Jr's Kraton build

[Jrgunn5150]

Hello everyone, I'm Jr. Some of you may know me, I've been around a lot of forums for alot of time lol.

With no further ado, here's my Kraton I picked up the other day after alot of hemming and having. I've never had a Truggy, unless the Losi Muggy counts? Anyway, I've always been a MT guy, so this is new to me.

Here's the thing stock... We've all seen it, blah blah..

Here I've started the tear down tonight.

I found one interesting bit during the tear down. The steering rack uses bushings, they are the same size as an HPI Savage, 6x10x3. As an FYI for anyone else who prefers bearings.

I have a Hobbywing 150a ESC on the way, a set of Trencher X's, a Savox 1256TG, diff shims, misc bearings, 500k oil for the center, 70 for the front, and 30 for the rear. Also I have a Flysky GT3B radio on the way for it.

So, this will be a bit slow, but hopefully a durable build for me. Thanks for looking!

 

[Jrgunn5150]

Made some further progress today, got it stopped bare to the chassis, mocked up the ESC, cleaned center diff out for new bearings and oil. Like everyone says, it had grease in it, and precious little of that.

 

[WoodiE]

@Jrgunn5150 welcome to Arrma Forum and I'm looking forward to seeing more of this build. I'm thinking about picking up a Kraton myself.

 

[Jrgunn5150]

Thanks Woodie! I'm glad it's here!

I made a little progress last night,

I'm just waiting on parts to come in now.

I found I had a cracked hinge pin mount, and a stripped screw in my ESC plate, so I've ordered parts to rectify those things also

 

[Jrgunn5150]

Well, not everything is the way I want it, but it is done for now. My Savox was DOA, so I'm using a Tower Pro 996...all I had on hand. Also, I didn't get my knuckle bearings yet.

 

[Jrgunn5150]

Got a nice run in today, very happy with the truck, its incredibly stable. I may go up in rear oil weight however.

 

[Jrgunn5150]

Ran a little more at the beach yesterday, can't seem to keep that left front wheel on... Also, I noticed my bumper is badly fractured, thinking of going T-bone, but I'm not sure how they retain the hinge pins

 

[Jrgunn5150]

Well here's my breakages for the weekend,

I believe I can substitute the stupid plastic hinge pin hanger with an alloy Durango one, also ordering the T-bone front skid/bumper thingy

 

[Jrgunn5150]

I've busted two more hinge pin hangers recently... I believe that the way the stock hingepin is captured by the the inside of the stock bumper is causing this.

Stock there is a bump on the inside of the bumper that serves as a stop to keep the hingepin from walking out of the bulkhead. When the bumper takes a hit, it is transferred straight back through the pin to the front/rear hanger. It tries to pile drive the pin right through the plastic hanger, resulting in a busted hanger...

So to remedy this, I've taken a few different actions.

First, I ordered up the Team Durango dex8t suspension hangers, made of alloy, and completely capture the hingepin on their own, no need for the stupid bumper bump, no more transferring of force through the hingepin and acting like a pile driver...

Secondly, I ordered a T-bone racing bumper... But after a two week wait, I cancelled and ordered a Senton front bumper instead. The Senton bumper appears to brace against either the upper bulk, or lower part of the tower also, so it should sturdy that area up well.

I will update further this weekend when I get some actual parts in hand

 

[Jrgunn5150]

Ok, so it doesn't quite fit. It seems the Senton has a different front shock tower that allows the brace to sit back flat. I dremeled it down, it turned out like this.

 

[Jrgunn5150]

Well the combination of the DEX8 suspension hanger's and the Senton front bumper has eliminated the constant issue I had of punching hingepins through the braces,

Other than a couple of blown bearings, I haven't had any breakages at all. Oddly enough, my wingmount has never broken lol. And I'm the only only I know of who was breaking hingepin hanger's.

Anyway, I just got an HPI F150 XL body to match my actual 1:1 project. I had to cut the wingmount, but IDC about it anyway.

I don't ordinarily plug tools or products, especially when they ain't paying me lol, but I have to say these MIP Thorpe drivers are absolutely the best RC tools I've ever bought. In twenty years I've never used anything but L wrenches, never saw a reason to drop money on this stuff. These drivers have removed screws I thought were hopelessly stripped, with no hesitation. And they don't seem to wear at all, I highly recommend them.

 

[itsachevy]

Ok, so it doesn't quite fit. It seems the Senton has a different front shock tower that allows the brace to sit back flat. I dremeled it down, it turned out like this,

What is the car with the blue shocks and alloy peices

 

[Jrgunn5150]

What is the car with the blue shocks and alloy peices

It's my Arrma Kraton, that pic just came out weird.

 

[itsachevy]

It's my Arrma Kraton, that pic just came out weird.

I like how it looks with all the red peices blue. I bought a blue kraton hopping to get blue pieces. I might deanodized my peices and paint them blue. Thats for the idea

It's my Arrma Kraton, that pic just came out weird.

I liked the way it looks I'm thinking of doing that to mine the pic help make the descion for me

 

[Jrgunn5150]

I've neglected this for awhile, and some of my pic links are broken now lol.

I have been slowly collecting parts to get this thing going again. Somewhere along the way I broke my rear wingmount and bent the poo out of the shocktower, along with breaking the rear diff case.

So hopefully I'll be able to get it back together sometime after New Years. I have a set of bearings, a new rear bulkhead. I need knuckles still and a wing mount. After the holidays hopefully I can throw another 100 bucks at the thing.