Building a "Sports Crawler Trailer" chapter 2

[Doom!]

Quite a bit ofdifference on the tires with the foam, nice job.

 

[Haastnooit]

Thanks Doom! I agree the tires look a lot better with the foams, I really love these "ghetto" mods that just work ... pure satisfaction!

Well back at it again today, currently in the process of adding detail to the trailer. First I figured out how to store the ramps on this trailer. I re-used some brackets I printed for the flatbed trailer that I did not use because I decided to use a slimmer more scale looking version. As the ramps will be stored beneath the floor on this trailer I can use the 8mm wide brackets with no issue.

Next I looked at the “stem” length of the gooseneck connection. The picture below is my starting point based on my guesstimated measurements during the initial design. As stated before the trailer is not parallel to the ground, there is a difference of about 3-4mm front to end.

I already designed and printed a 4mm shorter version of the “stem” before I took the pictures with the angle measure. Below some pictures of that one installed.

With the 4mm shorter “stem” the trailer is perfectly parallel to the ground, however I feel the clearance between the gooseneck and the tailgate is a bit too tight. So as a compromise I made another version that is 2mm shorter than the original and 2mm longer then the short one.

After working out the correct stem length I turned to placing the spare tire to the trailer. I designed and printed a tire-mount and drill aid for drilling the holes. I did not think it through properly, during installation attempt I realized I should have made the tire mount differently. And also the drill-guide could be made more smart. Both V1 and V2 are in the picture below.

Installed on the trailer …

Next update I hope to have added some details to the side of the trailer. I am currently working out some ideas for that and will update as I have them finalized, printed and installed.





Catch you later ...

 

[BudUMfan]

This was the coolest thread I’ve read in a while. 3D printing is amazing

 

[Doom!]

Some really great ideas have gone into this.

Thanks Doom! I agree the tires look a lot better with the foams, I really love these "ghetto" mods that just work ... pure satisfaction!

Well back at it again today, currently in the process of adding detail to the trailer. First I figured out how to store the ramps on this trailer. I re-used some brackets I printed for the flatbed trailer that I did not use because I decided to use a slimmer more scale looking version. As the ramps will be stored beneath the floor on this trailer I can use the 8mm wide brackets with no issue.

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Next I looked at the “stem” length of the gooseneck connection. The picture below is my starting point based on my guesstimated measurements during the initial design. As stated before the trailer is not parallel to the ground, there is a difference of about 3-4mm front to end.

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I already designed and printed a 4mm shorter version of the “stem” before I took the pictures with the angle measure. Below some pictures of that one installed.

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With the 4mm shorter “stem” the trailer is perfectly parallel to the ground, however I feel the clearance between the gooseneck and the tailgate is a bit too tight. So as a compromise I made another version that is 2mm shorter than the original and 2mm longer then the short one.

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After working out the correct stem length I turned to placing the spare tire to the trailer. I designed and printed a tire-mount and drill aid for drilling the holes. I did not think it through properly, during installation attempt I realized I should have made the tire mount differently. And also the drill-guide could be made more smart. Both V1 and V2 are in the picture below.

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Installed on the trailer …

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Next update I hope to have added some details to the side of the trailer. I am currently working out some ideas for that and will update as I have them finalized, printed and installed.





Catch you later ...

 

[Haastnooit]

Easter has been very productive, I guess I finalized all work on the short trailer today. I added some faux doors on the side to simulate storing compartments. First I made a 2D sideview of each side and worked out the layout, the red square is occupied by the ramps.

As I do not have a multi-color printer and wanted to use 2 colors I had to complicate things and made separate 3D models of the door, the hinges and the handle. The hinges I glued in place, and the handles are the smallest press-fit connection I ever made. Installation was really tedious. But I think it was worth the effort.

I glued the doors to the side using a “glue-guide” to help to space them out vertically on equal distance from the bottom of the frame of the trailer. The horizonal position is eyeballed to the general shape of the trailer.

I did not want to make each side exactly the same so slightly changed the layout of the doors for the passenger side of the trailer.

I also added some conspicuity stripes to the side of the trailer. If I had decided to do this earlier I probably could have made the doors on the side and the storage of the ramps in such a way that I could mark the mandatory minimum of 50% of the length of the trailer. But that is not the case so I decided to only place the markings on the gooseneck.

I tried glueing the tiny pieces on while using another “glue-guide”, but it proofed to be impossible for me to get a decent result. So I had to think of an alternative way … I decided to stick the pieces to some double sided tape, cut it to size and stick the strip to the trailer.

I did place the markings on the doors to see how it would look, I am not convinced I should do this. What do you guys think ? I will leave it as is right now and will decide on this later when I also got the long version of the trailer done.

So that is it for the short version of the gooseneck trailer, I am really satisfied with the result. Next I will turn to making the design and creating the cabin to make the long version reality. After that I will focus on dressing up and weathering the Glacier, really looking forward to that.


I will get some nice pictures of the full combination the upcoming days and post them in the next update. Happy Easter !

 

[Doom!]

Maybe on your next one add some anchor points for some tie downs. Awesome project!

 

[kspitters]

Mini gas tanks in the pickup truck bed!?!?

 

[Haastnooit]

Picture bomb of the end result of the short version of the gooseneck trailer.

 

[kspitters]

Picture bomb of the end result of the short version of the gooseneck trailer.

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You’re making me think about buying crawlers just for this… but I have too much projects in my room… but I want it… so maybe I’ll print a trailer… with nothing to go on it??

 

[BudUMfan]

Your other thread is badass too! Holy crap that’s amazeballs

 

[Haastnooit]

Past few days I started working on the design of the extended gooseneck trailer. As usual I started off with making a 2D drawing to finalize overall look, dimensions and capture the layout of doors and windows.

Because of the total size I had to make the cabin out of two modules. This also implies that I will have to do some work to hide / clean-up seams. I will glue the modules together and use filler to smooth out the surface, after sanding and more filler I will apply primer and paint of course. The front module is double tapered and relatively simple in regard to the rear section as connections is concerned. Only two screwpoints on this module.

Before printing I am going to thin down the panelsides on the model to around 2 mm where I can. Same goes for the rear section as seen on the pictures below. Where both modules will be glued togeher I plan on keeping a minimum thickness of 4 mm on the walls. I added some ridges to the underside of the back section so the screws have some more meat to screw in to.

I thought about drilling holes or glueing on screw tabs to the front center section I already printed, to be able to mount the cabin to the trailer. But I decided it would be easier to re-design the front center section of the trailer and add some screw holes to mount the cabin from the underside of the trailer.

I also modified the original design of the actual gooseneck and added the front wall of the cabin to this part. And I added some screw holes to secure the front module of the cabin to the gooseneck arm.

And all new parts together to create the cabin … nice !!!

Because of size and print time I will be printing the big front and rear modules on the K1 and the revised center part and gooseneck on the E3V2 simultaneously … feels almost like a print-farm. Tonight I will slim the cabin parts down and hopefully start printing as well.



Next update the printed results … stay tuned !

 

[Haastnooit]

Both my printers have been working overtime this weekend and I got all new and revised parts printed out. I mocked them up together to get a good look of the overall size and shape.

I did some cleaning up of the surface areas where supports were printed and sanded down part of the modules that need to fit together tightly. Unfortunately I fugged up some of the sanding as I did not notice correctly where the fit was binding. I went at it with way to much force because of irritation of not “getting it”, luckily this is only visible from the bottom.

I also made a design fault by not including extra connections for the grey front wall. To get all parts as tight as possible and make the construction more rigid I needed to add 2 screws from the side. I will need to find a way to hide these, use grub-screws on final assembly or accept them being visible.

I glued the two cabin parts together, to make assembly easier and enlarge the surface area of the glue bond I added some “lips” to the front part.

Now I wait until the glue bond has cured enough and is at full strength. After that I will fill the seam and sand down the whole cabin.



See ya !

 

[Haastnooit]

Well I added some filler and sanded down the cabin with 120 grid for the rougher more uneven parts, and followed up with 220 and 320 grid for the whole thing. I did not apply filler to the complete surface as I do not want is to be completely smooth. I would like to keep a somewhat more rugged look. I think sanding down only will give me the result I am after. If I do not like it I can always add some filler after applying the primer.

Below some pics of the current state, I will get another sanding session in tonight. After that I will be adding the primer. The cabin will be grey as the rest of the trailer so I will be using a grey primer. I think the one I got is going to be a really close match to the PLA color, perhaps I can get away with only applying primer and skip the finishing coat? Time will tell …

Close up of the seams.

I am happy with the results. I never worked on anything like this before, so for me this is very acceptable and therefore I will move along with the build. I designed and 3D printed some window trims and used some plastic packaging material for the windows. I will give the windows a good coat of Tamiya smoke to get a nice dark window taint.

Also got around to printing the door, it will be painted the same as the cabin. Next update I will have the cabin painted, the window trims installed and hopefully the long gooseneck trailer fully assembled.



Stay tuned …

 

[Haastnooit]

Got some work done on the cabin past few days. I gave the cabin 2 coats of grey primer and the color is so “near” to the color of the PLA that I decided I will leave it like this. Below some pics of the cabin mounted to a painting jig I made to make handling while painting easier. Also the door is painted with the grey primer.

The windows got 2 coats of Tamiya smoke to make them darker. I fugged things up again, after the second coat, two of the windows where stuck to the cardboard I painted them on. I had to scrape and sand the cardboard of the surface. Now I am obligated to “reverse” the windows on installation and place the painted side to outside.

Next I disassembled the short gooseneck and started the build up of the longer version. In order to keep access to all screw positions I first installed the front wall to the floor section of the cabin.

Then attached the backend of the trailer and the floor section of the cabin together. In total 6 screws are used for this connection. Four screw in from the backside of the trailer and two screw in from the front side.

Finally I dropped in the cabin and secured it to the floor section, front wall and gooseneck arm. In total eleven screws are used for this connection. In all enthusiasm I forgot to take a picture after installation of the cabin and dived straight in with adding some details to the cabin.


I glued the doorhandle and hinges to the door similar as I did with the doors on the backend of the trailer. After that I glued the door to the side of the cabin and followed up by installing all window trims on the cabin with double-sided tape. Added a step and grip around the door for some extra details.

Designed and printed a AC unit for the roof.

The driver side is somewhat simpler, on this side I only added some “connectors” on the right lower corner.

This is how it sits right now, I still want to add some more details to the cabin. I am thinking about adding a small door to the lower left corner on the driver side, perhaps a storage rack with some scale stuff on the front side of the cabin and another something (not sure what) to the roof. Also the backwall of the cabin can be made more interesting with some added details, so I will look in to that as well. I got some good ideas and will work them out in the upcoming days ...


Cheers !

 

[Tex Koder]

Got some work done on the cabin past few days. I gave the cabin 2 coats of grey primer and the color is so “near” to the color of the PLA that I decided I will leave it like this. Below some pics of the cabin mounted to a painting jig I made to make handling while painting easier. Also the door is painted with the grey primer.

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The windows got 2 coats of Tamiya smoke to make them darker. I fugged things up again, after the second coat, two of the windows where stuck to the cardboard I painted them on. I had to scrape and sand the cardboard of the surface. Now I am obligated to “reverse” the windows on installation and place the painted side to outside.

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Next I disassembled the short gooseneck and started the build up of the longer version. In order to keep access to all screw positions I first installed the front wall to the floor section of the cabin.

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Then attached the backend of the trailer and the floor section of the cabin together. In total 6 screws are used for this connection. Four screw in from the backside of the trailer and two screw in from the front side.

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Finally I dropped in the cabin and secured it to the floor section, front wall and gooseneck arm. In total eleven screws are used for this connection. In all enthusiasm I forgot to take a picture after installation of the cabin and dived straight in with adding some details to the cabin.


I glued the doorhandle and hinges to the door similar as I did with the doors on the backend of the trailer. After that I glued the door to the side of the cabin and followed up by installing all window trims on the cabin with double-sided tape. Added a step and grip around the door for some extra details.

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Designed and printed a AC unit for the roof.

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The driver side is somewhat simpler, on this side I only added some “connectors” on the right lower corner.

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This is how it sits right now, I still want to add some more details to the cabin. I am thinking about adding a small door to the lower left corner on the driver side, perhaps a storage rack with some scale stuff on the front side of the cabin and another something (not sure what) to the roof. Also the backwall of the cabin can be made more interesting with some added details, so I will look in to that as well.


Cheers !

Now that's some magnificent craftsmanship!

Superb details and great work on the paint.

 

[Doom!]

I agree with Tex! This is looking killer.

Just some inspiration for roof details.

Maybe an antenna or sattelite dish, or a few solar panels.

 

[King blitz]

Picture bomb of the end result of the short version of the gooseneck trailer.

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Awesome job

 

[Haastnooit]

I added some more details to the cabin to make it slightly more interesting to look at. On the back wall I added another door and two small ventilations ducts. Of course I added the black hinges and doorhandle to the door for extra detail.

On the driver side wall of the cabin I added a small door to the lower left corner, is has a tiny little black accent for the key lock.

On the roof of the cabin I added a ventilation duct ....

And a Wi-Fi antenna.

The support legs visible on the pictures I printed for use when working on the trailer or storing it on the shelf. Those are not completely true to scale as the footprint is quite large (25x25mm). I also made a smaller more scale looking version with a footprint of 15x15mm but those look a bit unsubstantial I think. So I will probably make another version with 20x20mm footprint later. Also I think I can make them attachable to the floorplan of the cabin.

I decided I will not add the red-white markings to the side the trailer and cabin, as I do not think it will make it look better. I really dig the clean and “sharp” look of the trailer the way it sits right now. So therefore I think the work on the trailer is done.

I will now focus on the Glacier, I am not completely sure what I am going to with it on the looks department. I will need to give it some good thinking the upcoming days … I do know I will add some oil shocks first and see If I can get a driver inside the cab, so I will probably be starting there.


See ya !

 

[Haastnooit]

I have been thinking about what to do with the look of the Glacier. I feel the long gooseneck trailer looks real sharp and clean and therefore cannot be towed around by some old and rusty looking pick up. That would be a complete mismatch and not look right in my opinion. Same applies to the crawler on the back of the trailer. A dirty, beat-up crawler would not look right …

I feel this combination is owned by a “high roller” with some cash to burn, so both the towing vehicle and crawler would look well taken care off. So with that in mind the plan for the Glacier is to add a driver to the interior, make it a two-tone paintjob, add panel lines to the outside and maybe give the body 1 coat of the lightest wash I have and then leave it at that. The crawler will only get a wash ...

Enough talk … on to the pictures of the work done so far on the Glacier. I bought the same set oil shocks I put on the Patriot build. They are OK quality and a straight swap with the stock ones as all needed hardware is included to change the stock link and shock mounting.

In order to change the shocks on the rear the body needs to be removed completely to gain access to the chassis mounted screws. Man, I really love the square body!

During installation I came to the conclusion it is better to leave the rear shocks stock. As the rears are laid down they come stock with real stiff springs, much stiffer then all the other stock Eazy RC shocks. The new oil shocks with maximum spring tension do not even come close in stiffness to the stock set up. The rear of the truck will most definitely squat under the load of the trailer when using the new oil shocks. No good ! So I decided to abort the shock replacement all together and keep them for future projects.

Next I worked on adding a driver to the interior, again Indiana Jones will be driving. I cannot find any alternative figures with the correct size for 1/18 scale. In order to sit in the correct position and have a correct height I needed to mutilate Indy. I flattened his ass and hamstrings for height correction and he lost is right foot in order to sit in the right position. I hot glued his ass, hat and bag to the front seat.

I must say the fitment of the interior in the body of the Glacier is really tight. Getting the interior in and out is quite difficult, persistence is very much needed. After several times removing an installing the interior I still cannot work out the correct method. I removed the stock steering wheel attached to the dashboard as it hampers placement of the interior with the driver in place, also it is impossible to get his hands on the stock steering wheel when the interior is in place.

I 3D printed a new steering wheel with a shorter stem and placed it in the hands of Indy before installation of the interior.

I planned on getting a pic with the steering wheel in hand before final installation, but when I test fitted the interior it suddenly popped right in to place. As the position and look of the driver is perfect I decided to leave it as is. The steering wheel is “loose” in his hands, I was planning to glue it in place. I gave the body a good shaking and the steering wheel is not moving so that made me confident to leave it like this.


Next I will work on the outside of the body. I will need to do some research on coloring panel lines as the panel lines on this body are really fine. Using a marker will not give a good result I think … Perhaps Tamiya Panel line accent color might be the solution, I will check YT for some information. Meanwhile I will order some paint for the two-tone paintjob.


To be continued ….

 

[Haastnooit]

Well I spend my free time the past days disassembling the K10 body, adding masking tape everywhere and painting the two-tone. Below some pics of the disassembly, I removed the Glacier sticker to reveal the Chevrolet name on the tailgate.

I did not take any pictures of the masked body parts as they would not be very spectacular, however I feel it is worth mentioning the masking tape I use. Based on my experience with painting lexan bodies I prefer to use Tamiya masking tape.

The narrower types in the dispensers (6, 10 and 18 mm) are really good for the “free” edge of the masked areas. The 40mm is a no-no for the edges, I already knew this but had forgotten about it. I learned the hard way again as I masked the edge of the tailgate with the 40mm tape. After removing the tape I discovered the edge to not be sharp at all and the paint creeped under on several places. A horrible result that made me remove the paint and do the tailgate over using the narrower tape.


Below some pics of the tailgate and bedsides after applying the white paint (Tamiya TS26).

On the close-up of the tailgate you can see some markings caused by scraping off the first layers of white paint. The price I have to pay for using the wrong masking tape … Bummer, but in real life it looks not half as bad.

Further assembly of the bed …

How I keep organized when working on these small scale trucks with loads of tiny hardware.

On the cab I only removed the side indicators, rest of the cab was masked.

All back together …

I also painted the rims, but as I was at it late last night I apparently forgot to give them the final coat of Tamiya TS26. I have left them with the white primer only applied. When installing the body on the chassis, there was a noticable color difference between the two-tone and the wheels. So I disassembled the wheels again and gave them a coat of the final color. Drying as we speak …


Pics of the wheels will be in the next updat as I reached the maximum of 15 attachements. See ya ....