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Hello,

I am a long time modeller, although not very skilled. I have constructed a few Tamiya 1\16th tanks, but fancied something else, so got the Tamiya Grand Hauler with MFC.

Of course I wanted to have the MFC working and still have the cab intact with the driver. I found it easier than you might think as it all fitted into the sleeper section at the back. I simply put the MFC up on its edge and made a small slim extension for it to rest on, although not really required if you used a few strips of velcro on the back of the speaker.

Make holes in the cross sections of the frame to run cables neatly otherwise you get massive unsightly mass from back to front.

I also wanted more of the lights to work instead of leaving them blank as your only meant to use certain lights dependant on if you use MFC 1 or 3, i think. I simply wired up extra leds to the working ones.

I also added extra head lights. Anyway, its all pretty simple, apart from the spraying which I i found difficult to do in a non dust free environment, however a little wet and dry fine sand paper on some rough areas and a respray and it came out ok. I used TS-13 laquer on top. No probs. Watch for runs.

Enjoy the pics - hope they help someone,

Cheers

Russ

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Russ

Thanks for the piece, I’m intrigued as to how you got the driver and MFC to fit.  I have the Matt Black edition of the Grand Hauler and have been trying to do exactly what you’ve done.  In my case, it seems the speaker is hitting the roof and preventing the cab to come down far enough to be screwed to the chassis.  I’ve tried many different configurations but still cannot get it all to fit, so must be doing something wrong.  Any other advice would be most welcome.

Thanks

Martin

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Hi Martin,

This was along time ago and I recently sold the truck so hard to remember, but maybe I did some or all of the following:

I think there was a hole for the ariel which was thick on the inside, so i cut this out and filled.

Its possible that I trimmed the silver legs or the white golf tee supports.

The metal plate\support i used was super thin, approx 1 or 2mm

I was still able to get the battery out easily.

When fitting the body, it did press tight down on the MFC and possible slightly flexed the thin metal support. I certainly remember applying a little pressure for the out side holes to line up...but nothing at all extreme...only slight pressure. The roof and body all looked very nice and square and not bowing.

It was all very easy and really surprised Tamiya dont recommend doing it this was, so as to keep the cab interior. It was very natural fitting

Good luck

Russ

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Russ

Thanks for the prompt response.  I’ve tried all of the pieces individually to ascertain that it is the speaker box that is causing the problem.  Unfortunately, if I remove the speaker from the box, the sound quality deteriorates noticeably.  I don’t think I can shorten the legs on the mounting piece, as there seems very little space underneath because of the location of the vibration unit.  Will keep trying other options and thanks again for the response.

Martin

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ok, so i wonder how your holding the speaker box in place.

I did not mount on anything, instead i drilled a hole straight through the back corner away from speaker.

Dissasembled the speaker to drop in a bolt and re-assembled. Put the speaker in place with bolt dangling through hole and through hole in the thin metal plate.

I passed a screwdriver through the top hole in speaker box into the head of the bolt inside, so i could tighten against a nut i held underneath the metal plate.

Also, although i didnt need to, i guess you could shave a few mm of the top of the speaker box. Also, i seem to remember two versions of speaker box included, but i may be wrong.

Does your speaker box protrude much higher than the MFC when it is on its side ?

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Russ

I think I’m probably 3-4mm too high at a guess.  The speaker box is higher than the MFC unit and was only held in place with a bit of double sided sticky tape, just to see how well (or not!) things fitted together.  There are 2 versions of the speaker front, depending upon whether or not you need to mount the speaker into a box or directly onto the body of the truck.  The latter looks to be more for European type trucks than the American style ones.  

Will keep investigating - I have a truck club meet this weekend, so will try and see if anyone else has been successful.

Thanks again.

Martin

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Ok, and finally, where does your metal plate start. Mine was not the full length of the platform.

my metal plate extends only from approx half way and then overhangs.

so front of speaker box not on metal plate but just the plastic platform.

 

just trim the top and bottom of speaker box edge a couple mm and it’ll be cool.

 

cheers

russ

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Russ

The speaker box does overhang the metal plate, but I guess I could try and remove some of the excess to see if that helps a bit.  I’ve got it all back together for Sunday’s meet, so will have a look early next week all being well. 

Thanks again for your help.

Martin

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