Any way to take tank parts to consturct a mattracks style track for a savage. [link=http://www.mattracks.com/]Like this.[/link] I know they make a crappy radio shack version. [link=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nV7t9iyXCSY&feature=related]Click here.[/link] I want mine to be [link=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ExBgdaTTDU&feature=related]like this.[/link]

I know nothing about tanks, and was just wondering if something like this could be made that would be durable. Not planning on jumping with them just want to play in the snow, I was thinking of putting skis on the front too.

I posted this in the tank forum first, they didn't seem to interested.

Thanks,

kent_man

Hi kent man, go to electric cars, bugies and truggies forum look for truck conversion,its an rc truck converted using tank parts, iam working on the mattraks idea for my savage 21,using heg long parts , i have all the important detailed pictures just have to make the triangular plate to fit the idler wheels and tracks, i wrote to mattracks but they wernt interested, and the shack truck is crap,
Watch this space.
heres a picture of the tracks

Rick.

Hi Kent.

This is certainly a good place to post about your ideas.

Rickster has a great conversion there! His thread is located [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_6743099/tm.htm]here[/link].

I have also considered making a track conversion for my truck which is unfinished, and the Mattracks website was my original inspiration. There is a model tank supplier called [link=http://www.matotoys.com/canada/]Mato Toys International[/link] which has sent me some information on metal tank tracks, drive wheels and idler wheels. They answer questions quickly, and have many plastic and metal track sizes for different tank scales.

Good luck with your project, and keep us up on your progress [sm=thumbs_up.gif]

Thanks for the info guys. I'm just getting into RC and really don't have experience with fabbing new parts, but I like modding and tinkering with things so I'll give it whirl. I had a car(Dodge SRT-4) that I was constantly throwing parts on to make it faster, but I traded it last Feb(too expensive to break, and it got me into too much trouble). I had always been interested in RC and still have a kyosho boat from when I was 12. Anyways I just recently started looking into RC and realized that it's way more than just buying a car and driving it around. It's what's going on behind the scenes that really intrests me, the building, fixing, modding, and customizing that makes it enjoyble. Well I went off on a tangent there but I think my dad has a mill of some sort in his garage. So I may be able to make parts I need. If there are any other resources that could help me just let me know.

Thanks,

kent_man

hi kent-man,
I know what you mean about the fun part or RC being the modding and building i ust have made about 20 aircraft but never really liked flying them,LOL,
but dont be put off modding because you dont ave the tools, i do all my building in an 8 foot by 6 foot shed and the only tools i have are a pillar drill and hand tools.
got some pictures of the the mattracks design ,looks complicated to try and copy but i found the 4,us design just went in the shed and started building it out of brass, i reckon with a simple bit of braising and some tank parts it would be easy and fun to build.

Thank You Rickster3057 for the pics!
I've been thinking about a trax setup too.
If you look into tracks , http://www.matotoys.com/canada/produ...roducts_id=143
Would a 1/16 tank track at all four corners support a 13lb. truck in snow? I think 1:8 sled tracks would fit this aplication better.

Can anyone offer info on the width/length of a track on scale tanks?

Hey Kent-man, surely its not the scale of the tracks that matter, its the weight and speed the tracks can travel at, generally tanks whether they be 1/16 or 1/8 scale are geared down to travel at scale speeds the problem with the mattraxs design is when you retrofit to a nitro or electric truck the torque and speed the motor turns the wheels has to be translated to tracks.
If you compare the weight of the wheels and then the weight of the tracks there is a big difference, the design has to take into account the torque and power transmitted to the track drive train and the suspension setup,take for instance a savage 21, at full power the wheels expand by 3 inches, i would imagine 1/8 tracks trying to cope with that much power would destroy themselves, with 1/16 tracks they are light and very flexible which would soak up alot of the torque, as for supporting the weight the suspension system and track flexability would cope with that, in the picture of the mattraxs design you can see a long bar ,this is fitted to the underside of the axle stub to counter the turning torque of the drive train.
I have the tracks and the design with suspension designed already just waiting for the drive sprocket, i should have a testable unit ready by january which i aim to attach and run at full tilt on my savage a distruction test to be sure, if you can wait, the resuilts will give us a better idea of hopw to build them what do you think.
Rickster

I look forward to following your development of trax for your savage!
I'm planning to build a set for an LST2.
The design I have in mind strays from the triangle, to look more like a diamond tilted forward.
I've cotinued to look into 1:16 tracks for Hen Long tanks, but cant find any middle wheels?
Can you point me in the direction of finding the follower wheels that keep the track on track in between the drive wheel and idler wheel?
I know they say all parts are available for the HL tanks, but I can't find these wheels.

May I also hear your comments on how you plan to mount the drive wheel to the hex and your plans for a torque bar?
I'm thinking a strip of sheet metal connected from the rear of the track assembly to the spindle steering arm will surfice, though putting a bit of torque on the spindle's arm.

At this point I'm thinking these tracks, for the tiger
http://www.matotoys.com/canada/produ...products_id=74
and a few sets of metal drive/idler wheels, for the tiger
http://www.matotoys.com/canada/produ...roducts_id=131

As for gearing I'm thinking 15-20mph, with the reduction of the tire being replaced by a drive wheel that has to rotate x amount of times to complete one full track rotation verying by track length. Stated something and yet said nothing!

Hi cflight,
Thanks for your comments i will post pictures as i progress, sorry about the delay in this reply, I had a virus to get off my computer.
Right, back to your last thread,by the way those tracks you have linked to, would work fine, you can get the idler/follower wheels from ebay very cheap, just type in heng long tanks and you should find the idler wheels in plastic and metal types, try plastic first,they are cheap and you wont mind destroying them.
As for mounting the drive sprocket to the hex nut, i am going to buy the aluminium version, drill out the centre then mill the hex shape into the back of the drive sprocket., I am going to run a central triangular section with the drive sprocket at the top and three sets, in pairs, of idler wheels,one side of the triangle will be missing and the other hinged, the side that is missing i am going to mount an Rc truck shock for track tension.
As for the torque bar i aim going to use the same if not very near to the matrax system, this will be strong rubber in square aluminium stock.the rubber will be drilled and a stainless stell thread glued in this will be mounted to the triangle section ,the box section will have a small arm attached and this will be attached to the drive axle stubb holder.again your idea will be quicker ,easier and cheaper, i am a fanatic hen it comes to realis and i want to follow the mattrax ide as close as possible.
I hope thsi answers all you questions,
Rick.

Thank you again Rickster, your setup sounds more intracate. Good luck!
I'm opting for simplicity, the track assembly will be solid with one adjustable wheel for tentioning, but all suspention will be left to the A-arm.
I'm a little confused on your torque bar arrangment, but then again somethings are better explained by a pic.
Milling a hex into the drive wheel is optimal, though not having any way to do this, I think I'll notch the back of the drive wheel for the axle pin and secure the drive wheel with a bolt through design as LST2 axles are machined for a set screw inside to hold the axle pin.
I verymuch apreciate your input and look forward to following your progress.

Hi cflght thank you again for you kind comments,your idea notching the back of the drive sprocket to take the pin,what an excellent idea and one i would like to use in place of milling the back for the hex nut, if Thats okey with you,??
Thanks.
Rick.

No problem here, you can let us know how it works out on the savage axle. Does the savage axle have a threaded inside?
What components are you using?
From looking at pics of the drive and idler wheels for a HL tiger, it looks as though my axle will or can be fitted inside the drive hub if it is mounted face in. As for mounting the idler it appears that a 1/8" or larger airplane landing gear shaft should do the trick.
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXD822&P=0
To solve the missing follower wheels, I'm thinking, airplane tail wheels with a nylon bushing in between.
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXK159&P=0
Drilled out to axle shaft diameter and lubed with white lithium or moly grease, should run free.
These shafts will also make it easy to adjust one follower wheel to tention the track. I'll probably go larger on the shaft diameter.
All in all, I'll have 5 wheels total, two at the top (drive wheels, the rear being powered), two tail wheel sets down the front of the track, and an idler wheel at the very rear. Again this will look something like the pic above, a diamond on its side leaning forward with a set of rubber wheels in the front section stretching the track. All mounted to a peice of aluminum sheet metal.
Ideas?

Hi cflight,the savage has a long drive axle with a pin then a long outside thread ,looking at the heng long drive sprockets ,the axle should fit ithrough the sprocket with a lock nut attached just like the wheel fitting minus the hex nut,looks like an easy fit once i have work it all out,i mite have to exstend the drive axle trying to look for the best idea and the easiest install and reverse design, sounds like you have it all covered i like the wheel stubs, if you use a box section and bend it into a U shape turn it on its side,with a small tale one side, fit the axle stubs wheel collet wheel collet fashion the spring action in the box section should act as suspension,at the rear of the box section you could cut a groove for the stub axle attach a shock and this would be your track tensioner,to mount the sprocket use round section welded to the box sectionwith ceramic bearings holding it in place,torsion bar job done. what do you think,it closely follows your idea,as a bonus if you mount an idler wheel on the front of the U-shape you have a natural ski shape which would ride your tracks up onto and over the snow or soft mud.
Rick.

Wow, I haven't checked this post in a few days it, I didn't realize this would get this much attention.

I'm in no hurry to make this, so I'd be interested to see what you come up with. I may have come across a set of the mattracks off of the radio shack hummer(a guy I work with taped a pic up on the wall of his H2 and his girlfriends H3 and what looks like a radioshack hummer. I'm pretty sure he bought it just for display purposes, so I'm hoping to pick up the mattracks). If I can pick them up for cheap I may tinker with them first. I'm having trouble understanding how the long bar on the mattracks works. Is it just there as a counter weight or to absorb rotational inertia? It doesn't appear to be on some versions of the mattracks. Wish we could come across a blueprint.

[link=http://jalopnik.com/cars/tank/your-moment-of-arctic-zen-the-tankpedition-220577.php]Check out this link, I don't see the bar on these mattracks. Scroll down to the bottom, last pic.[/link]

[link=http://www.roboware.org/Gallery/v/robots/boemat/]another interesting link with lots of pics. It looks like these may be the radioshack tracks, but is shows some unasembled pics.[/link] You can also see that they don't use a bar, but mount the system to the chassis to keep it from rotating.

hi kent man, yep this thread certainly has the old brain pan working overtime,thats great news about you getting hold of some model mattraxs you will have to let us now how you get on.
The link you sent,: look at the last picture, in th picture to the right and under the truck disc break is the anti-roll torsion bar it is painted in black,its conected to the yellowsquare section bar of the mattraxs by three bolts, inside the square section of this yellow bar is the rubber torsion bar which is connected to the mattraxs.The black attaching bracket is bolted to the underside of the truck axle stub.
The tracks absorb most or the shocks and bumps with the suspension of the truck and flexibility of the track ,you can see the track tensioner,two small wheels pushing the track forward with two silver bolts showing,the torsion bar is to keep the tracks from rotating around the drive sprocket when going from forward to reverse and for absorbing torque under sudden acceleration.
I have contacted a guy on the airboat forum who can bend square stock, i have the design really worked out thanks to the chats with cflight, and it will be very simple and straight forward to build /manufacture, once i have it all worked out i will draw it up on CAD,as engineering drawings,
The trick is making it easy to put on and take off the trucks or buggies.
keep the thread going its cooooollll.
Rick.LOL

Hey guys,
this topic has sparked my intrest in filling that tracked truck void, right when I'm about to mod a sled, go figure. A true rc addict has to have some unfinished project at all times, otherwise they can't fall asleep.

Rickster, I like the tentioning box idea! Like you said it will add some suspention to my track aiding in traction. You've got me thinking of making a bracket that holds the two front bottom wheels and articulates somewhere in between like a true follower wheel design.

Sounds like the drive wheel mounting will go easy on the Savage axle.
One thing that's still unclear to me is how the primary assembly will connect between the drive wheel and spindle. I'm thinking that the peice of aluminum sheet metal I use will just have the size of the axle drilled out and the torque/torsion bar from the back of the track assembly connected to the spindle arm will counter the roll affect, but this means the assembly will carve a grove into the axle? Any thoughts?
Further looking into track propulsion I've found 2 and 3" plastic tracks, more expensive than tank track relacements but 3" tracks would certainly get my LST2 up on the snow.
robotic building suppliers
http://www.lynxmotion.com/Category.aspx?CategoryID=94
http://www.trossenrobotics.com/store/c/2688-Tracks.aspx
http://www.robotstore.com/store/defa...id=1560&page=2
http://www.robotshop.ca/home/product...ack/index.html

I have been wanting to do a half track for a couple years and rickster got me thinking and searching again, if you want rubber treads

check out

http://www.classictintoy.com/mm5/mer...tegory_Code=RT

the biggest he has a for the mighty tonka 20 inch x 1 1/4 wide but in many of the descriptions he says custom lengths are available, maybe for the bigger rigs he could do them double wide or something. I like the tonka ones as there is a nice little drive nub on the bottom side, I was thinking maybe six or eight bolts across a normal wheel could be enough to engage the nubs and provide the drive, a couple of touring car foams with a notch cut out mounted on either cantelever arms with shocks or even landing gear struts to act as boggie wheels. I think about this every winter but never really found a decent sized halftrack I could afford so I may just make a four wheel drive truck with tracks in the back and wheels in the front for snow bashing as that is the main motivation for me being north of the mason dixon line.

I looked at a local high schools robot with linkmotion treads and determined they are to long for each segment and don't make a very good angle especially with the shorter you go and they are flat offering little forward bite on anything but smooth surfaces as they are mainly made for carpet.

The VEX robotic kits are kind of tempting as they offer some rubber lugs and even some plastic conveyor pieces that could be modded into scoops for deep snow running.

Hi Cflight,Hi J.D.T,ha ha ha, your right about unfinished projects,i have a few too....
Just read th last part of your thread, i have been banging my head against the wall trying to solve the mounting problem too.the tatou unit is the easiest but the mattraxs looks the strongest,arhhhhhhh,LOL
Your idea is definately the one, almost the same idea i came up with, it keeps it all simple, as for the axle whare problem they are cheap enough to replace so no biggy really, my idea was to have a sleeve fit over the axle hub with a slot to let the tracks tilt forward and backward,fit the torsion bar to the axle like yours.
The problem i keep coming up against is how to quickly mount the matraxs units to the truck axle.by the way i like the follower idea nice touch.
My thoughts are hollow axle with a hole for the drive axle and metal pin of the truck to fit through and tighten using the existing nut this then continues through the drive sprocket and has a bearing or two fitted which then fits into a tube above the main track bar assemby, much like the tatou units, using square section.
I have so many ideas but havnt really put them to cad yet, i will next week,a picture says a thounsand words they say.
soon as i get them done i will post,
what about some drawings with your ideas on cflight???
Rickster.

Hey Rickster, sorry to drop the ball on ya.
I haven't started a cad on the track ste up yet.
I just finished a 3/16 and 1/4" SS brake line tuber that has yet to be brazed together. This is going to be a crawler/trail rig based on the Losi Grappler body. I plan to run Axial AX10 axles and an R2HD transmition from RC4WD.
This truck would probably be a better candidate for trax than the LST2. Reasons being; it's lighter and more suited insize to the tank tracks avalable affordably.
With a wheel base of 12.5", I'll need to resize the frame I was thinking in.

What sort of wheelbase constraints would everyone be up against? , what kind of wheel circumference are you shooting for?

Down sizing a track design , to a 1/10 scale tire size circumference of around 15", what do you guys know of for small wheels/tires?

Sticking with Heng Long tank tracks:
I'm thinking of using airplane tail wheels around 3/4"-1" paired ,side by side, in between a front follower sprocket and a rear follower sprocket.

Hey cflight, Eureka i have it,heheheheh, the idea came to me working in the shed yesterday,very simple very strong and wheel size wont be an issue.
I was cutting a five horned servo arm down and it hit me.
Take the wheel off the truck, mount the sevo arm or something stronger same shape,aluminium?to the axle fit five bolts with locknuts on the arms then the drive/tank sprocket is attached to the servo arm with the five bolts ,this means the track system can be made with a drive sprocket two idler wheels, airplane wheels would work and a small tensioner wheel.
And it can be any size and acomodate any track size.
The unit.......
Two triangle plates with the wheels inside mounted on threaded rod and bearings. the triangle would have a smaller triangle out front and just above the front idler wheel, two brackets and screw thread will adjust and push the small tensioner wheels against the track much like the mattraxs.
The aluminium triangles could be any thickness and size depending on truck size/track size or wheel diameter. this method would be the strongest of all the designs and really easy to build also you can mount a shock to the back of the triangle and attach it to the truck swing arm. what do you think????
Have a look at the yellow mattraxs unit and imagine two triangles both sides,
Rickster.

Rickster, way to think in your own box!

As an alternative for mounting the drive sprocket,

I received some 6mm hubs, for mounting a spur gears on a 6mm shaft. These would be the ideal system for fastening a sprocket to the axle. They're cheap, aluminum, the set screw would likely recess into the existing pin hole , and come with 4 holes for mounting the sprocket.

Here's a link for quick refferance, drill out to axle diameter and your good to go?
http://www.lynxmotion.com/Product.as...&CategoryID=94