2.2" 2005 Dodge Ram 2500 Quad Cab Trail Rig

[monkeyracer]

My Trail Monster project was becoming way too much work, and wasn't turning out how I imagined when I started it, so I decided to get a different body for it.

I was going to use two of the New Bright 1:8 Silverados and make a crew cab, but I couldn't find two bodies at a decent price, so I found a couple Dodge Ram bodies at radio shack and started cutting right away. (I had to order then from their RSU system, and wait for them in the mail.)

These come with a plastic roll bar/cage in the bed and a race style interior with one seat, as well as headlights. Stock wheelbase is about 10.5", stock width is a little under 8".

Here's the first mockup of the crew cab mods:

Those crappy stickers have got to go, and goo gone took care of them nicely.

To glue the cab pieces together, I just used Oatey ABS Cement. This is made for ABS plumbing pipes, and is found at Home Depot. Since the body is made from ABS, it will actually chemically bond the pieces together rather than a mechanical bond.

I took some scrap ABS, and made some simple braces on the inside of the body so that the pieces line up right, and they have a little more to the seam than just the ABS cement.

Here's a pic of the body after the cement has cured, and was sanded down:

This adds about 2.25" to the length and wheelbase.

You can see on the roof that there's a section of black plastic, this is a piece of ABS sheet, glued in place with the abs cement. This is before any sanding on the side of the roof. When you combine bodies like this, the roof pieces rarely line up right, so you either have to skin the roof (like I did) or fill it and sand it smooth (which would take way too long.)

I also sanded off the top shiny layer of the body so that paint will adhere better.

Next I made my mock-up front bumper out of more angle aluminum:

This will likely be made from thin steel so I can braze on the brush guard. The winch will just have a fairlead mounted to the bumper.

Also made a metal mesh grill:

The running gear was pulled from the Trail Monster build, but I needed a new chassis. I just used some angle aluminum and measured and drilled the holes.


Here's the specs on the build:

Chassis - Homemade Angle Aluminum/Lexan
Axles - Wheely King front and rear, with custom rear lockouts
Transmission - Axial AX10 with Slipper (set pretty tight) and 87/19 spur/pinion
Motor - Traxxas 550 Titan 21t E-Maxx motor (haven't even taken it out of the package yet, this thing should be a monster in this truck)
Driveshafts - 3Racing Aluminum shafts with steel yokes, deanodized
Links - Custom 4 link rear, 3 link/panhard front, Black Delrin tube with Traxxas rod ends
Wheels - Black on black Proline Eight Shooter 2.2 beadlocks (May look for something with a narrower offset to bring the width in some)
Tires - Hot Bodies Rovers (White compound, stock foams)
ESC - Castle Creations Sidewinder
Steering Servo - Hitec HS-645MG mounted on chassis
Receiver - Traxxas 2 channel AM receiver (for now, getting a 4 or 6 channel 2.4ghz radio soon)
Winch - Tamiya Planetary transmission with stock RE-260 motor (This thing has a lot of torque, by my estimates around 350 oz-in or so, more than enough to pull the truck out of almost anything.) Not mounted yet, still waiting on the multi-channel receiver.
Winch controller - Losi Mini LST ESC
Winch line - 65# Test Spiderwire Super Braid (more than enough break strength, and I can fit probably 100ft or more of line on the winch spool)
Battery - 3x 15C 1500mAh 2S lipo batteries in parallel (soon to be one high capacity battery)
LEDS - currently just 2x 5mm white in the headlights, soon to be a lot more.


There's still plenty to be done with this build. I need to finish the body work and paint it. I'm thinking satin or low-gloss black with flat black hood and accents and spray-in bedliner. I need to finish mounting the electronics, install the interior, scale accessories, etc. Updates coming soon!

Comments, questions and suggestions welcome!

 

[bentrocker]

Nice looking build, would like to see some pic's without the body.

 

[monkeyracer]

Thanks, I'll be working on the electronics tonight, and a few other things, so I'll get some body-off shots, as well as a little detail on the crew-cab extension supports.

I decided to hinge-mount the body, so that it's a little easier to access all the electronics. I plan to use magnets to hold down the front, but right now it's screwed down.

I received a PM about the mesh grill, so I figured I'd post it here in case anyone else had a question about it. It's a metal mesh originally designed for plaster sculpting. I got it at a craft store, so if you're looking for it, it will be near the sculpting supplies. I'm pretty sure it's aluminum, and it comes in a sheet about 3 feet by 1 foot, folded up to fit the package. You'll have to press out the creases when you unfold it.

Update hopefully tonight!

 

[S ARR T 8]

Nice work love the dodge body been looking for a 2000 short bed dodge but have found nothing. I love it lokks bad azz cant wait to see more pics.

 

[SAL45]

Hell ya Monkey "thumbsup" Those bodies look great toegther! Nice job on joining up the two. Came out way easier than mine did! I can't wait to see what you do next "thumbsup"

 

[monkeyracer]

Thanks guys, I was hoping to have an update tonight, but my camera was having issues, so no pics. I did do a little more work on it though...

I installed the planetary winch and cut a fairlead hole in the front bumper. For now I'm using a keychain for a hook, but will look at making a more scale hook.

I also started waterproofing all the electronics with spray-on liquid tape. I've never used the Liquid Tape before, but it seems to be covering the electronics well. I did about 4 coats per side, so I hope that's enough.

I also installed the Titan Motor, but since the ESC was still drying, I haven't been able to try it yet. I'm excited to see what this does for the truck. So far I've heard awesome things about it, high speed, but with great low end crawl. Exactly what I want for this truck.

The crew cab mod was fairly easy, since I've done this before with my Trail Monster build.

Basically you just need to make sure the cuts are the same. I did this by taking a piece of 1/8" masking tape and lined it up with the body line at the back of the door. Then I took a larger piece of masking tape and put it about 2" away from the 1/8" tape. Next, I estimated where would be good to cut the cab, I measured how far from the 1/8" tape and marked a dot at that distance (ended up being 2.25") at every inch or so, then connected the dots.
Then I took the dremel to the line to seperate the halves. This became the back half of the cab and the bed.

On the second body, I just put the 1/8" tape on the body line at the back of the door and cut along that line. This became the front half of the cab with the hood. With the two pieces, I cut some thin strips of ABS sheet (purchased from McMaster, but I should have just picked it up from my local plastics supplier... next time I will.) and clamped it to the front half of the body with some of the ABS cement (from home depot) applied to the scrap piece. Then clamped the rear half to the front half (with more cement) and let it sit until it cured.

At this point, it's almost impossible to have lined everything up perfect, and that's where the glue helps. It becomes a filler as well. When it cures, it's the same as normal ABS, and is just as hard, so there will be lots of sanding.

For the future of this build, I'm still not sure exactly what I want to do for certain things to keep the build unique, and I am looking for a name for it.

I've got a competition on sunday, so I hope the waterproofing holds! And I haven't really tried the winch out, so I hope that holds as well.

Watch for some pics from sunday's event!

 

[ceejay21]

thats a nice rig you have there that shell is a work of art Happy crawling

 

[@tw!ll]

Do you have a part number for the body? Been looking for a nice size dodge cab."thumbsup"

 

[SlickRockSpider]

Right on this is a great build and I am a big Dodge fan. I started to look for the body and I have had no luck :-(. I really want one of these bodies :mrgreen: . If you know any body that has one let me know. Good luck on the comp."thumbsup"



Evan

 

[monkeyracer]

Do you have a part number for the body? Been looking for a nice size dodge cab."thumbsup"

Yup...

RSU - 12413878, $18.69 each. Head down to the local Radio Shack, and have them submit the order if you want. Some RS employees don't know about the RSU system, so you might have to get a manager or someone who's been there awhile to order them.)

I tried this thing on 3S today, and it's pretty sweet. But, the sidewinder isn't rated for a 21T motor with 3S, so I didn't want to chance it for too long. I also tried my spike tires on the ice with the titan on 3s, and they are definitely crazy. The spikes are really only good in hard packed snow or on ice though, for the fluffy snow, I was thinking of adding chains to the spike tires, we'll see.

 

[SlickRockSpider]

Sweet man thank for taking your time. I will let you know how every thing comes out. "thumbsup""thumbsup"




Evan

 

[monkeyracer]

I tried this thing on 3S today, and it's pretty sweet. But, the sidewinder isn't rated for a 21T motor with 3S, so I didn't want to chance it for too long. I also tried my spike tires on the ice with the titan on 3s, and they are definitely crazy. The spikes are really only good in hard packed snow or on ice though, for the fluffy snow, I was thinking of adding chains to the spike tires, we'll see.

This thing is awesome on 3S. And I don't think there's a problem running this motor on the sidewinder with 3S, from what I hear talking to some of the locals. The only issue I am having is that I'm still on 27mhz AM radio, and the sidewinder doesn't have a good internal BEC, so there were a few glitches, but luckily nothing on the course (Just in bashing around.)

I did really well at the comp today, but we'll see once they post the results. It was a snowy, slushy day, and the rovers did well through most of it. When it came to the hill climb, I switched to my spiked tires, and got the second fastest time. I think I've inspired a couple guys here to put spikes in their tires. :evil:

The winch (Tamiya 72001) did well too. This thing will pull the rig up completely off the ground. I hooked it to a tree branch and let it just climb the winch line. It holds it's position too. I might look for a different ESC to control the winch though because there were a few times when it would seem to bog down or pulse, but not all the time. For the price, this thing is awesome, and I definitely recommend it if you've got the space.

There were some pics taken of my truck, but I'll have to wait till they're posted and link them here. It was a fun day!

 

[monkeyracer]

Here's a pic from today:

Now, with as narrow as that and the previous gate were, I was surprised that I made it through this gate and the whole course cleanly.

I ended up getting 3rd today becuase of battery issues on one course (Time Trial) and a couple time penalties. I got 5th overall for our local series, but I missed half the events of the season.

I like how this is performing compared to how it was set-up with my Trail Monster.

More work to do to this, updates in the next week...

 

[R2j]

Nice driving today Jens! Rig works good!

 

[@tw!ll]

Yup...

RSU - 12413878, $18.69 each. Head down to the local Radio Shack, and have them submit the order if you want. Some RS employees don't know about the RSU system, so you might have to get a manager or someone who's been there awhile to order them.)

I tried this thing on 3S today, and it's pretty sweet. But, the sidewinder isn't rated for a 21T motor with 3S, so I didn't want to chance it for too long. I also tried my spike tires on the ice with the titan on 3s, and they are definitely crazy. The spikes are really only good in hard packed snow or on ice though, for the fluffy snow, I was thinking of adding chains to the spike tires, we'll see.

You sir are a gentleman and a scholar"thumbsup" Awesome truck also btw

 

[SlickRockSpider]

In the below pic how wide is that gate. Heading to RS to day. Thanks for all of your help. "thumbsup"



Evan

 

[SAL45]

Looks great "thumbsup"

 

[monkeyracer]

You sir are a gentleman and a scholar"thumbsup" Awesome truck also btw

Thanks!

In the below pic how wide is that gate. Heading to RS to day. Thanks for all of your help. "thumbsup"



Evan

I don't remember how wide it was exactly, but it was I think 12.5" wide. My width from outside of tires is about 11.5", so that didn't leave much room for error there.

Looks great "thumbsup"

I'd love to see what you guys do with this body. I've got some ideas for the "leftovers" from the quad cab cut, and may try and draw inspiration from what you guys do.

 

[70duncan]

Very sweet rig "thumbsup". Thanks for giving me the link. I will wainting impatiantly for updates :mrgreen:.

When you get a chance, could you post a picture of the winch? I havn't heard of this one yet.

 

[monkeyracer]

Very sweet rig "thumbsup". Thanks for giving me the link. I will wainting impatiantly for updates :mrgreen:.

When you get a chance, could you post a picture of the winch? I havn't heard of this one yet.

I'll try to get some pics tomorrow, and detail the winch. That is, as long as my camera isn't dead.