15.03.2003
Here are some pics of HOOF in action at the local bashing area (BMX track). It doesn't have a lot of rocks to crawl but there is some nice rough terrain. Unfortunately, the cameraman didn't wanna get dirty so there are no pics of it in the bushes and rocks. Here are some other excellent pics that he *did* get instead!

The first pic is *NOT* posed. The other truck is a 2WD JPS Clod powered by a brushless motor belonging to my friend Overtki11. The JPS isn't really a crawler, but HOOF is! Gotta love articulation!

Although set up as a crawler, the 17x2 Sapphire motors put out good speed even with the 11-tooth pinions. The truck may not be ballistic, but it's speed is respectable and with the excellent acceleration it actually jumps a lot better than I thought.

Hoof has a very soft suspension setup for crawling and on acceleration, it's cool to see the rear end of the truck droop down hard like in the first pic. As you can see, it kicks up a good amount of dirt!

Hoof climbs well, but currently it tends to lose traction on some of the surfaces I'm climbing on. I believe cut tires will certainly help in this area. The stock chevron threads are just too close together to dig into obstacles to create traction.

Here are some pics of my friend's clod. Does the shell look familiar? It should - it was sold to him as part of a deal for the spare TXT I had... he claims it's his only basher shell, but I think it's the best looking shell ever and must have been painted by an expert painter! lol!

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13.07.2003

Been really busy lately but finally found some time to paint up a new lid for HOOF last night. It's a simple paint scheme but I liked the way it turned out. The Pro-Line 50s panel van totally transforms the way this rockcrawling clod looks and certainly makes it look a lot more scale! I also added some decals on the chassis itself so the bare metal doesn't look quite so plain. Wheel-wells were enlarged to accomodate the articulation of the truck. This shell is going to be too pretty to run!

Here's the mandatory articulation shot, followed by some personalized details on the truck. On the front fender is my own "TEAM TNT" logo TNT is the name of a local bashing group. On the rear axle, I had space for a rear steering servo that I didn't use, so used a piece of scrap lexan left over from my painted shell and made a little "license plate" - how's that for re-cycling?

Looks like HOOF is finally complete!

10.07.2004
How time flies! It's been almost a year since my last update on HOOF. This truck has held up very well to all the hard bashing and it has visible scratchmarks on its lower links and gearboxes to prove it. Since the last update, I've gotten myself a tabletop mill and I decided to mill out the slots in the chassis like I've always intended.

In the pictures you can see that a second battery slot has been made and the chassis has also been relieved of some weight. HOOF is already a very light truck but it has now gotten even lighter. I think the slots also make the truck look a lot better.

Here are some pictures of the truck still with the cool panel van shell... it's still holding up well! The last pic is actually taken at a recent crawling session (you can see the pics further down). The front steering rodend broke after all the abuse. :)

Here are some pictures of the truck still with the cool panel van shell... it's still holding up well! The last pic is actually taken at a recent crawling session (you can see the pics further down). The front steering end broke after all the abuse. :)

Here are the other pics from that bashing session. First the crawling pics...

The truck's articulation and locked diffs have the greatest impact on HOOF's crawling abilities. Here on the local scene, HOOF will crawl with the best of them. This isn't our normal crawling playground and the dirt sometimes causes problems with traction but the last 2 pics show HOOF powering over obstacles whenever that happens.

Check out these pics... as a crawler she doesn't get much air but she still does some awesome looking jumps. The 17x2 motors and 11 tooth pinions make for pretty good torque and decent top speed. I guess even my crawler can't get jumps out of it's system.

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