F150 Trailer

[Mad Ax]

1 hour ago, 87lc2 said:

Love the trailer, but those crooked stickers are driving me nuts    I get the idea, but I don't think my OCD would allow me to do that, haha. 

I used to be just like this with stickers, somehow getting it right on some of the monster truck and scaler builds (just the right level of crooked) really worked.  I don't think it's really worked here, some places the shell has mould lines so the stickers don't look like they belong there.  I have to confess it's not 100% as I saw it in my head!

I may remove some of them and come back later with a fresh eye, but I think it'll look better once it's got some dirt on it.

It's a shame there aren't more smaller stickers available.  I've got a few sets of smaller ones but they weren't easy to find and I'm reluctant to burn through them all.

[87lc2]

I do agree that after it gets some mud on it it could look a lot better.  Like some poor old redneck just stuck everything he could find on there.  When its nice and shiny it just doesnt have the same affect.

I actually have a ton of small sponsor stickers, great for filling in sponsor plates and such on the monster trucks.  Got them from MCI I believe.  I will admit I'm guilty of not wanting to "waste" stickers in general and have an absolutely monstrous hoard at this point.  I couldn't use them all if I tried.  I always tend to save the "good ones" and no clue why.  I really need to start using some of them, not sure how many more vehicles I'll actually build, I'm pretty much at capacity as it is.

[Busdriver]

23 hours ago, 87lc2 said:

Love the trailer, but those crooked stickers are driving me nuts    I get the idea, but I don't think my OCD would allow me to do that, haha. 

A luggage net will be a cool addition, will actually be useful as well if you're hauling out on the trail.

Oooh no I love the wonky stickers. As you say it makes it look as someone’s just thrown them on, maybe their only fault, based on this is they are slightly too symmetrical 😆

[Mad Ax]

Well, I wasn't happy with the sticker placement, so I went back for another look.  I was definitely going for the "it's an old trailer, it looks rough, so we slapped all the spare stickers from our workshop on it" - but most of the stickers were too big, and they were too spaced out.  I could have completely stickerbombed it, but that was a bit more than I was going for, and IME requires a bit more thought early-on to really get it looking right.

I had some trouble with my thought process on this one, because I try to make stuff that's authentic to its universe.  In this universe, Scrapspeed is a small workshop that modifies off-road vehicles.  They compete in some local and maybe small national events but don't have any major sponsorship deals.  Let's be honest, if they had a big sponsor, they would have the logo on a nice shiny new trailer.  No title sponsor is going to want their brand all over a rusty old truck bed welded onto a caravan chassis.

That said, they probably buy a lot of smaller parts and may have some deals in place with those companies, which may involve putting the brand on their trucks, or at least, getting a bulk load of decals delivered with every order.  So it's not a huge stretch to imagine the workshop having plenty of spare stuff lying around that they're happy to throw all over their support trailer - rather than advertising the sponsor, they could be using the supplier's reputation to add prestige to their own company.  This would sort of explain why I broken one of my golden rules, and I have Monroe, Skyjacker and Rough Country brands on the same rig.  There's no reason why Scrapspeed couldn't supply all of them, depending on which best suits the customer's needs or preference.

Or, maybe I'm just overthinking it all?

Also I added a cargo net.  I'm a little short of bigger scale items, so I've stuffed in some spare wheels and tyres for now.

I kept the messy section for the front, and I may let this area grow organically, especially with event stickers.

Cargo net was fitted by drilling holes.  In some places the holes go into the plasticard interior, so it helps to locate the body and stop it lifting off.

[Mad Ax]

hmm, I thought I had a photo of the trailer with the wheels in it, but I don't.  I'll probably grab one later but keep an eye out for it on the Southern Scale Trail 2023 thread, which I'll be setting up in the next couple of days in advance of posting some realtime updates from the quarry.

[87lc2]

I can sleep much better with your new sticker job, nice and straight    Love the cargo net, that's a nice touch.

[Mad Ax]

I rushed the trailer to get it ready for the Southern Scale Trail, but didn't have time to sort the lights.  Everybody knows that lights are cool, so I had to finish this before the Scaler Nationals.

LEDs glued into the light buckets.

Annoyingly I ran out of black duct tape, and had to use the special starfield effect tape that my wife got my for Christmas several years ago.

While I had the body off the chassis, I added some chamferations to the bottomside to stop it getting hung up on rocks and things.

And while all that was apart, I drilled a nice big hole and put a grommet in it, because, why not?

[Mad Ax]

Nice and tidy!

Now with added pluge

It's a moments like this when I feel like Anakin Skywalker, when his pod racer starts up for the first time:  it's working, it's working!

Attached to the Expedition Rig

 

[Grumpy pants]

Nice! 

[Mad Ax]

Updates!  I haven't used this trailer as much as I should, but I gave it a run at the local Southern Scale Trail Pay & Play Day last weekend, whereupon the body kept lifting off.  It was supposed to be a tolerance fit, but with the luggage net installed it keeps lifting the body off the floor pan.

This is how it should fit

I figured this bumper mount could be used to secure it.

[Mad Ax]

I found an offcut of L-section to get started

Tidied it up

And secured the body.  Fingers crossed this holds up to light trail duty.

I'd actually like to start using this trailer to tow some extra batteries for this Land Cruiser, and use it as a backup for the Scania Hillwalking Truck for those times when it's out of action.

I'll have to make a towbar for the FJ, possibly install some smaller tyres on the trailer, and solder up another Arduino unit for the FJ.  That's a story for another day...

[Mad Ax]

When I took this trailer out on one of my walks a couple of weeks ago, I had some trouble with the rails touching down and hanging up the towing truck.  Naturally the solution to this is to put some angles on the rails.

When I started the job, I also noticed I had lost a screw from the leaf mount.  It took me a while to find a spare because these are M2.5 thread, not a common thread in a Tamiya enthusiast's parts bin.

Here is the central rail.

Here is the central rail with a section removed and a slope filed into it.

[Mad Ax]

I also decided to recess the nuts by part-drilling the holes and hammering the nuts in.  Tamiya Press Nuts work well for this, but I didn't have many in my stash.  This works just fine.

Now re-attached, but this long screw could be a problem.

Not after the Dremel got involved, though.

[Mad Ax]

Next, the side rails.  It looks like I've previously put some angle on them, but they need more.

I kinda cut a little too much angle, and had to file into the press nut to make it smooth.

That looks much more slippery.

So slip.  Much smooth.

[Mad Ax]

It had also felt to me as if the hitch was too low on the FJ.  This would cause the trailer to be nose down, where it's more likely to hang.  Here I have moved the connector on top of the hitch instead of inside of it, to prove the point.

By removing, the middle block from the towing frame, I got the trailer to sit more naturally.

[JimBear]

13 hours ago, Mad Ax said:

It had also felt to me as if the hitch was too low on the FJ. 

It was my hunch too in passing, thinking that it would need adjustment. The idea in my head was too work-intensive and complicated; involving moving the axle, so your idea is obviously better.