Mojave "Superlite" Mojave [Build Thread]

[obessedwithrc]

Okay, so I'm doing it. I'm going to build a "Superlite" Mojave. Parts ordered. I will post updates as they come in and I start building the truck. I may have questions, too, like whether or not I should use the limited slip diffs or just keep them open.

 

[SrC]

All Open diffs .
My 3 cents.
Keep us updated.

 

[obessedwithrc]

Here's the parts list I have so far in terms of "lighter" parts:

Carbon fiber

• Chassis
• Shock towers
• Top plate
• Ackerman
• Steering Plates
• ESC plate
• Servo mount
• T2T brace

Titanium

• Droop screws
• Shock pins
• Turnbuckles
• Steering links
• Center driveshafts
• Shock standoffs
• Servo mounting screws

Let me know what I'm missing so far!

If I can get it light enough, I plan on running an MMX + Castle 1515 combo.

 

[SrC]

Use alloy Servo specific mounting washers. They are needed. All of my RC's run them. Keeps the servo square and centered and Rigid to the Servo mount.
I use Reefs. If you look closely at them, they are specifically for servo mounting. Srcews alone with plain washers and those stupid Rubber grommets is old hat. A spin off from Air RC servo's. No one should use them. The servo's Mounting ears and case can crack otherwise.
https://reefsrc.com/products/reefs-servo-washers-8pk

 

[Jerold]

Plastic is typically lighter than Aluminum, Carbon Fiber and Titanium. It's not a sexy but it can save some weight.

This is small bits, but it adds up. You can replace every screw with Titanium. Also you might look into the weight of all the bearings.

The part number decoder should help find parts.
https://www.arrmaforum.com/threads/arrma-screw-part-number-decoder-mostly.59847/

I'm not sure what the current wheel/tire combo weighs now, but it's rotational mass and lighter is better. You might be able to pull the foams and run pneumatic instead. Freeze the tires over night, then plug the holes with silicon and refreeze. It "should" hold some air.

 

[obessedwithrc]

Super interesting, @Jerold! Never thought about bearing weight or removing foams.

 

[SrC]

The BB weight and removing the Foam???
That's a joke, right???

Might as well just leave it as a a "Slider" and it will be the Lightest Rig, sitting on your shelf that is.
And might as well empty out all the Tail light Fluid while you are at it.
You will save even more Grams there.

>>>>You aren't adressing the Mojo body at all?
It is one heavy body there, all that weight is up high also.
Remove everything from it, roll cage, Driver/ interior, etc., all screws and leave the body stripped down to bare Lexan.
Now you saved approx. a pound + of weight right there

 

[Dan B.]

If I can get it light enough, I plan on running an MMX + Castle 1515 combo.

I would urge you to move up a bit. I think you’d regret those electronics on your very first pack. Even if you get the rig down to 7+/— #’s it marginal at best.
Just for the sake of argument, you could get a Max 6 and an 8s 42xx Rocket/Surpass motor and have some headroom for an affordable price and even have the option of running 8s if you kept your KV low enough. Just my .02

 

[SrC]

+1

 

[Fracman]

Okay, so I'm doing it. I'm going to build a "Superlite" Mojave. Parts ordered. I will post updates as they come in and I start building the truck. I may have questions, too, like whether or not I should use the limited slip diffs or just keep them open.

I lightened my Mojave 6s, by taking out the roll cage along with driver figures. I did it because it rolled over too much due to being top heavy.

 

[obessedwithrc]

Good points, gentleman. I do have an MMX8s and Castle 1520 (1650kv), 1717 (1650kv), and 1721 (1260kv) motors. I also have a Max6 and HW 4985 coming in the mail. If the MMX and Castle 1515 don't work out, I can easily swap out the power system. Castle has a V2 of the 1515 that I'm going to try. We'll see if that makes a difference or not. I can always run it on 4s if it's light enough.

Update: last night I bought:

• Mojave BLX roller
• Mojave BLX body with roll cage
• MMX 3d printed ESC cage w/ 40mm fan mount
• Various aluminum screws (figured I'd test them out in low-stress spots)
• All parts I listed in the previous post

I also made a list of all the screws I'll need (thanks to @Jerold for the link to the parts decoder). The only thing left I have to get is a set of titanium screws (I have some on hand so I'll need to see which ones that I'm missing). Once that's done, it's going to be a bit of a waiting game for all the parts to come in!

Also—I've started to think about areas where I can drill out holes to save weight. I might also see if some of the Tekno parts fit. They make quite a few "lightened" parts that I might be able to use for the driveline.

More posts to come as ideas and parts come in. Thanks for following my journey!

 

[fish]

Here's the parts list I have so far in terms of "lighter" parts:

Carbon fiber

• Chassis
• Shock towers
• Top plate
• Ackerman
• Steering Plates
• ESC plate
• Servo mount
• T2T brace

Titanium

• Droop screws
• Shock pins
• Turnbuckles
• Steering links
• Center driveshafts
• Shock standoffs
• Servo mounting screws

Let me know what I'm missing so far!

If I can get it light enough, I plan on running an MMX + Castle 1515 combo.

Following Your progress!

One of my builds (now rebuild), is a Mojave chassis with Kraton Arms, BackFLip MT tires, Typhon shell and EXB bumpers.
Open Difs from a Kraton and I use Typhon towers with Kraton shocks. I have Typhon open diffs with 50t and 46t spurs and a variety of pinions.

Have always been looking to keep weight down, I found that the Kraton and Mojave Bodies and associated mounting, bumpers and such weight allot :-/
I got my rig down to about 14 lbs (without a battery) Thats fairly light for a 6S 1/7 Monster Truck. with big tires.

Id Love to see just how much weight you save with those Carbon and Titanium parts in total.

The abuse this rig takes isn't extreme like jumping ramps and hills but I run it Hard and it takes a beating and few parts break.

Good points, gentleman. I do have an MMX8s and Castle 1520 (1650kv), 1717 (1650kv), and 1721 (1260kv) motors. I also have a Max6 and HW 4985 coming in the mail. If the MMX and Castle 1515 don't work out, I can easily swap out the power system. Castle has a V2 of the 1515 that I'm going to try. We'll see if that makes a difference or not. I can always run it on 4s if it's light enough.

Update: last night I bought:

• Mojave BLX roller
• Mojave BLX body with roll cage
• MMX 3d printed ESC cage w/ 40mm fan mount
• Various aluminum screws (figured I'd test them out in low-stress spots)
• All parts I listed in the previous post

I also made a list of all the screws I'll need (thanks to @Jerold for the link to the parts decoder). The only thing left I have to get is a set of titanium screws (I have some on hand so I'll need to see which ones that I'm missing). Once that's done, it's going to be a bit of a waiting game for all the parts to come in!

Also—I've started to think about areas where I can drill out holes to save weight. I might also see if some of the Tekno parts fit. They make quite a few "lightened" parts that I might be able to use for the driveline.

More posts to come as ideas and parts come in. Thanks for following my journey!

I Just ordered a MMX8 for this rig.
I also ordered the 1515 2200 as well to try out.
IF I like the 2200, Im going to order the TP 2200 8S motor.
If I don't like it, it's going in my stretched Typhon and I'll put the 1717 1650 in this rebuild.

Ive watched a Ton of videos with this 1515 2200 motor in Kratons, Talions, Mojave with MMX's and MMX8's and they seem to kick ass and run fast.

Crazy Power to Weight Ratio. Ive seen a wide variety of Claims for the HP output of the 1515 2200. From 4-6 HP to logs showing as much as 10 HP (can't be right).
The 1717 1650 seems to be over 10HP 6S and up to 15HP 8S.

Most (by far) of videos I see for the 1717 1650 is in 8S Rigs. They weight 30-35 lbs and Few are Speed Running them.
I see others being used in Speed Cars that weigh around 20 lbs.

 

[obessedwithrc]

Scorched parts just showed up! Roller and body are coming on Sunday. Here we gooooooo! @fish — I'll need to buy a scale. I don't have one.

 

[fish]

Scorched parts just showed up! Roller and body are coming on Sunday. Here we gooooooo! @fish — I'll need to buy a scale. I don't have one.

View attachment 306301

Oh Man
Bad Wolf Wants that Chassis!
And I want those center Driveshafts. The Mojave ones are long and the stock ones vibrate.

I started my rebuild the other day. Found other damage, go figure? Arms pins, Front shock tower (3rd one now), Hex's needed replacing, Bearings were Shot! Changing all of them and using up lots of JennyRC Extra parts I have LOL
More parts coming.

Those HR Aluminum Steer block weigh within a few grams of the stock ones and they are SO MUCH better!

It's been just over a Year since I did a tear-down. Took A lot of abuse and many crashes.

Have FUN!
I want to see Video of that Mojave Flying!

 

[obessedwithrc]

Update #2

I added up all the parts I needed and Jenny's was actually more expensive than just getting a roller. So, I bought a roller w/ body on eBay and it showed up today. Castle V2 1515 showed up as well, and a few other misc parts that I'll need other than the big batch of parts I got from Scorched.

Last night I made a spreadsheet to count up all of the screws that I would need to replace with either aluminum or titanium. I am also considering having all of the pins machined from titanium (we'll see how adventurous I get). I looked into using CF for pins, but it's clear that wouldn't work. Other than that, I have been thinking about EVERY possible way to save weight (let me know if you have some ideas).

Tonight I'm counting up and sorting the titanium screws I have on hand to see what I need to order. That's it for now! My M2C-built Tekno MT410 is jealous (it also has a complete titanium screw & turnbuckle set along with ceramic bearings and other goodies). #goodtimes

@fish - thanks for your reply! I think this build is going to take me a while—especially since I ordered aluminum screws from China and they will take 30-45 days to get. I'll definitely get some vids of the truck!

Pics of my MT410:

 

[calebgilmore]

Let me know what you do with all those red aluminum parts. i'd lighten my wallet a little for them hahahaha. Wait did you buy a rtr slider instead?

 

[obessedwithrc]

@calebgilmore — I bought a slider/ roller off eBay (the body came with it). I could have bought an RTR and kept the electronics, but I already have plenty of spares on hand, so I decided to get the roller. I also have tires, receivers, etc.

Let me know what aluminum parts you want!

- Gregg

 

[Dan B.]

Seems like (as the goal is to be super light) you won’t be running a separate LiPo for the servo? I saw you got a PM845 servo. That thing is an animal, but it pulls almost 8amps all by itself at 7.4v. Toss in your fans and your MMX8S BEC could be sucking pond water. It could be brown-out city, man.

 

[obessedwithrc]

Hey @Dan B. — I'm actually running a Castle 2.0 14 amp BEC on the Tekno to handle that servo. I am running the fans directly from the battery via the balance port. I'm sure John from Promodeler would be frowning on that setup! Haha.

Side note: I just threw in some pics of my Tekno because it was sitting next to the Mojave roller I bought. I'm not sure what servo I'll be using on the "Superlite" Mojave. Any thoughts on that?

 

[Dan B.]

Hey @Dan B. — I'm actually running a Castle 2.0 14 amp BEC on the Tekno to handle that servo. I am running the fans directly from the battery via the balance port. I'm sure John from Promodeler would be frowning on that setup! Haha.

Side note: I just threw in some pics of my Tekno because it was sitting next to the Mojave roller I bought. I'm not sure what servo I'll be using on the "Superlite" Mojave. Any thoughts on that?

Gotcha. I’m partial to the PM635 for my “big tire” vehicles. It’s strong and fast, and only pulls around 5.0amps at 7.4 volts so most Castle or HW ESC’s can handle it right off the receiver without glitching. Spectrum receivers of mine have glitched with a 635, but only if I’m trying to do it and I’ve had no problems in general bashing at all. I do run glitch busters on the receivers though, and I recommend them. For $5 or $6 it’s tough to argue with that (basically weightless) extra measure of protection. Some disagree.