Mercedes Benz Actros 5 axle end dump truck

[el barto]

Hi guys

here's my next project, which is still at the beginning

after i bought a liebherr l574 wheel loader i decided to get a dump truck as well.
after calculating and thinking that this will be extremely expensive i went online and found a great auction....

a mercedes benz actros 4 axle end dump truck with tamiya chassis and a bruder body. when the car arrived i was really shocked about the awful quality of the truck.

i threw away the following stuff:

dumper
body
chassis
servos
amm

well, the only things i could keep where the axles, the transmission and the spindle drive with the motor....

so i decided to completely overhaul the truck with 5 axles, middle axle is a lifted and steered pusher axle

this is how it looked when arrived (after i already lengthened the chassis and added a 5th axle)



well, i started to find a good original truck which i will shrink to 1:14.5 :-)

this is it. i like the color scheme and all the checker plated aluminium on it. i also get lots of support of the owner of this truck, got about 100 pics on my computer :-)



after buying a new body and mounting it on the chassis



i started on building the fenders based on the original

2nd axle


rear fender before beveling



and after beveling



some first detailing



then i went on the fuel tank


here's the original:



and mine:







the body i got is a mercedes benz actros MP1, the first issue, meanwhile, they had 2 facelifts and i'll have to modify to mp3 myself. especially the front bumper, head lights and the grille are different now.

here's a pic of the originial bruder body



this is how i should look at the end



and this is the situation at the moment. i'm still not sure how to build the 'winglets' on the top sides of the grille...





will be continued

[sneaky-pete]

Nice work....glad to see you over here!

Now get back to work on that beast!

[el barto]

i'm still to sick of my beast pete......

[Azorean]

Looking great...

[SonoranWraith]

I think the winglets will take a few pieces of plastic to make. I'd make it with sheet and square or round rod depending on the angle and then use the dremel shaping tools for rough cut then lots and lots of hand shaping with files for profile. Looks great so far!

[cbazq271]

where did you get the material to make the fenders and gas tank? Is it real metal or plastic?

[el barto]

Originally Posted by cbazq271

where did you get the material to make the fenders and gas tank? Is it real metal or plastic?

this is from wedico, they sold some alu checker plates 1 meter in length and 30 cm in width, but it's not available anymore in this size, only 30x25 cm i think

yes, it is aluminum, but extremely soft, about 2mm in thickness but you can cut it with a big scissors....

[cbazq271]

thanks, I will try to find some

[el barto]

Originally Posted by cbazq271

thanks, I will try to find some

the small ones can be bought at the wedico site i think.

there's another shop in germany who sells different styles of aluminum checkered plate. www.knupfer.info

now, the time arrived, where hours of work are made and hardly no visible progres is done....

battery case and other small details took me almost 7 hours of work. what you see is about version 3.2 :-)

it's not completely similar to the original, i the weelbase is not correct, but it's too late to change now.







the ad blue tank



another detail



here's a view from the top



today, all the servos, the motor and the esc arrived, will try to find some space for all those parts tomorrow...

[el barto]

hi everybody

it's time for another update...

finally i managed the whole steering, lift axle problem....

the 2 first axles share one servo, the proportions of the steer angle fit quite ok...

the 3rd axle, the lift axle has a separate steering servo. there, the servo way will be adjusted with my new radion, a brixlcontrol



the axle will be lifted with a micro servo with 1.8 kg of torque. it's not a direct lifting mechanism, i made some deflection pulleys. the during of lifting and lowering is about 6-8 seconds. if the axle is lifted, this one is not steering anymore.

here's a pic of the pulleys. the shabby string will be replaced through a stronger one



then i did some more scratch building. the air filter, based on the original as well took me 6 hours of work and contains poly, wood and brass....
well, of course, there will be quite a lot of sanding, but i'm quite happy having some sort of result, finally





here's the original, mine is much to small, did some missmeasurements, but it's got one at least :-)

[kyleandtavion]

Nice fabrication

[bigdogrod]

i like the idea for lifting the axles

great detail work.. i don't have that kind of patience.. lol