The 2.2 Cruiser
 

Well,

I've been leaving my 2.2 Clod project on the back burner for far to long, so the time has come to finally get the thing together.

It's gonna be a psuedo semi-scale trail rig/crawler for my girlfriend.

Some of the parts on it are new, some are recycled. Some are fabbed, some are bought. It's gonna be a mix-match of pieces that will result in one sweet-a$$ rig!

I already have a more "Hardcore" clod rig for crawling (http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/showt...highlight=jeep ) so this one is gonna be geared more towards fun and looks.

So starting it off....................................the beginings, a pair of clod axles, some bearings, and a set of INET diff lockers.

Axles got cleaned up.

Added a set of ClodModRacing clear gear covers, a set on INET upper link mounts I had kickin' around, and a set of 8 tooth pinions from RC Guy.

These pinions are NICE, and feature not one, but two set screws! Very nice feature for our high torque crawlers. They are SUPER long too, which is nice, as it allows full gear contact across the next gear when setting up the mesh.

Links are stubby little things that are recycled from my first Clod crawler............6/32 steel all-thread with 1/4" Aluminum sleeves, Traxxas ball ends, and INET shock mounts.

Take one part Ikea cutting board......................

Add a couple of Team Associated battery cups..............

And throw in some seriously sweet aluminum custom TXT sideplates from KevinLongIsland.....................

And you start to see where the chassis is going.........................

Looks good:!:

Nice looking, what wb are you aiming for?

Wheelbase is aiming to be at 12.5". I want to keep it looking relatively scale, but still have good approach & departure angles (and by good, I mean brutally unrealistic..........he he he).

Tires are gonna be a set of Imex All-T's I have lying around, on single narrowed (inner bead) Stampede rims. Foams are half wide, and cut into stars.

I love cutting boards! They slide over the rocks nicely.
http://us.a2.yahoofs.com/users/43fe6...o1fpEBv6jzyLy3

http://us.a2.yahoofs.com/users/43fe6...o1fpEB1gEFjx0Z

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/def...ookie%5Ftest=1

For all your plastic needs,, cool stuff here

odd shape cutting board plastics

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/cat...name=72&Page=1

Or thin sheet HDPE 24" x 48" 1/16" Thick

Honestly I have a hard time justifying ordering a cutting board when I can pick 'em up at a local Ikea for less then $2 (and that's Canadian!).

I am impressed with the plastic, though. It's easy to work with, dirt cheap, and slippery as heck on the rocks. I'm running a cutting board bottom on my other clod crawler, and love it.

Emaxx shocks were the name of the game for suspension duties, but ended up being too long for the suspension set up I'm going for.

So................Duratrax to the rescue! Picked up a set of 4 aluminum Evader BX shocks:

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/WTI0001P?&I=LXCXS3

Price is right, they look good, and are just the length I needed (3" eye to eye).

Turns out the bottom eyes are drilled for "American Standard" screws, and as such, a 3mm metric screw wont fit.

Oi!

So I popped out the ball to put a traxxas one in............but no, they're a different size.

Oh well......................

Out come the pliars...........

I decided to just unthread the whole Duratrax ball end (on the right), and replace it with a short Traxxas one (on the left).

Much better!

The top eye holes are quite large.............which is good in this case, since it'll allow me to run some "Flexy" mounts, compliments of some fuel tubing bushings.

Made a little more progress with the suspension today.

Found a couple of fun little plastic piece on a leftover Tamiya TB-01 parts tree that are the perfect width to use as upper shock spacers on my chassis, and will allow me to use 4mm hardware.

Mocked it up, and looks like it'll work the way I wanted it to.

At this point a quick rummage around the shop gave me a pretty good idea of the extra electronics I have.

The 2.2 Cruiser should be getting a duo of Tamiya 27turn stock cans, a Novak Super Rooster ESC, an Airtronics micro receiever, and a pair of Hitec 645MG servo's. Not sure if I'll run a reciever pack or not yet.

good to see build is progressing, cant wait to see it running. you've given me inspiration to start rebuilding my clods.

Well,

I didn't get much accomplished with the 2.2 Cruiser over the past few days. Somehow I got distracted over my new toy.......................

1/5 scale MCD Race Runner! Oh Hells Ya!

(Excuse me while I pull a "Microgoat" and hijack my own thread ;) )

It'll be a few weeks untill I pull together the electronics and get the thing running, but for now, it sure is impressive to look at (even with the ugly white protective film on the body).

Here's a few pics of my newest addition............plus one with my 17" wheelbase crawler with 7" LST tires for size comparison. This thing is FREAKIN' HUGE!!!

:) :) :) :) :)

Okay, got a bit more done. Picked up two more of those plastic spacers from the Tamiya TB-01 kits from a budy of mine, and mounted up the other set of shocks.

Got the servo mounts done and on the axles, and added another set of cross beams between the side=plates for some more strength. The cross bars will also double as mounting points for the electronics.

Mocked up the whole deal with the axles. It's sitting at a 13" Wheelbase.

Body time........................

This one was easy (or even planned one may say............).

It wouldn't be much of a 2.2 Cruiser without a Toyota Land Cruiser body, now would it?

;)

It still needs decals, details and final trimming, but you get the idea.

;)

Sure am glad I picked up a bunch of these when the LHS still had 'em in stock!

:) :) :) :)

And of course, what kind of a build up would it be without some poorly done mock-up shots?

what the hell is inside it? lookcs good, mov it back a little more so the rear wheels sit closer to the fenders

It's stuffed with stuffed rats!

LOL

The body won't be mounted exactly were it sits now. Those pics are purely a ghetto-fabbed mock-up so people got an idea of what I'm going for.

I have to figure out where the heck the body mounts are gonna go before I can figure out exactly where the body goes!

You made me go look at my WRMorrison chassis sideplates...

Okay, found a bit of modivation (and free time) tonight, and did a few more quick bits on the Cruiser.

Added the electronic plates for the ESC and reciever.

Got the body mounts done, and drilled up the Toyota body to drop on.

Mounted up the other two tires, and did some more quick poser pics.

And a few with the shell on.

:)

It's starting to look okay, IMO...................

Cool looking FJ and what is the width with the all-t on there. and did u just narrow the inner bead or both.

rich

Rims are narrowed only on the inside.

Width is a hair under 12.5".

Thanx for the kind words, dezfan. I'm pretty happy with the way it's shaping up.

sweet, now i have to do a clod fj40.

it looks good wher the body sits now.

Well, I finally got off my but and did some more work on the Cruiser.

Finished up sleeving the upper links (1/4" aluminum tube), and got the front and rear steering links/drag links done. Again, used 6/32 steel all-thread with 1/4" aluminum sleeves.

Since the front and rear steering are identical, I needed to reverse one of the servos. Picked up a reversing Y harness with a centering adjustor. Pretty sweet. Now I can use the radio trim to center the front servo, and the pot to adjust the back!

Got the Super-Rooster installed and the motorws wired up as well.

On go the wheels and ties, and Voila! It's almost done!

And the finished product, with the newly trimmed and stickered body.

I'm really impressed that I didn't have to hack the body too much to still allow decent flex. It'll be nice to have a fairly capable trials/mild crawler that actually looks decent.

Very cool.

thats a nice rig, I love the chassis.8) How wide is the rig with the All-T's on it?

Post #32!

A hair under 12.5".

Thanx for the kind words guys, I'm quite happy with the way it turned out. Hopefully I can get it out to test it (and maybe get some video footage....) over the next week or two.

looks alot better then anything i could put together i like how you keep everything as simple as you can on your other one how do you like the lst tires im thinking of buying some

Thanx andrewmp6. I'm glad this project turned out the way it did. It's kinda for my GF, and she really likes it.

As for the LST's on my other rig: I love 'em. If you drive on a variety of surfaces (not just one type of rock), they are hard to beat.

It's gonna be interesting to drive this 2.2 Cruiser after being used to more "hardcore" crawlers. It'll be fun to play with something that acts a little more scale.

:)

yeah its kinda scale and the tires on it would work good at alot of normal off road things im geting a set of maximizer's and the lst are so far the only tire i see fiting them i like