The Tydl Viper

This started a few weeks before christmas....Dickyt passed me his remote and said have fun. I went and tried a number of technical climbs with great success. Fast forward to Christmas. Parents got me the xr kit, and punk dig. Dickyt passed me his v1 chassis and we went to work. It was so much more than just putting the kit together. We were working for 13 hours straight. Started with the axles, simple enough right? No. 9mm mod before we even got started on anything else. Over an hour later, we had 2 finished motor plates. Built the axles, and the shocks, then went off the reservation. I made lower links while Dickyt made the uppers. Had to make an electronics tray and solder everything together. After finishing the chassis, mounting the servo and wheels, I had the luck to have Mr. Dickyt to help tune the suspension. All with time to spare for our comp that morning; came in 3rd too!



Chassis: Underground Crawlers Viper
Axles: Axial xr10 w/ VP knuckles, stock c's and lockouts
Steering: straight link made of 8-32 and stainless tube
Motor Plates: stock
Gear housings: stock
Gears: stock
front and rear final and final drive are HR
Bearing mod:9mm Avids
Shocks: stock
Springs: Losi Golds
Lower links: made by me
Upper links: fronts made by Dickyt, Homemade delrin rears
Wheels:
Front:Mayhem Comp Double Phattys Fully loaded
Rear:Vanquish SLWv3's
Foams: Nova dual stage
Tires: Sedonas
Electronics:
Tekin RS
Punk Dig
CCbec
2x Holmes Hobbies Torquemaster Pro 35t
HiTech 7980th






Been doing well lately with the rig. Pulled 1st at the last wsuc winter series comp and 2nd last weekend at the first stop on the Florida State Series.

Nice work Wade Glad I could lend a hand in getting things going.

Done alot of work to my xr lately
lotta work, little play

Before installing my electronics, I shortened and inboarded my upper links. The jury is still out on the inboarded links, I get some axle sway. I know this can be dialed out with new rod ends, but how long will they last?

Got some aluminum for the front end



The VP knuckles are perfect, exactly what you would expect from VP!
The HR c's have a bit of extra clocking, working out so far.

Found that I loved DickyT's CO battery motor mount so much I had to do my best to make one, Thanks for the help from DickyT and Richardgarrett56.


It mounts with double sided tape to the top side of the motor. Its just 3/16 delrin sheet cut and heated to shape.

and yes those are my motor wires!

I took my time with the electronics, now I have bad skills when it comes to soldering, but I tried.

I put the punk in the cutout in the skid, I did have to stand my Tekin RS up on the narrow length of the e tray, and the rx fit nicely on the wide part of the e tray.


It is by the way, the best wire job I've done.


More to come but I will leave you with this nice azz shot

Its been a while since the last update. Much has changed, but its all the same really. Don't have the Mayhems up front, now slw v3's front and rear and knuckle weights. The thin carbon fiber plates are holding up great, they've been on since just before ecc. I am still sporting the punk, but have switched the RS out for Mamba Max.









And just came up with this over the weekend, a weight to slide over the rear axle lock outs.


The Florida season has gone well, I am currently in second. That could all change this saturday, our season closer. First place is 100 points ahead, so the chances are slim that I will get first, but on the other hand, Billj is nipping at my heels only 20 points behind.

Good luck Billj

Your doing well this season. But watch out, im on ya brother

[QUOTE=billj;3197483]See ya tomorrow, better bring your a-game!![/QUOTE]

Well, it was our state final, and I brought my B or maybe even C game. I started real strong on the first course, which had em gunning for me. But 2 gates on the second course and not finishing the 3rd, I was lucky to be 5th going into the finals. And that didn't change.

Billj had to beat me by 3 places to take 2nd for the series, he got me by 2 for the day, and who better to share with than a teammate. Good job Bill

Got a video of my first course, it was definitely fun.
<iframe width="560" height="349" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dkr8vhVlGO4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

And even a couple pics


Me thinking I know how to drive. Mini judging, telling me otherwise.






Can we say undercut? I thought it was a pretty impressive climb in the finals. I went first, and was very concerned but almost walked it.


The gate that pointed me out in the finals. Nobody made the gate without touching the lower gate.


Yeah I launched it

Good job Wade, Ill get ya next year And good luck at nats

Well, I got to run one last time before the tear down last sunday, it was at Haulover, a great jetty/ocean inlet. Had alot of fun running a couple courses and alot of freecrawling. I found 2 technical climbs that my buddy Rich Garrett, a great driver, thought were not possible. One he just said no way to, it took a couple attempts, then I just scooted up it. He said do it again, and I did, on video I think, but I haven't seen it yet. Afiter that I noticed that I had sheared a brush lead on the front motor. It had worn thru the motor guard. The motor did seem to still work.

I started the tear down with the rear shocks and was delighted to see they hadn't leaked since ECC Then I decided to make some new body panels to go with my new white viper. Will post pics soon. They are sick, and its cool I was able to make them turn out at all. I figured I needed to relube the rear tranny. Got it all lubed and put back together only to find a nasty click in it. I worked on it overnight and spent way too many hours trying to figure it out. I have just given in to the fact that the gears click in my tranny. Took the front apart and found the same thing, and they weren't rc4wd gears. Will be tomorrow night tho. Going to turn my motors tomorrow night @ DickyT's pad, but I bet they will feel way better with just the new brushes. Wanna polish my knuckle weights, but thats low on the priority list right now.

Haven't started packing yet, but have started setting stuff out, I leave for Vegas Wednesday afternoon.

I'm getting excited!

Tydl wrote: Wanna polish my knuckle

Is that what the kids are calling it these days?

DickyT wrote:

Tydl wrote: Wanna polish my knuckle

Is that what the kids are calling it these days?

Only in respectable company.

Finally, my rig is ready to fly out to vegas, yet I am not.

Let me give you guys a preview of what I came up with for panels, I'm happy.







They are cell pix but just a preview.

Rig is ready to run. Turned the arms at DickyT's over the weekend, rebuilt the motors, new brushes on the front.

Had the rig in more parts than its ever been since the night I opened the box.

Went thru and added some shims to dial out the side to side play the axle shaft has in the knuckle.

Made the mistake of opening the rear tranny housing. Found a click that will bug me till I'm ready to tear it apart and trouble shoot. (Did end up finding the same in the front before rebuild) Rebuilt the front tranny housing with rc4wd gears, rear already had em.

The next update will probably come on RCC first, but I'm only posting up the emblem pic on RCC till I get there.

Now I just need some of what Jordi's got to rub off on me

Tydl wrote:
Now I just need some of what Jordi's got to rub off on me

Well...... We'll send you off with the same shit you sent him off with. We expect you to win Wade

Seriously though, have fun!

Well, went to dinner with my mom last night, she gave me some brass polish.

I polished my knuckle....weights.

all I can say is supa shiny!

Thanks DT, I'd love to do as well as Jordi

The way I figure, if I had fun goal achieved.

Your truck looks great Wade! Best of luck in Vegas and have a great time

DickyT wrote:

Tydl wrote:
Now I just need some of what Jordi's got to rub off on me

Well...... We'll send you off with the same shit you sent him off with. We expect you to win Wade

Seriously though, have fun!

Didn't quite make it... 87th was the best I could do, but I sure had a great experience.

Nationals....


*pic courtesy of SVEN*

I had a blast and can't wait for next year, wonder where its going to be?

I went out there by myself, not knowing who I was going to run into, but know they're all good people. It was 1:30 am when I got to the hotel thursday, thats 4:30 am my time, and damn I was tired. I made it to lcq a little after 9, it was nice not being stressed out. The courses were vicious and the lines were hard to read. I caught up with a couple of the PA guys and we went to check out the Hoover Dam.





Friday I got to watch the supers and minis run. Saturday, the big day, came all too fast. I was excited and anxious, got in line for tech only to find that my wheel base was long on one side. Fixed it and got in line for the first course. Started with butterflys in my tummy. Walked the first 4 gates, one gimmie, a basic climb, a breakover and a sidehill. The breakover and the sidehill were biting numerous guys. Gate 5 was at the top of a pile of rocks, up a crevace. Totally gnarley, the obvious line was eating trucks, I saw one guy take an almost sidehill approach, so I walked his line. 1/2 way thru the gate, the pinion on the front motor spun loose. I had tools to dig in, so I took the on course repair. Pulled the wheels, links and had the motor cover off and still had 2 minutes left on the clock. Unfortunately I didn't have the wrench for the pinion on me and we were at the course highest up the mountain. Nobody else offered one up, so I guess no one else was even carrying wrenches. I learned that lesson the hard way, I should have completed that course with a good score. Lame! Fixed the truck and Timed out before finishing my second couse. The third course got finished, but I hit 2 gates, took a rollover, and tumbled down the mountain a good 50' or more. I cringed, wondering what would still be intact. At the bottom of the mountain it came to a stop on its wheels, I pulled the throttle; all the wheels spun, wheels turned both ways. Took a pause time and ran down the mountain. I had made it thru gate 9 with 50 seconds left and I was determined to finish. I drove back up and crossed the finished with 10 seconds to spare. By my 4th course I was starting to feel good, and somehow knew that I was going to finish this course. The course Started with a downward sidehill that l was a little jittery on, but made, then went into auto pilot; I dont clearly remember the rest of the course. I remember a climb with a wicked breakover that I walked, tires spinning, hunting traction the whole time. The judge had to talk me into the bonus before gate 7, easily climbing the bonus and ended up perfecting the course, it was wicked and I was stoked. I had no clue how well I did tho, I had to ask the judge if I took any reverses, or hit a gate. I know others did better, but it was my first perfect at a national comp. Totally made my day, it had been so fun. My last couse I got a -1, but took 2 stupid gates. It was a tall ridge that you had to teeter on, I wiggled back and forth, taking both gates before falling down the backside. The crawling was epic. I didn't want it to end.

Got a couple Professional looking pics of my rig from the comp












*photos courtesy of SVEN*
thank you SVEN

with Michael and Stick King and Oval Man Saturday night. And made it in the morning to watch 2.2 and super finals. Took it easy sunday afternoon, went to Pawn Stars shop. That night I packed for my flight. Had to leave hotel at 4am.

The rig has been very predictable but was in pieces all last week. Is this the end?