DARKWAV

I had a few things to get to on the front end of the truck. In addition to the suspension mounts, I replaced the servo and I swaped the steering post bushings with ball bearings. If the front uprights were a spindle and spindle carrier setup, I would have gone aluminum. However, I'm a bit sketch about pillow balls in aluminum steering blocks in terms of how that would wear over time, so I'm keeping that plastic for now.

As with the rear, I checked the front diff for side-to-side play, and everything seemed tight so I didn't need to add any of the supplied shims.

For the front suspension mounts, I wanted to make sure I had a front-front mount that was compatible with the EXB bumper. I saw that Hot Racing made one but I read that the bumper mount flange is fairly thin and bends easy. I know now that Treal makes one but I didn't know that when I was shopping. I ended up with the Scorched RC front-front mount. It is a beefy chunck of polished 7075-T6 aluminum, so at least in some respect, with regards to my mis-matched suspension mounts, it does provided some symmetry with the rear-rear CRCU mount which is also a beefy chunk of 7075-T6 aluminum. The front-rear is again Hot Racing, which looks diminutive compared to the Scorched RC piece!

DARKWAV

The build project prior to the Outcast was the ARRMA Felony 6S. I did a servo and replaced a bunch of plastic parts with Hot Racing aluminum. One of the dissapointements with the Felony was finding bushings on the steering post. The lower bushings were both jammed on super tight to the steering posts, and I wanted to get the build done, so I just left them as-is. When I got the Outcast, I planned on addressing that same issue. Lately, my go-to for bearings has been Avid RC. So, I ordered enough bearings to do the steering posts on both the Outcast and the Felony. I also grabbed some spares for the wheels. Fortunately on the Outcast, the stock bushings came right off with no drama, as opposed to the Felony which needed to be forced off with locking pliers.

DARKWAV

For the steering servo, my initial plan was to get the Powerhobby 729MBL. Seems like people generally have good luck with this servo. Full aluminum case, all metal gear, brushless servo with pretty good speed and more than enough torque for an 1/8 scale MT, all for about $80. Were good options like this even available 10 years ago at this price point? I was going to get it at Island Hobby Nut where I found the Scorched RC mount, but it turned out they were out of stock. I could have easily picked this up from another shop via eBay or Amazon, but the guys at IHN suggested I try their IHN 888 servo; Specs show it to be .01s slower but with more torque. Still full aluminum case, metal gear, brushless. I have heard great things about IHN and the folks that work there. I went ahead and grabbed that servo instead.

When installing a servo, I don't use the rubber mounts, so I did have to use some aluminum spacers so the servo would not sit on the chassis. There was already a long plastic spacer there, so I kept that, and I went with a 3mm spacer...though I think 2mm would have been fine (maybe even better since the link connecting the servo arm to the steering is at a steeper angle that I would like). The servo came with the typical clamping style aluminum arm. But this presented a slight issue since the stock horn has a 90 degree gooseneck shape that allows you to mount the link to the bottom side of the arm so your steering link can sit level. However, with a typical arm you mount the link on top, so the link angles down to connect to the steering post tab. If you were to level it with a tall spacer on the tab, you would have to clearance the front chassis guard...while really not a big deal, I just prefer not to cut stuff if it can be avoided. The tallest spacer I could fit on there without interference problems was a 3mm spacer, so the angle is still steep but there does not appear to be any binding.

DARKWAV

That's the end of my Outcast 6S EXB build. I plan on this being one of my more frequently used RCs. My first few runs in my bash area was a blast. This truck is pretty much what I was needing for this spot! I picked up a pair of 3S 5500 mAh 120C Hoovo LiPo batteries from Amazon for use in the Outcast and the Felony. I had only ever run my Savage Flux on 4S power as I had feared my diffs would explode on 6S, so it is definitely nice to have an 1/8 scale RC now that I can confidently run to its full potential on 6S power. As with the servo mentioned in my last post, it is nice that these days you can get a pair of high spec batteries at an affordable price.

DARKWAV

Pretty sure nobody is going to come around here looking for this specific information, but I thought I would mention it anyway. For people that want to continue running this truck with the shock boots, I have confirmed that the front uses the new 46mm shock boot. On the ARRMA website, this part is listed as the alternate product since the original part number is no longer available. I would say it is a bit confusing since the original part is described as a 36.5mm boot whereas this new one is described as a 46mm boot. In any case, this part works and covers the entire shaft at full extension without any bunching. The site does not list an alternate part for the rear though. The original rear boot is described as 45mm length. However, the new 46mm front boot looks to be too short for the rear, so I assume the new 52mm shock boot would be the ones to get for the rear.

Front: ARA330786 - 46mm Shock Boot

Rear: ARA330787 - 52mm Shock Boot