Ouch, nothing done since March. Well actually although the pic in the first post looked good the rear axles have been a right pain. Not so much the Axles as the mudguards. Now I know why people go for a triple straight mud guard!
Anyway its all fine intil you try and add a third axle that steers. It is once you have this mounted that you find that with the "normal" spacing it touches the mud guards when turning. The spacer in the rear twin set up is not there for fun but even once fitted I still had problems. The axle still touched and also the suspension mounts for it interfere with the mud guard mounts. So much of the time has been spent in figuring out what to do and buying more mudguards. On top of that the small drive shaft falls out because the hyper active suspension that I fitted to the rear pair of axles allows enough movement for it to drop out. I need a slightly longer inner or outer shaft.
Onwards and upwards. You will see that I have fitted an inline motor gearbox. 550 motor and metal geared gearbox rated at 1000 rpm per volt at 12 volts. I am not using that so its a bit slower. Same motor as in my wrecker. I didn't find a mount for it so that was fabricated in the workshop. A fairly simple saw, file and drill job (assuming the measuring was correct.
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I elected to fit servos and designed a single/dual chassis mounting servo mount and cut several on the engraver. I used 3mm black styrene and they seem fine. I am using turnbuckles direct from the servo to either side steering arms. The servo mounts are slotted so they can be moved for Ackerman.
Lastly fitting the cab. Its a resin affair and you have to mount the bumper to the front frame (not the bracket). I glued the bumper to the wheel arches and found that the super single touched the arch on one side, I assume that this is due to shrinkage/movement in the mould ( the manufacturer showed me pics of a new set and they are dead on. Mine was 2mm short at the bottom. The resin is thermosoftening so some boiling water and a careful tweak we are back to fitting.
After a good deal of thought I elected to drill the front frame through 3 mm. Then block the bumper up and mark through for drilling. I drilled 2.5mm and as deep as I dared. Then used 3mm long self tappers (A la Tamiya ) to secure. Next is the cab to the bumper and that has been a little bit of a challenge. Two brass hinges are supplied and these were mounted either side just inside the rails with the hinge to the front of a mounting step on the bumper. They have to be at the front else the cab will not tilt. drilled the hinges 2mm. marked both outer holes on the resin and drew a line between then marked the innerones on the line so as to ensure the hinges were straight. Drilled 1.5mm and used the 2mmx10 slf tappers from the Tamiya kit. Then a test fit of the cab showed that it was too far forward so some measuring and some material removed from the hing area in order to move it back until its straight and fits the arches. H bit fiddley but then hinges raised - marke through the holes and drilled 1.5mm - this time I screwed through a 3mm nut so the screw only penetrated about 7 mm.
no problem. Then I needed a set of rails to use as masters - again no problem as I had them from my block truck (which I must get on and finish). So out with the drill and the tap. The rear two axles and suspension unit I had here from a T cab that I never finished. so in they went. Next the rear steer axle and yes its very close to the two drive axles. I have some tamiya steering axles here but dislike them so niched an HH set from sock. A while ago I purchased a set of aftermarket spings with attachments so I used those and some U bolts from the spares box. Spare plastic parts from the spares box as well.