ScaleART - Assembling a MAN TGX/XL 6x6 tractor & Trailer

[Tp_hofmann]

Woooooooooooooow ... I am delighted to see your updates - please keep us updated!

[chris1210]

Originally Posted by Rakthi

Hi Chris, yes, the amount of detail on these Trilex wheels is unbelievable, as is the fit and finish. And yes, eventually the frame etc. will be painted red. The rear fenders will go in black but I might replace them with half fenders. Also thinking of replacing the rear suspension with the regular leaf suspension. Love the look of the air suspension but not appropriate for what I plan to do with this truck once it is finished. Still a lot of things hanging in the air on this build.

I agreed, the air suspension looks very nice on your truck. Is the suspension stiff or soft? What's wrong with it? I know you will haul a trailer so you need a stiffer suspension.

Originally Posted by Tp_hofmann

Woooooooooooooow ... I am delighted to see your updates - please keep us updated!

Hi Tom, I've been following your build on German site too. Did you run your Arocs Palfinger yet?

[Rakthi]

Hi Tom, working on it. But not much time lately

Hi Chris, I will post some pictures tomorrow of the limited movement of the air suspension vs the leaf version.

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This afternoon got some time and started on the fifth wheel.

Here the parts

ScaleART delivers with 3 different ground plates, one flat one, one raised one for manual operation and one raised one for use with a servo.



Also various nuts and bolts. The bits on the right with the long screws are for attaching the servo.



The actual parts of the fifth wheel



We begin with putting some stickers on the supports



Bolt the supports to the ground plate



Now place the moving / locking parts on the bottom side of the fifth wheel. The arrows point to the recesses where the supports will go. The circles are where the servo will attach later on.



Then the two parts are combined and held together with a cover plate. I made a picture beforehand to show this without the bottom plate blocking the view.



Here the finished assembly



The two stainless steel glide plates are supposed to be glued in place, but I just laid them in for now.



Next up is the prepping of the servo. The cable needs to be moved from the side to the bottom. Once that is done, the support plate is put in place (arrow), the long screws inserted and the distance piece and 2 nuts put in place. (the aluminium support plate needed the holes for the screws enlarged a tad - I ran a 2.5mm bit through them). The support plate is not mentioned in the instructions that came with the parts. I put the support in front, but in hind sight I think it would be better in back to bring the servo out a mm or so and give a bit more clearance to the servo horn.



Servo horn needs be cut to 11 mm



Servo mounted in the fifth wheel



Fifth wheel bolted on truck





Will take some pics tomorrow of the mechanism open and closed. Forgot those. Might add some silicone grease too and change the position of the servo support.