Building a Franken crawler

[nemesiss45]

I just joind the forum, but i have been reading posts for a while since i got a venom creeper project in a tade a few months ago. While I was building that, I decided I wanted to build more of a trail truck. Since then i picked up a Wheely King which was partially converted to a Crawler King. I pulled the axles and transmission to use on my new project. I used a helion motor plate and some aluminum plate to flip the motor and clock it down. I was going to make my own chassis, but i found some TRX4 rails for cheap, so i used them instead. I measured how wide i wanted it so the suspension would work then cut some 1/4" brake line tubing to size and brazed on 3mm nuts to mKe crossmembers. Next i mounted the transmission with some aluminum plate and channel. On the axles, I made link hangers from more aluminum channel, made a servo mount (with aluminum from an old screen door [emoji28]), and steering linkage. I made suspension links the same way with 8-32 all-thread and traxxas rod ends. I will sheath the links with brake tube when I settle on lengths. I put a battery plate over the front axle, but im not sure if i will leave it there. ATM it has so much weight up front it was popping wheelies in reverse when I tested it. The wheels and shocks are just standins at the until i settle on what I want. (And yes, those hyrax up front are just stretched over some drift wheels [emoji51]).

So from here, i want to try mounting a Bruder truck cab to see if the WK axles are too wide... I'm afraid it will look weird if they are, so that may change my plans... if not, i am thinking about making a dakkar style expedition camper out of it.... if that doesnt work out... maybe an old Dodge Power Wagon.

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[nemesiss45]

Just some updated pics. Since this i also got some new beadlocks got it. And got desert lizard 110mm shocks all around. Had to make them pretty stiff because this thing got heavy, but it is climbing pretty well now.

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[RootBreaker]

gonna lower the body some or bigger tires or is that the look your going for? pretty cool lookin setup

 

[nemesiss45]

Im plannning to lower it a bit, but i need to modify the shock towers.

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[JatoTheRipper]

The cantilever system reminds me of my Tamiya CR-01. "thumbsup"

 

[durok]

Gotta say that I wasn't expecting a body anywhere near that one to be installed - too cool, props for uniqueness! "thumbsup"

 

[nemesiss45]

I made some new shock towers and played around with the spring rates and angles a bit to get the torque lean buttoned down. I dropped it a bit and it is not quite so tippy... cutting down the torque lean helped tremendously. I took it out for a little trail run around the yard to try it out, and i think im pretty happy with it. i am getting a little pulsing in reverse, which i think it drive line loading, so i may need to work on that still. but for now, im just waiting on my LED order to arrive to get a lighting kit built for it.

https://youtu.be/klZ70bfa-C4

 

[Miatardo]

Man that boady is cool! Overland survival campers have always interested me. Seems to crawl pretty well. For some reason it reminds me of an AT-AT walker on wheels which may or may not have given me a scary idea!

Awesome job on the custom crawler, keep up the good work!