Hercules flatbed trailer with skids of drywall

[Fury Fan]

I'll attempt posting pics from a shared Google folder.
If this works, I'll share more of this trailer.

[Fury Fan]

So - need 1 person to confirm as successful.
I can see the pic, but that's inconclusive...

[Blender]

I can see the picture. I'd like to see the drywall skids

[ddmckee54]

Originally Posted by Fury Fan

So - need 1 person to confirm as successful.
I can see the pic, but that's inconclusive...

I see it too.

Don't you just hate it when you post something and nobody can see it but you? I use Google Photos too, you've just got to be sure that whatever album you are linking to is a shared album.

Don

[jerry56]

Yep I see it.

[Fury Fan]

Originally Posted by ddmckee54

I see it too.

Don't you just hate it when you post something and nobody can see it but you? I use Google Photos too, you've just got to be sure that whatever album you are linking to is a shared album.

Don

Your how-to for Google pics is the one that guided me, Don. (thanks!)

Photos of the rest of the trailer and the drywall skids will be in the next few days. The trailer is near complete, and the drywall is really close.

I still need to make some cargo straps, and figure out how to hang the Bruder forklift off the back. I did it with the ICC bumper on a different trailer, but this Hercules doesn't have one.

[Fury Fan]

Oh - and thanks to you guys that confirmed the picture was active.

[Fury Fan]

One of the hurdles I've had is to devise a well-engineered lighting system that can be universal across anythign I might build, to work with any tractor. I'm not sure I have 100% compatibility yet, but I think I have something with potential to reconfigure as needed. As an example - this trailer has separate stop and turn lights, and also backing lights. Not sure I'll be doing backing lights on any future trailers. I can predict doing a separate marker light circuit, and with S/T on a separate common LED.

I dislike the bulky connectors that Tamiya uses, and I found some USB-C stuff I like better. As with most things, it's really easy in the mind, reality is a bit tougher. The USB board had to be located correctly to fit it in a narrow band between the bottom edge of the bulkhead and beneath the floor slats. And I still had to shim it due to my errors. But I got the slot CNC'd perfectly on the first try, so that's something. All of the wiring is 22 or 24 ga from a spool for RGB LED light strips, with 2 extra solid-conductor wires from another spool I scored somewhere.

The 2 white blocks are cross-drilling to hold the bulkhead and trailer bedplate together.

Looking back, I wish I had done lightning connectors instead. But realistically, it won't get plugged/unplugged all that often.

[Fury Fan]

Wiring the LEDs and fitting them in the module was a PITA. Putting the resistors upstream would've helped, I'll improve that on the next trailer I build.




Wiring runs nicely down the middle of the Hercules floor supports. And my wooden ones.



Here's the junction I used.



Snaking all the wires out of the modules wasn't easy, and there was a little Dremeling required to make a bigger path.

[Fury Fan]

The Hercules wood slats are intended to be held down by double-sided tape on top of the gray cross-pieces. The sizes of the slats do not allow them to fit in nicely, at least one needs to be cut into a narrow sliver to make the last gap. And that tape surely would've failed eventually. The overall width is 7.9" - and I found no standard type of trim, molding, or craft sticks that would work out correctly.

Eventually I found this lath material, and it wasn't perfect either, but it was cheap and kinda rustic-looking. It doesn't have a scale appearance, but so be it. With some edge-sanding of 2 pieces I was able to fit two 1/2"-wide x1/4" aluminum runners in the spacing.

So I made the wooden cross-pieces for gluing/screwing the lath onto. Like most things, it wasn't so simple. I had to review the spacing on the cross-pieces vs the gray ones, vs screws coming up thru the bed plate, and vs the screws for the cargo rail I added. But fortunately, I quickly got a reasonable result and put the slats down, piece-by-piece, over several days of glue-drying. And each one needed a wiring slot, of course.

The lath was bending upward at the rear, so there's an extra row of screws there.
The lath was also a benefit as narrower wood would've required even smaller screws, and would've been tough to drive in a structural use like this. (these screws are #2)



https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-gm?authuser=0

[Fury Fan]

The cargo rail was made with these small machined spacers and some 1/16" x 1/4" aluminum strip. The ends were bent by hand and all of it was screwed on. Naturally, all the spacer block locations required thoughtful layout beforehand.

I would've loved to use countersunk screws for this rail, but when using #1 and #0 screws, some length and head configurations simply aren't available, or they are $1+ per screw. I'm a $4 per 100 kinda guy. And the smaller sizes pretty-much guarantee that you're gonna destroy 1/2 of them during installation. Amazingly, I was able to drive all the #2 slat screws in with a DeWalt impact driver and a good/sharp #1 Phillips. (the trigger has really good feel)

[Fury Fan]

These small brass flats will hold 1/4" elastic for cargo straps, and will be bent into a J-shape for the cargo rail. They won't be quire realistic to a real strap, but shall be deemed good enough for me.

The brass pieces need deburring, and I need to figure out a small jig for bending them.

[Fury Fan]

Overall, I'm not 100% impressed with the Hercules trailer.

It seems to be a Tamiya clone, which means it has terribly-unrealistic framerails.
The provided bulkhead is just a flat piece of metal. Mine isn't very realistic either, with its big screwheads, but at least it has some structure.
And it has no ICC bar.

But it assembles pretty well (aside from the wooden slats) and it's a good base for customizing.

So for the price ($160-ish), I would not hesitate to buy another if the need arose.

The drywall skids will be coming soon.

[jerry56]

I've thought about these trailers for the exact reasons you stated, for $160 you might have to forgo a little detail but with a little work you can kit-bash them with good results, nicely done..
Looking forward to how you do the cargo straps and cargo itself

[frizzen]

I can see pictures. Is the drawer with Anchors like drywall or boat? How much speed does 1 package of "Xtra Speed" add?

Great looking trailer!
I'm digging the usb-header and terminal strip for lighting, i may need to borrow that idea for some overly complicated light systems

[ddmckee54]

You think wiring is a pain in this scale, check this out:
https://www.motor1.com/news/623984/t...-truck-rc-car/

What gage wire are you using? When using LED's, they have a small enough load that 30AWG is more than heavy enough, probably with about a safety factor of 4X.

Dupont plugs will handle the amp load, are fairly small, only require a crimp connection, and are available in a variety of pin numbers.

JST connectors are another good choice, they'll handle even more amps than a Dupont plug. I think Dupont plugs are rated for a couple of amps.

[Blender]

The USB C connector is neat.

[Fury Fan]

Originally Posted by jerry56

Looking forward to how you do the cargo straps and cargo itself

Cargo first, straps need some more time to figure out bending the hooks.

Originally Posted by frizzen

I can see pictures. Is the drawer with Anchors like drywall or boat? How much speed does 1 package of "Xtra Speed" add?

Great looking trailer!
I'm digging the usb-header and terminal strip for lighting, i may need to borrow that idea for some overly complicated light systems

Drywall, none, borrow away.

Originally Posted by ddmckee54

You think wiring is a pain in this scale, check this out:
https://www.motor1.com/news/623984/t...-truck-rc-car/

What gage wire are you using? When using LED's, they have a small enough load that 30AWG is more than heavy enough, probably with about a safety factor of 4X.

Dupont plugs will handle the amp load, are fairly small, only require a crimp connection, and are available in a variety of pin numbers.

JST connectors are another good choice, they'll handle even more amps than a Dupont plug. I think Dupont plugs are rated for a couple of amps.

I cannot imagine making something as small as that little RC truck. But I do like the steering, I like the idea of a nut running along a threaded rod to make a linear servo.

I'm using around 24 ga for the wiring. I had 2 spools of it already. I'm using it for its mechanical strength, and there's plenty of room to route it. I looked at JST and Dupont-type connectors also. I don't want to spend that much time crimping such small wires. The green connectors are a simple screw-in after the wiring is stripped.

Originally Posted by Blender

The USB C connector is neat.

Thanks. I looked at a bunch of options until I stumbled across that idea and I was smitten with it.

[Fury Fan]

And here are some skids of 'drywall'.

These are 2x4 blocks CNC'd down a bit smaller (about 3" wide) to give some gaps across the trailer width. Also very shallow grooves for locating the 1/4" square dowels. Then some very-slightly-gray paint.

The end decals were photoshopped from an internet picture and printed on standard paper, then fastened with double-sided tape.

These 'skids' were very cheap to make but definitely time-consuming. Would take 3-4 hours to make a full set of 12 to fill a trailer.

The grain of the wood and some of the splinters bothered me at first, as it was a clue that these were just wood. But they add a bit of texture that is growing on me. Besides, sometimes it's simply impossible to scale every detail, and I haven't seen any RC cargo like this before, so we must accept the results.

[jerry56]

IDK... I kind of agree, the texture kind of works for me....I guess you could get down in the weeds with some wood filler and a lot of sanding etc but not sure it would be worth the trouble. You could try using a plastic wrap ( like cling wrap)that would hide the wood grain..

Like Frizzen I might steal this idea that really is a great idea for a trailer load and pretty simple to do...