Let's Talk Tractor / Truck Pulling

[Lowgear]

That is one of the weakest/goofiest looking puller setups I've ever seen.

[morrisey0]

Getting close on my Slash puller. Finished up the weight mounts this evening. Got some strong bits on the way for the gearbox, and she should be ready to ride. Weighs in at 7lbs, 1oz right now, so in the ballpark at least.

[morrisey0]

So I just decided to bite the bullet and purchase a used Sportsman. A guy in the club had one for sale, and when I went to go look at it, he also had a 7lb. 2wd Truck he was also interested in getting rid of, so a combo deal was made. The 7lb. really just needs some electronics and it will be ready to go. The Sportsman is going to get torn down and rebuilt completely. It is currently small tire rear, and narrow front, both of which I don't want. It could also probably use new gears and bearings and such, so time it take it apart.

I also have a garden tractor in the mail, but it hasn't gotten a tracking update in 10 days now, to it is probably just gone at this point.

I wanted to run in three classes, so having four trucks should increase those odds at each event.

[morrisey0]

Got my garden tractor chassis in today, and already slapped some RC4WD pulling tires on it. From a builder standpoint, I am most excited about this one because I am going to print a body for it. Not sure if I can scale something that is out there or design it myself yet. And it actually won't be all that exciting, because when done, it does have to resemble a garden tractor ........... so not the super awesome pulling tractors you see with six engines on the front or anything.

First order of business is to break it down and trace everything out.

[Frankentruck]

Lawn tractor you say? I know what I'd model it after....

https://youtu.be/pyMEcSnImNg?feature=shared

[Lowgear]

Starting with something already completed that's tried and true is a way better idea than doing something yourself from scratch that you don't know how it will work. Those are some nice examples you bought. I'm especially partial to anything roller chain driven.

For the garden tractor chassis, it surprised me when I saw they started making certain pullers out of fiberglass I believe it is. It just seems like such a big no-no to me, and don't see how it could possibly work but apparently it must. It obviously won't be as good as aluminum and steel, but for a garden tractor it should be 'okay.' I can PM you some pictures of mine I have saved before I tore it down for the rebuild as It has a 3D printed body.

How many tooth is the spur gear you're using? Mine came with an 80 tooth one, but I believe 96 tooth is the standard.

[morrisey0]

https://youtu.be/pyMEcSnImNg?feature=shared

"Your lawn will be afraid to grow!!!! ~Hulk Hogan

[morrisey0]

For the garden tractor chassis, it surprised me when I saw they started making certain pullers out of fiberglass I believe it is. It just seems like such a big no-no to me, and don't see how it could possibly work but apparently it must. It obviously won't be as good as aluminum and steel, but for a garden tractor it should be 'okay.' I can PM you some pictures of mine I have saved before I tore it down for the rebuild as It has a 3D printed body.

As soon as I saw the G10 made JS chassis, I knew I wanted one for a garden tractor. Just to use as a starting point, I can design from it, and then contact my favorite chassis cutter (www.factoryworks.com and work on alternate designs if needed. For GT and mini rods, I think G10 will be just fine as a base. A GT is only a 4lb vehicle. I have a couple of issues with this particular chassis I got, but nothing that can't be worked around.

I found a free, broken down 1:25 generic garden tractor to use as a base, and have a hood printing now. It looks like it scales up cleanly, but I will see. And then the question is, what scale is my tractor?

I would love to see any pics of your GT that you want to send or post! Puller pics are so hard to find in general!! Everyone at meets, and pictures of meets, keeps bodies on their rigs at all times!! Like they are hiding some great mystery! RC pullers are worse than the Templars!!!

On my GT, the spur is a 90t. With this, and all my calculations, I am going to stick on whatever random bl motor I find in the closet and see how it spins.

[morrisey0]

How to make Clod tires look small! I ordered these up as made for Clod tires, so I was thinking they were Clod sized, and they are at the wheel, but a little big on the outside dimensions. They are legal, but I don't think I am going to step up to these quite yet. So that means a couple of hours of clocking and back-cutting the stocks.

[Lowgear]

Wow, I thought they were the same size as well. I didn't realize there was that big of a difference. I did read somewhere not too long ago that there's some really bad balancing issues with the Clod sized giant pullers. I guess the thickness of the rubber is really inconsistent around the tire which is causing the issue. I can't remember for sure but I think the smaller size ones may have a similar problem but isn't as noticeable due to their size. I bought some for my garden tractor puller as well with the corresponding beadlocks but aren't sure if I'll use them yet. I wonder how they perform as it seems like people choose to run stock or modified pumpkin tires instead.

[morrisey0]

I am going to run the smaller RC4WD versions on my garden tractor to start with, on stock pumpkin / WW2 wheels. If there is an off-balance issue, I will swap them to TLTs ............... if I find any.

I took a bit of a hookey day today (well, goofing off between work requirements), and I got quite a bit done on the Sportsman. This rig started off as a small tire rig, and I didn't want that, so I thought all I needed to do was build a wider driveshaft and bolts some Clods on and be done with it, but that didn't happen. This chassis was built from the ground up to use small tires, and this ended up effecting the track width (driveshaft) obviously, the wheelbase, the rear weight mount location, wheelie bar, etc, etc. And then when I got all that done, I realized the hitch mount bottoms out now at about 4.5", and it has to be 4" max, so I need to create a new mount somehow. But now it has new bearings, new 10mm SS driveshaft, and stops. I am waiting for some new 12mm hex wheel adaptors to come in, but USPS...................

But, it doesn't matter! It is a legit big tire Sportsman, and I love it! I put a Tamiya Semi front axle on it, traditionally mounted, and then realized that the front chassis will plant itself with the rear up in the air now, so had to flip that, so now it is a lift solid front axle. The front is a little high, but it will keep it out of the dirt. The servo mount was supposed to show up to day, but USPS..................

My next meet is in eight days, and I would love to show up with four rigs, but I will probably need to work out of town 4-5 of those days, so really, if I get two done, I will call that a success! Electronics are on order for all of them. Then there is the garden tractor, which I have started a body for, but it probably has many hours left on it just for the body.

But, the Slash is 90% and only needs tire foams made and tires glued. The 7# needs all electronics, and tires clocked, cut, and glued. And then the Sportsman and GT just need, well, a lot!!

[morrisey0]

Got the 7lb to about 90%, in prep to hopefully run it this weekend. This truck was about 70% when I bought, it, so haven't had to do much. I still need to glue all the tires, and either cut the rears that are there or clock / cut a new set. She weighs in right now at 6lb, 15oz, with quite a bit of adjustability. Its interesting to me that this one was just a "side deal" and was relatively cheap, but I could see it being the one that I favor in the long run.

I am pretty sure I will have this one and the Slash ready for Saturday, with a small chance of the Sportsman (in some form) getting completed also.

[limestang]

I always thought this looked cool. Looking forward to your finished puller. Here’s a good video on RC Truck pullers.

- limestang

https://youtu.be/EdU-Di45oZE?si=XJupj4Oue_15JNs-

[morrisey0]

So, between Thursday morning and Saturday morning, I basically worked, slept, and fiddled on these pullers. July / Aug is my super busy season at work, so any free time is hard to find, so I procrastinated a lot that needed to be done on these trucks until the last couple of days before the scheduled 8/3 meet. Woke up this morning with great pride of what I had accomplished, and ready to go run some pulls. But nope! They cancelled the meet due to heat, and forgot to post that on the FB page. I was like Clark listening to the animatronic Marty Moose outside of Wally World!! Very pissed that I didn't know I didn't need to work through the many bugs on getting these things ready ............... but also glad that I did, and they are done for the most part! I still need to work on the Garden Tractor, but for now, I don't want to look at a puller for the next 2-3 weeks. A couple of "RC10 variants" are on the pallet for the next couple of weeks.

[morrisey0]

So, TBH, I forgot about the pullers because I was like "I need to get them ready for the next meet in 3 weeks." Then I realized that time had passed!!

The trucks were ready to go a few weeks ago, but some of getting them ready meant getting them ready quickly, and not really getting them ready correctly .................. so now I need to remember what those were, and then once again get them ready in a hurry as the next pull is days away.

My main issue was aesthetics to be honest. And it was all about the Sportsman! I bought this truck with a body on it, but to say that this body looked like it was painted by a 12 year old would be an insult to 12 year olds!! I literally don't know what was going on during the painting of this truck! I gave a mildly honest effort into saving it, and Nitro did great on the white, but whatever the blue/purple was did not do well with removal. This wasn't much of an issue though because I had already purchased another Parma body earlier.

But the #1 issue with this body, and all of them that Parma produced in this concept, is that they molded in an airscope and supercharger into the body! Great in concept, bad in execution! And to add to this, the Ford version of this body, the one I have, also molds in header pipes! Because trying to mold the other stuff wasn't bad enough!

So, and I know this is more form over function, but I had to get rid of that crap! A $12 RPM blower kit, a bit of aluminum tube, and a printed platform taped to the body was all it really took! I still need to cut some black vinyl for the scope intakes and belt, but it should be the kit after that.