Cross MC8 8x8, Now With Yota II's!

[Prop Shaft]

I have decided to split my original thread that was showing both the Capo and Cross 8x8's. The Cross MC8 will now reside here.
I haven't had very much time for toy trucks since my last post on the Capo. My move to Canada, finding new work/house, and a certain video game have been chewing up all my time as of late. The poor Capo hasn't even come out of it's box since my move.... But im finding myself getting back into my RC's now. The MC8 was just sitting on a shelf staring at me so I figured it a good place to start. So here goes.
As we all know the original Cross 6x6 and 8x8 axles are complete crap. Especially on the 8x8 where the added weight really shows their deficiencies. Heres the solution I came up with. It started with making a pile of brackets to mount the yota's in the same fashion as the original axles. You may notice there is 10 brackets, I'm kicking around the idea of going 10x10 in the future so I made 10 now so I'll have them.

In the top of the axles I milled a 6mm flat spot, then drilled and tapped for an m3 screw to mount the ball joint. I haven't gotten to the rear axles yet, but this step will be easier as the hole will be top dead center of the diff case, as opposed to offset like the front.

The Yota 2 axles have much shorter steering arms so it was nessassary to compensate with a new servo horn. Doing some math, I whipped up a new horn.

Heres a few more shots of the process. You'll noticed I'm replacing the spring/shock towers with the metal upgrades, and also replacing the soft springs with the stiff yellow upgrades. I find the yellow springs are really stiff, I wish I could have sourced the red medium rate springs as I think the yellows may be to much. Time will tell.

[Prop Shaft]

This is how I mounted the ball joints to the axles. 6mm end mill to create a flat spot

Drill a hole for m3 tap

Then tap

Another axle down. One more left to mount. These are pretty time consuming considering Ive been tearing them all down and thread locking and shimming, greasing as I go. I used very strong thread lock on the ball joint mounts as the amount of threads are minimal.

[Prop Shaft]

Yeah so.... i have yet another build to distract me from the handful I already have going, but omg.. I'm excited about this one! I'll be posting a dedicated build thread at some point. Need to clear the MC8 off the bench first.

[Papabaer]

nice job xou´ve done

[Prop Shaft]

Originally Posted by Papabaer

nice job xou´ve done

Thanks man, I'm hoping i can get the last axle mounted up today and take it for a spin!

[Prop Shaft]

Just took the MC8 out for its maiden voyage with the Yota axles. Initial impressions? I'm very happy with the performance. I purposely got it into some situations where there was some considerable binding issues, and the yota's powered on through. The only issue i'm having is getting belly hung a lot. The long wheelbase is not helping to crest over hills or rocks. So I'll be adding another axle to make it 10x10 at some point down the road. Im also going to be changing the trans. It needs more speed at times so im thinking ill mount up an rc4wd R3 and hammer trans and transfer I have laying around.


Flex isnt as bad as i thought it was going to be with the yellow springs. Still a bit stiff but maybe they will soften up with some use.

Comparison with a 1/35 Revell model

It has a home on the "finished" scalers shelf.

[Prop Shaft]

I finally managed to get a video uploaded to you tube. What a pita. Couldn't figure out how to get my videos from my iPhone to my iPad. Then it wasn't uploading off the iPad to you tube. Took me hours of googling before i finally managed to get it to work. But i think i have it all figured out now. Too bad tapatalk wont let me upload a video. Would be way easier.

https://youtu.be/hcbZh5STRTk

[Prop Shaft]

modified the roof to be removable.


New paint job. Olive drab much?



Short video. I didnt realize it at the time. But one of the hinges for the tool box goes flying lol.
http://youtu.be/z3Lz8rN49tQ