ColdFox attempt at a 6x6x6 Jeep

[ColdFox]

Hello,


After a while out of the hobby, I've finally got onto rebuilding my 6x6 as I needed a projet for the cold days.
It had been sitting on a shelf in a sorry state for a while, everything was worn and in need of a good refresh (ever seen solid axles with camber ? )



Back to square one


My goal is to keep the same body and tires, but with improved performances.

Here's what I went with:

-Capra axles, they're a bit wider than I'd like but it's better than SCX axles with wide hubs imo. Went with cheap aliexpress axles for now as I didnt want to spend a fortune on something I wasn't sure would work, I'll probably upgrade later (are straight capra axles a thing ?)

- SCX10 II 2 speed gearbox for its lower profile compared to my old RC4wd AX2. I wish the gap between high and low was a little bigger though

- 6ws, because 2ws aint the best with locked diffs and I find 4ws ugly

- HW 1080, no need to explain why. Kept the trusty Crawlmaster pro 13t as there's nothing wrong with it.

- DS3235 servos, they seems powerful and cheap when you need 3 of them

And lastly, a lot of 3d printed stuff ! I enjoy the process of designing, prototyping and improving stuff, and this is the perfect project. Everything is printed in PLA so far because it's easy and cheap (i've finished a few old rolls as the mix of color shows haha), I'll probably switch to PETG once i've got the final designs.

Here's where I'm at right now



Made a 3d printed transfer case that uses gears from chinese cases. Could technically get up to 6 outputs, allows for a few different setups.




One of the prototypes



Front axle has been converted to low pinion in an attempt to mitigate torque twiste. if that works, I'll try to get some reverse cut gears for it.




Current setup for the rear axle driveshafts. I can't go pass through as the rear axles are quite close, so I had to be creative. I'm not happy with the driveshaft angles so there's still some work to be done there...

Might not be low CoG but at least there's ground clearance for days, that'll make a difference from the OG scx10 axles ! ( my tires need better foams, i know )



It's driving but there's still some work:
- find shocks, i'm using whatever was laying around
- inner fenders
- improve the rear driveshaft setup
- somehow make the wiring look clean
- fix a few cracks on the Jeep body, and give it a 4th coat of paint

[mjensen]

Is this the Jeep Hellhog build that was on SBG 4 or 5 years ago? I've always been impressed with the work on that body. If it's not the same build, I still really like the way that this body (yours) went together.

[AK KRAWLER]

That looks pretty sweet man!!! Great job on the revamp

[Thloftus]

Awesome build! Nice work designing your own parts.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[OnTheTrail]

Six wheel steering! Very nice.

[ColdFox]

Originally Posted by mjensen

Is this the Jeep Hellhog build that was on SBG 4 or 5 years ago? I've always been impressed with the work on that body. If it's not the same build, I still really like the way that this body (yours) went together.

yes it is ! kinda went off theme when I built it back in 2016, it's been a few different colors since.
Having spent some hours working on that body, i can tell you it looks good from far but it's far from good Fixed a few things but nothing is straight or flat, I'd be better off starting from scratch if I wanted a clean body.

I reworked the middle axle setup, after trying some weird shit...

This is what I came up with:


Since both servos were going a different way I had to get some signal reversing modules (avoiding reversing the servo internally to make replacing on the trail easier). It seems to work fine, rear steer will be limited to 50% anyway due to tire clearance.

Made some rough inner fender, I'll tweak those once I'm happy with the suspension setup

Hopefully I can finally go drive this thing for the first time week end, and find out what breaks first

[ColdFox]

Kinda rushed the bodywork to be able to drive it today as it will be pissing down tomorrow

Drove it for over an hour, nothing broke, climbs pretty well, 6ws with channel mixing is so nice.
Could do with a little extra weight up front, definitely needs proper shocks, not 100% happy with the color of the body and the high gear still feels way short compared to the AX2.

I might also get bigger and stickier tires now that's I've made room in the wheel arches

[mjensen]

I'm still as impressed with that body as I was when I saw it on SBG a few years ago. You did such a great job of bringing all the body lines together. It just looks right.

[ColdFox]

Got 4h of driving in this week, I'm starting to find issues and possible improvements

- changed the shifting setup for something more reliable and easier to service (almost went into a lake when the trans popped out of gear with the old setup )


- the tire foams are just gone at this point, grip is nowhere to be found . New tires might happen sooner now

- motor is getting real hot. I need to work both of the gear ratios (i miss the AX2 and its huge gap ) and consider going brushless

Made some mirrors (foldable for narrow passages) and rock sliders since the last post

[ColdFox]

Got some bigger tires to fill those bigger wheel arches. They're the aliexpress kind, might not grip as well as the rc4wd but i can always upgrade later if I like how it handles with those



Still wasnt happy with the gear ratios, so I brought the good old AX2 back. Had to massage the shock towers a bit, but it fits

Drilled the box and made a longer axle for the fork to be able to shift from the spur side



Slowly getting towards a setup I'm happy with, but still lacks some front weight. I'd like to avoid adding weight, so I might experiment with underdrive/overdrive.

Don't mind the wire salad, I'll eventually sort it out when I stop moving electronics every month

[TRAV]

look up stradman 6x6 jeep on youtube. be cool to maKE IT LOOK LIKE HIS