Some race pictures, then two 'studio' shots of my trucks

First pic is the Diablo Pro ?
And u gotta sell me your Cube ....

Yes the flying rusty truck picture is a diablo pro.

Not likely lol

I'm trying to install a CPE stock chassis 4-link kit to my super clod. The parts description say they bolt up with no additional hardware, but the stock mounting holes for the suspension arms (where the big pivot balls screw into the sides of chassis) are quite a bit too large for the hardware that fits through the CPE ball links, so the fit is too sloppy to work.

Anyone else beat this problem? I either need some kind of bushing to reduce the hole size to exactly what hardware fits through the rod end, or bigger rod ends to accommodate larger hardware, neither of which is supposed to be required for installing this kit.

Well someone on facebook helped me out: I had to install a conical washer backward facing into the larger hole to act as a centering device. This is kind of a lame design compared to having a reducing bushing but I suppose it works.

Pulled a Clod out of the closet after about 20 years of hibernation, and I have been playing around with it for the past month or so... I have been having a blast with this thing. Ended up way over powering it, and it has held up for over 15 battery packs... However after a pretty bad cartwheel, I ended up breaking the last Knuckles I had on hand, as well as breaking a Tube. Being that I am not on Social Media, I have limited access to most of the "Clod Action".

Basically is there any manufacturer that is making Tubes/ Knuckles in aluminum or delrin? Does anyone make a Slotted tube that allows you to run adjustable castor? The only ones I can find are Hot Racing or Integy....

Here is a pic of the clod in question.

Those are pretty much your only options as far as aluminium goes.

You can buy some delrin tubes but they are fairly pricy. The delrin fronts are nice, just wasnt a fan so I dropped using them on my one truck. Love his delrin rear tubes though, helps keep everything straight and fool proof.

http://www.hessemachine.com/uploads/..._2-24-2013.pdf

I race all my trucks so how much bashing they can take is unknown to me. I have seen them take a licking and shrug it off though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws83V7JTSj4 (25 seconds)

Wow thank for the reply.. didn't even know Hesse Machine existed...

that video made me cringe a few times... guess that proves the clod can bash

Don't feel bad, after weeks of building together a 4 link semi-stock setup my new to me clod lasted exactly 1.5 battery packs before destroying the tub chassis in normal use. :facepalm:

Thanks again, Ended up going with the hot racing tubes with the bearing steering... Now I am looking at race chassis... Seems CPE or ZRP are the only two main players? I don't want to get involved with 1 off stuff without parts support...

I'm five or six battery packs into my "stock+" clod build. This is my first one, here's what I've learned so far:

-Clods have nowhere near the ease of build, strength, or reliability of modern cars. Temper your expectations accordingly.
-Stock tub chassis cracked majorly on first run with 4 link suspension, during light bashing only. It is seriously weak.
-With aluminum reinforcements now on both sides of the chassis I can finally drive, but this thing vibrates bolts loose worse than an old nitro car. Even with blue loctite on everything, I can't make it a full battery pack without something coming loose. Very frustrating.
-For as straightforward as CPE upgrades seem, their four link kit, hub mounts, and hardware are really quite ill-fitting. Everything is tight, and riding at its limit. Shipping is slow, communication non-existant.
-The suspension of a clodbuster is an illusion, or mirage, designed to make you think about soaking up big jumps like a modern bashing truck would. In reality 70% of the truck's weight is unsprung, meaning most of the suspension is really in your tires, and the shocks and articulation don't do much for you. I have an axle-mounted servo in front and it spends most of its time banging against the bottom of the chassis.
-3S on stock silver cans is really quite zippy! On a high traction surface it will wheel over backwards or forwards with no problem.
-Stock tires and diffs make very little traction for climbing compared to a rock crawler. I don't know why I expected this giant truck to be able to go up small stairs but I was wrong.

Here is me breaking my servo horn by stupidly smashing into an immovable object:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMhiCCCbGo8

We actually had somebody compete and win with a pro mod truck on 4s and silver cans.
It is a shame tamyia hasn't and wont go back through and re pop some of the plastic bits with modern plastic.
Completely understand your gripe on CPE. He works with Monster Jam, so from January to April he is maybe home 1 day a week. The general communities opinion is that he should remove the ability to buy products during this time; however he doesn't and many people like yourself get very upset. Its a tough deal because everyone that sells clod chassis or products does so as a hobby for themselves. Its mostly a 1 person deal, which frustrates people who come into the solid axle world from the world of traxxas, hpi, or any other manufacture where parts and cars are practically unlimited.

Suspension is something that is greatly helped with the race chassis we run. However what you said accurately describes the old school 80's monster trucks it was built for in 1987, so maybe its not all bad?

I am a bit confused on the shaking bit though, as I haven't ever seen nor had that problem myself.

Oh I don't think it's all bad necessarily, it's just so different from what my expectations were having never had a clod before. I have yet to run more than 3-4 minutes without some hardware coming loose, especially the bolts/nuts holding my four links onto the axle mounts and chassis mounts. I was using conventional nuts with loctite, and I bought some locknuts to replace them but we'll see how it goes. The real issue is that the CPE link mounts hold the link hardware in a single shear config that puts a lot of stress on the hardware.

For the future clod-lusting record, today I drove it for about 4 minutes and in one roll that wouldn't have phased any of my other bashers I broke a servo horn, broke an aluminum shock mount, broke my front bumper. :ugh:

Still looking forward to next time.

Been loving tinkering with my Clod... I've gone through no less then 10 6000mah packs without much issue. I have broken 1 axle tube, and 3 knuckles. This is a mix of 2 and 3s brushless 5700KV motors stock gearing. I recently went to a 5" shock and fit up some axial sway bars. I really think tire/foam choice plays a considerable part in the suspension of the clod.

Here are some new pics.