M4R's EXO Terra Buggy

[Mad4Rnr]

As usual I was the first in line at Jake's Performance Hobbies to pick up my Axial EXO Buggy when they finally arrived there this last Tuesday. I was so stoked to build this kit that when I got home that night I barely said hi to my wife and kiss the baby before I retired to the garage.

First things first, I dive into Step 1 / Bag A...so sad to find I'm missing both of the paper gaskets p/n AX30385 that go inbetween the ring gear and diff housing... this is where I left the build that night:



Then yesterday I just couldn't stay at work any longer so I left at lunch time and headed to the auto parts store for some paper gasket mat'l. Thankfully the center diff gasket in Bag D was included with my kit so I traced them out and then cut them with an z-acto knife, hope these puppies don't leak:



At the end of last night I was able to get the axles, steering and chassis all built up and ready for install of the electronics. I pulled the Sidewinder ESC and 4600kv motor from my FoFF build as well as a basic Hi-Tec digital servo, should be a decent set-up to start off with:



So far I'm pretty impressed with the quality of the kit, I had the revised step 16 instructions as well as the right center diff gears and bulkhead to suspension hardware. Lots of awesome injection molded parts in this kit...I'd hate to see the tooling bill on this one...!

[Brandon]

Good to see you over here! Looking forward to watching what you do with the EXO.

I already heard a few rumors of product you are working on

[Mad4Rnr]

Originally Posted by Brandon

Good to see you over here! Looking forward to watching what you do with the EXO.

I already heard a few rumors of product you are working on

Thx man, yep the rumors are true, MadDogRC is on RCSC and we got new SC products in the works. Here is a teaser:



So I've heard that the CC sidewinder and CM36 4600kv is a no-go in the EXO (is it a 2-pole motor maybe?). I decided to poke around to and found this CC SCT 3800kv system:

Castle Creations 1/10 Sidewinder Short Course System + 3800

Any opinions as an affordable EXO power plant for bashing?

[Traxxasbasher13]

Originally Posted by Mad4Rnr

Thx man, yep the rumors are true, MadDogRC is on RCSC and we got new SC products in the works. Here is a teaser:



So I've heard that the CC sidewinder and CM36 4600kv is a no-go in the EXO (is it a 2-pole motor maybe?). I decided to poke around to and found this CC SCT 3800kv system:

Castle Creations 1/10 Sidewinder Short Course System + 3800

Any opinions as an affordable EXO power plant for bashing?

The Sidewinder SCT is the cheapest and best motor and esc combo out there. It will have no issues pushing and Exo around. And your right, the 4600kv motor is 2 pole and because of its high kv not so great for 4x4 trucks.

[FastEddy]

I was there when you were picking it up.
Im jellos....

[vorra44]

I just dropped that motor (Castle 3800 4pole) in mine with an RX8. Motor has plenty of power, I had it in a SC10 4x4.

[Brandon]

The SV2 and 3800 4 pole is a great combo. It may run a bit hot with the interior in the EXO compared to some of the larger 550's and big ESC's (w/fans).

Run the EXO without the interior first to check your gearing and operating temps with that system.

[Mad4Rnr]

OK finally an update...

Picked up the CC SV2 + 3800kv 4-pole combo from JPH Racing, well priced for what you get, overall a very nice setup for bashing:



My only observation is damn the motor leads are looong! Easy fix was to cut about 4" off and resolder the male bullets, the whole set up installed nicely but the CC sidewinder plastic clip didn't fit overt the SV2 with the new heatsink and fan shroud:



With all the nice wire management clips this thing cleans up nice



Cage all bolted together and ready for a test run:







Also cut out all the body panels...damn that's a lot of cutting and finishing:

[badger]

Originally Posted by Mad4Rnr

Thx man, yep the rumors are true, MadDogRC is on RCSC and we got new SC products in the works. Here is a teaser:

I can't wait for these to be release! It's gonna be nice to have some bright ass lights on my EXO.

[Khwilliams]

Originally Posted by Mad4Rnr

OK finally an update...

Picked up the CC SV2 + 3800kv 4-pole combo from JPH Racing, well priced for what you get, overall a very nice setup for bashing:



My only observation is damn the motor leads are looong! Easy fix was to cut about 4" off and resolder the male bullets, the whole set up installed nicely but the CC sidewinder plastic clip didn't fit overt the SV2 with the new heatsink and fan shroud:



With all the nice wire management clips this thing cleans up nice



Cage all bolted together and ready for a test run:







Also cut out all the body panels...damn that's a lot of cutting and finishing:

I was thinking the same thing! The wires are WAY too long, but I thought I read somewhere that shortening the length would cause issues in performance with the motor, is this true?

[Mad4Rnr]

Originally Posted by Khwilliams

I was thinking the same thing! The wires are WAY too long, but I thought I read somewhere that shortening the length would cause issues in performance with the motor, is this true?

No issues noted as of yet and I seriously doubt that the ESC would be sensitive enough to notice the difference in resistance due to shortening 4" of wire.

[Theibault]

Originally Posted by Mad4Rnr

No issues noted as of yet and I seriously doubt that the ESC would be sensitive enough to notice the difference in resistance due to shortening 4" of wire.

Almost everyone I know with that motor (excluding one guy with no soldering skills lol) including myself have trimmed it. I even read on another forum that someone asked Castle support and they said no prob even though the silly manual says not to cut them. You won't have any probs. I had enough wire left over to wire up another motor/esc combo with my leftovers lol.

[Mad4Rnr]

Originally Posted by Theibault

Almost everyone I know with that motor (excluding one guy with no soldering skills lol) including myself have trimmed it. I even read on another forum that someone asked Castle support and they said no prob even though the silly manual says not to cut them. You won't have any probs. I had enough wire left over to wire up another motor/esc combo with my leftovers lol.

Exactly! I also kept the wires for use later, it's good stuff.

[Khwilliams]

Originally Posted by Theibault

Almost everyone I know with that motor (excluding one guy with no soldering skills lol) including myself have trimmed it. I even read on another forum that someone asked Castle support and they said no prob even though the silly manual says not to cut them. You won't have any probs. I had enough wire left over to wire up another motor/esc combo with my leftovers lol.

That's good to know. I went ahead and cut the wires as well, from all I read and advise from others they said it should not be a problem.

[Meatwad]

Looking forward to exo options

Can you confirm the model number to your sct system? The old sidewinder sct combos didn't come with a fan assembly on the esc like in your pic



Stock advertising pic...



With the old combos, the popular thing was to slap the motor fan onto the esc.. Thanks!

[Mad4Rnr]

Originally Posted by Meatwad

Looking forward to exo options

Can you confirm the model number to your sct system? The old sidewinder sct combos didn't come with a fan assembly on the esc like in your pic

Stock advertising pic...



With the old combos, the popular thing was to slap the motor fan onto the esc.. Thanks!

Part number is 010-0090-00

Pretty sure Castle made a running change to update the ESC housing with the fan. The other side of the box shows the same pic you posted and Axial p/n AX80107-4 doesn't fit even though its advertised on the side of the EXO box as working with the SV2.

[Khwilliams]

I just ran mine this afternoon with this system.....



And I have to say.......damn that motor has some torque!
Hope your enjoying yours as well.

[Meatwad]

Originally Posted by Mad4Rnr

Part number is 010-0090-00

Pretty sure Castle made a running change to update the ESC housing with the fan. The other side of the box shows the same pic you posted and Axial p/n AX80107-4 doesn't fit even though its advertised on the side of the EXO box as working with the SV2.

That's what I was thinkin, newer stock will have it. Good running change imo. Thanks for the confirmation. Maybe the axial part fits with the old housing.

[asc6000]

the fan isn't neccassarily needed. mine runs well within temp specs even after 20 minutes on the track. gear correctly and don't abuse your equpiment. Running the 1410 3800kv with no fan geared 13/54 (running on an indoor clay track). I'm an old racer and this is my first basher since the Clodbuster came out. fun well done car with some faults it is. No way will it be "competitive" with the purpose designed racers but who cares, it the coolest thing out there! especially when you get the biggest airs over the triples

[Skibum173]

I think it will be competitive. I have a few friends here who have used them in SC races and have blown the SC trucks out of the water. They finally made a Main just for Exo's because the SC guys were pissed about getting beat by them.