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RC4WD:
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Tell
me a little bit history about your RC? |
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Jay:
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I bought my first RC vehicle about 1982. It was a
Tamiya Super Champ race buggy. I had one battery and
a simple DC 15-minute timer charger. A friend of mine
had a Bolink buggy and we would play with them in
vacant fields and dirt areas. About 1985 I bought
an Associated RC10 and owned that, along with the
old Super Champ for a few years. Both have since been
sold long ago during a garage sale.
About
four years ago something spurred my interest in RC
trucks. I did a little web surfing and found a lot
of guys building Clod Busters. Since I am an avid
1:1 rock crawler, I was not so interested in the race
aspect of these trucks as I was in their potential
to build one up as a scale rock crawler rig. From
that initial interest I’ve built three custom
tube frame Clods….ROKCLOD1, ROKCLOD 2, and ROKCLOD
3.
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RC4WD:
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Specs
of ROKCLOD 3? |
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Jay:
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Custom
tubular chassis built from 3/16” steel tube Four-link
triangulated suspension, Traxxas shocks Lower links
solid stainless rod, upper links steel tubing Clod gearboxes,
locked differentials, 8T pinion gears Custom servo mounts
(Servos: Futaba S9304 front, FMA S355M rear) Front and
rear aluminum skidplates Grooved stock Clod tires on
narrowed Clod rims, or Grooved Nitro Quake tires on
Traxxas Maxx wheels w/custom adapters Stock Clod motors,
Dean’s wiring Futaba radio set, Novak Super Rooster
Six cell stick pack rides above trap-door aluminum belly
plate |
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RC4WD:
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What's
your favorite truck? |
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Jay:
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Although
I don't own either, the Tamiya Bruiser and Mountaineer
trucks have the nicest realism. |
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RC4WD:
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What's
your favorite mod and why? |
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Jay:
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For
crawling, it’s definitely locked differentials.
I can put a front tire up against a vertical ace and
climb….something I could never do without both
axles locked. Necessitates four-wheel steering though,
to keep steering radius reasonable. |
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RC4WD:
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Any
short cool story to share? |
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Jay:
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My
wife and I found out that our (now) 4 year old Boston
Terrier, Ethyl, just loves my trucks. She goes nuts
chasing my Stampede basher truck up and down the street.
Once she catches it she grabs a tire in her teeth and
drags it up and down the street. Needless to say, the
body on it is completely trashed. |
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RC4WD:
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Do
you have plans for a new RC truck in the near future?
|
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Jay:
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Over
a year ago I started on ROKMAXX, an EMaxx based rock
crawler rig. A 1:1 project has taken most of my time
for a while and I’ve neglected the project. I’ll
get back to it sometime this fall. It will be a four-linked
crawler on “angled” straight axles. I have
built the axles so they are locked in a position to
maximize ground clearance under the differentials (a
problem with Clods). These axles will then be four-linked
to a tubular chassis. |
