Kidriffic Micro RC 4x4 Monster Truck Dissection (pics)

[Azimov]

Wouldn't do anything for ya I don't think. The only way is to dump more juice to the motors. The switching transister mod for the Zip, or was it a bit, dragster comes to mind.

[actofgod]

This is my first attempt at a body mod.. I bought my first bottle of Testors paint today, heh.

This is a silver Stampeder Jeep that I'm going to be using for a 4x4 body replacement. So far I've taken out the black plastic windows and replaced them with clear plastic, detailed the front and top grills in black, added windshield wipers, added chrome rearview mirrors, door handles, and gas cap, and a few other touchups. I dremeled out the tall screw posts and other internal plastic so that it will fit on the 4x4 chassis and made a slot for the front tab. The back will be held on with a thin twisted wire until I finish the internals.

There is a LOT of room inside this thing! I'm used to working with bits, where every millimeter counts, but it is entirely easy to fit three cells in the top space of this thing. I don't plan on running with 5 cells, so I may use a couple batts in there for an LED setup.

[actofgod]

second view

[rt450]

very nice! that's the body i was thinking of using too. i like the detail. show pics of it on the chassis.

[Lord_Nick_D]

so are you going to post a finished pic ?
has anyone bought homies I have just gotten into them and as everyones is getting thier g1 I'm getting homies (the girls love them)

I want to see how the suv works out so I can decide if I should buy one

[Lord_Nick_D]

I came up with a Idea
would he capacity of the laymans cells be high enough to get half desent runs if you put 2 in each place of the normal batteries then charged it to almost full capacity it would be a drag 4x4

[actofgod]

Here's a pic of the Jeep body on the chassis. I'm still wanting to add a front metal grill thing and some metal exhaust pipes on the sides, attached to the black body tabs where the silver clips normally go. You can see a muffler next to the truck; I cut it off a metal Stampeder chassis with a dremel cutting disc. It made a lot of sparks, lol.

I tried fitting the Layman's button cells in there, but no luck; the battery compartment is just too small. You could do it with some dremeling, but that defeats the purpose of the super-easy Layman's mod. But there's plenty of room below this body to add extra cells, as you can see. I could fit three batt's up top. However, I think I'm going to dremel out some space in the lower battery compartments to hold a 1/3AA battery. It's the same length (16mm) but is wider in diameter. I'd also put at least one more under the body for 3-4 cells. These 1/3AA's are an unbelievable 300mAh, so I'm really hoping I can get them to fit. Should be no problem with all this extra space; in fact, I think there will be room leftover for LED's+batt+power switch.

Also, I've got to get some kind of rollbar going. This thing has such great torque, but it's going to waste because the truck flips backwards when going over tall obstacles. Maybe we could find some even bigger wheels to use. Adding weight in the front might help some. Anyone tried anything to reduce flipping yet?

[Lord_Nick_D]

I like it
I'm going to have to buy some now
do all the bodies fit and do you have to do any modding to get them too.

[actofgod]

All the bodies are a pretty good fit, but you do have to mod them some, depending on which body you use. I cut out some screw posts from the underside of the jeep body, removed the black window plastic, and dremeled away a little of the plastic on the inside of the jeep body and a little on the front of the 4x4 chassis to get it to fit. I also cut a slot for the front tab (see pic a few posts back) and am currently running a small wire through the back screw post and through a tiny hole in the back of the jeep body and twisting it to keep the back on. I'll look for a better solution later if needed, like supergluing a little block of plastic with a hole drilled in it so that you can still use the screw to hold the body on.

The stock body can be put back on at any time with no mod needed, but once my batts get here in the mail and I start modding, I think I'm not going to want to go back to having less space to work with.

edit: added pic; left two are unmodified bodies, right two have insides trimmed down to fit.

[Buzzbait]

I did a quad cell mod on my Kidriffic this weekend. Talk about power!!!!! Yeehah!!!

[actofgod]

That's sweet! Are those all four NiCd's? That'd give you better punch than NIMH but not quite as much runtime. I'm not sure which way I'm going to go yet, but it'll probably be with NIMH since I've already got lots of 'em.

Did you drill new holes in the body to run the new battery wires through? Looks clean. I never can get my solder connections to stick on the battery terminals, always have to use the batteries with solder tabs. Did you use some rosin flux? What wattage soldering iron are you using? I'm always afraid I'll overheat the batteries.

[Buzzbait]

All four batteries are the stock Kidriffic batteries. I originally bought two trucks and had mechanical problems with one of them. The gears just wouldn’t mesh properly. So I junked one truck as a parts vehicle. The parts worked out well. I had enough batteries for the quad cell, an awesome SUV body for my Zip Zap, and a charger that soon will be used for my dual-cell Bits. I’m not sure what to do with the spare controller.

Yes, I did drill new holes for the battery wires. I could have used the holes from the roll bar, and just left the roll bar off, but the roll bar is what keeps the batteries from flopping around.

The secret to soldering batteries is to rough up the contacts. Sanding the contacts is not enough. You need to use the corner of a thin needle file and really groove the contacts deeply. I usually file the contacts at four different angles, so there’s lots of grooving for the solder to grip onto. Once you get it right, it’s almost impossible to remove the solder from the battery. You’d need a jackhammer. Here’s a link to the Radio Shack needle files that I use. They have a million and one uses. Especially when you’re modifying Bits and stuff.
http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...5Fid=64%2D1985

If you want the solder job to look ultra-spiffy, get one of those giant emery boards that chicks use on their nails. Then use the emery board to remove that little wisp of solder that always seems to stick out. Emery boards will sand down solder in seconds, and are not coarse enough to accidentally knock the solder loose from the battery.

I just use a cheap 15 watt soldering iron. Nothing fancy. Anything more would be overkill when working on small cars and trucks. I’ve given up on using flux. I don’t think it helps when using rosin core solder. All it does is make a mess.

The quad-cell has some mad speed and torque to it. After charging the truck on my peak charger, I get nice 1/2-hour run times. The first five minutes actually have too much power, as the truck keep flipping over onto its rear end. Once the batteries die down a little, it’s much easier to control. Quad-cell is really pushing the limits of the truck in terms on steering and stability. Three cells may be more appropriate, if you don’t need to push text dictionaries across the room.

[malform]

How many times have you ran the quad cell truck now? You would think it would burn up the electronics wouldnt you?

[Buzzbait]

I don't think so. 4 cells, wired in series, are only throwing 4.8 volts at the board. That's not so bad. The quad-cell has about 2 or 3 hours of runtime on it now, and there are no problems.

[Lord_Nick_D]

I want to mod my charger for constant voltage so I dont have to worry about dieing aaa's
any tips

I am thinking of making mine a tri cell again how many volts should I use to charge it

I want to post a pic of one of mycostom bodies
it started out as a police van thing them I modded it to a chevy avalanche thing and extended the front end to make it more truck like it still needs a good paint job but its pretty good