Toyota Rock Crawler

[Tomy]

Watching some offroad videos on youtube the other day I found this Toyota Rock Crawler.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG5xT...e=channel_page

I really liked the look of it, so I decided to try to build one like it. I had a scale chassis fabricated by a friend, axial axles and gearbox laying around. So thats what I started with.

While waiting for a new Bushwacker body, I started welding the front bumper and the pipes going under the doors (what are they called in English?)




Here I'm trying the bumper on my old Bushwacker body:




Still no body, so I went on doing a new grill for the body:




I had a hard time figuring out the rear suspension as I know nothing about 1:1 crawlers . But with the help of some fellow crawlers I got to know its called 1/4 elliptical suspension.




Trying to figure out a way to make that I decided to try to make the leaf springs out of this:




And at the end of the day I had this. I later learned that the axle side of the spring is usually fastened with a shackle to the axle or just laying freely on the axle.




The body finally arrived and here it's already cut out a bit with the front bumper in place as well:




And here's some more brazing done:




And this is were I'm at now:

[blakeski]

looks good, like to see that 1/4 ellip flex

[dblrnut]

looks great im also curious on how that suspension is gona work

[rckjeep]

Originally Posted by dblrnut

looks great im also curious on how that suspension is gona work

it's called a quarter eliptic, they flexed well in 1:1, but the trend didn't last long. I figured there was some lacking performance type reason.

Nice work on your rig. Good luck with setup.

[peyton.]

look slike a great start.

does that "leaf spring" stuff work?

[Tomy]

I'm not sure yet how the rear suspension will work. It's soft enough for sure and easy to tune with more or less leafs. But I need to install dampers to know how it will behave. I don't believe the springs themselves will limit flex that much, but the bed limits upward travel as the axel hits the bed. But as it looks now I'll have about as much flex as the real rig in the video in the first post.

[Dirty Hairball]

Nicely done so far.....can't wait to see the finished product.

[Robbob]

Picked a great truck to build, got my attention.


not to steal the thread, dont know if this helps with ideas for the rear end. this is how I did my Big Tex 2.2 build



its a Bruiser leaf.

[Tomy]

Thanks Robbob!

I've read your thread on the Big Tex - an amazing build!

I'm waiting for some Hi-Lift leaf springs and I hope I'll manage to do something better looking with them. I especially like your possibility to adjust the height of the rear end. Might have to copy that.

[Tomy]

Some updates after a little brake building this rig.

Done some more tube work . Happy there's not that much left of that.




I decided to make a new bed as the first one didn't feel right. It was too narrow and the cut I made to clear the tube work in front of the rear wheel bothered me. Now it looks better I think.




Originally I was planning to have the rear bumper partly built into to bed. I realized, however, that it would be very difficult to remove the bed. Therefore it had to go under the bed, which can now slide out through the tubes.




Installed a pair of mini-t shocks as rear dampers. Very smooth shocks! I hope they are up to the beating.

I also made a 4-link plate. It's still waiting for the links, though. I'll cut off the plastic rods on the axle eventually.






And finally here's the flex shot some of you were asking for. The rear suspension is very smooth and I think there's enough flex.

[Jester666]

killer work, keep it up.

[TREE]

Looks Great so far

[tanner]

Very nice work man Keep it up

[Colby]

Awesome job on the cage, and the very clean styrene work! I give it

[blakeski]

i like the way the rear flexs, maybe a side shot as well

[pantablo]

great inspiration and nicely done build. those rok loxs look great on this!

[Tomy]

Not much has happened with this project. However, I've got the cage painted, made a roof for it and installed a winch up front. Next I'll move on to install the electronics.

[INFERNAL]

Wow , VERY nice work so far

[G-crawler]

Looks great, front bumper looks really good!

[66sprint6]

That is AWESOME!!! I love the rear suspension and the cage is top-notch! You gonna do it red like the picture?
Matt