Heater's Slash to Rustler Conversion

[Jimmy the Heater]

Heaters Slash to Rustler Conversion


Now why would someone want to convert a Slash to a Rustler? I have several reasons for wanting to do this but the 2 main ones are: Lower center of gravity and I've never owned a Stadium truck before but always wanted to.
Starting out with a bone stock 2wd Slash. First thing to go was the stock brushed system and in goes the VXL motor and esc. I had these left over from a Slash 4x4 and to be honest I think this motor is much better suited to 2wd than 4wd.


Ran a few packs through it and decided, Yup, I still want to do the conversion. 2 orders from Tower Hobbies later and time to tear things apart!




Front end comes off the Slash. New RPM Wide bumper. Constantly amazed at how easy Traxxas makes things easy to work on.



Steering servo mounted. And yes I found out later that the Slash steering rod you see here is too long.



Front end, Steering bellcrank, all transferred over. New JConcepts GLocks were used for tires. I run about 80% pavement so I thought that would be a good compromise.



Still using the original Slash arms. May go to the wider Rustler or Jato arms later if it seems necessary.



Transmission and rear assembly comes off the Slash. Couldn't get the install on the new Rustler chassis to go quite right because of the long screws on the upper control arm mount. Loosened the shock tower and took the body mounts off and everything lined up perfect.



Shock tower back on and everything buttoned up.



Starting to look like a Rustler!

Now at this point I realized that I had missed several parts in my first order.

I'll try to list all the parts needed to do this conversion if anyone is stupid enough to do it.

81162 RPM Front Bumper
3723A Upper Chassis
3722A Lower Chassis
1914 Body Mount
2537 28mm Rod
2742 Rod Ends
2552 Screws 1pk
2542 Screws 1pk
3727A Battery Strap
3725 ESC Mount
3628 Receiver Box
Tires of your choice.


Additional parts
Proline Desert Rat body
ST3632R STRC Aluminum Caster Blocks (optional)
ST2267R STRC Aluminum Shock Caps (optional)

Going to hit the LHS within the next couple of days to see if they have any of the parts I forgot. Will order the rest online and then finish this conversion.

Very excited to finally be a stadium truck owner after 26 years in the hobby. (Dang has it been that long?)
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[Oaks]

Jimmy, nice start on your conversion. I'm doing one, also, from a stampede for a few reasons, too. (but mainly, the lcog)

The grey chassis looks really clean with the white rulux wheels.

[Jimmy the Heater]

The body will be red and white as well, so I thought that the white wheels would work with that whole scheme.

[vladsly]

Looks cool. My friend has a rustler and I think this would be a cool thread for him. Thanks for showing us!

[Oaks]

For all the wheel and tire combos at the lhs, the one they had that I was interested in was the ones on this ride. Definitely growing on me

[Jimmy the Heater]

One thing about the wheel and tire combo....In hindsight I should have gone with the Front offset wheels all the way around to get a wider track at the rear.
Parts run tomorrow and maybe can get this running over the weekend!

[Jimmy the Heater]

Another small update. Drove the 50 miles to the nearest hobby store and picked up a few more goodies.

Body posts, battery strap, receiver box, and esc plate.


Battery strap and hardware put on


ESC and bottom receiver box mounted


Receiver mounted and battery installed! What you can't see in the pic is everything is powered up and worked fine.

Only have to get the correct length steering control rod, a few countersunk screws, finish masking the body and paint it. Then it will be a complete project!

I could have done without the esc plate and the receiver box but I didn't want to do an incomplete job. I wanted to keep it waterproof for some nasty weather driving and above all, I wanted it to look like it came that way from the factory.

Hope this is helping anyone else that is thinking about doing this conversion.

[Jimmy the Heater]

All masked off and ready for paint.

Proline Desert Rat finished and mounted. I am really happy with the way this turned out!! Now to just wait for the dang snow to melt and drive it

[Oaks]

well done Jimmy. That desert rat body looks great on your truck.

[O.G.]

Now that you have the rustler chassis in place, you can convert to the STRC LCG mod to make an extended Rustler, or an LCG Slash.

Sent from my Super-Kindle

[Jimmy the Heater]

Thanks for the compliments, it was certainly a fun project! Can't wait to get out and run it!

Yup the STRC Kit is certainly a consideration. I do have a Slash 4x4 that I might use when I want to run the Slash body as well. One thing I love about Traxxas is everything is so modular.

[O.G.]

What tires/wheels are those? I like 'em. Did you tape the tires before you glued them?

[LocatedGecko7]

That body is absolutely filthy, it goes great with the white wheels, and man u killed that car it looks awesome!

[Stach35]

Nice conversion dude!, A great run down on a very nice,(now), Rusty!

[Jimmy the Heater]

What tires/wheels are those? I like 'em. Did you tape the tires before you glued them?

The Wheels are JConcepts Relux with JConcepts GLocs mounted on them. Pre Mounted from the factory so not taped. However if ballooning becomes a problem they have a nice center groove where I can try the fishing line trick.

[Jimmy the Heater]

That body is absolutely filthy, it goes great with the white wheels, and man u killed that car it looks awesome!

Thanks much! There are some other Rustlers on these forums that I used for inspiration and I don't think I did nearly as well as they did but it gives me something to shoot for next time.

[Jimmy the Heater]

Nice conversion dude!, A great run down on a very nice,(now), Rusty!

Thanks! That means quite a bit coming from yourself! Now just to get some quality pics of it before I go beat on it