The smell of competitive rock crawling is back in the air with W.E.Rock kicking off their first event of the year in Tucson, AZ. Tracy & the Rock Bug have had some time together both on the trail and in the shop getting ready for this day. Today marks the Rock Bug’s ultimate debut and we are happy to report Tracy and the Rock Bug were both in amazing form, securing the top spot of the day!

Before reviewing today’s competition, it deserves mention that yesterday we had the first chance to weigh the Rock Bug. Keep in mind, this recorded weight includes a rear steer axle and an oversized radiator, both of which were designed and intended specifically for King of the Hammers. We planned on swapping these out for a lighter solid axle and smaller radiator, in total shaving over 160 lbs. As mentioned in our last update, time did not permit this change for this first event but we should be making these improvements for the next W.E.Rock competition.

Having said all of that, the Rock Bug with all fluids and fuel weighed in at 2,510 pounds. This puts the Rock Bug’s approximate weight with a solid rear axle right around 2,350 pounds. Keeping in mind the Rock Bug is a full bodied two seat Pro-Mod rig, it is currently on track to weigh less then Tracy’s legendary Scrapper single seat moon buggy which weighed 2,360 pounds.  It is also worth noting once these weight saving changes are complete, the Rock Bug should easily be the lightest vehicle competing in today’s W.E.Rock Pro-Mod class.

Back to the competition, day 1 of this 2 day event is now finished and as mentioned above Tracy and the Rock Bug have secured the top spot with a total of -16 points. The point spread is close though so it is still anyone’s game tomorrow. Videos do the Rock Bug far more justice then my writing, but I will make a quick mention on the video below of course B2.

On B2, Tracy hits a cone and is called on it by Judge #1 but he and his spotter clearly do not hear the call. You will see Tracy continue to negotiate this cone with another judge, who we will call Judge #2, watching his progress from above. The crowd, including myself, begin yelling at Tracy as he is clearly consuming enormous time on a cone that Judge #1 called him on. When Tracy and his spotter hear the crowd, they ask the closest judge, Judge #2, if the cone was hit and this judge says no. So, they continued negotiating the same cone which consumes the time needed for the course’s bonus climb. Once the course was finished, Judge #1 said they hit the cone for 10 points in addition getting 4 points for backups while negotiating this already hit cone.  Needless to say, this did not go over well with anyone and the final call by Lil Rich gave Tracy back 4 points of his potential loss of 10 (for missing the bonus that the majority of teams completed). In the end, it was a raw deal for everyone with no clear winners. Luckily, Tracy & the Rock Bug’s solid performance carried them to 1st place for the day despite this negative run.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter as we are posting live updates of the Rock Bug and will continue to do so tomorrow during the final day of competition.  Until then, enjoy the videos below of the Rock Bug in action and be sure to check in tomorrow for the final outcome.

Note: If you have a fast connection and computer, hit the “HD” button in the video window to watch the movie in full High Definition.

Course B1

Course B2

Course B3

Course B4

We’re back at it with the Rock Bug, this time going over the entire vehicle without the pressure of a ticking clock.  Our goal now is to have the Rock Bug ready for the first W.E. Rock Western US National Rock Crawling competition on April 4th, which will mark the Rock Bug’s ultimate debut.  For those that followed along with our Rock Bug King of the Hammers updates, you may recall the Rock Bug was struggling with what we thought were motor and transmission issues.

To quickly recap, the day before the KOH race the team came to the conclusion that the stall speed on the torque converter was set to high and the low end torque of the motor was far from ideal for rock crawling.  Although the Rock Bug could arguably run KOH, the risk of damaging the motor just weeks before the Rock Bug’s intended purpose of competing in W.E. Rock, the last minute decision to pull from the event was made.  Whether this was the right thing to do is still a hot topic around here, but you have to do the best you can with what you have.

There is no question weeks of countless sleep and the pressure of race day may have gotten the best of the Rock Bug team at KOH and here is why.  The Rock Bug was back at our shop this past weekend for a closer inspection of the problems experienced at KOH.  It appears these problems were not as they seemed, which can be both good and bad depending on how you look at it.  The stall speed on the transmission was not set too high as originally thought, but in fact set far too low at about 1000 RPM.  This in turn gave the impression that the low end torque of the motor was far from ideal.

So the solution will be installing the right torque converter with a 2200 RPM stall and re-tuning the Scat V4 for rock crawling.  The Rock Bug went back with Tracy on Sunday the 15th for some well deserved seat time.  Tracy and his co-pilot for the day, Dave of Powerhouse Motorsports, had a chance to run a full trail with the Rock Bug this past Monday.  Both agree the Rock Bug is in great shape for rock crawling and have since ordered the 2200 RPM stall speed torque converter.  Once the torque converter is installed, the Scat V4 will be re-tuned for rock crawling and trail tested.  Yes, this was indeed a lot of drama all because of a torque converter.

Tracy’s seat time is probably more valuable now then almost anything else we can do, so while the Rock Bug was in our shop this past weekend we took on only the absolute necessities.  For W.E. Rock regulation, we had to build a very small & simple front bumper.  I have included a few pictures below and do apologize in advance for the low quality photos.  The camera is being repaired and all that was on hand was an iPhone.

Still to come for the Rock Bug are changes to make it even lighter for W.E. Rock.  Due to time, these changes will not all make it for the first event but are coming.  These changes include, but are not limited to, swapping the rear steer axle for a a chromoly Spider 9 full floating axle as well as replacing the fuel cell for a smaller & lighter version.  King Shocks is building Tracy some custom air shocks just for rock crawling, which will not only perform better but will also save weight.  Once we get all of these changes in place, we will make a point to weigh the Rock Bug which we have been dying to do since KOH.

Lastly, while at KOH we received a few dyno videos, courtesy of Tracy, related to our blog entry The Sultry Sounds of a Scat V4.  These were taken around the 21st of February and will be included below.

From The Sultry Sounds of a Scat V4

From The Sultry Sounds of a Scat V4

From The Sultry Sounds of a Scat V4

As many of you know, not all things go as planned.  Late Thursday night, right about the time I was writing our last blog post, a decision was made between Tracy, his support team, & Eddie that did indeed change the fate of the Rock Bug and its place at the 2009 King of the Hammers.  The entire team planned on changing the torque converter as the stall speed was not properly set from the transmission builder.  With some last minute rock crawling testing to absolutely confirm the torque converter issue, it was also realized that the low end torque of the motor, as it was built, was far from ideal for rock crawling.  At this point they discussed the option of outfitting last years Twisted Customs rig to run on race day instead of the Rock Bug.  This was mainly out of fear of severely damaging the Rock Bug’s Scat V4 motor before its ultimate purpose of competing in W.E.Rock’s Pro Class just a few weeks away.  Well, to make this bad story even worse, on race day Tracy and Eddie suffered a serious 60 mph roll over crash in the Twisted rig which took them out of the race early on.  The Twisted rig is in severe condition but thankfully both Tracy and Eddie are safe.

So as not to completely kill your day with this entry, there is indeed some good news in the end.  Spidertrax Spider 9 Axles & components dominated this year’s King of the Hammers!  A special congratulations goes out to two Spider 9 equipped teams: 1st place finisher, and the all new King if you will, Jason Scherer as well as Randy Slawson who took 2nd to Jason by a difference of only 5 minutes.  Six of the top ten finishers this year were outfitted with Spider 9 Axles & components with even more Spider 9 equipped teams in the list of those who completed the race, an extremely high honor within itself.  So, a very sincere THANKS goes out to all of the teams who have supported Spidertrax and our efforts with the Spider 9 product line.  Congratulations!

List of Top 10 Teams Running Spider 9 Axles & Components
1st: Jason Scherer (4:42)
2nd: Randy Slawson (4:47)
5th: JR VanOrtwick (6:02)
6th: Brad Lovell (6:05)
8th: Adam Woodlee (6:19)
9th: Joachim Schwiesow (6:23)

It is just the beginning of the season and the Rock Bug still lives on.  We have a few things to resolve so everything is as it should be in time for W.E.Rock.  Until then, life does indeed go on and we will see you once again real soon.

It is a very windy day here in Johnson Valley, CA with Tracy & the Rock Bug working hard once again at getting some vital seat time in before tomorrows big race.  In addition to pre-running tomorrows coarse, Tracy got together once again with the dedicated team at King Shocks for some final shock tuning.  The quick video below was taken during this testing, which lasted for close to an hour. 

With a great day under his belt, Tracy is still disappointed in getting the incorrect “high stall speed” torque converter discussed in our last post.  So, the decision yesterday to hold off from swapping this torque converter out was overwritten and tonight will be spent installing the correct “low stall speed” version.  Hopefully this goes without trouble so Tracy and Eddie can get some sleep before the race.  Keep your fingers crossed and we will see you once again tomorrow for our Rock Bug KOH race day coverage.

As planned, the Rock Bug spent the entire Tuesday with ace photographer Boyd Jaynes to become the latest addition to Dirt Sports Master Piece in Metal.  With virtually no time behind the wheel, immediate after the 12 hour shoot Tracy headed straight for Johnson Valley, CA to get some practice in for Fridays 2009 King of the Hammers competition.

Today, Wednesday the 25th of February, marked Tracy’s first solid day behind the wheel and our first chance to study the Rock Bug in action.  First thing in the morning, Tracy spent time tuning shocks with King which went fast but proved effective.  Right after shock tuning, Tracy and his co-pilot Eddie Casanueva, Co-founder & Owner of Spidertrax, took the Rock Bug out for some real world high speed testing.  So far everything is looking fantastic, with the exception of two smaller issues related to the transmission.

The torque converter stall speed is set higher then we wanted and the transmission is running about 15 degrees hotter then Tracy would like.  Changing the torque converter would kill the entire Thursday for testing so Tracy decided to leave the torque converter in place but installed an auxiliary cooler to lower the operating transmission temperature.  This way, we can spend all day Thursday testing the Rock Bug at both racing and crawling speeds, hoping the stall speed on the torque converter will be suitable enough for rock crawling.

The video below was taken tonight at approximately 7:00 pm PST and the photos just below that were shot earlier today during the preliminary Rock Bug testing described above.  We will make a point to post again tomorrow so be sure to check back in for more King of the Hammers updates!