The Scale4x4RC 1.9 Ford Shootout Thread!

[truckerbuddy2]

Originally Posted by 635

I have to disagree, a pair of wheels like on a dually only counts as one wheel; so a KH is just a 6x4 !

But on the added " " you see I was just joking ....

Stu, I`m looking forward to that !

ok, joking, i didnt realize what that funny little face was doing..... but to continue to argue.... thats what i do..... they aint called 18 wheelers for nothin, they might work as one unit, but they are indeed seperate wheels. but it makes no nevermind, i think it would be sorly left behind in this comparo test....

[Old Busted Hotness]

And now, let us introduce the players:



The new kid, the F-350 Hi-Lift, biggest and heaviest of the bunch, easily the most expensive, packed full of 3-speed, diff-locking goodness. How good it is we'll see shortly. Power comes from a Novak Crawler brushless system.



The TA02 with modified Blackfoot body, rolling on BFG's. Powered by a Johnson 540 can motor.



The XC (short wheelbase) with King Blackfoot body, on cut Goodyears. Powered by a 55t lathe motor.



Representing the homebrew TLT/Pede contingent, I'll run the TTB rig. Not a perfect representative, as its IFS and 1.5 inch tires are outside the norm for most builds, but I built it and it's time to see how it stacks up. I've changed out the tires to some vintage Kyosho Option House Dunlops. It's powered by a Tamiya silver can 540.

All the rigs will run six cells and hardbodies, and be compared in "as is" configuration. No special prep will take place. This means the TTB will be handicapped by its open diffs and on-road gearing. This is not, however, a crawl-off, so it may not be the worst thing in the world.

The XC will be the articulation champ. It's got twice the flex of the other rigs, as you'll soon see. How much that helps remains to be seen.

Tonight we rest. Tomorrow, we fight!

[truckerbuddy2]

sweet. they all look awsome. so what type of terain are they gona face? any mud? rocks? ect...... you gona take of any sweet jumps????

[Old Busted Hotness]

We're gonna do some basic testing. My driveway happens to be 132 feet long, so that's a scale 1/4 mile. We'll see what kind of incline each one can climb, using a sheet of MDF. There will be a rock crawl, leaf-litter run, general around-the-yard bash, and obstacle course. I'll set up a small jump as well, but this won't be an RCCA big-air contest.

And four articulation shots, plus whatever else I can think of while I'm out there.

[635]

Sounds interesting, I wish I could join !

[romeo26]

hmmm...are you going to make a vid of this? that would be cool...

[Old Busted Hotness]

Me, too, Lars

The testing is done. Time for data analysis. I'll post up the results shortly.

[635]

[Old Busted Hotness]

In the words of Confu Salem (those of you who don't read Kipling (shame on you, read The Man Who Would Be King, or at least buy the DVD) won't know what I'm talking about) as translated by Billy Fish:

Now we shall see.

The tests were conducted at my state-of-the-art facility, aka my back yard.

The driveway has room for a 132 foot drag strip, or a 1/10 scale 1/4 mile. All of these rigs are pretty fast by 1:1 standards

The next test was a climbing angle test, using a sheet of MDF with an old doormat nailed to it. In the interest of speed of results, I'll post the base measurements rather than delay the post by working out the angles. A shorter measurement is a steeper angle.

Next we did some jumps, just to see how they all flew. The MDF was laid over a Ryobi orbital sander's carrying case, which provided an 8-inch launching pad. I didn't check for distance, only for flight characteristics.

Following that, a general on-road behaviour analysis, and a general off-road beahviour analysis. On-road was conducted on the drag strip/driveway, at varying speeds, just driving around whereever I felt like. The trail went around the garage to the rock crawling area. The garage sits about 18 inches from a fence, and that area is filled with leaf litter and pr!ckly balls from a neighbor's tree, lots of them. A few twigs and a tall grassy area that I can't mow and am too lazy to weed-wack provided an additional challenge. A bit of romping around in the gravel beside the garage recorded some additional high-speed offroad characteristics.

Finally, the rock crawl. Yes, I'm leaving it for last. If you don't know that I'm a big fat tease, welcome to the board.

First, the assembled players:

[Old Busted Hotness]

Should this count toward the final score?

Or just for bragging rights?

In order, the TTB, XC, TA02 and F-350 artic shots.

[offroadford4x4]

So the high lift has the most artic huh? That is surprising, being leaf sprung and all.

[Old Busted Hotness]

With fresh packs, I decided to give every truck one run up the drag strip. I measured off 132 feet with a steel tape, and recorded each time by counting out loud. Yeah, real precise, but it's hard to drive and operate a stopwatch at the same time. Times are approximate.

F-350: Starting in second, it hooked hard and went straight, the only truck to do so. It threw down the gauntlet with a blistering 9.0 time. Like a big diesel with a lot of boost and some propane injection would do, but without the cloud of smoke. I thought I heard the tires chirp, but I was 132 feet away

XC: 12.2 seconds, weaving a bit because only three wheels were on the ground. It hung the right front in the air for most of the track The lathe motor hurt it in this phase of the competition.

TA02: 10.0, finishing on its roof. Could have beaten the F-350 if it had gone straight, but it didn't. Probably covered closer to 160 feet.

TTB: 11.1, not bad, but not the easiest thing to drive straight. Could have been better, but tracked straighter than the TA.

Overall scores:
1st place F-350 4 points
2nd place TA02 3 points
3rd place TTB 2 points
4th place XC 1 point

The TA02 finishing in style

[Old Busted Hotness]

Time to break out the MDF and see how steep they'll climb.

The old welcome matt was nailed to the board and laid against a shelf that's been behind the garage forever. Varying the placement of the board changed the angle of ascent. A shorter measurement here means a steeper climb. The shelf is 15.5 inches high, so a measurement of 15.5 would be a 45 degree angle.


First up, the big guy. Its weight was an asset here, providing plenty of traction. First gear provided enough reduction to avoid wheelspin, and it climbed up until the board was 12 inches from the base. That works out to 58 degrees That's pretty steep.

Next, the XC. Managed 15" with wheelspeed, again with three wheels contributing. The right front was airborne. 46.4 degrees.

The TA02 couldn't scale anything steeper than 20 inches. 35 degrees.

The TTB was the surprise of the day here. In spite of open diffs it managed 14 inches, but wanted to tip over backwards due to its battery placement. 49.8 degrees

Scores:
F-350, 58 degrees, 4 points
XC 46.4 degrees, 2 points
TA02 35 degrees, 1 point
TTB 49.8 degrees, 3 points

Do you have any idea how hard it is to scale a 50 degree slope, take a pic and hold the board in place with your foot at the same time?

[Old Busted Hotness]

This is just a measure of how tight a turn the trucks can manage, performed on gravel/grass. Measurement is for a full 180 degree turn, from outside wheel to outside wheel.

F-350 (2-wheel steering) 97 inches 1 point
XC 71 inches 3 points
TA02 61 inches 4 points
TTB 72 inches 2 points

Edit: Pic shows an incorrect measurement procedure. Actual measurement was done from outside wheel to outside wheel, or the same wheel on both sides of the circle.

[Old Busted Hotness]

While this will never be mistaken for an RCCA big-air contest, it does give some insight into how these trucks will perform as aircraft. I jumped each one 3 times to get a representative sample.

The F-350 flies nose-heavy, and lands hard on its brush guard, much like the Oldsmobile on the recent Mythbusters episode. Unlike the Olds, however, it drove away. Not the most satisfying thing to jump. 4/10. It's no stadium truck

The TA02, if you can get it to drive straight at the ramp, loves to jump. It flies straight and true, lands on all 4 wheels and comes back for more. Its speed helps it here, as does its relatively light weight. 10/10

I thought the TTB would break, but it didn't. Slightly nose-heavy but not a bad flyer. 6/10

The XC could use more speed here. It's better balanced than the 350, but nowhere near the TA02. 6/10

Scores:

F-350 1 point
XC 2.5 points
TTB 2.5 points
TA02 4 points

No pic this time