Graphite Mid Motor Conversion

[Chewbacca]

This is my mid motor conversion based on a hacked graphite chassis.

It started out about 5 years ago when I got a graphite chassis for cheap or even free from someone off ebay or here who did not really know that the graphite chassis does not come with a sepaeate nose piece. Anyway this one had / has too many holes and the nose chopped off.

My first test run was almost uncontrollable until I realized that the tires needed re-gluing.

Any way the second ride out last July was better, I had changed the setup to saddle packs, but still not enough front grip.

That is when I tried to see if I could flip the front around and move the steering, Servo and battery forward.

This is not a real build thread, but I think you'll get the idea:

Drilled the reverse steering setup:

[Chewbacca]

Custom servo mount and positioning. Custom Nose rods out of 5x5mm bar stock:

please excuse the mess.

[Chewbacca]

Some more pics:

Front steering and suspension:

Rear setup:

Bottom:

I still need to clean a few details and add a body and wing

[radioactivity]

Pretty darned neat there Chewey.
I've not seen that steering setup before.
Did you weld the front end parts?

Chuck

[Chewbacca]

Clocked in at 58.7 kph which is about 36.5 mph:

[Chewbacca]

Pretty darned neat there Chewey.
I've not seen that steering setup before.
Did you weld the front end parts?

Chuck

Hi Chuck,

no welding involved, that is an aluminum front bulkhead (RC10GT ?) mounted backwards. The nose braces are just bent, drilled and screwed on. I did have to mill some clearance into that front bulkhead.

[radioactivity]

Chewy tell me that"s Kmph and not Mph

Chuck

[Chewbacca]

Hi Chuck,

as the text says above, that is 58.7 kph so about 36.5 mph.

That is pretty much fast enough for me.

The whole "standing" low profile serve setup has sort of become my "signature" conversion. It all started out when I wanted to fit 7-cell NiMHs without a hump into my RCs. In my RC10T I use a standard servo laying down sideways as in modern vehicles. For that conversion I had to bend the nose tubes so I could mount them on the outside of the tub chassis. In my normal rear motor RC10 I did this setup for the first time.

In the laydown setup the nose tubes always get in the way.

Tony

[jwscab]

Duplicate post....

[jwscab]

Curious why you have the bellcranks installed that way? You have to have some interestingly complex bump steer.

[Chewbacca]

Well, the main goal was to move servo and battery as far forward as possible.

Laying the servo down as in a B3 or b4 causes interference with the nose brace tubes. Keeping the servo where it is is too close the the bellcrank connection. That is why i flipped the bellcranks. The next option would be to install a steering rack into the front bulkhead in the kickup. That would be B6 style, I am looking into that.

The bump steer is actually not that bad. The tilt angle of the push rods is parallel to the front arms. There are spacers under the steering block ball studs.