RCCrawler Forums

rbgerrish · 04-13-2009, 10:01 AM

I've had a silly idea bouncing around for a while, and back in 2007 a friend and I started building. The mission is to build a large scale R/C Tubed Rock Crawler, similar in layout to what we're all building on RCC today- IE: Compact central tranny/motor turned sideways feeding 2 axles. The difference?

I wanted to use Suzuki Samurai axles.

I've seen many real cars made R/C, but I've never seen an R/C car made specifically to be human-less from real car parts. The real cars-turned-r/c always LOOK like real cars still, just minus the people. This will be an upscaled version of a tuber that you'd see here on RCC, with the design showing no thought for human occupation.

On to the build!

The first step was deciding on a central transmission/motor that we could turn sideways to feed our axles. What is compact enough? We concluded that an auto tranny equipped front wheel drive VW Golf would fit the bill nicely. We could lock the auto into 1st, and the 'auto-clutch-like' action it'd provide would help us go slow.

The donor: a well running V DUB:

Jacked the car up and began cutting the driveline and all associated bits to remove the tranny and engine:

The guts:

The next donor was a non-running Suzuki Samurai with freshly rebuilt axles. Tip her over with the Mog:

Yoink!

The leafs and misc junk was removed from the axles, since our Tuber is going to be a 4-linked crawler. We rolled the axles into the barn and placed them in front and behind our turned-sideways VW powerplant, and began discussing. Much to think about- wheelbase, mounting points for everything, chassis layout...

On to another weekend, far into the future. (Did I mention this will be a long-term buildup?) ;)

We figured the Auto tranny wouldnt have enough reduction, even locked into 1st, to do any real crawling, so we bolted the Samurai's stock T-case to the front output of the VW tranny. Once the tranny is locked, that'll give us better reduction, and make connecting the Samurai driveline easy.

Zach had extensively stripped the engine/tranny of bulky parts to make mounting and frame building simpler.

I picked up a bunch of Heims, brackets and equipment to begin mocking up lower links:

We connected the front driveline to get an idea of how far forward the axle would be, and we cut some PVC to mock up links for better visualization.

Set up the bender:

We bent the upper tube first. This will have the upper shock mounts on it, and hold the hood. We're using 1.5" .120 wall DOM.

A few more bends:

Now to the lower/middle tube:

We then raised the upper bar to where it'll be once the fully extended coil-overs are attached. From this point, the engine will move up a ways.

We also cut out PVC to represent the fully extended shocks we'll be using.

Now we brought the lower tube up into correct position, and strapped it to the upper with support bars between them.

We cut a couple cross bars for the top and strapped it all together.

As she sits right now:

These are still the very early stages of this project, and I expect it to take quite a long time to get it to a point where it moves! I put in occasional weekends with Zach, and as the weather gets nicer this summer we'll most certainly be making serious progress. The next steps are to buy the shocks, pick up a rear Sami driveline, and start the upper axle link mounts.

This is a prototype- a test build to learn and figure out the best ways to go about this kind of vehicle. We have MANY fun, high-dollar ideas, but we're trying to keep this project cheap. Assuming this one works alright, we'll build a second one using nicer equipment. (Thanks to a future generous grant from RCC) ;)

Plans include: Hydraulic or electronic actuated steering, 33" mud terrains, locked diffs, coil overs, and many more neat bits. I'll be doing some concept art (or perhaps building an small R/C version) to help us brainstorm the final look.

Hope you like it so far, and I hope to continue to post updates throughout the spring/summer!

Thanks,
Ryan

Team Felskriecher / Dorkstar

04-13-2009, 10:01 AM	#1
rbgerrish I wanna be Dave Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: The Haunted Forest Posts: 3,586	Felskriecher I've had a silly idea bouncing around for a while, and back in 2007 a friend and I started building. The mission is to build a large scale R/C Tubed Rock Crawler, similar in layout to what we're all building on RCC today- IE: Compact central tranny/motor turned sideways feeding 2 axles. The difference? I wanted to use Suzuki Samurai axles. I've seen many real cars made R/C, but I've never seen an R/C car made specifically to be human-less from real car parts. The real cars-turned-r/c always LOOK like real cars still, just minus the people. This will be an upscaled version of a tuber that you'd see here on RCC, with the design showing no thought for human occupation. On to the build! The first step was deciding on a central transmission/motor that we could turn sideways to feed our axles. What is compact enough? We concluded that an auto tranny equipped front wheel drive VW Golf would fit the bill nicely. We could lock the auto into 1st, and the 'auto-clutch-like' action it'd provide would help us go slow. The donor: a well running V DUB: Jacked the car up and began cutting the driveline and all associated bits to remove the tranny and engine: The guts: The next donor was a non-running Suzuki Samurai with freshly rebuilt axles. Tip her over with the Mog: Yoink! The leafs and misc junk was removed from the axles, since our Tuber is going to be a 4-linked crawler. We rolled the axles into the barn and placed them in front and behind our turned-sideways VW powerplant, and began discussing. Much to think about- wheelbase, mounting points for everything, chassis layout... On to another weekend, far into the future. (Did I mention this will be a long-term buildup?) ;) We figured the Auto tranny wouldnt have enough reduction, even locked into 1st, to do any real crawling, so we bolted the Samurai's stock T-case to the front output of the VW tranny. Once the tranny is locked, that'll give us better reduction, and make connecting the Samurai driveline easy. Zach had extensively stripped the engine/tranny of bulky parts to make mounting and frame building simpler. I picked up a bunch of Heims, brackets and equipment to begin mocking up lower links: We connected the front driveline to get an idea of how far forward the axle would be, and we cut some PVC to mock up links for better visualization. Set up the bender: We bent the upper tube first. This will have the upper shock mounts on it, and hold the hood. We're using 1.5" .120 wall DOM. A few more bends: Now to the lower/middle tube: We then raised the upper bar to where it'll be once the fully extended coil-overs are attached. From this point, the engine will move up a ways. We also cut out PVC to represent the fully extended shocks we'll be using. Now we brought the lower tube up into correct position, and strapped it to the upper with support bars between them. We cut a couple cross bars for the top and strapped it all together. As she sits right now: These are still the very early stages of this project, and I expect it to take quite a long time to get it to a point where it moves! I put in occasional weekends with Zach, and as the weather gets nicer this summer we'll most certainly be making serious progress. The next steps are to buy the shocks, pick up a rear Sami driveline, and start the upper axle link mounts. This is a prototype- a test build to learn and figure out the best ways to go about this kind of vehicle. We have MANY fun, high-dollar ideas, but we're trying to keep this project cheap. Assuming this one works alright, we'll build a second one using nicer equipment. (Thanks to a future generous grant from RCC) ;) Plans include: Hydraulic or electronic actuated steering, 33" mud terrains, locked diffs, coil overs, and many more neat bits. I'll be doing some concept art (or perhaps building an small R/C version) to help us brainstorm the final look. Hope you like it so far, and I hope to continue to post updates throughout the spring/summer! Thanks, Ryan Team Felskriecher / Dorkstar Last edited by rbgerrish; 04-13-2009 at 02:22 PM.