Sand Rover, Tamiya's unlovable child

[Dadio]

"We came in ?"
I've been trying to think how to start this thread for a few weeks , the Sand Rover was my first RC car, I've got very mixed feelings about it, it got me started in this great hobby, it supplied the radio gear that I used in every car after back in the day, was I disappointed with it, well yes, it was so slow compared to the Rough Rider that other people had, it was all plastic and compared to other cars of the time that was definitely a negative in my eyes.
Despite these things I drove the wheels off it and it was by far the thing that took most of my time.
So objectively nearly 40 years later I'm revisiting it, I still don't know why, of all the period cars by Tamiya it is by far the least loved and horribly fragile in places, especially the front suspension spring top mount on the chassis that can actually crack on the shelf by all accounts. I'm still not sure where I'm going with the chassis yet, I'm tempted to modify the suspension in a retro possible style, I've already addressed one historical issue by designing a gear cover to keep dirt away from the gears.
To be continued as guests have arrived.

[Dadio]

It's only the mother in law come to look at puppies so I'll continue .
After the pre amble I've got to the point in the build when I've got the tingle as I can see where it's going , I've just got the tires on and and I've made some wheel trims that point the way so I thought I'd share .




You can't really see from pictures but the filament i printed the wheel trims from is a dual colour and changes from blue to green depending on the angle you look from , its going to be hard but I'm going to try and paint the body in matching tones .
More to come .

[Phin]

Happened across this article just the other day, and thought maybe it'd offer you some ideas. Seems like it might have been a popular mod, as it isn't the first time I saw/heard of people mating Mardave Apache front ends to Holiday Buggies/Sand Rovers.

[Dadio]

Happened across this article just the other day, and thought maybe it'd offer you some ideas. Seems like it might have been a popular mod, as it isn't the first time I saw/heard of people mating Mardave Apache front ends to Holiday Buggies/Sand Rovers.

sndrvr1.jpg

sndrvr2.jpg

Thanks Phin I hadn't seen either of those , if the front end of mine was more damaged I might have gone that way but I'll probably limit it to oil coil overs , I'm toying with a mono shock rear suspension mounted forward of the motor by flipping the arms 180° but I'm waiting on the body to be delivered to see how much space I have .

[Dadio]

Bagged a used 540 motor mount .

[morrisey0]

That is just what that weak tub needed ........................ a torquier motor!

[Frankentruck]

More power is always the answer!

[Dadio]

More power is always the answer!

It's always an answer like more alcohol

[mikea96]

I always thought these looked so much cooler with the sand scorcher wheels and tires.

[Dadio]

I always thought these looked so much cooler with the sand scorcher wheels and tires.

I was torn between the sand paddle rears and balloon front tires of the Scorcher and the more scale realistic Rough Rider tires . Obviously I went for the Rough Rider tires , plus I've already modelled up those wheels in CAD so I could easily mod the design to fit the wheel trims , I do have Scorcher rears but not the fronts and they are a different rim size .

[Dadio]

While looking for something else I turned these up , look like Tamiya SRB with springs but they are AYK 558 Super Trail shocks , I'm thinking they fit the look , they are crap shocks but there's little hope of making the Sand Rover handle a ton better .

[Steve71]

I totally forgot about the Sand Rover. It's been so long since I seen one I had to actually google it just now to see what it was, then I remembered the guy with the cowboy hat driving and it came back to me. Haven't seen one of those in a LONG time. Gonna be a cool project

[Dadio]

I totally forgot about the Sand Rover. It's been so long since I seen one I had to actually google it just now to see what it was, then I remembered the guy with the cowboy hat driving and it came back to me. Haven't seen one of those in a LONG time. Gonna be a cool project

I'm not surprised you had to Google it , they really do get very little love but like the Sand Scorcher there's a ton of potential for adding scale details and when the body arrives that's the way I'm going .

[Dadio]

Quick design test of a shock mount , this is printed but the finished item will be aluminium. [attachment=0]20230307_130612.jpg[/attachment]

[silvertriple]

Metal part much better, looking at what happens to the shock towers on Marui Hunter/Galaxys, it's a good things. You may also think about reinforcing the two pillars where this is fixed, because the right may be a weak point compared to the left side where the motor plate will do the job to help it...