I decided to begin at the wheels this time and work my way inward. The new rims I chose are made by Traxxas for the Nitro Rustler (front, rear). I like the fact that they are quite uncommon in the electric world, and they look great with my mean new Tamiya Wild Dagger "monster spike" tires (the same treads used on the old Traxxas Sledgehammer). The rears are a direct fit, whether you run completely stock suspension or have upgraded to RPM bearing carriers as is the case with this truck. The front wheels, however, are designed to carry the bearings directly in the wheels, rotating about stationary spindles. To accomodate this more efficient setup, I ditched my front RPM carriers and installed a full Nitro Rustler/Stampede set with new castor blocks and a steering block & spindle set, plus the nice & beefy kingpins to hold them all together.

At the rear, I also switched to Nitro Rustler carriers, Traxxas part #1952 called "stub axle housings." Why'd I do this, instead of staying with my RPM carriers? For one thing, the N.Rustler carriers push the wheels out about 1/16" farther on each side. More importantly, though, the N.Rustler carriers hold the camber link up higher. What does this do? It changes the suspension geometry, making the wheel gain more negative camber as the suspension is compressed. See the result in the 3rd picture at left. Notice how much I've leaned the truck over to the right (simulating a high-speed left turn), but notice how close the wheel is to being perfectly perpendicular to the ground. Also notice how the camber link is angled up quite a bit. It all works together to good effect. This should give more traction in every turn! On the wheel that's on the inside of the turn (the left wheel in the example above, not pictured), positive camber is gained, helping it to maintain traction there as well. The stock setup leaves the camber link parallel to the a-arm, causing the wheels to remain parallel with the chassis at all times. When the chassis rolls, so does the wheel, thereby giving unwanted positive camber at the outside wheel in turns.

I had learned from driving the Phase I truck that a wider rear track (made possible by running front wheels all around) makes a vehicle more stable on the racetrack, but also makes it push in turns (understeer). To make the Ultimate 'Pede wider in the front this time for better steering in addition to increased articulation, I grabbed a spare pair of rear a-arms and stuck them on the front! I needed to install some spacers to take up the play along the suspension pins, as those rear arms have much wider gaps for the hub carriers and inner mounts than you normally need for the front. Two thin plastic shock travel limiters from the Traxxas shock parts tree on each arm did the trick.

For camber links, I ended up using my stock steering linkages, cutting about 3/16" off of each end for a perfect fit. I used a GS Racing ball end for the inner mount and a GS captured end at the c-block. For the new steering linkages, I used a pair of 94mm E/T-Maxx front tie rods with Traxxas rod ends. Click the 2nd picture to zoom in and see the detail.

As you can see in the 3rd picture (stock Stampede at top, widened Ultimate Stampede at bottom), the front track has been increased by a good amount, but it's not ridiculous.

To attach the shocks to the arms, I Dremelled out the innermost portion of the 'X' crossmember and drilled straight through the innermost mounting screw hole on each arm. The shocks are then fed into the new open space, in the middle of the arm, instead of at the front, and secured with a 3x20mm screw and a locknut. Click the 4th picture for detail. The one thing I don't like about this setup is that it's harder to remove the screw to change springs. That said, though, I should never again have to deal with losing a spring retainer because the screw backed itself out!

After completing all of this work, I found there was some difficulty at the servo saver -- the turnbuckle rod ends would clash against it when the suspension was compressed. I solved this by trimming off the outer edges of the servo saver with an Xacto knife.

The body I chose is a discontinued shell from Team Losi called the "Class 8 Ford" body, made to fit the XX-4 4WD buggy. It makes for a great, realistic, true stadium truck or desert racer look with those flared fenders. It's a bit thin, so I would recommend reinforcing it with extra strips of lexan on the inside, affixed with nylon bolts and liberal quantities of Shoe Goo. I know what you're thinking about that second pic -- what's up with the Stinger motor? It's just a hold-over from the days when this truck was J-SPEC car #4. With that Super Rooster in there, I'd be putting in a more fitting motor in due time.

For a vehicle with independent suspension, the Ultimate Stampede has amazing suspension travel with this setup. I'm still using stock front springs on the rear, and Losi dark green springs up front. Obviously, with softer springs, still more articulation could be achieved.

If you're a serious racer, you'll want to use downtravel limiters on the shock shafts to tune out some of this suspension travel and help prevent roll-overs. Custom-made sway bars would also do the trick. However, I did put this truck on the track as is, and found it to be plenty stable for my tastes. Also, I was going for bashing prowess in Phase II, and what's more of a friend to a basher than articulation?

This modification has probably the most amazing gain-to-difficulty ratio of any I've attempted on any vehicle. What I did was create an under-chassis battery mount with the help of 4 oblong holes in the lower sides of the chassis, with two reusable heavy-duty zip ties threaded through them.

The amazing thing is that a battery will fit in that slot just perfectly. It's almost as if this is what was meant to be done. Not only does this lower the center of gravity, but it mounts the battery farther forward than it is stock, helping the truck to get more steering. Sure, if all you do is bash with your truck, you'll want to strap an extra plate under the battery, at least a nice flat piece of milk carton plastic, or a plate of lexan or aluminum if you want to get more fancy with it. For someone like me who mainly races, though, no shielding is necessary.

Now, take a moment to think about the possibilities here. For maximum durability and center clearance when bashing, you can use the stock battery position. For racing, you can lower it down, and mount your ESC in the stock battery tray to further lower your center of gravity. For 10- to 15-minute runtimes under racing conditions (running a long A-Main against some T-Maxxes?), you can run two batteries in parallel. For insane speeds, you can throw a Novak EVX ESC in your truck or a brushless system and run up to 14 cells in series! I love it!