Mercedes Unimog crawler

[Jonnie Fraz]

Well as Axialfest is approaching very quickly I am having to get some stuff done, so here are a few things that I have got together before next weekend...

Here is a front view of my driver figure and 2d interior...


I was not ready for how heavy the figure is. Once I cut him I tried to hollow him out as best I could to get his weight down.

Here he is driving the "Ugamug"...



Since all my weight is over the front axle I thought I would build a bed for a little balance and to hold some of my scale goodies...



I formed the bed out of thin aluminum. I gave it the pinched look to follow the cage work, and gave it a little weathering. I am kinda hoping after Axialfest it will get beat up and look like a raisin.

I wasn't quite happy with the trans sticking through the bed, so a little camouflage was in order...



The Pelican case is fabbed out of styrene. I may add some latches later if I have time.

Thanks for checking it out. That is it for now...

[Jonnie Fraz]

Well, back from Axialfest and can not say enough good things about this event. It was amazing! Everyone was so positive, and just there to have a great time. If you have never been to Axialfest you should really try to come out and check it out.

The truck performed unbelievably. It could not have been much better. I need to get better with my driving...lol. That will come with a little more seat time.

To complete my military theme I went with the Locked Up RC 1.9 command beadlock rings with all scale hardware.



With the bed I added some scale goodies, such as a Highlift jack, a pulaski, and a shovel if I get stuck. Also if ineed to air up I added a Power tank with a mount.







With the nature of the technical lines that we were running this weekend it was inevitable that we might get a little trail patina, and we did.





That is all I have for now.

[Jonnie Fraz]

I really like how the "Ugamug" has been working except for a couple small issues...She climbs like a goat, but since pretty much all my weight is forward downhills are a little scary. She tends to unload and go for a tumbling run all the way down the hill.
Upon further inspection the G Made RSD shocks have a small issue keeping the oil inside. This tends to screw up the dampening a little bit. This may also explain the ejecto downhill mode.
Well in checking out some of these sporty builds seems the shocks that really get no complaints are the Traxxas Big Bores paired up with Losi Mini T springs. Also in looking at my chassis build my shocks were running pretty vertical, with no real way to adjust them. So... Time to go under the knife.

First pic...I took off the shock hoops and added a couple more holes to get a little lean back in the front shocks.

Second pic I pretty much took the whole rear end off the truck, and reconfigured it with the rear shocks having much more forward rake.



I hope I am on the right track.

Thanks for checking it out, and let me know what you guys and gals think.

[Bigsteezy]

I love this build so much.

[Jonnie Fraz]

Originally Posted by Bigsteezy

I love this build so much.

Thank you so much! It has been a bunch of fun, both building and driving.

[Jonnie Fraz]

Well not a whole bunch going on on the build. I was hoping to get out and try out all the new changes that I made , but with my work schedule and the fact that it seems to be raining every weekend here I have been stuck in the house just messing around with some little detail stuff.

One thing I thought the Ugamug was missing was exhaust. I have a small gap in between the frame rail and the roll cage that I felt would be a good place for some side exit exhaust, and it would fill up the gap nicely. Since this is kind of a re purposed military theme I could not do some shiny ss pipes. I had to go with the grimy rusty look.



Well that is it for the moment.

Thanks for checking it out.

[Jonnie Fraz]

Originally Posted by Stray

I love a hand made cage!

Thank you! It is all 3/16" x 0.035" wall D.O.M. tubing. Most of it is TIG brazed with silicon bronze but the non integral tubes were silver soldered.

[Jonnie Fraz]

Well finally we got an amazing day today so I could get out and do some testing and tuning.
I am super happy with all the changes. The RC4WD MTR's took just a little bit to get the mold release knocked off and then...Wow!

Here is a quick pic out at the lake.



It was a super fun day with some great people!

[Jonnie Fraz]

Made it out to the Scale By Chris meet at Beals Point and It was a super fun get together.
If you get a chance I highly recommend making it to the next one.

Here is a cool pic out on the rocks...

[antigacho]

Originally Posted by Jonnie Fraz

So I started on my chassis with some 3/16" DOM tubing and went to town.

I opted for silver solder to put the chassis together, and this worked for a while. Later I had to come back and TIG braze some of the more structural parts.

Awesome build subscribed to this thread, Could you please share which tools are you using for brazing, Im planning to build a roll cage for my Unimog project, I paid $140 USD to the roll cage of my truggy build but for that money I realize that I can buy a MAP gas torch for soldering, Of course, I have to watch and learn some instructional videos but I think that is a fun part of this hobby, Building instead of just putting parts together

[Jonnie Fraz]

Originally Posted by antigacho

Awesome build subscribed to this thread, Could you please share which tools are you using for brazing, Im planning to build a roll cage for my Unimog project, I paid $140 USD to the roll cage of my truggy build but for that money I realize that I can buy a MAP gas torch for soldering, Of course, I have to watch and learn some instructional videos but I think that is a fun part of this hobby, Building instead of just putting parts together

Thank you for your kind words. It was really fun to build and even more fun to drive.

The first time I built the chassis I was using an oxy-acetylene torch with a three zero tip and Harris silver solder. On one of my outings I had some joints fail. I then rebuilt the chassis using TIG brazing with silicon bronze wire. I have run this for quite some time with no failures.

[antigacho]

Originally Posted by Jonnie Fraz

Working on my Axialfest prep...I got my 2D interior pretty much where I want it.

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I printed this picture to have it as a reference for my current Unimog build. I have to build something very similar for my cab