RC Crawler

RC Crawler
Participants
Skills	3D Printing, Electronics, RC, Mechanics, Metal working
Status	Info gathering
Niche	RC
Purpose	Electronics, fun, world domination
Tool	No
Location
Cost
Tool category	Fabrication

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Description

The idea is to create a remotely controlled rock crawler, based on an 8x8 chassis for shits & giggles. Yes, this is heavily inspired by snowrunner.

Planned Featureset

• 8x8 drivetrain
• 3 steerable axles
• remotely lockable differentials
• remotely switchable hi-lo gearbox
• double-wishbone individual suspension
• pan/tilt FPV camera

Drivetrain

The following drivetrain will be configured, with a two-way gearbox and lockable differentials. Both switching gears and locking the diffs should be possible remote.

Motor

TBD; This will need to be a motor with a high amount of windings so that it will generate a lot of torque with a low RPM. This likely limits the choice to brushed motors.

Gearbox

Since I want to be able to have multiple gears, some gearbox needs to be built. For this, a simple hi-lo layout has been designed. This is a non-synchronized design, so it remains to be seen if this works in practice. How this works: The motor will drive the motor gear. This gear drives the first reduction gear, and the axle of this reduction gear drives the gearbox. Using a servo, both LO and HI gearing can be chosen. The first prototype is also shown. Note that this does not yet have the motor attached. This will be added later and it will be mounted in the top cover of the gearbox.

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Mechanical parts

Some prototypes of mechanical parts needed for the machine. First, an open differential. This prototype does not yet have a locking capability (this is done by locking one of the drive axles onto the ring gear). Another required part was a u-joint. This one has been made using 4mm locking nuts & metal rods (which eventually will be sealed in the pla), thereby allowing it to be secured onto a threaded rod.

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Differential prototype

A working lockable differential has been built. Locking is done by sliding a lock between the axle and the ring gear (using a servo, not pictured below).

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First complete-ish axle

The first prototype of an axle has been completed. This includes the open/closed differential and driven wheels.

Differential

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Subframe

The diff needs to be mounted in the subframe

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Suspension

The suspension is bolted onto the subframe

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Complete axle

And with all parts bolted on, it looks like this

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