Project Cheap Hauler 6x6 W900

[jj650]

I didn't care for the high front stance with the springs mounted in the original chassis holes. I drilled new holes 5mm higher to mount the springs. This got the stance where i like it.





And added some spacers due to the spring width being slightly wider than the stock straight axle.



The washers were temporary, i made an aluminum spacer once i knew how much was needed.



And the front axle and springs bolted in place.







And in keeping with my cheap theme the easiest, cheapest way to put front drive wheels on is use the stock plastic inner rear dual wheel because it has the hex drive.





Now onto the cheapest way to drive that front axle.....

[jj650]

Lets disassemble the stock three speed to clean, re grease and add bearings to it.





Coming from a welding background and being a Millwright the cheapest way to get a front driveshaft spinning was to weld up the main output shaft and file a flat spot for a set screw to snug up against.

stock shaft.



Newly extended shaft.





Even running an 80 turn crawler motor i wanted a bit more low end grunt. I ground the motor mounting holes some to get an 8T pinion installed.







Being as i had this long pinion gear in my box and keeping it cheap i had to grind the transmission cases just a little for clearance.



All buttoned up and running smooth.



To get a driveshaft in the front and a decent pinion angle i opted to move the transmission rearward as far as it could go and still retain the stock body mounting brackets.
To do this i cut the seat platform into two pieces so the motor could slide between them and still retain stock body mounting position.





For measurement purposes i cut up an RC4WD Marlin Crawler driveshaft to make sure everything was going to work.
Steel driveshafts will be ordered once final dimensions are set.







And for steering purposes a waterproof 20kg servo.



Next up we'll try to remove that old brushed on paint.....

[jj650]

Building was kind of out of order. Did things in a not so very organized fashion.
Here are some quick aluminum bumpers i cut during my lunch breaks.









Mounted before i put the True Scale light buckets and LED's in.





Now onto trying to remove that old paint. I tried the oven cleaner in a bag trick. It didn't touch the stuff.
So i got some 99% alcohol to soak it in. It worked to some small degree. This paint was just not coming off.







Now i got it a little better than that last pic shows but there was no way of getting a super nice paint job out of it. That's when i decided this will be an old barn find and someone is in the middle of restoring it little by little.
So a two tone primer paint job and then some light weathering was in order.

I didn't document the painting procedure. Basically sprayed the whole truck with rust primer then masked off areas and sprayed with grey primer. Then once dry i weathered it with Citadel gaming paints.
so the next build pics really aren't about the paint but will give sneak peaks of it while explaining something else to the build.

[jj650]

I got the G.T. Power cargo truck sound unit/light kit module. Again, it fit the cheap budget theme.

Once i understood the sketchy directions and watched a few YouTube videos in foreign languages i was able to get it properly hooked up.

I'm running it with a Turnigy i9x in mode 2, throttle on left stick. I ordered another steering gimble so i could use the spring return parts for the throttle stick and now both sticks self center.

With the GT power unit once the transmitter is powered up you move the left (throttle) stick to the right position and this starts up the engine. If you do not start the engine the truck will not have power to the ESC. Which i'm running an Axial AE5 crawler esc because the drag brake function is pretty nice. All other functions will operate; steering, lights, horn but the truck will not move unless the engine is started first. This position also shuts the engine off and an air release noise is emitted.

The only complaint i have is for the size of the speaker it isn't loud enough. I have it taped up in the sleeper pointing down and back. At a recent indoor show where there was background noise and people talking my truck was hard to hear running. I'm going to look into a smaller, louder speaker if i can find one.

The LED's are labeled and self explanatory. I did have to add five additional yellow 3mm LED's for the cab lights. The GT kit didn't have enough.