Version 1.0, no spellcheck.

Well, finally I can write down the story of this project. I was planning on doing this a lot earlier, but I never got further than 2 lines of text. Anyway a bit of self reflection and a summary of things never hurt anybody, so here we go.

Original Reason: to show people that something like a solid axle electro driven monster truck can also be fast.
Original Goal: set a speed record for a solid axle radio controlled (1/10) monstertruck.
Budget: not specified
Development time: not specified

For the write up, I divided the project in the following steps. Note: This is not in chronological order, in fact it was (and is) quite chaotic.

1. chassis design
2. drivetrain/gears
3 .motor
4. axles
5. suspension/linkage
6. electronics
7. wheels, body and eyecandy
8. what still needs to be done
9. pricing of the truck
10. future updates

1. Chassis design.
After looking around for a chassis that could give my truck a low center of gravity I had one option, to add a TTR battery mount below the chassis. That could have worked, but I wanted to have more power, so I decided to go with 3 stickpacks instead. In short: more space was needed. I already was playing with the idea of creating a chassis on my computer. So I started designing it in a CAD program, and after taking some measurements of the original TXT-1 chassis I had a prototype design ready in a couple of hours:

(computer render.)

Not quite good enough, so I decided to start over.
I ended up with something that came closer to the final chassis.
I did major tweaking on it, and thought of some features that could be interesting. 

(computer render.) 

(computer render.)

(computer render.)

It looks a lot like the final, but as you can see this is more a bull than a dragon. So what happened?
I printed the above design, and on a late night, with a winterstorm raging outside, I was resketching some points. For example I wanted room for a 4 inch shock to fit very close (and straight) to the center on the chassis.) So I cut away a part from the paper. It struck me when I saw it. This was a dragons head. I quickly redrawed the lines on my computer, and after a few hours I came up with this:

(computer render.)

So then the theme was born. A week later I sent away a DXF file to the cutter, for prototyping.

(prototype buildup.)

I was quite happy, the chassis was fully useable, it fitted both the maxx and the txt-1 gearbox.
The prototype does not have the 2 little humps on top of it for 170mm savage shocks. 
This was adjusted in the final. The final was cutted out of 2mm titanium, then coated black.

2. Drivetrain
I bulletproofed the drivetrain by putting it all in an alloy transmission case and get Ultramaxxed gears in it. Should be sturdy enough for the single Plettenberg motor. The driveshafts are currently RC4WD's supershafts, but they will soon be replaced by version 2. I don't use the first gear, as im going all for endspeed. To get the shifting servo etc in it would just be a waste of space. Kershaw Designs made a steel 30T pinion with 5mm Bore for me, also they made a 26T for it if 30 would be too much. (I don't really worry though.) 

3. Motor
I decided to go with a single Plettenberg Bigmaxximum (HP220) to reduce the costs a little, and keep the truck controlable. I had to create a motormount so the motor would be aligned in the center for good weight distribution. With 1,8KW of power on it, it should be a sturdy mount, I decided to make this mount very beefy so in the event of a rollover it would also work as a rollbar.

 
(computer render of the prototype.)
 
 
 

Getting the motor was kind of dramatic, as my truck would be purple with black. A blue motor like Plettenberg delivers atm was not an option. I mailed Plettenberg and begged for a black or purple housing instead of a blue one. Purple was not an option, but they would make a black one for me.

 
(And they did!) 
This is a pretty powerful motor, and with the right controller and 18 cells it really should make the truck pretty fast.
 
 
 

4. Axles
The axles are the last original txt-1 parts. I decide to keep the steel internals as they have never failed me. I Replaced both the diffs with golden horizon light weight diffs. I replaced the bumpers and knucklearms by purple parts from I-NetRC. Also the wideners are from I-Net. I used RC4WD hex screws all over the truck as they tighten a lot better then a normal philips head. A screw with a bite so to speak. :-)

 
(shown here with a maxx shaft.)
 
 
 

I might replace the axles with newly designed aluminum axles, but this is an option I have not fully explored yet. I did start a drawing, but I first need to learn some software packages to make sure it can be machined. So this is on hold for now.

(project within a project, alloy axles.) (on hold.)

5. Suspension and linkage.
I go a bit classic here with link mounted shocks and a typical triangled 4 link setup. The ballends are excellent and made by I-Netrc.
I used 168mm Megatech shocks for the Savage. They matched the truck good, and have a lot of setup options. Lower links are a.t.m. Thunder Techs but that might change. Upperlinks are I-nets. The shocks don't really have a function, they will be adjusted to superstiff, so I don't need swaybars. I'm not planning to go offroad, or even take a small jump, in fact I'm not even planning to drive it on a circuit, a dragstrip is ok.

(picture of the 8-32 ballends, still inside the plastic bag.)
 
 
 

 
(So this is what we had so far)
 

]

6. Electronics

First of all I needed internal plating to put all the electronics on. In the internals I used a lot of elements I also used on the 2 sideplates and the 2 battery keepers. This is good as it keeps a certain continuity into the entire chassis.

I also needed a BEC, otherwise I had to carry another battery package to power the speedcontroller. A small device called "The Ultimate BEC" for cars converts voltage from the main 3 stickpacks to give the proper amount to the speedcontroller etc. Handy! The steering servo I still have to decide for. To control the truck and all my future trucks I bought a Nomadio 2,4ghz system. I'm still waiting for version 2 of the reciever to be delivered. So far works perfect. I tested it with an onroad car. I'm waiting with the batteries till the rest of the truck is finished so I can dump in the highest amp available at that time. The speedcontroller is going to be a Schulze, they advised me to buy a controller that can in essence control a motor that is twice as heavy. My gearing is high and the normal Future-18.97KW controller for the Plettenberg could fry then. So I'm taking their advise and buying the one with an overcapacity of 100%. I believe it was the Future-32.170W. Still has to be bought though. 

 
(Nomadio Sensor system.) 
 
 

 
(cooling fan to cool the Schulze controller that will be below it.)
 
 

 
(the cooling fan has purple leds....)
 
 

7. Wheels, body and eyecandy.

As it became more and more clear to me that this truck could turn out to be a showtruck, I decided to scrap the plastic rims off my list, and I bought a set of RC4WD beadlock wheels. I first wanted to anodize the entire wheel purple, but I reminded myself that I only had the accents of the truck anodized, so the rings of the beadlock wheels are currently being anodised instead. Also I wanted a big tire, but not a Kong tire, as it would be overkill and out of proportion. I decided to let go of the Imex ALL-T's and replace them with a classic Jumbo Chevron.

My truck still growing in length needed a 1:8 body that would look good. At the time Proline just released the F650, and the moment I saw it I did not like it at all. The pictures provided made it look silly on that independent suspension truck. However the plain massive shape of it, started to attract me, after some tweaking on the chassis I thought it could look good. So I bought one, cutted it and tried it on.

 
(1:8 F650 body)
 
 
 

 
(testfit wheels, tires and body.)
 
 
 

I noticed that a wheeliebar and some bumperplating would be details that would finish off the truck. The wheeliebar is only there in the case of a violent launch, with the current gearing that won't happen. So it's only for show with this pinion. :-)
(rescuebar)
 
 
 

As the chassis won't give a lot of downforce it would be good to have a wing on the truck. I tried 2 wings, a very small one that was hardly invisible on that body and a 1:8 buggy wing. The last one will be on the truck, it will give the truck downforce, it's attached to the chassis, as on the body it would only bent down the body and not help at all. 

(front bumper)

(How the truck looks atm.)
 
 

Would I do such a project again? Yes probably. In fact I have 2 other projects in the works. One is called Clawhammer II it's going to be a hardcore rockcrawler, no fancy colors, just purely functional. I'm trying to give it a futuristic look. That project is just starting. The other is the Dragonkeeper, a very fast dual brushless touringcar based on an older TA03. I made it to keep the Hebridean Black company, the Dragonkeeper will outrun the HB without a problem. It will get 2 Lehner brushless motors that will give it 1,5KW in total. The power to weight ratio is a bit off the scale then. :-) I also can't wait to get my hands on a high-lift. But the problem atm is time. If you have questions or need more info just mail me: info@clawhammer.nl

Last fun fact before I take a hike: I failed math at highschool with the lowest grade available....revenge is sweet.

9. Pricing of the truck.
For my own health and that of my relatives I stopped counting when I got over $3000.

10. Room for future updates.
I will put newer updates right here.