The long-awaited LWB TF2 by new2rocks

[new2rocks]

Guess what just arrived?


A long box...inside of which was another long box...


Looks like a Trail Finder 2 LWB. I've been waiting for this for a long time. It has other sides:


And without plastic...


There's stuff inside...


And stuff under the stuff...




Looks like I'm in for a long night. Stay tuned...

[BadWagon]

Is it done yet? :O

[2JSC]

He's not done rubbing his greasy fingers all over every part.

This is the first RC4WD kit I've wanted.

[robvbro81]

How did you get one so fast?? Can't wait till mine arrives


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[IVIaarten]

only slightly jealous here... only slightly

[new2rocks]

Originally Posted by BadWagon

Is it done yet? :O

Yep

Originally Posted by tuanies

I'm so jelly right now

I'm toast

Originally Posted by 2JSC

He's not done rubbing his greasy fingers all over every part.

Quiet, you!

Originally Posted by 2JSC

This is the first RC4WD kit I've wanted.

Yes you do...

Originally Posted by robvbro81

How did you get one so fast?? Can't wait till mine arrives

The kind folks at RC4WD were kind enough to give team drivers a chance to get a few early.

Originally Posted by IVIaarten

only slightly jealous here... only slightly

Yeah, right. Slightly. Sure.



My long wrenching session last night was quite productive. Before I get on to the build, let me start with a few quick observations, starting with the packaging. I've long been a big fan of the RC4WD packaging with separate little styrofoam compartments for each of the major metal pieces. RC4WD is now doing the environmentally responsible thing and reducing the amount of packaging material needed for the kit. So no more styrofoam layers with fun little compartments. But even without all of those nice little compartments, everything is very easy to find. There's a sealed bag for the rails and 3 big bags for the rest of the parts (one for drivetrain components, one for plastic parts, and one for the metal hardware and parts).



















Easy enough. I’ll miss the Styrofoam compartments, but this is the right way to do it. Well done, sirs.



RC4WD has also been working on upping its game in other ways, as well. I noticed a few nice improvements as I went through this one, including well-greased drivetrain components to help everything last a long time, and 14mm starter screws for the wagon wheels so it doesn't take as long to put them together. Thanks, guys!



So…back to the build. If you’ve built a TF2 kit before, you’ll be in very familiar territory. RC4WD had the good sense not to mess with what was already a very good thing, using the same components that have worked so well for so long in the standard TF2. Directions are typical RC4WD. Simple, clear, uncluttered, easy to follow:







I decided it was time to add some scale bling to my work bench, so I picked up a set of Chubby Mini 3 Ton Jack Stands:







I know it's not a full-on scale garage, but everyone has to start somewhere, ehhh? I’ll get some comparison shots to other chassis later on.



The chassis goes together just like a standard TF2, with the addition of 1 extra cross member for the coupler that extends back from the t-case (more on that in a minute):







In case you were wondering, mounting points for the sliders are spaced farther apart than the standard TF2, so regular TF2 sliders won't work:







As with the standard TF2, Gelande 2 hoops are a must to get longer suspension travel up front:







And as with the standard TF2, the battery tray has two mounting positions:







Since I'm planning on a full interior, I'm not sure which one will work better. It's easy enough to move, so I’ll come back to that later.



Here's the chassis in its entirety:







So long for now.

[new2rocks]

On to the drivetrain. Standard TF2 fare here, with the R3 2-speed tranny, Hammer transfer case, and Yota axles. The days when the t-case, tranny and axles were basically dry out of the box seem so long ago. No more:
Click image for larger version.







Thank you, RC4WD.

Back to that t-case. To accommodate the long wheelbase (up to 12.36” from the standard 11.3”), RC4WD uses the same type of rigid coupler found in the Gelande 2 D110 (which itself is a long version of the Gelande 2 D90 chassis):





It’s a nice little design that avoids the potential clearance issues that one might have running a single long driveshaft from the t-case straight to the axle. But there are two little issues with the coupler design. The first is that BowHouse RC will have a bit of work to do so that we can run our high clearance skid with the coupler. The second is the smallish size of the stock coupler bracket bearing (9mm). I’m thinking that bearing might not last too long under heavy duress, though RC4WD was nice enough to include a spare in the kit. No worries…Nick and I have already figured out the solution to address both issues and will have a prototype quickly.

I’ve always been a fan of the Yota axles:



Add the XVDs, make sure they’re shimmed properly, and they’ll happily take a ton of abuse for a long time.



My kit was missing a shim inside the front input shaft:



After adding the shim inside the case, I swapped the shim outside the housing to a slightly thinner one so that everything spins freely. Easy enough to do. The rear seems fine as is, so we’ll leave it alone and see how long it holds up.

On to the suspension. I’m figuring this one will end up a bit heavier than my standard TF2s on account of more interior and some plans for the back, so I’m going to stick with the stock black leafs instead of my usual red ones. But instead of using a full-length helper to control axle wrap, I’m going to (reluctantly) take a suggestion from Chris at GCM and try a short helper above the main leaf:





I’m anticipating making some other suspension tweaks (chino mod, maybe Bruiser shackles, maybe front shackle swap), but we’ll leave it like this for now. And if it doesn't work, I'll blame Chris.

With the G2 hoops up front instead of the stock TF2 hoops, the front gets longer shocks. I had an extra set of stock rear TF2 shocks which will do just fine to start with:



Since this is a leaf-sprung truck, and leaf springs are springs, the shocks don’t need round springs. Some Pit Bull 5k diff fluid (thanks to Pit Bull for making bottles that don’t tip over all the time) will help slow things done and give us a nice, smooth ride:




Lookie here…



…that almost looks like a truck!

[new2rocks]

Since I've had a lot of questions about the body, here's some info. The body is made primarily from molds with a bit of handiwork. They created a new mold that begins just in front of the door handle in the middle of the front door and extends along to the back of the cab. You can see this from the joints visible inside the cab:





There seem to be a few benefits of doing it this way. The mould lines and details around both door latches come from a single, continuous piece and are very clean and crisp:





From the outside, the seam through the front door and on the roof on my example is almost completely invislble to the naked eye:





And with only three straight seams in the cab (none of which cut through intricate fine details or complex contours), the handiwork process to join the two pieces is fairly straightforward.

The bed is a bit trickier. It's a shortened version of the existing Mojave 2 bed. Here are some side-by-sides from underneath showing the comparison:







Most of the handiwork on my bed is excellent from the outside. I was very impressed with this corner at the front of the bed:



The opposite corner didn't come out as clean and will need some work:



The sides of the bed also look good, though there's the slightest indentation at the seam that may or may not show with finish coats:



But these areas won't take too long to straighten out...probably no longer than the amount of time I'd spend filling the body post holes and straightening out the plug from the regular Mojave 2 mold:



All in all, I'm very pleased with the body. And from an economic perspective, it makes all the sense in the world given how expensive it would be (and how long it would take) to make a complete new mold just for the double cab.

To the extent I have a disappointment about the bodyset, it comes from the lack of a complete interior. RC4WD have shown what they can do with interiors in the Cruiser and Blazer bodysets. Just as I would have liked to see a full interior in the updated Mojave 2, I'd very much also like to see one here for folks that might not yet feel up to fabbing one. But if that's the worst I can find to say about the new body set, it's a pretty good story.

[2manyprojects]

Thanks for the info!! Nice pictures and now I have some questions that were answered!


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[new2rocks]

Originally Posted by 2manyprojects

Thanks for the info!! Nice pictures and now I have some questions that were answered!

Glad you're finding it helpful!

Before continuing with the build, I'll backtrack with a few notes about the body. As with the Mojave 2 bodyset, the LWB body comes out of the mold with a bit of extra tapering to the curve along the lower half or so of the fenders and doors. The body mount posts push the doors out to where they need to be when the body is seated on the chassis, so no worries there. The front fenders, however, benefit from a few minutes with a heat gun or hair dryer to straighten things out. Before:


After:


One of the nice features carried over from the Mojave 2 bodyset is the new cab back design that leaves room between the cab back and sides of the cab so that the bed can be installed with the full cab back:




Now about the hood that my little ninja so deftly excised from the body. I decided to try using the hood hinges from K-5 Blazer bodyset (which are available to buy separately). First step was to glue some styrene blocks inside the fender to serve as mounts for the hinges:


Next step was to glue a couple of styrene blocks under the hood (note the L-shape needed to match the slightly offset alignment of the struts:




Sitting on the truck:




I need to adjust the alignment just a hair, but I'm pleased with how it came out. Now I wait for inner fenders and a radiator support from a n00b so that I can get the rest of the body together. I hope it doesn't take too long to arrive...

[new2rocks]

So...while I wait on the radiator support and inner fenders, my partner in BowHouse RC crime, Nick aka Helios RC, didn't take long to whip up a prototype bracket for the t-case coupler that will allow folks to run the BowHouse RC skid on the TF2 LWB. If you haven't seen the BowHouse skid before, here it is next to the stock skid:











The combination of 6mm of added ground clearance and the extended surface area eliminates the notorious stock land anchor effect and takes high centering almost completely out of the equation.



To make our skid work with the LWB, we needed a new bracket to locate the coupler in the raised location. While we were at it, we decided to beef up the bearing in the coupler bracket to a 5x11x4 (stock is much smaller):





Everything went together nicely considering this is a first prototype printed in draft mode:









Here's a before and after showing the difference in ground clearance. Before:









After:









Today is going to be a long day at work, so time to get moving. Thanks for looking...

[BadWagon]

Looks like those Carolina Boys are hard at work on this platform.

[svt923]

Originally Posted by BadWagon

Looks like those Carolina Boys are hard at work on this platform.

The process is more or less David tells Nick to go make something, Nick whines about needing food or sleep or something like that, David looks at Nick sternly, Nick goes back to work to avoid the consequences of insubordination while David has a sandwich, then new Bowhouse parts show up.

[new2rocks]

Originally Posted by BadWagon

Looks like those Carolina Boys are hard at work on this platform.

Originally Posted by svt923

The process is more or less David tells Nick to go make something, Nick whines about needing food or sleep or something like that, David looks at Nick sternly, Nick goes back to work to avoid the consequences of insubordination while David has a sandwich, then new Bowhouse parts show up.

They're onto us, Nick.


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[BadWagon]

Ha! We need to all get up and go tiny trucking soon

[Szczerba]

Nice build up!

[calcagno45]

Originally Posted by new2rocks

Most of the handiwork on my bed is excellent from the outside. I was very impressed with this corner at the front of the bed:

Attachment 350483

The opposite corner didn't come out as clean and will need some work:

Attachment 350484

What exactly needs touching up?

Excellent build so far!!

[aiden102408]

You did fantastic work on that hood


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[new2rocks]

Originally Posted by BadWagon

Ha! We need to all get up and go tiny trucking soon

Amen, brother! Let's make it happen...

Originally Posted by TheWombat

Well, this just about confirmed it, Im going to need one of these... thank you for the thread

Yes! And you're welcome...

Originally Posted by Szczerba

Nice build up!

Don't speak too soon. There's still plenty of time for me to mess something up royally.

Originally Posted by calcagno45

What exactly needs touching up? Excellent build so far!!

If you look closely enough a couple of mm from the forward edges of the ribs in the left front corner of the bed, you'll see a few spots that could use some more filing to smooth them out. But the fact you couldn't see them from the pictures shows just how minor it is. And thanks!

Originally Posted by aiden102408

You did fantastic work on that hood

Much thanks! I was pleasantly surprised at how well it turned out.

[robvbro81]

Put me on the list for the skid and bearing holder!!


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