Eric's (erx4x4) build

[erx4x4]

well i think its time for me to do my build thread.I bught the merv at my local hobby dealer about 12 weeks ago as a present to myself for finishing my autobody tech program and becoming a licensed tech.shortly after getting it I found the front bumper to be to small a leaves the arms open for atack from rocks and what not so i built a custom bumper.its made from a piece of stainless steel bbq rack and a small piece of sheet steel.this is when i really got hit with the rc sickness. after looking on this forum i saw lots of people useing the proline bug i think it looks too cool and had to buy one. I also wanted it to stand out from my friends RCs so I found the most ridiculous color i could.next came some lipos and all i could do was ***** and think holy cow this is super fast and that was only 2s i got some 3s the following weekend and those are sick fast i went with team orion 3s 45c 1300mah. after running them a few times i wanted to know just how fast this little truck was so we contacted a member of the local police force and they agread to meet me and my buds at the local school parking lot and i was clocked at 76kmh. pretty impressive with stock equipment.then i decided to get new wheels and tires i went with proline street fighters on full size slash wheels

[erx4x4]

.i found them to make the merv to tippy and didnt really like them all that much.so after many flip overs and crashes and two broken bodys one bug and one raptor(witch only lasted a day)i got yet another bug shell and this time took alot more care into painting, cuttind and detailing itthen i got some titus beadlocks and dirt hawgs witch i am very impressed with the added weight tends to keep the car plantedat this point i decided to improve the handleing i put rpm knuckles all around, steel hollow balls,a center diff.then like every other merv out there the servo went for a dump so i just went and got a new one while i waited for traxxas to send a new one, what a mistake that was now i have 3 2080 servos that have to go back to traxxas. i finally wised up and did a bunch of investigating and figured i was going to get a hitec mg85 as i was told it was a drop in repacement however it needed some work to make it work such as custom link and custom horn. it wasent hard to do but took some timethe i got a heat sink fan for the motor and some hr shocksim very happy with them both the shocks dont leak and the truck handles better than i ever expected the fan works well too!I dont like the bling bling look so i removed the annodizing on both the shocks and heat sinkwell at this point i thought i was just about finished this project but man was i wrong the esc went for a dump

[erx4x4]

so i opened it up and looked at it with a magnafieing glass and found a small crack in the epoxy where water has gotten into the circuit board and caused some problems. by the looks of things it melted the solder and bridged the motor conectors. how random is that.so i went out and got a castle sidewinder sv2 and i am very impressed with the profomance.now i think i can stop upgradeing the toy now for good.............................................. ..who am i kidding i have ordered the tbone 4 piece set,hr aluminum body posts rpm arms and a few other things since

[abear]

What's the best way to remove the annodizing from alum parts?

[erx4x4]

soak in oven cleaner or greased lightining

[bentrocker]

Nice build ,looks like you are having fun. Do you still run the moose bumper ? Reminds me of the bumpers the tractor trailers run over hear on the east coast when they are in moose country.
Congrats on finnishing your autobody course.

[erx4x4]

Still run the cow catcher

[Mossie]

nice topic and i will follow this one 4 sure

[devildog88]

Where did you get your shocks?

[erx4x4]

hot raceing
got my t bone 4 piece kit today after 1.5 months of waithing for it to clear customs. and it saved my bacon allready

[jimbo74]

hot raceing
got my t bone 4 piece kit today after 1.5 months of waithing for it to clear customs. and it saved my bacon allready

4 piece? where is the wheelie bar?

[erx4x4]

havent installed it yet dont really need it at the moment cause ive been running off road

[devildog88]

I knew they are HR but where did you buy? I seached all over the toyz but all I could seem to find was the 'shock bodies' not the whole set.

[CobraWasHere]

liquidrc sells all the HR stuff, too. It's impossible to contact them about returns, though...

[devildog88]

Still cant find them...

[bentrocker]

Have you tried looking on eBay yet ?

[devildog88]

Nevermind, just looked somewhere else and found them. Didnt think of ebay...brain fart

[erx4x4]

got rpm arms and aluminum body posts todat

[Mossie]

got rpm arms and aluminum body posts todat

and again i am looking forward to see some pics of the new stuff

GREAT BUILDING SO FAR !!!

[erx4x4]

decided to put a new "little" wing on the merv today

[bentrocker]

What is that wing off ? Is it for the merv ?

[erx4x4]

It's a full. Dive revo

[erx4x4]

got big block hard ware today

[erx4x4]

so did a few mor thing to the merv as of latly. me and my buddybuilt a track and did some killer lap and sweet jumpstoday i installed the steel traxxas perfomance drive shaftsi also drilled holes in the windscreen and rear glass for cooling seems to work well. ive also got a 15 tooth pinion gear ot put in tommorrow hope it will help me dominate the bc hydro rc raceway!

[MooseSlash]

Nice building so far! Keep us posted!

[Mossie]

Great stuff and great threath

will follow this one !!!

<< respect >>

[dwmoss]

what are your thoughts after installing the cvd's??

It is a mod i'm thinking about.

Did you notice any differences?

[erx4x4]

they are sweet smother suspention travel and there easy to reinstall when my rpm balls pop

[50togo]

Just do occasional maintenance and they will last a while. I coated everything with Sullivans dry ice goes on wet leaves a dry Teflon coating should help out!

[erx4x4]

went and did some racing this weekend did well had a blast and got real dirtydid complete detail tear downive been talking about big block and i finally pulled the trigger on it

[dwmoss]

Very nice, that is no trailor Queen! Let me know what you think of the 3500.

[samk]

2S or 3S ?

[erx4x4]

both3s on road 2s dirt

[erx4x4]

the 3500 is slower than the 380 however im using 21 tooth pinion for racing i wanted the bb for low temp and huge torque.i love it so far i think run times are longer. i cant wait to put a huge pinion in it

[50togo]

You could probably go to a 32

[lude98r]

You track looks like you had a good time. Where is it? Public or private? Im in coq. by gogo's and wouldnt mind taking my kids and our merv for a few runs.

[dwmoss]

i wanted the bb for low temp and huge torque.i love it so far i think run times are longer. i cant wait to put a huge pinion in it

Im interested in the lower temps as well. Keeping the same pinion, you saw lower temps with the 3500 & sv2, then you were running before?

[samk]

both3s on road 2s dirt

Which 3s are you using for the BB and are you using two or just one pack?

[erx4x4]

track is in deep cove short corse its private. the track is set up for 1/10 monster trucks and is not very good for stock merv the track out by racetech is way better. go go is the best cant beat his prices hi

ran 2 2s 2200 for 30 mins of hard running go stop go stop and it was warm thats all

for max speed i use 2 1200 3s orion 45c hard packs witch are insain and come with trx conectors

[samk]

for max speed i use 2 1200 3s orion 45c hard packs witch are insain and come with trx conectors

Me again nice build! mine is in progress waiting for BB to arrive in about 2 weeeks

How much runtime on BB with the above packs ?