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Thread: The Mothership - 8x8 Clod MAN Crawler Hauler

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Old 07-28-2009, 05:55 AM   #1
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Default The Mothership - 8x8 Clod MAN Crawler Hauler

Hey Guys, seeing as this thing is finally finished I thought I'd put it up for you lot to see.

Didn't know if this was the right spot for it. It definitely is large, but the scale can be debated!

The build was slow, nearly a year, with lack of motivation mostly being the cause. It doesn't get very exciting when you've got to drill and tap 48 holes to make links...

Anyway, the background on this project was this. Some time ago I built a trailer to tow behind my scaler. On the trailer would be my 2.2 rig and I could wheel them out to the comp site together, no need to carry. Problem was, that the scaler didn't weigh enough, and the trailer would get stuck on rocks or ruts - it didn't take much for it to stop forward progress.

So I thought there had to be a better option to get all my gear out to the comp site? And the 8x8 Hauler was born.

First concept was this:



The plan was to run 4 clod axles with 40 series tyres, 8 wheels steer and a loooooong tray capable of three crawlers. I toyed with a few suspension ideas, but with a general direction of trying to make it an outlaw class crawler (super class) but with a tray and a few extra axles, I went with four-links x4. I wanted to be able to carry three (yes, ambitious) trucks, so the end result meant about 1300mm long - equating to roughly 1/8 tatra size.

So with plans in place, the parts hunt begun!!

4x MG995 servos
4x 85t integy motors
Revo rod ends throughout
6mm alloy links
4x 9t pinions
8A BEC
1x FX-R speedie to start
Nomadio radio gear
8x RC4WD 17mm hexs
8x Axial 8 spoke 40 series wheels
8x Moab XLs
8x Wheely King shocks
lots of aluminium.



Then the slow build...









Took 4 hours to wire...



Dig switch!!



This should give you a bit of and idea of scale.







Tray is hinged at the back and two pins at the front hold it down. That way access to the electrics is pretty straight forward.



Wiring bundle. All four servos are wiring into an external 8A BEC. All the + and - wires from the servos are wired directly to the BEC so the potentially high currents aren't passing through the Rx. Only the signal wires from the servos go into the Rx. The two front axles run off a y-lead, and the rear two run off a separate y-lead on a separate channel.



Suspension configuration. 8x Wheely King shocks running 80w oil and a bit of fuel tubing to give some form of shock resistance. I chose full droop to keep the weight down - especially when its loaded.





Got the body mounted. It a 1/14 Thunder Tiger nitro MAN truck body, but it doesn't look too out of place on an otherwise 1/8 truck. The neat thing about this body is that its a hard body and comes with a few neat detail extras.

Some vid.





At this point I was running a single FX-R, which was working fine, but after a couple of runs up the steps it would hit the thermal cutout. So I went searching for a solution...

In the meantime, I made up an exo cage for the body. No point having a nice body if it gets smashed up the first time it rolls, and with a truck this large it will probably do some damage.





Found a cheap solution for my speed controller woes... two el cheapo speed controllers. One powering the front two motors and the other doing the back. So the dig switch came out, and the FX-R went back into the scaler. So far this setup is working very well. The lack of drag brake is noticable, but forgivable. It doesn't get hot at all and was a neat solution for AU$40.







And finally, the paint!! The box behind the cab is removable and is for storing tools. So not only do I not have to carry trucks, I don't have to carry tools.









I think that covers most of it!! Thanks for reading.
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Old 07-28-2009, 06:10 AM   #2
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awesome!
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Old 07-28-2009, 06:25 AM   #3
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Thats just sick! I was making one to just hold one crawler but im now ashamed! haha Great work!

2x
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Old 07-28-2009, 07:57 AM   #4
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WOW!!!! Nice rig.
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Old 07-28-2009, 08:09 AM   #5
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That is a great build and great rig. Good work!
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Old 07-28-2009, 09:08 AM   #6
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Nice work!
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Old 07-28-2009, 10:20 AM   #7
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I like it good work
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Old 07-28-2009, 10:55 AM   #8
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Wow, what a brute. pretty cool
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Old 07-28-2009, 11:02 AM   #9
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sweet a multi axle jumbo crawler with a purpose!
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Old 07-28-2009, 11:16 AM   #10
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Wow that came out sick great job
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Old 07-28-2009, 11:20 AM   #11
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Aw man! I was designing an 8x8 with 40 series tires. I guess you beat me to it. Awesome job!
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Old 07-28-2009, 11:54 AM   #12
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Nice work! There should be a class for the crawler haulers too!
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Old 07-28-2009, 02:44 PM   #13
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Thanks guys. I'm really happy how it turned out too.
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Old 07-28-2009, 03:36 PM   #14
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It's a ****ing catapillar!!!!!
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Old 07-28-2009, 04:59 PM   #15
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thats one bad ass truck you have built .

top work there i love it
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Old 07-28-2009, 06:26 PM   #16
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Simply Sick
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Old 07-28-2009, 06:48 PM   #17
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Very cool project. I love it.

I bet you get a lot of looks when you roll up to a comp driving that.
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Old 08-05-2009, 11:22 AM   #18
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That totally f-in amazing

it will climb anything with so many wheels pushing and never worrying about flipping backwards.
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Old 08-06-2009, 11:24 PM   #19
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nice rig. i would love to have that for free lol
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Old 08-06-2009, 11:38 PM   #20
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Thanks guys for the comments!

Well it certainly wasn't free, and won't be giving it away for said amount that's for sure!!

I haven't done any more to this other than just do a little bit of driving, It climbs verticals like they don't exist, just keep applying throttle until you're up! Side hills are a different story as its not particularly wide and if one axle is up on a rock or something it can tip the whole chassis if the other axles run out of down-travel on the same side.

Smoked the servo of the 2nd axle at the last comp I took it to. A mate wanted a drive, so I took the wheels off that axle, zip-tied the axle up to the chassis and he drove it around in 6x6! The 2nd axle got hooked up every now and then, but he's already booked in another drive when its back on all eight.

Its really fun to drive, that's for sure!! Like nothing else. Turns like a battleship, but that's half the fun.
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