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So - given that I'm liking the rake a lot more than I thought I would, and that I wanted to be able to tow with this rig when it's not wearing it's full aero package, I figured I'd see if the rake was going to cause any issues on a stock trailer.

Unfortunately my best 'stock' trailer is in the loft storage area and it's a lot of hassle to get it out, but my Bruder race truck hauler conversion is built to standard specifications and was on the shelf ready for an easy test.

It actually fits pretty well.  I'll need to modify the fifth wheel bracket so the coupler is always angled down relative to the trailer, otherwise it won't hitch, but there's no clearance issue under the trailer.  Actually that's a lie - the long tail on the back of the chassis won't clear the motorised support leg bracket on the trailer, but that's not so big of a deal because I won't be using Tamiya's crazy motorised leg switching mechanism on my trailers once I've got the Arduino trailer control system working properly.

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Finally, I wanted to see how the front end of the rig might look with an aero package installed over the arch.  That's the only way I'm going to hide the terrible sin of the wheels being too far forward and too small in the arch.

So here's a very quick mock-up that I did in GIMP.  Actually I did it twice, first time my laptop crashed while it was 3/4 done and I had to start again.  It's only a very rough idea and it needs some smoothing where my arcs intersect, also bear in mind that on the finished product the arch lip over the front won't be there because it interferes with the wheel when steering.

I'm pretty pleased with this - I think it looks cool and in-keeping with what I was going for on this rig.

The alternative is to chop the arches and throw them away and fabricate something new from scratch, which might not be too bad if it was just a set of arches but I'd need to incorporate the headlights too...

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OK - bit of a crazy week on the old Drag King, beginning with me watching some Bandag Bullet videos while I tried to find some good audio samples to use in the Arduino audio project.  So I noticed that the Bandag is indeed quite low to the ground, and that the chassis rails sit flat (naturally), and that the rear axle seems to be on a 4-link setup (you can just see the link mounts on the frame rails through the aero panels).

So I figured the best way to get the truck proper low and level without having to go totally crazy on the rear axle was to cut and shut the frame rails.

No turning back now...

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Rails chopped and propped

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The rails needed to be sectioned to get a perfect flat fit.  The best way to make sure both sides are cut to exactly the same size is to bolt the frame rails together using the stock holes.

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To re-join the chassis I needed some plates.

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Again, like with the frame rails, drilling a single hole then bolting the plates together makes sure all the other holes are in exactly the right place, therefore avoiding a twisted or uneven chassis.

 

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and a gratuitous body shot

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The plates were still in a very rough condition, so I removed them, bolted them together, filed them to match then put them in the bench polisher to tidy up the worst of the scuff marks.

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Fitted to the rig, they look pretty awesome.  I didn't really do a full job of polishing the sides of the plates - that'll take a lot of work with various grades of abrasive followed by a long time getting black snot in front of the polisher.  The chassis rails will need repainting before I'm finished so I'll probably just paint everything black.

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So now I can't put it off any longer - it's time to start building the aero package.

I decided I'd start with cardboard templates and transfer them to plasticard, but as I was building the templates I figured I might as well transfer them to CAD first (actually I'll use Inkscape, it's a vector package but it's close enough and it's quicker than finding and learning a whole new computer package).  That way I can print out actual-size templates on paper and transfer them to plastic to cut.

So - to build a template, the first thing I need is cardboard.  Fortunately my daughter gets through Weetabix like it's going out of fashion.  She doesn't actually eat it, she just likes when I pour milk on it and she helps me smash it down into a mush before she tells me she isn't hungry and wanders off to do something else.

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With some careful measurements I transferred the dimensions of the frame and fifth wheel bracket to the card.  The 'spine' of the box turned out to be just the right size.  In engineering terms this is what we call "bonusoidal".

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Rail cover fitted.  My original plan was for the vertical part to be fully vertical but as you'll see, it ended up on a sort of angle and it just looked right.

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Next I needed a horizontal part to cover the whole side.

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And then a vertical part to close it off.

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After that I needed to get a bit technical and started doing stuff I haven't done since secondary school to work out the opposite corner of a parallelogram.  This because I had this as an offcut and the angles just looked about right.

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Old engineer's adage: if it looks right, it probably is.

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And I figured I need a rear arch, too, or at least the first part of one.  I doubt I'll close the top of the wheel off completely, mostly because I'm too lazy but also partly because I can't be bothered.

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And here's a spoiler.  I think this is from a HPI Toyota JZX100.

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I have to admit, for an hour or so's work, I'm pretty pleased with that.  It'll probably take longer to transfer it all to vector files than it did to mock it up, but there we go.

Cutting everything and gluing it all together is going to take even longer.  I think I'm going to have to take some time off work to get this done.

Mega-bonus - my wife is going back to work.  Not only does this mean a bit more cash to ease the load, it also means the house will be empty three days a week, so if I take time off, stuff gets done.  Join me in a woo-hoo.

Here's a bunch of gratuitous beauty shots.  I added an old bathmat in the background, but don't think of it as a bath mat, think of it as snow-covered mountains in the distance.

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That's going to be truly Tough looking, dig the jig.

what are the wing brackets made of? 

these type of builds take a wee bit "o" time to do, don't they?

 Impressive build Mad Ax.

 

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On 4/14/2019 at 4:30 AM, ACCEL said:

what are the wing brackets made of? 

these type of builds take a wee bit "o" time to do, don't they?

It's made of fairly soft flexible plastic.  It's from a HPI drift body, so I guess it's designed to flex when hitting things.  It might be a bit wobbly on the solid truck chassis but I don't actually intend to drive it hard - it's supposed to look right, not drive right :)

It's taking loads of time, but I'm enjoying being leisurely about it.  I'm not looking forward to having to cut out all the styrene but I might go with 1mm to give myself an easier time and brace it well with square section so it doesn't flap about too much.

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i dont surpose you have a couple of trailer wheels and tyres lying around you aint gonna use do you

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I like your work. The truck looks fantastic!

It made me smile to see you source your cardboard just like I do. The stuff is perfect for laying out the design of custom parts!

Keep up the good work! :)

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On 4/15/2019 at 2:38 PM, topforcein said:

i dont surpose you have a couple of trailer wheels and tyres lying around you aint gonna use do you

Sorry - just seen this!  No, I'm afraid I don't, all in use (or earmarked for projects) at the mo

On 4/19/2019 at 10:16 PM, mongoose1983 said:

I like your work. The truck looks fantastic!

It made me smile to see you source your cardboard just like I do. The stuff is perfect for laying out the design of custom parts!

Keep up the good work! :)

Thanks :)  Cereal packets FTW.

I started transferring from cardboard to plasticard this weekend and got most of the big panels glued up.  My idea of being able to pull the aero package off isn't coming to fruition - everything fits too close.  It will still be removable but I'll have to unscrew the cab and cab plate.

Hoping to give the rig a maiden voyage on Saturday.  Unpainted and unfinished but wearing the Arduino MFU and able to run around the layout hopefully fully in control and without glitching :D

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OK - just got around to uploading the photos from Bournemouth!  So the rig was pretty faultless TBH - besides having very little traction from the slick tyres.  The small front tyre diameter probably doesn't help with getting the rig on and off the 10mm or so curb on the layout panels, but otherwise it drove great.  The front axle mods, short wheel base and single rear axle make for an impressive turning circle and the Arduino-powered MFC was as smooth as could be hoped for.  It was very much nicer to drive than either the MFC-01 or MFC-03 rigs.  I haven't had time to work on the MFC code for a while but it's starting to get close to a beta product now.

I tested the rig in drag race trim and in regular rig trim.  Part of the appeal of this rig was that it is dual purpose.  A change of wheels and a few screws and it can be either a pro-mod drag racing truck or a modified street legal hauler.

Here's the rig in drag race trim:

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And a change of tyres and removal of the aero package and it's a regular hauling truck

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I also wanted to give it a run with a trailer to make sure there weren't any clearance problems.  I didn't bring my Euro flatbed and the only yank trailer I have is the pole trailer, which isn't really a fair test of trailer ability because it isn't a very fair trailer.  So I used my race hauler, no the basis that I designed it to be dimensionally identical to a Tamiya trailer.

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Unfortunately the trailer looks all wrong on this rig.  It really needs a nice tanker.

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Here it's parked next to my mate's vintage King Hauler (complete with its original pre-MFC MFC).  These shots show just how much lower the Drag King is compared to a standard rig.

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I haven't had time to work on the rig since that weekend, it's been boxed up waiting until I have more time.  Not really sure what I'll tackle next - I think I need to focus more on getting the MFC finished so I can start building all the electronics in.  After that there's the long job of fitting up all the ancillaries like bumpers, lights, fuel tanks etc, and the aero package needs to be covered with something and smoothed over.  Not sure yet if I'll drape the whole thing in fibreglass and smooth it back or build it up with filler.  Either has its drawbacks but glass will be stronger.

More updates to follow when I get back into the swing of things :)

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the differance in height is a lot between the 2 haulers yours looks like the boy racers have been at it with a lowering kit:lol: in comparison.

your mate hauler is realll nice the orange suits it and the tamiya hop-up alloys are real nice also i would love to get them for my grand hauler.

as you can see i had a go at filling in the indents for the original mfc on the back of my hauler plus the extra fuel tanks as i had to chop them up to make them fit the gaps but i just used this it was my first time at doing this and tbh i could have used a bit more in the indents but i am happy with it

Deluxe Materials BD44 Perfect Plastic Putty Model Filler 40ml Tube

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well where's this thing at? start swinging ,you are incorrigible, kinda like me.

ps you're being fitted in the Panther this weekend, didn't have time to fit him in the first pics due to the racing harness and this particular figure doesn't bend like Jason1145 to seat back in properly, i have to do surgery to him to get him to fit correctly.

 

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