Haastnooit's FMS FCX24 Power Wagon

[Haastnooit]

Today nothing but rain ... so I find myself back at the workbench fiddling with tiny hardware again. To improve overall stability and climb ability it is necessary to get the weight as low down as possible. This keeps the truck planted when climbing and crawling over obstacles. Therefore I will be upgrading the axles by adding some nice Injora brass portal covers.

This will be a significant weight gain and performance boost. Almost 100 grams for both axles together.

To cope with the added weight of the portal covers I feel it is wise to upgrade the plastic gears to metal ones. I saw on YT mentioned that more recent trucks have metal gears as standard nowadays, unfortunately mine has not. I advise you to check your portals gears when you buy a FCX24 and upgrade to metal gears in case you have plastic gears. Cost is only 12 euro in total for all four corners.

Unfortunately I discovered a lot of stripped screw holes on the inner portal housings on the front as well as the rear. I contacted my hobby store and they will contact FMS about this issue. If not resolved by customer service I will probably be forced to do step 2 of improving the truck much earlier as I have planned. We will see what comes out of it and how the truck will do in current state, perhaps the stripped holes will not be an issue.

Wheels and tires up next. I got some 1” silver Injora stamped deep dish beadlock wheels and Injora All Terrain crawler tires 22x62mm.

I use a simple U-clip to align the 2 halves of the wheel on assembly. This works really good and is much easier as trying to shift one wheel half when not aligned. The rubber of the tires is really sticky and adjusting the position of the wheel halve by shifting is impossible.

I got good practice with the assembly of the wheels because I did not pay attention and installed the wheel center on the wrong side of the wheels and mounted the tires wrong (directional). So I had to do over 2 wheels. The one wheel on the left is faulty.

Time to quit … and give the eyes and brain some rest. I had a late party last night and I am clearly not having my sharpest moments at this time. Next update with overall pics off all upgrades installed.

 

[Doom!]

Nice, your U clip is a good idea, I made a similar jig for my 1/24 size bead locks.

 

[N.Mango]

Nice, your U clip is a good idea, I made a similar jig for my 1/24 size bead locks.

was just about to mention your jig for that.

 

[oldguywnewtoy]

was just about to mention your jig for that.

Amazing how something so simple can save you time and frustration.

 

[Haastnooit]

I ran in to a slight problem today when mounting the wheels to the axles. There is not enough room around the wheel nut for the nut driver to fit. The bolts that hold the beadlock wheel together interfere with the driver and I cannot tighten the wheel nuts sufficiently. This needs solving ASAP.

Below some overall pictures of all upgrades of the first step of improvement installed. I really like the stance of the truck with the droop setup, I feel I am on the right path with this truck. I will probably need to look in to shocks after all as I see a tiny bit of leakage going on.

After pondering my mind while taking pictures and looking at the truck I came up with a solution for the wheel nut problem. I remembered I have some M3 6mm standoffs for PC motherboards laying around which can be modified to be used as an extended wheel nut.

I had seen this problem spoken about on YT some time ago and was aware of the existence of the longer wheel nuts. However I did not anticipate running in to this issue on my build some how. But knowing of the longer wheelnuts triggered me in finding this solution.

New length:

New weight:

As I am approaching the maximum picture count for 1 post (15) next update will be some pics of flexing the FCX24.

Later …

 

[N.Mango]

I ran in to a slight problem today when mounting the wheels to the axles. There is not enough room around the wheel nut for the nut driver to fit. The bolts that hold the beadlock wheel together interfere with the driver and I cannot tighten the wheel nuts sufficiently. This needs solving ASAP.

View attachment 291990


Below some overall pictures of all upgrades of the first step of improvement installed. I really like the stance of the truck with the droop setup, I feel I am on the right path with this truck. I will probably need to look in to shocks after all as I see a tiny bit of leakage going on.

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After pondering my mind while taking pictures and looking at the truck I came up with a solution for the wheel nut problem. I remembered I have some M3 6mm standoffs for PC motherboards laying around which can be modified to be used as an extended wheel nut.

View attachment 291997

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I had seen this problem spoken about on YT some time ago and was aware of the existence of the longer wheel nuts. However I did not anticipate running in to this issue on my build some how. But knowing of the longer wheelnuts triggered me in finding this solution.

New length:

View attachment 292000

New weight:

View attachment 292001

As I am approaching the maximum picture count for 1 post (15) next update will be some pics of flexing the FCX24.

Later …

Ran into the same problem. Looked through my parts bin and ended up with this. Will buy some shorter ones soon but these do the trick for now.

 

[oldguywnewtoy]

On the lug nut issue, I took my socket to the bench grinder and removed just enough material off the sides to make it fit. Did kinda the same with an MIP driver to make it reach thru to the diff screw on my Senton.

 

[Doom!]

I have those same wheels and tires on another rig. Yep, extended wheel nuts are a must. Lookin' really good. the length really helps. Looks like your squat is right on the money, let us know how she handles.

 

[N.Mango]

@Haastnooit this thread is making me want one more. I already keep looking at @Doom! rig.
Man this is making it very hard to not put in an order but divorce is just not an option.

Badass looking rig!

 

[kspitters]

That’s gorgeous rig! Making me question my choices… I want…

 

[Haastnooit]

Thanks for the kind words guys ! Much apreciated @N.Mango persuade her with new shoes ... or a new bag ... You can do it

Nothing new on the truck … just some flexing pics that did not fit my previous post.

Real happy about how this turned out … I am also thinking of getting another one .... for my daughter It would be cool to have 2 of these good looking Power Wagons. She is not a major fan of crawling (yet), but it is an excuse that works to get another one.

I also like the Furitek Cayman, only downside I feel it is a RTR and there is no thinking, sourcing parts and building involved. The rig is very capable but you order it and your done ... only half the fun, maybe even less. But the Cayman Pro is a good deal in regards to getting all the Furitek parts separately and building it up yourself. I also have been thinkg about just getting the Furitek Grasshopper chassis kit. I believe it is the same chassis as the Cayman as far as I can tell from the pictures.

Lots to think about. First I will focus on drawing and 3D printing some axle stands and a RTI ramp.

See you next time …

 

[N.Mango]

Thanks for the kind words guys ! Much apreciated @N.Mango persuade her with new shoes ... or a new bag ... You can do it

Nothing new on the truck … just some flexing pics that did not fit my previous post.

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Real happy about how this turned out … I am also thinking of getting another one .... for my daughter It would be cool to have 2 of these good looking Power Wagons. She is not a major fan of crawling (yet), but it is an excuse that works to get another one.

I also like the Furitek Cayman, only downside I feel it is a RTR and there is no thinking, sourcing parts and building involved. The rig is very capable but you order it and your done ... only half the fun, maybe even less. But the Cayman Pro is a good deal in regards to getting all the Furitek parts separately and building it up yourself. I also have been thinkg about just getting the Furitek Grasshopper chassis kit. I believe it is the same chassis as the Cayman as far as I can tell from the pictures.

Lots to think about. First I will focus on drawing and 3D printing some axle stands and a RTI ramp.

See you next time …

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I used up all my brownie points already

 

[Doom!]

I used up all my brownie points already

Kind of in the same situation at the moment. Smasher was my last purchase for a bit, the plumbing needs some attention.

 

[oldguywnewtoy]

Kind of in the same situation at the moment. Smasher was my last purchase for a bit, the plumbing needs some attention.

I just did some plumbing repairs last week end. Calling a plumber would've been about $200, but I did it with $20.00 and some fittings I already had. Maybe I should be in the market for one of these cute little things!

 

[Doom!]

I just did some plumbing repairs last week end. Calling a plumber would've been about $200, but I did it with $20.00 and some fittings I already had. Maybe I should be in the market for one of these cute little things!

I can do minor plumbing, but anything complicated gets a plumber. If there is a good chance of me doing more damage than I can afford to fix, I call a professional.

 

[oldguywnewtoy]

I can do minor plumbing, but anything complicated gets a plumber. If there is a good chance of me doing more damage than I can afford to fix, I call a professional.

I'm pretty good at sweating dry copper, it's when it's wet is when it gets tricky. BTW, if you do the bread trick in plumbing, don't use wheat! Ask me how I know.

 

[Haastnooit]

I have been busy at work past few days, lot of overtime due to a deadline that needed to be fullfilled. But I managed to squeeze in enough time to design and 3D print a 1/24 RTI ramp and some axle stands for the FCX24. I did things a little bit different this time with the design and construction of the 3D parts for the RTI ramp.

I decided I would try some simple weathering to make it look like rusted steel. So therefore I designed the different parts to be glued together, and not bother with incorporating tiny press-fit connections. The paint will mask all traces of glue so no problem to use glue in this case.

I glued everything together freehanded with Ruderer L530 Kunststoff-Klebstoff , no jigs, no clamps, just my fingers to keep things aligned and pressure the bonds.

I call it weathering but it is nothing more than giving it a sloppy paintjob. I used some silver spray-paint as the base color. I did not let the base coat dry completely before adding the rust with some Tamiya PS14 Copper spray-paint. I finished the parts of with a coat of Tamiya PS55 Flat clear to get rid of the shine.

I deliberately did not shake the cans before use, so that the spray would not be even and give some sputters now and then. I applied the rust color in multiple stages to get it on there from all different sides. I used my wife’s hairdryer to dry the rust paint as quickly as possible in between.

On to the axle stands. No glue of course, this is a simple one piece design.

I did the same rust process on the axle stands.

All rusted out parts together …

Nice … very rewarding. I am thinking about getting a airbrush to do more painting and weathering on parts. I will have to look in to what is necessary for equipment and work area to see if I can fit this in to the hobby room. I am beginning to run out of space.

Offcourse I also have pics with the FCX on the ramp and stands, but I am at the max for pictures in this post. So those will come later ...

Enjoy your day !

 

[Doom!]

Daaaang! Those came out great!

 

[Haastnooit]

Oops … I did it again. I ordered a second FCX24 just now, this time it is the blue version.

I will be modding the new one also. I am currently in the process of formulating the plans for the first step of improvement for the blue one. After finalizing the plans I will start with gathering the parts, it will probably take some time to accumulate all needed parts and get the necessary information for the mods planned. Nice prospect to have another fun project on hand. Yesssssss !

In my last post I approached the maximum picture count for one post but did not post any pictures of the car on the RTI ramp and axle stands. So here they are …

On the axle stands, wheels floating above the surface.

I ordered a second set of Injora wheels and tires for the FCX24, I opted for full brass wheel to be able to run more weight down low if needed. The tires look like the Proline Hyrax profile. They came in yesterday and assembled them immediately.

Lots of screws involved, 28 for each wheel …

Weights …

Ran in to a big problem on the last wheel. The head of one of the screws broke off completely when I reached the end of the thread. I tightened the screws by hand only, no electric tools … ?!?

On the first picture above the part that broke off and on the second picture the broken screw on the 2 o’clock position. I talked to Injora and they are sending me a replacement wheel. I caught another bad screw during assembly, guess this one went unnoticed or was not recognizable as such.

 

[kspitters]

Oops … I did it again. I ordered a second FCX24 just now, this time it is the blue version.

I will be modding the new one also. I am currently in the process of formulating the plans for the first step of improvement for the blue one. After finalizing the plans I will start with gathering the parts, it will probably take some time to accumulate all needed parts and get the necessary information for the mods planned. Nice prospect to have another fun project on hand. Yesssssss !

In my last post I approached the maximum picture count for one post but did not post any pictures of the car on the RTI ramp and axle stands. So here they are …

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On the axle stands, wheels floating above the surface.

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I ordered a second set of Injora wheels and tires for the FCX24, I opted for full brass wheel to be able to run more weight down low if needed. The tires look like the Proline Hyrax profile. They came in yesterday and assembled them immediately.

View attachment 293790

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Lots of screws involved, 28 for each wheel …

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Weights …

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Ran in to a big problem on the last wheel. The head of one of the screws broke off completely when I reached the end of the thread. I tightened the screws by hand only, no electric tools … ?!?

View attachment 293796

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On the first picture above the part that broke off and on the second picture the broken screw on the 2 o’clock position. I talked to Injora and they are sending me a replacement wheel. I caught another bad screw during assembly, guess this one went unnoticed or was not recognizable as such.

TOO MUCH MUSCLE!
Jokes aside, glad they’re sending you a new wheel. Good service
You really did a great job. Those axle stands look so rusty