Here are some CAD screen shots of what I hope to do to my clod this weekend. I still need to design a couple more things like the shock mounts, but you can get the idea from what i have so far.
So I got the shock towers done, the ESC is in place (under the servo box in the back), and I stuffed a reconfigured 7 cell pack inside the front frame. I will be borrowing the receiver from my MAXX and it will go on top of the upper front chassis plate. I was hoping to test the servo box by this update, but the mounting hub is threaded for a 5-40 screw. I cannot find them anywhere locally, so I am going to try to order some before I retap the hub for 6-32.
I know some of you have been thinking about the body. Well I have one laying around that I want to experiment with first before I try to make something. I will be cutting the bed off and moving it back about an inch or two. The cab will stay about where it is in the photo. Yes there will be a gap, and it will probably take some getting use to, but I still want this to look like a truck. And if it were a tractor or loader body there would be a gap between the front and back body sections as well.
Oh, I’m sorry for those of you that like to see photos during fabrication, but once I get in my groove I don’t even think about it.
So I finnished the wiring today, got the screws for the hub connection, and took the first test drive. The steering is a little slow from lock to lock, but it's not a racer and full lock steering is super tight. Over all I am pleased to report that the only suprise I had today was the fact that I need to reverse both channels on my transmitter (the video was taken with both channels going the wrong way).
That is one fine looking machine! You probably already thought of this but if the front of the truck bed section was rounded or pointed somehow, there wouldn't need to be a large a gap between the bed and the cab. If it ends up looking as good as what you've done so far, I'm sure whatever you end up doing will look great!
I don't know much about RC stuff but that articulated assembly must be a really beefy unit to handle all that stress at one point the way it does.