New EP Pro owner with some ?'s

[bullaculla]

Hello all! Been lurking and searching this site for awhile. I just bought myself an EP Pro a week ago, and aside from a little slop here and there, I am pretty impressed with this thing!


First of all, a little about myself. New to the Chimera, but have been an RC modeler for a long time. I've owned and still own many vehicles of various brands like Tamiya, Traxxas, HPI, Losi, Axial etc. This is my first Redcat tho. This is also my first large scale surface vehicle (not counting my 1/4th Venom VMX450) I've also had many electric RC helis from the Blade MQX, to Trex 700Es.


To pay for all this, I am a machinist by trade. I run a machine shop at pearl harbor naval shipyard, and have a mini machine shop at home too. I plan on making a few small parts for the Chimera, but I mostly plan to purchase upgrades that are already available. 7075 makes some really nice stuff and plan on ordering from them soon.


I've soldered on some Deans Ultra plugs, installed a cheap RC light kit from ebay and played with the suspension a little. I painted the insides of the light buckets with a chrome spray paint and thinned out the mesh for better light output. I have already broken a few parts too. I shattered the front diff outdrive after crashing into a curb. Brakes don't work well in the air... And my buddy ran it into his truck tire and broke some roll cage and body parts. Replacement parts are on the way. Been running temporarily as a RWD, and its pretty fun, but my rear tires are getting bald quick!


Anyway, so I plan to install the 7075RC Baja 5 wheel adapters. Do you guys buy 2 sets of rear Baja wheels and tires? Or do you run the narrow wheel upfront? It looks like 7075RC adapters keep the stock track, and the Ramtechs will be a little wider? Also, I have been looking, but does anyone make better drive train parts? the Axle stubs seem to fit a little sloppy in the bearings.


Thanks in advance! Looking forward to learning from you all and sharing my experience.

I plan on pressing a titanium ring on all the cups soon...

 

[bullaculla]

Also, one more thing. This seems to be a newer chimera as the side panels have body posts and pins instead of being screwed on. Also the rear of the side panels is missing the long part that gets the two screws near the wing. Or have all the EPs been like that?

 

[topblissgt]

for the weak outdrives, get the ones 7075 have. They have the pressed on stainless tubing and are the same price as redcat charges for new ones without the pressed on tubing

 

[bullaculla]

Thanks! Actually, as soon as I saw the damage to the cups, I thought about making a ring to press onto the cups. I got plenty of titanium round stock laying around.

 

[topblissgt]

don't bother.. You can buy em done cheaper

 

[RampageHopUps]

The RAMTech adapters give you a wider stance.

 

[bullaculla]

Okay thanks! What about wheels? Are most people running 5T rear wheels all around? I was thinking to go 5T fronts all around to save on some rotating mass. The trenchers for the 5T fronts are already wider at 3" than the stock chimera tires. Any problem with running fronts all around?

 

[RampageHopUps]

The fronts will save you rotating mass and will lose your pride. Get the big wheels and look cool.

 

[Ildy666]

Haha +1 on that......

 

[bullaculla]

LOL! Thanks! So I noticed that the front diff has a pretty beefy top brace on it.

And the rear diff has absolutely nothing! It has the roll cage, but its not enough to brace the frame, and its pretty bendy here...

So I made this today! 5/32" thick 6061 aluminum.

Had to get new screws from hardware store tho.













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[bullaculla]

And its a perfect fit!

Nice and stiff and not in the way of anything

Should have been like this from the factory! I might cut a 45* at the front to clean it up a little and paint it black.Maybe 7075RC can mass produce them?









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[topblissgt]

excellent! You should pump out a few and sell em yourself. Ill buy one!

 

[FMcamaroZ28]

I would buy one for sure. Cheap but effective upgrades are the best ones!

 

[topblissgt]

thats two sales! lol

 

[bullaculla]

LOL!

I would if I had CNC, but I do everything on a manual mill, so it takes way too long to make them at a reasonable price. Sorry.

 

[bullaculla]

BTW, I have another question, I just got my diff cups in and got my front diff all back together. But why is there only 2 spider gears in the diff? It looks like it was set up for 4. Even the cross bar is notched to take another bar. Is there any reason for this? Has anybody put another set of spider gears in there?

Also, what weight diff lube do you guys run? All I had in my shop was 30K and it didn't seem as thick as the crap that was in there. Does seem to drive better now tho.

Thanks!

 

[bullaculla]

Got some goodies in the mail today!

7075 adaptors,

and a lightly used set of proline 5T trenchers mounted on desperados from ebay.

Summit shown for comparison...

Gonna have to gear down tho. Motor is running hot. Top end is good, but tires grab so much, It just takes off instead of spinning the tires. And the thing even does stoppies now under hard braking. Or I gotta stop running around on the pavement.

Now I need to clean up my steering. Damn thing wobbles bad in reverse...

 

[bullaculla]

Some GoPro footage from today.

 

[bullaculla]

And a few stills.

 

[FMcamaroZ28]

that last picture is awesome!

Way better with the new tires I'm guessing? No more chassis slamming into the ground?