The Lair

How much do you have to build? Is it a roller?

 

Says "Unassembled kit. Includes Power System and Radio System. Body sold separately."

 

It includes everything except a body (radio, receiver, servos x5, esc, and motor). I haven't cracked it open yet. But I read the build time is 7-10 hours. So I imagine you have to put together pretty much everything.

 

That is the way that EVERY RC Kit should be but unfortunately, almost all of them are "Ready to Run" now. When I was into RC back in the 80's and early 90's, every kit came so you had to put it together. I saw it serve many positive purposes in this. Since you had to put it together, you knew exactly where EVERYTHING was, how to take it apart and fix it, and how to modify it even if you had no prior experience. Don't get me wrong though......getting into RC is like buying a boat......they say the greatest day in a person's life is they day the buy the boat and the day they sell it. It becomes a huge money pit very quickly but I do miss it though. I had these back in the day:

Tamiya:
Blackfoot
Lunchbox
Clod Buster
Toyota Hilux
S10 Stadium truck

Kyosho:
Inferno
Big Brute
Double Dare

Team Associated:
RC-10

Traxxas:
T-Maxx (This was by far my favorite) - 50 mpg and 2 stage automatic gear box, but working all the time with glow plugs and nitro methane became a huge PITA

 

I have a special place in my heart for nitro cars. My wife has a Jato, and it is insane WHEN you can get it to run. I love the way nitro smells when it burns too. But the new electronics have come so far these days, I prefer to just slap a lipo in and go.

 

Very much agreed with this.

 

Worked on the pile of shit in my garage today finally. Motor mounts in and honestly it was a pain in the ass. It’s done though.

I put the rack in and it still BARELY fit. In hindsight I wish I had put some 1/4” shims between the motor mounts and frame to lift it up a bit for maximum clearance. Pain in the ass at this point, so it’s not happening.



I got the rack where it needs to be so now I just need to weld mounting points in the frame.





About 1/8” clearance between rack and engine at the closest point. This is only ok because of the new motor mounts and how they pretty much eliminate flex. I ran this by the guy who makes the rack and he said it’s ok.




Mocked up.



Clearance between tundra rack and 934 inner CV joint. It’s close, but it should be ok.




Had to shave a bit off of the rack and the nut to shove this thing as far forward as humanly possible.




Tie rods mocked up.

 

That is still a tight squeeze, even with the new motor mounts!

 

You aint lying! I'm going to have to triple check my measurements when I cut out holes for the new mounts to be welded in. Zero room for error here.

 

Damn son..... that could end in a domino effect, one thing breaking could take out about 3 other things...lol

 

Yep, that's what I'm worried about. We shall see.

 

Well I know you will put in the garage work to try and mitigate the trail work, but yeah there are a lot of moving parts in close quarters.

 

I may end up just sucking it up and spend the 2-3 hours making shims and lifting the motor up a little bit more. That'll give me some real peace of mind. I'm more worried about that than the cv axle clearance. Would be a bad day if the engine got taken out on the trail.

 

Mine goes under the knife next week....

 

Recognize these? Have to get these and the spindles, wheel bearings installed this weekend...ugh

 

Those look sharp with a fresh coat of paint

 

Just remember Randy, all of this hard work and the end result will be a steering rack that probably won’t ever give you any grief… EVEN if you move up to 37’s. I still think this OEM tundra rack is the best end all be all solution to reliable steering with big tires & 4wd use. All the other options don’t actually replace the rack itself.

 

You gonna run the howe pump too?

 

Not anytime soon, that shit is expensive.