It's finally arrived!!

[CharliesTheMan]

Well after many sleepless nights, my baby has finally arrived. I just want you guys to know, Woodie really went to a lot of trouble to get me a 5b SS ASAP, and I was very fortuante because many people have been waiting for their baja since January. I opened her up last night and today I put the roto-start on the Savage that I just finished so I could clear off the workbench, then I started on the 5b SS. So far I got the front end together except for putting the shocks on, and I have the radio box, servos and stuff put together.

Everyone says they are surprised that the thing is so big, but to me in the pictures it just didn't seem that big. Man was I WRONG! This thing is huge! The engine is almost as big as my entire T-Maxx. HPI has done a great job once again, this thing is super strong. The parts are really incredible. With the big hardware, it's a lot more like working on a go cart or dirtbike then a nitro RC. I'm attaching some photos of the parts bags and the start of the build. After finishing the Savage X SS a few weeks ago, I really wish I would have been more thorough in documenting the build process, so I'm getting plenty of pictures this time.

I enclosed a picture of the massive spur gear. That's the spare that came with it, and it's huge, bigger than the wheel of a T-Maxx.

 

[itsalifeworthliving]

i thought the same thing... its huge!! your gona love it!!

 

[hamz9561]

Now you can sell your smaller trucks so you can add some more hop ups for your 5b.

 

[Lessen]

Lookin' good man. Keep the pics coming!

 

[ohmygahitscoby]

Wow, that looks nice. I want a Baja now .

 

[CharliesTheMan]

For all of you that, like me, opened up a Savage SS kit and said "Wow, that's a lot of parts", you aint seen nothin yet. I would guestimate that this thing has about 70 percent more parts, or at least it sure seems that way. Lots of blinging bags. The savage SS and X SS kits are not much different from the RTR versions. The Baja 5b SS is like a completely different animal from the RTR version.

 

[Rolex]

Just BEAUTIFUL! I see you're off-line right now, so I know EXACTLY what you're doing. Keep taking pics during the build.
Lock it up at night, install an alarm system on your house. I know where you live.

 

[nitrogator]

wow that looks great keep the pics coming

 

[CharliesTheMan]

Just BEAUTIFUL! I see you're off-line right now, so I know EXACTLY what you're doing. Keep taking pics during the build.
Lock it up at night, install an alarm system on your house. I know where you live.

I have it locked up because I sleep with it at night Don't worry, I have an alarm system along with recorded video surveillance (sp.), now I just need to give it it's very own motion sensor so it doesn't have to share one with the other stuff in the room. It's soooo much better than that! I've been working on it most of the day since my last post, but I had to do several things around the house so I had to take some breaks. I didn't get it finished yet, but I think it's coming along very nicely. I've been taking lots of pictures, so I'll post em as soon as I get my photobucket account set up.

 

[CharliesTheMan]

I'll give this photobucket thing a shot. Here's the gas tnk and radio box installed in teh chassis

Here's the rear section of the chassis starting to come together

These are pics of the diff and housing coming together and being installed

This is after I had put together more of the rear suspension

This is when I finally got one completed chassis mated instead of the front and rear

I took this picture to help scale the size of the clutch. That's just a normal flip type cell phone and it's almost the same size.

And here's the chassis with the engine installed.

 

[marauder]

Oh snap!

Congratulations on your new acquisition. You lucky dog, now send me your savage, it needs a loving father to watch over it while you play with the newborn...

:redbuggy:

 

[CharliesTheMan]

I just put my rotor start on this morning and took the Savage out for a few minutes. I didn't do quite a tank full because I wanted to get to work on the 5b SS, but the Savvy did excellent! I gotta get a wheelie bar though, and do some suspension tuning, as I can't keep the front end down. Lots of fun though!

 

[nitrogator]

man it looks like it coming along great well when your other trucks get neglected for lack of running you could send them to me

 

[WoodiE]

Congrats Charlie, I'm sure you're going to have a blast with the Baja SS.



-Michael

 

[Lessen]

That's lookin great Charlie! I never realized how large the fuel tank is.. that's the first time I've got a good look at one. Very cool!

 

[CharliesTheMan]

Congrats Charlie, I'm sure you're going to have a blast with the Baja SS.



-Michael

I guess I'm going to have to make a trip to Kentucky so we can bash the baja and the FG

 

[marauder]

I guess I'm going to have to make a trip to Kentucky so we can bash the baja and the FG

:yes: Oh, me too...me too!

 

[ohmygahitscoby]

Oh man, imagine that fuel tank on a nitro car. You wouldn't have to change it for hours.

 

[CharliesTheMan]

So far, I have been nothing but impressed with the quality of the 5b SS kit. All of the parts and hardware are made to be extra heavy duty. It's a lot easier working on this to me because it's more like building a 4 wheeler than a nitro RC. You don't have to break out the tweezers and the microscope to work on it. To me, the pictures just don't do it justice as far as the size and the heavy duty hardware. There's also A LOT of aluminum on this thing.

Also, HPI includes a lot more stuff as far as tools, special bearing pullers, that kinda stuff, and other things like shock oil and diff fluid, in the baja 5b kit than they do in the Savage X SS kit. I thought they did a good job. It's like they said "We're glad to have you as a customer, and since you just spent $1,000 on an RC, we're going to include lots of bonus items"

 

[BOUTCH]

Nice!!!

Truck lookin good man!!! keep the progress pictures comming. Congrats again!!!:bow: Lucky bastard!!! LOL