Kraton k6exb 'beefcake'
- Thread starter dqb
- Start date
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- Thread starter
- #22
Sorry I’m having a hard time following, can you be more specific?
If you’re referring to speed I used a SkyRC gps GSMO20:
- Thread starter
- #24
WIP 
First off, a big thank you to everyone on the form for sharing such great information and the mod's for maintaining a wealth of info - as a new builder I was able to get through entire build without having to ask any questions.
6sEXB / Castle 1717 1650kv / MMX8S / M2C / PPS / JBI / ALZA / GCRC
TLDR Pic:
View attachment 220634
The build in chronological order:
Planning
View attachment 220637
Phase 1 start
Roller arrived on mother's day, thanks FedEx
View attachment 220632
Parts laid out for assembly
View attachment 220639
Was too excited to get started and forgot to take a 'before' pic
View attachment 220643
Fully broken down
View attachment 220645
PPS motor mount
View attachment 220646
Reassembly
View attachment 220648Phase 1 complete!
View attachment 220650
After several packs I identified the following items to correct in Phase 2:
1. My makeshift servo mount extension was twisting / not going to work long-term
2. Motor was quickly getting to ~165 temps even with 18/50 gearing and would need fans
3. Tires were good but not great
4. MMX8S fan already broke
5. Spektrum tx/receiver felt slow and was a pain to switch between cars (with and without gyro)
6. Lots of un-necessary wiring
Phase 2:
JBI mount was a pain to get in; even after prying it into place I found the stock screws were ~2mm too long and need to file them down as I didn't have any of correct size:
View attachment 220652
I went with with K8 heat sink with some .5mm thermal pad to make the connection
GCRC 'Maximus' (50mm) motor fan would not fit so cut the body for a cold-air-intake kind of thing
View attachment 220654
GCRC 'Typhoon' ESC fan required different screws than the MMX8S so used an M3 tap to get it together
View attachment 220656
Able to stuff Flysky FGr4 and castle bluetooth in the stock box.. barely
View attachment 220658
Phase 2 result:
View attachment 220659
View attachment 220660
Phase 3 will be mostly cosmetic/reliability and will begin when I have a significant breakage (already stockpiling parts).
Overall very pleased with the build, averaging ~130 temps in 90+ ambient on 20/50 gearing and handles great. Full weight comes in at 15.4lbs. Only regret was not including ceramic bearings in phase 1; now am faced with the daunting task of tearing everything apart to mark project 'done'. Only other regret was not building sooner.
And for those interested here's my gearing on 6s with backflips. I haven't GPS'd it yet and I don't really care to, but I think the 46mph calculation below is very conservative.
View attachment 220666
Looks like a great build and am steering in the same direction with mine. Also looks we share another passion…. Here fishy fishy! I chase the speckled sea trout though.First off, a big thank you to everyone on the form for sharing such great information and the mod's for maintaining a wealth of info - as a new builder I was able to get through entire build without having to ask any questions.
6sEXB / Castle 1717 1650kv / MMX8S / M2C / PPS / JBI / ALZA / GCRC
TLDR Pic:
View attachment 220634
The build in chronological order:
Planning
View attachment 220637
Phase 1 start
Roller arrived on mother's day, thanks FedEx
View attachment 220632
Parts laid out for assembly
View attachment 220639
Was too excited to get started and forgot to take a 'before' pic
View attachment 220643
Fully broken down
View attachment 220645
PPS motor mount
View attachment 220646
Reassembly
View attachment 220648Phase 1 complete!
View attachment 220650
After several packs I identified the following items to correct in Phase 2:
1. My makeshift servo mount extension was twisting / not going to work long-term
2. Motor was quickly getting to ~165 temps even with 18/50 gearing and would need fans
3. Tires were good but not great
4. MMX8S fan already broke
5. Spektrum tx/receiver felt slow and was a pain to switch between cars (with and without gyro)
6. Lots of un-necessary wiring
Phase 2:
JBI mount was a pain to get in; even after prying it into place I found the stock screws were ~2mm too long and need to file them down as I didn't have any of correct size:
View attachment 220652
I went with with K8 heat sink with some .5mm thermal pad to make the connection
GCRC 'Maximus' (50mm) motor fan would not fit so cut the body for a cold-air-intake kind of thing
View attachment 220654
GCRC 'Typhoon' ESC fan required different screws than the MMX8S so used an M3 tap to get it together
View attachment 220656
Able to stuff Flysky FGr4 and castle bluetooth in the stock box.. barely
View attachment 220658
Phase 2 result:
View attachment 220659
View attachment 220660
Phase 3 will be mostly cosmetic/reliability and will begin when I have a significant breakage (already stockpiling parts
Overall very pleased with the build, averaging ~130 temps in 90+ ambient on 20/50 gearing and handles great. Full weight comes in at 15.4lbs. Only regret was not including ceramic bearings in phase 1; now am faced with the daunting task of tearing everything apart to mark project 'done'. Only other regret was not building sooner.
And for those interested here's my gearing on 6s with backflips. I haven't GPS'd it yet and I don't really care to, but I think the 46mph calculation below is very conservative.
View attachment 220666
- Thread starter
- #26
Oh dude don’t even get me started - RC is my hobby, fishing is my lifelong passion. I don’t want to go too far off topic here so I’ll just share the electrical distribution I made for my kayak (given vague similarity with RC)
- Thread starter
- #28
Minor update:
- Thread starter
- #30
No red, going black and silver throughout truck. Weakening the aluminum I’m not even sure how I would test that. There’s no doubt that this is nasty stuff - if you leave in longer than a few minutes you risk pitting the alloy which would obviously be a red flag. I submerged/swirled for 3min and immediately washed with dish soap and water, and repeated for 2min on a few parts that weren’t completely silver. No signs of pitting.
- Thread starter
- #32
Worth noting that the Arrma anodizing dissolved almost immediately, and I prob could have pulled those parts after ~60sec
- Thread starter
- #34
Build update: another grind weekend at the bench but things are starting to come together. Final parts arriving next Wednesday (granular stuff like oddball size screws and shims, etc).
I ended up doubling both case and gear side smaller shims in diffs, I have read this is unnecessary with alloy diff housing but seemed to eliminate play in outdrives. Wonder if this is due to gaskets I used (Tekjo) being a bit thicker? What should I look out for signs of a diff mesh that’s too tight?
Good first experience with Vitavon so far, perf fitment was no more than .4mm away on bulkhead and diffs, however the screws are garbage. I plan on replacing all of them during my first regular maintenance service.
I ended up doubling both case and gear side smaller shims in diffs, I have read this is unnecessary with alloy diff housing but seemed to eliminate play in outdrives. Wonder if this is due to gaskets I used (Tekjo) being a bit thicker? What should I look out for signs of a diff mesh that’s too tight?
Good first experience with Vitavon so far, perf fitment was no more than .4mm away on bulkhead and diffs, however the screws are garbage. I plan on replacing all of them during my first regular maintenance service.
Last edited:
- Thread starter
- #36
Progress..
- Thread starter
- #37
Easiest way to check your gear mesh is to get a standard thickness piece of printer paper and cut a small enough strip that you can feed it into the ring and pinion while turning it. If it’s to tight it will either not feed through at all or cut all the way through the paper. When you have it set right the piece of paper will feed through and come out looking perfectly crinkled.
- Thread starter
- #39
Sorry, I meant mesh between sun and planetary gears in differentials, not between pinion and spur.
- Thread starter
- #40
BUILD UPDATE: P3 COMPLETE!!
Key updates include:
_alu bulkheads
_alu bell crank
_alu hubs
_alu diff cases & rebuild
_revised cooling system
_overall refresh of plastic bits (including cosmetic)
Significant weight reduction measures were taken to balance addition of alu parts, successfully (and surprisingly) reducing full weight from P1 build of 15.4lbs to current P3 build of 15.2lbs.
Looking forward to 'pressure testing' this build after the threadlocker cures tomorrow will update after shakedown with GPS speed on new backflip LP / 22t pinon setup.
Parts List (current):
Key updates include:
_alu bulkheads
_alu bell crank
_alu hubs
_alu diff cases & rebuild
_revised cooling system
_overall refresh of plastic bits (including cosmetic)
Significant weight reduction measures were taken to balance addition of alu parts, successfully (and surprisingly) reducing full weight from P1 build of 15.4lbs to current P3 build of 15.2lbs.
Looking forward to 'pressure testing' this build after the threadlocker cures tomorrow
will update after shakedown with GPS speed on new backflip LP / 22t pinon setup.Parts List (current):
| Category | Brand | Description | Part No. |
| Chassis | m2c | CHASSIS | 3000 |
| Chassis | m2c | REAR SHOCK TOWER | 3400 |
| Chassis | m2c | FRONT SHOCK TOWER | 3401 |
| Chassis | m2c | FRONT CENTER BRACE (POLISHED) | 3047 |
| Chassis | m2c | REAR CENTER BRACE | 3046 |
| Chassis | Vitavon | CNC Front/Rear bulkhead | NA |
| Chassis | PPS | Grublock Motor Mount | NA |
| Chassis | m2c | FRONT HINGE PIN RETAINER KIT w/ BUMPER MOUNT | 3616 |
| Chassis | m2c | REAR HINGE PIN RETAINER KIT | 3615 |
| Chassis | m2c | REAR SHOCK TOWER BRACE | 3035 |
| Chassis | Basherqueen | Carbon Fiber Top Plate - 5mm | BQNA320195UHD |
| Chassis | Basherqueen | Carbon Fiber Rear Mudguards - 2mm | BQNAMDWV5 |
| Chassis | Just Bash It | Servo Mount Extended Height | NA |
| Chassis | Avid RC | Ceramic Revolution Bearings | AV-ARR-TAL |
| Chassis | PPS | ESC Switch Mount | NA |
| Chassis | Arrma | Majove Rear Bumper (cut down) | ARA320540 |
| Chassis | Basherqueen | Gearbox / Bulkhead Gaskets | BQNA310854 |
| Chassis | RC Screwz | Stainless Steel Screws | RCZARA007 |
| Chassis | Xunwei | Alu Rear Center Brace Mount | NA |
| Cooling | Game Changer | Typhon v2 Fan (For ESC) | NA |
| Cooling | Game Changer | GCVR HARDWIRE with on/off switch | NA |
| Cooling | Game Changer | Typhon v2 2x Fan (For Motor) | NA |
| Cooling | Alza Racing | 40mm Aluminum Fan Cover (for ESC) | NA |
| Cooling | Alza Racing | Dual 40mm Aluminum Fan Cover (for Motor) | NA |
| Cooling | Alza Racing | Motor 40mm Fan Mounting base (for Motor) | NA |
| Differentials | Tekno | 22T Pinion | TKR4182 |
| Differentials | Vitavon | 29mm V2 Diff Case Alu+HD Steel | NA |
| Differentials | m2c | DIFFERENTIAL OUT DRIVES | 3402 |
| Differentials | TLR | Silicon Diff Oil (50k, 200k, 20k (F/C/R)) | TLR5286, TLR5284, TLR75008 |
| Differentials | Tekno | 13x16x.1mm, Diff Shims | TKR1222 |
| Differentials | Tekjo | Diff Gaskets | NA |
| Differentials | Lucas Oil | Red n Tacky Diff Grease | 10318 |
| Differentials | Kyosho | 8x12x0.2mm Shim (for main input gear) | KYO96773 |
| Drivetrain | m2c | DOGBONE REAR CENTER DRIVESHAFT | 310460 |
| Drivetrain | m2c | 17MM +5MM HEX UNIVERSAL HEX ADAPTER FOR 8MM AXLES | 3500 Rev B |
| Electronics | Castle | MAMBA MONSTER X 8S, 33.6V ESC | 010-0165-00 |
| Electronics | Castle | 1717-1650KV Motor | 060-0081-00 |
| Electronics | gensacearespammers | 22.2V 6800mAh 6S 120C LiPo Battery: EC5 | GEA68006S12E5 |
| Electronics | Powerhobby | 760MG Brushless Digital Servo (Running @ 7.4v / Stall Torque: 49kg - 680 oz-in) | PH760MG |
| Electronics | FlySky | Noble NB4 Transmitter | NB4 |
| Electronics | Castle | ESC Bluetooth Adapter | 011-0135-00 |
| Electronics | Castle | Motor Sensor wire 250mm | 011-0150-00 |
| Electronics | FlySky | FGr4 V2 Receiver | FGr4 V2 |
| Roller | Arrma | DONOR CAR - Kraton 6s EXB Roller 1/8 | ARA106053 |
| Shocks | m2c | 16 MM ZRS SHOCK CAPS AND ORING SHOCK PISTONS | 3480 |
| Shocks | m2c | SHOCK TOWER STAND OFF KIT | 3080 |
| Shocks | m2c | SHOCK CAP BUSHING | 3076 |
| Shocks | Arrma | Machined shock seal guide set | ARA330729 |
| Shocks | Arrma | X-Ring Shock Seals | ARA711003 |
| Shocks | TLR | Silicone Shock Oil 80wt / 1000cst | TLR74016 |
| Steering | Vitavon | Front & Rear Hubs | NA |
| Steering | Vitavon | CNC 7075# Servo Steering Bell Crank | NA |
| Steering | Basherqueen | Carbon Fiber UHD Steering Plate A - 5mm | BQNA340072UHD |
| Tires | dBoots | Backflip LP | ARAC9468 |
