#16 1/8 Marksman TC8 x Tundra Stepside!

[Goro Majima]

With enough research and Redcat's recent clearances, I decided I would try to fit this body to a Marksman TC8. Tried and succeeded. The body, I believe it came off of a Radio Shack branded RC from the name of Fast Lane. I don't have any details on it alone, but I came across the body via eBay and was fascinated that such a thing existed. Eventually I will give the body a detail and paint it. Here's what I've done so far.

Let's start with some stock pictures for reference. The front & rear bumpers, the bed, as well as the side steps in the bed, running boards, bed trim & chrome trims are all pieces also. Headlights have buckets but not the tail lights.





Measurements:





Mock up with 4.75 tires:




These 2.2s are still just way too big:





Another mock up without the inner fenders but still 4 shock towers. With the body posts adjusted in the front, a huge body lift is just ugly (not saying I wouldn't have fun driving it still). In stock Redcat form, the wheelbase was one setting off from matching, so I adjusted the front links to the inner setting which turned out perfect.





The initial plan was to run a leafed rear, but with the way these XR247 axles are, I was unable to make them work. So I ended up with a cantilever rear (leftover from the first go at my LC70 Interceptor build) and sway bar. Bent the sway bar outward a bit to not interfere with the cantilevers.




Here's the stock rear bumper from the Marksman which I notched the middle section as so to account for the license plate area of the Tundra bumper. And I also utilized the TC8 front bumper, which is how the body mounts to the chassis (used screws to put through both bumpers).






Looks so much better with the body now mounted. Frame rails line up with the bumpers, and skid is level with the body itself. With 4.75s, the rear wheel arches don't need any trimming. The front, though, needs an immense amount of trimming which was expected. I'll begin with cutting off the stock flares, then go from there.





Here's what I did to attempt to fix the horrible axle swing and bump steer:

On the existing chassis panhard mount, I took this leaf mount swing from the leaf kit I bought and bored out one of the center holes. Using the new hole, I mounted that to the panhard mount and used the main hole next to it to act as a template to drill a new hole also so that piece would be mounted with 2 screws. Having a replacement link available, I also had another to replace the drag link which now mounts in the usual knuckle position with the tie rod link.
Extending both links like this doesn't seem like much, but the angle of both links are now slightly less (they aren't completely parallel to each other but to me that's ok. The goal here was for the rig to have an even left & right stance at resting height. Before, the axle was shifted to the driver side at resting height.

[ferp420]

nice
a few suggestions I would replace that front axle with a ar60 the gear ration on the redcat are the same as the axial under drive gears if I remember right and that gives you access to all of axials front end parts
if you need to lower gearing try the 3 gear tcase mod

[Goro Majima]

Originally Posted by ferp420

nice
a few suggestions I would replace that front axle with a ar60 the gear ration on the redcat are the same as the axial under drive gears if I remember right and that gives you access to all of axials front end parts
if you need to lower gearing try the 3 gear tcase mod

Thanks Ferp. I forgot to mention I plan to put a Gen8 2spd kit in it also. And the AR60 is a bit too wide for the fitment I desire on this. Unless there's a shorter version of it? I'd like something between the AR60 and the F10 straight axles.

[Gula]

Oh, wow. I thought we had the same body. However, i seem to have the newer generation of the bodystyle from 2008-2013. Watching your progress.

Hpi wheely king axles are narrower than AR60s

[ferp420]

Originally Posted by Goro Majima

Thanks Ferp. I forgot to mention I plan to put a Gen8 2spd kit in it also. And the AR60 is a bit too wide for the fitment I desire on this. Unless there's a shorter version of it? I'd like something between the AR60 and the F10 straight axles.

the 247s and the ar60s are exactly the same I've built 2 rigs using that combo already I like the heavy alloy axle up front

the 247s are nice but they don't have any upgrade options and the steering sucks however there great for rear axles in my opinion anyway

I have the 2 speed kit in my gen8 I wish I would have spent the money on a brushless system instead it dose have a lower gear but shifting between gears sucks at least on the kit I got
I got mine when they were on sale so whatever but if I payed full price I would be disappointed with it

[Goro Majima]

Originally Posted by ferp420

the 247s and the ar60s are exactly the same I've built 2 rigs using that combo already I like the heavy alloy axle up front

Shoot... I could swear I held my AR60s up to the body they looked really huge but I also had them in a plastic Ziploc and I also don't think I had my Marksman yet. If that's the case then I'll think of these axles in the future! I do happen to have a set laying around from my FLEXJ40 build. The steering would be improved by 1000% lol.

Edit:
AR60s are pretty spot on it turns out, but I wouldn't call them exactly the same width. To the end of each axle shaft, XR247 is 10 3/8" vs AR60 at 10 3/4". Just adding this info to my thread so references are correct. As for me running them, I'm definitely considering it. But I will leave it as is and get some running footage of it's performance when the time comes. Then do the swap and have something to compare to.

[OSRC]

Looks great! Nice work adopting the body.

I swapped to AR60's a while ago. Better steering, OD, brass options, lots of benefits. The stock axles are nice and strong, but the lack of steering was a killer. They'll find a home on a monster truck somewhere.

[ferp420]

Originally Posted by Goro Majima

Edit:
AR60s are pretty spot on it turns out, but I wouldn't call them exactly the same width. To the end of each axle shaft, XR247 is 10 3/8" vs AR60 at 10 3/4". Just adding this info to my thread so references are correct. As for me running them, I'm definitely considering.

axial has more threads on there shafts for sure but pin to pin there spot on

[Goro Majima]

Thanks for the solid references Ferp!

[ferp420]

Originally Posted by Goro Majima

Thanks for the solid references Ferp!

no problem I wish I had 2 fronts and 2 rears set up and accessable but I figure that's close enuff


pics or it didn't happen right lol

[Goro Majima]

Originally Posted by ferp420

no problem I wish I had 2 fronts and 2 rears set up and accessable but I figure that's close enuff


pics or it didn't happen right lol

To be honest bro I didn't even think of the pins as the reference point. But now my AR60s will have a home in the future!

[B-MOW71]

Cool build. Can't wait to see this come together.

I'm a Toyota fan and have seen many models, but I don't think I've ever seen this type of truck! Nice find!

[Speedy-Triple]

Nice build Goro --- good find on that body ... I daily a first gen tundra not with the step side but close enough to make a scale down version. Now on the hunt for one of these bodies. Cant wait to see progress.

[Goro Majima]

Originally Posted by B-MOW71

Cool build. Can't wait to see this come together.

I'm a Toyota fan and have seen many models, but I don't think I've ever seen this type of truck! Nice find!

2 exist in my area, but I have been told by others that they don't see these much. I know the back end is kinda funky, but I like that this was made at least.

Originally Posted by Speedy-Triple

Nice build Goro --- good find on that body ... I daily a first gen tundra not with the step side but close enough to make a scale down version. Now on the hunt for one of these bodies. Cant wait to see progress.

Def check out eBay bro. I don't remember if I mentioned it already, but there was another 3 or 4 bodies listed with this one being the most decent conditioned one as well as one still with the chassis.


As for an update, I'm dreading cutting it up haha. Here's the line on the stock flares that I'll be cutting. I was thinking I was gonna need to cut it fully off, but according to what is seen under articulation with these XL Hyrax, I can leave a bit on. We'll start with this line first and go from there.

[ferp420]

I've had good luck heating and rolling the fender flares out to make more room for tires if ya just need a little more room it might work

I mean if ya want to try and keep the flairs

[Goro Majima]

Small update.

Holding off on cutting the flares. I will be going the AR60 route sooner than planned. What's unfortunate about the XR247s is the knuckles are too large to run a higher offset 1.9 wheel to try and narrow the track width. The 60s will allow me to do that, and for that I may need to trim the flares less.

Here is the wheel & tire combo I'll be going with. Stock-ish Toyota look with the Boom Racing S200s, wrapped in Pro-Line's Toyo Open Countrys. I had these on some SSD Contenders for the Venture FJ but I built that rig to cater to 4.75s. Consider this being the stock wheels for the rig. I will have an aftermarket/more aggressive set I'd like to swap around with.




Here are the axles. I'll have to play around with links to get the alignment just right and looking forward to just reusing the rear stock axle. Mods to the front overdriven AR60 are DLux brass knuckles (reps), steel beef tubes, VP panhard mount, SSD diff cover.




Not the best steering comparison, but holy hell it's a humongous difference. The AR60 is angled away of the turning position and it's still more than the XR247 lol.




Front shot mock up. It's already a quarter inch narrower on each side, with also using 5mm hexes instead of the 8mm I had to use for the other wheels. I'll gain another 4-5mm each once I get a hold of the thinnest hubs from Boom Racing.

[OSRC]

Those "stock" wheels are spot on!

I wish Redcat would release redesigned knuckles and C-hubs for more steering angle - those are really good stout axles otherwise. I started fitting them to my SMT, just need to figure out steering.

[ferp420]

the 247s are great as a rear steer axle but leave a lot to be desired as a front axle for a crawler
the ar60s have there own set of problems but most of us figured out how to fix em by now lol

[Goro Majima]

Originally Posted by OSRC

Those "stock" wheels are spot on!

I wish Redcat would release redesigned knuckles and C-hubs for more steering angle - those are really good stout axles otherwise. I started fitting them to my SMT, just need to figure out steering.

Yeah the wheels should look pretty damn good on this truck.

Originally Posted by ferp420

the 247s are great as a rear steer axle but leave a lot to be desired as a front axle for a crawler
the ar60s have there own set of problems but most of us figured out how to fix em by now lol

Ferp, since you're familiar with throwing 60s on Redcats, what was your link setup? I have the 60 mounted with the stock links but the pivot balls on the axle end I swapped out to some ball ones for now to see how the alignment was. But I'm thinking I want to go with a custom set.

[OSRC]

I can't speak for Ferp, but I used the stock links, just switched rod ends at the axle side front and rear. The Redcat stock ones are way wide. Haven't had any issues.