20th Anniversary CLODBUSTER, updated 05/09/11

[MelvinsArmy]

Well, I guess this truck is something I've been trying to build for a few years now. I got really close with the Tremor chassis, but I wasn't 100% satisfied. So, I emailed John Boyer and he made me this me this masterpiece of a chassis. Now I've got more ground clearance and more realism. I wanted a realistic truck with great performance. The idea all along was to build the ultimate Clodbuster, I think I've finally got it.

The paint is Mica red, but it doesn't really show well in these pictures. I've got to get a new front lower clip for under the grill and a scale steering wheel and it will be done. Oh, and a runner body too.

Here's what it's got:
John Boyer tube chassis
JPS aluminum axles
TTR ball diffs
TTR CVD's up front
TTR solid axles in back
Trinity 17x2's
Novak Super Rooster
Revo shocks
JPS wheels
New Era front bumper
Inet upper link mounts

The only stock Clod parts are the counter gears and shafts, pinions, tires and body.

[mrlexan]

Hey Mel, where you been?

Looks Great!

[aconsola]

That looks great!
Being an Anniversary build, For a runner shell it would look killer with a modern chevy lexan body done up in the classic clod livery.

On a side note, I can't believe it took so long for a company to come out with a mirror image gearbox to keep both motors on the same side. How do you like them?

[MelvinsArmy]

Hey Mel, where you been?

Looks Great!

I've been locked in the shop building this truck!

j/k. I've been traveling quite a bit the past few weeks, so I haven't been around at all. My sister got married in Cancun, then I went to DesMoines for her reception, I've been pretty busy. But, now I'm back and super relaxed.

aconsola, the new style boxes are great. They're a huge improvement over the stock units. Everything about the JPS boxes and axles is designed better than the Tamiya pieces.

I was thinking about getting a Proline 50's truck body for the runner, just to have something different.

[shodog]

That looks great. I would keep the stock chevy body. Mica red is a killer color, your going to have to get some outside shots to show it's glowing lovelyness

[MelvinsArmy]

That looks great. I would keep the stock chevy body. Mica red is a killer color, your going to have to get some outside shots to show it's glowing lovelyness

Yeah, definitely. I would have waited, but I've been working on this so long and didn't see being able to take it out for a shoot any time soon, so I threw these up to show it off. There will be some outside poser and action shots to come, but it have to wait till this spring.

[scr8p]

damn, dude. that's sweet.

[Synergy]

Now that's a tuber , what a truck, I don't normally get interested in crawlers but this is an exception (is it classed as a crawler ), I look forward to seeing some running video

[junkman]

awesome looking truck. very realistic.

[Dr. Robotnik]

[MelvinsArmy]

A little update. A couple weeks ago I made a runner body for this truck. The summer is gone and it's looking like I might not be able to actually run the thing till next spring now. So, I figured I'd post some pics of what I did, until I can finally get some action shots.

The Proline 50's Chevy pickup body fits this chassis like a glove. I cut the bed out to show off Boyer's tube work, and also that way I can change the battery without removing the body. So, the body is screwed on so you don't have to look at body clips. I painted the body Tamiya metallic blue, and backed it with black. It came out really cool looking. I decided to give it a name, I went with Electric Wizard. Electric Wizard is one of my favorite bands, they're really heavy, and really good, and I thought that would be a good title for a monster truck. The name is painted on. I took one of their logos off some album art and had it printed backwards onto bumper stickers on cafepress.com. Then I just stuck the bumper stickers to the inside of the body and cut the logos out with an x-acto knife. I'm really happy with the results. It made for a nice simple and clean body, just my style.

I can't decide which body I like more now. This one will definitely be a runner when the time comes though. Now I'm even more happy I went with the 5 star wheels, the pentagram-like design goes well with the Electric Wizard theme.

[MelvinsArmy]

I took the Clod out for a winter spin today. I got some action shots, but not as many as I'd like to have captured. It was a bit chilly, so controlling the truck and the camera at the same time with numb fingers didn't work out so well. But, I did have some fun out there, jumping the ice, kicking up snow and rolling the truck a few times.

[Diggley]

Awesome Truck!

[MelvinsArmy]

I made a few changes to the Clod over the past few months. I decided I wanted a monster with independent 4 wheel steering so I could have 4ws, 2ws or crab steering. That meant the TTR straight axle in the rear had to go, which meant the front CVDs also had to go because they widen the truck the same amount. I put the stock axles back in and fabricated a rear servo mount out of a junk RC10 chassis. Then I found some dead mint vintage Sees aluminum wheels. Those are my all time favorite Clod wheels, so I bought them and put them on my truck. Here's a few updated pics. Sorry no action pics. I can't take pics at the same time as using a 2 stick radio, only when using a pistol.

[Coelacanth]

This is the first time I saw this thread...I definitely prefer the vintage truck body. Once you've seen one box-art Clod, you've seen 'em all. Great job on the 4WS too.