Uncle Willy's Cage Crawler
October 2013: Having built a budget crawler last year for my friend Lisa in the USA (see 'Messin' in the USA') using a budget RTR chassis and Proline Jeep body, I also bought myself a Mad-Gear RC Cliff crawler to take back home with the intention of building something a little more extreme... (See 'Willy's Rocker').
While the Mad-Gear Cliff is essentially a budget ride, what is particularly impressive is the axle articulation, combined with a nicely controllable 70T motor and big sticky tires (further improved by drilling vent holes and adding weights to the inside of the wheels), it really does offer a lot of capability and driving fun for relatively little money...
Unfortunately, while Lisa's Jeep looked great, the bodyshell restricted wheel travel at the extremes of articulation, and we both felt this was a shame as ultimately this sort of vehicle is all about the driving... I also really love the cage or 'Tuber' style crawlers, so felt the best thing would be to strip off the body, and build something purely for performance, while still offering a degree of 'scale' appearance for interest...
Back in the UK, while visiting my LHS I saw the Vaterra Twin Hammers roll-cage parts were available as spares, and together with some 2.5mm stainless hardware, soon had almost a complete tuber-style cage body together for less than 20 pounds! Clearly the stock cage was going to be too wide for the wheels at full travel, but being bolt-together, a quick measure and a few cuts with a Stanley knife saw the cage suitably narrowed while using all the stock off-cuts as new braces... The remaining cage was then bolted to a flat styrene sheet, which in turn was bolted to the flat top of the aluminium box chassis, and everything started to come together!
On my return to the US, a simple paint job (and a concession to 'scale' by including a bonnet forward of the cage), plus a liberal sprinkling of scale accessories and of course Willy behind the wheel, and the Cager was ready to rock! The finishing touch was a set of front and rear LED lights (the Axial accessory set).
I am particularly pleased with how the modified cage turned out - the new dimensions mean none of the wheels rub, even on full travel, and the way it fits over the alloy chassis (and even the bonnet screws lining up with the original holes) really is as if it was made for it! (which in a way, I guess it was!)... I think there is every chance I'll be building a second cage for my own crawler, once I get home! Jx
Willy is at home in a cage! Scale accessories - hood is a Holiday Buggy roof! 5 inch tires and masses of ground clearance The Twin Hammers cage kit assembled And narrowed using original parts cut to size Test fitting on my chassis - I like the snub nose! Hood clears front wheels and servo... Similarly at rear, suspension not limited by cage Rear stays work as rollover protection, seriously! Out in the wild, and loving it!
If you liked those pictures, you should see these...
Willy^s Rocker (Mad Gear Cliff/Pumpkin hybrid crawler)
Comments
Skottoman
Wow! How cool is that?! Looks *very* capable as a crawler...
Cooltoys
Another great project!!! Great use of the cage to fit the crawler... Willy is happy again!!
Max Power
That's some fantastic customizing work JennyMo .
ModMax
GENIUS!
RC racer
That's great!! Want one.
Mirrorman
Perfect ... you could start selling these. Cheers, Mirrorman
SHY69
That's just too cool! :-D
pininy
Just love the paint job
Cool crawler!!
biggamehunter
coooooooooool crawler jen ,
oldsterolli
cool !!!
Want to leave a comment?