edit

See how you feel when you've raced with it Nasir, I guess your one is balanced to an extent but what do the lipo's weigh compared to all the gubbins the other side ?

Also are they doing battery changes on them yet or is it just the obligatory go into the pits as if you were a nitro. You can run it for what 18 mins ? Have you timed that yet ?

edit

Not sure about that, a lot of people I've spoken to who have driven on tracks have said 15 to 18 minutes. I'm only going on what they said, I have nothing to base it on personally.

The run time will also depend on what kV rating your motor is, I see from your build thread you are using CC stuff but no mention of the motor rating.
The other trouble of using 1 4S battery is your kinda restricted in what you can buy in hard case, some people seem to use 2 x 2S stick packs linked together then you can easily get higher mAh ratings to get the longer run times.
There was a table on rctech.net that gave rough battery consumption data in mAh per minute, if you confirm what kV rating your motor is I'll try and find it.

edit

If you look in the 1/8th Electric off road section you will find a link and attachement to help select the right kV motor and cells.

From this table it looks like you will get approx 15 minutes run time with those cells and motor, but this can obviouslyh change with gearing/track/driving style etc.

edit

As promised....
I use a racers edge alu servo alonng with one of those flat head servo screws slightly filed down and an m3 nut to hold it all together.... works a treat!

As you can see there is ample clearance either side, you need the 5mm spacers on the servo to bring it forward to clear the servo mount.

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7152/6...1e442e97_z.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7152/6...86bdc9c2_z.jpg

But it's not straight in line with the steering arm like the original is, does this give any issues? I wonder how the official Serpent fits?
Jimmy let you back on them.

you need to take a TINY amount off to open the angle up slightly with a craft knife.

I Pm him a number of times and have insisted there be no more trouble and I wont post in the durango section again, also the comment made was sarcastic but taken seriously just a misunderstanding. Im only here to make positive, helpful comments from now on.

Im still waiting for wheelspin models to deliver my wheels and my shell is not far off! as for spares this is my first order, my second order will include bling bits, driveshafts, pins and screws for spares and a set of heavier front springs (blue)

1 x SER600488 Serpent 8 Hole Shock Piston Set (4)
1 x SER600357 Serpent Webbed Shock Bladder Set (4)
1 x SER600353 Serpent Front Shock Spring Set (Red/4.64lbs) (2)
1 x SER600332 Serpent S811 Cobra Decal Sheet (Chrome) (2)
1 x SER600301 Serpent Aluminum Wing Mount Washer Set (2)
1 x SER600300 Serpent Aluminum Wing Mount Post Set (2)
1 x SER600257 Serpent Rear Shock Spring Set (Yellow/3.8lbs) (2)
1 x SER600135 Serpent Front Lower Suspension Arm Set (2)
1 x SER600441 Serpent Low Profile Wing Mount Set
1 x SER600108 Serpent Inner Hinge Pin Set (2)
1 x SER600240 Serpent 2.3mm Front Anti-Roll Bar
1 x SER600147 Serpent Differential Gasket Set (3)

Have you run the Serpent in anger yet, if so how does it run? Some pics of the shell would also be nice. It would also be nice to hear how much run time you get from those Orion lipo's, I'm running 5800mAh Intellects and was going to get a pair with higher capacity for finals etc.
I've got some pictures from my build, was thinking of posting them on here but gonna wait till I've run it first.

Defo post some pictures for us fella! :thumbsup:

I "SHOULD" get 23 mins from them, but I need to gear it down to 15t and may help a little. :confused:

Did you have any trouble with the shock pistons? Mine were a bit tight and needed to be sanded down a bit with 800 grit wet and dry until they were smooth in the shock bodies.

a couple of them yes needed it slightly, ive ordered webbed bladders and 8 hole tapered pistons anyway

Just my 2pence worth :)

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6500mah :D

Ip5800 will last, I am doing what you want to do 6200 finals, 5000 plus onwards for qualifiers

Easy to do I use to run mmm Losi 2.0 2200 hmm on hyper ion 6500 30 mins:D

edit

Thought I would put my build up here is well, to share my thoughts and experiences so far.

First of all the kit contents were all top notch, the maching of all metal parts were probably the best I've seen in RC cars and the plastic mouldings were also very accurate and seemed to be pretty damned tough.
The build requires several parts to be threadlocked in place, but none is provided in the kit. I prefer to use the low strength blue type threadlock (i.e. Loctite 221), this is more than enough for RC cars. Using medium strength red type threadlock (243) could lead to problems with undoing bolts/nuts and rounding out capscrews in the future.
I also used a M3 and M4 tap to help start several of the threads in the plastic mouldings, this seemed to help a lot as the plastic mouldings are very tough and the clearances seem to be nice and tight.
I know there has been some critism of the fasteners used by Serpent on rctech.net, with several complaints of the hex head rounding out. But all of the capscrews in this kit were marked up as either grade 10.9 or 12.9 so these should be more than up to the job. With any problem threads tapped out there were no issues found execpt with the receiver box lid M2 screws.

The manual also isn't very clear in places, so I will try and fill out some of the parts that I found. Perhaps Serpent could do some build tips or videos on their website to help with this.

I started with sealing the carbon parts with cyan to help stenghten them and stop splitting in the future. A good tip I found on rctech.net is to use a black permanent marker on the edges prior to applying the cyan, the gives a nice gloss black finish to the edges thats a bit different to just using cyan.

Stage 1 in the manual is to build the centre diffs, and then the front and rear diffs. Alll three diffs are the same except for the spur/crown wheel gears in their respective places.
All of the parts again appeared to be of good quality, with the gears and pins all well cast or machined, and all parts went together very well.
The only issue I had was with the front gearbox, with the recommended new shimming on the seperate sheet. With three shims behind the diff pinion I couldn't even assemble the gearbox cases, with one shim removed all went together well with the gear mesh a little notchy.
Here I think the manual could be a lot clearer, or maybe a build video on the Serpent website. The new shimming is only a recommended starting point, if the gear mesh is too tight then try removing a shim from behind the pinion. The gear mesh from new should be a bit tight or notchy, this will bed in after a few runs when it should be nice and smooth. Then it would be best to check the gear mesh again and adjust as necessary.

The pictures below show the build of one of the diffs.

http://www.oople.com/forums/attachme...1&d=1324154859

http://www.oople.com/forums/attachme...1&d=1324154859

http://www.oople.com/forums/attachme...1&d=1324154859

The spur gear is steel, so although will be a bit louder than nylon should be more than up to the job.

The next stage in the manual is to attach the centre diff mount/motor mount to the chassis, the manual doesn't mention to use threadlock on these capscrews, but I did for security.

http://www.oople.com/forums/attachme...1&d=1324155183

http://www.oople.com/forums/attachme...1&d=1324155183

Nice work badger....

awesome work least fellas have two build threads to compare build tips :thumbsup:

I like that you are taking photos of what I miss because I was getting to excited building it :lol:

Nice work badger....

awesome work least fellas have two build threads to compare build tips :thumbsup:

I like that you are taking photos of what I miss because I was getting to excited building it :lol:

Things I bought extra to beef it up where red anodised countersunk washers to replace the plastic kit ones, and some 5mm nuts for the uprights instead of plastic ones didnt really trust these much.

word of warning bager the 40mm screws in the rear diff make sure you have a strong driver.

As some may notice, there are some posts missing from this thread.

Until the boss confirms whether he wants to allow "Lip" back, then all posts will be removed.

No problem Col, I tried to contact jimmy a few times and didnt recieve a reply since the day I was blocked. I will Pm him and hopefully get a reply.

Next up is the rear gearbox and shock tower. The first part is to assemble the rear centre drive shaft, this showed the bearings behind the diff pinion to be huge at 19mm and 11mm O.D. The CVD drive pin is aslo captured by the inner bearing and the joint is sealed off with a rubber boot.

http://www.oople.com/forums/attachme...1&d=1324238013

http://www.oople.com/forums/attachme...1&d=1324238013

http://www.oople.com/forums/attachme...1&d=1324238013


The centre shaft is then fed through the gearobx and prevented from moving by three self tapping screws.

http://www.oople.com/forums/attachme...1&d=1324238013

I think this picture also shows the size of the bearing just behind the diff pinion. I guess that Serpent had some issues with previous versions of the Cobra 811 buggies in this area and hence the possible overkill.

There is a seperate sheet with the manual which suggests to use additional shims when building the centre drive shafts and also for the diffs, but these are only a starting recommendation and you might find that a different shim set up is required when building the gearboxes. This sheet (and the manual) can be downloaded from the Serpent website.
I found that the rear gearbox went together very well with the updated shim set up.

The two gearbox halves sandwich the rear shock tower, and all went together very well. The only issue I have here is that plastic nuts and countersunk washers are used to bolt the two cases togehter, apparently this is done so that in the event of a crash the nuts will break and not the gearobx cases or shock tower. I built the gearbox with these nuts and washers, but will probably change them out for proper M3 nyloc nuts and ali countersunk washers later on for more peace of mind.

http://www.oople.com/forums/attachme...1&d=1324229127

banned not blocked!

All posts in the thread or just Lips posts?

Just Lip, no-one else inc captainlip.

Next is to build up the rear and then front gearboxs and suspension.
The rear suspension brackets are fitted with plastic inserts that can be changed to alter the anti squat and toe in. The forward bracket alters the anti squat and the rear alters the toe in. The forward bracket can also be changed for an option part to increase the anti squat still further.
The forward suspension brackets also have the same type of inserts to change the kick up.
The inner suspension pins are also ground to a taper at either end, this is to ensure that with varying angles of the pins they don't bind in the plastic inserts.

http://www.oople.com/forums/attachme...1&d=1324227560

http://www.oople.com/forums/attachme...1&d=1324227560

http://www.oople.com/forums/attachme...1&d=1324227560

The anti roll bars are attached to the suspension arms by a pivotball arrangement, and are supported by ballraces in the gearobox cases. All of this leads to a very smooth action.

http://www.oople.com/forums/attachme...1&d=1324227855

http://www.oople.com/forums/attachme...1&d=1324227855

http://www.oople.com/forums/attachme...1&d=1324227855

http://www.oople.com/forums/attachme...1&d=1324227855

The driveshafts again have captured drive pins and large wheel bearings (21mm and 16mm O.D.) All went together well without problems.

http://www.oople.com/forums/attachme...1&d=1324159573

http://www.oople.com/forums/attachme...1&d=1324159573

The rear drive shafts have rubber boots over the CVD joints, whilst the fronts don't. I presume that this is because the rubber boots don't last on the front, just like my Durango 410.
The CVD joints with rubber boots I lubricate with Muc-Off motorcylce chain lube, this goes of to be almost totally dry (no lube is totally dry). You can get small 50ml cans of this from Halfords for approx £3.50. I've used this on my Durango 410 and the wear seems to be less than the fronts that are left dry.

The outer suspension hinge pins run in top hat steel inserts so the suspension shoud remain slop free for a good time.

http://www.oople.com/forums/attachme...1&d=1324159573

Once both ends are built up they can be fitted to the chassis. The only issue I had here is the rear suspension hangers have lugs that locate in the chassis, one of these was tight in the chassis so the hole was filed out slightly. Then all went together very well.

http://www.oople.com/forums/attachme...1&d=1324236387

http://www.oople.com/forums/attachme...1&d=1324236387

http://www.oople.com/forums/attachme...1&d=1324236387

http://www.oople.com/forums/attachme...1&d=1324236387

The front and rear units can be removed easily again for maintenance, eight capscrews for the rear and eight capscrews plus the two outer steering rose joints for the front. Hopefully this will make working on and cleaning the buggy nice and simple.

The boss and the lip have had a word. Posts have been returned to there original locations.
Be on your best behaviour boys and girls - I'm watching!

Some pictures arent working badger.

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Bit of an update to where its sitting right now, recieved a set of tyres to fit, unfortunatly it doesnt come with rims so I ordered proline v2 rims with medium inserts and dboots A compound tyres, as I will mainly be on astro turf.

All the velcro is on now as I dont drill the holes out, the only hole I will be making is the aerial, the body mounts were cut down and applied a soft protective coating to protect scratching the shell.

ive ordered a chrome decal sheet as well for the bling look :D Im still debating alu towers and some of the bling parts

Upgrades fitted so far =

Hard servo saver spring

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7173/6...fc1ab142_z.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7170/6...f3435f11_z.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7001/6...89eeb586_z.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7155/6...543f9439_z.jpg

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Don't know what happened to the pics, but I've edited the posts and included the pictures again and all now seems to be ok.

Lip, I think that you will need to angle those wires going to the batteries a bit instead of pointing straight up, they might hit the shell.
I also used heavy duty bullet connectors instead of the usual bird cage type, got mine from Demon Power Products. The link below shows what I'm on about.
http://demonpowerproducts.co.uk/prod...nnector-p-4838

Badger can I ask when you put the 3 phillips screws in the diff did one of the left or right catch the main diff gear? I ended up just using tweo screws to hold the bearing in.