Mud Truck Thread!

[lumberjack]

Might have a bolt in safety glass windshield, but that'd be an after thought.

The spare will sit on the trailer along wtih the spares. If I'm on a trip where the trailer is farther away than comfy, the spare can ride on the back of the tail section.

There will be a winch front and rear for extraction as well as a seperate winch for each axle. The front winch will probably be between our feet. The winch for the axles might be a hydro cylinder for ease of mounting.

Wheel wells, if I have them, will be mounted to the axle's knuckle and will be easily removable.

The lights will come later in the design. If I mount them on top I'll build a bar to protect them incase of a roll over. The roof's slant is 4" lower at the front than the rear.

Street legal in a literal sense? No, hydro steering is a nogo on the street.


Now I'm working on gettin it skinnier. Trying to stay remotely reasonable in width with over 3' of tire on each axle takes some doings. The tail is far wider than it'd have to be, as is the nose.


Here's V1.1. Pink is original tubes that are in the same approx position, but have been reworked. For example the A pillar brace was lowered to increase visibility over the grey brace. Grey tubes are new tubes. 442lbs/246' of tube.

 

[Frans]

Here is a wild idea, Make your mud truck out of RC parts and then you can 'bench test' it to see how it runs.
http://www.rcrockcrawling.com/

Guy that works for me built one up, and oddly enough he has made some changes on his 'Blaze Cage' rock crawler. He said it gave him some ideas which he might not have thought of otherwise.
The little car actually handles just like a normal rock crawler.

I like your project please keep us informed.

Forgot what engine your gonna use?
Also, at every junction of pipe, will you gusset those areas?
Have you thought about receiver type mounts for the main winch? You could save some money by being able to quickly swap the winch locations from front to back. ONly use one main winch that way.

Had a thought, those axles your gonna use are heavy mofos. Gonna take a strong frame to keep them in line. Is the pipe strong enough?

 

[lumberjack]

I'm doing my modeling in a virtual medium.

I'm using a Honda J35A3 with a 5 speed transaxle.

I won't gusset every joint, but alot of shear pannels will be added.

The winches will be hard mounted, it's easier to get a stronger, protected mount.

I won't be using the Rockwells, they are geared too deep. Most likely I'll start with a D60/14bolt setup, perhaps growing to 4 wheel steer.

The frame pictured above is overkill^2-4. It's made from tube, not pipe.

I'll post some more refined pics tonight. Also, this is just a concept frame. I'll have to run it through a different program (or through solid works again) to add the bends.

 

[simplypete]

Well it's not a truck but its what I've got. This is from last weekend. Took longer to clean it than it took to get it muddy.

 

[simplypete]

Not one scratch

It took two trucks to winch it out without tearing it up. It was a pretty bad storm..multiple traumas in the local ERs, dozens of wrecks.

You mean to tell me that the 4 low and the rear locker that comes stock on that pick up didn't pull itself out? I would of thought that my pick up was up to that sort of challenge. Nice truck though isn't it?

 

[lumberjack]

Argh, I started stretching the passenger compartment 4", got that done and started stretching the engine compartment. I was going along fairly well until I ferked up and generated some fubar geometry.

I started fixing that, had too many things loose and it fell apart like spaghetti. No biggy I thought, revert to the start of that, but alas it autosaved somewhere.

Now I gotta go back and narrow the chassis from version 1.2, resave 1.3, and stretch to 1.4 before I can show current pics with "block people" sitting in the approx location and the axles/tires at ride height.


For now, I'm going to bed

 

[sawinredneck]

Isn't CAD wonderful

 

[lumberjack]

Noone's fault but my own, deciding to go to bed before I get overly frustrated with it.

 

[lumberjack]

Actually I didn't have to redo 1.3, saved alot of time. In 1.4 I added 6" of leg room, dropped the top of the nose down a bit for better visibility, and raised the end of the foot box/bulkhead 2". The block people are my rough deminsions. The legs are the height of my foot all the way back.

The weight is about 950lbs with 2 people my size. The COG is off a bit, but presently in the top view the COG is just ahead of the bottom X below the seats, dead inline, and from the side view is about 2" into my "leg".

Frans, you can see the room between the feet for the forward winch in the top view, about 15" between the feet. The "feet" are 10" wide in the top view, but there's more room in the red compartment to spread them out a bit more.

 

[Frans]

You've got mud truck fever bad I sure am interested in your progress!

 

[lumberjack]

For the record, it's more of a off road buggy than strictly mud.

Mud alone wouldn't need near the suspension, rigidity, or effort.