Super Kong Clodbuster!

[Loaded_Heavy]

As for the tires and IMEX (tire experts) well the best thing their gonna do to try and help ya out is send you a free replacement tire for the mis-moulded one. I actually went through the samething and apparently IMEX is well aware of the Jumbo Kongs being a bit whack but due to the cost to have the moulds re-done they will act as if nothings wrong but truely something is wrong as I, you, and another fellow has had the same issues with the Kongs. Eric had an idea to add weights to the heavy spots of the tire by slitting small holes in the foam to insert weights to kinda counter balance the tire so theres no heavy spots. Personally I didn't wanna look toward this route due to the tires already weighing in at about a pound or more per tire, plus with me running aluminum wheels it also pushed the weight up a bit. I have heard of folks actually buying 2 boxes or extra pairs of the Kongs just to find the more (decent/good) tires to make a set of 4 good Kongs for a truck but myself and I know alot of others don't have that kind of cash to put out just to find good tires in a bunch of hash ones. So you either have to work with what ya got or give IMEX a call, then battle with them over the phone about the issue being they like to insist on them always being right, and get your free tire or find a way to balance them. I have the extra Kong they sent me along with the rest of the 4 I originally purchased and the one they sent me actually looks a little bigger then the other 4 I got and calling them to explain the issue will just be a big hassle and waste of time as well. Who knows maybe if they keep getting complaints about the Kongs they'll pull em and cut there line in production which would also be a bad thing but then again Mike (RC4WD) plans to set the record for the largest R/C tire made being his tire mould allows him to make a tire with the maximum diameter of 12".

Now as for the shocks. They say to run 20wt oil and no heavier than 20wt oil. I did what you did the first time by using a heavier weight oil being I thought in my mind that it was a big heavy truck but boy was I wrong and did the wrong thing so I went with the 20wt oil and that fixed things right up. Also to increase the flow of the oil I'm running the nylon washer with 3 holes in them that comes with the shocks. As for filling them well yeah it is a bit messy and you do kinda have to work in a hurry because you must fill the piggyback full then insert the foam in the piggyback body and then also repeat this process to the main shock. I do the main shock then bolt the piggy back up to it, hurry and flip it over then fill the piggyback as fast as I can and pop the foams in em, then bolt the cap back on the piggyback as fast I can. I also do it in the sink and some warm running water with dish soap near by to keep things a bit cleanly while working with them.

 

[Savage03]

Well thats not good to hear on the tires, I will try them again today and see what happens. 12"? Good grief thats to big, be nice to see him make a kong size tho, I would like to see a 17mm hex and maybe a larger rim then less rubber, might help with balancing such a large tire.
On the shocks I got somewhere last night, all I had was 15w. Did the rears first and after getting them filled they were still hard to compress, so I went to the fronts and put in the 3 hole pistons and I noticed that since they slapped these together dry the o-rings werent even lubed! So the shaft was having a hard time sliding, so put some oil on the o-rings and it freed them up alot but get this still very stiff! Its the springs I think. I even tried a set of my stock savage plastic shocks and they feel about the same as the fronts I just did so im at a lose here cause their still to stiff to me.

 

[Ball Racing]

See if the "red" hpi savage springs will fit those shocks.
They are as soft as they have for it.

 

[Loaded_Heavy]

I think your shocks may be defected cause I know the past set of these shocks I got all were lubed a tiny a bit, you could see it a little bit and smell it a little bit while taking it apart. I don't think the problem is the springs either unless it is indeed defected cause the spring is pretty loose to begin with it and you need to turn the nut on the shock body to actually make sure it's not so loose and a bit more stiff. With that being said maybe you got shocks that are either sticking or binding where the shaft is not able to be compressed without any friction or where the shock can't full re-extend itself due to friction. This is a problem I've had originally causing me to turn one shock inexchange for a replacement but mine turned this way just from holding the shock piston with a set of pliers while changing the nylon washer on the piston and even then the shock still was not stiff at all, just a bit of sticking and binding but that was about it.

Ball Racing, one thing about these shocks is the outter diameter I believe is a bit larger than the normal Savage shocks so I don't think regular replacement Savage shock springs would work with these shocks. Maybe the MSR4's but most likely not these.

 

[Loaded_Heavy]

Also wanna add a bit of info on the tires. When I first messed with the Kongs I discovered that the weak spot of the tire is mainly the sidewalls and this seems to be due to the sidewall being a bit more thinner than the outter diameter of the tire which is also where most of the weight sets in and the sidewalls have to keep standing (hence the foam inserts). I also must agree on that the tires would most likely hold up well if there was a little less sidewall cause that even out the tire much as a normal tire is to be.

I've had some thoughts about looking to air the tires up and being I've got an extra Kong sitting here (the replacement IMEX sent me) I was gonna give it a try just to see how things would work out but while I was giving this much thought and brainstorming on it I then begun to think that the air would most likely stretch the tires width rather than the main outter diameter due to the sidewalls of the tires being so thin. You most likely probably haven't discovered this yet but will after you randomly take the tire off of it's rim and re-install the rims. You can tell just by tapping your finger on the outside of the sidewall real lightly on the outter edge and you'll notice it jiggles cause how think the rubber is. This doesn't really happen on a normal set of R/C tires but on the Kongs welp you're about to see a whole lot of whacked things with them. lol

 

[Savage03]

Well few things, after fully tearing them down and putting some oil on everything they now work like they should no binding anyways. The springs now on mine I have the nut all the way at teh top and my springs are no way loose so I dont know if they changed those or what. I had them off to and they are a very stiff spring, I also checked with my progressive rate springs I have my spare stock savage shocks and they almost fit inside the integy springs :ack
Sent a email to integy asking if they have softer springs but these guys have about the worst customer service I have delt with and getting a response is very hard, their quality control isnt much better. Really doubting my decision on buying these shocks now. Think the hpi aluminum shocks would have been a better choice or the baja shocks sure would have been interesting!

 

[Loaded_Heavy]

Hmmm maybe they did change the springs on them. Where did you buy yours from? I got mine from Tower and from RCBoyz and they were all the same with a pretty soft spring.

 

[Ball Racing]

Even if you get baja shocks,
you still hae to find a soft spring,
those ones that come on there hold up 20 lb beast.

 

[Savage03]

Mine came from integy direct. Yea I know the baja ones are gonna be stiff but least they have spring choices but they are also bigger if im not mistaken so probaly more hassle then its worth their just a kool shock tho.

 

[Mo']

yeah the baja shocks arent an option. even the softest spring is still about 8 times too stiff to work on a truck of that size.

the issue with a truck setup like that is most all of your weight is unsprung so you really need a soft shock setup. possibly some 20-35 weight oil with the softest springs you can find.

do stock savage springs fit on those integy units? if i remember correctly integy sells a savage spring set with alot of different springs

 

[Savage03]

NO they wont fit. Looks like integy might have tune spring set coming out but at $30 thats rediculous. I dont know right now what to do, I like the looks and the size fits the whole conversion but right now I could drop this thing from my waist and it probaly bounce up. Not good with this amount of weight....

 

[Savage03]

http://www.integy.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_prod.html?p_prodid=5601&p_catid=&sid=7UzLO41zeMVr7gL-12108522213.57

 

[Savage03]

Well finally got this thing painted, let say first off its cursed I tell you! Kid you not it has gave me issues from the start. First was trying to put on liquid mask, was my first try at it but what a mess. Then went to spray the black and the can of pactra started spewing the paint out from under the button, nice mess! Then came trying to peel off the masking, what another mess and it proceeded to take some of the paint as well. Almost gave up at this stage. So masked it off with some tape so repaint the areas i was gonna do in silver but since the mask made such a mess I just went over it with black instead, the 2 rear fins were gonna be silver for instance :reye. Then in pulling off the masking tape(blue painters tape) it pulled some paint off as well not as bad so just took a black sharpie and fixed teh mess up areas, figure screw it at this point whos gonna notice? Anyrate its done.

 

[Loaded_Heavy]

Man are you kidding? That thing loox AWESOME!!! I just knew that body would look PERFECT! at top there. I'm gonna have to indeed pick up one of these bodies for mine once funds allow. Maybe even do it up in fiberglass my Digger? heh

 

[Loaded_Heavy]

I just noticed, why do you got a stock Savage shock on one side?

 

[Savage03]

lol wondered when someone would ask that, just lazy and havent switched it yet :ack I was trying them to see if they were softer then the integys, they were pretty much just as stiff. Trying the get some $$ together so I can give the integy springs a try.

 

[S_C_I_P_I_O79]

NICE! that body fits very well. All of these Kong Clods being posted has got me wanting one. Seems like larger '1/8th' scale is becoming very popular.

 

[Savage03]

Ok so got around to taking the beast out for some pics with the new body. It didnt come out as well as I would have liked but I really wasnt even into painting it at the time, painted it like a month ago. I didnt know either that theirs a hump in the body on one side for the trans case on the LST so that suked to but oh well, think it fits pretty nicely. Also stuck the 2 other bug bodied rides in as well.
Still havent ran it, I dont know honestly I lost a big interestin most stuff lately :-( might change soon will see. Got the integy tuned springs some time back as well and much better, now I got tons of springs left over I dont need, thanks integy for helping :reye
My 2 front tires are kinda out of shape as well, bad mold so I had contacted imex a month ago and the guy was gonna send me 2 new ones and 3 weeks later nothing so called to find out hes gone from the company and the guy said he would get em sent, over week later nothing so called other other day and got yet someone else and hes like need to pay $9 for shiipping and he really wanted me to send the old ones back which I was like well the first guy said it was ok cause I had sent a vid of them moving which I deleted so the guy says I will try to send it to shipping but they will most likely reject it, whatever. PLus he drilled me like I was a scammer or a kid :spaz:reye

 

[Savage03]

I finally for the first time drove this rig Sat. just has been sitting since I started wasnt happy with the shock situation so after some time talking with Darren decided they go and back to AE bouncers and so much better, they actually move! I think some much beefier sway bars are needed tho lots of front wheel in the air stuff. All in all a pretty kool ride, I will say I find not trying to air it out as much as I did before so much more weight on this setup and thats just asking for broken parts but it is a go anywhere truck now, next stop the beach.
[youtube]Mdvw-6rik70[/youtube]

 

[spliffnwesson]

Nice truck. I want to build a Clod so bad.