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That being said, I never was a fan of aluminum arms... they seem to cause more problems when the issue is usually driver error. No offence

In general, I agree with you. But it is a necessary upgrade on these trucks. If I had the ability to deal in high strength glass reinforced nylon, I would do that instead. But I do not have $200K+ for the requisite injection molding equipment, so I just have to make do with a little bench top mill.

Also, these are not your usual chinese cast & machined parts or 5,000 & 6000 series CNC bits that bend & break with relative ease. 7075-T6 is the good stuff.

You will quickly find that 2 extra kits worth of arms doesn't last very long if you actually drive the thing. All it takes is one bad landing, you'll break the arms at the forward inner hinge just as I did with a dozen of them. May not be driver error; another kit hits you during take off or in the air, a gust of wind, whatever. Crashes are gonna happen, and broken arms as a result is a known problem area on these trucks.

The E801XT is an animal with 6S battery!

It's an animal on 4S with a 2150KV can & 16T pinion. With a top speed around 45 MPH and the ability to do rolling wheelies even with a center diff, I have not yet felt the need to run 5S or 6S. Similarly, I've no desire to run anything hotter than 20% in the nitro; all it will do is cause more spin-outs. As it is, I'm having to dial it back with restrictors most places I drive it.

Sixtysixdeuce wrote: It's an animal on 4S with a 2150KV can & 16T pinion. As it is, I'm having to dial it back with restrictors most places I drive it.

I use a 1550kv motor, 13T pinion with 6S battery and it rox

Got my rear carriers milled today



Damn drill bits kept walking on me, so the camber link mounting holes are all off by a few thousandths, but oh well. At least there'll be no more of this:



Think I'll hold off on doing the rear arms for now. I will make a brace for rear bulkheads, though.

So why aren't you selling this stuff?

So why aren't you selling this stuff?

I don't have CNC capability, so virtually no capacity for production. These parts are done one at a time on a little bench top mill, and each one is ever so slightly different from the next. Those arms take 4-5 hours each. About 2-1/2 hours on each hub carrier, that front bumper was about 3 hours. At the prices this stuff would actually sell for, when you account for material and tooling cost, I'd make less than minimum wage.

You can actually buy alloy rear carriers from Tamiya. I just didn't wanna spend $80 on them when I have everything here to make my own in my down time. And I just like to build stuff.

The parts and the machine work looks fantastic, good work and great skills

Oozzee wrote:The parts and the machine work looks fantastic, good work and great skills

I agree, you do have a great talent there in making parts!
Did you make your own electric conversion kit?

Did you make your own electric conversion kit?

Yeah, did it kinda different, too. Motor mount uses the stock nitro mount points, and is a pretty hefty piece that supports the motor on 3 sides and uses 4 screws. Battery tray I milled from polyethylene, it holds a 4S pack vertically. I just lobbed off the servo mount behind the steering servo.





On my 801X buggy to short course conversion, I did a more conventional motor mount (didn't have another really thick piece of 7075 at the time), but stuck with the same style of battery tray.







It no longer has the Turnigy electronics, though. Now a HW SC8WP ESC with an Excelorin 1700KV motor.

Sixtysixdeuce wrote:

Did you make your own electric conversion kit?

Dang looks thick! Its a tight fit for the grub screw on the gear

Dang looks thick! Its a tight fit for the grub screw on the gear

Yeah, it's 3/8". I don't want to need to replace it. Ever.

Instead, we just saw the top two screws shear off on that Turnigy motor. lol. I pulled it apart, clocked the front plate and drilled/tapped it to 3mm, but that motor is just hanging out now. I don't understand why they'd use just four tiny 1.6mm screws to secure that big ass can to the front plate, but I guess that's why they're cheap. Not a bad running motor, though. The ESC that came in that combo, OTOH, is not suitable for 40mm+ motors. Works great with 540 or shorter 550 cans (70mm or less), but had no punch running the 2100 KV 42mm motor it was paired with.

I did end up milling a small slot to give better access to the set screw; Hex keys kept getting wedged in.

Got the car running great with all the bugs worked out. Runs flawless. Tons of power! Put the tamiya heavy spring up front.
This project is complete.

Well, time finally came to replace the body on the etruggy. Went with the Proline D8T Bulldog. Pretty good fit, stuck with the same color scheme. I like it.

I like the way the factory body conforms to the chassis, it holds the dirt out

i just ordered two of these kits, as tamiya usa is just giving them away, anyone have a retrofit for driveshafts for short arms, i got sets of xray d8t arms comming and been hunting to no end for driveshafts to fit... 135mm is the magic number, pin to pin...

Just a heads up, I decided to mill one more pair of front arms for these truggies, nicest set I've done so far, and I'm selling them. Probably won't do any more, as the profit margin sucks considering that it's about $15 worth of aluminum, they take me 11 or 12 hours/pair with the, and just a couple of broken cutters really takes a bite out of what is already a paltry wage.....

They're on eBay at $114, but if an RC10talk member wants them, I'll do them for $100 shipped either Paypal friends & family, mailed money order, or you can call me and I'll process your card through my business (please do not PM me with card info, violates my PCC compliance agreement to have electronically stored CC info that is not secure). Yes, I know that's a lot for a pair of arms, but as I said, I have a tremendous time investment in these, and unless one already has the set-up to make their own, they'd be a whole lot more than $100 to have custom machined.