TOPIC:

To be honest I'm not feeling a whole lot of love for it at the moment ... maybe once I get primer on it'll start to look better to me ... in the meantime I need to do something about an interior - I don't think it'll be quite as full/detailed as I've done for other builds as the tank compromises things a bit - probably just a basic dash, a couple of seats & of course a driver figure

You have already a big level. It'is not on the same level as the ford camper but it looks beautifull.

Another Turnigy RX controlled switch turned up today so I've been having "fun" doing the wiring... the switch has two
jumpers that are supposed to control failsafe modes (i.e. how it behaves when the RX loses signal).

On the previous ones (4?) I've used, fail mode is whatever it was doing before signal was lost, and jumpers only control what happens if you disconnect the power & reconnect it ...

This time though, it only works at all if both jumpers are present, and doens't work at all for the other 3 modes/settings, and again, no fail safe.



In other news, the gears in the pump have welded themselves to the housing & the face plate in the handful of seconds it took to prime the pump for (re)testing ... I can only think I got away with it the first time due to factory greasing. Proper 12v screenwash pump on order

Old pump:




New pump ... the power contacts came loose (risking a short) with barely more than a fart in their general direction, so I dismantled it to solder flying leads direct to the motor terminals. Overall, it's bigger & chunkier, but the same level of technology




To reduce priming issues I've sited the pump as close as I could to the tank output -the run of pipe is about 30mm





I've given it a test run after finishing wiring (apart from LEDs), driving an old Tamiya double tap reverse ESC with a TX right stick still unsprung & ratcheted is a bit of a pig... monster wheelies with a full tank of water ... all up weight is already 2.9kg. Water cannon jet was a bit feeble, then flow stopped... I assume a bit of Pixie poo got in there, I've increased the bore to 1mm to try and stop it happening again, and increase the flow. The pump is very noisy, maybe windows will help ...

I like it when you add functions like the pump! Very cool build!

2nd RX controlled switch ordered for the (yet to be wired) LEDs, this time a slightly cheaper, lower current one that plugs directly into the RX pins:



I want to put the driver on the right hand side - so the arms on the Wild Willy figure are the wrong way round in terms of height and angle ... I started by putting in props to get the angles right, then filled with Milliput. Shoulder came out a lot squarer than OE, but not necessarily a bad thing Also started on the seats:

I love it

Slow progress... seats are finished, including fake belts on the vacant passenger seat. It's about time I got around to motorising a driver head - I bought 5 tiny servos for just this job, started & never got very far for some reason ... I just checked the purchase date & it was April 2013



I swear the wiring was tidier than this, I'd just begun unpicking it after finding I'd completely underestimated the room needed for the full Willly figure & seat - for his feet to clear the firewall, the back of the seat needs to be where all the plugs go into the reciever so a bit of a rethink is needed there. I'll probably have to cut 10mm or so from his heels to get any sort of headroom too.

I aslo managed to break off both wipers, I was probably a bit premature in fitting them. I only mention it as one of them made a really impressing twang noise out of all proportion to the size and material, as it flew across the desk ...







Working on the card floor template, the plan is to fit both electronic switches, the UBEC & the RX to one side of the pump, the hopefully box a lot of it in with a fake storage locker. Having some exposed wiring seems inevitable...

A small ps - the electrics still aren't finished, I have to finish the LED cables, mostly extending them so they can be routed reasonably tidily. I'm waiting on a y-lead so the head & steering can go on one channel, also waiting on a smaller (9g) servo for the water cannon as a standard size one looked silly up in the roof. I'm going to run it off the one of the spare stick channels so there's less movement of it, the hose "engineering" was dubious TBH & worried about possible wear ...

The pump is doing my head in - I've lost count of the times I've dismantled the truck and/or it to find nothing wrong, tested it, put it back together and having work very briefly & fail again.

Faults so far have included the toothed wheels not turning (seems water and/or use make them swell up against each other :whislte:), ditto (centre of the free wheel off centre), now it works fine off the truck but only briefly on before flow slows to a dribble... I've fixed faults as I've found them only to find new ones, the only possible ones left to eliminate are the inlet pipe collapsing, the output from the tank being too narrow bore, or pixie poo in the tank intermittantly blocking the outlet.

Either way, time to put it in a box & forget about it for a while.