First I would to thank Tailend Charlie for his work on making a functioning VVSS suspension out of the Mato offering. My method is basically his method with a couple of my own ideas added. I am using the Mato traction bars, as they appear to work fine. If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask.

A few items may need some explanation.

The traction bar assembly is all glued solid except the Du-bru hinge. The hole assembly pivots from there. Notice the engineered plastic pivot bar and how the ends extend past the traction bar assembly. This rides in the C channel that is glued to the inside of the suspension castings.

THe enlarged pads on the traction bar give some room for movement, without the whole thing piling up. Without those pads the traction arms would slide off the swing arms and foul the wheel. With the slightly enlarged pads this no longer is a problem.

It is time consuming, but the bottom line is these can be built to be fully functional. I used low temp allow on the wheel castings and to fill the void in the suspension towers. This is the only thing that might cause you some concern as not everyone wants to do this. Instead you could use that two part epoxy Mr fix it that is availabe at most big hardware stores. The Tamiya aluminum cylinders are glued into place, and the low temp alloy poured in. So at this point you could just fill the void with the epoxy putty.

Pictures continued

I think I just wet myself[sm=red_smile.gif].


Cheers,
Wade

Well done. It looks great. Like the use of the landing gear strap. I try and use as much metal as possible for strength and durability. Using metal to fill would seem to give it more weight which is good. I used two part epoxy. Also you didn't reinforce the sides, but instead you used a C channel. How does that hold up? Is there any flexing. It is hard for me to break things down for show and tell like you do. Great job!!
So now how does the tank run with the new suspension?

YHR,
Fantastic job. I hope you run a thread on how you casted your roadwheels? Also, it looks like they have rubber tires or is that just paint. Again fantastic job and thanks for sharring. If I could figure out your casting ( ie: how to make molds, wwat to use for molds etc), I may just try it myself?

Jim

Agree, this forum needs a good metal casting how-to thread. Thanks for volunteering YHR!

Perry

These wheels have Tamiya Sherman rubber applied. Too Narrow, but I plan on 1.5 tires per wheel, and then roll them in black silcone to hide the seem.

Perry

I am working on a metal casting how to for these wheels

YHR,Good job on the wheels.I read your casting how to and found it to be interesting but one qeustion came to mind,you used a 1/18 scale boogie wheel to make your mold.The wheel seems to have a stronger spoke,unlike the H/L stock wheels which seem to have a narrow spoke,was this the reason for using the 1/18 scale wheels? Did you attempt to cast using the H/L wheel as a pattern and it was to weak? Just qurious as to why you chose a different wheel as a template for your mold? Thanks Sax

The pirmary reason was that the Mato wheels are slightly out of scale. The modified 1/18 scale wheels with the rubber applied are bang on. I also like the open spoke wheel.

Update.

Wolf was out running around in the back yard through the snow, and after about 15 minutes I brought her back to the garage. On two sets of suspension the torsion bars with the enlarged pads had still managed to slip off the swing arms causing a real serious sag in the front end.

I am going to replace the pads with plastistrut I beam. The I beam sized to fit over the swing arm. Hopefully this will work. Actually as I am writing this I think Brass C channnel would be even better. I'll keep you posted.