Project: Ultimate E-Maxx - Valkyrie

Project Log

Not long after the original Ultimate E-Maxx entered field testing, I realized that in trying to stay at the cutting edge of monster truck racing with original engineering and setup ideas, I was inadvertently following a strong trend. Lower. Leaner. Lighter. Everyone who wanted to race a T/E-Maxx was following this same philosophy. I don't know about you, but I don't like to follow the crowd!

Of course, I could not abandon the huge effort I had put and was putting into my first E, so instead I spun off another project idea, one that would fly at a right angle to the prevailing winds. I would go higher, huskier, heavier, in a racing vehicle! Enter: The Valkyrie.

8/8/2001:

I'm going to be taking a bit of a break on the project as I move to a new home, but in what little spare time I have I can actually get the Valkyrie running again, thanks to the new titanium CVD's and 12-cell controllers I received last week! That's right, the next time the Valkyrie gets under power, it will be pushed by a record-setting 24 cells! Yikes!!!

New, very high-end equipment

6/15/2001: Today I took the Valkyrie out for its first, preliminary speed test. On its fastest run of the day it hit 42.35mph. Out of six modes of power available through the Modeltech B5x brushless motor controllers, mode 1 being the strongest, the Valkyrie was set to mode 4 for these conservative, careful first runs. Gearing was 16/70 and the truck was powered by 10 NiMH cells per motor. For the next speed runs, I will gear up slightly and move to mode 1 on the controllers to surpass 50mph. My goal is to top 60mph.

6/8/2001: Ah, a body, at last! Today I hosted the first Valkyrie @ The Beach photo shoot, capturing some very high resolution snapshots for your viewing enjoyment, featuring the truck's first (but not final) body and its mind-boggling new 20-cell battery configuration.

Here's a list of the hop-up parts the truck is using at present:

• Modeltech B5x brushless motors w/ controllers (2)
• Unlimited Engineering SuperMaxx EXT Suspension kit
• Duratrax Nitro Quake tires
• Traxxas aluminum Big Bore shocks
• Stormer Hobbies Maximizer true beadlock aluminum wheels
• GPM aluminum bulkhead halves (front & rear)
• GPM aluminum differential cases (front & rear)
• GPM steering bellcrank & drag link set
• Astrocreep Racing aluminum "basher" chassis braces
• R/C Raven chrome powder-coated E-Maxx roll cage
• R/C Raven chromed aluminum bumpers
• R/C Raven polished front & rear skid plates
• R/C Raven silver-colored plastic body posts
• R/C Raven polished body mount plates
• R/C Raven dual-rate chrome powder-coated springs (4)
• Century 5/16" springs (4)
• Hitec 945MG high-torque servo
• Kimborough servo saver
• Bolink Chevy Avalanche body

I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank my sponsors, whose generous support has accelerated this project significantly and helped me to bring together some of the very best parts available on the planet. Personal thanks go out to Jere Fournier, owner of Delta R/C Raceway & Hobbies, overall sponsor and strong UltimateTraxxas.com supporter. Many thanks to R/C Raven for outfitting the Valkyrie with a large number of beautiful parts, including their mirror-finished skids and super-strong roll cage. Also many thanks to Astrocreep Racing (no website yet) for bringing their extremely well-machined chassis braces to the Valkyrie project and devoting significant expert machining resources towards the production of some upcoming exclusive E-Maxx upgrades. Also special thanks to:

• Mike Smith of Modeltech for his personal hand-holding and support.
• Robin Oury of Unlimited Engineering, Inc. for creating the unbeatable SuperMaxx EXT suspension kit.
• Bob Stormer and Stormer Hobbies for their unbeatable service.
• Traxxas, Inc. for bringing so much fun to my life!
• All of the talented, fun and cool-headed folks from the MaxxTraxx.com and RCMT.net message forums!

This completes phase one of the Ultimate E-Maxx: Valkyrie project! Now it's time for some increasingly vigorous tests as I schedule the final round of upgrades, which will include a hand-built body and exclusive new aluminum chassis design.

5/27/2001: I've gone ahead and replaced my mangled rear axles with with some beefier ones. I thought I'd share this graphic photo with you all:

Left to right: Customized, twisted, mangled, and stock

"PhantomMaxx" from the MaxxTraxx forums came up with the idea of gluing a 3/16" wooden dowel into the hollow center of the inner axle spline to strengthen it. I took this just a tiny step farther, chemically welding in a tube of styrene with SuperGlue Plasti-Fuse (a polymer-laced CA gel that comes with a liquid cleansing "primer"). I then used the same adhesive to attach a piece of outer spline (cut from a fresh axle set) to the upper part of the of the inner spline, as shown at Project MadMaxx. I went out driving for a short while (about twice as long as it took me to mangle my axles yesterday) and didn't have any problems this time. We'll see how well this stands up.

5/26/2001: My Supermaxx EXT suspension system has arrived and been installed! With this went in my GPM aluminum differential cases and GPM bulkheads, front & rear. The bulkheads were sponsored by Delta R/C. Now the Valkyrie is beginning to look frightening, as intended. I took it out to today's offroad race event at Delta R/C to show off and ended up giving it a brief whirl on the asphalt oval track, where in first gear with stock (18/66) gearing and a pair of run-down, unmatched 6-cell 2000 packs that hadn't been charged in a week, it nearly kept up with a gas touring car that was running out there. I tested out the braking ability of the Modeltech brushless motors and was thoroughly impressed. Acceleration, on the other hand, was beyond rediculous -- it was just plain stupid. From a rolling start, with this est. 15lb. truck, I was still able to pull 180-degree (full flip-over) wheelies. I only ran for a minute or two, however, before I spotted a lower spring retainer rolling across the track and brought the truck to an immediate halt. The picture on the right below shows the culprit in all of its gorey detail:

First round of aluminum installation: complete!		A new articulation record for the Valkyrie		No, it didn't come that way

This, ladies & gentlemen, is the very definition of horsepower. I've hired an engineer to explore one possible way to tackle the TAS (twisted axle syndrome) problem, but for now I will use some tips from users on the MaxxTraxx forums to beef up a fresh set of stock axles. Perhaps I'll also lighten up on the slipper a bit.

Given the punch that those CrapPack batteries were delivering, I'm now anxious to try my new mountain of batteries. The 4-cell and 5-cell packs I got, custom-made by Ballistic Batteries, will be run in series pairs in the Spyder and Valkyrie, respectively.

Next up: More aluminum! I've picked up a pair of beautifully designed aluminum "basher" chassis braces from up & coming E/T-Maxx hop-up star Astrocreep Racing, some Trinity bulkhead braces and a set of GPM steering bellcranks sponsored by Delta R/C.

5/18/2001: I got brave (or should I say overanxious) today, charged up two 6-cell packs and took the truck for its sorry-excuse-for-a-first-test-drive, running up & down a tiny hallway in my apartment. With all stock settings, I started off very slowly & carefully, fearing an unlucky radio glitch that would send the truck through the wall and my neighbor's kitchen. After establishing that everything was A-OK, I wanted to see how strongly it could accelerate "off the line." I set up the truck at one end of the hall and took a defensive stance at the other end, planning to drop my transmitter and catch the truck if it lost control. Feeling prepared for the worst, I nailed the throttle. After a fraction of a second of controlled acceleration, the front tires lifted violently and I began my emergency rescue plan. Throwing the transmitter to my right, I squatted down a tiny bit, leaning forward, left hand ready to catch the front of the truck, right hand ready to scoop underneath it and lift the rear off the ground without touching any dangerous drivetrain parts. About 3/4ths of a second into this controlled panic, I was prepared for impact as the truck hurled towards me, its front now pointing straight up towards the ceiling.

A brief moment later, it was all over. The truck had done a complete 180 degree back-flip, becoming completely airborne in the process. The power of the Modeltech brushless motors is nearly unfathomable. I would not believe it if I did not witness it before my very eyes. I am talking about a truck that is running stock (18/66) gearing, with tires significantly larger than stock. Each wheel & tire pair weighs at least 20oz. With this much power on tap, I have decided to will postpone a practice run of this vehicle on the Delta R/C track until I upgrade to aluminum skids, heavy duty aluminum bulkheads and the SuperMaxx EXT suspension system. This thing is too hot to handle as it stands today.

In the meantime, I thought I'd entertain you all with my first articulation shots:

The Valkyrie's very first articulation shot		Not bad for starters

I included the Kerns can for reference as the Spyder was only barely able to clear that same size of can back when it was still running 12 cells. Just wait until I install my new SuperMaxx EXT suspension! That will increase suspension range of motion even more!

5/15/2001: Another huge step of progress graced the project today as I completed the installation of my new Modeltech brushless ("BL") motors:

The hulking Valkyrie with its new brushless motors		Yikes! Those are some shiny cans!

A slightly closer view of the BL setup		Basic coupling/ splitting wiring

The motors were shipped anodized in purple, which did not at all match the look I'm trying to develop for this truck, so I pulled an "" and with the help of some Easy-Off, Mother's polish and my Dremel, made the world's first polished-can BL setup in an E-Maxx! (Remember in January I also brought you the first polished-can Titans.) In the interest of a fairly neat, but fast installation, I temporarily used the ingenius under-chassis battery tray idea introduced in the SR-Maxx at Sofasticantseeit.com so that I could mount the motor controllers (the yellow units in the picture) on the chassis floor. As soon as the Ultimate E-Maxx aluminum chassis has been prototyped, I'll move the Valkyrie over to that platform. Preliminary reports from other new BL system owners point 45+ mph top speeds in E's equipped with single motors running 7.2V systems. Can you imagine what sort of power I'm going to get out of this dual-motor system with 12.0V to 14.4V?! I can't wait to give even my current, parallel 7.2V setup a try, but I'll probably have to put off the first run until the weekend when I can go out to a wide open space in case anything goes wrong.

I removed the pinions and gave the BL's a few whirls to verify proper direction of rotation, and they spooled up so quickly and to such a high speed with so little vibration, I felt I momentarily phased into an alternate universe, as if time itself had been warped around the motor cans. I'll keep you all posted.

5/11/2001: Things have moved along at an unusually rapid pace over the last few days. I finished stripping and polishing the truck's Traxxas Big-Bore aluminum shocks and upgrading them with RPM two-stage pistons. I also received my Maximizer Beadlock aluminum wheels and, with a lot of elbow grease and a few drops of blood, fitted my Nitro Quake tires onto them! Early next week I'll be receiving my two brushless motors from Modeltech (shipped yesterday), and I'm certainly looking forward to installing those. Here are the latest pics:

MASSIVE ground clearance with Nitro Quake tires		Shiny Big Bore shocks

5/8/2001: I've been slowly ammassing and preparing accessory parts for this project for nearly two months, but it wasn't until today that I got my hands on the actual base truck itself! Here it is, in all of its splendor, baby Valkyrie:

Aww, so cute! Goochie goo!

What's funny is that this one even came with the same color body as my first E. A lot of pre-ordered parts are actually just being shipped tomorrow, but over the next two weeks you'll see a lot change on this monster.