stampede suggestions?

[andymac0035]

A little update:

I put the VXL back into it and bolted some weight to the nose of it.
No more stick-on weights coming un-stuck.....

But..... I finally raced the pede' ......
I was not going to, but the more I ran practice laps... the more I felt it would be "okay".

I was surprised....
Heat #1 .....finished last.... LOL...... Okay that wasn't a surprise, but I mostly finished last due to bad-luck crashes near the end.

Heat #2 .... finished 7th (out of 9).... I was shocked....

(everyone gets to run all 3 races if your wondering)
The Main: ..... finished 7th (out of 9).
Would have had 6th..... but I lost it on the last lap...

......and this was all done with stock talon tires in place too.

I had a lot of fun.... can't wait to do it again.

Still need tires, but I got a new clod I'm building that is taking all my money....

Off the tight twisty track the pede' is running great!
The nose-weight helps keep the nose down and the heavier VXL give it a little more traction.

I've also put metal shock caps and TiNi shafts on the shocks.

[vwjuice]

Andy, I think even with the Mamba your going to have a difficulty driving it. That truck is more a basher than racer, so you might fint it hard to compete with it.

dont spend alot of cash , its a stampede its not a t4.

I disagree completely. I use to race stock truck with my Factory Team T4. It was great when it held together, but that truck broke front arms like crazy. During a race weekend it broke another front arm and I was out of them. All the LHS's near me were out as well. I had my stampede with me for my daughter to run around with on the oval track. I installed my electronics from my T4 in the Stampede and raced that the rest of the weekend. I changed the shock fluid to 40w front and 35w rear. Moved the lower shock to the outside on the arm. Installed about 1/8" limiter in the front shocks and added a 2oz fishing weight to the front end sideways behind the bumper siptied to the bulkhead. I have an original Stampede with all black parts, the old 2.2 chevron tires, an old Parma '57 chevy pickup body, and NO slipper. I had already changed the truck over to turnbuckles so I added about 1.5* negative camber front and 1* neagtive camber rear.

I was battling for 5th place in my T4. With the Stampede I ended winning the second heat qualifying me for 3rd in the A-main. I made a good charge for the lead and was in a really tight 3way battle for the lead until I took a huge risk to launch the truck off the huge tabletop to land in front of second place which would throw him off and give me the line into the hairpin. My plan worked perfect. I landed in front of him and he was so caught off guard he missed the corner and hit the pipe. Unfortunately I was on the throttle a little bit and not having a slipper meant I shredded my spur gear.

The Stampede can be a very good performer on the track. It just takes a little work and the right driving style.


Btw I just noticed this is an older thread.

[andymac0035]

I really need to update this.... as a few things have changed and I've even had some success at the track. I've just been really busy over on clodtalk....

[andymac0035]

So here's an update of sorts:

I've been doing okay making a go of this. Even with the monster jam tires I was able to win the sportsman (novice) class, and then got bumped up to 2WD truck open (stadium trucks). I also managed to not finish last.

Then I bought a set of rustler wheels and tires. This helped a lot. They are not the best, but for the price...and being a direct fit..... I felt it was a good move. I have been managing mid-pack and semi mid pack finishes..... by "semi".... I mean I was behind the "mid pack".... but ahead of the tail end...if that makes any sense....

I was able to get as high as 3rd during last weeks a-main.... but that didn't last unfortunatley....

So now I'm in the process of adding adjustable camber links and the heavier tie rods from a VXL model.
I may possibly still do a rustler conversion.... I'm not sure.
A roller off ebay minus trans is like $50, and lots of parts are showing wear and slop, so that would go a long ways.....
If my wraith would sell... I could get a stock slash, run that in the stock-slash class, and have great parts-sharing.

BUT....

By the same token..... I could just wear the pede' out and start fresh....as this is the only traxxas truck I now own, and I'm not blind to the fact that a T4 and an SC10 would make for a better 1-2 punch, all the while having that same parts-sharing strength.

But then again.... I am a LOT more familiar with traxxas then I am with AE....

[vwjuice]

I would continue with the stampede. It's a good truck that you're familiar with. Buy a rustler as a backup and see how you like that. Then get a slash of you want to run that class as well. There's plenty of people that are still running the various Traxxas trucks with success

Knowing how you drive I would stick with the traxxxas. I raced a T4 an it was a love hate relationship. I loved the truck when it was going, but the front arms snapped so much that it rarely went so I hated it. Now the factory team trucks don't even have the carbon parts anymore so you pay a lot of money for less than before. They now use the rtr plastic for everything which has a ton of slop and flex making them not consistent. I think you would end up being disappointed with the AE in the end.

[andymac0035]

Raced it Sunday,

I started tuning in the stampede during practice time. I put VXL links on it so I could adjust things and spent the rest of practice dialing in F/R camber, as well as tow.....and by the 2nd heat had it dialed pretty good. I was running in a field of rustlers and T4's with a pede'..... and keeping pace. I managed a 5th place finish in heat 2.

That was as good as it got though, as I struggled in the A-main and about 3/4 of the way through.... I stripped my servo....
To add insult to injury..... I went to go put my spare servo in after the race and run out my batts, as people hang around running laps for a while afterwards....

Well......some dufus forgot to put it in his pit-box when he re-organized his stuff....

[SFC K]

Nice job on the 5h place Andy even though you were running a pede. Just think if you had a race specific truck?

hey,
I thought the links on the pede were non-adjustable?

I won't carry the dufus part over onto Clodtalk...

Now you owe me one...

[andymac0035]

I was a dufus..... so I don't care.
I honestly forget if I even have a thread on this there....as it made more sence to put it here.

as far as bandit/rusty/pede (2WD) goes.....
XL-5 models get non-adjustable links, skinnier tie-rods, and philips hardware.
VXL models get adjustable camber links, bigger tie-rods, and hex hardware.

Rusty conversion gets more tempting every day....

[vwjuice]

HEY, you better carry that over and place on his sig!!!!!

[vwjuice]

Do a LCG chassis first!!!! DO it!!!

[SFC K]

HEY, you better carry that over and place on his sig!!!!!

I would if I could but my pit crew powers will not allow to do that...

[vwjuice]

HEY, you better carry that over and place on his sig!!!!!

I would if I could but my pit crew powers will not allow to do that...

He did that on purpose I bet.

[andymac0035]

Probably the last update, as I've decided to move on.

Week before last I placed 4th in open wheel with the pede' and that really surprised me as I had to drive conservatively just to finish without breaking (castor blocks were tender). It was a field of like 8-10 trucks too.

Then this past week the pede' got 2nd in the a-main. It was running well, after a shaky start. Small field of only three, consisting of the pede' a durango (brushed) and a well set up rustler (brushless).

The durango was a newcomer, and he was having trouble learning the track.
The rustler was a regular, and he had a good set-up and better tires than me.

Heat-1
I was running in 2nd..... but lost a clip on my battery retainer.... and then lost my battery....
I was able to get it back on the track.... but finished last.

Heat-2
Solid 2nd place finish.

A-main
Gave the rusty a run for his money. He wiped out and I capitalized, and ran off with the lead for about half the race, then he started gaining on me. Took him a while but I could see he was gaining....then I wiped out.... it was a nice back and forth though.

Juicey would be proud.... people just can't believe it does what it does.

After the mains I ran out my batteries, and also got another chance to run laps with a stock slash..... and I was having a LOT of fun. If Juicey was there he's had picked on me bad.... as it was the track-owner's WIFE'S truck.... and it's all done up girly-style....
She runs it in the novice class and has been doing well, but she sure was watching as I was slinging her truck around the track.... as I had it going pretty darned good I think.

.......and that made my mind up as to what classes I want to run, and I have a used stock slash on it's way to me.
I havn't mentioned it, but I also picked up a slash 4x4 roller, and that's been going quite well too. I'll have to make a thread on that...

[vsefiream]

I just saw this thread.
We have had a bunch of 2wd 'pedes come through our hands in tha last couple of years. My son and daughter each have one of their own and I have had a few myself. Anyway, the best handling 'pede I ever had was equiped with the Pro-line Protrac wide arm kit for the 2wd slash. It depends on your track rules 'etc but if you are up against stadium trucks, I'm sure you can run it. An aluminum front bulkhead helps, we broke a few plastic ones. I also swapped the chassis braces for aluminum as I kept breaking them.
We run on a carpet track and use the old style wheels with a street tread tire. Our rules state the arms cannot droop past horizontal and I had used Traxxas aluminum shocks in mine so I didn't keep popping the caps off. I had the VXL version and I have to agree the VXL is a flipper. It takes a little to get used to. A tunable ESC would be great. I ended up trading that truck for a 4x4 pede.

[vwjuice]

vsefirearm-I have been getting my 'Pede back into shape for racing and I have the Protrac kit on it as well. I also installed an aluminum front bulkhead and aluminum front shock tower on mine. What did you use for tires?

I'm buying a new esc and motor for the 'Pede as the sensorless ones aren't quite smooth enough for the 'Pede.