downwind leg

Hey guys, happy to report that the jeep tows my P-38 no problem. I wont be detailing the plane until after I have a few flights under my belt.

Here's another shot. The jeep sure looks small compared to the plane but same scale...1/6. Took the P-38 down to the runway for range, brake, and taxi tests. Getting closer>

Here's another shot of the P-38 under her own power.

Crius

That looks just great, I can't wait to see it all painted and marked. I'm really glad the jeep was able to do what you wanted it to do.

tankme

Yeah, that's one good looking aircraft there. They do a planes and tanks day at Bomber field here in TX. They had all kinds of cool RC aircraft. There were also flyovers from a real P51 Mustang and Vought F4U Corsair.

RC_BobM

Great looking P-38 downwind. Hope to see it in person someday. Perhaps we could have an RC tank and plane day somewhere in PNW once Covid eases.
best regards,
Bob

Der alte Fritz

I had been very frustrated whenever I drove the Jeep with my new trailer because the hitch would always open and drop the trailer. Here is an easy fix to add a spring to keep the pintle hitch closed. My guitar-playing son gave me a few broken steel strings to pick from and I decided on 0.35mm for the spring.
First I removed the hitch from the Jeep body by unscrewing the mounting screw and pulling it straight out. With a pair of needle-nose pliers I bent a 6" piece of wire into a U shape. Notice that the sides are not parallel; I overbent them to keep tension on the legs to keep them in position once installed. There is a small plastic ridge next to the hinge screw and the wire fits between the screw head and the ridge on one side and between the nut and the ridge on the other. I pushed the U shaped wire into position on top of the hitch and then simply bent the ends up around the hinge screw and let them rest on the mounting plate. After the ends were clipped flush with the plate using wire cutters I reinstalled the hitch into the Jeep body and did a test drive on my rough lawn. Even driving 'recklessly' the bouncing trailer stayed with the Jeep. I am very happy with the mod.

LosTxSouL94

Funny how everyone says the shocks were too soft because I received mine last week and had to do a shock rebuild because they put in the two O-rings dry. Refilled them all with 27.5 wt oil and reset the collars to stock lengths. I like it better soft and even with a figure, it barely has any lean to it.

Tankhobby

Mine will arrive in the next couple of days, you mention 27.5 wt oil, that seems like an odd value to me, what I see are values like 20, 30 and 40. Can you elaborate? Is that the weight recommended for this model's stock shocks?

Thanks

Kear-Skof

Speaking with a light background in crawlers, 27.5 wt is pretty common, I used it a lot on crawlers as it was just thick enough that it didn't leak right out of all my cheap shocks, although these days all my "shocks" are grease filled, as I only have leaf sprung vehicles and I prefer how the grease handles. As for what is recommended in these jeeps? couldn't say, don't own one. but 27.5 seems like it would be a good choice.

Crius

Had mine out today

Crius

And mine didn't lean too badly, but with another figure it levels right out and I like the way it rides.

LosTxSouL94

It's Team Associated oil. It was originally bought because it was closest to the Traxxas Stampede shock oil after I busted a shock and needed to refill it. It's more of a personal choice to use it. I would take a guess and say the stock oil is probably 30 wt? BIG stab in the dark though haha

Tankhobby

Well it arrived today but I probably will not be able to run it until Friday or the weekend, hopefully I will not need to mess with anything. Maybe I'll get a variety pack of oils, I saw a few on Amazon but will look around. Not many hobby shops up around here, actually not much of anything up around here. I'm working on a gun mount, cradle and .30 cal M1919A4 I hope to 3D print and mount on this. When it's done and if it doesn't look horrible I will post stl's on Thingiverse and provide the link. Time to break out my old Joe's and see if I can fit two in comfortably, maybe three.

LosTxSouL94

You shouldn't have to tinker too much with it. i just found my shocks too sticky for my liking and I've built shocks before so I figured why not? A couple of figures sitting in it really changes how it looks. Goes from a ghost jeep to an actual driving vehicle lol

Tankhobby

My shocks seem to be OK, I have two figures in it now although I only ran it at night so later today before the sun goes down I hope to take a few pics.
I have one of those vehicle sound kits that installs on the throttle channel, I need to see where I can mount it...

Tankhobby

OK quick video, took it out back for a quick run while the sun is still up. The noise you hear is the helmet from one of the Joes thumping around in the back. Need to get a chin strap!

notmanr

This is a great idea. Looking to source some wire as I noticed while pulling the trailer it would fall off during romps through the "tall" grass. The pintle is not a great representation of what is on the real WW2 jeep. The real jeep had an eyelet ring on each side of the hook. These were used to attach the trailer hooks.

My 1942 Ford GPW jeep with the eyelets next to the pintle.(well, it would be here but I guess I need 9 more posts to share a picture?)

Der alte Fritz

After running the Jeep/trailer combination for a while now I would recommend heavier wire. The spring wire greatly improved the performance, but I am actually thinking of reworking the spring. The trailer will still disconnect when I drive too fast on rough terrain.

Chs51

What specific figures do you recommend?

Tankhobby

Installed the sound module, sounds great. Made a crate with ration boxes to cover it. Added stowage and the .30 cal but the post for the machine gun is 3D printed and not solid so it bounces around when the jeep runs on rough ground. I'll have to replace it with a brass post. The driver and machine gun operator are "stick" figures with 3D printed heads and hands. They are a lot lighter than a regular Joe. The passenger is a regular Joe, I may replace him with another "stick" figure.

Crius

I used half inch aluminum bar stock for the post and it works great. I tapped one end for an M3 flat head cap screw and that worked out perfect.

Where did you get the mount for the .30 cal? I need to get a mount with the tray for the ammo box. If you have a link that would be great.

I still think they want too much for the trailer so I went to ebay and got a 37mm anti tank gun to pull behind it for about 50 bucks. It should be here Friday so next weekend I'll get some video.

Tankhobby

The gun mount is all 3D printed. I designed the parts using pictures and drawings from the web so they may not be exact but I think they look good. I'm goin to post them on Thingiverse after I clean a few things up. I did find a full scale M1919A4 3D assembly and tried to scale it down to 1/6 and print it but that didn't work. A lot of the parts when scaled were too small to print and would have to be made thicker, so I decided I would just create what I needed in FreeCAD from scratch.
Aluminum may be better for the post, it's lighter. Is the 37mm anti-tank gun you bought the Dragon model?

Crius

These are readily available on evilbay and tracking says mine will be here by the weekend so I'll do a detailed video and guys can decide if it's worth the coin. I didn't know dragon made a 37mm but I have seen their .30 cal and it's very tempting. Once you post the files for the MG mount to thingieverse I'll probably give them a try. Naturally I'll keep everyone posted.

RC_BobM

Gary,
That's an interesting anti-tank gun. Looks like a mish mash between 37mm and 57mm (6 PDR) guns? Dragon made a pretty decent kit of the US 37mm anti tank gun once upon a time.

Crius

It should be here today or tomorrow so I will soon have a video with a close-up examination of the piece. Being a GI Joe product it might not be too accurate, but it should be close enough.

rwalter

Hi guys
My name is Robert and I am from Germany/Bavaria and a big Willys fan. My Rochobby jewel arrived some weeks ago. I was thinking about a sound system and found the information here very helpful.
Are there any new experiences with the DASMIKRO system? I guess it is a clone of the German Benedini TBS mico. I use several Benedini modules in my 1/4 scale WWI biplanes and they really work great.

In the meantime I added some minor accessoires, mainly 3D printed but canīt post pics because of to few posts up to now.