1:10ish scratch forklift

[jerry56]

Not to get you off track but you don't run across many Maine Coon owners... Yes they are a different kind of cat if there is a stack of anything they will end up on top with an agility that can be dumbfounding ...at one point we had 6 but with the passing of time we are down to 1.

Back on track, can't the wheel on the right be cleaned up...

[dremu]

Originally Posted by jerry56

Not to get you off track but you don't run across many Maine Coon owners... Yes they are a different kind of cat if there is a stack of anything they will end up on top with an agility that can be dumbfounding ...at one point we had 6 but with the passing of time we are down to 1.

Back on track, can't the wheel on the right be cleaned up...

Wrt the wheel, yeah. I think I used it for testing. Honestly, once you do get the settings dialled in and the planets align, it's just SOO much easier to press the "print another copy" button, it's not worth it. Takes time to print, but I'm not doing anything in that time and the plastic is cheap. I'd have to do the math, but that wheel has gotta be less than a buck, hardly worth my time to mess with.

Wrt the girls, I hear you. I've had Coons for years along with an assortment of others (the aforementioned Rag, a rescued Abyssinian, and just plain cat cats) ... but the Coons are just special somehow. Might be the size, along with the sensation that comes when you can feel eyes on the back of your head. From the top of the fridge. I swear they smile when they do it too.

[dremu]

Axles are epoxy tubing from my local plastic shop, with threaded rod down the center. I think the threaded rod would have been okay, but the trailer is so wide I was worried about bending. The epoxy tubing definitely stiffens the axles. The wheels then ride on brass tube bushings and have a nylock nut each side to keep them in place with just enough play to spin freely.



The wheels are printed, on the two-headed printer, so the black lugs are actually printed as part of the wheel. There's just enough resolution to get a hex base and a round cylinder to look like studs.



The hitch is more Chinesium -- again, too cheap to bother making, plus even though it's pot metal it's stronger than printed. The hitch is height adjustable for my various trucks (see the two bolts sticking out, though there's actually like eight holes.)

Yes, that's a trailer tongue jack at the center; it's threaded rod with printed foot and lever. The handle is a separate printed piece that spins on a bolt, makes it easy to use.

The tool box is also printed. Here I prolly coulda bought pre-made diamond plate, as printing it in scale is ... well, you can see it there. It's representative, not accurate. But you look at it and say yes, that's a trailer box.

So the reason the suspension is so wide-track, and can't be interleaved, is that the forklift needs a ramp. That was the whole point of this build.



The ramp extends like 2/3 the length of the trailer, so it takes up a ton of space underneath. Since the forklift is three-wheeled, I couldn't just two narrow ramps ; it needs a full-width ramp.



The ramp slides underneath the trailer bed on more angle iron



and then two little aluminum handles hold it in place so it doesn't slide backward. Not likely, given its weight and that my trucks don't actually pull at crazy speed, but still.

[dremu]

I also have a thing about lighting. Like I should be attending a twelve-step for it. ("Hi, my name is Aaron, I have an LED problem. Hi Aaron!")

As mentioned in the thread about the green truck, I use the FlySky FSi6, which along with servo channels, spits out everything on what they call iBus. This is basically a serial connection, just like you'd get on your computer, ideally suited to connect to an Arduino. It only requires two wires, data and ground, to transmit up to 14 channels.

Add battery power and all of my trucks and trailers can then use a standardized small plug for trailer lighting.



That's the Arduino in question, hiding in the trailer toolbox. Very little to it, and few if any external components. The LED strings do like a little filtering to their power, which is why the electrolytic capacitor on the right.

The LED's are actually RGB, ie can do any color, but are programmed to mimic a 1:1 trailer.



Front marker/turn signals are orange



And rears marker-turn-brake lights are red.

I did cheat, and the centers turn white in reverse even though you rarely if ever see a trailer with backup lights. I was having fun, and it's all done in software, so just requires reprogramming the Arduino to change behavior.

Turn signal looks like

https://youtu.be/AmvBJAILeNM

and backup lights

https://youtu.be/r39fU8mcJMI

and, if the RX can't get a signal from the TX, it blinks like hazards:

https://youtu.be/9Ie0TLF9iFk