R/C Truck Rebuild - Traxxas T-MAXX

[Anth]

Alreet all,

As many of you know, I'm pretty into remote controlled monster trucks these days. After a very heavy few days of bashing (running trucks off-road) leaving the truck in need of a decent clean, I decided to get some photos while I was rebuilding it. The truck depicted below is a Traxxas T-MAXX 2.5 that gets serious stick and is getting major modifications quite regularly.

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The Components



The chassis, fitted with the rear bulkheads. Originally, the bulkheads were pretty flimsy grey plastic - not what you want for the main stress-taking part. The current ones are blue aluminium bought on ebay.com for a lot less than they would be here.




All of the structural parts (bar the rear bulkheads and chassis). Visible are all parts of the sub-structures, shocks, bumpers, tie-rods, servo mounts, differentials, drive shafts, skid plates and chassis arms. The chassis arms were originally the same grey plastic as the bulkheads but again they were replaced with blue aluminium from ebay.com.




The mechanical parts. Visible are the transmission, battery box, radio reciever, servos, linkages, fuel tank, exhaust, engine, EZ-Start (electric starter) and air filter. From these, the engine is after-market and has been upgraded from a TRX2.5(cc) lump to an OS.18 (3cc) that kicks out waaaaaay more power and the air-filter has been upgraded to a Motor-saver filter to get more air going into the carb.




The wheels and tyres. Here we have over £100 of kit, in the 23mm hub conversion (blue ally bits in the middle), the Pro-Line Wabasher wheels (that were originally white, but got dyed navy blue) and the Pro-Line Bow-Tie tyres. All of these are 40-series, meaning they are about a third bigger than the stock kit.


Next, to start putting it all together!

[Anth]

The Sub-structure (shock/wheel mounting)

This is where things get moving. All of the bits on the box are going to be put together:



Top: differential and drive shaft parts, left/right ends: drive shafts and hubs, centre left/right: tops of structure, bottom left/right: bottoms of structure, centre: shock tower.


First, the differential is to be fitted to the chassis, by way of the bulkheads:




All of the components fit together to make this:



As you can tell by the angle of the structure, it isnt too strong and you wouldnt want to ride like that. What we need is some shock absorbers. Or even better, 4 of them



There we have it, the full rear assembly done and fitted. Shocks are on, everything is connected to the chassis and the tie-rods that control the toe-in of the wheels are hooked up. Time to do the whole thing again for the front:





And there we have it. You can see on the second photo there that I have fitted the servo mounts ready for fitting of the mechanical kit. The front tie-rods arent fitted just yet, as they attach to the steering rack and servo.

I apologise for lack of photos while I was rebuilding the mechanical parts, I kinda just got carried away

However, here is the full rig of mechanical kit hooked up and on the chassis:



On the chassis itself, you can see the reciever box (with the ariel sticking out of it), the throttle/brake servo (below the reciever), the gearing and steering servo (bottom left), transmission (centre), battery box (grey thing with TRAXXAS on it), exhaust (top right), air-filter and engine, EZ-Start and fuel tank.

[Anth]

The Finished Product

Here it is, the T-MAXX in all it's glory!









You can see where I have "altered" the body-shell a bit by cutting out parts of the front and back windows. This was done to improve air flow to the air filter, which is required with the new engine. I also know that the front bumper isnt on straight, but collision with a tree should solve that Also visible on the roof is evidence of scraping along the ground on its lid. The T-MAXX is tough enough to take a lot more damage than that can cause

Tools used in rebuild are just standard screwdrivers (or an electric screwdriver if you are lazy like me), a set of Allen keys (hex keys), pliers, glow-plug wrench, 23mm wrench (for the wheels) and "toe-in spanners". Cleaning was done by throwing everything that needed cleaning (except the electronics and engine) in the shower. Yep, in the shower. Anything that couldnt be put in the shower was attacked with random kitchen cleaner I found in my room and a scrubbing brush.

All high tech kit

Capabilities of the truck are currently unknown. The standard engine could hit 45mph, but I reckon this will clear 50mph off-road. As standard, the truck could take a 10' drop at around 25mph onto rocks and keep going. With the 40-series wheels/tyres, I dont know but it will be more.

Since I did this project (the major clean), I have bought a new body-shell for it which has been painted up for me while I'm at home. Expect pics of that on Tuesday

[Woodmonkey]

This all looks very complicated, Anth!

[Manchu34]

nice!!!!

[Anth]

It looks it, but anyone who can use a screwdriver and allen-key can work on these things. They are brilliant to work on, then they start costing way too much money when you buy new engines, wheels and tyres.

I spent as much on the wheels, tyres and engine as I did on the whole truck

However, it now seriously shifts!

[SnipeHuntin]

Sweet!!! I wish I would have gotten into that stuff when I had the money to do it.