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DURABILITY
Note on the New XL-5, VXL Rigs -
Although I wrote most of this for the old Xl-1 versions, aside from some
x-rings in the piston and upgraded/tougher tranny parts it's all the
same but just a different color... in fact (gasp) all the parts are
interchangeable... so all my upgrades will still work just fine. :)
Traxxas
XL-1 ESC and Electrical Upgrade - Project Stampede Exclusive
So you are at that point where you want to replace that stock motor
but don't want to buy a new ESC on top of buying a new motor. This is a
very low cost upgrade that will not only bump up the performance and
power delivery of a stock Traxxas XL-1 ESC, but will greatly reduce the
heat the ESC generates. This upgrade is also good insurance to
take out if you just want to run a 16T or 17T modified motor on the
stock Taxxas XL-1 ESC, and don't want to have to buy a new ESC.
How much will it improve performance? If you upgrade the entire
electrical path starting
from the battery connection all the way to the motor to 12 gauge wire it
will improve your cars performance about as much as moving from the
stock Tamiya and bullet connector to Deans plugs or the difference of
going from stock bushings to 5x11 bearings in the wheels. Most people
approximate either of these as a 10%-20% improvement. I am
continuing to test how much the XL-1 can actually take and how low a
motor limit it will handle.
One thing I noticed right away was that the XL-1 really heats up even
with the stock motor and normal driving and really had to be watched
with the 17T Trinity Pro Amber modified motor. But all this can be
fixed easily and cheaply.
A little electrical resistance 101 lesson - Mechanical friction = stress
on motor = resistance = motor load = heat = more resistance load = more
currant draw = more resistance= more motor load = more heat...etc. Kind
a perpetual circle. The same goes true for the ESC, the more
current that the ESC has to manage the hotter its going to get.
The idea is to remove or reduce as many of the components creating
resistance on the electronics. Would you rather push a car an a
perfectly flat road or up an off road trail with lots of big boulders to
push the car over. Looking at this logically, aside from the RPM
5x11 wheel bearing upgrade, and making sure the motor is lubed, the
gears are not binding and properly lubed, the mechanical friction
elimination part is pretty much taken care of. For the electrical
part, upgrading to a motor like one of the Trinity Speed Gems with
bearings instead of bushings will reduce resistance at the motor. A good
upgrade at this point is to move completely to Deans connectors (about
$3 per connection point.) The ultra low resistance Deans connectors will
be one of the best overall electrical upgrades you can make to a stock
Stampede and will make a very noticeable difference in power
delivery. Also sooner or later you will melt the Tamiya plugs
anyway (by the way batteries don't like to be shorted). A 12 gauge wire
has about 1/3 the resistance of the stock 14 gauge wires so upgrading to
12 gauge power wires from the motor with gold or soldered connectors
will decrease the resistance significantly (i.e. heat
that the ESC and motor will generate).
So what about this XL-1 Electrical upgrade part? I also noticed that the
wire on the ESC were getting warm after a good hard run even after all
the above upgrades (a good indication the wire gauge is to small for the
current draw), so I decided that I should also upgrade the incoming and
outgoing power wires on the XL-1 ESC to 12 gauge. It may seem like
overkill, but the 12 gauge wire transmits those "get going
quick" current spikes to your motor a lot better. If you are doing
the upgrade and are using 10 gauge wire to your motor, you might as well
do it right and use 12 gauge on the ESC.
The
thermodynamics game:
set up some boundaries around a "system" that separate
"system" from its surroundings, with the following definitions
-
isolated
system = no exchange of matter or energy with surroundings
-
closed
system = no exchange of matter but some exchange of energy
-
open
system = exchange of matter and energy with surroundings
Thermodynamics - Another part of
the upgrade was laying down the ESC in a more traditional style on a RPM
ESC mount. This accomplished a couple of things - it shortened the wire
runs to the battery and motor, cleaned up those levitating power switch
and receiver power wires, and most importantly greatly improved air
circulation around the ESC. Heat rises, so by laying down the ESC the
heat sinks naturally allow air to flow through them and up. The
stock orientation creates a heat wall with heat sink fins that run
horizontally and 90 degrees from optimum. I'm sure design limitations
and cost prohibited the heat sinks from pointing the correct direction,
but the stock horizontal heat sink orientation does not allow for
natural airflow and thereby creates a "thermodynamic closed
system". The new orientation changes the ESC to a open system,
allows for both forced air cooling (while the truck is moving) and
natural air circulation (i.e. cool air in and hot air out the top of the
fins.)
Final performance - I noticed a huge decrease in heat generation on the
ESC and coincidently a cooler running motor (I guess the motor wasn't
getting all the juice is needed either.) Even at it's worst with 15/87
gearing and a Trinity 17T Pro Amber motor, the ESC was at worst warm.
Although I didn't do any lab testing, the old "eyeball Dyno"
looked like about a 15%-20% increase in get up and go on from the ESC
after the upgrade. The difference was really noticeable after about 5
minutes or at the point the stock ESC and motor would be really hot
(remember the hotter the electronics, the more resistance and less
efficient everything is.) In the end, I think I spent $10.00 on 1
ft. each black and red 10 gauge power wire and some extra Deans
connectors. Although it doesn't convert the XL-1 into a Novac Super
Rooster, the conversion does add a lot of durability and make the stock ESC a much better performer.
The How To - Traxxas XL-1 ESC Electrical Upgrade
Its pretty simple just go slow. Note that you do need to have some
soldering experience. It should go without saying, but make sure you let
everything cool down in between soldering steps and care should be taken
not to overheat and de-solder the other components on the ESC circuit
board.
-
First disconnect everything
from the ESC and remove it from the truck.
-
Unscrew the two screws
holding on the heat sinks and remove the heat sinks. Unscrew the
four screws on the back of the ESC and remove the cover.
-
CAREFULLY remove the ESC guts
from the shell.
-
De-solder and remove both the
positive/red power wires.
-
Re-gauge the ESC end of the
10 gauge leads to 14 gauge as shown and then tin the wires. If you
tin the wire end properly and seat the "stepped" lead
fully into the ESC board as shown, this will be a very strong
low-resistance connection.
-
Prepare and tin your +/-
power leads and terminate with Deans plugs. (it can be tough to
solder the plugs after you have soldered everything up to the ESC,
so it good to get the Deans plugs installed first.) Slide on the
shrink warp and shrink to cover the exposed wire and plug pin.
-
Carefully heat the inner
power hole on the board with the tip of the soldering iron and slide
in and seat the appropriate power wire. Once the wire is seated,
heat the tip of the wire sticking through the other side of the ESC
circuit board to solder the wire in place. You should have enough
residual solder from tinning the wire end and the solder left on the
board that do additional solder should be needed.
-
Repeat with the other
power wire.
-
Now remove the negative/black
power wires and run through the above steps and get them soldered in
place.
-
Re-route the thinner BEC and
power switch wires in between the positive. These should be at the
bottom of the "wire pile" closest to the circuit
board.
-
Trim about 2mm off the
crescent shaped wire holder off the back cover.
-
Extend the top cover wire
inset by about 1/8" or as needed, just to the point that all
the wires are snuggly held in place.
-
Trim off the ESC side
mounting tabs.
-
Re-assemble.
-
Cover the setting/tuning
holes with black electrical tape to seal out dust and moisture.
-
Mount with double stick tape
or Velcro. I use the "heavy duty Velcro", it has no
positive and negative stripes. This Velcro is made of all hard
plastic interlocking balls and is much cleaner and tougher.
-
Done - You now have a cooler
running ESC with a lot less resistance and about a 15%-20%
performance increase.
Testing Criteria
and Warnings for the Upgraded XL-1
I have spent the better part of a month moving from a very conservative
13/87 gearing to and 18/87 gearing again using the Amber 17T motor. The
18/87 gearing using a 17T motor is about the limit for my testing for
this phase, it runs about as hot as is did in completely stock ESC/motor
configuration during my testing. That said, I
think the ESC has demonstrated the ability to handle enough stress for
me to test a 15T, 16T, or maybe a P94 16T. My hope is that I will be
able to dependably and cool-ly run a 15T motor – we’ll see.
Warning – Don’t just pop a 17T with 18/87 gearing in your
car, I'm not going to listen to you bitch after you blow your ESC.
I am using a very methodical controlled testing process and have very
slowly moved up to that gearing over a period of a month or so. If
you run the car slow or use it to rock climb at that gearing, you will
probably blow the ESC.
Max recommended gearing - You should have no overheating problems
(after the XL-1 upgrade) when geared from 13/87 –16/87 with the
Trinity 17T pro Amber.
Goals - My goals in this experiment were to primarily define the
stress limit of the XL-1 after going through the electrical and
orientation/cooling upgrade on the ESC. Secondly, develop a low cost/no
cost method for everyone out there stuck with XL-1's to safely run
hotter motors such as the Trinity 17T Pro Amber.
Testing criteria:
Gearing: From 13/87 – 18/87 (6.69 – 4.83)
Body:
Attached – stock position.
Ambient Temp: 30-50 Degrees F
Runs/Time: 2
at about 10-15 Min. each
Batteries:
6-Cell 3000Mh
Track:
Urban - 50% Road – 30% Lawn – 20% Rock (landscaping)
Throttle Control: Top 50% of throttle range
Braking:
Hard and controlled braking.
ESC:
XL-1 Modified See Above
Other:
All power wires upgrade to 12 gauge wire
RPM Bearing carrier and bearing upgrade
All power connectors upgraded to Deans Plugs
The
final review and post for the Project Stampede upgraded XL-1 ESC
Sadly,
the upgraded XL-1 time’s came after I got a little cocky and
did not properly winterize my upgraded Project Stampede XL-1 ESC before
going out in some really wet slushy snow in Omaha’s one again –off
again weather patterns. Yep,
you bet I fried that sucker like a well-done piece of bacon, but I was
able to complete my testing before it’s untimely demise.
As
you will see in the above posts, I did some upgrades to the stock
Traxxas XL-1 ESC to see if it could safely handle the more extreme
modified motors without melting down.
It
can and it will do it very well. First
let me lay down this warning – “Although I was able to run the Xl-1
with a both a 17T Trinity Pro Amber and a 15T Trinity Titanite motor
without blowing anything up. I only recommend going with the 17T Pro
Amber and only if the upgrade is completed” The reason is that
when running the 15T motor the upgraded Project Stampede ESC runs at
about it’s stock hot temperature and I really think this is too hot to
expect any really long-term durability.
Using the 15T is definitely not something you want to do a lot of
very slow maneuvering with as the ESC is very close to it’s limit with
a 15T motor.
The
15T motor was geared up to 13/87 with no adverse effects during higher
speed maneuvering (no rock crawling). However, I very carefully worked
up to this gearing starting at 12/90 with initial testing only on the
road at full throttle (the easiest on the ESC).
So
there you have it, I have sacrificed my XL-1 for the sake of
experimentation and for the enjoyment and education of all.
Go
Luck!
go to top
RPM
Wide Bumper - (REQUIRED
ITEM) What
ever model you chose MSC or ESC, buy the freaking $5 RPM wide
bumper. The RPM bumper will save you a lot of money. Even in stock
form the
Stampede is a little faster than you would think and despite your best
efforts you WILL hammer the front of the Stampede into poles, the
garage, the curb, the wall, your friends, your car,...your get the
idea. When this happens without that huge RPM bumper you could
crack or break the body, the front shock tower, camber links, stripe
servo gears,... again you get the picture. A very wise investment indeed
that will pay for itself over and over. While you are at it also pick up some of the shock
spring retainers, they will not break like the stock ones.
Traxxas
Aluminum Shock Caps for Rustler/Stampede
- Everyone says the
stock plastic ones pop off and blow silicon shock oil every where (you
don't want to have to clean this stuff up), having swapped them out the
aluminum versions before even a first run, I have never had a
problem. (See Miss-Behaving-RC in Useful Links for the how to).
Note pick up a roll of Teflon tape form the hardware store and some
Trinity Buggy Blast and some 50wt Silicon Oil from your hobby shop while
you are at it. If you follow the directions on Mis-behaving-RC you
will have a shock almost as strong as aluminum model at far less the
price. You will thank me for telling you this the first 2-3 foot
jump the Stampede makes un-eventfully. From a long term
perspective, I see no reason for me upgrade to better shock, the rebuild
takes the best plastic shock in the industry and makes it handle
anything I've been able to throw at it.
RPM Gear Cover for
Rustler/Stampede - The reason for this upgrade is that the stock
gear cover leaves this small gap near the axel and allows debris to get
into the gear box., The $5 RPM gear cover one provides complete
coverage. If you are all about color, your can get the RPM cover
in a rainbow of colors. The first time you pull a small twig or leaf
into your gear box and shred a spur gear you will wish you had bought
one.
Floppy
Antenna Fix - After
flipping your Stampede a couple of times you will start to notice that
the extra 2-4" of antenna wire flopping around and hanging
out of the antenna rod is taking quite a beating. Sooner or later
if you don't secure it will get ground off and you will have to
replace your antenna. One easy fix is to spiral it down the rod and use
a piece of electrical heat shrink tubing to secure it and top it off back off
with the rubber antenna cap.
Lubrication
Made Easy - I have
been trying different lubricants (keep you mind out of the gutter), with
the purpose of finding better motor and chassis lubes that 3N1
oil. Here is what I have found so far.
Tranny
- There are a lot of things you can use to keep your Stampede running
smoothly. I use White Lightening wax lube for the
transmission.
Chassis - Two products I really like are Sentry Solutions
Tuff-Glide and White
Lightening Wax based bike chain lube. Both dry completely
after application and prevent rust and corrosion. The Sentry Solutions
was developed for the Navy Seal teams firearms and equipment.
The nice thing is that because it dries and bonds at a molecular level
with the metal, it does not have a flash point, thereby will not catch
on fire and unlikely to cause carbon deposits if used on the
motor. The White Lightening is great because it won't attract
dirt, is waterproof, self-cleaning, and just as slick as grease even
when dry. Also no oily mess. So.. start thinking about all those
places that collect dirt or need waterproofing. I soak down the
top of my servo and all my tranny seams with a couple of layers of
White Lightening and presto its waterproofed. I hit my entire chassis
joints and all I have needed to do is apply more whenever it needs
it. No more cleaning. If the Stampede gets muddy.
Everything is waterproofed so, I just hose it down with the kitchen
sink sprayer, let it dry and I am ready to go. Couldn't be simpler.
Motor - The best thing I have found is Turbine oil. I found it
at Ace hardware next to the 3N1 oil. Again its wax based, and is
actually designed specifically for electrical motors, bushing, and
bearings, and is designed for high heat environments. The best part
its $2. Oddly enough it does not have a name at all, I could find
on it was ZipSpout. Clear container with weird looking spout.
How
to replace the stock cheap servo gears when your break them.
- Sooner or later you will hammer the gears in the stock
servo enough that they will eventually fail. The optimum solution
is to buy a new super durable metal gear high torque servo like a $55
Hitec -5625MG (metal gears, high torque, watertight and
dustproof). That said, the $4 bag of replacement gears will
probably be your next best option instead of picking up lesser quality
servo. No hobby shop I have every been to carries Traxxas servo
replacement gears, but as luck would have it, the Futaba FS-3003
replacement gears, available just about anywhere, are direct
replacements for the stock Stampede servo gears. The only gear in
the bag that is not a direct fit is the black gear, so in the unlikely
event that you manage to stripe the larger gear on the servo you may
want to consider a new servo. When you make the replacement, replace all
the gears (expect the large one mentioned earlier) and toss the old
ones. Chances are even if you can't see anything wrong with the
gears, you may have a slightly bent tooth that will cause another trip
to the hobby store. Make sure you clean the gear box cavity well to
assure that no chipped gear teeth could cause future problems.
Re-assemble all the gears and pack the cavity with white lithium or
silicon grease (increases lubrication and waterproofing) and re-install
the servo.
Heavy
Duty Metal Gear Servo- The
optimum servo solution is to buy a new super durable metal gear high
torque servo like a $55 Hitec -5625MG (metal gears, high torque,
watertight and dustproof). See MisBehavin-RC.com in the links are for
his comprehensive overview of servos.
 
Nitro Rustler Front Shock Tower
- A little modification I have been intending to do. Buy the Traxxas
#4439 Nitro Rustler Front Shock Tower and required only a small modification.
Basically the modification is giving the servo enough room and Dremeling
off the lower lip of the upper part of the brace gives you just about the
right amount of clearance.
This think is nearly as tough as my Lexan version below and is currently
what I am running. Great deal
if your can find one. The other option is of course to just pick up
a $15 FLM aluminum Shock tower and be done with it - probably the best $15
you can spend once you break your first shock tower.
Lexan Front Shock Tower - Ok,
so I got tired of replacing the front shock tower. It never gave
out completely as long as the front body post holder was mounted, but I
found it would crack from once incident or another every other month or
so.
As you all may know a router can do some pretty amazing things. However
I needed one the other day and realized that I gave all my less used
tools to my father during our last house move.
So I was cruising the local hardware store and picked up $20 simple
router attachment for the Dremel tool and a couple cutter and
mini-router bits to see how it worked on Lexan. Holly cow (G-rating),
you can do some amazing milling and routing with this set-up. It has
depth adjustment settings... yep you can mill your own custom battery
tray in Lexan. ( I did it and it looks good.)
Along with some chassis configurations, I went nuts on a sheet of Lexan
and made a couple front shock towers. Not a quite project, but pretty
easy tracing and cutting project. If you are interested in making pieces
out of Lexan, this is a pretty cheap way to go.
What I came up with was this:
I used 1/4" gray Lexan and
simply traced the shape of the original shock tower but left the top
connected with a 1/4" stripe. This worked a lot better than a
screw on brace because it provides a lot of side to side strength and
obviously the Lexan is much stronger than the stock plastic tower.
There is obviously a performance advantage in that the shock tower now
is much more rigid, but I did this because I hate replacing parts more
than once. To mount the shocks I used some of the spare shock
parts that came with the Traxxas. I used a 3 hole shock plunger
for a spacer, a stepped shock mounting piece, and a double worm bolt.
I later, went to the slightly lighter Rustler Nitro shock tower and
haven't had a problem.
Update - Just buy the FLM shock tower,
believe me... much easier.
go to top
Skid
Plate - Wheelie Bar on the Cheap
Part I
 
Get a piece of ABS Plastic from
the hobby shop.
Cut to width. Use the brace as a template and make the counter sunk holes
in the plastic. Bolt it to the chassis using the existing stock screws.
Use a torch carefully to make the
bends in the plastic to mold around the chassis. The back potion of
the plate I folds over and is doubled for strength and folds back to just
under the tranny housing. I made it just long enough so that it acts as
not only as a wheelie bar but also a springy rear bumper (which I need). I
was actually attempting to fit a RPM front bumper on the back when I
engineered this instead. It has worked great and has taken a real beating
and has saved I am sure countless part replacements.
Another side benefit has been that it works great in the taller grass, and
fields where there are lots of tings for the x brace to hang or get caught
on. It also adds "some" floatation during snow outings, but not enough to
actually support the Pede.
I later cut off the very rear
portion of the plate and removed the second layer (really un-needed)
and bolted on the stock front bumper for a less ghetto and more finished
look. Also added an extra margin of protection.
Wheeled
Wheelie Bar Part II
This was a recent creation due in part from
the shear power put out by the Novak GTB 4.5R Brushless system.
Before I had this wheelie bar in place I was flipping constantly - kind of
annoying. Swami has a sweet wheelie bar, but I wanted to give my
hand at it before I forked over the dough to the all mighty R/C'er himself.
Basically I recreated the above skid plate
but extended it out another 2 inches so I would have enough to install
brackets that held a 4-40 threaded rod with the mini-aircraft wheels
attached. That didn't work and I broke the bar within minutes. 
The next version has worked great and went
back to my very first original design with about 6 inches so I would have
enough to fold back (double thick from the end of the transmission housing
on) and hold a heavier 1/8" rod with the mini-aircraft wheels attached,
with everything bolted together for strength. Definitely lighter
than Swami's, but probably a little less durable in the long run than the
beefy aluminum he uses.
What has been nice is the ability to easily
tune the wheelie bar. Wheelies too much and still flips, break out
the torch and straighten it out a bit. So far this has been a great
setup. Pics to come.
Front and Rear Shock Tower Braces
This was a pretty funny
innovation. I was seeing what I could do with all the left over
turnbuckles in my toolbox. I put it up to the shocks and called
myself a genius. I never liked the way those shocks
hung out there on the mounting posts without additional support. In
fact most of the breakages I saw and have seem on other Stampedes and
Rustlers are due to weakness in this area.
An easy way to significantly strengthen up the front shock tower is to add
these Project Stampede Exclusive Shock Tower Braces. Although
this was part of my Ultra-Pede conversion, this is something I should have
done much earlier and recommend to everyone. I was going through shock towers like crazy until I
moved over to the Nitro Shock tower, however this has strengthened it even
more.
This is basically a cut down 54mm Traxxas Turnbuckles previously used for the Front camber links #1937 and
reused rod ends. Also need either grub screws or longer bolts. The Rear turnbuckles is my old
steering tie rod (I think) left from the front end after the Ultra-Pede conversion.
Dual Front Camber Links
Part of Project Stampede Ultra-Pede Build -
See this
Another accidental
innovation.
Originally, I installed the double sided pivot balls because, I thought it
would make things a lot more flexible in the long run. You could
mount/position the camber however you wanted on the fly and could have
multiple preset camber lengths to snap on for different camber and
suspension set ups.
Also I thought for testing it would make things easier without tearing
apart the front end just to
move the placement of the camber link placement from the front to rear
mount. I though the dual cambers would be cool looking and fun to post for
everyone enjoyment, but I never really intended to leave them on. After
using this set up, they are not coming off - they are a permanent addition
to the Ultra-Pede,
it is insanely solid and durable.
What's really sick is that I can also use dual Jato Camber links like the
single one I am running on the rear.
I tried the Dual Jato's but though that was complete and utter overkill.
You look at that setup and think, that's overkill. But then you get it
installed and notice immediately the torque'ing at the attachment of the
caster block and the shock tower has been eliminated. Also you are not
able to wiggle the caster at all and is as solid as the attachment at the
A-Arm. Running the camber links more equally distributed the load on both
sides of the caster blocks and shock tower and should greatly reduce the
probably of damage to the front suspension.
All of a sudden you really start to think that it should have been that
way to begin with to handle what we are subjecting our Pede's to.
In the end dual camber links are still overkill, I ended up going with
single Jato camber links all around that I have been all but completely
happy with.
 
Traxxas Jato Turnbuckles on Rear
and Front for Camber Links
A direct fit are the Traxxas Jato Camber links turnbuckles 58mm
#5539 - also a direct fit for front camber links on the Stampede
after the wide-pede conversion.
You will need some of the
Traxxas Shim Set Jato
balls #5529 and replace all the shorter balls with these longer balls to
provide the clearance required on the front. Don't think I am going to bust these.
Make sure you use the captured ball ends and Traxxas washer machine head screws otherwise there will be to much play if you use the stock
shoulder bolts.
          
Motor
Heat Sink - Associated Motor Heat Sink TC4 #31048
This was more of an
adventure than simply snapping the thing on the motor can.
First off, as
expected and stated on Misbehavin-Rc's site, the transmission housing
requires modification (i.e. removal of some of the motor housing.
This was no big deal, grab the Dremel with a cut off bit and make three
linear cuts - done.
Second, the heat sink
doesn't fit with the lower fins so those needed to be removed, more
grinding with the Dremel.
Third and possibly the
most frustrating part of the project was locating and positioning the
heatsink so that the motor could be bolted up on the motor plate.
The stickers needed to be removed from the can
(the can has a permanent mark indicating 0 for timing), and sliding the
heatsink on to the shaft end. What I finally ended up doing was
installing the motor
 as normal
without the heatsink and then marking which fin lined up with the timing
mark and then removed the motor, attached the heat sink and then
re-installed the motor.
The heatsink works great,
I have yet to hit the 5 second touch test limit and the motor runs much
cooler. Would I do the project again? In a heartbeat, however I
would recommend buying a Integy heatsink such as the one pictured without
lower heat fins or one of their fan assisted models (see note below.) I think in
reality if you are gearing everything correctly you really don't need a heatsink, however everyone always
over gears and/or does some high stress
bashing with stock gearing when it should be geared even lower, so in my
opinion this optional accessory give you motor some extra stay cool
insurance.
Long-Term Update: I definitely would not go for the fan assisted model on
an off road vehicle. These is just way too much junk that ends up in
the fins. I have been exceptionally happy with the heat sink and
have yet to get the motor to it's previous flesh searing temps.
Bad Horsie Shock Covers
I saw these nice little covers over in the E-Rustler forum and within 5
minutes of reading the one line post I was $8 poorer in my Paypal account
with some BadHorsie.com shock covers on the way to me.
Although I have blathered incessantly about the clay soil of Nebraska and
how it gets everywhere, I wanted, correction, needed a pair of shock
covers to prevent almost constant cleaning of my shocks on my Stampede
Project Ultra-Pede. After the entire Stampede Project has been all about
reducing maintenance and increasing durability.
They arrived quickly in about 4 days via a padded USPS envelop with only a
hobby accessory style bag with what looked like a ink jet printer
card stapled to the top stating is was for a Stampede/Rustler/Sport
SE/Bandit. God bless resourceful small businesses. Made me feel like I was
supporting the little guy. No complaints, just observations. Had the shock
covers been from one of our larger aftermarket accessory brethren, I am
sure they would have cost twice as much.
They must have figured that installation was pretty intuitive, because no
instructions or assembly diagrams were included. Note to BadHorsie.com,
maybe some online documentation would be helpful for those that need a
little more handholding, I think "Remove spring, slip over spring, tuck
ends into inside of spring, re-install" would be enough if printed on the
card attached to the bag. And that's how easy they were to install.
These ingeniously simple little accessories slip easily over your spring,
the extra material get tucked inside the spring and slide back on the
shocks. Everything is held in place just like normal, except you now have
these little scotch guard coated shock dust-boots that keep all the junk
off of the shock rods and ultimately junk from working it's way inside
your shocks. They also look trick.
Wonderful. Another neat little product that is sure to reduce ongoing
maintenance.
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