The Return of the MRC Thunder King

[team_3_six]

Just wanted to stop by and show off my MRC Thunder king.
many years ago I recieved this for free from a friend of mine that just had it sitting around. after several months I decided to re build this when I found that most of todays equiptment does not fit on this beast. After 5 builds, a near loss to an ebay sale and a fire. I was able to restore this truck to an even better than ever world scale that it rightly deserves to be called. And I am proud to say that I can whoop any stock E savage, E zilla, E maxx and E anything with 2 motors. So here it is the MRC Team Novak edition Thunder King from start to end.
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e276/storm_in027/one.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e276/storm_in027/two.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e276/storm_in027/three.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e276/storm_in027/four.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e276/storm_in027/five.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e276/storm_in027/six.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e276/storm_in027/seven.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e276/storm_in027/eight.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e276/storm_in027/nine.jpg

[shadowghost1]

Wow very nice...

[FESTER2004]

awesome,i have seen it in xtreme rc magazine.very nice,i love the bug body

[maxxmustang]

WOW! amazing transformation! Great work!

[Eli the rc guy]

Thats really crazy, what tires are you using?

[Karadjas]

I think I'm going to cry... that is so beautiful... oh my god...

I've been looking for a thunderking for years, i wanted to put savage suspension on it just like you did. That there is my dream!

Eli, those look like Maxx Bowties.

[rc10mike]

That looks great! I wish they still made those things! Great basher with tons of space for custom stuff!

[team_3_six]

Thanks, It took alot of hard work and patience but I think it was all worth it.

[ElectricThunder]

Nice. One suggestion; rid yourself of the cursed tamiya connectors and invest in a set of deans or powerpoles. One of the better, lower cost investments I've ever made (especially with brushless).

Other than that....that's a REALLY cool lookin' truck. I like it a lot.

[z-man280]

wow.

[team_3_six]

Thanks, Yeah i have been meaning to do that and honestly I dont know why I havent switched the Tamiya plugs out. I have deans on all my race cars, Hmmm. But thanks for the Compliments guys. It means alot.

[artieballz]

now thats badass what arms are those? and can this take a beating?

[balang_479]

they should make a racing class just for that, if people saw that car youd have the most popular racing class...

[team_3_six]

Those are HPI Savage A Arms. They have been slightly altered to be able to mount directly with the original arms that exsisted and yeah, It can definately take a beating.
I have been trying to get someone to purchase the idea to build and electric class truggy. So I guess this summer I am just going to have to show them that I too can run just as well. Maybe I will get notice then

[seanmanibog]

Sorry for saying this, but that thing is SEXI!

[NitroTXT1]

cool are those savage a-arms on there? i have a nitro thunderking and i wanted a way to mount 17mm hexes so i could run nubz and have something a little different

[NitroTXT1]

are you running stock 550's or something better? i was thinking of running the new trinity 550's in the electric one when i get another

[NORTEX-T1FK]

are you running stock 550's or something better? i was thinking of running the new trinity 550's in the electric one when i get another
That looks like a single brushless Novak HV setup(it's the only Novak ESC that will handle 14 volts). It will stomp most all stock dual motor setups.


Truck looks flippen awsome!!! I wish I has the patience to restore something.

[NitroTXT1]

That looks like a single brushless Novak HV setup(it's the only Novak ESC that will handle 14 volts). It will stomp most all stock dual motor setups.


Truck looks flippen awsome!!! I wish I has the patience to restore something.
novak superduty can handle dual batts and dual 550's btw that's no hv maxx...i tried the same system you mentioned in my old truck and the tranny couldn't handle it or at least the slipper couldn't...maybe if you remove the slipper you'd have better results..i dunno maybe i'll try in my next one

[RCmad93]

Wow that really is a transformation how much were all the new parts??

[team_3_six]

NitroTXT1 :
cool are those savage a-arms on there? i have a nitro thunderking and i wanted a way to mount 17mm hexes so i could run nubz and have something a little different

Yup those are Savage A Arms, you need to do a little bit with a dremel here and there, but that is the ONLY way you will get 17mm hexes on it. I tried everything else in the world and that took lots of money for trial and error. Luckily, there were some parts that could be ebayed to get some cash back.

NitroTXT1 :
are you running stock 550's or something better? i was thinking of running the new trinity 550's in the electric one when i get another

Those are 2 Traxxas Titan 550's, The trinity 550's you speak of suck compared to the titans. You have to think that when Traxxas decided on that pertiqular motor, they wanted something that could hold up to a double tranny set-up.

NORTEX-T1FK :

That looks like a single brushless Novak HV setup(it's the only Novak ESC that will handle 14 volts). It will stomp most all stock dual motor setups.

Truck looks flippen awsome!!! I wish I has the patience to restore something.

The ESC Is a Novak Super Duty ESC, I choose this because I kinda figure this ESC unit must have a better deal than the stock ESC that Novak supplies for the E Maxx. At least the price suggested it may have been a better ESC!

NitroTXT1 :

novak superduty can handle dual batts and dual 550's btw that's no hv maxx...i tried the same system you mentioned in my old truck and the tranny couldn't handle it or at least the slipper couldn't...maybe if you remove the slipper you'd have better results..i dunno maybe i'll try in my next one

I honestly believe I can make a Brushless work on this. The one problem that remains is I would have to get the machine shop who made the dogbones (Oh yeah, when you change to the Savage A arms, the dogbones for the savage are not long enough, so you need to have half the Savage and half the MRC braisend together with a plasma welder or have them made from scratch. $150.00 will get the Braisend way done cheaper, and it holds up as well as a single hardened peice of steel) to make a steel spur gear and a couple of internal gears as well. I had them in one of the first edition MRC's I had built and it worked great on stock motors.

RCmad93 :

Wow that really is a transformation how much were all the new parts??

Truck : Free
Savage parts : basic priced
A little know how and patience: Priceless

End result is, this truck can and will hold up to the challenge. Some more changes to come, but ever little changes to give it that pro feel. I have built 3 more of these bad boys and this one is my favorite by far. If I get the chance, I intend on showing up a Nitro truggy.

[trxcrazy345]

very nice transformation!

[NitroTXT1]

cool...i am sure brushless will work but with that slipper i am not sure cause like i said it slipped even when i super tightened it...as for the dogbones rc alloys makes custom that shouldn't cost much...just lengthen the bones...also did you try the hotbodies bones? i have a couple lying around and i know they're longer than stock bones....i already have a spare set from another project that i cut a little but dremel work is pretty simple so maybe i'll jock your mod so i can throw the freakin 17mm on there

[team_3_six]

Its not really about the dogbone length. It is how it needs to be designed. See the Drive cups on the Tranny are for the MRC and are hexed at a certain size. Most common RC's today do not use anything like that in design. See MRC was trying to start a trend, it just never caught on. And on the other end you have the regular Savage cups. Now see the MRC ones are bigger, the Savage are smaller. So you either have to have them made or machined. Now if you know of a company that can make dogbones out of hardened steel then that is cool, but no way is simple alloy going to hold up. Including on a twin motored RC that has more torque.

[tadium54]

very nice setup

[rccardude04]

VERY nice work there. I do have one question though... What are the AAs for? If you're not using the ESC's built-in BEC, why the AAs over a 5-cell rx pack??
Just curious :)
-Eric

[team_3_six]

Well, the choice there is simple.
I dont have a reciever pack! I am running 2 venom 4600 to the ESC dedicated to the motors only, I dont want anymore drain from them from anywhere else. but even though the ESC has a self contained fan that fan is ONLY for the cooling of the ESC system which as we know is highly needed when running a hotter ESC. Since the motors are known to get hot, I have a 3racing seperate fan that cools the motors down. The issue was weight basically, what weighed less? it was a better choice to not have a reciever pack just to opperate a fan and opt for a lighter power station that would give ample juice to run the fan. This way I am not taking away any more power from the stick packs and the rig is lighter. Now alot of people mention that the fan really doesnt drain that much juice, but the truth be known that when racing an electric setup in the last pull of the batteries it is important to use as much of the battery as possible, I didnt want to dedicate the batteries to run everything and lose that little of what was left. If this was infact a better race setup which it will be if it gets to that point I would obviously move to change the batteries to a built balanced jig and deans plugs which I still should have done before the initial build. But this is a on going prototype that I am in hopes will recieve a second look from the industry. The other end of the power spectrum would be to switch out the reciever for a better synth system along with quicker servos and to find a way to either run a brushless setup without destroying the design of the transmission since these trucks are after all very hard to find yet even build. But I only have so much money to get this where it is now. maybe everyone will all see a better design in the future to come. It all matters if this can seat notice as a future in RC.

[NORTEX-T1FK]

Oh man! I just noticed it was a dual motor setup :o . I assumed it was brushless because It looked like it had three wire to the motors and the esc looks like a GTB. My mistake. :p

[NitroTXT1]

Its not really about the dogbone length. It is how it needs to be designed. See the Drive cups on the Tranny are for the MRC and are hexed at a certain size. Most common RC's today do not use anything like that in design. See MRC was trying to start a trend, it just never caught on. And on the other end you have the regular Savage cups. Now see the MRC ones are bigger, the Savage are smaller. So you either have to have them made or machined. Now if you know of a company that can make dogbones out of hardened steel then that is cool, but no way is simple alloy going to hold up. Including on a twin motored RC that has more torque.

rcalloy makes steel dogbones i could probably have them make em...when i get some money to make progess on this project

[team_3_six]

Oh man! I just noticed it was a dual motor setup :o . I assumed it was brushless because It looked like it had three wire to the motors and the esc looks like a GTB. My mistake. :p
Ahhh its cool. I wish i could throw a brushless in there. maybe after some more revamping.

[team_3_six]

rcalloy makes steel dogbones i could probably have them make em...when i get some money to make progess on this project
I checked out the website for rcalloys.com and was rather impressed. But looks very pricey or equivelent to what I can get in a day. But for many who dont have the luxery of having a machinest around. its sweet to get Rc gear made for you. I think that might be an option for a better tranny or even a metal spur gear

[NitroTXT1]

yea i'll try that out as for the gears not sure...i have read however that mp7.5 diff made by fironi will fit...this could add a nice level of toughness needed for brushless..but as i stated with that....if you remove the slipper setup and run e-maxx gears you'd be fine...i think...and once i get another Electric TK i'll try it out

[team_3_six]

Right on. Im working on my Thunder King edition part 6 now. Im going to try something new by incorperting a duel brushless set up. This will take time!

[team_3_six]

Thanks for the heads up on the Deans plugs. I have added them to my rig.

[team_3_six]

Update, Well you all can quit making fun of me. I removed those nasty Tamiya plugs and replaced them with the Deans Ultra's.
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e276/storm_in027/361.jpg
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e276/storm_in027/362.jpg