Dakar style home made crawler
 

Hi Guys,

After a 7 year break from this hobby ive decided to pick it up again.
When i left the first crawers where starting to show up and the idea of building one myself has never left my head.


So ive started this week with ordering a set of Phat axles and designing my own chassis frame. My idea is to make a 'dakar' based suspension design. Here the front axle is supported by links coming from the front of the truck instead of the center. Here a pic for the idea

http://i66.tinypic.com/1217seu.jpg

i own a small workshop with a Lathe, mill and 3d printer. With these machines i can make most of the stuff that i want and the occasional project for someone else.

http://i68.tinypic.com/nwhl42.jpg

The frame is build from 4 vertical plates because the build space in my printer is limited to 10X10X10 inches. The plates attach in the centerbox which also holds the gear and slipperclutch assembly. The cut out in the front is to hold the lipo's

http://i65.tinypic.com/wv33hj.jpg

Printing parts for the truck body.

http://i68.tinypic.com/21l99hx.jpg


Body nearly completed.


http://i64.tinypic.com/104pyz5.jpg


Now its time to wait for the axles to do some calculating for link lengths, ASQ and what else comes in use setting up a truck.

Regards from the Netherlands!

Re: home made crawler
 

That has got to be a fun build, so sweet.

Re: home made crawler
 

I'm away from home for work.
Today i had some time to try and figure out the link set up and a way to connect them to the front. hard to do since i don't have the actual axles to measure from. This is a rough set up to work from when i get back.
My idea is to use the hoops to connect the linkage to the axle and to set up the linkage geometry.

Let me know what you think.

Fully compressed.

http://i68.tinypic.com/25ur58l.png

At ride height.

http://i63.tinypic.com/2vwwad5.png

Fully extended.

http://i66.tinypic.com/11m9d95.png

Re: home made crawler
 

Wow. This is an amazing start! I'm interested to see how this progresses. Keep up the good work!

Re: home made crawler
 

Finally i got home, been away for 2 weeks. Had a trainingcamp and competition in the spanish sun. A nice break from the crappy weather here in the Netherlands.

There was a set of axles waiting to be put under the chassis.

Started out by making linkages for the back side.

First some lathe work

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/923/gfGHbW.jpg

Complete linkage

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/923/Is2nhf.jpg

Finished result.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/923/6lC2jP.jpg

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/924/LH2JMp.jpg

Next was finalizing the design for the front axle hangers.

First version
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/923/gHtIAb.png

This version had to much overhang on the front side of the axle. The steering linkage would rub and limited the steering a lot.

Second version. Less overhang and some nice fillets on the sides.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/923/c0CyJd.png

Front side linkages.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/924/ryKSLA.jpg

Its crouded, but it works!

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/924/yQ8DYd.jpg

As some might notice. Ive already managed to break one of the axle hangers. Back to the drawing board to make a beefier version.
I really like the look of brass and black, such a nice combination.

Re: home made crawler
 

Looking good so far. What modeling software are you using?

Re: home made crawler
 

@touch_racing, I'm using autodesk inventor. Still learning from online tutorials. Basicly i'm still skipping over the surface of whats possible with this program.

Made a new design for the hangers. beefed up the bolt holes and made some room for the steering arm. Also removed the fillets, they were taking away to much material at crucial places

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/923/FngxYX.png

Re: Dakar style home made crawler
 

Wait, the link bars are in the front on the 1:1!? So I'm guessing the the normal rules for 4 link don't apply to that setup?

Sent from my SM-N910P using Tapatalk

Re: home made crawler
 

very creative build, I like where it is going

Re: home made crawler
 

@druxus, Yes, thats why i was so interested in thuis build. It gives an extra dimension.

@rs10man, Thanks!

@touch_racing. i'm using it for almost every project i do. I would definitely recommend it to every DIYer out there.

Alright, this is where i am at now. Printed and installed the new hanger on the axle, so far its still holding. The chassis is pretty much done assembling. Mounted the body and some electronics and took it for a ride.
Made it 2 feet. Loctided all the screws and tried again.

As one would expect, its very front heavy, after changing the battery position i became a lot better. I think it will improve further with the back body panels installed. I still need to design those.
The transmission box has a small hang up point sticking out under the frame plates. A new design of the frame rails should take care of that.
Apart from that, it drives nicely. I havn't got a cleu what commercial crawlers can do, since ive never owned one, but i'm satisfied with the performance of this black beauty.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/922/IDeBdD.jpg
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/922/AajCSN.jpg
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/922/lPBGxY.jpg
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/xq90/923/TKQQuT.jpg

Re: home made crawler
 

Time for an update!

After the lessons learned from chassis version 1 it was time for version 1.1

There are a couple of changes. I'm moving the battery to the backside of the truck. it needs a bit more weight there in order to drive properly. This gave me room to make a electronics mounting bay and a plate to make the whole front side of the chassis more ridgid sideways. The small hang up point has also been taken care of.


https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...924/6vuyH1.png
Battery bay and front plate. still need to mount the esc and reciever on it.
]https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...922/ftN8KB.jpg

After that was taken care of. Time to design and build the backside.

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...923/znqZTT.png

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...923/2x3E9w.png

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...923/CiGZ4F.jpg

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/6...923/LbgqYO.jpg

Re: home made crawler
 

Don't worry about that, your scratch build will always be cooler than any commercial crawler can be!!