Cold Fusion: Dual brushless Dagger...

[Dagger Thrasher]

Hey guys,

I just thought you all might like to see a project that I've been working on slowly for the past 3 years; my dual Mamba Max-powered racing Wild Dagger called Cold Fusion. Some of you might remember I posted progress on her quite a while back, but finally she's finished! I'm so excited about it, I just have to share it lol. I wasn't sure where to post this, so if this is the wrong place then I apologise. Here she is:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/daggerthrasher/HPIM1296.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/daggerthrasher/HPIM1300.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/daggerthrasher/HPIM1302.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/daggerthrasher/HPIM1298.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/daggerthrasher/HPIM1308.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/daggerthrasher/HPIM1307.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/daggerthrasher/HPIM1311.jpg

Sorry if some of the images appear too big, Photobucket's been messing around lately. Anyway, Cold Fusion has been my main project for the past few years; the aim was to build the fastest, most race-capable Wild Dagger possible. It's not perfect by any means, but I'll admit I'm really pleased with it...it's been a lot of hard work and patience!

The only stock parts on this truck are the gearbox casings, front bumper and mount, rear uprights, the C-Hubs (though modified) and most of the gears inside; the rest is either custom-made, custom-fitted parts designed for other RC's or upgrade parts. Here's a list of the modifications (it's long so I hope you don't get bored reading it lol):



TRUCK:



- Custom-designed 4mm aluminium TVP chassis, CNC plasma-cut. It's designed for a super-low CG, light weight and stretches the wheelbase to 13". It also incorporates 10 degrees front caster, and has battery supports mounted via delrin crossbraces. It will hold up to 16 cells (two 8-cell packs).
- Custom-designed 5mm shock towers, also CNC plasma-cut. These are designed to be strong, yet reasonably light. As well as support the shocks, the brace each gearbox and also have the camber links mounted to them for improved geometry over stock.
- R2C2 extended aluminium suspension arms; not many of these were made and they're not hugely strong, but they're very light and vastly improve suspension over stock.
- Fibreglass ESC plate
- Unlimited Engineering SuperShocks
- MIP RS4MT CVDs all-round
- X-Spede 7075 aluminium knuckles
- ThunderTech Racing delrin "Clod-Maxx" wheel adaptors
- Lunsford Punisher titanium camber and steering links all-round
- Tamiya hardened-steel diff outdrives
- Modified steering linkage to almost eliminate bumpersteer without the need for bellcranks
- Hexcrews AP metric hardware throughout
- Custom-made aluminium servo mounts
- Custom-adapted centre skid plate; was made from an old radio plate. It strengthens the centre of the chassis.
- Modified rear diff; hand modified to accept the stronger TNX spider shaft. Unfortunately, it eventually failed just yesterday. However, in the near future both diffs will hopefully be replaced by completely newly designed diffs which use 1/8th innards. Rear diff would be a sealed 6-spider diff, and the front possibly a Torsen.
- RPM Monster Clawz StableMaxx rims
- Proline Bow Tie MTR tyres
- Heavily cut Proline Desert Rat shell.

ELECTRONICS:

Cold Fusion is powered by a pair of Mamba Max ESCs, each controlling a 5700Kv motor (one in the front, one in the rear). Both ESCs are fed buy a pair of 8-cell Elite 4500mah NiMH packs that are wired in parallel to create one big 9000Mah battery. this then splits off to each controller, esuring equal voltage to both an supplying massive current spikes when the rear motor needs them. They're heavy, but I couldn't afford LiPo...and it'd need a new chassis design anyway.
I get 20 or so minutes of bashing runtime, and the whole truck weighs about 3.8kg RTR. It also has a theoretical top speed of 55mph , although I've yet to even hit full throttle with this thing. It's absurdly fast and powerful...hence the rear diff disintegrating on me lol. :(

Thanks for looking! I'll try and get a decent video posted sometime (once the diffs have been sorted), and hopefully I'll be able to race it sometime too.

[Maxx42]

Wow! Great job on your Dagger. I can't wait to see the video.

[ElectricThunder]

I remember this thing when it was more or less in its infancy...:D

Sure has "grown up" into a "well developed" machine! That thing must be absolutely SICKENING. And it looks like it's well thought out in terms of maintaining race-ability (even though it's still going to have tons of power; too much for most tracks I would bet).

Excellent job I must say! (we need a drool smiley....:D)

[tadium54]

nice! (but I don;t think 2 threads were needed lol)

[pauster]

Simply gorgeous ! Can we get some close-ups of the custom chassis ?

Very impressive !

[avablast]

I dont usually take any interest into electric rc but......WoW! That thing is somethng else. Talk about custom. I like it alot. Just dont break it to soon.

[4wdmt]

I remember this "Cold Fusion" project. It was just a chassis then. That is one sweet modified wild dagger.

Any video?

[Dirk Jan]

Very Nice!! That chassis looks awesome, I really like the battery layout!

[redbarton]

Vid, vid, vid! Bring on the Vid!

[maxxmustang]

^^yes! vid! man that is soooo sweet! i would love to see that run. Did you get GM to design your differentials? cause if you didnt, you might want them to. Bring on the dual 7700s!

[Jayboy]

WOW!
I love it....i take it your in England, (car numberplates) right?

[Dagger Thrasher]

Thanks for the kind words guys, I really appreciate it! :) Sorry about posting this thread twice...I'm not sure how I managed to do that lol.

Electric Thunder: Thanks man! It is a lot of power, but thankfully it can be dialled out a fair bit through programming the Mambas. I guess it's just down to learing to control my throttle thumb, lol!

Pauster: Thanks! Sorry, I don't have any decent, recent close-ups of the chassis but I'll try and get some soon. If you do a search for "After 8 months..." then you should find a thread with older photos of when I first got the chassis made. :)

Maxx Mustang: Thanks dude! I might sound thick here, but who's GM? The diffs that will be fitted are being designed by a friend of mine who'll be selling them, although Cold Fusion will be the testing bed for the prototype which is almost finished. I've now been told it'll use Savage 4-spider gears along with the 7075 casing, so it should be plenty tough! I can't wait to try it. :)

Jayboy: Yup, I'm right here in good ol' Blighty...Flitwick, in Bedfordshire? Are you from the UK too?

As for vids...I'll be sure to post up a good long video once this prototype diff is fitted. I took apart the current diff yesterday and one of the bevels has pretty much disintegrated, so it's not going anywhere until that diff comes. Again, thanks for the comments guys! :)

[pauster]

For everyone's convenience - here is the link to a previous incarnation of this thread

http://forums.radiocontrolzone.com/showthread.php?t=208686

[maxxmustang]

Maxx Mustang: Thanks dude! I might sound thick here, but who's GM? The diffs that will be fitted are being designed by a friend of mine who'll be selling them, although Cold Fusion will be the testing bed for the prototype which is almost finished. I've now been told it'll use Savage 4-spider gears along with the 7075 casing, so it should be plenty tough! I can't wait to try it. :)
woops! sorry, i forgot ur in europe :confused: . GmM is a company that owns almost the whole american automoblie industry. And man those diffs sound just about bullet proof!. i relly like that chasis, almost hasa shark- like look to it. great layout too. :wave: :eek:

[pauster]

GM owns Vauxhall. But Vauxhall is not terribly well known in the former British colonies :D

[littlej72]

Awsome ride! I wish there was a production vehicle like this, it would be a must have for me.

[trxcrazy345]

very nice it should haul

[skylineTT]

that looks great! hope you like how it all works.

[nitro_newbie]

this is sweet man how much was put into it? does the tranny stand up to the abuse? nice rig and were you get the hop-up parts from?

[buckrogers519]

DT!!!

Long time no chat buddy - looking awesome, I can't believe CF is still going and getting better all the time. Great to see your still going strong in RC - I'm just getting back and looking forward to some new and exciting faroys into RC!!! Great job on Cold Fusion - one of the nicest looking trucks Ive ever seen!

BUCK

[GTX]

Simply badass. Awesome work, glad to see all that time and design paid off. I remember reading through your threads at the wee hours of the morning because I got lost in the build. Nice job, submit it to the mag ;)

Oh, and I love how the shocks and tower poke through the body. Saweeeet. :cool:

[balang_479]

wow, whata chassis, like i said before, they should start growing the Electric Monster truck class because vehicles like this and Team 3 Sixes are really gonna be awesome when racing.

[redbarton]

wow, whata chassis, like i said before, they should start growing the Electric Monster truck class because vehicles like this and Team 3 Sixes are really gonna be awesome when racing.
Team 3 Sixes? Who or what is that? Got a link?

[rhcsavage21]

awsome man good work!!!

[Dagger Thrasher]

Thanks a lot guys, the comments really mean a lot to me! :)

Nitro Newbie: To be honest, I totally lost count how much I've put into this thing! I've often done mod,s then modified the mods, then changed them still, etc...it all adds up, so I really don't know! Quite a lot though lol. As for the tranny, well most of it should hold up fine; however I took it for a second run just last week, and the rear diff died on me. It was expected to be honest...if you look in this pic, the bevel in the middle has two teeth chipped off of it:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v654/daggerthrasher/DamagedDiff2.jpg

However, all is not lost, lol. A friend of mine has been working on a new, sealed, super-strong diff for the Dagger that will accept Savage 4-spider diff innards. The prototype is almost finished, and here are some pics.

This is the diff installed in his test gearbox:
http://img516.imageshack.us/img516/5579/tn25022007201wt2.jpg

...and here is the actual cup. The design makes use of the existing glassfibre-reinforced plastic teeth (which are VERY strong), and uses a special 7075 aluminium adaptor to fit a more conventional 1/8th diff cup inside. Here's the cup (hand-made prototype):
http://img520.imageshack.us/img520/3392/tn25022007198wp6.jpg

Once it's finished, it should bullet-proof the drivetrain as well as allow the tuning options of diff fluid. As for hop-ups...well, a great deal of the trucks' parts are custom made, and other upgrades are mostly meant for other trucks, or are just general. The only real upgrade on CF that is actually meant for the Dagger is the suspension arms...courtesy of BuckRogers519 here, when his parts company was running. :cool:

Buck: Hey man! How's it going? Long time no speak...how's things with you? I couldn't have made Cf what she is without your R2-C2 arms, and you'll be happy to know they're still going strong. Thanks man, and it'll be great to have ya back in RC. Don't forget to drop by RCDW sometime too. ;)

GTX: Thanks dude! I have to admit, I wouldn't mind sending this off to RCCA, just to see if they'd consider it...but even if they did, it's hard to get the mag over here in the UK, lol. :(

Anyway, other than the diffs, I really thought this project was done; well it's not! Not quite, lol. After a bit of thought, I've opted to get the chassis re-made with some design improvements. Firstly, the part of the centre area of the TVPs will be beefed up to reduce flex and increase strength. Secondly, it'll feature more crossbraces (plus properly designed mounting holes for the bodyposts, so no more bodge-ons) and all holes will have wide contouring around them to increase strength. The TVP's themselves will be finished more nicely too. But above of all, the holes will be *accurately* drilled this time with my new drill press; I drilled the original holes with a dremel, and some of them are awful lol :o It'll still look much like it does now, but with subtle improvements (basically, how it should've been all along!). I'll keep you all posted. :)

Thanks for looking! :)

[Chachi_RC]

Team 3 Sixes? Who or what is that? Got a link?

Yeah, what is Team 3 Sixes? Electric MT? More info, please?

[balang_479]

http://forums.radiocontrolzone.com/showthread.php?t=234029

[balang_479]

This is not a Wild Dagger, its a custom made truck with a few parts borrowed from a Wild Dagger

[redbarton]

http://forums.radiocontrolzone.com/showthread.php?t=234029
Now I get it. Nice project, but not even in the same league with this.