Project: TINY
 

Project: TINY
The original 1:1 rear engined comp buggy that dominated rock crawling when it hit the rocks years back. Built originally by Nelson & Nelson racing, today it is still being driven by Jason Scherer and although it is several years in design old, it is still one of the top rigs in the world today.

Attachment 37246

Well I have been wanting to do this build for a long time and finally made some visible progress. Up to this point I have just been gathering ideas, photos, parts, and anything else to help in the build. Mostly I have just been short on time, but an hour here and there over several months and you can start seeing progress.
The basics:
Chassis - Custom tube version of TINY, 3/16" DOM steel
Tranny - XXX Losi
Motor - Revolver 2 (because it is so "tiny" not performance)
Axles - TLT/hybrid TLT
Shocks - TLT turned down
Wheels/Tires - Traxxas/Geolanders narrowed
Batteries - unknown


I started with photos that I had and what I found on the web. I also contacted Jason (the owner of TINY) and he sent me the best photos that gave me good perspective shots and the ability to get some rough measurements.

Attachment 37245

I then took those measurements and started bending 3/16" DOM tubing. Let me tell you. Just because you have straight on photos, doesn't mean you will get good measurements. The distortion made things tricky and the design of TINY itself made it worse since there is not one symetrical part on it. Taping it all together helped get me my visuals somewhat in line.

Attachment 37247

After bending tubing, I am now in the process of zapping it together and making final lengths on all those pieces I bent and cut out. I have done both brazing and now MIG welding on this chassis. My preference is the MIG welding. Easy to hold in place, fast to make weld, easy to fill in gaps, however not so quick to clean up if you puddle the welds.

Attachment 37243
Attachment 37244

So that is it as of this posting. It will take me a while to complete it, but it at least is starting to look like a vehicle now.
-Sam

wow looks great

man i like the start of this build, deffently something i am going to keep my eye on. might make me go back to a shocked vehicle

Looks good Slinky "thumbsup" Does it run a 3 link with (panyard) in the rear? Cool if it does.

Looks cool Sam! I wondered what you have been up to ;-)

Thanks guys. I appreciate the compliments.

Gimbal - Yes, it runs a panhard front and rear actually. The rear is pretty easy because you have 1 link on the drivers side, 2 on the passenger, then the 1 panhard. The front is a little trickier as it run basically 3 links from the very center of the chassis down to the axle right next to the driveshaft. Then the panhard runs down driver to passenger. So that is why the passenger side front has a radius'd frame instead of a straight frame like on the driver side. Not sure it is easily seen in the photo though.

Brandon - Yeah, I have been out doing other stuff so I never get to do R/C stuff that much, except a little here and there. I finally did make some progress though so I am excited to see that it (for the most part) looks like TINY. If I can keep clean lines and similar appearance, I will be stoked when it is complete.

-Sam

any updates? lol sorry im just very anxious

Thats cool man! Definatly a great rig to base if from. I would recommend a 1350 mah+ 3 cell lipo or 9-10 cell nimh for your battery. It will give you enough grunt with proper gearing. Lower voltages may be lackluster in performance for the motor. 12/87 or slower would be a good start point for gearing too.

Very nice build, it looks like the dimensions should work out just about perfect

Awesome build Sam! I remember when the Nelson's first finished that rig and everyone was just looking at it scratching their heads.

This should be cool.....nice start.
Jay

Nice work dude, this will be one saweet tuber when its done "thumbsup"

Looking great Sam. Good to see you have a little time now and then. Are you going to have it done for Folsom in October? You are hoping to go in Oct. right?

looks good Sam, I can't wait to see the panhard bar set up.

looks like a golf cart in that last picture:lol: . just kiddin.looks like it'll be a good rig and I will be following this build"thumbsup"

This thing looks great"thumbsup"
Any progress?
Shane

Thanks again everyone for the compliments. Coming from some of you who are the "Masters" of tubing, it means a lot.

Well I was hoping to make progress on the rig, but I am still deep in Wedding season, so all I have done was tap the end of the tubing for the panhard bar which was a complete failure.... almost. I got a little ball of weld in there when joining the 3 tubes which I tried to drill out, but it chewed the end of the bit. The broken end of the bit got stuck inside. I tried to pick it out, but no luck. So I tried to push it into the tube to get it out of the way. I could then drip some loctite in there to keep it from rattling around. However, it wouldn't budge. After playing with it for a while I finally found some super narrow tweezers and was able to unscrew it out. I tried to tap it from there, but tapping a weld is a bit rough. No big deal though, I think I have it solved.

Stallion1967 - Yeah, now that you mention it, it does look like a golf cart.

montereycrawler - Thanks man. I can only hope to make it as clean as your rigs. I am hoping to have it done sooner than Folsom in Oct. By then, the weddings will be winding down.

Rockpiledriver - You know, I STILL scratch my head when looking at it. I must have 30 to 40 photos of it and over the years it has actually changed shape a little bit. So sometimes it gets confusing at which year I am building :lol: . Actually, the whole thing is screwy with all the different angles and anti-symetrical design.

justgiveereh - It is close to perfect in 2.2 style dimensions. I am using the 3/8ths tubing which isn't quite right, but I didn't want to use the solid 1/8th tubing. It's ok though. As long as you don't look at the the original next to this one, it will be close enough. haha

johnrobholmes - Thanks for the battery suggestions. The problem will be 1) finding the space for the batteries and 2) finding the money to get them haha. No wonder they call it a hobby. It drains my wallet almost as fast as my real 1:1 rock crawlers. I would like to find something super small of course and something that would hide well within the lines of chassis. Obviously being an open chassis like it is, it is hard to hide stuff. I have the Mamba Max now and might need to try the Mamba 25 again for size reasons, but once again.... those damn hobby gremlins are eating the wallet.


So inbetween uploading wedding photos, I think I will try and buzz a few more bars and link mounts on. "thumbsup"

-Sam

If you want to keep the budget tight, 2/3a cells might be the better bet. You could hide them all around the frame and keep it pretty clean. I would still recommend at least 9 cells though, the more voltage the better.

Sam if you are going to try and tap it again may I suggest heating up the steel with a torch until its red hot then slowly cool it while keeping the torch close. This will soften the steel quite a bit and should make it easier to tap. But it sounds like you have it solved "thumbsup"

So I didn't get much done between uploads, but I did get to add 5 more tubes. Rule #1, don't forget to turn on the shield gas when MIG welding. Rule #2, verify locations of tube twice before welding. I need to cut one tube out and reposition for sure. Other than that, I have several tubes to go and a lot of clean up grinding to do.

Here is a photo of it with the set, tranny, and bug motor in rough position to give you an idea.

Attachment 37348


Brandon - thanks for the tip. I think I got it tapped ok now. It just wasn't nearly as smooth as I planned it to be.

-Sam