Holden Overlander
Rock Stacker
At the risk of repeating a lot of what has already been said, done, photographed and video'd by a number of very talented people around the world, I thought I'd try my hand at a build thread here on RCC.
Some of this will be a copy and paste from my 'local haunt' build thread over on one of the Aussie RC Crawling Forums - www.thecrawlpit.com so for some fellow Australian's this build will be old hat
This is my first RC kit build since my 1/8 Nitro buggy back in about 1997, so I was really looking forward to getting my hands on the TF2 kit and other parts and making a start.
I got myself a new GT3C radio and some cheapie 9kg servos and I have dropped one of them in as a 'steera'. I had a few micro servos laying around that I'm trying out for gear shift service.
I tracked down a near new Axial AE-2 ESC and a 20T brushed motor out of a Wraith from a friend locally. Realistically the 20T may be a bit too much speed (is there ever such a thing??) for the TF2, so I also have an old silver can 540 motor that I may drop in to see how it goes if needed.
As for Paint and Body... a mate a few years ago had a Hilux flat tray of similar year/model with a 4.4l all alloy V8 in it (from a Leyland P76 sedan). It was a really cool truck - but the standard Hilux gearbox was SO sadly not up to the task. The car kept him poor just repairing the gearbox, so he sold it off.
I'm thinking that this would be cool 1:1 to base my build on. Hopefully my TF2 won't suffer the same gearbox issues!!
I have plans for making a flat tray and I'll use the drop bed tray back from the TF2 kit to make into a trailer somewhere down the track perhaps.
Anyway onto the build.
All the parts were layed out in the box nice. Everything present and accounted for. At the end of the first day's building I had myself a rolling chassis with servos and motor fitted up.
I think I may have been short one M3 x 16 screw, which was no problem as there were spares of virtually every other size provided.
The kit went together really easily. All screws in tiny little labeled bags, instructions are clear, but a minor gripe is that there are some sections of the assembly that are not covered at all in the manual - like the assembly of the wheels / tyres, fitting of motor up to gearbox and wheels onto axles - there look to be alternative hexes with grub screws to replace the hexes that come fitted to the Yota axles - but the extra ones don't actually work :evil:
Most of these are really simple steps I know, and anyone with half a clue will undoubtedly know how to install a pinion on the motor and to screw the motor onto the motor plate, BUT for someone very new to the game, a small note on what length screws to use, may be beneficial so you don't go screwing through the end of the can with long screws and straight into the motor windings. Likewise some of the kits I have built even had some tips on setting the mesh between gears etc.
Quality has been really good, with the only minor critisism being that the plastic parts, body mounts, sliders and bumper mounts really don't feel like they pull up too firmly using the M3 screws provided. A proper (longer) self tapper with a coarser deeper thread would be a better option for screwing into the plastic. No big issue obviously, but something which could be fixed very easily.
The short shaft between gearbox and transfer case uses some M3 x 10 grub screws. I can see over time that the thread of the grub screw will wear where it passes through the inner shaft and some play will creep in this area. A grub screw like the axials WB8 shafts use with the (2.5mm?) parallel flat section may have been a better proposition, but as the shafts are already drilled out to ~3mm there isn't much scope to do a conversion job. I have noticed a few people here changing the grub screws out for M3 cap screws and a M3 locknut on the other side.
The Diff input shafts are drilled thru (2.??mm this time) but only standard M3 x 3 grub screws are provided, so a similar mod may be required there too, drill the input shaft to 2.5 and fit the pin type M3 grub screw right thru.
The drive shafts are, as most other builders have commented, REALLY soft plastic, so after popping them off a couple of times just driving around in the house, I dropped in a set of old nearly worn out shafts of my SCX. I think a propper drive shaft upgrade (WB-8) will be on the cards not too far down the track
BTW....
Anyone got any comments on tuning/venting/weighting these RC4WD 1.55" steelies with the Mud Thrashers??
I ended up moving the gear tray up 3mm and forward ~25mm so the cab will cover the whole tray (for when I get around to doing the custom flat tray for the rear) Then I got the micro shift servo fitted. This wasn't too hard, just not 100% confident the setup will be reliable long term. The servo has bugger all power, so it's not gonna bust the stainless wire I have used to make the linkage, but the servo and servo arm are really cheap plastic items and are going to be the weak link.
When I got it running, there was some mechanical binding in the drivetrain somewhere, the thing was surging at low speed, so I worked my way through the issue to see what was causing the problem and found mesh between pinion and spur a bit tight in spots. Seems like spur gear isn't running true so even though I took my time to set the mesh initially it became too tight after half a turn of the spur gear!
BODY
So I made a start on the body, I got some tins of plastic primer, primer filler and final top coat - Toyota Light Yellow 558 paint and a few sheets of 500, 800 and 1500 wet and dry from the auto paint shop.
Started by getting the full rear panel shaped up for a nice fit and then glued it in. Then did the same on the front grille panel. I had seen a guy over on RCC (vonclod) who cut out the grille on his TF2 which looked great, so I threw caution to the wind and ripped into it with the dremel. End result is fairly pleasing.
First Test Run
So anyway, now that it had a body I couldn't resist it and went out for a gentle trail drive. My 5 yo son did a great job of steering my SCX 10 around while I had a play around and took some video and still pics of the TF2.
Got a video of the TF2 done on her maiden outing too. http://www.youtube.com/watchv=4xmA3C2i4yk&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Overlander's RC4WD Trail Finder 2 - First Trail Run - Kelcey Tier - June 2012 - YouTube
Gotta say that I am really happy with the performance. She goes like stink in top gear with the 20t Wraith motor, but still crawls great in low which is really pleasing.
The suspension is still stock with just a single leaf at each wheel and the internal springs in the shockies so it is quite stiff but I guess fairly realistic. Not much flex at all, so need to do some research and tweaking there :roll:
RHD Conversion
I have started a RHD conversion on the dash. I just couldn't look at the steering wheel on the wrong side any longer!! Sorry to all my new found US friends!! "thumbsup"
I tried the cotton thread trick to cut the instrument cluster out, but the cotton I had on hand was too thin and in my 5 minutes of trying I only cut about 2 mm and the thread snapped about 10 times..... I looked around the garage and saw the kiddies kites.... Hmmmm they have nice tough string. Sure enough, it worked a treat!! Cuts quite easily and neat. About 0.5 - 0.75 mm wide.
I imagine there would be some other tough cotton or nylon thread that is a bit thinner which would give a thinner cut, but the end result isn't too bad for a first effort.
I have put some off cuts of styrene and glue in to fill the gaps, a bit of filing / sanding and some filler primer I reckon it will be fine.
I also got stuck into the tray and removed the tabs that are supposed to fit up inside the cab. With the full back panel fitted to the cab as I have done, the tray was sort of useless. Now the tabs are gone I can have the custom flat tray or style side drop bed on the truck and have the option to make the style side drop bed into a trailer too. This change also has the nice effect of the gap between the cab and the bed just like the real vehicles have too.
I went to the bargain disposal shop and grabbed a steel mesh pen cup for $2. Got it home and proceeded to chop it up. Rolled it out flat and measured up the space behind the grille. A bit of trimming, cutting and bending later.... The end result looks quite good I think!!
I developed the concept a bit as you can see and have folded it to make it a bit more ridgid and sturdy. Additionally forming it this way helps to keep it flat behind the opening in the grille.
I couldn't think of a nice simple way to secure it behind the grill using glue, but found the bracket supplied in the kit along with the screw holes on the underside the hood/bonnet served the purpose perfectly!!
I have further plans for the bracket too, but that may be in the next update!!
Some of this will be a copy and paste from my 'local haunt' build thread over on one of the Aussie RC Crawling Forums - www.thecrawlpit.com so for some fellow Australian's this build will be old hat
This is my first RC kit build since my 1/8 Nitro buggy back in about 1997, so I was really looking forward to getting my hands on the TF2 kit and other parts and making a start.
I got myself a new GT3C radio and some cheapie 9kg servos and I have dropped one of them in as a 'steera'. I had a few micro servos laying around that I'm trying out for gear shift service.
I tracked down a near new Axial AE-2 ESC and a 20T brushed motor out of a Wraith from a friend locally. Realistically the 20T may be a bit too much speed (is there ever such a thing??) for the TF2, so I also have an old silver can 540 motor that I may drop in to see how it goes if needed.
As for Paint and Body... a mate a few years ago had a Hilux flat tray of similar year/model with a 4.4l all alloy V8 in it (from a Leyland P76 sedan). It was a really cool truck - but the standard Hilux gearbox was SO sadly not up to the task. The car kept him poor just repairing the gearbox, so he sold it off.
I'm thinking that this would be cool 1:1 to base my build on. Hopefully my TF2 won't suffer the same gearbox issues!!
I have plans for making a flat tray and I'll use the drop bed tray back from the TF2 kit to make into a trailer somewhere down the track perhaps.
Anyway onto the build.
All the parts were layed out in the box nice. Everything present and accounted for. At the end of the first day's building I had myself a rolling chassis with servos and motor fitted up.
I think I may have been short one M3 x 16 screw, which was no problem as there were spares of virtually every other size provided.
The kit went together really easily. All screws in tiny little labeled bags, instructions are clear, but a minor gripe is that there are some sections of the assembly that are not covered at all in the manual - like the assembly of the wheels / tyres, fitting of motor up to gearbox and wheels onto axles - there look to be alternative hexes with grub screws to replace the hexes that come fitted to the Yota axles - but the extra ones don't actually work :evil:
Most of these are really simple steps I know, and anyone with half a clue will undoubtedly know how to install a pinion on the motor and to screw the motor onto the motor plate, BUT for someone very new to the game, a small note on what length screws to use, may be beneficial so you don't go screwing through the end of the can with long screws and straight into the motor windings. Likewise some of the kits I have built even had some tips on setting the mesh between gears etc.
Quality has been really good, with the only minor critisism being that the plastic parts, body mounts, sliders and bumper mounts really don't feel like they pull up too firmly using the M3 screws provided. A proper (longer) self tapper with a coarser deeper thread would be a better option for screwing into the plastic. No big issue obviously, but something which could be fixed very easily.
The short shaft between gearbox and transfer case uses some M3 x 10 grub screws. I can see over time that the thread of the grub screw will wear where it passes through the inner shaft and some play will creep in this area. A grub screw like the axials WB8 shafts use with the (2.5mm?) parallel flat section may have been a better proposition, but as the shafts are already drilled out to ~3mm there isn't much scope to do a conversion job. I have noticed a few people here changing the grub screws out for M3 cap screws and a M3 locknut on the other side.
The Diff input shafts are drilled thru (2.??mm this time) but only standard M3 x 3 grub screws are provided, so a similar mod may be required there too, drill the input shaft to 2.5 and fit the pin type M3 grub screw right thru.
The drive shafts are, as most other builders have commented, REALLY soft plastic, so after popping them off a couple of times just driving around in the house, I dropped in a set of old nearly worn out shafts of my SCX. I think a propper drive shaft upgrade (WB-8) will be on the cards not too far down the track
BTW....
Anyone got any comments on tuning/venting/weighting these RC4WD 1.55" steelies with the Mud Thrashers??
I ended up moving the gear tray up 3mm and forward ~25mm so the cab will cover the whole tray (for when I get around to doing the custom flat tray for the rear) Then I got the micro shift servo fitted. This wasn't too hard, just not 100% confident the setup will be reliable long term. The servo has bugger all power, so it's not gonna bust the stainless wire I have used to make the linkage, but the servo and servo arm are really cheap plastic items and are going to be the weak link.
When I got it running, there was some mechanical binding in the drivetrain somewhere, the thing was surging at low speed, so I worked my way through the issue to see what was causing the problem and found mesh between pinion and spur a bit tight in spots. Seems like spur gear isn't running true so even though I took my time to set the mesh initially it became too tight after half a turn of the spur gear!
BODY
So I made a start on the body, I got some tins of plastic primer, primer filler and final top coat - Toyota Light Yellow 558 paint and a few sheets of 500, 800 and 1500 wet and dry from the auto paint shop.
Started by getting the full rear panel shaped up for a nice fit and then glued it in. Then did the same on the front grille panel. I had seen a guy over on RCC (vonclod) who cut out the grille on his TF2 which looked great, so I threw caution to the wind and ripped into it with the dremel. End result is fairly pleasing.
First Test Run
So anyway, now that it had a body I couldn't resist it and went out for a gentle trail drive. My 5 yo son did a great job of steering my SCX 10 around while I had a play around and took some video and still pics of the TF2.
Got a video of the TF2 done on her maiden outing too. http://www.youtube.com/watchv=4xmA3C2i4yk&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Overlander's RC4WD Trail Finder 2 - First Trail Run - Kelcey Tier - June 2012 - YouTube
Gotta say that I am really happy with the performance. She goes like stink in top gear with the 20t Wraith motor, but still crawls great in low which is really pleasing.
The suspension is still stock with just a single leaf at each wheel and the internal springs in the shockies so it is quite stiff but I guess fairly realistic. Not much flex at all, so need to do some research and tweaking there :roll:
RHD Conversion
I have started a RHD conversion on the dash. I just couldn't look at the steering wheel on the wrong side any longer!! Sorry to all my new found US friends!! "thumbsup"
I tried the cotton thread trick to cut the instrument cluster out, but the cotton I had on hand was too thin and in my 5 minutes of trying I only cut about 2 mm and the thread snapped about 10 times..... I looked around the garage and saw the kiddies kites.... Hmmmm they have nice tough string. Sure enough, it worked a treat!! Cuts quite easily and neat. About 0.5 - 0.75 mm wide.
I imagine there would be some other tough cotton or nylon thread that is a bit thinner which would give a thinner cut, but the end result isn't too bad for a first effort.
I have put some off cuts of styrene and glue in to fill the gaps, a bit of filing / sanding and some filler primer I reckon it will be fine.
I also got stuck into the tray and removed the tabs that are supposed to fit up inside the cab. With the full back panel fitted to the cab as I have done, the tray was sort of useless. Now the tabs are gone I can have the custom flat tray or style side drop bed on the truck and have the option to make the style side drop bed into a trailer too. This change also has the nice effect of the gap between the cab and the bed just like the real vehicles have too.
I went to the bargain disposal shop and grabbed a steel mesh pen cup for $2. Got it home and proceeded to chop it up. Rolled it out flat and measured up the space behind the grille. A bit of trimming, cutting and bending later.... The end result looks quite good I think!!
I developed the concept a bit as you can see and have folded it to make it a bit more ridgid and sturdy. Additionally forming it this way helps to keep it flat behind the opening in the grille.
I couldn't think of a nice simple way to secure it behind the grill using glue, but found the bracket supplied in the kit along with the screw holes on the underside the hood/bonnet served the purpose perfectly!!
I have further plans for the bracket too, but that may be in the next update!!
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