Radio Shack "OFF-ROADER" full hobby conversion with remote operated winch

[czstycor/c]

this extreme machine sounds neat

p.s. thought it would be cool if you could wire there lights in the motor sticking out the hood of the off roader maybe a color to match the color acheme of the truck. then two spot light on the bars. just a possability.

[Tyco Bandit King]

Yeah I think I wanna add some lights to it next on the roll bar and possibly the headlights, maybe even add fog lights to the brush guard

[czstycor/c]

sweet! sounds like a plan

[czstycor/c]

here i think one of you mentioned a night runner before

http://cgi.ebay.com/RADIO-SHACK-NIGHT-RUNNER-CONTROLLED-BATTERY-TRUCK-/350429080951?pt=Radio_Control_Vehicles&hash=item5197336d77

[Atomika]

Does that have the same chassis as the RS Wild Ranger? They look the same.  If so, a few questions.

1) Can I throw a different 380 motor in it ( http://www.rcsuperstore.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=TRA7075&click=2 ) For more speed or do I have to change out the electronics as well?

2) What is the voltage output for the 4 "C" batteries & the 1 9V. I've never seen a truck that combines different batteries like that.

3) Can I use a 9.6V with it or will it fry the electronics? I saw that the Mad Rat & Big Rigs are 9.6V so I thought perhaps the Wild Ranger could handle it.

Nice work btw. I agree, its fun to mod stuff that wasn't meant to be. Hope to see a vid soon.

[Tyco Bandit King]

Yes the wild ranger is identical just different body

1.  yes you can fit any 380 hobby motor but you need to open the center hole to allow the motor to fit in. then drill out the 2 plastic tabs the motor slides onto and mount the motor with motor screws. dont try to use the stock electronics, its a waste of time and wont allow you much more power. You can run an extra cell but still it will not handle a hobby motor and will run like crap

2. the voltage out put is based off the 4 cells, 4.8v. Tons of radio shack cars ran a 9v but it was only used to operate the radio system and does not give you any extra power to the motor

3. 9.6v will definitely fry the electronics and you wont have anywhere to mount it besides the bed of the truck, pointless.

big rigs are entirely different from this chassis and use a completely different electronics board. If you wanna run the truck with radio shack electronics my suggestion would be to take a night runner or rage radio and just drop it in. Then you can run 9.6v but still you wont have anywhere to place the 9.6v pack

For all these reasons is why I set up the truck with full hobby etc. It is as bad ass as it gets and will run longer than I would ever need it to

[jeffescortlx]

Hey guy's, I have a box of "Hot Machine" parts (I think it's the same as the extreme machine?) I would gladly trade for other old Nikko/RadioShack/Tyco. I do have a few red body's that aren't completely destroyed. I dont think I have enough parts to build a complete roller, but I do have chassis, gears wheels tires.
I use to work at radio shack in the late 90's, and I'd do some dumpster diving when the manager would clean house on returned R/C's.

Tyco Bandit King, nice work on the convertion. When I was a kid I had the older one with the same chassis. They had a yellow and blue body but with the ballon V tred tires. I remeber low gear being crazy fun. I'd allways try to find a challange for it to clime over. And high gear was fast enough for it to tip over in turns.

[Tyco Bandit King]

I might be interested in those hot machine parts. they use the same drive line as a ton of older radio shack cars like the  intruder, hacksaw, buzzsaw, enforcer, agitator and more.

I took an enforcer and used the lower ratio rear from a intruder and locked front and rear gears and have set it up with all stock parts but its night and day difference. I might need more for other projects.

I remember the yellow and blue trucks, they look pretty sweet almost like an old bigfoot. that is the best chassis radio shack ever made back when they had the side to side locked diffs and super low 1st gear

[jeffescortlx]

I had thought about using 2 front axles from a hot machine and using a central mounted gear box as a transfer case and making a crawler out of it. But that idea never materialized.

But I did get my son that truck thats built on a stretched hot machine chassis but with a shift-on-the-fly by the transmitter high and low gear. That's a pretty neat truck to mess around with.

[jeffescortlx]

I've been trying to pick up one of these on ebay, but the old ones like this and older have been going for $70-100, and that's not even NIB.
I could have swore last year these radio shack 4x4 were going for 15-30 tops.

I see you put a lot of work into making that winch fit.
I have the same body, but blue and I also took the giant wing off of it. I think pick up trucks look silly with wings on them. I took one off of my Hot machine body to.

I'm trying to pick up a yellow ford "27 dash" like this one to fix up the old one I had as a kid.

[jeffescortlx]

I remember the yellow and blue trucks, they look pretty sweet almost like an old bigfoot. that is the best chassis radio shack ever made back when they had the side to side locked diffs and super low 1st gear

Did you know that they are made by Tyco?
When I was a kid, I was'nt a fan of the chassis because there was no suspension, like the Nikko Bubba had. But now that I'm older I appreciate it.

[stan]

did you build this winch yourself?

[Tyco Bandit King]

Yeah these were built by the tandy corporation and designed by radioshack but shared wheels, tires and radios that tyco used.

I built the winch myself by removing the stopper so it can turn non stop and cut the front bumper to hide it in. I also cut out where the winch rollers are so that they are functional, so it looks fake but actually has a true winch. The winch is powerful enough to snap any line i can put on it.

[volkstony]

i am about to do the same conversion to a 1/12 radio shack 4x4 off road tiger however i am using a traxxas titan 380, traxxas receiver and radio, and xl 2.5 esc. my question for you is do you have any more pics of the motor conversion etc also how you did the winch these trucks are rock solid and so fun as stock i cannot wait to upgrade one.

great job by the way

[Tyco Bandit King]

That would be a sweet conversion, I wanted to do one of those too.

To install the motor

1. drill out the center of the of the mounting plate to allow for the new motor to fit through.

2. since the aftermarket motors are longer you need to cut where the motor sits in just right that the motor will fit flush and so that the gears will mesh right. The better you do this the less chance you have of the motor jumping off and stripping the main gear.

3. make a spacer so that the motor will stay pressed up against the plate, I used a thick peice of polycarbonite plastic from an rc body

I will have to pull the rear end apart and show you pictures of how I did it. The most important thing is cutting where the motor sits so that the gears meshes perfect.


The winch is not hard to do

1. buy a micro servo with steel gears and pull it apart, once apart remove or cut the stopper. Make sure you set it back to still so it can stay stopped in the same position.

2. using an fm radio with a 3rd channel, one way will be the stop position and from that position you can reel it out using the proportion on the remote. The when you flip the channel it reels it back in. Thats how you are able to use a winch with a switch that only has 2 positions. Whats cool is I can adjust not only in or out from the remote but also i can adjust the speed as I winch it in or out.