I'm planning to very soon start building a 1/4 scale trophy truck, and I wanted to bring the idea here first to get any input that someone might be willing to give me, or let me know if there's an inherent design flaw I've over looked. I know the best way about thing is to keep things as simple as possible, but to keep costs down (as is, it's going to cost atleast $1,000) I've had to be pretty creative which prevented me from mantaining absolute simplicity. A must for me was 4-wheel independent suspension, so that kinda jacked up the price a bit.
This will be my first hobby grade R/C car, ever (the only other R/C cars I've had were years ago, and they were all toys) but I'm good with electronics and good with my hands. I know I could get a decent kit for the same price I will be dropping into this, but really the reason I want to build this is to build it. Very few peices will be pre-fabricated. The TX/RX of course, the throttle servo, the engine (will be getting one from a chainsaw) the wheels/tires, bearings, gears/rack gear will be the only pre-fabricated components. I will even be making a custom servo for steering from a controller board and a windsheild wiper motor. I haven't decided yet whether to buy actual U joints, use impact drill U joints, or make my own.
I've spent the last week or two drawing out the majority of it in Google Sketch up (nearly everything is in exact scale to use as a blue print, and if anyone happens to come across it and wants to use it as a base design, feel free) just so I could an idea of how it's all going to be put together.. Nearly everything you see is actually a modification of an earlier design.. The steering system alone went through 4 seperate revisions before I decided on one.
The actual sketchup file can be downloaded from here:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehou...3a90959f14b03f (The 3D view embedded in the site itself isn't showing up yet) and I've taken some screenshots and uploaded them to my photobucket for those who can't be bothered to mess with SU. Those can be found here:
http://s670.photobucket.com/albums/v.../Project%20RC/
There are 4 sealed bearings in the front (2 for each wheel, placed back to back) and 4 in the back (one located just beside either side of the drive gear, and one located just below the lower suspension mount). There are also 4 U joints used in both the front and rear.
So, any thoughts?