Now that I have a boat, something needs to pull it to the water right? I wanted something unique and since there is already an xmods dually, I thought I would go for a 18 wheeler. It's not all xmods, but most parts not made by me or revell will be xmods. This is also 1/25th scale to match my boat and all my other builds. If I had enough money for a boat like that in real life, I would fork some over a little more dough for a Peterbuilt and custom transport trailer. Why not right? So I have actually started building yet but I wanted to show what I will be starting with. I think I'm gonna hold off a little more on my dragster. I will want another powerful motor like the atomic stock r or chile for the dragster, but can't spend the money on it now. For this Peterbuilt I'm going a completely different way with power. I want it to run for a long time slowly with tons of power. I decided I will use my traxxas XL-5 speed control from when I upgraded my slash to brushless wired with 2 xmod motors running on an old helicopter tail rotor gear(50t 48p) This will gear it down 8/1. I will then use xmod differentials similarly to how I'm using one on my dragster's rear end. All both rear axles will be powered. I have plenty of the awd gears and I think bearings to use for my inputs on these. I think I may make my own housings for the axles. Then for extra weight to help pull trailers I will run it with a 4200 mah NiMh battery. I will go with probably somewhere around 4 - 6 cells. I will then use the 4 channel radio I have on order on this. Steering, throttle, 5th wheel, and I'm not sure what I'll use the last channel for yet. Maybe lights or something.

For the frame, I would use the plastic model chassis but I want to stretch the sleeper to hold electronics/battery and for looks so it would need a longer chassis then. So I think I will first try to make an aluminum chassis. I have to try and see if my mini torch will get hot enough to braze this. It says it can, but who knows? If this doesn't work, I will go back to brass and then I will to go buy some. I will also make custom larger diameter stacks, windshield visor, custom bumpers and rear fenders. I'm thinking for springs Since this will not require much flex I should be able to get away with brass leafs. This way it has a little flex, but will not need to bend as much as a offroad 4x4 truck. If it needed a lot of flex I don't think the brass would work because to bend it a lot it would not spring back. My esc it waterproof, so I will also run my rx in a balloon to waterproof it. The necklace you see in the picture will be used to make tiny tire chains, and chains to secure stuff onto trailers. The hair ties will be used to make tiny bungees to secure stuff. And I have my box of miscellaneous micro hardware/xmod parts. Well her are the pics of what I'm starting with. In the next few days I will begin building. This will require lots of work so it may go slowly.

Well I tried brazing aluminum with my mini torch... Not good, Did not get hot enough to braze this so no biggie, I'll just use brass and silver solder. I'll have to get some more brass sheets and rectangle tube to start the chassis and other parts tomorrow.

In the mean time I have been going over my plans and making the tough decisions on where this build will go exactly. I decided that I will stretch the hood to the length of the 389 (almost .5 inch on 1/25 scale), stretch from the 36" sleeper to the 63" (1.2 inch) and then stretch the chassis a bonus 2 inches over this to fit a cabguard with a 4' platform and a winch (unno:to use my 4th channel). Overall the new chassis will be about 3.75 inches longer than original at about 15.5 inches (over 32' in real life). This measurement will give me a good starting point so when I get home from the store tomorrow I can get straight to work!

I went to my LHS and got the materials I needed. I got brass rectangular tube 3 ea 1/8 x 1/4 and then 1 of the next size down, 1 ea 1/4 x 1/4 square, .016" brass sheet, .032" brass strips, some aluminum tube I will use for the new larger stacks, and some 2mm screws and nuts.

I then got home and began the work. I decided to start with the chassis. Still needs work, but I got the basics there. It is now the proper length for how I want it. 15.5 inches long. The rectangle tubes were only 12 inches long. This is where my size under tube came in. I cut inch long sections of my smaller tube and an extra 3.5 inch piece of the larger tube. I slid the small tube in the joint between the 12 inch long rail and the 3.5 inch rail and heated these up and put silver solder in this section until it would not take any more. This joint is under the tray for the cab so that also gives the joint more strength if needed. I am making this with the tray that the original had so once I stretch my sleeper this will snap on like the model so I have quick easy access to the electronics. I figure I'll get the chassic looking good and make all the parts to make it run, then I'll do the details. Hopefully tomorrow I get the chassis far enough to at least start axles or suspension. I think I may do the axles first, to make sure that the suspension will fit when I'm done! LOL.

I got different solder than I used on my jet boat. The jet boat I used .063" silver bearing solder, this time I'm trying .022" lead free solder The smaller diameter is making it easier to make clean joints(after practice putting the tray on) and this solder seems to be noticeably stronger. With this solder the brass bends. With the other solder the brass would bend as the joint broke! lol. I think the other solder would have been strong enough, but I'm glad I found stronger stuff anyways.

Nice!

Is that lead free solder or leaded? If its leaded is it really toxic?

I want to do something like this but im worried with the solder

It's lead free. I don't think it's very toxic anyways. I've been soldering with lead solder until this project. But I would make sure you are in a well ventilated area because of any fumes that may be put off by the rosin core. I do this in my living room next to an open window and I can't really smell it, but if you do it in a closed room you can smell it strong. I don't know if it's bad, but chances are it is. just like anything else that smells. As far as the lead if you use that, I wouldn't worry about it. Wear thin work gloves so you don't lose dexterity in your fingers and then you don't have to worry about touching it, or burning yourself! All solders have the "may cause cancer in California" warning though, but fishing lures have this too so I don't know how well that holds up. Like I said, as long as you have good ventilation you should be good.

This is a very cool project! I can not wait to see the end results.

Very cool, I built that exact same model a few years ago, I cant wait to see it as a RC.

I think I'm done for today. No work today so I spent about 6 hours on this so far. Chassis not done yet. I wanted to get my hood mounts on. I realized to get them positioned properly and lined up I needed to have the hood and body stretched and in position to make sure my mounts were in the right spot. So then began the work. I used a piece of sewing thread(first time I tried this method) and cut the sleeper in front of the doors, and the right side of the hood where the air cleaner goes through. I then cut and bent aluminum and glued this overlapping both front of sleeper and rear and then smoothed this out with bondo. Then once the cab was sitting straight in it's final place on the frame I started my hood. For the left side and top I put an aluminum tap behind the original hood end. I then bent up a filler piece of aluminum to form the new hood skin. Then for the right side I put aluminum to bridge the gap where the air cleaner would stick through, and then glued the old hood end onto the end of this. This way I would not have to trim the hole and angled edge. I then made a filler piece to go between hood sections. I then smoothed with bondo and sanded. Once this was stretched and trimmed properly I made my hood mount tabs, and marked them for the hinge. I then brazed these on the frame, and brazed on short piece of brass tube for the hood to pivot on. Works great. After this I quick sprayed some filler/sealer primer over the whole body. Once this dries it will need some fine sanding. I think I'm done for today. Don't wanna burn out on this this quick! LOL. So far I am really diggin the stretched look. It will still some small chassis work, but not a whole lot. I think next I might start the axles and motor mount/transmission. Then after I can get the parts the make it roll all done up when I start mounting suspension/axles I can do the rest of the chassis details.

Its coming along very nicely

Thanks for the info on solder too

as always looks great