Next we have Project Overkill (RJ Speed Digger). This was our GO FAST project car that we plopped a Castle 9,000KV motor into. We decided since we can’t run outside with it (snow), we’d take it pulling with us. There was a bunch of stuff we needed to do to it to get it converted, and we couldn’t have done it without the help of Jim Guinta from the pulling club. We geared it down for torque, installed some different hubs and tires (OLD SCHOOL Pro-line v-treads), and a few other tweaks. The weight on the truck came in right on the money at 3 lb’s. This includes the weight we added and the AJS Machine kingpin brace from Project Overkill. There is no hitch that needs to be built because the sled just hooks onto the built in wheelie bar.

We had to trim the front of the rear fenders to clear the tires, and let the body rest on the body posts instead of being properly mounted. We’ll fab up something more permanent for next time.

We originally started the day with a Epic 27T stock motor installed, but it had literally no wheel speed behind it (you can see it in the video). We swapped it out for a Trinity Green Machine 3 and it was a whole new animal (minus the hung brush in Round 2 of qualifying). We noticed others had built custom Nimh packs that were 4 cells wide on the bottom with 2 on top, to allow the battery to fit between the tires. In this case with a traditional shotgun style stick pack, it would rub the tires so we tipped the battery for clearance. We’re still running all the rest of the electronics from Project Overkill (Castle Mamba Max Pro, Airtronics 94358 servo, and Spektrum radio).

Here’s a shot of the tires/hubs and you can see the hitching area as well.

Another shot of the hubs.

Here’s the Digger ready for pulling!

This is Part-Time RC Soup photographer, Kris Button lining up the Digger (aka Project Overkill) for a pull. He ran the truck at this event.

Overall the Digger did well. Kris had a few issues with it (none of them his fault). First round we had the bad Epic motor installed that didn’t have enough grunt to get down the track. During the second run, a brush hung up mid run and stopped the truck in it’s tracks. Finally Kris was able to make a full pull in the 3rd qualifier to make it into the Pull Offs. All of these runs are in the video at the end. In the Pull Offs, Kris went first and had a decent run that held the lead for a little while. It’d eventually land him a 3rd place finish, which is impressive considering we literally threw this thing together that morning.

Read on for the rest of our coverage and tons of photos and the video.