Eigenbau Mercedes AS 1838 4x4 + 2 axle semi trailer Kipper

This is my first model. I started building it in 2013 and I am still improving it. It is an uncommon model in Italy since we do not have 2 axle semitrailers for heavy transports (they are used only for light goods). Italian semi trailer for hearth moving have three axles. But I saw the "real one" on a picture on the web and I fall in love with it so I decided for this combination.

When I started building it I din not have any skill as a model maker so the first version is not very refined and it has many design flaws. But in the years, as my skills improved (did they? ), I fixed the various flaws and I added many features until it became as in the picture above (this picture was taken a couple of days ago).


All parts I designed for this model can be downloaded at my GitHub:Mercedes1838


In the next posts I will describe all the steps of the building.

Frame, wheels and cab - Spring 2014 (1st part)

Since Tamiya makes the 1838 LS 4x2 it would have been easier to buy the model and add a driven axle to the front.

But since I had a 3D printer with too little to produce, I decided to try to build the truck by myself, self-producing as many pieces as possible.
I started from the frame, cutting a steel "C" bar to size (40 cm) and creating the cross members with the 3D printer.





At this point I bought the whole cabin on eBay, in Japan (50 EURO shipped with all the pieces: front grill, windows,
etc.), which arrived in less than a week, incredible !!!!





Thanks to a friend, I was able to find two used TLT bridges, one of them was used for the front axle and the other remained as a spare.



I printed the bumper (different from the Tamiya one which is for road vehicles) and the tilt for the cabin:



I ordered some tires like these:



I also bought the rear axle and suspension from eBay. At first I wanted to build the leafspring by myself, using harmonic spring steel, but the first attempts did not go very well so I had to buy them. I wanted to stick to the original mechanics as closely as possible, so the idea was to insert a transfer case + reducer between the two axles and the top would have been to equip it with a real lockable differential (or at least a dig to disengage the front drive). I knew it was hard for my limite skills but....


After some days the rear axle and the leafsprings arrived.



Now I had to find a way to put it all together. I printed some plates (very similar to the original Tamiya) to compensate for the curvature of the leafspring at the axle attachment.



The TLT bridge leaf spring holes are different from those of the trucks: I had to choose between making two new holes (on the other side they correspond) or I making an adapter plate ...



In the meantime I won in an eBay auction a Ford Aeromax chassis complete with almost everything (only the cabin is missing, to be honest) that I will cannibalize.


At the end, I drilled the TLT bridge with the column drill. Now it perfectly accepted the leafsprings. In the meantime, I did progress a little and the rear axle was finally attached:



A detail of the supports. The plates are made from an anodized aluminum "L" profile, further bent and drilled. I was not satisfied with the result, because the holes did not match perfectly, the edges were not the best, but I will had to settle wit it for the time being. The "biscuits" were derived from the old chain of my mountain bike.



He was finally standing by itself on his wheels with the new tires (they arrived the same day )



Now at least it was a static (and mostly incomplete) model

Frame, wheels and cab - Spring 2014 (2nd part)

A view of the front TLT with the new tires.



Finally, the gearbox and fifth wheel are connected



I had to grind the frame and I was a little worried, but now everything was positioned as I wanted !!! Following a detail of the opening I made for the gearbox:



And here the mounts I made for the gearbox to the frame: PLA that has cracked immediately... (I had to find a way to build them in a way they do not crack...)




A few more steps forward, I printed rear fenders and gear cover. An overview of the project so far: finally outdoors:



Gearbox cover.



I was not satisfied with the result Gearbox was protruding way to much from the cabin either in height and in length toward the rear of the truck. I had to find a proper solution but at the moment I had no ideas (if not to eliminate the change, but it was out of question). By cutting the servo mounts of the TLT bridge and moving the front axle forward by 5mm (I noticed that it is slightly off-center with respect to the cabin) I was able to win another 15mm, but they were too few ...

The new fenders:



This time I was completely satisfied of the result: they costed me more than an hour of modeling (and two wrong prototypes), but the result was what I was hoping for.

Now was time to take everything apart and make new holes on the frame. By the time this too was collecting a series of wrong holes... sooner to the third frame will be necessary (I hope it to be the final one)

Steering - Spring 2014

TLT knuckle does not have an arm on the opposite side to connect the servo lever so I had to design something.
I created PLA arm which allowed the servo to be mounted ahead of the axle.



I was not very confident it could survive a 10Kg servo and if it broke I had to find a different solution maybe using ALU. But it seemed to hold so I decided to give it some trust (I am writing some 8 years after I printed it and it never broke ). Anyway I printed some spares to bring with me at the various exhibitions.

Here it can be seen assembled, aesthetically it is hard to notice that it is an addition.



This is a view of the complete linkage.



Eventually I decided to use a less powerful servo 6Kg and I never regretted the decision: worked flawlessly for all these years.

Frame, wheels and cab - Spring 2014 (3rd part)

I created a battery holder from scratch. With the 4x4 transmission the underneath is almost completely full; no space for a big 2S 3300 mA battery.



The battery holder is also a fake fuel tank. Too big for a construction vehicle, but I wanted a "big" battery. So I had to sacrifice aesthetics



I managed to move the gearbox further 15mm by cutting some useless parts of the TLT bridge and moving the front axle a little towards the bumper. It is still too little to achieve an acceptable aesthetic result, but this way I could create something (to try) to hide it. I was thinking of a fake hydraulic tank or a tool holder. A part of the space there was for the cable / hose holder for the trailer. Anyway I had to find a way to fix it...

Finally the ESC arrived (ordered from Germany and received in four days !!!). I was still waiting for the CV joints to arrive (they wer on their way from China) and even the transfer-case was still to be designed, sono no way to see the model moving. But it seemed that the various starts / stops of the motor were pretty smooth (after many year it is still the best ESC I bought).
There was not a plug that fit with another: battery, regulator, motor ... each of them had its own (different from others) plug. I had to cut (and thus loose the various guarantees) and solder new connectors both on the regulator and on the motor.




I also bought a spare Tamiya gears kit (for the 3 speed gearbox) that I will use to make the transfer case, I was thinking of a cascade of three gears with the last coupled to a selector so that you can attach / detach the front axle at will. I could not wait to see it move !!!!


I printed the air-battery group. It came just as I wanted.







Inside the compartment they will probably put some weights to counterbalance the real battery that is positioned in the tank.


Here it is with the last finishing touches: battery compartment and air cylinders plus the spare wheel. It began to have the definitive appearance.

Transfer case - Spring 2014

So came the time to build the transfer case. It was the most important missing part necessary to run the truck.



After weeks of work, bad projects etc. finally the transfer case was up and running. All mounted on bearings.The reduction ratio is about 1: 2.6. Here is a picture of the main pieces:



The case is a mix of ABS and PLA parts: quite robust, I would say. It shouldn't have any problems. For the gears I recovered the Tamiya ones for the 3-speed gearbox, as well as the fork and the selector. All already designed for the load they will have to withstand. The servo that will operate the front-wheel drive engagement will be positioned under the fifth wheel. For reasons of space I had to buy a low profile servo, which suited the job perfectly. Now I had to find how to couple it to the gearbox and how to join the link back to the servo. I was just sorry I had to cannibalize a whole gearbox for the pieces (I used, in fact, all the pieces of 3rd gear, the fastest ..).

Frame, wheels and cab - Spring 2014 (4th part)

With the transfer case ready the model was really close to moving. I modified a Tamiya propeller shaft that I had found used and I managed to make it run as 4x2.
I hooked up the receiver, ESC, battery with cable ties and I enjoyed running around the house for an hour.

The transfer case worked as a charm and the reduction 1: 2.6 + the Carson truck puller Venom motor scales the three speeds perfectly.
The movements seemed very realistic to me. The only disappointment was the steering: after each turn the front wheels did not re-center properly. Something to work on.

After this brief test the Mercedes 1838 finally became a 4x4.



While waiting for the CVS joints to arrive (I wanted to make make the cardans more realistic than Tamiya ones), I made the ones in the following picture. Not beautiful but functional.



The transfer case with the disengagement of the front axle:





The difference in traction is enormous, also because at the moment the weight was very unbalanced to the front. I was really satisfied with the results, the transfer casa worked as expected. I enjoyed running around the
house for an hour.

More or less the bulk of the work on the tractor is done. This was the current situation:



Many parts were still missing, the cabin interiors (and the cab itself which which was still attached only on the front) and the painting, but the mechanics were finished and working.
Of course there still was the big problem of the gearbox sticking out, but so far I had no solution. I had been spending hours on the web looking through hundreds of photos of tractors to see if there is a rear-mounted accessory that could cover it, with no luck, so far (OK, there would be a rear cab crane but it was a something I was not able to do at the time).

Semi trailer - Spring 2014 (1st part)

At the beginning the idea was to self build a classic italian semi trailer for earth transport. Short, with three axles (the steering one at the front). But...
I saw a beautiful combination on the web: a tractor like the one I built with an orange 2 axles semi-trailer (with wide single tires) and I fell in love with it.

All parts I designed for this model can be downloaded at my GitHub:Kipper_Trailer

I dedicated a whole day to the start of the project and this is what came out:



I chose 60cm as the frame length, but once I saw it assembled it seemed a bit long... Maybe it needs to be shortened to 55cm. For the rest I am very satisfied. I printed the axles and I reused the cantilever suspension I
recovered from the (cannibalized) Ford Aeromax. Driving the tractor alone did not give me particular fun but, in combination with the trailer, it's great fun.


Shortened frame and VERY temporary kipper to test everything:



I set up an off-road route in my garden and did some testing (actually I played, but "test" sounds more professional)



With the weight above I can finally move around in my garden, even with only the rear wheel drive. Otherwise, at the first bump it got stuck... Tamiya leaf springs are still very stiff, I tried to twist them and I must say that the travel is not a lot ... I evaluated the possibility of switching to 2 leaves in front and 3 behind.


Trailer was still a bit long, in the meantime I made some tests with plastic kippers to see how they look, I still had some margin to shorten, but if I had to shorten too much I had to to review ALL the inclination angles

The day after I was going to take the truck to his first (really small) meeting, so it will be staying together with his similar for a while! So I painted the fenders and radiator grille. It really changed a lot. Now it's more slender and really looks like a 4x4. I am very satisfied The kipper is a temporary plastic just to test size and color (too much orange, I have to find a lighter color). No tipping mechanism, for the moment, I did not make it in time

First exhibition - Spring 2014

I t was time for my first exhibition A really small meeting in a country fair. The model was quite incomplete, but it could run.













In the next picture I am present and in "pendant" (orange shirt) with my truck



Pity I did not make in time with the tipping mech... I had to unload with my hands every time and it was not "very realistic"

Semi trailer - Spring 2014 (2nd part)

Works continued: apart from some finishing touches, in those days I dedicated myself to creating the tipping mechanism. I had to be honest: I thought it was easier, I found myself faced with many obstacles. I used a 12V 100RPM gear motor (more or less 1:50) with an M10 threaded rod. So far no issues, the problems arose when I discovered that with the geometry I wanted to use (push from rear to front) the lift was insufficient. To implement a geometry that raised enough (pushed from front to rear) I had to face many obstacles: not enough space, excessive forces on weak spots, etc. After a long battle with drill and lathe I was able to make it work (almost). In the photo it was about half way up. At the extreme it unloads anything. I tried to lift the kipper full of earth and, albeit with a little effort at the start, it lifted up without problems.



At this point I dedicated myself to housing the battery (a 4s LiPo, a little "overvolted" to have a little more margin and power) and assembling the electronic circuitry made by me. I 3Dprinted a fake toolbox that contained both battery and circuitry. The box had the attaches for the lateral protection bars (they can be seen in the previous photo).



I inserted two limit switches that prevented extra strokes (limited max lifting and low position) and I made the motor control circuitry with relays in order to have all the voltage available (transistors or MOSFETs have a drop, albeit minimal).



Then I bought a Turnigy relay for receiver. I decided to use a 4s LiPo to have more power, but at the time I bought it I did not know that it was very hard to find ESC that supported a 4s LiPo with such an high stall current. That was the reason of the homemade circuitry. In the following picture the relays board with the Turnigy relay from the receiver:



Then I had to fix all cables in place and I set a servo plug near the fifth wheel (to electrically connect the trailer to the tractor):



Now the trailer was "universal": It could be attached at every tractor with a free channel on the Rx.

Frame, wheels and cab - Spring 2014 (small updates)

A small update, before painting the cabin: The aluminum wheels that I had ordered in the USA arrived. Unfortunately the hubs had an excessive offset and the wheels went out of the shape ... very strange, since all the Tamiya trucks have the same width... I decided to make all four hubs with the 3D printer. In the rear I incorporated for interference the metal hexagon to have greater strength.

Here are the front wheels with bolt covers and hub just printed:



And the rear ones:



I printed the air intake in order to make the truck more realistic. In the initial project I wanted to have the air intake in front of the cab in the right side of the front grill (like the first construction site SKs), but it seemed too complicated (and it would have been ok only for the very short cab, not my long one) so I opted for setting it in the rear of the cab:



I reproduced the mirrors by copying them from the Tamiya ones, making the support with bent and threaded steel wire (the M2 dye arrived on Friday).

Cab painting - Spring 2014

At this point of the project I had to face the most feared part: THE PAINTING. I knew that painting was my weak point and in fact I had many difficulties.

In the end it came... not a masterpiece but (considering that it was my first model) let's say "PASSABLE". The combination of colors was of a great effect.











Just to complicate my life, I painted all the gaskets on the glass in black with a paintbrush. A very complicated job with millions of smudges, I recovered the worst ones, the others... let them be....
It must be said that now the front was MUCH more realistic and it really looked like the real vehicle.

Here are the details of the new rims with the hubs that I printed: the color (simple zinc spray) did not convince me at all. Something to be reworked in the future.

Frame, wheels and cab - Spring 2014 (oil tank - gearbox cover)

After shuffling across hundred of web pages I finally found a real accessory that was able to completely hide the protruding gearbox.
An oil tank (for the trailer lifting piston) mounted just behind the cab and (to make it better) standing on a real Mercedes 4x4 tractor.

Here it is after being designed on the CAD:



Here it is how it looked mounted on my Mercedes (gearbox needed some black paint):







The result was very satisfying. The gearbox is almost completely hidden and aesthetically is very nice.
Behind the tank I made the cable holder for the trailer. The square hole had holes for mounting a board with pins for the servo trailer electric services.

Semi trailer - Spring 2014 (3rd part)

Time to make the definitive aluminum body at the trailer kipper. I started using a 1mm ALU foil then I drew the various folds, I engraved them with a very sharp cutter and I shaped everything with the help of my vise and a flat wooden bar.



This was the result, compared to its plastic predecessor:



The new kipper was very light, even lighter than the one made of plastic. Once equipped with the bulkhead it became very robust.
Here it is mounted on the trailer. The finishing of the diagonally cut back edge is still missing, but the appearance is nevertheless good (in my opinion).



This body is longer than the previous one, to shift the weight a little more forward (over the tractor driven wheels). I gained 25mm, not a lot, but it is noticeable and aesthetically it is much better.

The kipper was made using rectangle of 560x322 mm of ALU. The folds were made at the following heights from the edge: 60mm - 31mm - 30mm. In the center there were 80mm left.
Below is a sketch:



I modeled the corners a bit at random and then it was the bulkhead toward the tractor that gave them the final shape when I pulled the screws:



Let's say that it is a more "artistic" than technological process that allows to obtain only unique pieces. Not having a proper tool to "engrave" the ALU foil, I used a sharp cutter and it worked beautifully, when you press with wood the metal it bends perfectly along the line. Here it is the Mercedes in the company of the Bruder CAT 320 (very welcome surprise gift from my partner and close to RC conversion)





Details of the rear bulkhead lock, with the lifter in down position, an M3 screw (adjustable in height) holds the gate preventing the earth from escaping.







Details of rear bumper, fenders and wheel hubs:



Loading and unloading:





After climbing the earth "hill" ...



Traction was always too scarce and the truck easily twisted the axles, but the rear block was close to come!!!!

Frame, wheels and cab - Spring 2014 (proprller shafts)

Eventually the CV joints I ordered from chine, arrived. I wanted the propeller shaft to be realistic and really cheap so I decided to completely self build them.
I begun from simple tools that can be found in every hobbyist store (I bought the cheapest ones, they are oversized for the job, anyway).

I used:
2 CV joints (5 mm - 5mm)
1 hex tap spanner (7mm)
1 hex key (7mm)
1 piece of steel round bar (8mm)
1 grub screw (3mm)



I worked the parts with my lathe and I obtained the following pieces:



The 8 mm round bar was lathed to 5 mm to one side, inserted in the tap spanner and fixed with the grub screw.

Here is the result once all pieces were assembled:





Some putty work:



And, after some semi-gloss black paint, here it was the finished propeller shaft. One hour of work and less than 10 EUROS (CV joints went for a couple of EUROS each at the time).



Once mounted on the truck they seemed very realistic (at least way better than the ones I used before )



Here the comparison between before and after:

Frame, wheels and cab - Summer 2014 (rear diff lock)

Just at the beginning of the summer, 4 months after the starting of the project, I was ready with the (long waited and wanted) rear diff lock.
I had to improve a little my modellist skills, because it was a very difficult job. I followed some tutorials found on the web, I destroyed my spare differential, but at the end I was successful

Here are the brass pieces I prepared and the modified Tamiya diff box:



I had to modify the axle housing a little, but that was not a difficult job.



Once assembled on the truck I used a small spring to help the servo on the insertion.



The rear locker made a huge difference in mobility. Where the truck stuck before, with it engaged it passed with no problem. Really a big improvement.

Here a small video I recorded in my backyard, just after I finished the locker:

Um diese Inhalte anzuzeigen, benötigen wir die Zustimmung zum Setzen von Drittanbieter-Cookies.
Für weitere Informationen siehe die Seite Verwendung von Cookies.

Drittanbieter-Cookies akzeptieren

Project recap - Summer 2014

After 6 months of design and build, the model was almost complete. Frame, tank and most of the printed parts were painted at this point.

There were some updates that still had to be done:
- Cab internals
- Lights
- Sound
- Central differential (to replace dig)
- Front axle lock
- Narrow Cab
- Better fuel tank
- Air intake filter
- Realistic (for the 90's) rims
- Trailer single wide wheels (and wider frame)
- Trailer painting
Most of them were realized in the following years

The model initially was controlled with a Hitec optic 6 radio with 6ch receiver. During Summer 2014 I switched to FRsky Taranis 9xd with 8CH receiver. The 8CH (16CH via S.BUS) radio gave me more opportunity for expansion and new options.


Now let's take a look at the BOM:

Tractor:
Qt.1 - 10 Kg/cm servo for steering
Qt.1 - 3 Kg/cm servo for gearbox
Qt.1 - 3 Kg/cm low profile servo for transfer case front axle engage
Qt.1 - 2,6 Kg/cm mini servo for rear axle lock
Qt.1 - Tamiya TLT front axle
Qt.1 - Tamiya truck rear axle
Qt.1 - Tamiya 5th wheel
Qt.6 - ALU rims for 1/14 truck
Qt.6 - Threaded tires for 1/14 truck
Qt.1 - Tamiya gearbox complete
Qt.4 - Tamiya leafsprings for 1/14 truck
Qt.1 - Tamiya Mercedes 1838 cab complete
Qt.2 - Tamiya fake dampers
Qt.4 - CV joints (5 mm - 5mm)
Qt.2 - Hex tap spanner (7mm)
Qt.2 - Hex key (7mm)
N.D - steel round bar (8mm)
Qt.1 - Truck Puller Venom 7.2 V motor
Qt.1 - LiPo battery 2s 3300 mA/h
Qt.1 - 6/8 channel RX
Qt.1 - 3A UBEC
Qt.1 - Robbe ROOKIE truck controller 1-8407
N.D - PLA 1.75 black filament
N.D - Steel C-bar 20x10 mm
N.D - Various screws, nuts, grub screws, etc.


Trailer:
Qt.2 - Tamiya double axle suspension (cantilever)
Qt.4 - Tamiya rims for 1/14 truck
Qt.4 - Tamiya hard tires for 1/14 truck
Qt.1 - M10 rod bar for lifter
Qt.1 - M10 nut for lifter
Qt.1 - LiPo battery 4s 1600 mA/h
Qt.1 - Gearmotor JGB37-550 60W, 120Kg/cm stall torque, 100RPM
Qt.2 - Enstops
N.D - PLA 1.75 black filament
N.D - Steel C-bar 20x10 mm
N.D - ALU bar 10x10 mm
N.D - ALU foil 1 mm for kipper
Qt.1 - Turnigy RC relay
N.D - Various electronic components for custom motor board
N.D - Various screws, nuts, grub screws, etc.

Hello Luca!
I'm very impressed of your Truck and especially the way, you made the propeller shaft!

Greetings
Manfred

derfnam schrieb:

Hello Luca!
I'm very impressed of your Truck and especially the way, you made the propeller shaft!

Greetings
Manfred

Zum Vergrößern anklicken....

Thanks Manfred. This was my first experience as a modellist and project started with many flaws, but in the time I could fix some of them. One of my main objectives was to self build as much as I could, but my initial skills were close to zero So I often wandered for hours in big hobbyist stores looking for ideas (preferably cheap ideas). And that was when I was in need of some more realistic propeller shaft. I was in the TOOLS compartment and I had in front of me dozens of hex tap spanners and hex keys. I started playing with them and, yes, the resembled a propeller shaft. And they were dirty cheap

Luca

Model Game Bologna - Autumn 2014

During Summer 2014 I participated with my truck to various small exhibitions and they were really useful because using the truck I could fix various flaws. The most important one was the kipper lifting motor that at the firsr real use turned out to be hugely underpowered (then I bought a 60W gearmotor than fixed the problem forever). Locking diff servo also was too weak and burned at first use... I replaced it with a more powerful one but this time the problem was not completely fixed until many years after I made my own axles.

By the end of the summer the Mercedes was not alone anymore. I started a parallel project building an Italian Fiat 180 NT with Bartoletti "volta corretta" semi-trailer. Since Fiat cabs were not available for buying, I designed and 3Dprinted it.

So By the end of November I was ready for my first BIG exhibition: Model Game Bologna 2014. And it happened in my city, a few kilometers from where I live. So far it was the best exhibition I participated. The space was not enormous, but everything was well organized and we had a lot of earth to dig (nowadays very seldom we have earth at exhibitions ).


Here are the pictures of the event:














Here is my 1838 with his new companion:






And here it is me driving




1838 parked with semi-trailer disconnected: resting after some heavy work




And here is the new Fiat 180 NT with its semi-trailer, parked at gas station:

Updates - from Summer 2018 (recap)

For a long time my Mercedes 1838 remained the same, without any update. I simply brought it to the various exhibition and used it as it was.

But starting from Summer 2018 it underwent to various updates (mechanical and aesthetical) that transformed it from this configuration:



To this one:



The first group of updates were the following:
- I replaced front axle engage with a real lockable central differential
- I crated a better fuel tank and a new air box to hide the real LiPo battery
- I replaced the ALU rims (I bought) with more realistic (for the 90's) rims made with my 3D printer
- Finally I made the trailer single wide wheels (and wider frame)
- I Changed a little the painting of the tractor and painted the trailer

Soon after (in Spring 2019) I replaced the Tamiya axles with new ones completely made by me. Both axles were provided with difflock. And they were aestetically more similar to mercedes ones

Finally, few weeks ago, I found the courage to sew the cab and make it NARROW CAB

I will describe the single updates in the following posts.

Update: Trailer wide single wheels - Summer 2018



For long the semi trailer was left as an unpainted and unfinished model. The original truck that gave me inspiration had an orange semi-trailer with single wide wheels, while mine still had twin standard wheels.
During Summer 2018 I decided I had to dedicate some time to the whole Mercedes project and finish it.

This was the real truck:



I re-designed wheels, fake toolbox, front part and motor attach (it can be seen in the CAD picture at the beginning of the post). I ordered wide big wheels (28mm x 85mm) and I finally painted the whole trailer.
The second fake toolbox (real battery box) had the opening on the bottom, easier to access and eventually fix electric problems.

Once finished it was very close to the real one (only the lifting piston was - and still is - missing):







Here is the trailer GitHub repository: Kipper_Trailer. All STL parts re-designed for wide wheels and frame have "_wide" as last part of the name.

Update: Central differential - Summer 2018



At this time I had already finished my Iveco 250-30 6x4/4 that had a working lockable central differential. Since real Mercedes 1838 4x4 tractor has a central differential too (instead of the dig I used in my model) I decided that it was time to make the update.

So I re-used the lockable differential I designed for the Iveco and inserted it in Mercedes transfer case box.:





This time instead of nylon (which is quite hard to print) I used PLA to print the diff case, like I did with the Fiat 180 transfer case. Then I used tamiya gears, fork and selector (from gearbox) to make the lock. Also reduction gears were from the 3-speed Tamiya gearbox.

Update: Rims and tires - Summer 2018



The ALU rims I bought at the beginning of the project, never satisfied me. So , since I was already updating the model, I decided to use the same rims I initially made for my Iveco 250-30 6x4/4 (Iveco got trilex rims).



The final result was way better than before. I also decided to remove the threaded tires because they were too high (85mm) for this kind of truck (they probably better suit a 8x8 truck). Standard Tamiya tires looks better, but on front axle I need to fit large tires as in the real truck shown some post before.

Update: Tank and Airbox - Summer 2018



The old long fake tank I designed to hide the LiPo battery really needed a replacement, it was too long for a construction truck and it ended just under the air intake making it nonsense.



So I designed a new, smaller tank and a realistic airbox (which, now, connected to the final part behind the cab):



I found a way to create the space for the old 3300 mA/h LiPo so I could re-use it:



Final result was really good:



I am really happy with this update, now the truck looks very realistic still keeping its original (big) battery.