Scx24 Long Hauler 6x6

[the-sofa-king]

Salutations comrades, I hope this transpondence reaches you in adequate health and sufficient spirits. I am here today to spread the word of our Lord and Savior, the Axial Scx24.

So awhile ago I built this thing.


It's a Furitek powered Scx24 on a modified Injora rock buggy chassis with the cab from an AMT International Transtar model kit. The model kit came with a sleeper cab that filled me with all kinds of ideas about hiding the electronics in there so I could detail out a full interior and engine bay. Only I had already started building this as an LCG "comp-ish" style build and I didn't want to stray from that, so I stuffed all the electronics under the hood and finished it as a daycab. However the idea was planted and the it wasn't a matter of "if," but "when."

Well "when" was about 6 months ago. I picked up a JLU from my local hobby shop and got right to work reducing it to a pile of parts.

Ordered an extra frame, rear axle, and a passthrough conversion gear from MoFo RC, and grabbed a spare Bowhouse RC battery tray I had leftover from the last build.

I trimmed the ends off of the spare frame and had a friend TIG them on to extend the other frame rearward.

I then sectioned out the middle of the extra skid plate and used the outer ends to mount the 4-links for the rear axle while still giving the center axle some headroom to compress and articulate.

Mocked up the electronics up for bullshitting purposes.

Relocated the electronics to the bunk, cut some holes to run the wires, and hot glued the RX combo in place. The only thing holding the bunk to the chassis at this point are the wires running up from the bottom.

Starting to flesh out cab mounts. Ditched the original plastic RX tray for the aluminum roof panel leftover from the Injora frame I cut up. Drilled/tapped some M2 holes in it and used some magnet-topped standoffs to locate the hood.

Stuck some magnets to the underside of the hood and used the sleeper cab to help eyeball everything square. Trimmed a hole in the front bunk wall for the power switch to poke through cause I knew getting into that bunk to plug and unplug that battery with my sausage fingers was gonna be far easier said than done.

Added another spare crossmember from the Injora frame to mount two more magnets to support the back of the cab floor. You can also see here where I bored two holes into the battery tray to glue more magnets in to start securing the bunk down.

Placed the corresponding magnets under the cab and trimmed out the floor where it was contacting the top of the trans.

Added a third point of contact under the bunk so OSHA doesn't crucify me. I don't know if having all these magnets this close to the RX/ESC will have any adverse effects on it, but nothing's caught fire so far, so...

I didn't want to seal this panel up permanently since I plan to upgrade this thing to a Furitek unit at some point, so I used some styrene and slurry to build up a few areas to tap bolt holes into.

Sorted.

Peek-a-boo!

These pics were actually taken earlier in the mock-up process before the cab leveling was done, but you get the idea.

Now to make this thing live up to its name...

Cut the templates out of paper and used clear packing tape to sick them to some pieces of aluminum scrap, then used the score and snap method to cut them out in my bench vise.

Drilled/tapped holes, bent them up, and miraculously everything lined up sufficiently on the first try.

The only thing I forgot to account for on the drawing board was one screw cap sticking out on each side of the frame. A quick notch with a Dremel on each side of the bracket solved that problem handily. Now it can hook right up to the magnetic hitch on my old car hauler with the added benefit of seriously improving the rigidity of the frame around the welds.

All hitched up and ready to go ...er, uh, tow.


Testing the articulation of the fifth wheel. The trailer contacts the top of the sleeper before it runs out of travel on the incline, and the frame rails and back tires will contact the underside of the trailer before it runs out of travel on the break-over. It's definitely not winning any scale comps, but it should be able to traverse whatever dips or bumps it encounters while hauling cargo from the living room to the kitchen without knocking the trailer loose.

Glory shots:






It can just get to 90° before the trailer contacts the sleeper.




And that's about where I'm at with it currently. Got the fifth wheel installed over the weekend and have been playing around with it for a few days since. I'm still dialing in the cab and sleeper leveling a little, as you can see in several pictures, the fitment between the two tends to vary a little. I'll get that sorted for good before I move on to paint.

I've also been noticing that in just towing my empty car hauler around, the weight on the back of the frame is enough to cause the front end to pick up under throttle and understeer pretty badly. I'm thinking if I remove the springs from all the shocks it'll probably help mitigate both that laden understeer, and also the unladen torque roll that the chassis is subject to every time I hit the throttle without the trailer hooked up. I'm sure I'll still have to add more weight over the front axle to fully rectify the issue regardless, so that Furitek upgrade will likely have to come sooner than later. We'll see how long these stock v2 electronics can handle the abuse for.

Anywho, that's about all I've got for now. If you've made it this far through my rambling then thanks for reading! Be sure to check back in a year or so to see what other 3 projects I've started instead of finishing this one.

Cheers!

[2471:24]

Nice build and looking really good!

[durok]

Freakin' incredible...

[the-sofa-king]

Originally Posted by durok

Freakin' incredible...

Originally Posted by 2471:24

Nice build and looking really good!

Thank you both, much appreciated!

[the-sofa-king]

Update: I've got the cab/sleeper alignment squared away and leveled to the frame. Now she's sanded, primed, and ready for paint!



And now it's decision time...

These are the two choices I've narrowed it down to. It'll probably be till at least the middle of the week before I get around to actually spraying it, so if you feel some type of way about either option, be sure to let me know before then.

Cheers!

[2471:24]

I’m not gonna say anything about the colors because both look good. EDIT: I am: option A. It highlights the body, brings out it’s form.

I find it very pleasing to watch and read about something that I myself never could build. I really love these kind of projects. Maybe it’s because I couldn’t build it myself or because these kind of vehicles raises big respect and also the drivers of them, specially in the winter here up north. Or something else. Always waiting for the next update.

It’s also nice that these types of builds require so much: planning, building, et cetera. They can’t be hurried in any way.

In a way this makes me start think about ice road truckers in Alaska. The winter here is very similar to that. But that’s another story.

[the-sofa-king]

Well after asking the same question on multiple different forums, the feedback was pretty much unanimously in favor of option A. Which frankly, I was leaning heavily towards in the first place, but what the hell, it's nice to be validated. So anyways, paint:









Aside from a few minor blemishes where the paint bled under the masking tape, and one little spot where some paint came off with the tape, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Thinking about adding a black pinstripe between the red and silver striping to help a) cover the aforementioned paint bleed, and b) help make the contrast between the two pop a little more. Then after that, clear coat.

[high plains drifter]

Fantastic work and inspiring as I find a lot of challenges to working on the scx24. Such a tedious and unforgiving scale compared to 1:10 rigs. The black pinstripe for sure would take that paint to the next level but regardless... nice job and that's definitely the one that I would've gone with too.

[2471:24]

I agree with high plains drifter. Looking so sweet! Can’t wait for more updates. Keep up the good work!

[distress]

Incredible build and write-up!