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TLT Tuber
I decided I wanted to build a TLT about the same time I decided I wanted to try my hand at steel brazing. It was good timing, as it turned out. I based the dimensions of this tube chassis on a GI Joe Hummer toy I bought as a scaler someday. I stood my full 230 pounds on this chassis, it's extremely strong.

It's running narrowed Pede wheels and Pro-Line Moabs. Socks are Traxxas Big Bores. Lower links are all-thread sheathed in steel tube, upper links are steel tube cut to length with all-thread brazed onto the ends.
The chassis was hard to see, so I decided to make some body panels to give it some dimension. At this pint, I've only made this one. It protects the borrowed Rooster from roll-over damage.
Here is the brand new Pede trans and lathe motor installed. The fit i perfect, with mere 32nd's of an inch clearance on all sides. It was completely accidental, but I don't know if I could have gotten it better if I had designed it that way.
It looks like it's touching in this pic but it's about 2/32" from contacting. Like I said, perfect clearance.
I installed Revo shafts. Before I glued the boots on, I dropped them in some red dye, so they look pretty cool now. I know they are overkill, but it's what my LHS had when I went in looking for shafts.
It was done just in time for the Comps. It definitely needs more fine tuning at this point, but it did alright. Total build time, from the idea to do it until it was a running functional truck... ...two weeks.

I really didn't like the way my tranny case fit together, so I got a new one and dyed it red. I also decided that instead of doing body panels to make it more visible, it's getting power coated blood red as soon as it's dialed in and I know I don't need to make any more changes to the chassis.
Lower plate is a red cutting board, notched, trimmed, countersunk and it works great. It's mounted to the chassis by two aluminum braces.
I am running Traxxas Pede upgrade joints at both ends of both axles. They required serious modification, but work perfectly. The u-joint is a combination of Revo and Pede parts.
One thing I realized at the Comps that I needed a lot more weight up front, so I made a plate that relocates the servo and allows for an 8-cell pack up front. I saw something like this on a forum somewhere looked like a good idea and it works great. It made a ton of difference.

I also lowered it significantly by installing 10mm sections of fuel tubing over the shock shaft inside the shock body. It feels like it greatly lowered the CG, and of course it did, but I have yet to see if it was too much or not.
After running it a little and feeling the suspension, I decided it wasn't right. A buddy came over and we took a good look at it and came up with a couple ideas. We had just the chassis and suspension, and I hacked off metal as we went, making small changes and cutting off more and more. Here's what I ended up with
The first order was some new mounts for the upper links to drop them a bit. The steel rod through the steel tube keeps them in line and in the same position left to right. I didn't take any pics for the rest, got in a building zone and the following are what came of it. The front shock mounts got a curved strengthening bend, the rears were braced with a curved bar and I added supports for an electronics tray. The front and rear-most ends were sharpened for attitude.
You can also see the new one-piece aluminum belly/tranny pan. It'll be easier to manage than the three-piece I had made before. At this point, I still need to drill holes to mount the tranny and make some notches to clear the huge Revo drive shafts I am running.
The only downside so far is that the new belly pan is significantly lighter than the previous setup, at a crucial location. Another problem I'll need to deal with is the screws that mount the transmission were countersunk into the cutting board material the old belly was made from, and they are going to stick out badly with this new pan. I'll have to find some new button head screws. It will lower the weight on the trans and motor though.

I finally transferred the guts from my original Pede trans to my new dyed red Pede trans. I must say, I like it a lot.
For access, I only need to remove the screws for the front or rear lower links on the chassis, and the belly pan drops down. It's the only way, obviously, the get the trans in and out.
I found some HPI Savage screws at the LHS that fit the Pede trans holes just right, and don't have the sharp edges of the stock screws. Hopefully thy won't hang up on anything. As a side note, the truck is balancing on it's side in this pic, an unexpected and welcome difference from the old setup.
Here it is all installed. I completely lost the semi-realistic look by dropping the chassis so low, but I guess I am more after performance on this truck.
I ended up with the links at these angles. Much better than before, should help a lot with torque twist. I hope so, anyway!
10-22-06 Had another comp today. To put it mildly, the truck sucked you-know-what. It was much too low, as I had kind of suspected. The first run it could barely drag itself over the rocks. I ended up adjusting some linkage and installing a set of Clod link mounts for the front shocks. It did better the second time.
The second gate was frustrating to say the least. I burned up 3 minutes of the 5 allowed trying to get through it. In the end, I got pissed at it and threw it! Damaged was a broken link mount off the chassis! You can see where it was a bad joint in the first place, something to keep my eye on when building. I must have forgotten to do the other side.
The one change that DID work out fine was the mount I made for the receiver. I moved it up and away from danger.
My new rock rings arrived today, they a sick looking. They were cut on a water jet by a gentleman on rccrawler.com.
They look even better on the truck!
I got in some new parts. As soon as my TA-05 aluminum knuckles get here, I'll be able to install all this. Should be before I get my powder coated chassis back from the painter, so the refreshed axles should be ready to rock. Pun intended... Axle end braces, aluminum hexes and Blackfoot stub axles. I ended up returning the axle end braces, very poor quality craftsmanship. I'll either make my own or locate a set of real ones, not hacksaw made junk.
It's a Tuber-In-A-Box! I got it all torn down so I can send out parts for powder coating. The following parts will be blood red... Chassis Belly pan Rock rings Steel links Servo mounts Aluminum shock spring retainers
While waiting for the chassis to come back from powder coating, I picked up a couple new parts. Fat-Rock axle ends and aluminum knuckles will be a nice addition.
I bought a set of Crawford 1.5" wideners, we'll see how they hold up. You can see the right side in the pic is wider, that is a Blackfoot axle stub on that side, I wanted to see the difference. Unfortunately, I think the Blackfoot stubs would put me out of the spec for comp width. I got word that all the powder coated parts are being shipped back to me on 11-21, which means I'll likely see them on the 22nd or 23rd, so look for a rebuild!
Here is the chassis and all the other parts I had powder coated, fresh from the painter. I'll be hopefully getting the reassembly started here in a couple days when it all gets back to me...
Wow, that's a lot of red...