Kenworth C500

[Basicbilly]

I had finally gotten my Beast II kit together, fitted a Bullhead cab and built a stake side bed to go along with it.

Then I took it to a Recon G6 and had a bit of an embarrassing time trying to complete the 2 day stages. By the end of it I had about 3 degrees of steering deflection and running 5x6. I did find another use for my stake sides though.

 

[Basicbilly]

At home I pulled apart my front Yota II axle and this is all that was left. The threads into the top of the steering knuckle are partially stripped, and my drag link is toast. The parts to rebuild the axle approach the cost of a new one, not to mention that some of them are on backorder.





The biggest issues I ran into during the G6 were my approach, departure angles, and a high center of mass. I came to the conclusion that I wanted to build a more true 1/10 scale rig to improve future G6 performance.

My goal is to run 2.2 "training wheels" and widen the whole thing. I will re-position links and trim the frame back to improve approach and departure angles. The end goal is to have something looking like this.

 

[Basicbilly]

I had a box of parts waiting for me when I got home from work today.



An AR60 front axle and stock Wraith tires x12

It may be a bit tricky to make the existing 3 link on the front to work. I'll have to shift the rear axle back and I'm tempted to extend the wheel base on the center axle as well.



I'll either have to widen the existing cab I have by 3 inches, or scratch build a new one. It would likely take the same amount of work.

 

[Itali83]

Awesome project! Finally someone making a true big rig not some hybrid trash. And an American truck too! Glad to see duel rear wheels too.
Ben

 

[Basicbilly]

After some thought it seemed to me that it would be easier to build the frame from scratch. I'll reuse a few of the parts from the Beast kit, but make new frame rails.



I measured out some mounting points and marked them. I'm lucky to have a hobby shop around the corner with a machien shop in back. About 15 min and they had my marks drilled.



This is my first time with a counstom frame, and making links. The front will be a 4 link and I'll use the existing hardware on the AR60 axle to mount the servo on the axle. I'll need new drive shafts all around and I may drop the transfer case a bit.

 

[Davis_Krawling]

Can't wait to see how the body comes out. I have been eyeing a C500 as the next build but I have had a hard time locating good reference materiel for building the cab.

 

[Basicbilly]

Thanks for the kind words guys. It will be a while before I can do any more work. Its going to be a busy couple weeks then I'll be out of town for a while.

I will be making a body from styrene. As far as reference material there is a PDF from Kenworth literally labeled body builder manual. It gives a few views of what the stock cabs look like which would be a good starting place.

http://www.kenworth.com/media/52234/hd-t800-w900-c500-body-builder-manual-kenworth.pdf

 

[Itali83]

Any updates? This really has me wanting to build a real big rig made for rock crawling too. I'm just trying to figure out if I want to start witht a kit to at least get the power train or just piece everything together and make my own cab and hood.
Ben