Movable rock crawling course

[OniTora]

I tried plain white foam, cut up. It's hard to get it to stay where you want it, it reacts badly to most things you could spray it with, and it's so light, once to hit it, it's more likely to be pushed than climbed.

If it's gonna be light, you HAVE to anchor it to something heavy.

A nice 4x4 piece of plywood works well, but how do you atatch styrofoam blocks to it? I've tried. Nails rip out, glue doesn't hold...

The chickenwire give you something solid to anchor against the wood. Now the problem is lack of realizm, and strength. Once you coat the chickenwire in spray foam, and let it dry, you have a very solid shell. Can you sit on it? No. Can you put a 10-15lb crawler on it? No problem.

Now it's a solid, custom blob. Good for crawling, but ugly, and lacking that element of 'cool'.

Use a razor/file/dremel/steak knife to make it a little more to your specifications, and make it more natural. Then spray it with the artifical rock spray. It looks quite good, and adds a lot of texture, if you put on a thick enough coat.

Now it's practical, AND looks good. You are only lacking durability. Hit it with a couple coats of spray on clear acrylic, flat, not gloss.

It's ready to go. I would guess you could even leave it in the rain at this point- but I ahve yet to test this theory.

I'll post a couple pics of my prototype when I get home.

-=Nash

 

[cudacuf]

go find you a good rock pile that you can sweep all the dirt away from and a pcs
of fleese or grill cloth and some fiberglass risen
sweep the rocks and lay out your fleese and kinda of weight it down to get the
contor of the rocks you made lay down some plastis sheet so the glass want stick to
the rock mix up your glass and pour it on brush it out weight for it to hardin

 

[Jeepernick]

I still want pictures of a good working play ground 8)

 

[tjcrawler]

Pics! Sounds like you have thought it all out OniTora, where do you get the fake rock spray? Landscape place? I just got my TeraLow 4:1 and front and rear lockers for my 1:1 jeep today so it will be a while before I have time to mess with the RC Course but I'd like to see yours.

 

[OniTora]

LOL, never got home last night, my bad. Didn't take pics. I appologize- I'll be going home for sure tonight. I've got strippers coming over.

The paint is from anyplace with spraypaint. Hell, Walmart has it. 4-7 bucks a can, which will do a couple basketball sized rocks. The ClearCoat acrylic spray is pretty common on spray paint aisles too.

Bear in mind, that I don't have a playground- I don't have room for one right now. I have a rock, and I plan on making a second, just for the sake of trying it, and for flex pics.

-=Nash

 

[xjnation]

I took a 6x6 piece of bubble wrap and spread it across the floor with floorjacks, wadded up paper, basically anything to give it some contour and sprayed the whole thing with Line-X. I sprayed it really heavy ( it weighed about 75 lbs.) and took it home. At home i could prop up 1 or 2 corners on a box or whatever and had a sweet little course. The best part was that just by rotating it 90* it would be a whole new obstacle. I took a lot of space in my garage so I scrapped it but I will make another 1. The next one will be more of a dome shape and sprayed lighter. Being a dome I should be able to fold it into a triangle for storage. Height wise it should be about as tall as a 1/6 box on end, which will also be the support.
On another note..... if you have a home made course take it to a hot application bedliner place and ask them to coat it for you. Talk about traction. reminds me of Moab. If the applicator is cool, he should be able to spray it with the first few strokes out of the gun (which is sprayed on the walls anyways to purge the gun) and the $ should stay low. I spray in MO and thats how we do it here. a case of beer will work wonders with these guys. 8)

 

[OniTora]

Ooooooh.... It wouldn't look as real as rock, but it would be sticky, and durable as hell... I'll have to ask some truck shops around here...

-=Nash

 

[Rocker]

I took a 6x6 piece of bubble wrap and spread it across the floor with floorjacks, wadded up paper, basically anything to give it some contour and sprayed the whole thing with Line-X. I sprayed it really heavy ( it weighed about 75 lbs.) and took it home. At home i could prop up 1 or 2 corners on a box or whatever and had a sweet little course. The best part was that just by rotating it 90* it would be a whole new obstacle. I took a lot of space in my garage so I scrapped it but I will make another 1. The next one will be more of a dome shape and sprayed lighter. Being a dome I should be able to fold it into a triangle for storage. Height wise it should be about as tall as a 1/6 box on end, which will also be the support.
On another note..... if you have a home made course take it to a hot application bedliner place and ask them to coat it for you. Talk about traction. reminds me of Moab. If the applicator is cool, he should be able to spray it with the first few strokes out of the gun (which is sprayed on the walls anyways to purge the gun) and the $ should stay low. I spray in MO and thats how we do it here. a case of beer will work wonders with these guys. 8)

hey XJnation, got any good crawlin spots around you, your the closest person ive seen on here, i live by Clinton, MO

 

[OniTora]

Tada...

It's on cardboard, which is bad. The cardboard warps as the foam dries, and there's not enough weight- You push it as much as you crawl it. But, if donw on plywood, it'd be perfect.
-=Nash

 

[murdock]

Spray insulation foam, looks like a can of spray paint with a tube on the end or a can of fix-a-flat. Spray it and then use a utility knife to cut your course. Paint some herculiner on it (i think it is walmart or target that just lowered the price on it :lol or some grip paint....has sand mixed in for flooring in high traffic industrial kitches (lowes carries a few types).
The one thing I have against the foam is that it is usually brittle and may start to chip from tire spin....that could make a mess you wife would not like ;-). The spray foam is pretty hard for a foam and even when you cut it, the inside is not as brittle as styrofoam. It also expands as it dries so you can make some huge mounds.

youre on to something... we use latex with play sand in it for grippy surfaces

maybe you could use:
a sheet of plywood........base ( use some nails to stick the foam in place)
spray or hobby foam.......... light rocks and moldable surface like onitoras' (also great for making fake turds)
latex/playsand ..................cover it all {you could do green and brown for a trail}
sticks , moss , real stones what ever........ for that scale look
they also sell some good looking grass and other things at train hobby shops.

 

[OniTora]

I'm not as worried about the scale look as I am having fun...

I do like the idea, though, of throwing sand at my wet paint/acrylic for a bit more reality/grip.

What kinda latex are we talking? Something you spray on? I've used plenty of liquid latex, but it'd be a pain to 'paint it on'...

-=Nash

 

[xjnation]

hey XJnation, got any good crawlin spots around you, your the closest person ive seen on here, i live by Clinton, MO

Dude, I have so many kick arse spots within a 5 minute drive its not even funny. We go underneath bridges where the rocks have been cemented over and there are sooooo many different lines and obstacles its crazy. The last spot we found has plenty of parking, about 250 total length of rocks, and it is around 30 feet tall. And to top it off, its lit up at night! its killer. Too bad you are so far away.

 

[Rocker]

ahh, im not too far away from springfeild, only about 60 miles from where i live, i go there all of the time, good ole Bass Pros shop, :lol: but i have no crawler right now, busted my front axle inhalf last night out on truman lake dam

i had some left over paint that was used on an old horse trailer, and i threw in some sand, it worked great on that foam in the can, but it could of been better, only lasted a few weeks, i guess staples in the tires are a lil rough on foam, lmao, but they worked good on slick rock, just like tire studs