Newbie Grand Hauler

[FubarSnafu2004]

Hi everybody – long time lurker, was finally able to get the money together after all my other projects were golden, my 4 Dirt Bikes take up lots of time and money. I went thru all the post a few years ago & thought how cool those all were & decided that someday I need to build a semi. Other than your cheap electric Radio Shack/Wal-Mart brands, I have 2 nitro cars, Traxxas Nitro Rustler & Kyosho Baja Beetle (Assembly this was like putting the semi together. ) Sorry if some of my questions are stupid but the biggest truck I have driven would be an IH 20’ Rollback of my sons.

As you all can tell I recently joined and I have some questions on the Grand Hauler after spending a few weekends getting it all together; man those screws are really small. So for practice I assembly it to the instructions, except for the electronic which will come later, I am building a couple of other trucks and will wait until then. After I finished the assembly I went through all the post again to look for ideas & to see if I could get my questions answered. I always wondered why some of you built your own parts, after doing this kit and that chrome parts reminds me of the1/24 model cars I did as a kid, main you would think they would have figure out how to do them correctly by now.

So here are pix of finished assembly – so just image all the white pieces being a Metallic Black, hoping I can get my painter (Son) to air brush it in a few months when it get warm.







Now for my 1st question. It’s about rear axles suspension travel – I have seen some Semi’s on here that have way more travel than I do. When I flex the suspension I have about 3/16 of travel left on 1 axle if the other is hitting the rubber bump stops from the kit. You can see bump stops in the 2nd pix.



Here I took the tires off to show u the view of how I assembled it.



Did I get it assembled correctly?

The reason I bought a Grand Hauler was due to frame length, after cutting off the sleeper it was a scale 20’ from cab to back of frame. This works perfectly for me.



So browsing the forum I came across one similar to what I'm thinking of build, but I am probably building a flat bed vs box though.

So here is one of them, a Dual Axle Box Truck built by 1985 Kenworth. Nice Truck


The other one I can’t find but it was a flat bed truck with matching trailer to haul square hay bales.

So I started online trying to find dimensions for moving the rear axles forward, had no luck on that. So last weekend I went to a few Local Big Rig dealers, Peterbilt & Freightliner. Pete dealer had a couple of trucks; they had some 26’ and 24’ lengths after the cab. From rear of frame to center of front axle was 11’ on both sizes. So I removed the screws and moved the axles forward until I had about 9.4” to Center of front axle, to me this looks to far forward, but I am not sure. Here is that pix.



Here I moved it back ½”.



This one is centered on the cross member in that area.



This was the last one I tried.



Not sure which one is right – but I am leaning towards the one that has it centered over that one cross member which is 3rd one. As this will give me an easier reference point with holes already drilled.

Would anyone have the correct dimensions?

From what I can tell by the parts list the screws are 3mm, but doesn’t list the thread pitch, so what would the drill size & tap be for redoing the threaded holes?

The other modification I am considering is a set of round headlights.
Are these scale 7” lights & were do you get them from?


Just in case anybody wants to see whats in the pipe line for later builds.

I guess u could say my fascination with big rigs started with this New Bright Fire Truck I bought the kid’s years ago. I like the body, but electronics are crap and I have always wanted to do a real frame/axle/suspension for it & upgrade electronics, which is why I have started on the Grand Hauler & the other ones.





Based on the 1/16 Etrl Rollback in next pix it seems to be the same scale, here with the Grand Hauler for size comparison.



The car is close to 1/16 scale as well it’s a BMW M1 from Radio Shack if I remember correctly.

Just for kicks here is my Don Garlits Dragster, kids and I use to do water burnouts on the kitchen floor & could get it sideways at times.



thanks for lookin and any answers.

Jeff in Cincinnati

[TRUCKMAKER]

Hi Jeff welcome to the forum. The axle stops on the grand that mount to the underside of the rails only come on that truck and are used if you use the rear fenders. They are supposed to keep the tires from getting into the fenders. I believe the thread pitch on the 3mm is .5. Hopefully someone else will jump on here and confirm that because I'm not in my shop at the moment. As far as the suspension location, in the 1:1 world that would be up to the customer and what they are going to use it for. So in the modeling world here put it where it looks good to you since its your truck. I would suggest that you don't drill holes and mount the rear suspension until you have the bed/body built and on the chassis. The body will change the way the truck looks so it's best to wait or you'll end up with a frame full of holes you don't need.

Kent

[KAF1]

Hey Jeff, welcome. I have a flatbed on Grand Hauler rails that that I was working on to. But, I mounted a Knight Hauler cab that I started to convert into a day cab. I just emailed some pictures to the fellow member RCP57 that actually built my white Flatbed for my truck, he also builds dump boxes and dump trailers. I hope he gets a chance to post them for you to see. Good luck with you project. I am looking for to seeing you finished product.
Ken.

[Scott M]

Nice build!! I dig the Don Garlits car, lol I had one when I was a kid.

[RCP57]

Kenneth asked me to post these pictures of his flatdeck here for him.

[KAF1]

Thanks for posting the pictures for me Reg. I being that he mentioned turning is Grand Hauler into a Flatbed, I f show him some of mines with your Flatbed on it would help.
Ken

[GlobelinerBrad]

Looks great Jeff!

[Roundabout]

that looks awesome, I'm voting for more truck and drawbar's

[1985 kenworth]

looks great so far ...you are doing a great job on this build

[Tamiya Cowboy]

That bed is going to look great nice work Reg. Keep up the great work.

[FubarSnafu2004]

Kenneth I like the truck u got going - are u leaving the rear axle how they are in the pix from RCP57 - to me they look to far rearward. But I not a professional trucker so I have no clue.

yeah that dragster is a battery eater - AA's & a lot of them

[TRUCKMAKER]

Ken's truck looks good like it is. Try googling this and decide for yourself,
flatbed straight truck, click on images.