Structo dumptruck conversion

[Tgrzes]

I’ll second that! Love the old metal trucks!

[jerry56]

I'm really glad to see you picking these back up.....I really like these Tonka conversions...
I have a couple of those trucks you mentioned... Now that the seasons have changed and the outside work is winding down I look forward to getting back to my RC...

[frizzen]

Thanks guys!!! I've always found the pressed steel toys to be a great balance of 'more impressive' but still 'more relatable' than most of the other stuff. They may not fully be as scale as the new high-end stuff, but i really dig them. The cool old mechanical machines speak to me louder than hydraulic stuff does.

That doepke wooldridge trailer is from 1948-49 is sitting with a 1954-56 tonka ford.
Guess i'd need to get the tonka started, probably on wpl axles with leafs and d12 wheels, then get some tamiya 5th wheels & kingpins, then figure out how to adapt heights for various rolling stock behind it.
Or if i can find a complete wooldridge, i think it'd look great as a wiggle wagon with a secornd box

I was thinking maybe 2 channels on the trailer to do like bomb door close, and a closed-latch release? Do belly dumps usually go with variable doors?

I still really need to come up with Bed Dump on the the old Structo. I keep coming up with wimpy ideas that are full of fail.

[jerry56]

for bed dump consider Huina screw drive or some combination of screw drives and 360 servos or gear motors... when I start on my Tonka rebuild I'll post pictures of what I'm talking about.

[frizzen]

Why did i mention that it should be easier for Curious George to hit this box with a dragline bucket?



Good idea on the jackscrew servos jerry, i'll have to check into those. If you've got some of those other old trucks, i'd love to hear your thoughts on possible conversions

I think the worst part of converting pressed steel toys is either Finishing one, or deciding what would be coolest for the Next project. For me it all started with "Construction looks fun, I need a doepke Unit crane like SmallHaul and TheStuff were converting."
No, but i can actually find a nylint Michigan crane, and a structo dump truck.
Now i found a donor for a nylint 1930s dump truck.
Then i find out my texaco LaFrance fits the tamiya semis.
Lost of targets of opportunity: i need a tonka sandloader, and i need a tonka Dodge dump, and i need a better tonka sandloader, and i need a tonka 50s Ford semi tractor, and i need a doepke Barber-greene loader, and i need a nylint chevy U-haul,
Ok now i really need a doepke belly dump... uh, no i don't have a problem, and really don't ask about the stuff around here i wasn't considering for conversion.

Hey, I'm not JUST into making weird cars and lowriders.

[Jared]

I think those old bottom dumps were just trip the doors and let 'er fly. They were moving big yardages and get it dumped and back for another load was the name of the game. They opened by gravity trip and had some method or other of closing. I know some had a cable running to each door and up to a winch that was driven off the back tires. I would probably mount a servo on the back, put a sheave or pulley on the end of a horn and run a string/cable/what have you from one door, through the sheave and back to the other door so they will be equalized. Or just run it directly through a hole in the horn. Use a switched channel so its either open or closed with the flip of a switch. That's what I would do, anyway.

[jerry56]

I went thru the same thing.... I wanted to convert everything....but realized you have to pick something or you spend all your time accumulating things to convert and never get started. I have been collecting Nylint cranes,4 so far, one Doepke unit crane, a steam type shovel and a couple extra Tonka dump trucks. I figured if I wanted to do them I better buy them now because they are going to get more expensive and harder to find
I have a Tonka dodge dump truck, a delta loader, a Bruder D-5, Bruder ram, WPL tractor trailer.
In order to complete my "construction company" I want an excavator and larger track loader...so that is my immediate focus...I have them and pretty much all the parts for both. Once the weather runs be back into the house I want to get them started and done ...
if I ever get to them I have a Tournadozer, speed swing, grader, tournarocker, Doepke Euclid belly dump... and a Johnny Express
The belly dump has me stumped....not a lot of room for drive motors or steering... and I have no idea how I would make it dump ....there is no place to "hide" anything

[frizzen]

Ok cool, i didn't figure there was much dump gate control you could do with bomb bay doors. I know with the shutter type doors like on tonka belly dumps, you could open them more linear.

I was thinking when i get started on the Wooldridge i could hide door-moving servos in the gooseneck bridge. Also i'd probably use either wire ropes or chains to actuate things.

At some point along the way, I lost track of what my ''construction company'' needs. Got a Crane, Dump truck, Forklift, Loading Elevator, a small Trailer. My dads getting a D5 Bulldozer.

With those Euclid dumps, i thought it looked like the tractor probably needed a ton of rework to convert. It looked like you could cut out under the hood to try to cram some stuff in. Drive motor and rear axle looked to be the big problems. Could probably add a plate onto the the trailer gooseneck triangle thing to help hide some new parts.

[jerry56]

Your right they do kind of look like tractors...and making some sort of enclosure in the tongue would work I was thinking maybe in the back so it could be inline with the doors and make some kind of worm drive with a shaft the ran the length of the dump bed...??? IDK
I'm sure there is a way to do it..... but I don't know what it is yet....so I'll simply back burner it and watch and read it will come to me eventually. I have a ton of stuff to work on so it can wait for now. Huina excavator upgrade then a Bruder 963. once those are done I'll work on the Tonka dump trucks.... then my cranes!!!!

[frizzen]

I really wasn't sure about trying to mount anything low on a Belly Dump trailer. Unless you're working over a dump bridge grate, they usually do rough offroad work. If a Dozer or Grader guy isn't cleaning up between runs, there's going to be a lot to get hung up on at the dump area. With the Euclids i'd even wondered about using a metal Crawler driveshaft welded to a bridge for the Hitch joint instead of the toy setup.

What, Cranes are last on the list? Do i need to start posting more about my nylint Michigan crane to hype you up? I still can't figure out what i'd like to run for its drive tandems.
Also I was thinking when i get to it, i may try to do a chain drive axle for my Unit 357 crane. Then maybe eventually i could try to build the bolt on parts for a cable hoe or facing shovel with the other one.

[jerry56]

LOL the cranes aren't last.....just need an excavator and big loader first....then get my Tonka dump truck rebuilt. I've learned a lot and know I can build a better dump truck now. The cranes and cable hoe are going to take a little more skill. I'm planning on using WPL running gear on a custom chassis... thinking a 55 or 80 turn motor with a 3:1single speed box feeding a WPL transfer case. The WPL axles are the right width and the tire size looks pretty good...

[frizzen]

My sister got really into painting 'Tabletop Gaming Figures' (Dungeon/Dragons type stufff), so i had her do some painting on Mike



I'd never liked the yellow letter sidewalls on the Traxxas wheels, and had mostly been thinking it should just go black walls. But really for the mid-60s steel toy look, i think Structo was onto something with hubcaps and gangster whites. Went with a kinda off-white since you know they aren't out there with whitewall bleach...


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This vid shows a really slick tilt cab hinge & latch system i may need to copy
https://youtu.be/Al2PWATMxoE
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A guy was watching somebody doing pressed-steel toy custom restoring. Shine-Juice for Patina cars.

https://youtu.be/N9LRVWljjpA
Flood Penetrol. (Lowes carries it in paint area)

I'm usually not a ''Patina" guy, but i'm not fixing the paint on this "Mike Oxbig" rig or the ''Whole Lotta Rosie" truck i haven't started.

[frizzen]

I made the Yellow-letter sidewall Traxxas wheels into Whitewalls, still on Tamiya rally tires. Since i think the original 1960s look fit the truck a lot better: Gangster Whites with Poverty Caps



Also i've been watching videos of a guy customizing pressed steel toys, who is really into making them Patina Rigs, that mertioned great results with wiping on a paint additive "Flood Penetrol". Call it whatever Shine-juice, Patina-sauce, it adds some shine and protection to keep it from getting worse. It's based on Boiled Linseed Oil, but it wets and flows out better, and seems to dry quicker.

I normally consider "Patina" to be a swear word, but i'm still ok with it on this truck. I did dig into the repaint side of the bed with some scotchbrite, and knock the high spots off the rust.
Right now 2 coats of Penetrol even have the rust shiny and reflecting light. It didn't even screw up my Sharpie lettering from 2016.

[jerry56]

It has character for sure....one of the originals...
That Buddy L Mack with tandem wheels is a real hard to find truck at a realistic price... I'd love to do one but they are just to much money.... Nice one to have ...

[frizzen]

Ok, so it's still not a looker... The truck has got a good personality... It should at least keep the truck from getting worse...

Yeah, the Buddy-L Macks selling online made me feel better about that price, but i'm not getting other vehicles electronics for a while. Found out the red truck is based off the real Mack M-15 to M-100 quarry haul trucks from 1960-70s. It seems having the centered cab was on the *SMALL* end of payload like below 20 tons, but the tandem rear axle starts around something like 40-45 tons.

I know that 'Denny Bob RC' converted one of them for rc as a Single rear axle a couple years ago. At the last Lebonon IN meet 'Izzy' had made one with Tandem rear axles.

[jerry56]

That's why we all build them different.... keeps things interesting...
Yeah I saw that build..... I'd still like to find one just to have on hand in case I wanted to do one, I thought I saw in the pictures at the Lebanon show...
Over the last year or more I've been trying to stock up on parts I know I'll need for the equipment I have in case they get to expensive or hard to come by since they all come from one place...

[frizzen]

Well yeah, the important thing is putting another potential vehicle in the dead-lot to think about converting instead of ordering parts to actually complete stuff.

This Structo isn't a big truck but takes a while to fill with my Dragline since i made that bucket too small. My belly-dump Wooldridge has pretty good hauling capacity, but it's not "Park a dumptruck in the bed of a dumptruck" capacity.

Sadly you're probably right about need for stocking up on electronic rc parts soon, and it's rather depressing that you have to think about the influences of geopolitics to play with toy trucks.

[frizzen]

If someone builds a dumptruck, what's the most important aspect of a DUMPtruck that it has to be able to do?

Well after something like 4 failed dump mechanisms for the rig, i finally gave up and ordered a 6v linear actuator off that jungle website, plus an rc winch controller.If someone builds a dumptruck, what's the most important aspect of a DUMPtruck that it has to be able to do?

It would have been cheaper to go direct through one of the asian sites, or better going through Actuonix since they have brackets, datasheets, and better ordering system.

La-t8-6-5-25/80-188



I went a little long on the stroke so i could still be able to leave dumps all over, even uphill.



Over the winter i was looking at my projects plus the Dead-Lot, and noticed i'm kinda almost trending toward a fleet livery? Reddish-Orange solid or with a Blue-Green kinda cab.
(Except the 1930s rig is Black with Green cab)

[jerry56]

I never liked the look of the square linear actuator but I finally gave in...the 21mm stroke was perfect for my Tonka's and the end switches were kind of nice.... I just painted the actuator and called it good...
Yeah you do have that "well used" theme going....LOL My crane fits right in...

[frizzen]

I'm not all about the actuator squareness either, but it all just works much better than any of what i had made.

Na, that's not "well used" fleet appearance like your crane has...
Pretty sure previous owners were like "thems all original, i know what i got" attitude, until the battered twisted parts are dragged out of the way somewhere to forget about, maybe some flooding happened, and i found them sometime much later after that?

(I think you're just trying to badger me into showing something 'restored' or 'nice' or 'not looking like a hammered turd')

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Soda can dumptruck lift test:
24oz / 2 cans laying in bottom of bed, lifts it like unloaded
36oz / 3rd can in another row, up against fwd bulkhead, sounds more strained, lifts well
48oz / 4th can sits in notch from bottom row, straining even more, lifts slower.
No further testing, steering axle is too light to be useful at 48 oz.