Long shot: low budget parts for custom truck

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DieCastoms
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Posts: 9
Joined: September 20th, 2011, 12:42 pm

Long shot: low budget parts for custom truck

Post by DieCastoms »

Building a custom truck from scratch on a very small budget. I am looking for people's cast-offs and stuff from 'junk piles' that you may never use. "One man's trash is another's treasure" type stuff.

My project is a Ford F150 street truck, NOT a race truck. I am trying to make it look like a generically scale truck, not all tube frame/cage. I have a 43cc electric start pocket-bike engine and a fiberglass body.

Here is a short list on the stuff I especially need:


wheels and tires
rear-end (preferably drive-shaft driven, not sprocket, preferably with diff.)
shiftable gearbox, maybe with reverse?
"cheap" radio system, 2 or more channel, ANY freq. for now, but preferably 2.4 or 5.8 GHz etc.
steering servo/actuator
shocks/absorbers
tierods and ends, linkages, etc.

Please post pictures to this thread of anything you're willing to offer to a low-budget newbie and if it's not something I can use maybe someone else will buy it? Win win?

Michael.
Image
Michael, at DieCastoms.

Image
'85 Ford F250 fiberglass body, 48 inches long, 19 wide -- 43cc elec start pocket bike engine -- http://www.quarterscalelegends.com/bb/v ... f=6&t=2818
DieCastoms
Newbie
Posts: 9
Joined: September 20th, 2011, 12:42 pm

Re: Long shot: low budget parts for custom truck

Post by DieCastoms »

Hey everyone, thank you for your replies! I am sorry I have not responded sooner but I THOUGHT that the forum would email me if anyone posted here >.<

MOST of my sources are reject and scrap piles. The frame tubing is coming from the frame of a discarded treadmill. The tubing is 1 x 2 so is of a good size to 'resemble' a scale chassis rail. I am hoping to make the chassis look generically like a Ford F250 chassis. I am not trying to build a scale replica of the real thing, but I also don't want it to look like a sand-rail with a truck body tacked on..

I was originally going to use the wheels and tires that are in that photo, but then I found these at Tractor supply for $15, and I can mount them on the same wheels as the other photo..

Image

Last night I went around my yard measuring ... everything ... and found out that my dad's old gocart with magnesium racing wheels and tires would be great, but my nephew smashed one of the wheels with a hammer trying to get it off the gocart instead of unbolting the rim like a normal person. . . so now I am wondering about gocart wheels and tires, though I do not want 'slicks'.

Thank you for the rear-end links, but those are nothing but 1:1 ratio right-angle drives. I would need to gear down between the engine and the rear and I'm hoping to not have to do that, even if I end up with only one forward speed.
I have a ride-on lawnmower transaxle that is intriguing me. As far as I know it is at least two or three speeds forward and one in reverse. I have no idea what the original pulley or sprocket on this trans was so I haven't the slightest idea what it would have used for an input RPM. I thought of chucking it in a cordless drill later to experiment.

Another idea I had for a rear would be in a snowblower. There is a worm-drive gearbox that drives the auger/tines/fan (whatever you choose to call it). It MUST be pretty ruggedly constructed because the one I have here in the yard has NO support on the gearbox, only at the far ends of the axle.. anything the auger hits or tries to eat up is direct force on the axle . . . If one of these gearboxes turns out to be a viable option, I can get "junk" snowblowers for scrap, pull the gearbox, and haul off to the local scrapyard and PROBABLY "break even" on cost. I do not have permission, yet, to repost the image, but a builder on RCGods has a posted with a 'truck' that looks like noting more than two rails, an engine, and one of these gearboxes on a direct drive from the engine.. I have asked him for more information and am hoping to find out that it is, infact, a snowblower gearbox. An additional positive would be that one of these gearboxes could very easily be made to look like a quick-change rearend and appear like it belongs under a slightly-customized truck :D

Image

Also .. since my engine has electric start, there will be a 12-volt battery on board, most likely from a motorcycle or garden tractor. I have a hefty pile of actuators from under the seats of a Chrysler minivan and a Range Rover. I am thinking hood, body, or bed lift, or something similar, and am also thinking about steering, although these motors are SLOOOOW ... Any thoughts?

Seat motors and pocketbike engine videos:
http://www.youtube.com/user/DieCastoms


Thanks again for your input!
Mike, at Diecastoms.
Michael, at DieCastoms.

Image
'85 Ford F250 fiberglass body, 48 inches long, 19 wide -- 43cc elec start pocket bike engine -- http://www.quarterscalelegends.com/bb/v ... f=6&t=2818
DieCastoms
Newbie
Posts: 9
Joined: September 20th, 2011, 12:42 pm

Re: Long shot: low budget parts for custom truck

Post by DieCastoms »

'nother quick update. I messed around with the riding mower rear. It is two speed and no reverse. Those of you who own street trucks, how important do you really think reverse is? I love getting stuck and working my way out, it annoys me to have to stop driving and walk over and pick up my RC.. How about electric reverse? A small motor anywhere between the clutch and the rear wheels could spin freely all the time or turn the driveline in reverse when engaged.

Hmm...

Diecastoms.
Michael, at DieCastoms.

Image
'85 Ford F250 fiberglass body, 48 inches long, 19 wide -- 43cc elec start pocket bike engine -- http://www.quarterscalelegends.com/bb/v ... f=6&t=2818
DieCastoms
Newbie
Posts: 9
Joined: September 20th, 2011, 12:42 pm

Re: Long shot: low budget parts for custom truck

Post by DieCastoms »

Can't edit your own posts?

here's two pics of the riding mower rear axle:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y89/Va ... 124818.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y89/Va ... 124833.jpg
Michael, at DieCastoms.

Image
'85 Ford F250 fiberglass body, 48 inches long, 19 wide -- 43cc elec start pocket bike engine -- http://www.quarterscalelegends.com/bb/v ... f=6&t=2818
bentley marshall
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Joined: August 5th, 2009, 1:10 pm
Location: Hamilton New Zealand

Re: Long shot: low budget parts for custom truck

Post by bentley marshall »

that snow blower diff looks good how big is it can you sit it next to a coke can for size ref ?? thanks
DieCastoms
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Posts: 9
Joined: September 20th, 2011, 12:42 pm

Re: Long shot: low budget parts for custom truck

Post by DieCastoms »

The snow blower gearbox has no differential in it, just so you know.

I'm not-yet doing anything wrong, I have not bought anything yet. The snow blower gearbox I pictured is a photo off an ebay auction that I do not intend to purchase, it was just a handy photo to share with you. If I DO use one, I will not be buying it from EBay I will put up a local ad (craigslist most likely) for used snowblowers until I find one with the right gearbox. $25 for a junk snowblower that I can probably scrap for $10 and get other salvage from will not be a problem at all.

As for the wheels.. I'm not sure where you're getting 11x4x4x4. The wheels and tires I have (the ones mounted on the handtruck) are 10 X 4.10X3.50 - 4. These wheels and tires were $3.99 (yes, three, not thirteen) at Tractor Supply when I bought them. They had about 50 of them.
The wheels have bearings pressed in place that fit a 5/8 inch axle. If these bearings are pressed out, they leave a hub with a 1-3/8 I.D. If my father and I remove that hub (which is not very strong without the bearings in it) we can very easily MAKE a 4-bolt hub like you would find on a gocart. Piece of pipe/tubing that slides over whatever rear axle we choose, piece of 1/8 inch plate cut and drilled to fit the wheel's existing 4-bolt pattern, weld the plate to the pipe, and done. Shouldn't take more than a couple hours to do. May or may not be beautiful but . . .

remove the red hub and bearings, build and bolt on the orange hub
Image


Mike.
Michael, at DieCastoms.

Image
'85 Ford F250 fiberglass body, 48 inches long, 19 wide -- 43cc elec start pocket bike engine -- http://www.quarterscalelegends.com/bb/v ... f=6&t=2818
Diecastoms Dad
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Posts: 2
Joined: September 24th, 2011, 7:03 am

Re: Long shot: low budget parts for custom truck

Post by Diecastoms Dad »

Your missing the logic of the fact we already have a dozen of the tires/wheels shown ! Your right any form of welding is going to produce some distortion but there are plenty of ways to deal with that besides machining entire hubs. Any welding being done either myself or mikes brother will handle both of us are now or were certified welders so we know whats involved there and we have MIG,TIG,stick and oxy/acet welders here.I got mike the truck body while we picking up some glass panels for his brothers high 10 second big block Malibu drag car that's his brothers toy. It's the 1/4 scale thing that's new to us some of our 1/1 scale skills can cross over but I'm sure there are many things you folks can set us on the better path with 1/4 scale stuff.This is a toy that mikes nephews and niece might be driving so we are trying to keep it very low buck right now, Later we can pick up another body and get more involved in something better this is our trainer at the moment.
Leon
Diecastoms Dad
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Posts: 2
Joined: September 24th, 2011, 7:03 am

Re: Long shot: low budget parts for custom truck

Post by Diecastoms Dad »

DieCastoms wrote:Can't edit your own posts?

here's two pics of the riding mower rear axle:

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y89/Va ... 124818.jpg
http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y89/Va ... 124833.jpg
this rear is from a toro commercial walk behind not a rider mike guess I scrapped to many for you to keep track :)
DieCastoms
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Posts: 9
Joined: September 20th, 2011, 12:42 pm

Re: Long shot: low budget parts for custom truck

Post by DieCastoms »

FuNkY mOnK wrote:What's going on with this??
FuNkY, I wish anything at all was going on with it! To the best of my knowledge, most of it is sitting in a locked car about 1000 miles away from me . . . but I am HOPING to be home for the summer.

I bought myself an Axial RTR Honho (1/10th scale RC Crawler, "scale" c-channel chassis, double-triangulated 4-link suspension front and back, oil-filled-damper coil-overs at all four corners, all-time/fully-locked 4wd.. With a 4.3 inch diameter tire, I can drive straight up and over a 6-inch flat-topped obstacle) which has given me a number thoughts of how to build the quarter scale; chassis shape, suspension, link geometry, steering linkages (one from 4-link will be omitted in favor of a pitman arm and the servo will be chassis mounted, biased to the driver's side with the link running to the passengers' side parallel to the pitman and connected to the tierod. Some sort of oil damper will be used here as well, eventually..)... You know ... Things :P

Also, I recently figured out a switch set-up that will allow a user to switch ANY NUMBER* of battery cells from series (for running) to parallel (for charging at a lower voltage) which should help greatly in my build as I would like to run 30 volts (and charge at 6 most likely, to avoid the cost of a 30-volt charger). The "*" above is because the 'limit' is the availability of switches, or your ability to make absolutely sure that multiple switches are toggled at the EXACT same moment, otherwise ... the magic purple smoke comes out .....

Anyways ... hugely random update, but glad anyone is still interested!!!!

Mike
Michael, at DieCastoms.

Image
'85 Ford F250 fiberglass body, 48 inches long, 19 wide -- 43cc elec start pocket bike engine -- http://www.quarterscalelegends.com/bb/v ... f=6&t=2818
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