Nitro Pede with Electric Pede Protrac Suspension, Stretched Chassis, Sway Bars

[IBrakeForNobody]

Just thought I'd post up my Nitro Pede. Notable mods include: MIP 360 Stinger exhaust, aluminum chassis extension plates, E-Pede suspension and hub conversion with Pro-line Protrac front arms, Roto-Start, and sway bars.

The sway bars made a world of difference and are the best mod I've done on the truck. It pretty much went from being nearly uncontrollable to on rails. It does understeer a bit, but that is way better than flipping over all the time.

The sways are made from .078" music wire. The endlinks are 6-32 threaded rod with a Traxxas rod end on the bottom and a Dubro swivel ball link (#2139) on the top, secured by 3/32" wheel collars. The sways are mounted using 4-40 screws into the wheel collars, and washers (so the sway bar can pivot freely).

The rear one is bent as it is so it clears the shocks (by about 2mm), the exhaust header at full bump (by about 5mm), and the chassis plate at full droop (by about 2mm).

Body on
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...e/133bf0b8.jpg

Body off
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...e/71106b42.jpg

Front sway bar
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...e/adad81da.jpg

Rear sway bar
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...e/379e3853.jpg

[mike-susieq1]

nice mods adding the sway bars on there. why not a side exhaust? i installed the jato header w/resonator pipe to the side. also what part of cental cal are you at? turlock here.

[IBrakeForNobody]

Thanks. I decided to go with the Stinger over a side exhaust so the truck stays a bit cleaner, instead of having all that oil and grime blow onto the tire and suspension. I used to live on the central coast (SLO county), but I have since moved to SoCal.

[mike-susieq1]

darn thought i would have one to run my nitro pede. yeah i see the oil on the wheel in rear thats about it.

[Kyleb]

Why did you not use the rear protrac arms?

[IBrakeForNobody]

Because I already had the electric rear arms lying around and I want to put the least amount of money into this as I can. In fact, aside from the Protrac front arms and some fuel, I have bought nothing for the truck. All of the parts that I installed—including the RotoStart backplate and all the stuff to convert to E-Pede suspension, less the front arms—were just parts that I've accumulated over the years. The materials (threaded rod, music wire, aluminum plate) were also left over from past projects.

[Saintpede]

Truck is looking nice. I was wondering if you could get a shot of the exhaust header and screws. Last time I had mine out the exhaust fell off haha. I'm wondering if I'm missing something. Sucks they stopped making the 360, if I broke or lost something I'm outa luck.

[mike-susieq1]

I had one of those MIP 360 pipes i didnt know what it was sold it in a parts lot recently. Humm but it didnt have a pressure outlet though. i think a revo header if you had a 2.5/3.3 could be used for a rear exhaust. maybe though or a jato/4tec header upside down with a custom coupler might work.

[Kyleb]

When you cut
The chassis back bone and slid it up
Like that did you notice handling
Improve? Also after you did that how has it
held up
The aluminum plate that attaches to the frOnt bulkhead, where did you bolt it to the rear of the chassis

[Saintpede]

I had one of those MIP 360 pipes i didnt know what it was sold it in a parts lot recently. Humm but it didnt have a pressure outlet though. i think a revo header if you had a 2.5/3.3 could be used for a rear exhaust. maybe though or a jato/4tec header upside down with a custom coupler might work.

Interesting, I'll take a look at that. I guess I could also try a stock header and get some sort of flexy tube like on the stock exhaust and connect it to the pipe at the coupler.

[mike-susieq1]

a stock header might work. i was thinking maybe this: http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXSP45&P=SM
since the tmaxx has a rear exhaust going for it and this is made for the trx.15. for the 2.5/3.3's the headers i listed would work ok from looking at it.
the stock header should work with some flexi tube. they have this http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXJL13&P=SM
or this http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXJG41&P=SM
that might work with the stock header. i never used the stock header on my nitro pede i always had the side exhaust from the time i got it.

[Saintpede]

Yeah i've never had the stock header either. I made the mistake of purchasing my stampede used haha.
I think that first one you posted might work with the flexy tube as well. I was just trying to think of a header that would get the exhaust going toward the rear of the vehicle. Hopefully the only part i lost was the exhuast gasket. I'm just worried the screws striped as they seemed to have just poped out.

a stock header might work. i was thinking maybe this: http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXSP45&P=SM
since the tmaxx has a rear exhaust going for it and this is made for the trx.15. for the 2.5/3.3's the headers i listed would work ok from looking at it.
the stock header should work with some flexi tube. they have this http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXJL13&P=SM
or this http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXJG41&P=SM
that might work with the stock header. i never used the stock header on my nitro pede i always had the side exhaust from the time i got it.

[mike-susieq1]

i traded for mine a rc10 on road car w/a bunch of extra parts. i had the stock header but that went with that parts lot as well i just sold recently. a rear exhaust would be nice i have side like this: it hauls with that pipe and 2.5R on there. thinking of putting the ez start back on to tune it right again then back to pull start. i do see the oil on the rear tire it gets messy when i run it rich only and slips when taking off wheelies like crazy but with that wheel slipping it pulls to one side and flips or runs into a curb/car.

[IBrakeForNobody]

Truck is looking nice. I was wondering if you could get a shot of the exhaust header and screws. Last time I had mine out the exhaust fell off haha. I'm wondering if I'm missing something. Sucks they stopped making the 360, if I broke or lost something I'm outa luck.

Hope these help you out.







For the record, I modified the stock shock tower to fit the MIP pipe since I didn't want to drill the MIP tower in order to mount the sway bar. The shock tower is definitely weaker, but I don't plan on taking any big jumps or bashing the heck out of the truck, so I think it'll be fine.

When you cut
The chassis back bone and slid it up
Like that did you notice handling
Improve? Also after you did that how has it
held up
The aluminum plate that attaches to the frOnt bulkhead, where did you bolt it to the rear of the chassis

The extension plates are bolt-on and the chassis is unmodified. The mod is 100% reversible. They are more-or-less like spacers between the chassis and the bulkhead, and the front chassis brace and the bulkhead.

Hopefully these photos will help clarify it. I didn't use countersink screws since this is the first one I made. I'll drill countersinks if I end up grinding the screws on the ground too much.







As for durability, the chassis is nearly rigid. I thought it would be really flexible/flimsy and prone to breakage since there is now more leverage on the front of the chassis and the front chassis brace, but I was mistaken. Though with a big enough impact, I'm pretty sure the first thing to go would be the front chassis brace.

The handling is improved since the wheelbase is longer so it's not so light on the front wheels (has more weight on the front wheels now, thus helping it turn). If I relocated the receiver battery to be on top of the extension plate, then I'm sure that will have a nice effect as well.

The only real problem with the plates is catastrophic bump steer. The Pede, when its stock, has terrible bump steer because the steering links are a different length than the camber links. But because the steering links are now angled forward slightly, the bump steer is much worse.

Here's an example of that:

At full droop (has 1° toe out):


At ride height (has 1° toe in):


At full bump (has 10° toe in):


Compare that with my electric Pede (identical front suspension, just no extension plates) at full bump:

a stock header might work. i was thinking maybe this: http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXSP45&P=SM
since the tmaxx has a rear exhaust going for it and this is made for the trx.15. for the 2.5/3.3's the headers i listed would work ok from looking at it.
the stock header should work with some flexi tube. they have this http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXJL13&P=SM
or this http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXJG41&P=SM
that might work with the stock header. i never used the stock header on my nitro pede i always had the side exhaust from the time i got it.

Since the Pro .15 mounts facing to the left in the Pede, you'd be better off buying a 180° header instead of that T-Maxx header.

Something like this: http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LX3422&P=7

So the exhaust layout ends up looking like this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v1...n/7dc608b8.jpg

[Saintpede]

Thanks Ibrake, That helps. I see one of your header bolts makes it all the way through and one doesnt. Did one break off? Right now both of mine do not make it all the way through. This last time I put it on I put some threadloc on it so hopefully they wont back out this time?

[IBrakeForNobody]

It didn't break off—I misplaced one of the bolts when I removed the exhaust, so I used a bolt that's the same thread size, but about 1/8" shorter. A drop of thread-locker will help, as well as having an exhaust gasket. Just make sure you let the thread-locker cure for about a day before starting the engine.

[Saintpede]

Ok cool, that is what I ended up doing. Put some threadlock on there and left it over night. I put a fresh gasket in there as well so hopefully things will hold together this time.