OlYelr
Quarry Creeper
It's been a while since I've done a whole lot with my RC stuff, being busy with work and 1:1 toys. I've slowly made some progress on my next project and figured I've made it far enough to start sharing. Just don't expect it to get finished quickly.
Started with a Tamiya Knight Hauler and converted to 6x6 with a TLT front axle. Put RC4WD axle extenders on the rear, making them very close in width. The rear is actually about 1/4" wider than the front now. Also put some longer leaf springs on the rear so larger rear tires won't touch. I think they are OG Bruiser springs I had laying around. I was able to reuse the stock links with some creative changes to the mounts. And then here's what it looks like:
Next, I cut the frame in half and took about 3.5" of frame rail out:
Then I built a swivel mechanism, pretty much the same as I did on the Swivel Frame Power Wagon I did a few years back. It uses 3/4" Delrin bar, cut to length to slide inside the frame rails, with a bolt through the middle and a bearing in between:
Then the swivel mechanism goes into the frame and you get something like this:
And "flexes" like this:
Next step will be to clean everything up, then install the driveline.
As far as the body is concerned, I will be using the Knight Hauler body, and cutting it in half just behind the doors. The front portion will go in front of the swivel. The roof extension will stay off, and I will use styrene to make a clean flat roof. In addition, I will be chopping the top, to make it slightly shorter and give it the hot rod look. The sleeper part of the cab will be mounted behind the swivel, extended to run the whole length of the rear frame, height matched to the roof line, and have wheel wells cut out of the bottom to clear the tires. Here's the stock body all marked up for my cuts:
As I said, this won't be moving very quickly, but I'm very excited about the end result! "thumbsup"
Started with a Tamiya Knight Hauler and converted to 6x6 with a TLT front axle. Put RC4WD axle extenders on the rear, making them very close in width. The rear is actually about 1/4" wider than the front now. Also put some longer leaf springs on the rear so larger rear tires won't touch. I think they are OG Bruiser springs I had laying around. I was able to reuse the stock links with some creative changes to the mounts. And then here's what it looks like:
Next, I cut the frame in half and took about 3.5" of frame rail out:
Then I built a swivel mechanism, pretty much the same as I did on the Swivel Frame Power Wagon I did a few years back. It uses 3/4" Delrin bar, cut to length to slide inside the frame rails, with a bolt through the middle and a bearing in between:
Then the swivel mechanism goes into the frame and you get something like this:
And "flexes" like this:
Next step will be to clean everything up, then install the driveline.
As far as the body is concerned, I will be using the Knight Hauler body, and cutting it in half just behind the doors. The front portion will go in front of the swivel. The roof extension will stay off, and I will use styrene to make a clean flat roof. In addition, I will be chopping the top, to make it slightly shorter and give it the hot rod look. The sleeper part of the cab will be mounted behind the swivel, extended to run the whole length of the rear frame, height matched to the roof line, and have wheel wells cut out of the bottom to clear the tires. Here's the stock body all marked up for my cuts:
As I said, this won't be moving very quickly, but I'm very excited about the end result! "thumbsup"
