Homemade 1/18th Truck! PICS! ... comments welcome

[Neon_Dave]

From a lack of things to do and an urge to build something came the creation of my new 1/18 (ish) stadium truck - thingy :)

It has an LRP Runner Plus ESC with a Hitec 2 Channel AM receiver (which is neatly hiding in the body's cab; along with a hitec servo and a 300? size motor.

The chassis is made of a 1 mm thick peice of standard steel (from a VCR :D ), is cut and drilled as needed to mount stuff, and is bent in the front to make a bumper. The suspension tower is a sheet of aluminum with the suspension mounted up onto a plastic rectangular shaped plate with 4 holes (the aluminum is from a CD drive !:D ).

The suspension consists of 2 regular coil shocks in the front with soft springs and suspension arms mounted onto some lego blocks :cool: . The rear relies on chassis flex, sort of a pan-car type design.

The batteries are mounted nicely on the rear of the pick-up truck (Chevy Silverado) body, 4 rechargeable 2300 mah AA's.

The rear has a differential system somewhat similar to the Micro RS4 except that it is larger. Truck is fully covered in metal bushings everywhere.

The wheels have chrome rims (5-spoke rear, mesh front) with wide slicks on them; thus making it an on-road truck.

.:Specs:.

Overall length w/o body : 18 cm
Overall length with body : 20 cm
Front Width (wheel end to wheel end) : 15 cm
Rear Width (wheel end to wheel end) : 16 cm
Ground clearance : 2.5 cm (R), 2 cm (F)
Suspension travel : 1.5 cm

TOTAL WEIGHT : between 700 and 800 grams (heavy little bugger with lots of metal)

TOP SPEED : around 15 mph (until I find a way to put in my Trinity Micro Monster Modified :) )

TOTAL COST : :eek: :eek: $10!!! (not including electronics, as I had them earlier used in other cars that now can not be driven due to winter {ah, Canada**)

All in all, It was a really fun and interesting project to do, and was especially neat to see it all come together. It required a good bit of planning and trial/error, but here it is. This thing is a blast to drive and for a first try at building my own RC, not bad!

-Dave ;)

[Neon_Dave]

Battery Holder - On back of truck

[Neon_Dave]

Body Off Shot

[Neon_Dave]

Chassis (from Bottom)

[Neon_Dave]

Front Section

[A Main Racer]

Reminds me of some stuff i built when i was 10. Looks like you had fun with it.

[Neon_Dave]

Rear Section

[Neon_Dave]

:cool: :cool: :cool:

[4DMNYC]

Neon Dave...aka..McGuyver..lol...thats cool man. very creative.

[RC10racer89]

Looks cool, is there any reason for the strange shape of the chassis, or was whatever you used to make it out of like that? The custom jobs are always the coolest because no one else has the same ride that you do. Nice work, I just wish your pics were a little bit bigger ;)

[TimisTim]

I was expecting some very shoddy thrown together model, but I have to admit I do like your truck. It has real style. I'd love to take some raw material and throw something like that together. Throw a 2S lipo on there and a 540 mabuchi motor and watch out........

[kawasakirider]

how fast does it go ? hav u jumped it if so how stable is it in the air and how are the shocks when u land? looks awesome how long did it take ya?

[A Main Racer]

Its a straight axle. Prolly doesnt take thge jumps to well but I bet it flies.

[Neon_Dave]

Yeah, I'm still just in the whole testing stage of it. The main chassis is part of a VCR brace, and happened to be that shape when I found it, and I just had to cut it to the right length and bend the front up.

My parents don't have a digital camera and are not planning on buying one anytime soon, and I have no idea what's going on with the scanner, so I'm stuck to using a Webcam for taking pics and stuff.

Umm... putting it together and planning it out, took a total of about i'd say 6 hours. From then on, came the major adjustments and replacement of parts in the steering system (the biggest challenge) and that probably adds up to another 4 or 5 hours of experimenting.

I have tried jumping stuff with the truck, and it is very stable on landings and in the air. I have flipped it a few times, and the car did not break or anything, except the battery holder flew out, as it is not securely mounted, just pushed in there. I haven't gone to jumps that launch the truck any more than 1 ft into the air, as I am worried something will happen. The front shocks absorb most of the impact on landing but the rear just falls like a stone and makes a nice thud. It can jump relatively well, but nothing large.

Today I just worked a bit on the steering, and added some toe in, and now it barely slides anymore. It has a few problems with the steering being the same amount on either side, but I will sort that out when I get some time and more tests done.

I haven't really gotten to really test it out on a larger area, since it's winter I'm limited to inside my house. In here, I would estimate that it can do about 15mph, but since there's hardwood everywhere it loses traction from then on and is hard to drive. I don't have enough space anyway. On a better surface and larger area, I'd expect some more from it as the motor just keeps going faster and faster as it accelerates. I don't know how fast if can go other than in the 25 feet of basement hardwood that I have to use for speed runs. I'm actually very surprised at the motor's condition, as I got it used from some Value Village or something like that for like 4 bucks.

Next step : (if possible) drop in my Trinity Micro Monster Big Block motor and try it then.

Thanks for the compliments!
-Dave

[RrR]

Reminds me of some stuff i built when i was 10. Looks like you had fun with it.How old are you now 2? :p :D :p

[2mcgrath]

great job..really creative