hey there dudes....

this is my tamiya king hauler project that i have been working on since 2004.

(the one BC mentioned...oh soooo long ago...)

just realised that i never posted this project here...

well....better late than never??

the "Draggular project" started off as a simple " what if "...

"What if" i make my king hauler go very fast???....

AND

"What if" i CAN make my hauler go very fast...wouldn't i need a REALLY BIG wing out back for major down force???!!!

well, i'll come straight out and admit (before my "GOOD" buddy BloodClod spills the beans) that there was no calculations for down force done, no testing of gear ratios etc etc.....

Everything was and is for looks only.......so even if i dun manage to get my hauler to go THAT fast....so long as it looks FAST !! haha ( just like all them small 1:1, super mod, HUGE wing...1.5 L cars "ahem" tuner cars with the fake "Brembo" brake covers!!! )

Here's what my hauler looked like back in April 2004....
with a huge @$$ 1/8 buggy rear wing for that dragster look.....

It then dawned on me that IF i "flipp'd" my hauler ( and i know i would! )...the stock hard-shell is sure to suffer major damage .....considering how much this kit cost me....that can't be a good thing!!!!...

so i removed all the unnecessary parts, hard shell, oil tanks, side pipes, mud guards, bumpers... etc...

i also started to look around and found the proline's "BIG RIG" lexan shell to be suitable replacement for my stock shell...

after a lot of masking tape, some MARVY markers and few cans of paint and swapping out the stock chrome wheels/tires with some prolines, a pair of associated T4 rear arms for wing standoffs and an unknown brand rear lexan wing....
this is what Draggular looked like one month later...

Thats freekin sweet!!

hey ...thanks dude!



well,......it wasn't untill almost 2 years later in december 2005 that i decided to rebuild my project....

why????

coz, other than the lexan shell, wheels and tires and that REAR wing...everything was bone stock.....

battery was sitting high up in between the stock frame rails (just behind the tranny), adding to the already top heavy motor and tranny placement in between the front wheels.....and the result of this stock setup??....i managed to flip my hauler 3 or 4 times!!!

so out came my hand "round" tube bender...i started bending some "square" alu tubing and came up with a pair of Z'd chassis frame rails.

hardest part about doing this,...... is getting two square alu tubes, to bend at the same place and at the same angle......

WHY not bend two rods at the same time?????

coz i dun have a bench vise!!!

well......this is the result.



sadly, it stayed this way for another 5 months!!!!

so..... as you can prolly tell by now, i'm not the most efficient builder around!!!

Maybe not, but that's a darned nice looking truck in the two renditions you've posted. With this new chassis getting the weight down low, you'll probably be able to get the speed you're looking for. Since you've scrapped most of the original Hauler parts and pieces, why not just modify onroad parts to suit your needs and still keep the body and tire configuration you currently have?

And don't worry about BloodClod, he's instigated lot's of poop around here too...

looks sweet u think it could handle a hacker system

Really nice! Another way to be different! Can't wait to see the progess on this one.

thanks dude...problem is..i dun own any onroad stuff...unless you consider a M03 onroad! haha.....

anywez, this whole excercise was to build racing 3 speed haulers, well at least that's what BC and i set out to do....
so the 3 speed is a must, hmm...i guess only a front end could have come off an on-road kit....but i guess its too late now.......maybe a Draggular III in future?...

what!!! you mean BC is mean to everyone??!!! oh ok...i dun feel soooo bad now...

thanks bro....

dunno bout that,,but i have an much "tamer" SS5800 in there now....

i've seen weeb's mutant and he's got a really powerful looking BL in his 3 speed and that's driving 3 axles! so i guess this tranny is tougher than most give it credit for.......but i'm happpy with the SS for now....

thanks dude......updates gotta wait till tomorrow tho......pics are in the office PC....

Very nice work, It looks Awesome, Very creative to make a racing Semi!!

Nah, he likes to spread his "love" around... we're all victims...

thanks bro!



WAHAHAHAHA!!!

WELL!!!!

after much procrastination....i decided ..i had to finish up this truck no matter what.....

so work on draggular II started back up again...

this idea of laying the hauler tranny on its side came about when Bloodclod and i talked about "how" the CG could be lowered on a hauler....
so i did a rough placement (on a scrap piece of G10) with the tranny and batt to see what kind of width this idea would take on a chassis...and would it fit under the shell.??....



after finalizing the layout...i used another bigger piece of G10 for the actual chassis plate, milled out areas where i felt that didn't need to be there so as to lighten the G10 plate as much as possible. ( i'm surprised that 3mm G10 weighs as much as it does...)



initial intention to use hobao batt holders on the chassis plate but due to an oversight.....i realised the batt could slide into the holder coz the "Z'd" frame rails were in the way!!!

so had to toss out that idea.

After looking around on the internet a little, i came across the CRC "carpet knife" pan car chassis that used O-rings that secured the batts in place....

so after painting the chassis plate black,.



..i fabbed out some O-ring posts to serve as batt retainers......

at this point, it was pointed out to me ( by none other than the great BLOODCLOD!!!! ) that the entire chassis looked as though it would "taco" the moment i hit sumthing head on...( yes my driving skills are not exxactly up to standard )...so i had to do some sort of bracing to span the front and rear ends of the chassis.

initial idea was to use a long link with ball ends to "brace" the front and rear sections......

BUT that wouldn't be "trick" enuf right?....so after looking at a RC heli hanging in the LHS......i came up with this.

its actually in 3 sections (front/mid/rear) ONLY coz i didnt have a piece of G10 that long. ..but on hindsight, i think it looks nicer this way rather than having one long piece.....



.






here's what it looks like under the "new" lexan shell, why a new shell?...erm...coz the old green one looks too short on this "slightly longer than stock" chassis....




not too "shabby" a fit, considering all this was "eye-balled" eh?