Where did (most of) this year go?

Ahhh. Well, Mark's trike consumed most of my free time. Not to mention the wiring and some metalwork on another (Reliant-based) trike belonging to a bloke called Roger. Mark's is finished now, up and running, MoTed and street legal. There's just a bit of fine-tuning and adjusting left to do. I don't have a photo to hand to post here right now, but I'll add one in sometime in the future.

The RC building front has continued very peaceably, usually by means of a bit of quiet pottering after the rest of each days' tasks were done. One of the good things about the place we've been constructing the trikes at is that this has been in a small outbuilding-cum-workshop on a local farm.

And this farm has got a fairly large concrete yard - perfect for a bit of RC bashing around :-)

So the red/yellow TL has had a fair bit of use this summer with a variety of motors fitted - mostly either 19 or 21 turn 540s. I recently bought an incomplete Ansmann 1/10 chassis (for a tenner) as well - this has now also been brought up to running condition - although it isn't completely finished as it doesn't have a body fitted yet. (More on this in another post.) 'Army' truck has also spent some time at the farm - getting toned down just a bit with now-refurbished matt black wheels and an overcoat of Tamiya PS-55 flat clear.

The main project of the year has been to acquire another somewhat superior TL chassis - the downside to this was that I wanted a new (or as new as possible) one to start with - and Tamiya doesn't make them as complete kits any more.

So I built one from scratch. Over the years of owning TLs I've collected a fair few spares - a lot of them new and unused. So naturally the best way to go was to buy a new 'A' sprue chassis set - Tamiya #50735 (@ £7.65) - and start from there. I already had a nearly complete set of gearbox internals, the suspension arms, wheel drive shafts and shocks and virtually all the other plastic and metal parts. So all I needed was all the hop-ups I could afford along with nice wheels and tyres just to finish it off.

In there are:

24 rubber shielded bearings (£5.89)

A black aluminium main drive shaft (£5.87)

An aluminium spur gear (already owned but without a home)

Hollow carbon gear shafts (£5.29)

Proper CVD front steering joints (£7.38)

Stainless suspension pivot shafts with 'e' rings (£2.70)

An upper arm adjustable camber set (already owned - as above)

Light-weight king pins (£2.45)

Aluminium wheel hexs (£4.18)

A new set of body mounts (£2.85)

A Power HD1501MG 17Kg servo (£18.00)

A (temporary) new Clod 'J' motor (already owned)

Tamiya Street Rover tyres (only two fitted at present) (£12.27 for all four)

Tamiya Stadium Blitzer wheels (Well. This is a bit of a story. I did order four. Two lots of two from two different suppliers because that's all they had. Unfortunately one of the pairs went missing on the way here from Hong Kong. It never arrived. Hence the chassis has a pair of old Stadium Raider wheels and tyres on one side just to hold it level. As soon as some more become available, and they should because the SB is now a re-release - I'll get another pair.) (£4.65 + £4.94)

A set of new black nylock wheel nuts (£1.99 (x 10))

And a whole bunch of black-finished screws - in fact all I had bar two!

Total new spend came to £86.11 plus the postage - which was fairly reasonable considering that just about all this stuff came from the Far East in a couple of job lots. It just amazes me that Royal Mail charge so much now - anything over an inch thick is a minimum of £2.80 even if it only travels ten miles - whereas I can get a far larger parcel sent half way around the planet to me (from Hong Kong or China for example) for about 6 USD.

..............

So back to the Nikko. Nothing else has been done to the body - pending a choice of colour (or something like that!). But it does fit on the new TL fairly well.

The idea with the TL is to fit velcro body mounts. I've used various TL standard mounts and arranged them so that they can support the wired-on plastic bracketry for the velcro to be stuck to. I've also bought a Proline '66 Ford F-100 body - so this is another potential mating candidate - although it sits just a little bit high in order to get full wheel turning clearances.

Meantime the rest of the Nikko was just hanging around, I'd taken it out once and it ran just fine. So I tidied it up, put a Deans connector on it, painted the shocks and wheels matt green and then just recently placed the Ford body on it. Out of the two chassis I think it probably looks best on this one!

First job of the year...

I've filled the hole in the body with ordinary automotive body filler. A piece of pierced plate was stuck underneath to begin with, and a couple of pieces of suitable rod were embedded into the still-soft filler to maintain the hood rib lines.

Monster makeover part I

The Nikko Monster has had a bit of a clean-up, and the chassis has now been reassembled. I've given it a good condition RS540SH motor in place of the old rusty one, and performed all the necessary lubing duties.

A little bit of research shows the body to be a fairly good representation of a 1983-and-a-half year model Toyota truck, known as the Hilux in most of the world, but referred to as a Mojave in the USA.

For the time being I'm just going to rebuild it using most of the original parts. I'll leave off the superfluous exhaust pipes and the empty 'spare wheel' cover, and try to give it a military hue. The main jobs to do beyond repainting the body are to fill the hole in the bonnet, make a new headlight grille, and do something with the rather over-sized front bumper.

An interim minor-monster project...

Although work on the new Clod crawler continues at its own pace, I fancied having a go at doing-up another 1/10 truck in the meantime. I watched a fair few go through 't Bay, and even bid on a couple which I thought might go cheaply. In the end I won this one in a one-bidder auction, for the princely sum of 99p.

It's a mostly-intact Nikko 'The Monster', dating back to (I think) the early-mid 1990's. It's fairly complete, missing only its headlight grille and its bonnet 'blower' cover. It didn't come with a controller (which doesn't matter - see below), but it did still have its original instruction manual, which was still tucked away in a little compartment in its original but well-used box.

As trucks like this go, this one wasn't too bad in its day. It had a normal 27Mhz AM radio system with changeable crystals, a circuit board capable of running the RS540 silver can motor that powered it, carried a regular stick pack, and had a pretty good turning circle. A lot of the rest was of plain toy-grade construction, but it did sport a fairly nicely-made plastic hard-body resembling a generic Japanese 2-door pick-up truck.

Being as I have a transmitter that works with it, I was able to test it as soon as it got here. Although it was in a fairly well-used condition as received, I was pleased that it ran properly as soon as I powered it up. A subsequent strip-down soon after this revealed no major damage to anything, and showed all the moving parts to be in pretty good condition.

So - potentially a neat little project - and in a way a small Christmas present to myself - just to do a tidy-up job, really. In their day, these were just cheaper versions of something like a Tamiya Brat. And some Brats ended up looking very (very) nice indeed.

Clod crawler project resurrected!

After quite a considerable delay, box project two is now underway again.

HB Sedonas have replaced the earlier HPI Rock Grabbers, which got fitted to the Axial. The first prototype gearbox mount is in there, as is a stock AX10 frame, although this will get replaced with one of my own design.

Prototype Clod gearbox mount

I got the first Clod gearbox mounting assembly completed today:

This is only the first prototype - it's still not quite right, but it will serve for testing purposes. I've placed a fuller write-up on the build thread about it at ClodTalk.

A Trike for Mark!

This was a very simple construction I put together yesterday combining a toy-grade New Bright truck chassis with some 'Knex'. It does have a serious purpose though, a friend of mine called Mark is in the process of having a full-scale trike, based on a Yamaha XJ900, converted to suit his physical needs. One of his bigger problems is going to be how to safely get on and off the thing, bearing in mind the fact that he is a full-time wheelchair user. The whole idea of building this RC model is to test the idea of creating a combined wheelchair lift and rack on the back of the trike. Call it a bit of 'brains-storming' if you want.

This model isn't exactly a proportional representation of the real thing - it's only intended to be a conceptual test-piece. In particular the top deck of the Yamaha trike is a lot shorter than demonstrated here. The idea of the fold down pillion passenger back rest is important, so that Mark can easily cross from the back of the vehicle to his own seat. The construction and form of the ramp is still being thought about, it could remain flat at all times, could fold up (which would mean the wheelchair would have to be mounted elsewhere), or it could fold at half its length, which would allow for a folded chair to be stowed sideways in the remaining gap. Different mechanisms have been suggested to enable the ramp to be raised and lowered, these include electrical, hydraulic and mechanical, this last one probably by adapting a top-handle sideways-folding car-jack.

Just for comparison, here is a picture of the real-life trike as it stands today:

I've stared a new blog about its construction here, where you will be able to read all about it as progress is made. I now have two winter projects on the go!

ClodTalk

I've now taken up membership at the US ClodTalk forum - mainly to get a better understanding of the various modifications other folk have carries out on their own Clodbuster (and derivative) trucks. In particular I've been looking at the various steering adaptions that have been made, particularly with servo mounting and rod arrangements. My own Clod gearbox mounting 'creation' is underway again, and I intend to continue with this as a winter project.

At the suggestion of one of the administrators there, I've opened a couple of threads documenting the build of the 'Zilla and the Arachnid, which in part duplicate that which has already been posted here. Over there I've referred to them as the Z4 and the A1, and I've also opened another thread to cover the current work on the gearbox mount.

The threads are here:

Andy's Z4 build

Andy's A1 build

Has anyone tried this before?

This last thread brings the construction of the mount up to date, I'll write a longer post about it here as soon as I have a complete assembly assembled!

A year went by...

It's exactly a year since I last posted here. Apart from a few local trips out with one or other of my trucks and crawlers, very little has happened in my RC world. In the real and very much wider world our family life was ripped apart by the loss of my partner Heather, who very sadly and suddenly died of a brain haemorrhage back in February. It has been a truly heartbreaking time for all concerned. She had five children, three older boys from her first marriage, and Sean and Kala from her second. These two have gone to live with their natural father and his own third wife, and have moved away to another town some 40 miles from where I am now writing from. He and I never really got on, and he wants the younger kids to have nothing further to do with me, and strongly exerts his influence to make sure that we have no contact.

Back to RC, I still have my existing projects boxed away. I suppose it is now time to get it all out and work out what I am going to next with it all. I have spare Clodbuster gearboxes, an assortment of various useful bits and pieces, and the old (previously mentioned) 1/6 Hummer body.

The Arachnid now has bigger and better wheels, although it hasn't been out with them fitted as yet. The Axial has gained a bit more weight since the last time I wrote about it, and now has a new 3Racing aluminium upper link bearing mount on its front gearbox, being as the original plastic one wore itself away. The Zilla still runs fine, although it has now consumed yet another MG995 front servo. Cheap and cheerful as they are, and also due to the fact that it is just the upper case that fails making it easy to replace, I suppose I will just have to order another couple of the buggers.

Playing with the Axial

I had a quick trip out with the AX10 today, being as this has been the first day it hasn't been wet and rainy for about a week now.

Latest mods are the side panels, bonnet and roof, made from a cut-up paper folder and the lid of a tupperware container. Overall cost - less than a quid. I've got my HPI Rock Grabber tyres and black coloured Rock-8 wheels fitted now, these were really intended for the current Clod project (see below) but never mind, needs must. I've used the old Axial aluminium beadlock rings on the outside of the wheels just for effect, and have used the much heavier stainless steel HPI ones on the insides. The ESC is now a Nosram Tomahawk Reverse, this has a much better instant reverse function when compared with the previous Mtronics RV-20 Sniper, so I'm experiencing a lot less rolling over backwards when I overdo the steep uphill bits.

Other mods? A section of old silver watch chain wrapped around the front axle, this gives me about an extra ounce and a half of weight on the front end, this helps the front wheel traction slightly when the whole thing is pointing up at the sky. And I'm also now using a Futaba T3-PDF transmitter. This gives me switchable rear wheel steering, rather than the mixed setup of the old (actually newer type) 3PM-FM. I've now got mixed feelings rather than mixed steering, I've lost the proportionality of the original TX but I've gained the addition of pure RWS when I need it, and besides which it is far less clunky when going from 2WS to 4WS.

Currently on order (coming from the USA) is a new STCR aluminium motor mount/skid plate. This will allow me to move the lower links inboard of the chassis side plates, I don't actually need any extra articulation due to the tyre/cage clearance, but this will allow for less side hangups which occur surprisingly often. The link screws and the matching rod ends now bear considerable witness to the fact that this happens as much as it does!

Not much movement!

I haven't got any further with the plates - I've not had much spare time lately mainly due to to the Kala and Sean being on school holidays and I've otherwise being playing with the Axial. I've been thinking a lot about chassis design - do I really want to do something a bit different or try something more original this time? I'm still not sure which way to go.

Anyway, in the meantime I've been collecting all the basic electricals I'm going to need to at least get this project properly running, these include:

A pair of S/H Gmade 60 turn motors, complete with 9t pinions and adjustable motor mounts @ £35 + £4.50 P+P

A new cheap chinese 300A dual motor output crawler ESC @ £15.00 inc postage (came with a free mini torch keyring!)

A S/H Futaba T3PDF 3-channel transmitter and receiver set, complete with rechargeable battery pack @ £16.50 + £7.50 P+P

I'm going to need a pair of servos next, probably cheap MG995/996Rs, and I still need to get the rest of the alloy axle parts from the US.

Total spent so far is about £140 - some of this was initially as spares for the 'Zilla - and since buying the Wheely King kit mainly for the tyres and beadlocks for this project as well as for the gearbox for the black TL crawler truck I've sold on the rest of it in three lots, differential lockers, 17mm wheel adaptors and wheelbase extension kit which has pulled back (£2.99 + £1.99 + £11.99) £16.97, which is getting on towards half of the initial £38 purchase cost.

Clod twin vertical axle/gearbox plates

These took a fair bit of thinking about and some very careful drilling and filing to produce - here we have the first stage of my twin verticle plate axle/gearbox mounts for my second Clodbuster-based crawler project.

They were cut out of a length of 1/8" wall 2" x 1" aluminium rectangular box section. I've drilled the mounting holes for the axle tube screws, and now have to either drill or hand cut the centre holes for the axle tube spigots. This size is bigger than the capacity of my pillar drill (and I don't otherwise have a drill bit of this size) so I would need outside help if I choose to drill them.

The right hand plate has been slotted and also recessed at one point to accomodate the moulded ribs on this side of the gearbox assenbly, and has been carefully hand-trimmed to fit the counter-gear area of the box. There's enough clearance to allow for a couple of coats of paint if I later decide to do the whole thing in black, which is my usual style of finishing things.

The original diagonal strut mounting positions have been reproduced through the plates for added anti-rotation security, and there is a bit of trimming still to do in order to allow the original gearbox half clamping hardware to be accessable, or else the tube mounting hardware will have to be modded to allow for assembly of the tubes after the two gearbox halves have been completely assembled. I'm not sure which is the best way to go with this as yet - I've still got to consider servo mounting and this may affect matters.

The tops of the plates are probably higher than they will end up, but this will depend on my eventual choice of centre-chassis design. The lower front corners will later be radiused, although I intend to fit a 'ramming bar' here to prevent damage to the plastic gearbox itself.

More work to do as time allows...

Second thoughts...

...on using a twin vertical plate (TVP) method for mounting the Clodbuster gearboxes onto the chassis:

The two plates would stand about 50 mm apart and be equidistant from the centreline of the truck. The left-hand one as demonstrated here will also act as the inner servo mount. I haven't trimmed the top bit yet as there is a wide range of choice when it comes to determining optimal shock and link positioning, the best locations won't become apparent until the whole build is further advanced.

The lower edges of the plates will act both as skids and as protection plates for the gearbox casings, and also mount a lower heavy-duty crossmember to act as a primary bumper, which may itself incorporate some kind of skidplate.

As made in cardboard here, the plate has had a hole cut in it to match the outer diameter of the inner end of the axle housing. Another option would be to actually sandwich the plate between the gearbox assembly and the housing. This would necessitate widening the differential to ensure drive is fully maintained, but would also widen the truck by the corresponding amount. (I intended the final width of the truck to be 12.5 inches in keeping with 2.2 class competition regulations, it is this size already, so doing this would require further modification beyond what I already envisage if I wish to maintain this standard.)

I'm now awaiting delivery of the first pair of aftermarket aluminium (Hot Racing) axle tubes, which are coming from the USA. I have material to make the plates from, but will need the new parts to determine exact dimensions prior to engaging in actual production.

First thoughts...

...on servo locations. Having looked at practically everyone else's take on this matter, and taking behind-the-axle steering into consideration, I've figured that this is probably the best place to put them. As you see it here the servo is balanced on an allen key and a plastic servo plate, supported by an out-of-sight body post. I really want it lower, I can't do this with out either cutting plastic (which is a waste of potential 'Zilla spares) or using the aluminium axle tubes which I haven't ordered yet. Oh well. Next...


... and on a chassis design:


Just a bit of scribbling really, but something like this might work. Is that cereal packet empty yet?

Box Project Two

The produce box that previously held the parts for the Black TL01 build is seeing some more use and now contains the start of another project:


Since I built the 'Zilla I've been occasionally buying a few spares for it as and when they came up cheaply on t'bay. I've now collected (just about) enough parts to build another pair of Clodbuster axles. First thoughts were to build them up stronger and with better steering and then fit them to the Z, but then again it is what it is already and I also fancied building a 2.2-class sized crawler (albeit with 4WS) with a width and wheelbase of 12.5 inches.

This will have to be another budget build, and I'm going to be careful with money. It was to this end that I originally bought the heavily-discounted HPI Wheely King Crawler conversion set, obviously for the beadlock Rock-8 wheels and the large diameter Rock Grabber 2.2 tyres it contained, amongst the other pretty things also found within.

Having already used the gearbox in the TL, some of the body mounts on something else and with the other unwanted bits back on the dock of t'bay this set of round things should end up costing me the worth of about £20. So far I've stuck four ounces of lead (which is all that I had left after putting some inside the TL's tyres) in each of the wheels and have now painted the (nice and heavy) beadlock rings matt black.

The (new but s/h) Losi Competition Crawler (LCC) shell came with its masks and stickers from a guy named Carl who frequents the UKRCRC (United Kingdom Radio Controlled Rock Crawler) website forum for a tenner posted, all I can say is thank you very much!

Also to this ultimate fiscal end the Z and this one (name???) will have to share my Novak Rooster Crawler speed controller, and probably the Z's batteries too. An initial thought is to modularize these components for easier swapability in the future.

One of the axle tubes/C-hubs is already broken so I'm going to have to replace this, aluminium ones are a natural choice here for strength whilst being not too expensive, these (at least some varieties) are importable from the USA in pairs without attracting any customs duty.

Beyond that I'm not quite sure how I'm going to go about the chassis construction.

Brain-storms ahead!

Watch this web-space...

So you want moving pictures?

The last set of pics were actually 'stills' in more ways than one, the camera automatically generates a single image file each time you begin shooting a video (for easier later identification of the clips in a folder perhaps?), and the Arachnid was waiting for the camerawoman (Heather) to say 'go' each time we started filming one. So nothing was moving in each of the pictures that I've already posted further below.

This next set of images are (IMO) the best individual frames extracted from the (moving) video footage we shot:

Arachnid caught on film!

Two quick clips of the Gmade Spider-axled Arachnid:

Scorpion Spider gets out!

I had a trip to the rocks at Weston sea-front today with the Scorpion Spider. Actually it isn't exactly that, scorpions are not spiders and spiders aren't scorpions. Both are arachnids though, that's what it'll have to be. Andy's Arachnid.