I bought a Monster pirate chassis from stormer, it was just a chassis, no motor, no wheels, no body. At first i bought it for spare parts, but when i learned that they upgraded many things, (ie metal dif cases, 8mm drive shafts) I just put my motor on this chassis. I decided to set this up for climbing sandy hills because theres quite a few around here, and the pirate isnt really that great for anything except climbing hills becase of the really low CG and the nearly perfect suspension..for holding small tires on the ground. Ofnas biggest mistake was putting those massive tires on, no matter how cool they look..... Mods so far: Clutch - No need to increase gear ratio with the smaller tires for climbing, but i drilled small holes in each shoe, and then another later at the end, so it engages at almost 1/4 throttle. This gives me more power when it starts moving, good for going up hill. It almost has dual electric motor torque with the clutch and high gearing. Suspesnion - I put 10 wt oil in the front and 40 in the back to keep all the tires hooked up. Removed swaybars. I also raised the steering mounts on the steering knuckle with 4-40 screws to cancel the bind it enountered at the extermes of travel. I put the 3 big preload spacers on the back, because you cant have any squat on a hill or it will flip. Tires & Wheels - Ofna mt3 chrome rims with mt nike tires. Great improvment over the 1.1 lb coffee can tires, plus they look a lot better. Both DIffs locked up with epoxy and chunks of toothpick, but there starting to differentiate again. I also stripped, sanded and polished all the aluminum parts. I plan on getting a better tuned pipe, maybe an RB or Paris pipe, its needs just a little more power
UPDATE - 11/11/03 - The best discovery for this truck yet! no more stripped diffs or crappy lock jobs. The center spool from this truck fits right in the diff, with the spur mounting ring ground off. And all i had to do was drill some holes and add 2 screws to hold the ring gear on. YEAH! |
