Very FIRST project: All terrain

[Evolution]

This is my very first attempt at an xmod proj, so if you guys don't think it should be classified as one, please tell me. Anyways, after losing my xmod in a scam a couple of years ago, I thought I'd never miss it and would have so much more fun with a mini z overland. Boy was I wrong! Recently, I found one at a pretty decent price off of ebay and went ahead to buy it. It came with every radio shack upgrade availible except bearings...dang.

Here's what it looked like when I first got it:




After popping in the batteries, all I can say is MAN, I remember why I didn't miss it at all! The steering didn't budge, and the tranny binded so darn bad! The truck also had really bad steering response, and throttle too! First, I took it apart, and put some brass bushings into the holes of the steering link, so that there would be no more slop for the screws. Also put a piece of styrene that was greased between the steering link, and that steering plate/ cover thing. Steering became ALOT better, but still very twitchy..sigh.. At first, I planned on turning this into a crawler, and ordered 2 servos. One for steering, and the other for powering the truck. As I waited for them to come though, the xmod with the stage 2 motor was pretty fun to mess around with. It was also REALLY fun in snow, and I started to re think of making it into a crawler. After some decision making I decided to turn it into a hobby grade xmod instead of a crawler and took my mini z OL board.

After some frustrating attemps, I finally connected it properly:





Good bye xmod electronics:


After converting it, everything was sooo much better! Only thing was, I started to miss my mini z OL and its suspension. So, I tinkered around, and manage to improve rear suspension travel by 110%. It now has almost more travel than my mini z OL! The suspension works really smootly, and also gives the truck body roll, and under acceleration the rear sagged down. I LOVE IT.

Pics:




Sorry for the horrible images. I had a dying camera, ****ed off mom, and a ton of work to do. I'll get a vid up sometime this week with more clear pictures and shots of the suspension. I'll also update this thread as more stuff comes in the mail.

[FloydfanYodaman]

congrats on your truck man...good luck with any future upgrades...have fun with it!!!!

[FinalGear]

keep at and add more stuff to it

[Evolution]

Yea, it WAS fun, today as I was fixing a couple of issues, I accidentally dropped the truck. It somehow misplaced the truck and suddenly POOF, smoke came from the steering FETS. The fall must have short circuited the two steering wires. Anyways, I have an xmod board lying around, and just wondering if I could use the steering, or throttle FETS from that? Would the FEts from the xmod board even work , and are they the same quality, or should I get it fixed with new mini z FETS? Could I use throttle FETS to make the motor a little more beefy? I am thinking about buying a new board, but want to try and fix this up first. Just my luck. D: