Wild Max Willy Climber!

[IBIFTKH 1369]

Anyone who's looked at my showroom knows I like Wild Willy and his various variants. For a while I've been wanting to build a Willy 4x4 but was a bit stuck on which chassis to use. I tried a TL01, didn't like it. TA01/02? Nope, too much gap between chassis and body.

Then I spotted a Max Climber for reasonable money. A quick check showed the wheel base and width are almost identical to a WW2 so I duly clicked the ominous 'Buy it now' button.

When it arrived it was a bit grubby but otherwise good. No bearings though, so I stripped it, cleaned everything and rebuilt with new ballbearings, carbon fibre chassis plates, stainless hex bolts, Topcad shocks and other bits of bling.

Using the stock battery placement would have jacked the body way up so I binned it and built a new battery box at the rear. It fits inside the shell - just!

The body has been modded as well. Passenger, scratch built seat etc. The tools are also scratch built and mounted with M2 hex bolts.So here it is, hope you like it...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Compared to my lowered, narrowed WW2

Flex..

 

 

Family shot

cheers,Rob

[bromvw 744]

Thats absolutely blindingly good . Great work

[commiedoor 18]

yup , having two willy's is gotta be better than one

!

[wolfdogstinkus 1893]

yup , having two willy's is gotta be better than one

!

I prefer just having my own willy, I'd rather not have 2.

I have willy's other ride, the VW type 2 which makes me think the VW body would look better on this chassis?, great job you have done there IBIFTKH, maybe you could post the measurements of that chassis?, I have the dimensions of the bus shell written down somewhere here.

[speedy_w_beans 4272]

How does it drive? Does it still wheelie like a Willy, or is it a little more planted on the ground? Does the 4WD help with steering?

-Paul

[IBIFTKH 1369]

@Bromvw - thanks mate

yup , having two willy's is gotta be better than one!

I prefer just having my own willy, I'd rather not have 2.

I can see the merit in both points of view

Chassis dimensions - Overall length: 280mm, Overall width: 251mm (from Tamiya USA site). I would think the bus body would fit quite easily. If I get time I'll see if I can mock it up later with my bus body.

@speedy - I haven't driven it much yet but first impressions are that it's more planted. The TLT chassis is quite a bit heavier than the WR02 and because it's shaft driven it's got a lot of torque twist (rear shocks are quite stiff to counter that). It steers better, if only because the front end spends more time on the ground. It will wheelie, just about! But it's only got a silver can at the moment...

[Skottoman 306]

What a great idea. I have a TLT that is all built out, and never thought of putting a WW2 body on there. Just great!!!

Having driven the TLT around quite a bit, it's a very capable truck for offroad if you lock the diffs. (Center also) Then it can crawl over most things.

I've jumped mine, it does behave a bit like a WW2, but doesn't really wheelie, which of course gives the better steering!

Nice conversion!

CHeers,

Skottoman

[IBIFTKH 1369]

Thanks Skottoman, much appreciated. Must admit I'm really looking forward to driving this more, just waiting for a few parts to finish it.

[IBIFTKH 1369]

A few days late but as promised, I mocked up the VW bus shell on the TLT chassis so here are some comparison pics

 

With a little work I think the Montero shell could work too

 

[Percymon 2184]

Pity you didn;t do the VW shell in metallic red, would have gone lovely with the original TLT wheels

Great project - really got me thinking about something similar (oh no, not another project )