RCCrawler Forums - Cowper Truck Brainstorming

I was thinking last night about how we have so many cool niche RCs these days such as Dirt Oval cars, Drift cars, Short course, Crawlers in various flavors, rally cars and so on. I though about what we haven't seen yet thats in one of these niche corners of motorsport, and Cowper tucks came to mind. I think they would be pretty fitting for the forest terrain I run the most often. I prefer to crawl but in the dirt its almost always turns into a wheelspeed game. I think to really challenge a truck like this I'd probably need to setup gates.

So I'm trying to brainstorm some ideas for making an RC Cowper truck. For those not familiar I think its only taking place in New Zealand in the 4WD trials events, it was also called Suzuki 4x4 challenge when they were the sponsor.
The trucks are very short wheelbase, low, fast, open diffs and the brakes are individually controllable, as far as I can tell they run just shocks and no springs. The brake setup makes it so it can turn on a dime almost like its a skid steer, and they are almost always controlled by the passenger (there might be 1 driver doing it all himself). To turn hard to the right they will lock up (or slow down) the right front or rear while they throttle it.

This particular truck is what I'd like it to look like ideally, I really dig the fenders attached to the axles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kiv8TWkXJg
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More vids
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fjvWZgv29o

I'd love to hear any advice or feedback you guys might have but The details I've worked out so far are:

Open diffs/possibly lockable or one alxe locked with the other open. Very likely TRX-4 axles with the portal delete kit which should speed it up which is what I want. Not quite "basher" fast but some speed. I suppose running the TRX-4 tranny would also make sense so long as it will cooperate with coming up with a short wheelbase (anyone do a short wheelbase TRX4 like 10-11"? let me know).... or I suppose I could scale up so to speak with 2.2 tires, MIP extended axles for a wider axle/and or wider offset wheels which in theory could make it look like a short wheelbase, it would just be a larger body/scale.

Brakes for just the rear left and right sides (most likely), I think this will be easier to build as well as control opposed to doing all 4 corners. So far I'm thinking some servo controlled pads that would press against the side of the tire. I think it should have some slip and not just lock up immediately so it can be used at speed in theory. Though If I really want slip maybe I'm better off trying to make actual disc or drum brakes with some mechanical adjustment built into it?
If I can figure out how to make the front brakes work I think it'd likely be more effective than using the rear, just a fair bit more complicated.

How I control the brakes is something I'm not sure I've got down yet in terms of making it intuitive an easy to use while driving. I have a Futaba 7PX that I'll likely use and its pretty powerful in terms of how I can setup the truck, I just dont know all the in depth features that well. I'm sure I can dial it in on the radio side eventually but what type of button dial or switch would lend itself to this application where I need to be able to reach it while steering and using throttle?
I guess the simplest answer is the closest button?

I suppose I could cut the button out of the equation and use channel mixing to set it up to lock up the inner tire at a certain steering angle when activated and be able to turn this off so it drives normal. This method might be the most straight forward but it seems like being able to actually hit a button for the brakes would be "more better" (technical term). I'm not sure how I can setup the radio to know when I'm turning left to apply left brakes or not so any advice on that front is welcome.

Since the brakes are kind of the key to this vehicles performance I really need to get them right. If anyone has advice or feedback I'd be much obliged.

Suspension is up in the air a bit. To be scale accurate it should be just shocks it seems or maybe some internal spring shocks, though I'm really not a fan of those. I think they'll just need springs most likely.

Side note not having a project going is a weird thing, I've heard something to the effect of "Since men can create life they build" and I often feel like I have no child when I have no project, LOL :lmao: