Shergar

Luke the body is not ruined! Stickers will cover up most of the acetone bingo, and once you’ve flipped it in a race the whole roof will look uniform! The shell is going to get a beating racing I’d imagine.

BTW will the race regs let you use the reinforced TT02D bits? Part number 9000614/19000614, they are grey in appearance, have a google.

Trust me those decals will be a tomorrow and the day after 😁 I gave the black a spray on the outside as well to give it a matte carbon effect Looking good though, have some inspiration that the finished product will be well worth it 👍

Impressive stuff @wolfdogstinkus 👍 For @Kenny G and the inquisitive whats under the skin of this budget 6x6:

Kenny I haven’t the specs to hand, but the axle ratios were within a few % of each other, close enough to be negligible, no problem driving on hard surfaces (see below). With a metal front rim I think you could put a thinner width 12mm hex on a drag it in a few millimetres each side, but you need to notch the hubs either way. The Tamiya leaf springs mounting holes need opening up with a real good quality drill bit (like a Dormer) and they sit slightly splayed - you will need to pack out one end of the leaf on the chassis with a spacer too. I tried to find a picture that shows the axle width on an Yota with 8mm hex (TT02 ones!) I will get narrower hex and move everything inward when I find the right metal wheel rims. At the moment its just about justifiable, but i know its too wide 😁

I still kept forgetting it wasn’t actually a crawler, and a roll down a hill might damage it a little - it made it up there on its own though! I managed to do a three point turn and drove it back down the hill, waved at this fella in the proper toy with full remote locking diffs on axles 😁

Driving impressions? The MFU does everything well whilst being infuriating at the same time - I think lower gears and faster motors are what these need, I’m using an 80 turn motor with 5:1 transmission. Next time will be a 50 turn (5 slot) with a 14:1 transmission. Lighting and operational wise they are great though.The Tamiya tipper mechanism is really slow compared to a hydraulic ram set up, but has no problem tipping a load although the fixings for the tailgate locking catches are fragile where they fix to the chassis. The locked axle wasn’t as much of nuisance as I thought because though it pushed wide, it had a much greater turning angle than the factory steering. Front ground clearance is still hopeless and the Arocs bumper is like a mud plough… As you can see below! You might notice the unusal sight of a Tamiya truck spinning its front wheels too 😎 It really was surprising over the rough terrain, and opened a few eyes when it kept plugging on loaded through the dirt!

A little bit for the weights and measures fans - the heaviest wagon I spied on here was a whopping 21kg 😳

Heres the finished freshened rig at the 2022 RC truck National Gathering. Apart from having to glue the tyres on the front after pulling one off the rim whilst turning lock to lock in a 3 point turn, it performed faultlessly, a really big thank you to Doug for making it all happen and pushing me to finish it. That TS12 orange definitely didn’t get ordered Wednesday lunch, painted Thursday lunch, and driven up the A1 Friday lunch… it held up well as those excavator boys are as gentle as their full scale counterparts 😉

The propshafts are all Lesu and look fabulous though I very much doubt they are ‘crawler’ tough. Ultimately the chassis ended up like this, the TT02 chassis will give you an idea of size: Upfront a monkey metal Yota axle went in - fully locked diff and all! It is slightly too wide for a Tamiya truck and needed 8mm deep hex to stop rubbing on the hubs. I notched a ‘V’ out the hubs with a hacksaw and file to give a big clearance incase the wheels buckled in use. However its the cheapest way of bunging a driven axle in. Anti wear grease went in the rear diffs and the cases got plenty of red and tacky grease for when it goes mud plugging 😳 Notice the Power HD analogue servo - the Tamiya MFC really are not keen on digital ones. Also we have the hard resin axle cases from Tamiya and a Lesu rear crash bar. I had the Lesu matching lights, but they don’t have space for electrics within so are pointless really, and refitted the Tamiya ones. A 10mm 3D printed chassis lift kit went in and all stainless hex hardware where I could . There after reassembly beckoned with a few changes - the font axle needed 12mm hex hubs which was a surprisingly tough order - in the end I used Tamiya trailer metal plated rims, flat clear sprayed to tone the chrome down. A flat light bar replaced the two beacons (which I kept knocking off!) and everything black plastic got a coat of Tamiya ‘rubber black’ paint. Note the dampers which do absolutely nothing in use but look lovely, even these upgraded oil ones 🤣

Then I decided a powered front axle would be a great idea 😂 Here you can see the difference in transmission lengths, note the transfer box which subsequently had to be changed as the tipper body rams fouled it being too high. Its just a generic Far Easten part, I forget who made it, or the subsequent one. Trouble is the gearbox blocked the space needed for a front propshaft. So I changed the gearbox obviously…. a Lesu 5:1 gearbox went in - next time a (slightly longer in overall length) 1:14 ratio gearbox will be used as the 5:1 is only as slow as the Tamiya low gear, so you have to shackle it to a stupidly high turn motor to slow it down. Why these trucks are so fast is a mystery - great for open spaces but hopeless for low speed manoeuvring.

Earlier this year I inherited this pre built Arocs tipper with full remote operated tipper bed. The idea was to freshen it up back to box art. Well that idea didn’t last long 😉 Well built and a good spec with a MFC controller, fully operational bed and alloy rims too, I pulled it apart….

Excellent set of idiot proof instructions there @WillyChang

£19:19 delivered for the shell, and however cheap you can pick up the Tamiya PS main paint colour (and backing colour). https://www.kamtec.co.uk/epages/BT4645.sf/sec278bdd767d/?ObjectID=47703489&LastProductObjectID=33006037 Stickers/decals take your pick off ebay for around £10. So probably £45 all delivered.

A lovely addiction, sorry collection you have there! Chuckling at the Beatties Romford right of passage, that long savouring wander to the back of the shop via the train sets, the model kits, the scalextric and finally to the back counter! Some times I came out clutching a new Tamiya Catalogue - many weeks pocket and paper round money - but one Christmas everything aligned and I came out with the fabled blue pvc bag and a Grasshopper!