Holy cow, now I need a frog! I’m assuming you’re working on longer arms and better front suspension for the monster beetle now...makes sense. You’re an artist man
That's awesome. Very good design. At the very least the uprights/knuckles on the outer end of the arms is an improvement over the original set up being one piece.
You also solved another huge problem I've always had with my Frog: floating caster angle. Originally, Tamiya wanted us to be able to adjust the caster angle but the way they designed it, you couldn't lock it in place very well. By the end of the day, the nut had loosened enough that the locking teeth were no longer engaging and the tie rods were dictating the caster angle. The tie rods forced the caster to take an extreme "high speed stability" position, which entailed a very slow steering ratio. It was a lot like those "chopper" motor cycles with their super raked front forks. Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting my frog off my shelf and back on the road with these new "fixed" steering knuckles. AWESOME!!!
Exactly, it was there for a reason but you could not dial it in and then, it seemed to love to fall apart. Plus, with how basic the front end was, its not like adjustable caster will help. Glad you like it!
I had a Frog years ago (when it first came out, yes, I’m that old) and I liked it a lot. I know it wasn’t the best, but I never had a problem with the rear suspension. But, I never did like the front suspension, I especially didn’t like the fact that it had no damper of any kind. If I ever get another Frog, this looks like a really good setup for the front.
The rear was not a big problem on the Frog. it was when it was used on the Blackfoot that the issues showed. I just so happened to decide to build a frog and was in love with my blackfoot with the new rear suspension so I needed it on the Froggy too!
That's the most PLANTED Frog I've ever seen!! Seriously. Alberto, that's IMPRESSIVE! 👍👍😎 One thing I've been wondering..... and I can't be the ONLY one. *My Favorite* ORV Chassis ever, was the King Blackfoot. 😃 It's Front Suspension was very similar to what you've done with the Rear, Double Wishbone design... It flat out WORKED, better than any ORV before, especially with the right Shocks! Better than any Blackfoot, MB, or any big tire ORV. (NOT counting the WT-01, because that was too radically different) Sadly it was short lived, and people didn't have time to really warm up to it. Old Chassis' - even front end parts for King Blackfoot, are RARE and priced accordingly! 😖😞 Could you please design a King Blackfoot Type of Front Suspension? Even improved? I'm fairly certain that it would involve everything from the Main Chassis Rails forward... But I also think that it would be worthwhile for those of us who miss the KB, and would make a great upgrade for the Re-Re Blackfoot and Beetle! 😃 Carmine ✈🚂🚙
Alberto, my only guess is that the "purists" prefer the Frog/Brat Front Suspension, that really never should have been jacked up with big 2.2s... My Opinion of course, but I was ecstatic when I saw the KBF!! Everything I wanted, nothing I didn't (WT-01!). I will definitely keep my eyes open for the KBF front end!! I might start collecting Blackfoot ORV Chassis parts now!! 😃
Soooooooo much better!! Now that's what a Frog should look and handle like. I completely agree that the previous, taller suspension was way too pronounced. Now it looks fantastic and really compliments the rear. Man, you do some epic work. 🤘
I'm SURE I've commented when this came out... But now I'm FINALLY able to BUY stuff!!! Lots of it. 😁 Getting a Frog. Wanted a Brat too, but my Inheritance took too long to get here... sold out everywhere. 😭😭 QUESTION: back in the day, with our SLOPPY Blackfoots, we would take those Front "Arms", and Drill the 3 big holes on each side to 4mm... Then we'd cut to fit 3mm I.D, 4mm O.D. Brass Rod, and insert them in the Arms, fastened with 3mm Hardware. It worked BETTER than new! Alberto, is there enough "meat" on the AmPro Arms, to drill out to 4mm?? Sure, I could just use the Original.... But yours LOOK so much better, and I can get them in Purple! 😊 I'm also Painting the Chassis Purple. 😲 Believe it or not, Tamiya Lexn Paint sticks brilliantly and PERMANENTLY to these Frames! 👍👍 Carmine ✈🚂🚙
That's one superb solution for fitting front shocks/dampers to the Frog 🐸 The car has a uniquely elegant front end without damping, albeit a horribly bouncy one, in practice😆 Any other mount/shock combo has almost always just looked too big and ungainly and out of place Your mounts and choice of shocks flow beautifully with the lines of the car and are the ideal scale so as to not look out of place or ugly Another triumph over engineering adversity here I feel 😀👌🏻😎👍🏻
Well, yours is an elegant solution to the problem, totally in-keeping with the overall design of the car and seemingly without an ounce of compromise, so extremely well done again Sir 😎😎😎👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
I'm building a new Frog right now, I'm wondering if anyone ever tried a horizontal battery placement for better front and rear balance. The thing I love about ORV is there's so much room to put stuff inside esp with ESC. I'm going to try and install an LED kit on the Frog with that cavity next to the servo being where I put the LED box.
Please give us an upgrade for the blackfoot's front suspension. It seems to want to bind when compressed rather than move freely. Maybe have smaller "uprights" and longer control arms of equal length, something similar to the super blackfoot.
I’m got an old frog for a project car but since the car is so old I don’t really know what is a necessary upgrade for it. If you can give me any tips that would be amazing. Awesome video and that car is not frog anymore lol.
Not only does it look better, it works as it should. No point of having 100mm dampers if you only have 40mm of suspension travel, just saying. Well done...can you get them in black?
Yeah exactly. Shapeways cant polish parts that are dyed black so they dont offer the black color in that state of surface finish. I use matte spray paint and it looks awesome. The nylon sucks in that paint as well as the dye.
You have amazing passion for rc and great engineering skills. Thanks for the video and info. Do you have a Europe products warehouse so we can buy and support your work from?
I was wondering what pillow balls you used. I cant find one which fits and that's big enough for a 4mm cap. If you could get back to me I would really appreciate it. I have been stuck with this for months
I may be missing something here. The only thing I modified on this was drilling out the hole on the knuckle and tapping it to fit a 3 mm M3 ball stud. Shoot me an email at amproengineering@gmail.com With a photograph if you could
Hi I'm having problems with the front axles on my brat coming out of the steering arm tried a few fixes no success any ideas on how I can resolve this?
I have seen this happening a lot now. The best you can do is use super glue to hold them in place. This is about the best you can do. Even replacements are terrible.
So I bought an install these exact uprights complete set and installed recommended shocks. What did you do to keep from losing 60% of your steering radius my tires bump the lower mounting stud for the shock.
So the standard Frog can pretty much turn in its own length. I always thought that was crazy. So This car turn on a dime but make sure the lower mount doesnt stick out too far and hit the Tire. I didnt notice this thing having any turning issues. Shoot me a picture at amproengineering@gmail.com
Just received my order from Shapeways today for this front end. The factory arms are a wee bit tight in the uprights. Like the Tamiya arms are too wide or the uprights are too narrow. I was going to sand the arms ever so slightly so they move freely. Or is there a better way?
Depending on what material you selected or any anomalies in the polishing canister could cause this. I would give it a light sand and see how it goes. A little goes a long way. Email me if you have any issues as I cant check replies here. amproengineering@gmail.com
I don’t want to sound critical here, but, that car should be discarded completely, here’s my address......😁....amazing work sir👍👍👍 looking forward to whatever you’re doing next😁
I am looking to get into professional rc racing, would this car be competitive with the offerings from Schumacher, Team Associated and TLR? I assume there is a large amount of adjustability for the track here?
No, not even close. The Frog, even with all my mods, is still light years behind anything now. With modern composites, high powered motors, bullet proof gearboxes and all kinds of wheel and tire combos that wont really fit this car. This is a fun car to have at historic events or to race for fun.
Awesome video 🙏❤️🙏❤️🙏 I actually really need your help I purchased a Tamiya Subaru brat and I’m just about done building it and it came with a esc and Moter so here’s my question Moter 2 wires yellow and green wire ESC 3 wires yellow Blue orange which 2 from the esc am I using// I know I’m not using one of them please help 🙏
OH yeah, you got the newer ESC from Tamiya. I actually dont have one but look in the manual for the ESC. The three wires are used if you have a brushless system but the stock motor is not. You will simply set the ESC up for brushed motors and not use one wire. The manual will cover that. I dont have one so I am of no use! Sorry!
K yha I recently built tamiya lunchbox same situation I ended up putting my own electronics in I’m awesome at wiring anything but these new tamiya set up I just don’t get lol it’s funny I can’t find a video either I figured you knew which one wire but it’s cool I’ll figure it out you were the first person I thought of thank you 🙏
Ampro what’s up, so if using the crp tower pair, and a pair of your ampro design steering knuckles, what size shock could be used I’m having a difficult go in locating parts mp3 & mp2 for my tamiya build, I have located 60mm shocks however from an rc10 original, which fit the crp part. Please advise and ty.
The problem is you need smaller scale shocks. I use 1/12 or even 1/16 shocks. Best I can say is search ebay for 1/12 and 1/16 shocks. Be aware that smaller shocks usually use smaller hardware (1/16 ones use m2.5 or m2).
@@AMPROEngineering thank you for that advice mp was 1/12, maybe some spare around but which length are the legs on the homemade towers your offering taller then crp if so by how much you mentioned 72mm and crp was 60 but your knuckles and a crp tower is what, can you just hold some shocks up to your model please help a brotha out.
Certain parts are available on myminifactory. I cannot recall if these are or not at the moment but everything I make is designed for SLS nylon and not FDM. FDM cannot hold the tolerances that are needed for this. There are also certain components we have developed that are not available due to IP issues.
Hello please help me I have been going mad to change my brats upright links. The 3mm white half balls come right off and I see you have 4mm. Ones can you send me a link. So I wont have this problem any more Kind regards richard Kind regards
@@AMPROEngineering sorry it's so hard to describe over text. But its what the ball cups fit on to. It looks like you have replaced the ball 3mm cups to 4mm cups. Now I have the 4mm cups but they dont fit into this==part no 58354.... So what part did you replace this part with to fit the 4mm cups ? Hope that makes sense haha
@@AMPROEngineering No actually unless you are turning into a corner a tilting suspension front end would PREVENT camber gain. Usually made on a reverse trike It doesnt take any imagination to make one on a 4 wheeler of any kind with an independent rear suspension. thekneeslider.com/harley-davidson-leaning-trike-patent-application/ Have you seen a four wheeler like the wheel tilt above? I have been told it was a Hornet model.
Oh, and have you seen the new CC02 yet?? 😳 A couple of big players got pre-releases, with some mixed reviews.... They COULD have included BEARINGS, and not give us those STUPID 73mm USELESS Vinyl Tires!!! 😡😠 However, much of it is a SIGNIFICANT improvement over the CC01!!
Sadly, I have to agree. Overengineered - even by Tamiya standards!! For $100 LESS, you can get a MST CFX Chassis, built for all the CC01 Bodies. Does the same thing, for Less, BETTER.