure about the video part, but pics will continue. I can't wait to drive it, hopefully the integy 17mm hub kit arrives because I really don't like the stock setup.

I don't know if you can notice in those pics, but the battery boxes can be mounted rear as they are now or mid mounted on the chassis. We'll see how the weight is all the way rearward and if it's to much I can move them forward about 3 inches.

[4u2nv]

Will, have you lost your mind... where you going to run that thing! It's huge, but looks like its coming along nicely. I'd hate to get your credit card bills in the mail

[4wdmt]

Wow. Now that is not just an XL Flux, it is super XL! Looks more of a HPI Baja now. Can't wait to see it run.

[william g]

Originally Posted by 4u2nv

Will, have you lost your mind... where you going to run that thing! It's huge, but looks like its coming along nicely. I'd hate to get your credit card bills in the mail

One must have a mind to lose it. No more CC either, I cut it up a while back. All I can use now is my atm checking card. I'll run it same places as always, but really looking forward to 3rd beach runs.

Originally Posted by 4wdmt

Wow. Now that is not just an XL Flux, it is super XL! Looks more of a HPI Baja now. Can't wait to see it run.

Yeah, it's huge. I honestly didn't think it was this big till the plates arrived. I thought the Savage was big stock, this is twice that. Front dogbone is 12'' long!!!

[4wdmt]

I hope the brushless power plant can still power it up with ease.

I was waiting for your initial impression of stock Flux at first. But I guess this one is a totally different beast.

[Savage03]

Found this on savage central, his specs are:
"running 6s on 13T pinon w/52T spur. The motor doesn't get hot at all. i can run my battey constant until the LVC kicks in. Right now i'm running 17T Novak pinion and 47T spur."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gtcIbNNorI

[4wdmt]

Just watched the vid. that thing is huge! There is no problem popping up some willies. It is like a Baja 5T, just electric.

[Savage03]

I was a little surpised with the wheelies since the tcs guy was even saying how it wont wheelie, maybe cause he geared it down so low? Maybe move the boxes forward more.

[william g]

good news some real bad news and some healing news

Good news, have it to a point a test run is in order. Cut the X part to fit as a roof and reinstalled it last night. I also installed savage XL axles to widen it an inch and I used the original 17mm hex hubs so I could test drive it.






Really Bad news
Charged (2) 2s lipos and went outside. Turned it on, all the beeps and boops sounded and checked steering, all ok. So I drove forward slowly and suddenly all the magic smoke escaped. Must have been all the smoke it had because it stopped.

Went back inside totally dejected and waited till it was 9am Pacific time to call HPI tech support.

Told the tech guy all the magic smoke escaped. He said I'm not supposed to let it out.

HEALING NEWS
Hpi rocks, customer service guy told me since it was new he'd ''cross ship'' a new ESC with all the magic smoke still inside if I gave him a tracking number. Had somebody with a car here and begged them to head to the PO for me.

So I'll be sitting at the window awaiting a package from HPI

[Savage03]

Actually heard of this going around, suks bad man. Maybe get it this week still?