The Initial Assessment - 6/15/06
The Ebay auction photo to the right is what I have to work with.  The Ebay description was roughly as follows - "A used Traxxas Rustler with a MSC (Mechanical Speed Control), missing a rear hub pin, original body in decent shape, with Proline Dirt Hawg II's all around, and a couple "Performance" batteries" (hopefully all working).

The initial task for the winning auction item is to assess what needs replacing.  Although Jang's Ebay Rusty purchase was completely beat to hell, I was very pleasantly surprised to open the box and find a clean and very barely used Traxxas Rustler.  There were some problems, the MSC had a cracked sevo arm and sandstone resister, it was as listed missing a rear drive pin, and a front kingpin was really really bent - time to request a goodwill refund for the condition for the $20 in parts not listed as damaged.  Although the auction photo to the right it looked a little beat my below pics show little or no wear.  The Proline Dirt Hawg II tires are in almost pristine shape with lots of love left to give.   The wheels are a bit wobbly, but some tightening of the wheel nuts and some hex hub tweaking will fix that.  I think my Stampede had more wear and tear after only the first time out.  All parts are is great or like new shape. Yeah, great deal and on with the upgrades. I plan to go through the standard upgrades which will include:

• Rebuild and strengthen the shocks with down and up travel bumpers, RPM 2-Stage Medium-Heavy pistons, new 30 wt fluid and seals and aluminum shock caps.
• Install an RPM bumper.
• I have eight new super light aluminum replacement screws for the front and rear chassis screws to lighten things up right from the start.
• The MSC and Stinger motor will get tossed also (look for those to appear on Ebay sometime soon) in favor of my old Novak Rooster ESC and a Trinity Titanite 15T motor.
• Reinforce the motor mount with the old washer trick.
• Add my patented Easy Off Gear Cover.
• Modify battery tray for the easy pull battery straps and hopefully loose a couple ounces in the process with the elimination of some metal.
• The rear end motor housing will be modified to accommodate the Titanite's installed heat sink - again some weight reduction.
• If the 3000 Mh Sport battery packs are in good condition, they will be completely rebuilt to a soldered side-by-side packs with Dean's 12 Gauge wire and Deans plugs.
• The front shock tower will be replaced with a spare Traxxas Nitro shock tower laying around for strength.
• A Novak 4700Mf cap will be installed on the servo to give everything plenty of juice on lift offs.
• The green crystals will be probably be swapped for the reds from my old Stampede receiver.
• The antenna looks like it may need a replacement, we will see with further inspection with a ruler - 22 3/4" from the edge of the receiver is the rule for stock antenna length.
• The RPM 5x11 bearing upgrade all around.
• Aluminum Idle gear upgrade.
• Repack differential with Judy Butter (extra-extra-heavy duty sticky grease) and assure the tranny is well lubed.
• Install adjustable camber links, if needed (hey, the plastic ones are pretty light and if they work...).
• I was planning on swaping the front and rear tires for wear and re-gluing them and air the tires, but they already glue the tires with what appears to be superglue.
• Waterproofing receiver, servo
• RPM Gear Cover.
• Floppy Antenna Fix.
• Convert pivot screws on rear shocks to a pivot balls
• The above upgrades should make the Rusty much more of a Monster almost overnight.

With a freshly peaked battery pack, Mozart and I headed out to give the Ultra-Rusty a spin or a run as Mozart thinks of it.  Woops, speed control servo needs to be reversed.  Ahhh wait that is going way way to slow.  Need to reset the ESC. OK,  zing, there is the 15T Titanite Mozart and I loved so much.  Wow, huge difference between the brushless GTB 4.5R in the Stampede and now going back to this 15T brushed motor.  Although I know my faithful Rooster and Titanite didn't seem slow before I went brushless and still has plenty of pep, it sure seems to crawl from torque and top speed perspective compared to the GTB system.  Oh well, still lots of fun, the 15T Titanite is plenty punchy and I have a couple motors that need to be burned through before I can justify yet another brushless system.

How does it compare to the Ultra-Pede or a Stampede?  Nothing can ever compare to the absolute bashing fun of the Traxxas Stampede, it goes almost anywhere and that flexibility is just cool.  The ups are that the Rustler has much better steering, doesn't suffer from bump-steer as much, is much more controllable at speed, and corners like it is on rails compared to the stock Stampede - its more of a race truck.  In its current state my Ultra-Pede still handles better although there is quite a bit of upgrade/tweaking potential on the Rustler that will eventually allow it to surpass the Ultra-Pede's handling.   The downs are that a lot less clearance is noticed right away and it bogs down in grass much more that when running Dirt Paws even on the Ultra-Pede.  Could be that the lower chassis adds just enough drag on the grass to slow it down to a crawl.  That chassis bump up does make the Pede a more all terrain vehicle, if you plan on simply running around your back yard with your RC, better buy a Stampede or spring for larger diameter Mashers or Moabs right away for your Rustler. Although the center of gravity on the Ultra-Pede has been significantly lowered, the Rustler feel like it can almost never tip over.  I will bet it would be virtually un-tipable once a wide conversion is done.  The Dirt Hawg II's are great tires and seem to work really well coincidentally on dirt and on concrete although the Moab's have a much stickier compound and provide better traction and wheelies. For my primary grass, dirt, and groomed golf course conditions I know knobbier tires such as Dirt Paws or Tracter Gators are going to be my pick on the Rustler.

What is apparent right away is that my Ultra-Pede is much lighter than this semi-stock Rustler.  The Rusty was like a 400lb fat man on a sport bike, it wants to go fast but there is just too much weight to move and shift around.  This thing is built as tough as the Stampede, and is overbuilt for it's task as a racing oriented RC.  It needs some serious weight management assistance.  Jang was absolutely right when he said the Stock Rustler is over fastened I see several screws that just seem plain redundant. My goal is going to be lightening things up without sacrificing durability.  I can see where you could really make this thing feathery if you were not concerned about durability.

The tranny is nice and tight so, I am putting off the Idler gear upgrade until that breaks, the chassis and front A arms are getting seriously modified this weekend during the tear-down for the shock rebuild (they are way to soft).  I do need some RPM Losi body mounts such as the one's Jang used or perhaps I can fashion some out of some spare body posts collecting dust.  The RPM bumper is also getting some lightening as I think it too is a little over engineered.  My fabricated Novak Rooster ESC mount from my Stampede kind of worked and needs to be recreated specially for the Rustler if it stays in that position.  I would like to get the Rooster moved over and mounted over on the left chassis "fin", however currently it is slightly too wide to fit, so some additional engineering need to pondered so I can correct that issue.

6/17/2006 - ... Operation Rusty Liposuction.
Transforming a Traxxas Rustler into the Stampede Project Ultra-Rusty  - Day 3

Today, I received notification from the Ebay seller that he will be issuing a $20 credit back to me.  So the final tally is a Rustler that needed a few parts for $40 +shipping - considering what I am about to do, a good deal for a chassis this clean. This is going to be a day of huge upgrades and modifications - lots to do.   On the list of surgical modifications is a chassis and parts lipo/weight reduction, Wide-Rusty conversion, complete shock rebuild, and gear replacement on the steering servo, a few other additional upgrades, reassembly, and hopefully done between 8:30PM and 1AM.

Again part of my goal was to focus on modifications that almost anyone could do, however the task of lightening the chassis is where your talent and ability with a Dremel tool dictates the level of modification that can be tackled. I happen to be pretty good with the little sucker. 

You have basically have two lightening options if you are so inclined or talented.
 

A. Cutting big chunks off the chassis which takes some talent to know what to cut.

B.  Skeletonize the chassis which in my experience has proven to provide a great balance between stiffness, durability, and weight reduction and is easier to do for some people. 

The best option for the Dremel newbie is to simply Swiss Cheese the chassis with holes (hopefully with an attractive and uniform pattern).  The other option, assuming you can follow a line with a Dremel cutting disk, it is to drill the beginning and ending holes for larger slots and cut out basically the center between the holes.  This is the route I took with the Ultra-Pede with great success both in looks, weight reduction, and in retaining chassis stiffness. I followed up on the Stampede's chassis mod by dropping in a heat formed piece of very thin plastic into the skeletonized battery tray and under any other components such as receiver and servo that need a tad of shielding.  The plastic is harvested from a thin shampoo or conditioner bottle and was lightly heated with a torch to form to the contours of the chassis openings.  In the end is adds back in only a fraction of the weight of the plastic that was removed and can be easily popped out for racing.  I plan the same course of action for the Rustler in it's transformation into the Ultra-Rusty.  Already thinking what this thing could do with a GTB 4.5R like the one in the Ultra-Pede - yikes.

Since it worked the first time for the Stampede Project Ultra-Pede, I carefully marked the location of all the holes to be drilled using a permanent marker and roughly drew lines of what was to be removed.  Using my drill press and a 3/8" bit, I drilled the numerous holes in the Rustler's chassis which I will be completing the above described connecting the dots exercise with a Dremel cutting disk.  It will definitely drop the weight of the chassis significantly and will hopefully still provide the durability that my driving style requires (I crash alot). 

The rear shock tower will get a few key holes punched in it and the RPM bumber will also have a few holes added.  I am going from the tank like weight of the stock wheels to some black HPIs that should cut some ounces from the wheels.  The top brace will also be subjected to a number of holes and slots.  The front bulkhead may also the the recipient of a hole or two.  I would like to point out that I am not wily nelly drilling and grinding here, as you can see I have a number of cross braces left intentionally to retain strength for some hard core bashing.  Also remember that sometimes skeletonizing a structure can actually make it stronger, in some cases if it is not overdone.

Additionally, I am moving right to a Wide-Rusty conversion.  Although the lateral cornering performance benefits are obvious, my goal is one of convenience in that I can use all my wheels and tires that I have laying around for the Ultra-Pede for some additional testing...and it looks really cool.  Hopefully I can use the existing steering linkage as the new front camber links and use some left over tie rods from the Stampede for the new Steering linkage.  The stock rear camber links look like they are tuned pretty well so they will stay.  The front and rear A-Arms will go a a slight diet, I will have to check, but I believe last I looked the rear arms actually weight less than the stock fronts, but don't quote me on that. 

Let's see how much I can get done in 4 1/2 hours.

It's about 1:30AM and I am beat, my hands hurt, I have a burn mark on my forehead from a piece of molten plastic.  I tore through all the planned upgrades with the exception of rebuilding the shocks.  I was even able to dislodge the Dirt Hawg tires from thier original glued stock wheel and reglue them on a set of HPI (pics to follow) but ended up mounting my favorite Dirt Paws for the next morning's run.  Gotta go to bed.

6/18/2006 - ... Testing the new Stampede Project Ultra-Rusty  - Day 4

First off I have to say my hands hurt so bad they are cramping up from all the disassembly, Dremeling, sanding, molten plastic burns, cuts, assembly, tweaking, and upgrading - I did way to much modification yesterday. I really need a couple upgrade free days, but there is so much still to do and I hate to stop once I am on a roll.

The reality of all the modifications was incredible and immediately noticeable.  The Rustler feels light and lively instead of a 20MPH plastic turd.  Response and handling is much improved, the wide conversion made the Ultra-Rusty un-tippable and corners like it is on rails.  The Dirt Paws in my mind are about 1000 percent better as a backyard lawn tire for the Rustler than the Dirt Hawgs.  The Rustler would barely move in grass with the Hawgs, the Paws on the other hand shred and grip the grass and provide plenty of forward momentum.  I think a new set of Proline Tractor Gators would be even better.  The Hawgs are superior on gravel and concrete, so there is the trade off.  If I had to pick only one tire, the Hawgs would be a good choice since the major surface the Rusty will likely see is concrete, gravel, or hard pack dirt.  Had some problems with the 15T Titanite that are going to require a little maintenance.  To expected because I basically yanked it out of the Ultra-Pede and jammed the 4.5R brushless setup without cleaning the Titanite.

So I still need to get those shocks rebuilt, and so some finish work on the chassis to make it all pretty.  That stock Rustler body is just freaking ugly in my opinion.  The only cool part is the back end.  The body needs to get slammed really low like the Jato.

The wide conversion was a little interesting this time around and different.  All I used was a 5mm pivot ball for the upper shock mounting and screwed it together with no binding issues, quick and simple.  Perhaps it just seemed easier because I wasn't worried about adding a shock tower brace.  I didn't need to shave the arms as previously done with the Ultra-Pede due to the fact that the Rustler does not have as much down travel so binding at that point is not an issue.  I did however need to add an aluminum spacer under the captured ball at the Ackerman joint (stuff attached to the servo and upper chassis) to eliminate binding on the up-travel and the extra long steering carrier arms needed to have the extra trimmed off to prevent binding since the first hole is used (not an issue with RPM carriers).  The stock steering links did not work as camber links, however I had spare turnbuckles from the Ultra-Pede that were a perfect fit for the camber and steering linkage.  

As with the Stampede the stock servo is underpowered and should be upgraded to at the very least a high torque Traxxas servo (available on eBay for typically about $10-$15), so that will be a near future upgrade - hmmm may have one laying around somewhere.

Hopefully by this weekend I can find the time to rebuild the shocks and get some of the other miscellaneous upgrades done.  All in all I think I am off to a spectacular start and already have one heck of a Traxxas Rustler that is patiently waiting for a brushless system.  I may have to yank the Novak GTB 4.5R brushless system out of the Ultra-Pede temporarily to make sure that is the direction I am wanting to go.  I may simple go with a re-manufacturered Novak SS5800 or a Feigao 380C sensorless motor - we will see.

6/21/2006 - ... Testing the new Stampede Project Ultra-Rusty  - Day 7

Wow, 7 days.... only one week after receiving my Ebay prize and the Ultra-Pede is starting get into fighting shape.  Chassis lightened, ESC and 15T motor, wide conversion, and today the shocks were rebuilt with Medium Heavy RPM 2-Stage pistons, 30 Wt oil, new seals, with my patented addition of a under piston shock ring and three on the external portion of the shock shafts to help ease the stress from hard landings, all topped off with Big Bore Aluminum shock caps.  The Ultra-Rusty is looking good.  I have to say either the front axels are both bent (which I doubt) or the HPI rims are not as precise as the Traxxas ones, because I have a wee bit more wobble than I do with the Traxxas wheels with the Dirt Paws mounted.  Time for some play time tonight. 

I am a dope, been jumping, and pressing the chassis pretty hard.  Noticed today while rebuilding the shocks that I had been running without the forward two rear shock screws in.  No damage, but could have been ugly - an disappointingly stupid.

The Jang emails StampedeProject - Shot an email over to The Jang yesterday and he responded.  He clarified what he meant about structural strength of his Rustler.  I think many people think he was saying that his chassis was not as strong as stock. That was not the case at all.  What he was referring to was the A-arms, that he would not go as far with modifying those and although were fine for racing were not as strong as stock.  Jang says his chassis is just fine for bashing. Jang went pretty far with his chassis modification, so I should be in the safe zone with my little experiment.  One thing Jang did mention was that the long slots would appear to affect torsional rigidity, however if I didn't see any ill effects, go for it and thumbs up to me.

6/23/2006 - Ongoing Testing and tweaking.  - Day 9

I am, in general, impressed with the stability of the Rustler.  The Ultra-Rusty by comparison now handles substantially better.  For everyone who is in the market for a almost un-tipable RC this thing is a blast.  The big monster tires are great on the Stampede and allow wonderful wheelies and tons of ground clearance, but for a race oriented truck the Rustler is a nice step in the competitive direction.  At the same time it steps away from being as versatile as the go anywhere Stampede.  The Ultra-Pede will always be my go to truck, but I can see where the Ultra-Rusty could become a favorite on groomed surfaces. 

Last night I noticed that I had a leaky front shock, appears I didn't use enough Teflon tape, so that one will have to be rebuilt.  I was rushing a bit when I did the shocks, must have missed a groove or two with the tape.  I am glad I went with the 30wt shock oil with the Medium Heavy RPM 2 stage pistons.  I think the 50 wt oil I am using in the Ultra-Pede would be make the suspension a bit too stiff for groomed track and road racing.

HPI rims are a little wobbly, to bad, I really like their looks. I a going to play around with them a bit, maybe they are not seating properly or there is some other mystery that I need to address. Not a huge wobble, just one that someone as picky as me would notice and one which would drive said person insane until it is fixed. 

6/25/2006 - Ultra-Rusty goes Brushless  - Day 11

I fixed the leaky shock and did little tweaking here and there on to make the Rusty handle a little better. I Still fighting with the garbage servos that came with the Ebay find.  The steering servo when crunch, the



MSC servo is now going also.  Even after a gear replacement they are not working properly.  I would assume the previous owner's kid liked to hold it in full right or full left for 5 minutes at a time doing donuts, seen to remember that was how my wife broke my first set of servo gears.  I may simply have to pony up and buy a at least a new high torque 2055 servo.

I ended up hi-jacking the Novak GTB 4.5R Brushless setup from the Ultra-Pede temporarily.  In my opinion this is about as good as it gets for a race legal brushless setup for the Rusty (although the rumor is that Novak will be releasing an even faster 3.5R soon, no word on whether it will be race legal). The thought was that I need to know whether it's going to do the job or not before slapping down more cash, so why not do a test drive. I kinda wanted to see how the Rustler would handle the power. 

Wonderfully by the way, but I am sensing that idler gear will need replacing quickly if I don't swap back to the 15T.  Again I was really expecting some wheelies with the 4.5R locked into the Ultra-Rusty's motor mount, but instead I experienced warp-like but controlled acceleration.  The acceleration was fantastic, racing winning in fact, but in some way Novak's linear power curve took a little of fun out of the equation. The 4.5R is NOT a bashers motor for wheelies it really is purpose built for winning races.  Kinda like trying to do donuts in the snow with your real car with the "Traction control" and "Vehicle stability control on".  Sometimes you want to punch it and have the car launch forward in wheel spinning wheelie-ing madness the 4.5R does not do that, just zip and gone, at stunning speed. The Novak has that refined racing pedigree thing going on that has knocked some of the fun edges off the power plant for the average basher. All that noted, I don't know that I would want anything else in my Rustler on the track.  Out on the street and the backyard I would like something to scare the heck out of the nitro guys, like a Castle Creations Mamba Max setup.

Overall I really liked the 4.5R system on the Rustler and is probably what I will go with when it comes to that point.  Although I would also consider the Reedy system, the GTB 4.5R is just a really nice efficient system that just works without having to pile on a bunch of batteries to se some power.  I am going to play around with gearing a bit and have a little fun then it will go back on the Ultra-Pede where it belongs.

7/7/2006 - Idler Gear Replacement and Moving Forward.

A vacation and then a shredded idler gear from the torque of the GTB 4.5R stalled further testing and modifications on the Ultra-Rusty.  The quick breakage really emphasizes the weakness of the idler gear on the Traxxas Rustler and Stampede.  No big deal, $10 for a new aluminum idler gear, and the opportunity to work some magic on the differential with a Judy Butter repack.  If you have perused my Ultra-Pede upgrades you know I use this mountain bike shock grease that is about the thickest stickiest grease I have found anywhere.  It run about $15 a small container but turns the stock slippery differential into a limited slip dif without modification and usually only requires a once a year repack to maintain the stiffness.

The second 2015 stock servo is getting tossed in for a 2055 Traxxas high torque servo, and everything will be reassembled this time with the GTB 4.5R going back into the Ultra-Pede where it belongs and dropping the old tried and true 15T Titanite and Novak Rooster ESC back into the Ultra-Rusty for now. 

I have been eyeballing some of Castle Creations Mamba Max brushless systems.  Seems like a bit too much power for the Ultra-Pede as it wheelies out of control with the GTB right now anyway so more power would just be stupid I think.  I couldn't get the Rustler to wheelie with the GTB 4.5R so I am thinking that it could handle quite a bit more power before wheelies become a serious performance issue. The Mambo Max system looks like it could get the front wheels of the Ultra-Rusty up in the air pretty easily and should provide some nice 50+ MPH top speeds.  Hmmmmm.....

7/20/2006 - Argggg, ... more crap not working...

Got the Ultra-Rusty all back together and the differential was acting all goofy alternating between a locked and un-locked state, something is binding in there and now I need to tear it all back apart...grrrrr.  My fault should have checked it and cleaned it more thoroughly before reassembling.

Let's see, what else I have done lately.  The Ultra-Rusty's shocks are now properly tuned with some new pre-load spacers and the new high torque 2055 Traxxas servo is turning the Ultra-Rusty better than ever.  I had a spare Integrity fan from a motor heat sink than was added to the Novak Rooster ESC to keep things cool.  Although I ranted about hating the fan on the GTB brushless setup it did work and keep the ESC cool, so we are going to give it a try on the old Rooster ESC that heats up a little after several runs and I may attempt 7 cells that will add some heat.  I have heard of a more than a few people that are running 7 cells on the Rooster, but do have some thermal-ing shut down issues on occasion so perhaps the fan will help.

I also need to get a decent body on this thing, kinda embarrassing running around with a nude Rusty.  I am thinking a buggy body with a big 1/8 scale wing.

Still need bearings and RPM carriers to improve the spin.

8/4/06 - Well everything is working just great.

After getting everything back together, the Ultra-Rusty is just chomping at the bit to get out to the track.  Everything seems to be nicely tuned. Although it stills needs a body badly.  But I suppose the old ugly Rustler body will work in a pinch.  Funny I really like the Nitro Rustler body but hate the E-Rustler body.  

Also Still waiting on Castle Creations to send me a Mamba Max 5700 or 7700  brushless test unit for review (hint... hint), however I think they have their hands full at the moment.

So where next on this beast.  It's going to be a while on the next round of upgrades until recover from my latest truck purchase.  No not an RC, I just picked up a new real 1:1 truck and need to wait a month or so for my wallet to recover.  I also have dumped some very serious time into a new StampedeProject creation - the Tri-Pede.  A project which has garnered much of my attention and brain activity lately.

8/4/06 - Toto we are a long way from Kansas.

Thought I was going to do a simple update on a motor test, but got a little distracted by the opening image.  Wow, the Ultra-Rusty has undergone quite a transformation, over the last couple months and now...it has a 550 motor installed.  I know what you are thinking - "what the ....?" Well here is how it happened.

My concern in the Tri-Pede build was that my gear reduction was a little off and I still needed more torque in the tall grassy areas and I was already geared 12/87 so there wasn't really any further to go for adjustment.  I ran across something that will prove quite useful - a Trinity 550 Monster Max Wild 17 Turn motor sitting in the clearance bin for $25 (not bad considering it's a $70 motor).  Traxxas is now using a 550 12 Turn on an ESC that has about the same specs as my Novak Rooster, so why not.  It turns out that this is a freaking torque monster and has the RPM of a tractor motor.  In testing it worked awesome in the Ultra-Rusty geared at a crazy 30/84 with alls sorts of speed and torque and the ESC wasn't even warm. I should finally be able to gear down the Tri-Pede for a little more torque and my runtimes "should" be a little better also due to the low current demand of this 14.4V motor.  For a little more fun I could easily drop another cell into the battery system without stressing the ESC or motor.

So anyway back to the Ultra-Rusty and this crazy oversized motor... it's pretty amazing with the available torque and it makes me definitely want to give Traxxas 12T 550 a shot when it comes out.  Although the speed is about the same as my 15 Turn Titanite when geared a 28/84 the torque is amazing and starts from 0 and the 14.4V 550 isn't even breaking a sweat.   Another thing I noticed was more fluid control, even when compared to the 19T Stock Stinger.  Not a lot of RPM to play around with but the power delivery was really really smooth almost like my brushless GTB system from Novak. The torque is extremely linear from bottom to top RPM, whereas the ProAmber 17T and 15T Titanite seems to trail off as the RPMs increase. This may be that I am only delivering 50% of the voltage this thing can take or I may really be it it's sweet spot. If the full voltage was applied to this motor, I fear parts would start flying though.  This motor does differ from the new Traxxas 12 Turn 550 sized motor in that the Traxxas motor is designed for 7.2V current input whereas the Monster Max motor is designed for the E-maxx's ESC output of 14.4 volts.  At 7.2V or even a peaked pack voltage of let's say 8.5V the motor isn't even getting warmed up even when geared at 30/84.  I would be very interested to see how this motor would perform on the track.  May have to do that.

The Ultra-Rusty is also very tired of being all naked, so I am working on a new body.  I WAS going to pick up a crowd pleaser or buggy body, but I think the Ultra-Rusty needs something a little more interesting.  I saw a picture of this European made truggy that looked like a Lockheed Martin F117A Nighthawk stealth fighter with four wheels or at least something a Ninja would drive, so I think I am going to get out the plastic and see if I can devise a cool looking body that looks stealthish. 

8/4/06 - Spring Swapping.