Question about front bumpers.

[JonBailey]

On Tamiya 1/14 tractors, such as King Hauler, does the front bumper attach to the chassis or directly the hood/fender/cab/sleeper assembly? I have no experience building scale trucks or Tamiya products.

If I were to order a custom finished/painted Kenworth W900 cab/hood/door/fender/sleeper/interior assembly from a place like True Scale RC, would I get a new front bumper or just use the original one supplied in the kit?

Would I also retain the original lower chrome hardware as cab steps, fuel tanks, tool boxes and battery boxes?

I am also asking this question with installing the optional Tamiya MFCU in mind. That is what my sleeper is for.

I have given up on my earlier custom cement mixer idea altogether due to its foreseeable complexity and cost.

I have lowered my sights to a 5th wheel tractor with custom KW cab as it seems more practical a venture to dive not so deeply into
as would jumping off a high cliff into a mixer truck be. The current RC market seems more conducive to building tractors (bobtail trucks) than mixers.

I am now finding out that the day cab for a mixer won't work anyway since I have the MFCU in mind. A mixer would look stupid
with a sleeper and I don't want blacked-out driver cab windows.

After doing some thinking over, I realize a plain old tractor might be a safer bet to get into scale RC trucking.

[Tamiya Cowboy]

You dont need a sleeper for a MFU.. I have 3 day cabs all with MUF's in them.

[JonBailey]

Originally Posted by Tamiya Cowboy

You dont need a sleeper for a MFU.. I have 3 day cabs all with MUF's in them.

I have decided I want to have a cab with a scale interior, driver figure and companion dog figure seated in the cab.

This is the main reason why my mind is now geared toward a semi tractor with a realistic-looking sleeper unit as opposed to a day-cab mixer truck.

The sleeper space would conceal my electronics while still offering me a realistic cab interior possibility.

The MFCU is the hardware that will give me those cool revving diesel engine sounds, hissing air brakes, starter sound cranking over and a loud horn to honk.

With a cement truck/day cab, there is a space limitation I have discovered.
Cosset had just informed me of that recently. This upset my original mixer plans.

I would have to decide between a realistic cab interior or realistic truck sounds if I had decided to go with the concrete hauler.

Trade-offs.

A sleeper cab bobtail truck let's me virtually have scale-realism everything. I now understand why sleepless cabs are so common and often necessary in garden trucking.


An RC model airplane writer once said, 'We can scale our models down but not wind velocity."

RC boats and ships can be scaled down, but not the size and action of the waves on the non-scale body of water.

We garden truckers can scale our bodies, chassis, wheels, axles and cabs way down from the full-size OTR trucks of the real world but we can't scale down the internal guts that make real-world diesel-fueled trucks run and emit certain sounds nor can we scale down the potholes and loose gravel on full-scale asphalt streets.

In a real diesel truck, the engine is under the hood and thus makes the diesel engine sound. It does not need a giant MFCU to make its diesel sound. Its horns are mounted on the roof and compressed air from the engine compartment blows them.


Yes, the prospect of building a high-dollar-value scale truck demands prudent project management planning technique.

I need to get to know as much as I can about this craft before any serious cash is shelled out so as to make informed and practical decisions.

A Tamiya tractor now makes the most sense to me.

The mixer idea might otherwise turn out to be an expensive boondoggle.

[JonBailey]

Correction: sleeper not sleepless cabs...

[thebat]

the bumpers do not mount to the cab they bolt onto the very frotn cross member of the chassis so no you would nto get a new one if buying a custom made cab there are though various different options of aftermarket bumpers out there

[bigdogrod]

here's tamiya's instruction manual page, scroll down for the rigs, look at the king hauler manual, that will show you how they are built

http://www.tamiya.com/english/rc/manuals.htm

[mcl fabrication]

I have a video of me building my day-cab King Hauler with a MFC unit, I call him the Green Giant. Here's the link, it may answer some of your build questions.

https://youtu.be/DCGSZih7wAc

[BRICKNICK]

No offence here Jon Bailey I don't mean to sound brash or harsh but most of your questions come from complete inexperience which is fine and welcome here on this forum. But you've pretty much got guys reading off majority of the blue prints of a tamiya truck to you. My advice to you is to either by a tamiya king hauler instruction manual for $20 and study it or do what most guys like myself have done and jump in and buy one. Build it, understand the ins and outs and then modify and tune it and tweek it from stock. You will completely do much better then asking a bunch of questions which won't really help you in the end if it's a complete custom build. For example your bumper mounting question..depending on the bumper you use you may or may not need a custom bumper mount. You want a true scale cab? Then build a roller and buy your cab and work the truck from there. As for your aspirations of having a fully scale interior etc... it's awesome and i hope you complete it and do it better then anyone ever has, but my advice to you is to build and understand a stock truck before shooting for this other worldly build..... rant over... sorry