TOPIC:

Nice to see a full on build.
Carson makes frame rails so you can lengthen your truck.
Also there is a chap in US that makes frame rails in any length and have massiv selection of parts on the truck side of things.
Think is on build number 1300 or so (he does that for living)
His shop is called SemiJoe's R/C Truck Shop.
He have both a ebay shop and a FB site,

I had Scania for some years ago, but quickly found out it was too expensive for me.
Also found the people in the truck scene a around me was a bit strange.
And everyone was hung up on the construction side of things, like driving around dump trucks full of sand.
Found out it was not my kind of thing.
But I did enjoy building the truck.

BTW: RC4WD is a US brand, they used to make everything in house.
But these days they get things made in Asia, and like you found out, many things don't seem to line up, holes in wrong spot, no holes, holes not threaded to full debth etc.
After they begun to get the parts made overseas, the quality did go south.
Before they proudly stamped their products with MADE IN USA,
On some kits they now state Assembled in US.

For these reasons I'm sceptical for every new product RC4WD releases.
I've had shocks from them that leaked badly, parts lost on trails (from the shocks), tires that split in 6! places on the same tire after couple of years use.
And I find their ball ends (all of them) are too sloppy

RC4WD seems to be hit and miss, some have parts that have a problem after another, others have no problems at all.

Only items I'm intrested to buy is wheels and some cnc parts, due reported problems.


Looking forward to the rest of the build

RC4WD is in California. They design most of their stuff domestically, and some of it is manufactured overseas. However, all of their heavy equipment is actually made by a Chinese company called JD Models. RC4WD is just a distributor for them. You can see their logo on the box. You can get the same models from Banggood and a few other sources. I have the stuff RC4WD do themselves (like the Trail Finder 2 or Gelande) to be really good quality. No complaints.

I've heard of SemiJoe but never looked into his stuff. I was hoping to call this project done, but maybe I'll reopen it for a good cause.

blakbird wrote:

Don't worry, plenty more information is on the way. Regarding the realism of this kind of crane on a tractor truck, I have certainly seen them but you are right that a flatbed would be more realistic. I was thinking that pulling a flatbed trailer would be a good compromise. Doing my own chassis extension is beyond the level of customization I am currently comfortable with. To be honest, this project was all about the crane and the truck is just there to hold it up! I agree that the brown is dull which was actually intentional to not detract from the crane. I also agree pin-striping would look good but I'm no good with freehand painting or designing patterns. Any recommendations for something to emulate?

I was thinking something like this, in cut vinyl rather than paint (original pic is a screenshot from Euro Truck Simulator II that I found on Google):

blakbird wrote:

...maybe I'll reopen it for a good cause.

Sorry about that

The crane is specifically made to be installed on Tamiya 1/14 scale trucks, but that doesn't mean installation was quite as simple as just bolting it on. A number of modifications and adjustments needed to be made. It started out well enough. The picture on the left shows the crane base bolted to the frame rails. This went pretty smoothly except that I needed to remove an oil tank screwed to one of the cross members which was right beneath the large hole where all the hydraulic hoses will pass. Removing that was a lot harder than you might think since there was no access to the screws with the model built. I would have had to disassemble the whole chassis to access it so I just cut it out with a Dremel. The right hand image shows the installation of the hydraulic reservoir. This required removal of a plastic fuel tank that served as a housing for a Multi-Function Control Unit which means I will not be able to use an MFC on this model. Between the frame rails you can see the hydraulic pump and it's brushless outrunner motor. The pump motor is capable of running on 3s, but I have found that 2s offers plenty of speed.
Next I installed the outriggers, front and rear. The huge front outriggers sit right behind the cab on top of the frame. The rear outriggers take the place of the rear bumper and partially obscure the tail lights which doesn't seem ideal. The outriggers are strong enough to hold up the whole chassis with the wheels slightly elevated from the ground and offers plenty of stability for use of the crane.
Once the main crane arm is bolted on the chassis gets very heavy indeed. In fact, all of the suspension is bottomed out. This is not such a big deal in the rear but I'd like to find a way to stiffen the front end. The left side of the chassis opposite the hydraulic tank becomes the home of the valve block as shown on the right. Three circuits run down under the frame rails and then up through the hole in the crane. The other circuit runs up to the slewing cylinders. Supply and return lines have to find a home somewhere between.
The cabover style trucks use a steering servo mounted on the left side of the chassis. This will no longer work because the hydraulic valve block occupies that space. I had to move the steering servo up to the front ahead of the motor in the space normally used for the transmission shift servo. This means I won't be able to shift the 3-speed transmission. This location was not really meant for a steering servo so I had to get creative with the links. You can see on the right how I routed the steering link just above the leaf spring. I also used a high torque servo saver to handle all the weight over the front wheels.

The MAN TGX uses fairings and spoilers behind the cab and along the frame. None of them will fit directly anymore because they interfere with the various crane components. One way to handle this would be to just leave them off, but I think this compromises the look of the truck too much. Instead I trimmed the parts for clearance as shown on the left (all of these started out roughly rectangular). The photo on the right shows them all installed. I think the original appearance of the truck was maintained fairly well.
Here's the completed crane install both stowed and deployed. It looks like it belongs there which is what I was going for. The truck still drives well even with all the weight. The crane uses it's own ESC which I have wired in parallel to the same battery. I use my normal 4-channel transmitter for driving the truck and another 5-channel twin stick transmitter for operating the crane. The 5th wheel is still accessible but doesn't have much clearance for the front of a trailer.
This picture shows all the parts of the stock truck which had to be removed to make room for the crane.

Woo. That's not a plug and play crane.

Impressive

Jonny wrote:

...

...

Thought about this overnight - Model Technics "TrimLine" might be the way to go, there's a lot of colours in their range & several thicknesses on each roll, the narrowest of which should be able to curve around

Jonny wrote:

Thought about this overnight - Model Technics "TrimLine" might be the way to go, there's a lot of colours in their range & several thicknesses on each roll, the narrowest of which should be able to curve around

Those straight lines look within my ability. Maybe I will give it a try. It can always be removed if I do a terrible job.