KryptoniteKummins's Mega Cab Tow Rig

[KryptoniteKummins]

Hey Gang! I figured now is as good a time as any to start a build log. This will be somewhat slow since this will be my winter hobby and i've pretty much drained my excess funds for the build right now. This rig is a Proline Mega Cab body, custom paint scheme by myself, painted by my buddy rich. Majority of parts were purchased from eBay or from the local hobby shop, Field's Hobby. The frame will be fully custom as well as the trailer to be towed. ON WITH THE PIKTARS!!

Fresh from the box, lucky score!




I was told this paint took some time, especially the 'cuda stripe





Some pics once I got her home, Rich had said he put a little somethin' into the paint to make it pop, i got this through text message lol. i was a bit hesitant since he said it was "sparkle". Once I saw it in person, the "sparkle" turned out to be barely noticeable and it actually looked like real metallic in the right lighting.




This bracing is unfortunate for my plans, but I made it work out with some help from Eben at rcstacks.com.....more to come on that hehe


As I said before, some of the parts came from Field's Hobby, a local hobby store. Among selling almost everything under the sun for trucks, cars, drifters, planes, etc., they also do scale vinyl graphics. So I had them make me some stickers for the Mega Cab.







Green is my favorite color, my 1:1 truck is a Ford Ranger in amazon green, a bit darker than I would have liked but it's not worth the money to repaint it lol I have some bright green lights under the dash in the truck and my uncle nicknamed it "Kryptonite".


Since pretty much all green vehicles I will ever own, will have the Kryptonite banner and the green lights under the dash, I figured why not my mega cab tow rig too lol

On with the parts bin thus far!

Futaba 3PL my first real rc system, bought based on the suggestions from the guys at Field's

The RC Toolbox

Ridgecrest Waterproof electrical box

SCX10 locked axles

Futaba servo


Futaba steering arm

Lipo by Onyx

1.9" Ripsaws with blacked out walker evan's rims

The nuts and bolts to hold the frame together

Bunch of aluminum channel to make the custom ladder frame for the truck


I still have to figure out what type of suspension setup i want to do for this rig. I will be towing a 2 place trailer for a wraith and an exo terra. I want to make it a 5th wheel but a normal tow behind trailer will work also. I will have a plow made for this truck as well for the winter time so both the front and the rear need to handle weight, more so the rear since towing is the main function of this rig. Won't see much crawling or mudding so I don't need a ton of flex out of it, but 4-link would be nice to have. I would need serious coil over shocks if i went with 4-link to handle the weight. Leafs would give me the capacity but i don't know which ones to get over another. Also need to get a couple more accessories for the truck, as well as the front (atleast) and rear bumpers from a dingo to use as the body mount points (I hate seeing the body pins sticking out of the truck, not realistic lol). Once the truck is done, i'll be able to start on the trailer.

Edit: Drive shafts would help too I think lol

[scorpiondave]

Boy, "lucky score" on that body is right. Nice paint job. Looks good.

[KryptoniteKummins]

Thanks dave, I had been looking for the body for the longest time. Couldn't find anything on ebay and Field's went to place the order since they showed the part number in their order inventory but than saw in the next screen that it had been discontinued (new kid behind the counter I guess lol). Gave up all hope, than a buddy from work asked for the part number and found this body on amazon. Paid a pretty penny and a couple dollars for it but I have my mega cab body lol

[mitchr97]

Chino modded leafs!!!

[KryptoniteKummins]

Almost forgot pictures of the motor and transmission assembly

Aluminum transmission mount plate, may or may not use this depending on what i do driveshaft wise

Team Integy 45t motor

Machined aluminum casing with solid steel gears, will be pulled apart and water proof trailer grease will be added for a little safety, just in case lol

Originally Posted by FORDROX97

Chino modded leafs!!!

What and where? lol

Just ordered my bumper trees, a few shackles to match the truck and a scale truck tool box, ugh i need to stop spending money haha

[KryptoniteKummins]

love me some moderators editing my posts already haha. anyways, just talked to my buddy and he is making me a set of cb antennas for the rig. I need some input though, would you say the antenna would look better mounted to the tool box when it arrives or mounted on the outside of the 45 degree brace in the bed? the antenna are 5" tall so they'll stand pretty high in either spot. Any suggestions?

[budhatrain]

that green and black body are right on! Great choice of colors, and the vinyl work is perfect. Can't wait to see how the stacks and frame look.

[KryptoniteKummins]

Thanks budha! The vinyls took me about 20 minutes to lay out the way i wanted them. I got them all on the first shot which is lucky for me lol, i'm usually horrible at laying the vinyl down. The frame i'm a little worried about since i have to integrate the scx10 bumpers as well. the frame at the front will be as wide as the most flat width of the truck than widen at the back to fit across the entire width of the truck. The frame needs to be the full width to add strength and stability for the 5th wheel hitch or for the standard tow hitch, however i figure out is best. So I can't wait for the frame either lol. The stacks are going to be custom one-offs that have been built to my specifications. if you go to their website they have hood stacks, velocity stacks, flat cut stacks and mitre cut stacks in 2 different heights. I am getting a set of aussie stacks with the vertical cut in 1/2" stainless tubing and the bottom mount will be cut to match the 45 in the bed brace.

[greggreg2011]

watching for more

[KryptoniteKummins]

So as far as my shocks, i haven't found anything that would work singularly on each side to carry the weight. I did however see in another post that if you were to angle the shock to one side or another, downward pressure is exerted but less movement is incurred because the shock piston doesn't allow the axle to move forward or back with a 4 link system present. If i were to do dual shocks on the rear and set them at a 45 degree forward and backward on both sides from the vertical point, would that allow me better weight capacity? or atleast less crouch in the back end with the weight?

[CAPTAIN INSANE-O]

that rig looks sick so far , i ran a megacab build there for a while, now i'm building that chevy again that you saw

[KryptoniteKummins]

Thanks captain! I liked your mega cab, i was considering a flat bed dually for mine but i don't have the heart to cut it apart yet lol I like the lights on yours too, i'm trying to find the right lights to look good on my truck but nothing has caught my eye yet.

[CAPTAIN INSANE-O]

No problem man, and yeah cutting up my megacab was something i didnt really feel comfortable with and i couldnt decide so i just went at it and i still dont know which way i liked it better... my lights were a 24 led flashlight i pulled apart and added wire between each light and the circuit board, took over 2 hours cause i'm shakey and theyre small parts

[viper6171]

rigs looking very interesting kk like the paint job and the stripe

[KryptoniteKummins]

Thanks viper

So i got bored the other day and wanted to atleast get a visual idea of what the truck will look like once it's built. Put the servo on the axle, mounted the rims and tires and put the body on the tires. This is what i'm left with so far...



The body will probably sit about 1" over the tires to give it a lower stance. Still trying to figure out the whole towing thing. May end up with some smaller tires to accommodate when towing but not 100% sure yet.

[lonleycreeper]

I know you said you wanted a 5th wheel trailer, if you do a tow behind you can copy a 1:1 load leveler system. It uses a spring bar to lever the weight of the onto the front axle of the tow rig through the hitch. If you did this it would be the first time i have seen it in rc.

[KryptoniteKummins]

very interesting, i'll have to check it out. Thanks for the suggestion! I'm not dead set on 5th wheel or nothing, it would be cool and def more beefy looking for sure. A basic tow behind would still work, just wouldn't seem as scale since i've never seen a 2 place tow behind, just as a 5th wheel.

[KryptoniteKummins]

Alright so a small update, had some stuff delivered, picked up some custom stuff, nothing built yet haha.

Pepboys is a registered dealer for Traxxas (2wd only though, kinda sucks), so we have some replacement parts. Going to use them as axles for my trailer, ordered 2 more packages of each to make 3 axles. I have a backup plan for different axles but that'll cost me $165 for all 3 so i'm hoping these will work for me. I'll have to sandwhich the hubs between aluminum straps to make it more rigid and relieve the plastics of stress (as much as possible anyways)


Next up are some scale accessories:

Front and rear bumpers, doubling as body mounts to keep it as scale looking as possible

D-links for the bumpers (not exactly scale in size, but they'll work haha)

Toolbox for light controllers and any other scale stuff that'll fit

The axles are fake, those will be put in a box of spare parts to collect dust lol

Last but not least for tonight, some scale CB antennas. My buddy made them for me with some flexible mechanics wire from an auto store, receiver antenna tops, shrink tubing and some thin gauge wire he had laying around.


STILL figuring out the shocks dilemma, i am going to call proline on monday and see what they might suggest. I found some big bores on ebay that might work but for the price i'm def. checking to see if they'll be worth it or not. May end up with a droop setup which will be fine since i'm not jumping the truck or anything.

[KryptoniteKummins]

Small update for everyone:

The rest of my trailer hub parts came in so I put those together quick. They should work nicely in the aluminum channel i plan on using. Actually they fit near perfectly so all i'll have to do is drill some recessed holes for the hubs to fit into.






Bought more ripsaws and walker evan's off of my buddy from his dingo, he is getting some flat irons so I figured i would start the collection of ripsaws for the trailer. After comparing the trailer deck height to the truck, the rigs on the trailer would be sitting SUPER tall.


No the trailer isn't built yet lol. I decided to go with some drift wheels with a meaty tire on them. Those should be here next week I hope.


Also grabbed the dingo light kit for the bumpers for the truck, just need to get some more screws for the light buckets.


For some reason, corporate has decided that we are going to be selling Revell models at the store for the christmas season. This turned into atleast 7 of us in the store making a competition out of it to see who can build the best model car. This worked out since i can put the model on the trailer when the trailer isn't being used and it'll still look good haha. Might throw a build log up in the proper section if i remember to snap pictures, but here is what i chose. I'll be doing similar graphics to match the truck, except this model will be in the real Sublime Green from 71.

[KryptoniteKummins]

Alright, one of my latest purchases arrived, still waiting on trailer wheels/tires and i still haven't picked out my shocks or how i want to do my 4-link setup, nor have i built the frame yet lol Anywho, on with pictures:







I'm going to have to either bend the sides of the rack out or cut them completely to allow for the tire to sit on the bottom of the rack, i dont like how it looks like a top hat on the truck lol. Also thinking of getting a couple essential scale accessories for the rack like a diesel can, a propane tank and a "nitrous can". It is a diesel after all, needs to have some giddyup-n-go! lol Also need some bungees to hold everything or atleast figure out some steel banding for it all to look "real".