In a Squashvan Down by the River

[OSRC]

So after seeing how well the TL01 did on the trails, I was thinking of building up some other chassis that could take advantage of the portals, preferably one without a rear motor. I was keeping an eye out for an old Wild Dagger (and still am actually if anyone has one lurking about) and then this popped up. Cool body, center motor, 4WS and everything will bolt right up. No brainer.

Come in a huge box...almost clod sized. Mine did come with a HW 1040 ESC, I hear some kits did not.


The stars of the show. The body is cool, though it certainly is a bit odd. Interesting the wheel wells were already trimmed out. That's a first for me on a Tamiya kit. That huge chassis is a work of molding art - huge and complicated, but fits together perfectly.


Gear porn.. Thick and chunky gears. No worries about durability, I've had some Tamiya gears in runners for over 20+ years now.


I didn't have any diff lockers handy, so I crammed the diffs with silicone earplugs. Still has some diff action, but it is super stiff. Good enough for now, I'm sure I have some fully locked ones floating around here somewhere if needed.


Lots of 5x11 bearings later, we're looking at this stack of gears. Not quite as impressive as the Dynahead, but still pretty cool. And a quick note about Tamiya - they just do things their own way, and don't give an F. I mean really, who creates a chassis like this for a 4x4 RC? And calls it a Squashvan?


Gearbox closed up, everything fit together perfectly. I used a silver marker and did some detail work on the chassis. I think it looks pretty cool overall.


Went with a Reedy 5 pole and a 17t pinion to start. I'm sure I'll need some gear reduction somewhere eventually, I'll test drive it first once I figure out wheels and tires and see where it's at.


Interesting they give you separate dogbones and axles for the front (left) ... I would guess these are the HD versions? Interestingly, there is another set of HD dogbones in the box for 4WS - but no HD axles.


Once the chassis was together, the rest was simple TL01 stuff and I put it together in a few minutes. I really like the bumpers, pretty sure one of those is going to end up on my Dynahead. The Comical series arms is nice, they add a little bit of width and a few extra shock mount holes. I tossed the stock friction shock garbage and installed some 70mm MST shocks from my CMX kit. Springs are a bit light, but they fit great. I threw on some 1.9 tires just to see how the stance was.



..and cut out the body and dropped it on there. Cool, but man, that chassis hangs down there. I figured it would but it seems really low. The shocks are way drooped though, I need to find some heavier springs.



Plenty of suspension from the MST shocks, and far more than I was getting from my TL01.


I'd really like to get another set of portals ilo pillaging previous builds, but there is nothing in stock here other than the housings. Kind of a shame, and still think Tamiya should have put them out separate as an option part since there's so many kits that they can mount up to.

So I'll steal them from the TL01 for a bit - I think they'll make quite a difference in the stance and be better used here. I do need a few odds and ends like servos, but my budget needs to recover first...

[alexleblanc]

Curious to see how its going to crawl without any gear reduction.

[JatoTheRipper]

The title of this thread has me wanting to sing "It's down there by the water's edge" (for those 90's grunge fans).

It is a cool looking body. I'm interested to see how you paint it up. I am guessing blue and silver.

[bgredjeep]

That chassis and 4wd setup is so wild. Looks more like a tank chassis than a truck. Lol

I imagine a conversation at Tamiya that went something like this...

Boss: omg, we accidentally order half a million gears.

Tamiya engineer: no worries boss, I got you. I call it Squash Van.

Boss: brilliant!

[OSRC]

Ha! That's true about the gears. Between my Squashvan, GF-01, Dynahead and Konghead I have 46 gears (not counting portals) and 92 5x11 bearings.

Anywho, Been messing with the Squash a bit here and there. I went ahead and moved over the portals from my TL01 (Seen sitting low and sad in the back) and it made all the difference. Plenty of height under the chassis now and the lower gear is much needed.


Once I got the chassis where I wanted I started working on the body. I don't quite like it with scale tires... it just looks a bit off - especially in the front. It's a shame, I really like this body but I decided to go a different route.


I thought about a Clod body, it fits the wheelbase perfectly. I tried a few others CC02 bodies as well and they do indeed fit the chassis pretty well.


I liked this one the best. With the portals, the wheels have a lot of offset and it needs a lot of clearance up front. This FJ body was already trimmed up a bit and it had the best clearance for the front.



I used some old TL01 rear body posts and they matched up perfectly with the holes already in the body. I do need to reinforce the rear a bit, it's quite wobbly.


and as far as that Squashvan body, It will get a new home for sure - in fact, I think this is where it belongs.

[JatoTheRipper]

The Toyota Land Cruiser body and Pitbull Rock Beasts are two of my favorites. That looks great! I think I also see my old CR-01 under the Squash body.

[OSRC]

You do indeed good sir!