Phase III - TOTAL OVERHAUL!

ThunderTech Racing Ripper Chassis
After 2 years of running the ESP chassis, it was time for a total upgrade. The Zilla IV certainly still has the performance to "hang" with the best - as evident through it's NR/CTPA championships it's won recently. However, it did have some nagging weaknesses that I just didn't like - like the weak cantilevers and the easily-bendable chassis rails. The Zilla also took a lot of tweaking to setup right.

I thought the clod needed to remain competitive with my new rigs like the TXT-1 and the Emaxx, so I looked to ThunderTech Racing (TTR) for a high-performance chassis. The result? The beautiful graphite-intensive Ripper chassis!

The Chassis

Thundertech's chassis is a thing of beauty! The woven graphite is any RC enthusiast's dream and it's quality is awesome - nice cut, good fit.

I liked the fact that the holes in the chassis are sized correctly for the screws. The Zilla chassis had holes larger than the screws which meant that the chassis was easier to tweak in crashes. Everything went together smoothly, except for one little snag - 2 of the square cross-posts were a little too long and they were filed down to fit (Thundertech took my feedback very well and even thanked me for it). The completed chassis is very sturdy.

You can also see pics of the anti-sway bar which works well to keep the truck from flipping... while at the same time not restricting articulation.

The Suspension & Steering stuff

Suspension is very different from the Zilla IV's. Gone are the cantilevers, the shocks are now mounted on the machined lower suspension links. These black anodized links are beautifully machined and very sturdy (note: although on a hard collision I did manage to bend one). Link mounted shocks eliminate the many parts needed for cantilevers while at the same time retaining articulation potential - with only 3.5" associated shocks, I get over 14" of articulation with no slop - Cool!

The upper 4-link post is installed in the gearbox where the stock steering link used to be. The post is anodized black and the fit is perfect! My Ripper came with a full set of carbon links for the upper suspension links and the steering, however, I understand that TTR has replaced all these with aluminum ones since then due to issues with production time… so check with them if you would prefer carbon links.

The PowerPlants

I love the Super Rooster, so that's retained... but now power is supplied via 7-cell 2000mah batteries to 15x4 mod motors. These modified powerplants supply more speed than the 17-turn Sapphires. I also used adjustable motor mounts to gear up the Clod for even more speed... how much speed? Read this to find out more!

In the pics you can also see the Tamiya motor heatsinks to keep things running cooler.

Other Mods

Check out the cool black Super Rooster! It isn't a special edition... I just dyed the cover black to match the rest of the truck - I think it looks cool and matches the purple heatsink too. I also dyed the nylon CRP rims blue to match the blue beetle shell (from PARMA) which spots a custom paint job. I took great pains to try to ensure the body shell looks like it belongs on the MT... and I think I succeeded.

Body Pics

Some pics of the custom paint job on the PARMA bug shell.

Performance
The Ripper runs awesome! I don't want to put the Zilla IV down, but I like this setup a whole lot more! The link mounted shocks work wonderfully and give more suspension action without the slop of cantilevers. The truck has an interesting characteristic on acceleration - the rear dips down and really shows off the power the truck has.

The inner front wheel tends to lift off the ground on hard cornering, but the truck hardly ever flips - not surprising since the centre of gravity is kept low and the overall weight of the truck is very light.

Steering is wonderful (but I have shaved the steering stops). Even with it's extended wheelbase and wideners it's still one of my trucks with the tightest cornering.

The truck is an awesome crawler too! What else would you expect from 14" of articulation?

Basically, this truck is my basher of choice and I'm sure I will get even more fun when I wire up and load some 2400mah batts into it. I've found that the Clod has the advantage over TXTs and Juggs in the area of handling characteristics and low centre of gravity... the handling is much more predictable and stable and you can be sure that the Ripper chassis makes the most of what advantages the Clod gearboxes offer.

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