Home brewed custom Power Wagon number 2

[55ovalcharlie]

I've always loved the 1:1 Race Tractor truck.





Decided to copy the Race Tractor


Parts List so far:

• Front two thirds of some SCX10 chassis rails
• SCX10ii Skid Plate
• SCX10ii Kit Transmission
• VP Transmission top shaft
• Motor / ESC - undecided at the moment
• RC Nerds 3D printed accessories / grille
• Shocks - final choice not decided on but a mixture of Traxxas and Dravtech shocks so far for mockup
• Vanquish Portal Axles with overdriven front
• Power HD Servo for the time being
• CNC Custom Wheels 1.9 beadlocks
• LockedUP RC wheel rings
• PitBull 1.9 Rock Beasts
• Crawler Innovations Foams
• VP Twin Hammers Trailing Arms
• VP Currie Anti Rock Sway Bar

The chassis rails have been chopped off just behind where the skid plate finishes - they were left overs from when I chopped them up to use the rear half of them on a 6x6.

The skid and trans have been flipped 180 degrees and I've bent up a couple of simple brackets for a front trans support.


The VP Portals will be running axle mounted servo setup and I've made up my own M4 stainless links for it.

Out the back I'm going to try using some VP Vaterra Twin Hammers length rear trailing arms to allow me to run the Race Tractor style twin rear shocks.

I've realised I've not taken any decent photos yet of the chassis setup - will get some shortly - but this is the general idea





If you've seen any of my previous builds then you'll know I have a bit of an addiction to making roll cages
and this truck is no exception!

I've made a bridging plate that runs between the 2 x chassis rails at the back of the skid, and this acts as one of the main mounting points for the rear cage structure.

There's still a bit more bracing to add - but you get the idea.

All the cage is made out of 4mm outer diameter, 2mm inner diameter Stainless Steel tubing.

The joints are all "filleted" together and then either silver soldered or stainless mig welded together.

Also put a couple of tabs on the back to let me run the rear sway bar.














I've tried "loosely" copying the general cage layout of the 1:1 truck - and will ultimately make some rear side panels too













The front tube work was a bit of a pain to make.
Again - loosely copying the 1:1 truck but without hiding quite as much of that awesome front grille.










Made the main front lower bar of the bumper out of some steel C channel with a triangle out out of each end, then tapered round and silver soldered shut the cut line

the main headlight surround was the toughest bit to get right!






Things still to do:

• make some tabs for bolting the various front headlights / spotlights too and soldering them on.
• sort battery mount - will be running twin 2200mah 3S batteries, one on either side of skid
• fully brace up the rear cage
• solder on captive nuts for rear body panel mounts
• sort out a fuel cell / rear radiator
• rear lights maybe??
• decide how to mount the body - on the last power wagon I used some rare earth ring magnets which seemed to work well

[JatoTheRipper]

Nice start!

[B-MOW71]

Looking good! Can't wait to see where you take this. Subscribed!

[55ovalcharlie]

bit more progress on the Race Tractor build

Sorted out some extra rear bracing

Welded in some tubing to the skids that the twin batteries will sit on - not exactly sure yet whether they'll be held down with velcro straps or something else? but either way a 2200mah 3S fits nicely on either side of the skid plate

Headlight brackets soldered on

Home made front shock hoops fabbed and welded on

Brackets added for an Axial Bomber fuel cell and Axial Exo rear radiator

[55ovalcharlie]

only a small update today


The Race Tractor seems to be pretty minimal for lighting on the rear side, but it's got a single lamp in the middle of the rear roll hoop. Managed to find something similar looking in my box of led stuff so brazed on a stainless bracket for it






Also finalised the body mounts.

Bonded a couple of rare earth ring magnets to the inside of the front hood / bonnet and these lower down onto a thin sheet steel plate that runs between the front shock hoops, and the sheet has a couple of sticky up tangs that locate themselves in the centre hole of the ring magnets when the body is lowered down. Then for the rear of the body I've soldered on a 90 degree piece of sheet steel that kind of cups the back of the body. Hopefully it ends up being pretty solid.

[durok]

Heavens to Murgatroyd, that's a fantastic Power Wagon build.

Just what the heck is the deal with the new Proline Power Wagon body that makes so many people that pick one up go full-bore crazy and build such awesome rigs?

This one really stands out, even among the other great builds I've seen...

I vote for a "Power Wagon Pics Only" thread, to gather all of them in one spot, for endless drooling.

Can't wait to see the finished specimen!

[55ovalcharlie]

Originally Posted by durok

Heavens to Murgatroyd, that's a fantastic Power Wagon build.

Just what the heck is the deal with the new Proline Power Wagon body that makes so many people that pick one up go full-bore crazy and build such awesome rigs?

This one really stands out, even among the other great builds I've seen...

I vote for a "Power Wagon Pics Only" thread, to gather all of them in one spot, for endless drooling.

Can't wait to see the finished specimen!

Thanks It is a great body. To be honest - as a Brit who's surrounded by relatively dull cars over here (apart from Land Rover Defenders which are awesome of course!) I find pretty much all of the US based truck bodies fairly amazing - but yes, there's something about those Power Wagons!

lots of little things sorted out now.

Battery trays are now both done and nicely hold 2 x 2200mah 3S lips securely with a velcro strap.



Soldered on a couple of tabs to the back also that will house a couple of small tail lights I had left over from a Defender build.


The Race Tractor has a Jaz Products fuel cell in the back



so I've repurposed and detailed an Axial RR10 Bomber fuel cell.

Painted it up and detailed the straps / bolt heads.

then drew up on illustrator a mini Jaz Products decal and printed it out.







I've also drawn up on the computer scale versions of decals that are on the 1:1 truck - so they'll be next up on the vinyl printer

[Tossedman]

Great looking build! What printer do you use to make your stickers?

[55ovalcharlie]

Originally Posted by Tossedman

Great looking build! What printer do you use to make your stickers?

Roland bn-20

[Tossedman]

Thanks.

[55ovalcharlie]

So
I’ve started the painting and weathering.

All painted on the exterior

Base coat of silver Tamiya lexan paint
Bit of liquid mask

Followed by various shades of greens / blues / blacks / turquoise Tamiya TS paints
Creative use of a sponge, and then a few different washes and then applied the stickers I made.





Painted up the RC Nerds 3D printed grille



Then spent some time applying a variety of Vallejo and Tamiya pigment effects












forgot to include these pics a few posts back.


some close ups of how i mounted the scx10ii kit transmission, rotated 180 degrees.

just a couple of small simple 90 degree steel bends, bolted to the chassis and then with screws through into the bottom of the front of the transmission.






Also shown is the home made front links which have to have appropriate bends in them to allow enough up travel of the portal axle without the links fowling the (now) front of the transmission which has ended up being rather far forwards due to the transmission flip.








without those bends in the front links, standard straight links would just hit the transmission and really restrict the front suspension travel. It's all compounded with the actual axle housing being just that little bit higher up due to it being a portal.

Not too much done on the Race Tractor this weekend as had to work, but managed to make up a couple of rear side panels out of some scrap styrene. Got them painted up to match too.

They bolt onto the sides with 2 x M3 screws.

One going through a spare shock mount point and one going through and into the fuel cell.








The rear panel is actually a piece cut from the rear of the lexan truck bed panel that comes with the proline body shell kit.




I've ended up having to make quite a few concessions to the rear tube work, so the rear bed isn't as wide as the scaled down 1:1 truck but the essence is the same.

This was the simplest way to keep the look and style the same but still allow for maximum axle travel and to still let me make use of the trailing arm design I wanted and also to allow the VP Sway bar to function correctly.

Other things done but not yet photo'd

- Added a couple of tow shackles to the front bumper

- Added 2 x small strengthening bars running from main roll hoop down to sliders (not a feature on the 1:1 but again - this think needs to function well and be strong - I'm good at rolling them!)

- Added some more braces to the rear tube "chassis rails" to make sure the rear cage is all up to standard as the original chassis rails terminate at the end of the skid.


All in all - really happy with how it's looking now.

It's currently all stripped down and sat in the back of my van and hopefully I'll get it blasted at lunch time.


Next decision is whether to leave the cage in raw stainless steel finish or paint it?


It should be black but raw stainless looks sooooo nice.

[high plains drifter]

One vote here for raw stainless...

> It suits the OD green perfectly.
> Black tube is becoming so common.
> It accentuates the shape and lines of the body nicely.
> It would compliment the shocks, rear sway-bar, wheels, and axle housings.

Tbh.. You could paint that tube pink lol and it would still look killer so black or stainless either one.. truck would still look great.

[55ovalcharlie]

Originally Posted by high plains drifter

One vote here for raw stainless...

> It suits the OD green perfectly.
> Black tube is becoming so common.
> It accentuates the shape and lines of the body nicely.
> It would compliment the shocks, rear sway-bar, wheels, and axle housings.

Tbh.. You could paint that tube pink lol and it would still look killer so black or stainless either one.. truck would still look great.

think you're right. screw matching the 1:1 truck

and raw stainless looked great on the last one



couple more progress pics for you!


one freshly blasted stainless steel cage and chassis











Also finished up the decals and got the driver's / co-driver's names on the doors





Busy evening!

final mockup is done and everything fits! yay!










Added a set of RC Nerds 3D printed door handles - great fit as you would expect.




Painted a couple of axial headlight lenses with some clear orange and stuck them on the face of some RC4WD squadron spotlights to kind of mirror the look of the 1:1 truck too.



Next up is sort out some wiring, winch controller, light switch, etc.... but guess i've got to decide what esc to run too ?!!?

[durok]

Cor blimey, mate!

That's PRIME... the cage-work is so clean...

And that paint!

Stunning.

[55ovalcharlie]

Originally Posted by durok

Cor blimey, mate!

That's PRIME... the cage-work is so clean...

And that paint!

Stunning.

thanks Durok

[55ovalcharlie]

No massive update today but have sorted a few bits out

Reprogrammed my tekin RX4 with the new software update that should allow for on the fly drag brake adjustments


Than got fancy with adobe illustrator and drew up some centre hubs that I printed on my vinyl printer and then stuck onto the aluminium hub covers I’ve got fitted to my CNC custom wheels beadlocks




The rears


The fronts


Also made a start on wiring up some LEDs and resistors etc

[Bananaclip]

Very nice PW sir! I love custom metal builds...

[55ovalcharlie]

Originally Posted by Bananaclip

Very nice PW sir! I love custom metal builds...

Thank you Sir



Well - momentous occasion - It moves under its own steam







Currently running a tekin rx4 with a tekin roch12hd 2300kv motor

Also swapped out the winch to an rc4wd zeon as had this photo of the race tractor with a Warn Zeon winch






Now got to work out a simple interior (not a full depth one as not really got the room for it with all the wiring and twin batteries etc...

and then got to work out the crazy 7 lamp light bar for the roof

[55ovalcharlie]

So - we're almost there! and I'm really happy with how this has turned out.

Sorted out my driver. Only room in this one for a torso figure so used one of my trusty Tamiya guys




Enjoy the pics. Hope you all like them - only thing remaining now is some shock tuning and then to tackle the weirdo KC light bar - but I have a plan one some stuff from shapeways turns up.







































And the weight - ALL IN, including 2 x 2200mah 3S batteries and all the electronics etc..
3.9 Kg or 8lb10oz





and some garden footage proving that it works ::2thumbs

[B-MOW71]

Awesome pics! Really loving what you have done with this build.


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