Wedico Peterbilt Day Cab

[PilotJesse]

Started toying around with an idea of a lift axle... I would obviously need to switch out the under-cab tool box with a fuel tank with steps if I went this route. I'm not a fan of the stock Wedico toolbox/steps anyway. Disregard the Wedico fifth wheel, I just put it there to mock up the design. What do y'all think?

[bigpipespete]

Looking good , but i think you need a longer frame if you use a lift axle. Is it just me or does the cab look a tad bit too tall for the scale of the truck ?

[PilotJesse]

Originally Posted by bigpipespete

Looking good , but i think you need a longer frame if you use a lift axle. Is it just me or does the cab look a tad bit too tall for the scale of the truck ?

Yeah, I decided against the lift axle. Glad to see the forum is back up and running!

[bigpipespete]

What happened , at least now i can see how your build turns out.

[trilliwilli]

The forum crashed and was offline for one month.

I am also glad to see this build continue, i really like the daycab style on this one.

[PilotJesse]

Well guys, I am back! It has been too long. I have finally had time to get back to working on the truck and given the rear suspension a lot of thought. I tried a few different options and none of the options would give me the reliability/durability that I really wanted from this truck. So it's back to the Wedico spring suspension for now. I hope to revisit the Peterbilt airbag suspension at some point. I have lots of parts on order from Germany, and can't wait for them to get here. Hope to provide some updates (with pictures) soon!

[PilotJesse]

Working on sorting out the electrical system. Not sure why, but the motors only go in reverse. The transmitter is indicating that it is going forward and reverse, but with either selection, the motors go backwards. Also trying to untangle this spaghetti! (don't worry, the fenders/truck are not going to be green, that's just primer)

[PilotJesse]

Also received some goodies in the mail. I've been warned against the dual motor setup, but I wanted to try it anyway. I think it looks cool. If it really doesn't work, I'll go back to the single motor. The drive shafts are the new and improved ones from RC4WD. They'll have to be trimmed to fit correctly.

[PilotJesse]

So I've done all the troubleshooting that I know to do, including adjusting all of the ESC settings. I have heard good things about the Servonaut ESCs so I went ahead and ordered one. I hope that will fix my problem. I am going to continue to try to see if I can get this one to work. If anyone has any advice or suggestions, let me know!

[frizzen]

Reverse / reverse is weird. What are your motors?
Post #50, i see 3 things that could be motors. They don't look like a normal 540/550 brushed motors. looks like there is something extra, maybe a sensor/encoder thing on the brush hood of one. Some kinda gearmotor looking one with maybe 7 wires in? Then another can which could be fuel tank or a motor?

If you just hook up straight from a battery pack to motor leads, then swap connecting polarity can you make motors run forward / reverse?

[PilotJesse]

Originally Posted by frizzen

Reverse / reverse is weird. What are your motors?
Post #50, i see 3 things that could be motors. They don't look like a normal 540/550 brushed motors. looks like there is something extra, maybe a sensor/encoder thing on the brush hood of one. Some kinda gearmotor looking one with maybe 7 wires in? Then another can which could be fuel tank or a motor?

If you just hook up straight from a battery pack to motor leads, then swap connecting polarity can you make motors run forward / reverse?

The motors are brand new 12V Wedico-Buhler Motors and the original Wedico ESC (this is located inside the fuel tank). For testing purposes I used the old motor (in the wiring picture). The extra white wires are for the sound / light system. The motor does the reverse/reverse with them disconnected as well. I did hook up the motor to the battery, and it operates correctly (forward, reverse) which leads me to the bad ESC conclusion.

[jerry56]

If you haven't already you could try just hooking up the motor no sound wires or lights and see if it works... it almost sounds like it's feeding back thru that stuff....That's a strange one for sure...

[PilotJesse]

Originally Posted by jerry56

If you haven't already you could try just hooking up the motor no sound wires or lights and see if it works... it almost sounds like it's feeding back thru that stuff....That's a strange one for sure...

I did try that. The Wedico system is very complicated so I figured that I would try to isolate the problem by connecting just the motor. Still reverse/reverse.

[frizzen]

I'm having a lot of trouble reading your background in post 50, which schematic is that?
https://www.manualslib.com/brand/wedico/
Or post up a better pic.

If i were correctly reading the wrong diagrams: Esc fuel tank is the top chrome one, Speaker fuel tank is chrome parallel to motor
I can't find any drawings with White wires going to motor? Looks like they come off black thing with white/green wires?

Fully charged 12v battery?

What happens if you *only* hook up Battery, Esc, Rx, Motor?

Now i think i see why people used to like to swap these Wedico electronics for industry-standard parts.

[PilotJesse]

I have attached a better picture of the wiring diagrams.

[frizzen]

Seeing a couple areas of concern to double check in your wiring monster:

Between the Diesel noise and Motor, there is black thing with Green(black?) / White in and White/White out. Not seeing on diagrams, verify it has all wires

Sound unit has atleast 2 wires that are unterminated? Green and either Red/brown

Also Motor to Pcb has white pair of wires into a terminal strip

Esc has red/black that needs hooked up to pcb

[PilotJesse]

Well, once again, it has been a while but I'm back at it! Finally got all the electrical problems worked out, and starting to reassemble. I have painted the frame and crossmembers, and also replaced most of the screws with new black ones. I temporarily put it together just for fun.

[PilotJesse]

I also just received a trailer for it. I will be customizing it (spread axle, upgraded wheels, wood deck, US style bumper, lights, etc) but I did put it together as soon as it arrived. It will do just fine for a while until I get around to working on it.

[PilotJesse]

A little mockup... just because!

[wedicotrucker]

Any updates on this build?