1/16 Scale FrankenDiff

[ddmckee54]

Lesu makes a driveshaft with a 40-45mm range, but I've only got 37mm between the center axle and the rear axle. If I move the center axle forward it will center the tires better in the fender. However, if I do move the center axle forward then I won't be able to collapse the driveshaft from the transfer case to the center axle far enough to be able to install/remove it without taking something else out. I can't move the transfer case because it's currently centered between the front and center axle, allowing me easy access to both drive shafts.

So what am I gonna do? I'm gonna leave the center axle right where it is, but everything else that's behind the cab is getting moved back by 5mm. The mixer, the fenders, the rear axle, the tail-lights, the whole schmear. I checked my 3D model and the only parts that I really need to change are the frame rails, and the equalizer beams, which all need to grow another 5mm in length.

While I was modifying things in the 3D model, I fixed a few other things. When I started working on the Frankendiff I didn't have a resin printer, so I just optimized everything for the foibles of an FDM printer. Now that I have a resin printer I don't have to do that anymore. Unless I'm actually going to use the FDM printer that is, THEN I'll need to. Re-designing the equalizer beams was not an issue, I was never happy with them anyway. I was never satisfied with the appearance of the first layer that was printed on supports, and there's NO way to print those beams without using support. So I just made the inside of the beams flat and didn't need any support. I haven't determined where the vast majority of the holes in the frame rails actually need to be yet, so changing the rail length was no big deal.

Maybe on the next truck I'll get ambitious and assign parameters to everything so I can design future chassis parts by filling in the blanks on a spreadsheet. This one's gonna be a little more old-school. Not clay tablet and sharp stick type old-school - since I am using 3D CAD to design it, more like 80's and 90's type old-school.

Don