NeroXL

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MadBlaster

MadBlaster

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Messages
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Location
NW PA
Arrma RC's
  1. Fazon
  2. Nero
Boy am I excited.

Thomas P, I thank you tremendously.
Your picture of your Nero XL next to the Kraton8s was the perfect inspiration at the perfect time for me to create my own NeroXL.

My son and I have been doing a complete tear down and cleaning of his Nero for the past few weekends. We have new bearings, stainless steel screws, and some fresh parts to replace what's been beaten over the last two years. Seeing it strewn out on the bench, the thought of how easy it would be to swap out the vertical plates at this point crossed my mind. Didn't take long online to stumble upon Thomas's comparison pic, which in turn made my mind up instantly that my NeroXL was going to happen.

The overall goal on my build isn't to only lengthen the chassis, but to really explore what aspects can be altered and what effect it will have. Ideas currently include a solid back axle, 4 wheel steering, wider wheelbase, batteries between TVP, duel servo steering, adjustable ride height on the fly, adjustable length on the fly, WTF not?! They are simply ideas at this point, and some will end up being bad ones, its cool, I've accepted that. PLEASE toss me any good, bad, or in between ideas and I will give it strong consideration. I'm into it now, why not get neck deep eh?

I'm going to take full advantage of working in a small machine shop. Mostly small/medium sized manual and CNC lathes and mills. No 5th axis, or 4th for that matter. But, we make it work. The build will start with lengthening, but once a proven CAD design of the TVP is created it really opens the door for easy alterations.

I have the stock TVP 90% digitized to a dwg file. I just need to make some adjustments to my hole locations and run one more test piece. The stock tvp file will be edited to include the extra length If all the holes line up satisfactorily, and then it will be time to make some chips. If the lil man and I make it to the shop early enough tomorrow, I might have some good pictures of some progress to put up.

Thanks for any input
Greg

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It sure wont be a shelf queen, so yea, it will be thoroughly launched and abused. I'll take some video of the carnage Ill be tossing its way and post it.


Update:

All of the stock TVP's dimensions and hole locations have been obtained via CNC mill. With that information I have sketched up the stock TVP in a CAD/CAM software. Next Ill add my first set of alterations, whip up a program, then hopefully start making some chips. My first version will have what seems to be the standard stretch. Using the 80mm slider shafts to replace the 41& 53mm shafts coming off the central diff. That is the fastest way to get my vehicle moving again and to prove my basic reverse engineering was successful. It will be made out of 3/16 alum plate that I currently have enough on hand for three chassis. Compared to the original TVP material, it is around 30% thicker. Its no secret that the Nero is a hefty one. I plan on using carbon fiber for my final version to try and keep that in check.


I will be attempting to lengthen it further after some initial testing. I will also be looking towards widening the wheelbase along with 24mm wheel hex's. I believe once its stretched, widened, and outfitted with some bigger shoes, the drivetrains weak spot will be identified. That will bring some reality to some of my pipe dreams on this project.
 

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I uploaded my design for a quote in some carbon fiber...Over a $1000 in set up, then 100+ per piece. Looks like I'll be getting the ol fiberglass system hooked up to a cnc mill if I plan on having carbon fiber. FML
 
I refuse to let carbon fiber go. Especially after finding a beautiful red camouflage weave design that will very easily lend itself to a Carnage themed rig. That will happen...eventually. Previous quote was using traditional cnc mills. My saving grace could be a water jet cutting company not to far from the shop I work at. Still need to send a dwg out for a quote so we will see.

I'm finalizing my basic stretched chassis design currently. Fixing a missed hole and one that didn't behave well with my designed cut out. But other than those two goofs, everything lines up absolutely perfect. That confidence will allow me to get a bit creative now with the overall design of the TVP. Hence the honey comb design.

My attention has also turned to the lathe. Im working on 24mm hex adapters that will have an undecided added width to them. I'm waiting on getting the actual tires to finalize any design yet.
 

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I grabbed the tires over the weekend and managed to spend some time on the lathe today working on the hex adapters. Found a few things out that are slightly reassuring.

For one, the stock arrma wheel hex threads press fit through the Xmaxx size tires hole. The pin going through the hex was considered a possible weak point at first. Increasing the stock pins diameter would most likely just weaken the drive shaft it goes through. Without doin the simple enough research, I feel it's safe to assume the Nero's hex pins are the same size, or close enough too the pins on the Xmaxx. Therfore decreasing the likelihood the pin will be the first failure point in the drivetrain after modifications.

Another interesting thing I found was that the diameter of the new tires is maybe an inch and a quarter larger than the biggest tires I've previously ran on the Nero. I'll deal with the slight disappointment that it will be smaller than imagined. The extra ground clearance could damage the shocks with over compression from the inevitable chassis slap from big air. Limiting straps, stiffer springs, and shorter shafts should handle any issues with the shocks I may come across.

As for power systems, I'm looking at 12s with the future plan to be more reasonable with 9s. I will have to alter the tvps design to accept a 3rd 3s battery central to the chassis. Raise the center diffs location to not only accommodate the new beef cake motor, but allow enough room for a 3d battery underneath...
 
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Booya.

Wheelhex's will be finished today. Have my proof of concept/process piece finished. Now to take the eight other pieces through the last few steps to get enough for my son and I. I'll gain around 17mm or .67in in width.
 

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Great project and machine work!
I look forward to seeing more of it!!!! Would you ever make parts for others on request? I have a small Unimat SL lathe but it has limitations...
 
LibertyMKiii said:
Great project and machine work!
I look forward to seeing more of it!!!! Would you ever make parts for others on request? I have a small Unimat SL lathe but it has limitations...
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Thanks man. It's been a fun journey so far with a lot of learning, scrap, and time.

I would really enjoy helping others with their own projects. If you, or anyone really, would be interested in custom machined parts, hit me up in the message section and I'll see what I can do.


Mounted the massive tires over the weekend and caused some carnage. I was quite reckless on a dirt mound/jump and got the broken pieces I was looking for. Shredded center diff and broken front right driveshaft.

My Nero is the bare bones version, so I have optional stronger Arrma drive shafts available. The center diff, I believe if the slipper clutch was adjusted to account for the higher rotational mass, that breakage could have been avoided. If the diffs become the issue, they will be reinforced, re-engineered, or replaced.

Thinking of changing the name.

The Nero Maxx. How ya like that one Traxxas?
 

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I've been having an awesome time with the giant wheels mounted on the Nero. The extra ground clearance has allowed me to take it back to an area that was only previously able to be bashed with my son's Yeti and my YetiXL. Old remnants of a slate mine. Not nearly as mine-ish as your imagination may be seeing it, but its an enjoyable walking distance from my house so it's perfect.

I've had a Hitec brushless servo that was originally in my YetiXL in my Nero before this build started and has been working great so far. I'll need to crank down the servo saver if I want a better turning radius, but that will also invite more breakage than I wish to tackle at this time.

The shocks... They are showing there weaknesses slowly but surely with the massive tires. I've held back on creating the TVP's in anticipation of this issue. I can attack it a couple different ways.

The simplist way I see to better the shock situation would be to start with longer and wider diameter shocks. Machine a new shock brace and alter the tvp design to allow for easy adjustment with the shock depth.

I thought of another way to make to alter the shock depth, but that's for another post in itself. It's way more complicated, but would allow for car height adjustment on the fly and from the remote...
 

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MadBlaster said:
Hot damn, finally made some chips today. After much measuring, drafting, designing and programming, I have my first NeroXL twin vertical plate.
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That stretched TVP looks so beefy! Wish the original ones were like that. I can't wait to see the finished product. Great Job so far!
 
Sad update folks. I will be getting laid off tomorrow. Works been slow all year and now the virus has made it nearly impossible to find new work. So that means the project is seeing an immediate completion date of Saturday. That's two days from now Saturday... I may be able to get in once and awhile after Saturday, but I can't plan on it.

I will be finishing up the TVP redesign tomorrow along with the design for the new shock braces. I'll get all the rough stock sized up and ready to go as well in anticipation of one hell of a long day Saturday.

I going to make two more sets of wheel hex's that give even more width to the wheelbase. I will also machine two sets of TVPs, possibly a third with the honeycomb design. Last I'll need to make a couple sets of shock braces.

I really appreciate everyone's kind words. It will definitely be part of my motivation to crank it all out.

Edit: Shop is mandated to shut down. I won't be able to finish anything else. Again, thank you everyone.
 
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Hot damn, the project lives! Not only that folks, but the first version of the NeroXL is successfully in its testing phase.

Alterations so far
-Wider by .63 in.
-Longer by 2 3/4 in
-1/5 scale Duratrax SixPackX's mounted

She has a not so healthy four inches of ground clearance. What I mean by that is the chassis will not slap the ground before the shocks bottom out. That's going to be a serious issue after the first jump. Exploring different solutions will be my next major step in this project.
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A couple launch videos are up. The testing went real well this morning. I'm extremely happy with how it turned out. The stock motor and esc are heating up quick, but not near as bad as I was expecting. Those will be upgraded once my end result is more in focus. Idk where I'll take this thing next. Haha
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I'm going to attempt to tune in the steering today with a couple ideas.

The stock servo saver was not designed for the amount of stress I'm putting her through. It's cranked as tight as she will go and her turning radius is horrible. I'm going to attempt to use washers to preload the spring more at the servo saver, hopefully making it less responsive on average turns.

The other idea involves snagging the ubec(?) from the YetiXL and powering the hitec brushless hi torque servo with it. Not looking forward to that as much due to the amount of liquid tape I used to seal that sucker in... If all of that fails, I'll be looking at a duel servo solution.
 
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